In a leaf-adorned temple,

Where branches bend low,

Where the hum

Of the city fades

Into astral song,—there

All is blended into one grand "Aum".

Beneath this lovely, leafy arch

Where lights and shadows fall,

A savant sits in meditation

Lost in dreams of God.

No golden censer does he need

In this bower of temple leaves,

For he knows his God is there,

Beyond all earthly creeds.

All day I think and speak and act

As one apart from other men—

Apart from even those I love,

And far from You whom I love best.

But when, at eventide, I pause

To lift my heart in gratitude

For all the gladness of the day

And all the quietude of night,

It is as if I had not strayed

Away from You at morning time;

It is as if I had not left

The Bosom of my Blessed One.

And when I whisper Your dean name,

So sweet, so close Your presence is,

I hardly know if it is You

Or I whose lips are whispering.

In the long run nothing succeeds but truth. When you stand on truth, you may rest absolutely assured that you do so on rocky mountains which cannot be overpowered by winds.

Many people are restless in their struggles and hopeless in their methods, for no other reason than that they do not weigh matters aright, inorder to adopt the surer but longer, harder course of truth.

Instead, they try to follow a short cut, although there is no such thing in life. If you have the understanding of life and the true perspective of things, be not deluded by the glamour of the immediate.

You pile up successes for years. Yet, at the close of day, when you sit down to check up your account, you find that your acquisitions are only a heap of ashes.

The heart of man is the home of two angels. The name of the one is Love and the other’s name is Wisdom. The nature of Love is generosity. The nature of wisdom is discretion. Wisdom is always discriminating and cautious. Love is forever radiant and unreserved. He who would bring his life to perfect balance would do well to confer with both angels before setting his hand to any enterprise.

Happiness can come to you by being happy within and including in your sphere of happiness the well-being of others. Surrounded by a crowd of famished people, you could not without interruption eat a whole meal. In like manner, national prosperity can be lasting only when it is based on the foundation of international prosperity. The canceling of war debts will tend to give other nations a better chance to be prosperous and to revive their courage for success. A nation burdened by war reparations cannot have a great courage nor a strong inclination to "stage a spectacular come-back". When two people in a fist-fight tear each other’s clothes, it is ridiculous for the victorious one to demand reparations for the torn clothes form the vanquished one. Both were at fault and both should forgive and forget the mutual injuries inflicted by mutual folly.

War usually is brought about by mutual greed between nations and both the warring parties are to blame. Hence, when such a war ceases, they should shake hands and say, "We are sorry we got each other into this mix-up through our ignorance. Let’s now do our best to help one another by instituting friendly trade relations and thus regain our national and international financial losses." Demands for payment of debts cannot help but sow seeds of hatred in the hearts of nations; and these seeds very, very easily can be made to sprout in much severer world wars than any ever yet witnessed in this old world’s history. "Live and let live" should be the motto of every civilized nation. National happiness can be attained only by encouraging international trade and the well-being and happiness attendant upon the conditions it produces. Only when all the nations of the world tune in with and practise the principles which make international happiness possible can we hope to see a real change for the better in the present unhappy conditions to be found in every corner of the globe.

MAN is a combination of body, life-force and consciousness. His consciousness is a reflection of Christ consciousness. His life-force is a reflection of cosmic energy. His body is condensed cosmic energy and life energy. Consciousness, life-force and the body are the different rates of conscious, cosmic vibration. Life-force vibrating more finely becomes cosmic consciousness and life-force when it vibrates grossly, changes into electrons, atoms, molecules, and bodily flesh. After all, the human body, life-force, and consciousness, being three different vibrations, are held together by the nucleus of ego and soul. Man is condensed miniature vibration. In order to free the soul from the cage of the threefold vibrations of body, life-force, and consciousness, it has to be baptized or united with the original cosmic vibration of "Aum". When the wave feels itself isolated from the sea then the boundaries of the wave must be expanded until they take on the shape of the sea.

In the same way when the soul feels itself confined in the physical, astral, and ideational bodies, it should be taught how to detach itself consciously from these three bodies and become expanded into spirit. By the highest meditation the body loosens its atomic vibrations and becomes life-force, and by deeper meditation the astral body becomes elaborated into the ideational body. Then by wisdom the ideational consciousness becomes expanded into Christ consciousness. But it must be remembered that when the Yogi or Yogoda student listens to cosmic vibration, his mind is diverted from the physical sounds of matter outside his body to the circulatory sounds of the vibrating flesh. Then his consciousness is diverted from the vibrations of the body to the musical vibrations of the astral body. Then his consciousness wanders from the vibrations of the astral body to the vibrations of consciousness in all atoms. Then the consciousness of the Yogi listens to the Holy Ghost or cosmic Sound emanating from all atoms. This is the way that ordinary consciousness should be baptized or expanded into Christ consciousness through the expanding power of the Holy Ghost, or the all-spreading "Aum-vibrating-sound" heard in meditation by the practice of the Yogoda fifth lesson.

When you utter "Aum" it travels not only all around the earth but throughout all space and eternity. So the sound emanating from the vibration of all atoms is called the Holy Ghost or the Sacred Vibration. As above said, when by the practice of the fifth Yogoda lesson one is able to shut out sounds of matter his consciousness passes through the vibrating sounds of the body and through the musical astral sounds to the sound of "Aum" or the "Holy Ghost". When the Yogi’s consciousness is able not only to hear this cosmic sound but also to feel its actual presence in every unit of space, in all finite vibrating matter, then the soul of the Yogi becomes one with the Holy Ghost or Holy Vibration.

Jesus, the Savior, (a Yogi), having met His Guru, of former lives, (preceptor), St. John, was baptized by this omnipresent sound of "Aum", and He also saw with it the spiritual dove, or the light with the two wings of golden and blue color (representing vibrating creation and Christ consciousness), and the silvery starry mouth (representing Spirit).

This voice of the Omnipresent vibration of "Aum" signified "Thou art My son"; Jesus felt His consciousness attuned to the Christ consciousness or the only-begotten reflection of God the Father’s Intelligence in the Holy Vibration. In other words, Jesus first felt His body as the entire vibratory creation in which His little body was included; then feeling His cosmic finite body, he felt that within the cosmic body of all creation there was a Christ or Universal Intelligence. This Christ is the only-begotten Son, because it is the only active reflected intelligence of the indirectly active transcendental (lying beyond creative vibration) God the Father, in vibratory creation. As the husband is reborn in the wife as the Son, so God the Father, (transcendental intelligence), is reflected in the womb of the Virgin Mary, (the Virgin Creation), as the only begotten Son, or Christ Consciousness.

The illustration opposite serves best to illustrate Spirit, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In Figure A, the sun is seen to exist by itself without anything surrounding it. Such a sun can be described as a bright mass of light with power and heat spreading its rays into space. But in Figure B, the sun is found to be active, existing in relation to the blue crystal ball. In this figure the sunlight is divided as the inactive, transcendental, white light beyond and around the crystal ball, and the active light appearing as blue light in the blue crystal ball. This division of the one sunlight into white and blue light is possible due to the dividing effect of the third object, the blue crystal ball. so the sun is one without any object around it, and with an object around it becomes divided into two lights.

Just as the sun is bright and spherically spreads it rays in space when it stands by itself without any surrounding creation, so the Spirit, (as in Fig. C), on next page, is called the Unmanifested Absolute.

When no goblin nebulae breathed and glided in the space body, when no fire-eyed baby planets opened their eyes in the cradle of space, when no star-rivers ran across the tracts of infinite space, when the ocean of space was unpeopled, uninhabited by floating island universes, when the sun and moon and planetary families did not swim in space, when the little ball of earth with its doll-houses and little human beings did not exist, when no object of any kind had come into being,—Spirit existed. This spirit in its unmanifested form cannot be described except that it was the knower, the known, and all the objects known which existed as one. In it the being, its cosmic consciousness, and its powers, all were one without differentiation.

It could be described as the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new, joyous spirit. Spirit is ever-new Bliss. There was even no space, for the Spirit did not exist in space or time; there was no dual conception of law of relativity in Spirit; it was everything that there was, is, or is to be. Space and time are categories of objects; as soon as a human being sees a planet hanging in the sky, then he conceives that the planet is occupying dimensional space and is existing in time. But when there were no finite objects in creation, neither was there space nor time, but only the blissful Spirit existed.

But when the sun falls on a blue crystal ball its light suffers formal change and division. The unmanifested Spirit felt, "I am alone. I am conscious Bliss, but there is no one to taste me". Even as He thus dreamed, He became many.

