October, 1933 VOL. 5—12
I live, move, and have my Being
In Spirit,
As a fish lives in the water
And a bird in the air.
I will consciously draw
Strength, health, and happiness
From His all-enveloping Presence.
Spirit is all that is.
This includes me.
Every cell of my body
Sings with vitality,
Youth, and beauty.
I am made
Of God substance,
Since that is
The only substance
Which exists.
I am Health;
I am Success;
I am Peace.
The perfect pattern
Was set in me
In the beginning
When man was made
After the image of God.
The perfect plan of the plant
Is enclosed in the tiny seed.
I shall let go
Of all thoughts and influences
Which obstruct
The perfect development
Of the Divine plan for me.
I will free myself
From anger, jealousy,
Criticism, envy, fear,
And all
Negative thoughts and emotions,
And instead fill my mind
With love, understanding, and praise.
Because God is all power,
And because I am His child,
I have the power and the intelligence
To overcome any seeming difficulty.
There is a right solution to every problem.
I have within me
The wisdom and intelligence
To see RIGHT solutions
And the courage and energy
To carry them through.
Each difficulty met
On the path of life
Is a TEST
To show you
How far you have progressed.
Recognize each experience
As a TEST.
Look at each experience
Impersonally
And walk through it
Triumphantly.
Strength and the wisdom
Are within you.
Instead of being
Overcome and discouraged
When confronted
With what you think is trouble,
Thank the Father
For offering you
The opportunity
To see where you are,
And to develop
The strength and wisdom
To overcome it.
It is only
To the wise and the strong
That great tests come,
And it is to them
That greater power is given.
Consider the supreme tests
With which Jesus was faced,
And recall
In what manner
He met them
And what tremendous
Power and understanding
He released.
All power and wisdom
Are within you;
Each experience
Is but a call for you
To release
That which you already possess.
The more
Power you release,
The more you will have
At your command.
At any given moment
You have
All the courage,
Strength, and intelligence necessary
To overcome any seeming difficulty.
Get yourself still,
Mentally and physically.
Retire to your center of poise
Within your spiritual home,
And commune with your Father there.
He will show you the way.
Remember that He is always beside you,
Always guiding and encouraging you.
Learn to listen inwardly,
All through the day,
To His guiding Voice.
No matter what you are doing,
If work seems
Exhausting, confusing,
Or impossible,
Just say within:
"Father, this also is your work.
Willingly I give myself to serve You."
Immediately all tensions will be relaxed
And the task will seem easy.
Do not forget
When you meet Beauty,
Beauty of every kind—
The gorgeous color
Of the sunset, the music of birds,
The glistening water, the rustling trees,
The soft breeze on your face, the warm sun,
The joy of love and friendship—
To speak your gratitude
To the Father within
For surrounding you
With so much wonder and beauty,
And for opening your eyes
That you might see and enjoy it.
Ask only
For wisdom and understanding,
So that you may go through
With the business of life
Intelligently and joyously.
Open your eyes
And see the glory and beauty
With which the Lord
Has surrounded you.
Every atom of matter;
Every speck of space;
Every moment of time;
And every drop of thought
Is born of God
And is moving with His flame.
May I perceive His warmth everywhere.
The moment I am agitated, restless,
Or disturbed in mind,
I will retire to silence,
Discrimination, and concentration,
Until calmness
Is restored to my unhappy mind.
May I consecrate my life
As a love-offering
To the service of humanity.
Oh God,
Thou art to me a conscious force,
Concentrated
In the focal center of my Being.
Be Thou
The point of radiation
In my life.
At times my Soul
Cries aloud
With an unutterable pain.
Oh God,
May I wash my pangs
With Thy contemplation.
Whenever one christens
His heart with love
And chastens himself
To humble surrender,
God speaks
Through his every expression.
May I lose myself in Thee, O Lord.
Every pain that befalleth life
Adds solid understanding
And power of character.
May I accept
All inevitable happenings of life
As gracious benedictions
From Thy hands,
Oh Lord.
A perfect pattern of life
Is found
Only in the Eternal.
Make me a disciple of the Infinite.
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 all my hopes and fears
Be dedicated to the intense activity
Of a joyous surrender to His will.
Life is a struggle of joy
All along the way.
May I battle
On the very spot
Where I am now.
I will transform all conditions,
Good or bad,
Into the veritable instruments
Of success.
Before a conquering Soul,
Even dangers
Loom as benedictions from God.
May I discipline myself
So that I shall never begin my day
Without concentration
And meditation
Upon the Supreme.
Every object in Nature
Is an IDEA
Expressed in form.
May I gather
All the hidden ideas
Out of all forms
And string them
Into One Universal
Idea of Love.
In coordinating the triune principle
Of head, hand, and heart,
Life finds its ultimate fulfillment.
May the trinity
Of wisdom, activity, and devotion
Grow in the tree of my life
Before my earthly season is over.
I will concentrate
On the Eternal Principle of Life.
When everything else
Is swallowed up by death,
GOD ALONE stands unscathed
On the sands of Time.
By Mignon Splane
Mountains both East and West wending,
With their rugged sky-line bare,
Morning sunrise, evening sunset,
Paints a picture, pleasing, rare.
Walnuts, olives, shrubs, acacias,
Circle round with cooling shade,
Gracious host and loving hostess,
With God’s hand a welcome made.
Just beyond the steps descending,
Down the path unto the shore,
With its softened waters blending,
Lies the Peaceful Elsinore.
Mild, caressing, soothing waters
Lave the bathers o’er and o’er,
Or the white-caps spray their faces
In our Beauteous Elsinore.
Silently, amidst scented breezes
We partake of God’s rapture there,
Meditating ‘neath the olives,
We His inspiration share.
Meditation, praise, and blessings,
Hearts enthralled throughout the day
Give such soulful, peaceful longing
For Sweet Elsinore alway.
Every morning, every evening,
May my Spirit in prayer arise,
To reflect back the blessings
Of Elsinore, my Paradise.
By John H. Vincent
I will this day
Try to live a simple, sincere,
And serene life,
Repelling promptly
Every thought of discontent, anxiety,
Discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking;
Cultivating
Cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity,
And the habit of holy silence;
Exercising economy in expenditure,
Carefulness in conversation,
Diligence in appointed service,
Fidelity to every trust,
And a child-like trust in God.
Through the Art of Living
(Swami Yogananda’s Speech
Before the World Congress of Religions)
Diversity and Unity
DIVERSITY is the Law of Nature. Unity is the way that leads to the Infinite. By discord and diversity, the world is thrown into the boiling pot of sorrow, wars, and death. Uniting Souls with Truth by ideal living is the way to happiness, peace, and immortality.
The entire process of evolution in Nature and Man seems to suggest the necessity of removing the storm of ignorance in order to effect the union of delusion-projected waves of life with the One Ocean of Spirit.
Contribution of Science and Religion
Scientists, politicians, business men, and social workers by limited, specific methods unconsciously and indirectly try to pave the path to World Unity. The exponents of scientific religions, philosophy, and ethics of human conduct try to consciously garner the picked blossoms of Truth from the gardens of all forms of wisdom, and try to decorate human