"The Spirit was invisible, existing alone i the home of all space. He piped to Himself the ever-new, ever-entertaining song of Perfect, Beatific Bliss. As He sang through His voice of Eternity to Himself. He wondered if aught but Himself were listening and enjoying His song. To His astonishment, He felt He was the cosmic Song, and He was the Singing. Even as thus He thought, lo, He became two; Spirit and Nature, Man and Woman, Positive and Negative, Stamen and Pistil of the Flowers, Peacock and Peahen, Male Gem and Female Gem."—"My Dreams of God" from "Whispers from Eternity".—Page 251.

Thus in Fig. D the Spirit is seen as divided into three. As soon as the cosmic, bachelor Spirit becomes active and creates the universe, he is no longer spirit but the husband, God the Father, wedded to the Virgin Mary or Cosmic Vibration.

Spirit being the only substance that there was when He wanted to create, He had no substance but Himself to create with, for if there were two substances, spirit and matter, then both could not be infinite and all-powerful. Thus, Spirit having nothing else but Itself began to create a Magic Delusion, or the cosmic Magical Measurer, which made the infinite look like the finite, even as the calm ocean becomes distorted into ripples on its surface by the action of a storm. So all vibratory creation is nothing but frozen spirit. Spirit dreamed a vibratory universe or Holy Ghost and it was there.

Thought of matter, energy, all matter, all things, are nothing but the differently vibrating thoughts of the Spirit, even as man in his dreams creates a world with lightning and clouds, people being born or dying, loving or fighting, and experiencing heat or cold. All the births and deaths, sickness and disease, solids, liquids or gases in a dream are nothing but the differently vibrating thoughts of the dreamer. This universe is a motion picture of God’s thoughts on the screen of human consciousness.

So all things, all created planets and living beings, in the Holy Ghost, or Holy Vibration, are nothing but the frozen imagination of God. This Holy Ghost, in the Hindu Bibles is called "The Aum", but by the scientists it is known as cosmic vibration. The Spirit, therefore, could not create matter as anything different from Itself, for it had only Itgself as the tissue or material with which to build the cosmos.

As soon as the Spirit evolved a cosmic vibratory thought, through the action of the cosmic magical measuring power of Delusion, it became condensed into cosmic energy. Cosmic energy then became condensed into the material cosmos with solid, liquid, and gaseous substances. After creating the Ideational, Astral and Physical Vibration, or Holy Ghost, the uncreated, unmanifested Spirit became God the Father. Spirit became the creator of all creative vibration. This God the Father is called the "Sat" in the Hindu Bibles, and is the Transcendental Intelligence, according to metaphysical science. This virgin, vibratory creation, or Holy Ghost, became the consort of God the Father; that is, God the Father existed transcendentally, or outside the vibratory creation as a conscious, separate cosmic consciousness, just as the sunlight remains around and beyond the crystal ball, (as in Fig. B.)

(It should be noted that all human similes are imperfect since by their material nature they are limited and cannot exemplify spiritual truths except in a limited way.) It should be noted also that the sun does not create the crystal ball, whereas the Spirit, as God the Father, evolved the Holy Ghost, (as in Fig. D.) In order to divide itself the Spirit first differentiated itself as God the Father, and the Holy Ghost Vibration.

Then the Spirit found that the Holy Ghost could not sustain itself just by its inactive omnipresence, so it made itself manifest as the active Christ Intelligence in all vibratory creation, to create, recreate, preserve, and mould it according to its divine purpose. So the distinct, active, differentiated, conscious intelligence, existing in all specks of vibratory creation, or Holy Ghost, is called the Only-Begotten (Christ) Son. It must be remembered that Christ consciousness in all specks of creation is the only existing reflection of God the Father; hence, Christ intelligence is spoken of as the only-begotten Son.

The Christian Church has failed to differentiate between Jesus the body and Jesus the vehicle in which the only-begotten Son, or Christ Consciousness, was manifested. Jesus Himself said that He was not speaking of His body as the only-begotten Son, but of His soul which was not circumscribed by the body, but was one with the only-begotten Son. Christ consciousnes in all specks of vibration. "God so loved the world, (or matter), that He gave His only-begotten Son" to redeem it; that is, God the Fatther remained hidden as Christ Intelligence in all matter and in all living beings in order to bring all things, by beautiful evolutional coaxings back to His home of All-Blessedness, when they should overcome all mortal tests, and should reincarnate in matter no more; i.e., "go no more out".

Jesus said, to all those that received Him, to them He gave the power to become the Sons of God. The plural number in "Sons of God" shows distinctly from His own lips that not His body but His spirit was the only-begotten Son, and all those could become sons of God who could clarify their consciousness by meditation, and recive, or in an unobstgructed way reflect the power of God. In other words they could be one with the only-begotten reflection in all matter and become Sons of God like Jesus.

Before Jesus came, Sage Byasa, writer of the Hindu Bible, Bhagavad Gita, was a Son of God, and knew how to be one with the only-begotten reflection or Kutastha Chaitanya (The undistorted consciousness existing in all vibratory creation). So also, Swami Shankara, (the founder of the Swami order of renunciation about 700 A.D.) Babaji, and Lahiri Mahasaya, (my Guru), and others having Christ consciousness were Sons of God. The Spirit could not be partial in creating one as Jesus and all others as mortal beings. A divinely-imported Jesus could be made by the thousands by God and they would, being predestined, naturally behave on earth as Christs,—as spiritual puppets of God. Such Christs could not be the ideals of struggling mortals with all their frailties. But when we see a man who by self-struggle and proper use of his God-given free-choice and power of meditation become a Christ, then we can stir hope of salvation in the weak, matter-tortured, fear-maligned, timorous, frail, human breast.

Just as the husband is born again in the wife as the son, so inactive God the Father, active and manifest in Holy Ghost became the only-reflected, only-begotten Son. Therefore it should be remembered by the Yogodan that after listening to and feeling the cosmic sound in all the Physical, Astral, and Ideational cosmos, or in the Physical, Astral, and Ideational Holy Ghost, his consciousness will vibrate in all creation. Then when his expanded consciousness becomes stable in all creation, it feels the presence of Christ consciousness in all vibration. Then the Yogodan becomes Christ-like; his consciousness experiences the Second Coming of Christ; he feels in his vehicle the presence of Christ-consciousness as Jesus felt Christ expressed in His body. All human beings find their consciousness hide-bound by the body, but by listening to and feeling the "Aum" vibration and intuitive Chirst consciousness the Yogi realizes that God the Father’s cosmic consciousness exists inactively in regions where there is no motion or presence of the Holy-Ghost-vibration. (For the Holy Ghost vibration is limited only to a certain tract of space which is peopled by the cosmos and all island universes. Holy Vibration is condensed into planetary creation.)

When the Yogodan feels his consciousness one with Christ consciousness, he realizes that Christ consciousness is nothing but the reflection of the cosmic consciousness of God the Father. Then the Yogodan, like Jesus, can say, "I, (Christ consciousness in creation), and my Father, (Cosmic consciousness beyond creation), are one." As the white light beyond the blue crystal ball and the blue light in the crystal ball are the same, so also the Cosmic Consciousness, (God the Father), existing beyond all vibratory (Holy Ghost) creation and the Christ Consciousness, (Kutastha Chaitanya), in all vibratory creation are the same. When vibratory creation exists, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost exist. When by cosmic delusion, (greater than Noah’s Flood, which was only partial dissolution), or when by universal dissolution the holy vibration is dissolved, then automatically God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost become reconverted into the one Unmanifested, Absolute Spirit.

(Now the baptism by water, by Holy Ghost, and by Spirit has been explained. In our next issue you will find a great explanation of why the Savior, the perfect Jesus, was tempted by the devil after His Baptism of the Holy Ghost. What is Satan? Can he consciously tempt us? How does Satan happen to exist side by side with Almighty God? These will be graphically described in the July issue of East-West.)

"To attain meditation one has to be abstemious in Food,

A master over anger,

Attachment and his passions,

Free form the pairs of opposites,

Devoid of egotism, free from inordinate hope

And love of possession."—Tejabindu-Upanishad.

Dritarashtra spoke:

Dharma-Kshetra Kurukshetra samabata Jujutsaba mamaka Pandabashaiba Kuru Kimakurbata O, Sanjaya?

Holy plain—Kurus field gathered together eager for battle my children the Pandus, the Kurus—What did they, O, Sanjaya?

The blind mind spoke, or questioned within itself in introspection, saying, "My sons, the evil, alluring mental and sense tendencies opposite the pure, discriminative, mental tendencies, who gathered on the holy plain of Life’s battlefield eager for a psychological or moral battle, what have they done?"

Dhritarashtar (the blind mind) spoke to Sanjaya (questioned within itself in introspection) Dharmakshetra (on the holy plain ) of Kurushetra (on the field of action, the human body) samabata (gathered together) jujutsaba (eager for a psychological clash) my children (the evil, Kurus), or alluring mental and sense tendencies, and the pandabashaiba (and the Pandus, the pure discriminative tendencies) Kimakurbata (what did they?) O, Sanhaya (O, Introspection.)

Sanjaya means one who has conquered himself, or impartial introspection. Edam shariram Kauntaya Khestram Abhidiyata—Elsewhere in the Bahgavad Gita it is said the word Khestra is used, not for a battlefield, but for the body which is the place where all psychological battles are fought. Dhritam-rashtram jana,—He who holds the rein,—The mind which holds the senses together. Kuru, from root Kri, to work. Khestra, field. Thus, the field of action,—the body.

The blind mind within itself consulted introspection, the impartial judge of all states of consciousness:—My children, the crooked mental tendencies (Kurus), and the pure discriminative faculties (the pure Pandus), eager for different psychological battles, what did they? The blind boisterous mind wanted the introspective faculty to reveal the battles between the sense-bent mental tendencies, and the pure wisdom-loving, discipline-loving, self-control-evolving, wisdom faculties.

The Bhagavad Gita in the first stanza speaks of the glaring truths of how life is a series of battles between spirit and matter, knowledge and ignorance, soul and body, life and death, health and disease, changelessness and change, self-control and temptation, discrimination and the senses. In the mother’s body the baby has to battle with disease, darkness, and ignorance. Each child has to fight also the battle of heredity. The soul has to overcome many hereditary difficulties. It has also to contend with the self-created influencing effect of pre-natal karma or past actions.

The baby soul has to fight the biological, bacteriological, sociological, physiological, climatic, political, international, psychological, metaphysical and ethical battles which are throw upon life. The childhood battles are usually the battles of the parents but the child’s bacteriological battles are carried on in an unconscious state by life itself. It is when the baby grows older that it begins to recognize its battles with the inner environment of instinctive evil tendencies and the outer environment of family, social, national, international, financial, and psychological life and habits.

The first battle the child struggles with is between his own desire to play and the imposed necessity for work and study. As he grows older the real battles begin from within himself, roused by bad instincts from within or by bad company from without.

Temptations of greed, sex, money-making by easy doubtful means, prevarication, and other such burst upon his consciousness with sudden impetuosity. He often finds himself unprepared to fight his trials with the sword of wisdom. When the world war came all too suddenly, many nations found that seventy per cent of their people were physiologically, or utterly unfit for war. It took a long time for the nation to train their civilian people in proper military tactics. Very few individuals are even aware that in the kingdom of their body, mind, and soul there exists a state of constant warfare. It is usually only when the devastation of bad habits is colossal or complete that they helplessly realize their deplorable state.

The first stanza of the Bhagavad Gita tells the youth and the adult, who are both conscious enough of life to be responsible for all that befalls them, that it is best to stand in readiness of psychological wars before the rebels of bad habits invade the fortress of self-control.

The Gita says that it is necessary at the end of each day to find out whether discrimination and its warriors won the battle over ignorance, or whether wisdom was carried off a prisoner by the soldiers of error. Every day the psychological battles for health, prosperity, elf-control, and knowledge have to be launched successfully in order to advance inch by inch into the territories of ill-health, failure, and ignorance. The Gita says that most individuals who lead their lives unconsciously find the kingdom of their bodies overrun by the insurgents of disease, failure, and ignorance. So everyone’s blind, unconscious mind, before sleeping at night, should ask within itself, "Gathered together on the bodily, sacred tract and field of aciton, my children, the crooked, tempting, mental tendencies and the opposing clans of self-discipline and self-control, what did they?

The Sage Byasa used the past tense, "What did they?" to depict the past tense involved in all psychological battles that should be introspected. Historically—Kind Dhritarashtra should have asked Sanjaya, "My children, the wicked Kurus and the pure Pandus, what are they doing? The past tense is used especially to draw the deep attention of the student of the Gita to the fact that the Sage Byasa refers only incidentally to a historical war in order to illustrate a psychological battle which is always over when the time comes for it to be reviewed mentally.

Often at the end of a day, when a man introspects the battles of the past day in his financial affairs he thinks within himself, "Today Judas came into my office to lure me into a shady deal tempting me to make a hundred thousand dollars very easily. My mind decided it was permissible for me to do this so long as the hand of the law could not touch me, and my senses acquiesced with the unthinking desires of my mind and thought. "Would it not be wonderful to get rich so quickly and so easily? We could enjoy wonderful drives in a brand-new Packard automobile paid for with cash in full, and indoors we could enjoy the pleasures and happiness of a lovely home with wonderful rugs and soft cushions, and good food, if we could only make our stubborn, fastidious, moral reason yield and let us help him make this easy hundred thousand dollars."

But watching the attack of financial greed with its truth-camouflaged armies of delusive reason, the divine discrimination sent self-control and its armies of true reason to fight the psychological battle. Of course, when discrimination succeeded in routing the false reason and poorly armed rebels of greed by mowing them down with the keen swords of wisdom, then such a business man says within himself, "Oh, I am so happy that when Mr. Financial Greed, working through Judas with false reasoning, was planning to get me into the pitfalls, trials and sufferings of troubled conscience, notoriety and dishonor, then Mr. Self-Control, with his strong armies of self-discipline advanced and routed the forces of error." These are what in introspection, he judged to have been his victorious experienced of the day. This is why he asked in introspection, "Gathered together in the holy place of the brain, crooked financial greed and its bad armies and the battalions of self-control, what did they?" He found that Self-Control had won the battle, and that King Greed and his forces had been routed.

But, on the other hand, if the man had weakened and taken the bribe offered by Judas, his answer at the end of the day would have been different. He would thus have run quickly into trouble and dishonor, and when at night he asked his impartial introspection, "Gathered together in my brain, eager for war, the pure self-control armies and the forces of greed and its bad tendencies desiring the hundred thousand dollars to be gained by unfair dealing,—what did they?" In this case, he would have had to decide that the evil King Greed had won, and that the forces of Prince Self-Control had been routed.

The criterion of great art is that it shall be universal in its appeal, giving to each one who enjoys it a glimpse of himself, of the soul in him, that was present in the making of the picture or the composition of the poem or music, thus lifting him out of the self that has seemed to be, into a realization of the bright being that he is. Art is Nature-plus. It is life more abundant. The great painter reveals to us something more than color and form and subject. The great actor carries us beyond the perfect characterization of the personality he portrays. The true musician takes the soul into the realm of silence. Art is the ship that carries man to that bright land which is his true home and which shall be his dwelling place forever.

"He alone is all that was,

And all that will be, the Eternal;

Knowing Him, one transcends death;

There is no other way to freedom."

—Kaivalya-Upanishad.

1st Term, July 1-28 - - 2nd Term, August 1-28, 1932

Here on the mountain top where the blessing of quietness reigns day and night it is easy to feel the presence of God and to develop self-realization. Training in the highest conscious contact of God will be given by Swami Yogananda himself. Other kindred subjects will be ably handled by his efficient staff of co-workers. How to climb through the different states of consciousness to the final goal of enlightenment will also be taught.

The classes will all be conducted during the day and students may register for one or both terms. Special arrangements may be made for a shorter time providing there is available space.

Mount Evans of the Rockies, stands towering high on the breast of the world. Its changing lights and shadows, its heights and depths, have left their beautiful etchings mirrored upon my soul.

Looking up I scan the distant heights I yet must scale. Looking down I see innumerable roads over which many a traveler has caught a glimpse of heavenly colors, and has felt the stinging exaltation of joy, the white peace of the snow, and the warm rays of the sun which seem to penetrate and awaken every emotion of the Soul; but here, as on life’s highway, we cannot stand always on the peaks, but must pass sometimes through the cool silent Valleys.

A slight descent brings to view beautiful Echo Lake, with its blue waters shadow-margined by tall pines and towering peaks. The cool clear liquid ripples and splashes. Gleefully the diamond-tipped spray dances in the sunlight while blue bits of heaven smile deeply into the depths, reflecting perfect peace.

Southward ascending, the roadway leads steadily upward to timberline with age-old cedars, their bodies and limbs bare. The lack of bark reveals more clearly the white forms twisted and bent, while the low well-build trunks give evidence of their great age; they stand as silent sentinels of resistance and power.

I stood reverently in the presence of these noble trees that lift strong bare arms southward as if in silent appeal, their warped bodies tempered by the struggle for existence throughout the long years. They seem almost indestructible. Winter comes with driving, beating storms, only to bleach them whiter, while on the snowy drifts beneath, their slanting shadows shift like spiral mists of redolent incense.

There is a whispering music in their branches; the low notes of the song birds linger there, for birds from distant climes have found shelter there, and voiced their thanks at dawn. No news is found in the sturdy old branches, no definite clue as to how long they loitered and sang their joyous songs at the bare timberline, yet thousands we know have migrated, and in their glad flight have crossed the great divide.

A feeling of peace and purity is inhaled with every breath, for nothing decays on this mountain, where white moths fly like snowflakes over wild flowers, clinging closely between rocks, in the late springtime adding their color to the landscape, and gently reminding us that God is everywhere.

From the heights can be traced countless canyons and sharp peaks bathed in opalescent glow. Like a veil made translucent by sun-rays so near, my soul is enraptured with the deep silence, and the clear ringing echo of words when spoken.

Near the peak, Summit Lake brings a strange sense of loneliness with its icy waters; a cold northwest wind blows over the ever-existing snow banks fringing the rocky peaks to the north. I stand awed by the inexpressible vastness, while silent cloud-ships soar so low that they touch my feet. Like clouds of doubt, they hide the sun, Instinctively, I turn, as do the timberline trees, with a silent appeal for the south wind.

Slowly descending into the canyons, once more I glance upward. Mount Evans’ peaks are crowned with gold. The glowing radiance of the sunset seems to kindle fires in the snow banks, and to transform the cold, bare rocks into glowing coals, erasing from my memory all thoughts of their former bleakness, linking to this earthly crowned pinnacle my adoring soul, which cries out to express this greatness, majesty, beauty and eternal glory of God.

THE Cosmic dream bubble broke, and I sank in the sea-heart. The little bubble of my perception sank in the Infinite. I bounded over creation’s dream waves; my bosom heaved in the sea; I breathed in the wind; I moved with the star motions; I watched the dream elements of multi-million glimmerings, multi-trillion light specks. I saw the atom rivers flow past me through the pores of the blue, and through the pores of my body, and of my life. I dreamt within a dream. I dreamt many dreams of life within this God-made dream. I dreamt sorrow; I dreamt joy; I dreamt health; I dreamt sickness; I dreamt birth and death; I dreamt matter and spirit; I dreamt larkspurs and robins; I dreamt light and gloom; I dreamt myself and I dreamt God and Soul. I dreamt the divisions of time; I dreamt of past, present and future. I dreamt space and dimension. I dreamt ignorance and knowledge. I dreamt good and evil. I dreamt relativity and unit.

I dreamt long and sighed at my nightmares, when the gentle touch of the omnipresent fingers of Divine Mother love awakened me.

The cosmic dream bubble broke; the body bubble, the mind bubble, the soul bubble, all broke.

My boat of dream bubble raced over the sea of boisterous change, blown by the storms of Wisdom. My boat of life was made of iron sheets of delusive experiences, riveted together by nails of attachment, self-love, life-love, and matter-love. The Mother-sent wisdom storm grew furious. The lashings of Mother wisdom fell fiercely on the rivets of selfishness and attachment. The iron sheets of my delusion creaked and fell apart. My dreamboat of ignorance was shattered piece by piece and I plunged like a plummet into the depth of Divine Mother’s Sea-heart. My dream bubble, bubble waves of creation vanished. I sank into the heart of Oneness.

My throat of dream life choked; my dream breath vanished. My dream life died with the Cosmic dream. Then, when touched by the deepest depth of my Divine Mother’s heart, I awoke, and my Mother said in Her sweet, solacing, chanting voice, "I asked you to play with beautiful dreams; you played with charming dreams for a time, but soon I found you playing with naughty dreams. Soon I found you broken and bleeding, bruised by your dream experiences; so, My child, I called you away from the playground of naughty dreams and woke you in the Smiles of My everlasting life."

Mother said, "In songs and dreams of My love I sent you on earth to live and dream of Me. Live, dream, and feel Me in all and with all, and in My songs and dreams depart from the earth-dream. You will meet everything, and everyone in My songs and dreams, whence there is no parting."

The whole world is groaning under the terrific blow of its own folly. In the time of prosperity, humanity ran amuck; so, at this dark hour of adversity, man has no shelter to rest his soul for comfort and inspiration. Christ was forgotten when the day was bright; and in addition the Christ principles were pooh-poohed in the heat of human vanity. No wonder that now all people, high or low—men at the helm of states or men with the hoe—are equally confused about the possible outcome of the present slump. Slump, economic or otherwise, is mostly the inevitable result of decline in high principles of life. When man loses his contact with God he falls into the hand of evil.

This sorry spectacle of mankind recalls a very illustrative story. Once a mad dog got loose and, somehow or other, forced his way into a barber’s shop which was walled with mirrors on all sides. As the canine scion looked around the found the numberless reflections of his majestic face in the mute mirrors, he became so excited that he forgot his pedigree and started to bark at the top pitch of his tenor voice. In his mad fury, he actively challenged all the dogs in the mirror with the result that the shop turned into a lunatic asylum and he was caught and shot to death.

Such a case is exactly parallel to the condition of humanity today. Have not the master mariners of our several states turned the world into a veritable mad house, flouting all the teachings of Christ who is evidently the first and the Last Christian? Have not the individuals subscribed their will to this universal suicide? Have we not consciously destroyed our own interests in trying to destroy the interest of others?

Man so often forgets that whenever he challenges the happiness of others, he challenges his own. Kill your neighbor in darkness and soon you will find that very darkness will betray you with an unfailing certainty. There is no escape from God’s just laws except through change of heart and reversal of actions. Economic confusion is bound to follow confusion of ideals and violation of spiritual laws. When the sun sets, darkness envelopes the earth. This present economic crisis is the logical outcome of human madness and the crookedness of human politics and greed. However, it is the time of reflection as well as action. Think, introspect; but move and act. Passivity is death; life is intelligent activity.

Unfortunately, man has lost his faith and courage on account of his many reverses. Wherever he turns his face, he sees nothing but the reflection of his depressed mood, and in fright and folly he indulges in a flood of fury, complaint, worry, and pessimism. What is pessimism but the philosophy of the indolent? The very inner urge in man wants him to be active in order to keep moving on the highway of progression. The motive of your action is what counts. If you girdle your loins after a high purpose mind not what comes. You should act and for the rest leave the fruits of your actions, struggles, and trials in the unseen but ever-watchful hands of God.

Moral depression presages economic depression. When man forgets spiritual laws he forgets himself. He forgets that he is the finite expression of the Infinite Self. His own limitless capacity and divine love-nature are left unexplored. He merely uses his surface-conscious self.

All of our unhappiness today is the price we are paying for our illusions and ignorances of yesterday. Therefore, let us begin a new day so that our tomorrows will overflow with joys. Now what we need is Christ-spirit. Time is neither good nor bad. It is good or bad in accordance with the complexion of our temperaments. If we are good and pure in heart, the whole of creation will smile with innate joy. On the other hand, resist good, and evil will crop up even from the dust of the earth and surround you from all sides. Let a Christ or a Gandhi live on a crust or wear a loin cloth, yet depression will not touch the inner nobility and prowess of such a one. Today’s widespread unhappiness has hit equally the poor and rich; why is it so? Because both are depending for their ultimate happiness on the material conditions of their lives, with little or no heed to the call of the spirit. All are clinging to shadows, but as soon as shadows recede, there is nothing left for them but emptiness of heart and excruciating pains in the head.

Let us consider the fundamentals. In the first place, as all sufferings spring from ignorance, let us brush aside the wrong conception of separateness. If any prosperity at one point in any part of the world causes any unhappiness at any other point on God’s earth, say with all your heart, "O God, save us from the curse of such prosperity." Feel that humanity is one family. Follow the high standard of material life. Out of erroneous economics and politics nations have transgressed the law and so are caught in their own noose. Sudden inflation is due to the inflation in human greed. Man, wake up, give up greed; but keep up ambition! Be the standard bearer of noble principles of life rather than the pall-bearer of certain death!

In the second place, as has already been said, material depression is the mark of moral penury and spiritual indigence. For a moral and spiritual man there cannot be unhappiness. Feel the overflowing wealth of the spirit that fills the human heart and head as well as the length and breadth of the whole universe. You are surrounded by God’s free light and protected by his gracious arms. Tune in with His abundance with a consecrated heart. See the beauty in the tremor of all that moves in the dance of life. Gather strength from the hurricanes and storms. Salvage the unexplored wealth lying dormant in the depth of your consciousness. Standing on the sure ground of faith leave all your worries and troubles, as well as ambitions and aspirations to the unseen but merciful hands of the Infinite Self. Then work, work, and work, with all the freedom of Spirit. For the moral and spiritual man there is and cannot be any depression. Out of abundance, creation evolves; in abundance it flourishes; into abundance it ultimately dissolves.

Sends greetings to all YOGODA CENTERS in United States and India and invites and welcomes visiting Yogoda Students to their meetings in Buffalo.

ANNA KRANTZ, Leader

75 Goulding Ave. Buffalo, N. Y.

Since the EAST-WEST is a magazine of self-realization, it should be read not only once but many times, intellectually, and then meditated upon, individually and in specially conducted groups, in order to fix the truth in intuition.

For this reason we will permit Yogoda groups to be opened all over American and in foreign countries to meet weekly and study the articles on the Second coming of Christ and Interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita and their inner meanings. They can study together the Yogoda teachings and meditate on them. Whispers from Eternity, by Swami Yogananda can be studied to teach how to listen to the Whispers of God within.

We shall be glad to hear from people interested in forming such groups, and we will then send permission from Yogoda Headquarters to qualified leaders suggesting how to conduct such centers. Instruction sheets will then be sent to you regularly to help you carry on from week to week. Write to Yogoda Headquarters, 3880 San Rafael Ave., Los Angeles, and your letters will receive prompt attention.

Prayers and demands are like plants

Which daily grow new blossoms:

The flowers change, but the plants

Remain the same. So, a prayer-plant

May have the same branches

And leaves of words,

But will every day yield new roses

Of God-feelings and inspirations,

If one regularly waters the plant with meditation.

—From "Whispers from Eternity."

NOTICE: East-West will be glad to receive advertisements from students and others for insertion in its pages. We have a wide circulation, and thousands of copies find their way into homes all over the country every month. Take advantage of our columns to advertise your books, magazines, health food products, personal services, etc. Write us for information as to rates.

THE difference between an actual piece of stone and the thought about a stone is very great. The stone has weight and dimension; it is visible and tangible; whereas the concept about the stone is invisible and has no weight or dimension. Likewise the human body of, let’s say, Henry Jones, is known to have weight, form, dimension, and visibility, but the thought about Henry Jones has none of these qualities of matter. Yet a powerful mind, versed in the art of visualization, (conscious dreams), can in a vision or a dream see Henry Jones, shake hands with him, weigh him on a scale, and behold him as tall and slight. Then what is the difference between the real physical body of Henry Jones and the dream-conceived, visualized body of him? One can say the former is real because visible to all and the latter is unreal because visible to only one person.

But there is a philosophical idea that a mental error common to all individuals is called delusion, whereas a mental error pertaining to only one is illusion. In the above case, when one person mentally shakes hands with Henry Jones and tells about it to others, then he is spoken of as being under an illusion or a hallucination. But it is also true that certain truths which are true to the individual may not be so realized by all. In that case, the people are in delusion and they have no right to accuse the one of illusion. My contention is that the visualization, hallucination, or even dream-representation of the body of Henry Jones is more real than just the thought-concept about his body; for thoughts are not visible nor have they dimensions, whereas dream-objects are apperceived by the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and so on. Then in what lies the difference between the thought of Henry Jones, the hallucination of dream-perception of his body, and his real living body? In the first place, the ordinary man seems to think that the actual body as perceived by the senses is reality, whereas a mental, imaginary, or dream concept of his body is unreal. By television a picture of his body can be projected form Detroit to the "Los Angeles Times" Headquarters. Is this telephoto real? The ordinary man would answer, "Yes."

But the metaphysical master will say that delusion within delusion is illusion, that the actual body of Henry Jones can appear to the man of realization as delusive, (not nothing, but something, but no what it appears to be,—like a mirage of a city which is not nothing, but something, yet not what it appears to be.) The man of realization may ask how you know that the actual body is not a delusion shared by all, how do you know but that all human beings are doing nothing but dreaming about the body of Henry Jones and all other matter? Being circumstanced by God to dream a cosmic dream everybody may be dreaming the existence of the body of Henry Jones and of all matter. If that is the case, then it cannot be told whether the body of Henry Jones actually exists of nor. Thurston, the great magician, by certain stereoscopic and super-vitaphonic effects may show to everyone in his audience Henry Jones’ body talking and gloating in the air, and then suddenly spirit it away. Is it not possible then that the Great Cosmic Magician might be showing us true-to-sound, true-to-sight, true-to-touch super-pictures of the body of Henry Jones and of all other matter? If this is so, then a man under the influence of this super-vitaphonic drama may create a body of Henry Jones by mental movies of his own, "made at home" as it were. In this case, the people who are under the cosmic delusive influence of god would say, "the man is suffering from illusion, even though they themselves are victims of the cosmic delusion by which they see the cosmically untrue, but mundanely true body of Henry Jones. So if all matter, the earth, Henry Jones, all things, and all people are dream pictures in the consciousness of all men than they are delusions. The mental picture or hallucination of one person about the actual body of Henry Jones in this world of cosmic dream is called delusion. Therefore, the wise man who can awaken from the influence of the cosmic dream may perceive only the changeless spirit and may perceive the physical body of Henry Jones and all matter as a delusive dream and the mental concept of matter or Henry Jones as dream within a dream, or delusive dream. A mental error or illusion shared by one individual can be corrected by others who do not participate in the error, but an error shared by all cannot be corrected by any except those who have self-realization and who know "Things are not as they seem to the senses."

The difference between consciousness and matter, mind and body, consists in rate of vibration only. What is vibration? It is energy in motion. How did this motion originate from the same cosmic Intelligence? All vibration loosened in the ether came originally from the Intelligence-guided cosmic motion. Spirit as unmanifested Absolute is without vibration or motion. Spirit manifested as the Creator is God the Father. Before He created anything He first stirred His still Spirit with the motion of thoughts, for God the Father is first Cosmic Intelligent Motion or Intelligent Cosmic Vibration. This motion became grossly stronger until it changed its outwardly vibrating Cosmic Vibration. This Cosmic Vibration manifested as Cosmic, Energy and Cosmic Sound, (registered in the human body as the visible spiritual eye and audible cosmic sound). This cosmic conscious energy was grossly vibrated by God until it began to vibrate as semi-intelligent, Divine, instinctively-intelligent, electronic energy which further grossly vibrated into gaseous, liquid, and solid energy.

Likewise, the microcosmic body of man in turn vibrated into the astral or energy body of man, which grossly vibrating changed in to a super-vitaphonic picture of a solid body. Just as electric shadows and sounds produce the consciousness of the body, so the Cosmic Operator combined thought-frozen cosmic energy to produce the consciousness of a solid body. The operator of a super-vitaphonic picture, by obstructing the light in the film, may produce the picture of a man without a hand on the screen, but he can easily bring back the hand by letting the light flow freely through his film. Similarly, the consciousness or manifestation of disease is nothing but an obstruction by wrong human though in the perfect thought-film of man as made by God. Man is heir to the errors of his forefathers. With wrong thoughts man not only obstructs the perfect thought-pictures of life and body, but he also impedes the free-flowing of the cosmic life force, which is especially responsible for the consciousness of the delusive picture of a human body. An accident causing the amputation of a hand is no more real, than is the amputation of the hand of the man in the super-vitaphonic movie mentioned above.

However it must be remembered that unless one is a motion picture operator he may not be able to correct the seeming disease in the distorted super-vitaphonic picture. The delusive nature of bodily accidents cannot be known until one can transfer his consciousness into the operating chamber of cosmic consciousness and get acquainted with the secret methods of the Cosmic Operator, who by His self-evolved cosmic thought-films and self-frozen cosmic energy is trying to show perfect pictures of man, ("made in His own Image"), worlds, life, and the cosmos. Man by his ignorance has become out of tune with the divine will, and thus obstructs the perfect divine presentation of God’s super-vitaphone pictures of life.

A piece of ice is solid, has weight, is cold, and is visible. The same piece of ice melted is liquid, yet has the same weight, but is visible in a different form and is still cold. But when the same piece of ice is heated and made subject to electrification, then it becomes invisible as hydrogen and oxygen. So the same piece of ice can be changed chemically form a visible, cold, solid mass to an invisible, untouchable gas with the same weight. Then again the same quantity of gaseous H2O can be recondensed and chilled into the lost piece of ice. The solid human body, in like manner, can be melted into acids and evaporated into invisible gases, but man has not yet learned how to bring it back. For man does not yet know the link between mind and body, spirit and matter,—that missing link which is cosmic energy. Vibrating conscious energy becomes pure consciousness and the same energy vibrating grossly becomes manifest as the body. When man wills to control supremely the energy in his body, as taught in the Yogoda system, he will be able to melt the vibrations in his body into astral energy and melt astral energy into mental energy, and by the same method he will be able to materialize his consciousness into the astral body and condense it into the physical body.

Scientists today can control chemical changes of the body, but they do not yet understand the bio-chemic control of matter. By understanding the relation of will and body one finds body is not dependent on food chemicals alone but on energy supplied from the invisible source of the will. A body in a state of suspended animation can live like a human dry battery without oxygen, sunshine, solids, liquids, breath or heart action, but no human body can stop deterioration when consciousness has completely left the spinal column and the brain regions. A body cannot live long lying on a sofa in a constant state of hypnosis, or under an anesthetic, even though it is fed chemically by hypodermic injection, for the body cannot survive long without consciousness which is the chief "bringer" of life-force into the body. Every movement of the body-parts presupposes movement of will, and with every action of this invisible radio of will energy is radiographed in the body from the storage-battery in the brain and the conscious cosmic energy surrounding the body. When you are tired you can put energy into the body by food, or by inhaling oxygen, or by absorbing ultra-violet rays of sunshine, or by drinking water or other liquid, but as you tense your arm and body in WILLING to lift a heavy weight, you are bringing energy into the body by the invisible mental source of will. In the tensing of body parts and in thinking strongly of will, we find the only instance whereby we can create energy in the body not from physical sources outside the body but from the invisible source existing both within and without the body.

___________

Teach us to conquer the Satan

Of dividing selfishness,

Which prevents the union of brother-souls

Into the one fold of Spirit.

—From "Whispers from Eternity."

A blue door opens from the desert sands

Into the beauty of this little place.

PEACE greets each one who enters here,

Then retreats

Before the searching eye

Can measure his stature

Or glimpse his lineaments.

He hides himself behind the petals

Of the rose. With his breath

He sways the yellow blossoms

Of the jasmine vine.

He smiles from the sparkling water

On the flower-bordered pool.

He speaks with the voice

Of thrush and meadow-lark.

Through the rays of the glowing sun

He spreads the warmth of his spirit.

In the sweet calm and stillness

That pervade this secluded garden,

He expresses the reality of his being.

PEACE dwells in the souls of those who live

In this retreat, PEACE gazes from their eyes.

Here the SPIRIT of PEACE

Blesses every one who comes within these walls,

And gives to each one who tarries here awhile

A petal from the flower of contentment.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Thou art the One Infinite of the monist;

Thou art God and Nature of the dualist;

Thou are the finite of the polytheist;

Thou are everything, O God, of the pantheist;

Thou art the God

Of monists, dualists, polytheists and pantheists.

Thou art both the Infinite Ocean

And all its waves of finite creation,

Because Thou art everything—

The souls of monism, dualism, polytheism, pantheism,

All bow to Thee.

—From "Whispers from Eternity",

____________________________________________________________________________________

IN THE great ruby palace of the Heart, in the kingdom called MAN, once lived a king whose name was Love—and his words were law and his smile was the light of his subjects. And his people were faithful and true, each inhabitant of the land performing his own good part in sustaining the beauty and strength of the empire.

Through the palace ran a golden river upon which the workers came to the court to receive instructions form the chief officers and to provide themselves with food and clothing, which were dispensed by the Senses and Emotions, custodians of the king’s storehouse of supplies.

The people were prosperous and the king was happy. But, alas! the good ruler trusted too much in his servants, the Senses and Emotions, and they took advantage of his kindness and betrayed him. When the chief officers, whose names were Discrimination and Self-Control, were not on guard, the Senses and Emotions stole, for their private use, much of the choicest food and sent many of the laborers away hungry.

Natural Desire slew many of the workers, drank their blood and became a creature of passion. Taste developed into a gourmand. Sight grew so fat and so obnoxious in appearance that his fellows nick-named him Lust. Hope fattened and changed his name to Envy, and all of the Senses and Emotions became degenerates and thieves.

As a result of this sad state of affairs, the whole body politic was disastrously affected. Millions of the workers became drones, and some of them died from disease and starvation, so that the golden river became clogged with putrid corpses. And one night, while the king slept, dreaming no evil, the Senses and Emotions banded themselves together and made an attack on the king’s chamber. Seizing the Premier, Will, they bound him hand and foot, and then, with heavy chains, they bound the king’s body-guards, Justice, Temperance and Kindness. With cries of fiendish delight, they laid hold of the sleeping king, who immediately awoke, realizing, all too late, the seriousness of the situation. The revolutionists would have slain the king and his officers, but that was impossible, for the latter were immortals.

However, the conspirators exiled their captives, conveying them to a remote corner of the kingdom. Then they returned to the palace and set up Selfishness as king, and the leaders of the revolt, Intemperance, Cruelty, Hatred and Lust, bowed low and took the oath of allegiance.

Then the state of the kingdom grew worse and worse. Terror and bloodshed made havoc among the inhabitants, while the few serfs, who had not been slain and devoured, and who were compelled to labor night and day to prevent the utter disintegration of the empire, found difficulty in finding their way back and forth along the stream of life that once had been so golden but which now had become turgid, ill-smelling and slow.

And Love, the former king, and his officers, dwelling apart in a gloomy forest of the once-fair domain, saw with the eyes of spirit the gradual demotion of the kingdom, and their hearts were saddened by the stories brought to them by famished, naked refugees. And the king and his officers took counsel together and considered how they might regain the kingdom and govern the land once more for the palace of the Heart.

"With such ill-rule continuing, the Kingdom of Man will soon totter and fall and be forgotten," said Love. "Then all our efforts to build beauty and to inspire our subjects with glad reverence, will have been for nought."

and they pondered long concerning the method they should use to dispossess and usurpers, but every suggestion seemed inadequate, and even once, when they had definitely decided on a plan put forth by Faith, the vulture of Doubt flew over their heads and cast his shadow on their good intentions. The project seemed hopeless, and Love bowed his head in resignation and began to weep, when suddenly the attention of the group was attracted to a white-haired old man who approached with tottering footsteps.

"What miserable being is this who comes to mock us?" groaned the king.

"I come not to mock but to advise," returned the aged man. "In the days of your sovereignty I stood a beggar at your door, but you saw me not, nor heard my cry. Too busy you were with the affairs of your kingdom, and planning for the joy of your subjects, to notice an old man like me. Yet I was your friend and am still your friend. Perhaps you will hear me now. My name is Wisdom. I could have saved your kingdom, had you listened to me. Only with my assistance can you regain your loss."

"And your plan, Sir, what is it?" asked Love and his officers in chorus.

"Learn from me the weakness of your foes," said Wisdom. "Return to the palace of the Heart with the realization that you alone are the rightful ruler of your land. Cast aside all fear, and trust in me, and believe me when I tell you that Selfishness and his hordes will flee at your approach, if you go in the knowledge of that which you are, in truth, realizing the power of your light and knowing the impotence of the minions of darkness."

So, with Wisdom as their guide, Love and his followers started toward the palace, and with them went millions of the subjects of the kingdom, rejoicing in the report that the former king would attempt to regain his kingdom. And when they reached the outer gate of the palace of the Heart, they saw Selfishness and his army coming to meet them. It was a formidable-looking host of shadows that came rushing toward Love and his followers. Onward they came, roaring, raving, laughing raucously, gnashing their teeth. But Love only smiled, as he and Wisdom advanced together. Hurling their lances of light and their javelins of truth in to the ranks of the enemy, Love and Wisdom pressed forward. Bounding over the heads of friend and foe, Selfishness fled from the scene of battle and was never seen again—while his cowardly soldiers surrendered, and Love took possession of the palace.

Seating himself on the throne, Love called the usurpers to him and commanded them to restore to the people the heritage of which they had been robbed. And Love put the Senses and Emotions back into their proper places, bidding them to resume their duties as feeders and servants of the people. And Love set Wisdom as guard over the Senses and Emotions, to direct their labors and to report any deviation from duty. And soon the golden river was cleared of its debris, the workers went joyously about their tasks—and peace reigned again in the Kingdom of Man.

June 1. I will not waste my time in talking about the faults of others. If I find myself inclined to enjoy criticizing others I will first try to talk loudly about myself before others.

June 2. The kingdom of planets and all the opulence of the earth belong to my own Divine Father. I am His child; therefore I am the owner of all things even as He is.

June 3. I will not beg anything and thus limit myself by the law of beggary, I am His Son. I will demand all things as my divine birthright, or I will expect nothing at all.

June 4. Christ consciousness is the Prince of the kings (All Powers) of the earth. Christ is the foundation of all my powers an dthe powers of all living intelligence. The separation of Christ intelligence and my intelligence, so long divided by body-consciousness, is gone for ever. Christ is the knower of all things to be known. I am a ray of Christ. I know everything even as all knowledge exists in Christ consciousness.

June 5. My body is the universe and I am the astral breath which enlivens all things. I am the big life which is throbbing as the little life in my heart.

June 6. (For Healing). The perfect light of God is perfectly present in all my body parts. Wherever that healing light is manifest, there is perfection. I am well, for perfection is in me.

June 7. (For Healing). His healing light has been shining within me, around me, but It have kept the eyes of my inner perceptions closed so that I beheld not His transmuting light. I will plunge the gaze of my faith through the window of the spiritual eye and baptize my body in the healing light of Christ Consciousness.

June 8. (For expansion). I will break the boundaries of my self and family loves and make them big enough to welcome all God’s children,—my white, yellow, black and brown brothers.

June 9. I beheld the spirit within me in the light of my selfish reason; now I will kindle the bonfire of universal love and behold my Father dwelling in the temple of all natural ties.

June 10. I will spread my silence with the dawn and feel the Spirit peeping through the window of my home, illuminating the city streets and spreading in the blue heavens above.

June 11. I will strive for the prosperity of others as I would for my own.

June 12. I will rejoice in making others healthy, as I love to be healthy myself.

June 13. In the temple of my earthly mother’s love, I will worship the incarnated Divine Mother’s love.

June 14. In my husband I will behold the all-surrendering of my Infinite Beloved, and thus will I respect his soul-progressing wishes.—Or,—In my wife I will behold the all-surrendering love of the Diety, and will follow her soul-emancipating spiritual aspirations.

June 15. All desire for love I will purify and satisfy in the sacred, divine Love of God.

June 16. May I overcome lack of wisdom by cool reason and transcend reason by flashes of the soul. May I transform matter by power of the mind and transfigure mind by the inexpressible but silently felt joy of my being.

June 17. I shall expend more labor to perfect my life, that I may more fully understand the meaning of life. May I be a perfected soul so I can know that I know the Supreme Reality here and now.

June 18. I will forget my past difficulties. I will face my present with courage, and with perfect trust wait for the future.

June 19. May I find meditation in my activity and action in my meditation, so that my whole life will be a love offering to my Lord.

June 20. Different schools of philosophy or various types of religions are but opinions or intellectual conceptions, if they are not the outcome of soul-perceptions. May my philosophy and religion grow out of the inner experience of my soul-life.

June 21. Where else can I find my God, except in the hermitage of my own heart? Blind my eyes, O Lord, to the tantalizing without, so they can look for Thee within.

June 22. May I know that I am not the body, not the blood, not the energy, not the thoughts, not the mind, not the ego, not even the astral self. But that I am the immortal soul which illumines them all itself, remaining unchangeable in spite of their changes.

June 23. In my deep sleep I meet Thee unconsciously; therefore, so overwhelming is the joy on my waking. Administer wisdom to my senses that I may meet Thee while wide awake.

June 24. I will not wander in the maze or theories of morality. I will be ever-vigilant to be supremely moral even in my secret thoughts and private actions. The moment I am agitated, restless, or disturbed in mind, I will retire to silence, discrimination, and concentration, till calmness is restored to my unhappy mind. May I seek morality even without God, but God without morality never.

June 25. Life is a struggle of joy all along the way. May I fight to win the battle on the very spot where I now am.

June 26. Every pain that befalleth life adds solid understanding and power to the character. May I accept all inevitable happenings of life as gracious benedictions from Thy hands, O Lord.

June 27. Whatever a man wishes in the secret nook of his heart, he gets through the open door of his life. May I always rear the Godly thoughts in the backyard of my mind.

June 28. May my reason ripen into intuition and my knowledge into love. May all my philosophy and religion end in the fruition of Self-Realization. May I will my will to emerge unconditionally into the Divine Will.

June 29. Life, more life, is the cry of my soul. Grant me, O Lord, the laurels of immortality. I will love Thee through all my loves; I will sense Thee through all my senses. I will expand my loves and senses to reach Thy Beyond. Shower Thy divine grace on my humble efforts.

June 30. May I discipline myself so that I will never begin my day without concentration and meditation on the Supreme.

"Teach me, O Spirit, to discern all laws of virtue

Not with dread but with love.

Teach me to remember that virtue

May be difficult to follow at the start,

But that when I obey its laws, it will adorn me finally

With the laurel of Thy happiness."

—From "Whispers from Eternity"

2-1/2 slices whole wheat bread

(1/2 inch thick)

1 cup seedless raisins

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 tsp, vanilla extract

3-1/2 large cups milk

1 large tblsp. butter

Pinch of salt

Remove dark part of crust from bread. Cut bread in 1/2 in. squares and crisp, but do not scorch, in oven. Add melted butter. Stir bread in it till butter is all soaked up. Place in bottom of pudding dish. Cover with raisins (well washed). Beat eggs, add salt, sugar, vanilla and milk and pour over bread and raisins. Put tiny pieces of butter over the top of pudding and cook in very slow oven until custard is barely set. Serve with cream, (plain or whipped) and jam or honey.

1 cup English walnuts

1 large potato

1 large onion

1 large carrot

1 cup cooked rice

1 cup milk

1/2 cup tomato juice

1/2 cup chili sauce

1/2 cup chopped parsley

4 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon curry powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Put nuts, potato, onion and carrot through the food-chopper. Add the rice, milk, tomato juice, chili sauce and the seasonings. Mix well. Turn into a well buttered baking dish and bake one hour in a moderate oven. (350 F.)

Make a soft custard as follows:

3 egg yolks

3 tablespoons sugar

1 pint rich milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

Put yolks into a bowl. Do not beat the yolks, Stir the sugar into them gradually. Heat the milk in a double boiler until boiling. Add itg slowly to the egg and sugar. Turn the mixture into the double boiler and cook over a slow fire until the mixture thickens. Stir constantly. Do not allow the milk to boil or it will curdle. When the mixture coats the spoon, it is thick enough. Cool, and add extracts. Chill in refrigerator.

Have ready parfait glasses or other dessert dishes. Put in each glass 3 chopped dates or nuts and some sweet jelly. Whe ready to serve, fill the glasses with the custard and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

I have nothing to offer Thee,

For all things are Thine;

I grieve not that I cannot give,

For nothing is mine, for nothing is mine:

Here I lay at Thy feet

My limbs, my life, my thought and speech,

For they are Thine, for they are Thine.

—From "Songs of the Soul."

In this hall of life, we are all moving picture actors as well as movie fans. We entertain, inspire, and instruct others with the show of our experiences, and we ourselves watch the ever-changing interesting pictures of other lives.

The pictures of various events are filmed in the east, west, north and south. The various nations with their strange and colorful castings of diverse customs, traditions and occupations amid varying scenic and climatic environments, offer infinitely rich and inexhaustible material for producing life-films of ever-new interest.

Educational, sensational, comical, saddening and inspiring pictures are taken by the mind-camera of the average man, every day, anytime, anywhere. There are many comic films in life. Inspiring scenes help us when we behold the unrolled film of lives of great men and great adventurers like Lincoln, Gandhi, Lindbergh, Byrd, Emerson and thousands of other unique personalities, as well as the heroic figures of the religious teachers of the world, like Jesus, Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Mohammed, Krishna and others.

We watch, moved and entertained by the mental moving pictures as filmed in Shakespearean tragedies and other great dramatic writings, in the house of our imagination. The pictures of world events, daily facts, evoked by our newspapers, hold our passing interest;. The pictures of others’ sufferings bring a tear, a determination to help them. Through their sorrow, we find our own joy in helping them. The gods sympathize with and entertain themselves with the joy of helping mortals. If they cried, and became identified with the tears of others, they could not render help. For sorrow increases sorrow, which can only be diminished and healed through contact with the potent salve of unshakable happy minds. Hence in watching tragic mistakes or misfortunes of other lives or of our own, we should feel only tears of joy because of our ability and absolute power to help. There cannot be room for the dark disturbing emotion of grief in children made in the likeness of God.

Individuals who are highly nervous, or who are suffering from the malady of melancholia, or anemic pessimism, or who are stricken with spells of despair at the approach of the least difficulties of life—these do not profit by watching the pictures of tragedy in other lives. They will have fainting spells; they cannot thus learn the lesson of the result of wrong behavior and thus desist from error, nor can they render help to those who are suffering, since they themselves are not free from suffering.

Thus, one must be thoroughly prepared mentally to watch profitably the motion picture of the tragedies of trying experiences in others’ lives, in order to be able to render help in making others look upon life as only a picture for our entertainment and instruction.

The great wars of Europe and Asia, the natural cataclysms of earthquakes and floods, the famines, prosperous eras, influence of world-saints, statesmen and villains, the work of the colossal geniuses of the ages—the poets, business men, writers, courageous reformers, great lovers and heroes — these events and these natures all played their parts in the studio of the centuries.

Everything took time, everything seemed to last long to the consciousness of man. Each life seemed almost unending, each great event was all-absorbing, but when the Director of life called "Cut!" the film was over. The greatest lives, the complex knotted existences, the whole history of nations, your life and mind, past, present and future (if we could but see), which seem to drag on minutely, surely, slowly, could nevertheless be filmed and each life shown in a couple of hours. One’s life, lived through a hundred years, seems so long-drawn-out when taken through the slow mental camera, but with the fast camera of true retrospection, one sees the whole panorama at a glance.

Is this life a movie show with its millions of geologic years, the constellations of heaven, the floating vapors, atomic combinations, earth materials, oceans, continents, nations and their histories, millions of births and the almost compete change by death every hundred years of all the earth’s inhabitants, the various great intellectual, spiritual and material civilizations, their rise and fall? With this background , we can see all life as a vast ever-changing, ever-new, ever-entertaining mighty film in the hall of introspection. This life is a panoramic picture, shown in serials and by installments, infinitely interesting, ever-fresh, ever-stirring, ever-complex. The master minds and world-changing men like Jesus, Buddha, Socrates, Asoka, Mohammed, Caesar, William the Conqueror, Darwin, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and many other outstanding pioneers and leaders, are the great stars of this motion picture production who command universal attention from their audiences.

The pictures of life must be always different to be interesting. One does not want to see the same comedies of lives or the same news reels of prosaic facts or the same tragedies of harrowing or gruesome experiences, all the time. One wants variety, and can hardly bear to see the same picture twice. That is why the Great Director of the motion picture of life keeps everything changing. You can not drink twice from the same running water, you can not watch the same event twice. The water passes by; the events change; you are not now the same man as you were a second ago—your thoughts have changed, your sum total is in a different proportion.

Why not then take life simply as a motion picture show? To do that, you must steel your mind against sorrow. You must be prepared for variety. You must be a motion picture player, an entertainer, as well as one of the audience, in watching your own and others’ pictures. While playing the part of combating disease, or fighting failures, or undergoing accidents, or enduring the trials of life, you must know you are just playing a part.

Just as an actor in the moving pictures is untouched by the sorrow he has to depict in his characters, so must you remain untouched by the changing pictures of inevitable misfortune, sickness, sudden failure and unforeseen obstacles in life. Sickness, failure and grief are so simply by the relative standards of human consciousness. A disciplined consciousness never inwardly experiences sickness or suffering or failure. As God’s children, we re always perfect and we must recover that consciousness by wisdom and the true understanding of the meaning of life and its problems.

Care not if you are not the principal player in the movies of life. No moving picture is made up of only one player or one event. Your part in playing, if short or obscure, is yet very important, for without you the picture of life is incomplete. In the Universal Director’s eyes he who plays his life’s part well, whatever that may be, is made a star to shine in His immortal galaxy.

Our troubles spring mostly from not knowing what our parts are. This results from not developing our innate intuitive soul-faculties. Rouse the all-feeeling, all-seeing Wisdom by regular meditation, and find your part. Then you must play or watch your own playing or the playing of others, be it the Pathe news of plain facts or a comedy of errors, or the tragedy of trying experiences, with an inwardly entertained mind. There is no room for pain, grievance or boredom in watching the movie of our own life. The retrospective consciousness of man can play all the noble parts of life joyously, untouched by suffering. These cosmic movies are all for our entertainment.

The great Director of the Motion Picture Company of life is made of Joy. We, as His children, are made in His image of joy. From joy we came, in joy we live, in joy we melt. He brought out this cosmic motion picture to keep Himself entertained. We, having come out of His being, are endowed with the same quality of super-consciousness by which we can watch the pictures of life, of birth, death and world events with the same divinely enjoying spirit. You watch a tragedy in a motion picture house, and when it is over, you say, "O, it was a fine picture!" So must you be able to look upon the pictures of trails of your own life and say, "O, my life is interesting with troubles and difficulties to be overcome. These are all my stimulants to show me my errors and help me to assume the right mental attitude by which I can watch with joy the fascinating spectacle of life."

The consciousness of man is made of god and is pain-proof. All physical and mental sufferings come by identification, imagination, and wrong human habits of thinking. We have to travel along the labyrinthine path of life, visiting many motion picture houses of varied experiences, entering them with the consciousness of being entertained and instructed. Then life and death will be watched with an unchangeable, joyous, consciousness. Our consciousness we will find to be one with cosmic consciousness. And with our Cosmic Consciousness, unchanged by the human waking of birth or the sleep of death, we will watch the Cosmic Motion Picture with perennial, ever-new joy.

Full many a path I’ve tried and tried,—

A few steps here, a few steps there,—

A halting stride, a backward slide,—

But never my soul was satisfied.

I sought and sought, but never found,—

The manna that seemed sent from God,

Fro years and years the weary round,—

From Frisco Bay east to Cape Cod.

In Southern Seas, at Northern feasts,—

Traditions learned ‘neath foreign sails,—

Red Indian lore and other tales,—

Of hidden wisdom known to priests.

All these I heard, and still I sought

The wisdom that my soul would sate.

On every hand, at every gate,

Such wisdom never could be bought.

Years rolled away,—life seemed too full,—

And still my soul searched on and on,

Until it found Yogoda true,

Whose teaching is for everyone.

It brings us peace, it brings us joy,—

Contact with God my soul now knows,

That never-ending swelling joy,

That makes all men as God’s heroes.

That God should prosper such a cause

Is without doubt his law and plan.

Yogoda’s work will e’er go on

Far and beyond this one life span!

This is our wish for it today,—

And will be still while time shall run,—

"Throughout all God’s Eternity

May its Truth still spread,

—May its work go on!"

Yogodans blest, to whom is given

The power to spread this wondrous truth

From east to west to needy souls

To help them on along their road,

May blessings rare attend your path

And light the way, and light the way,—

And spread the Truth to Earth’s last bounds,

And bring vast Peace with God’s "Om" Sound!

____________

No ear hath heard,

No thought hath held,

No love hath felt,

No dream hath dreamt,

No tongue hath told,

Can ever tell,

Of that—my beloved music.

But behind the curtains of everything—

I felt the lost-and-found

Beloved Music of my Soul.

—From, "Whispers from Eternity"

On April 17th a Hindu-American dinner was given by the Cincinnati Yogoda Center in connection with the regular Sunday meeting. Yellow daffodils blending with the color scheme lent added golden beauty to the tables. Mr. Robert Smith told interestingly of the preparation of the Hindu food, and paid a just tribute to Mr. Das who was responsible for the choice of the menu. Just at twilight, Margaret Bronson, of Cincinnati, played "One Hour" and "Do You Remember?", two of her own compositions while Eidth Houser sang them. Then followed selections by Elizabeth Medart, violinist, and Evelyn Reade, pianist. The height of enjoyment was reached in a trip to India with Randendra K. Das, Yogoda Center Leader, who took us in imagination through the land of his birth so interestingly and vividly that we almost believe we really went.

Last winter we started a small library which is very much enjoyed by all our students. We began by having some books lent and others donated. We charge five cents a week for the use of each book, except a few of the most popular, for which we charge fifteen cents weekly. We use the money to buy new books. Two recently purchased are "the Masters and the Path", by Leadbeater, and "Om, the Secret of Arbor Valley", by Talbot Mundy.

We handle East-West through the activities of a magazine committee who sell the copies at the Center and also place them on important news stands.

We meet every Tuesday evening in the Hotel Leamington, from 8 to 10:30. We follow an outline which includes Concentration, Meditation, Higher Initiation Exercises, discussion and review of one lesson, a ten minute talk by the Leader, general discussion, and some chanting. The subject matter of the talks and discussion is based mostly on the Bahgavad Gita.

"If I speak with the tongues of men and angels,

BUT HAVE NOT LOVE,

I am become sounding brass or tinkling cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy

And know all mysteries and all knowledge;

And if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,

BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, I am nothing.

And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,

And if I give my body to be burned,

BUT HAVE NOT LOVE, it profiteth me nothing.

LOVE suffereth long, (is PATIENT) and is KIND;

LOVE envieth not (is not COVETOUS);

Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up (is not PROUD);

Doth not behave itself unseemingly (is WELL-BEHAVED);

Seeketh not its own (is not SELFISH);

Is not provoked (is GOOD TEMPERED);

Taketh not account of evil (has a CLEAN MIND);

Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness (is happy in DOING GOOD);

But rejoiceth with the TRUTH

(Is happy in the absence of FALSEHOOD);

Feareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things;

Endureth all things. LOVE never faileth.——

But now abideth Faith, Hope, Love,

But THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE."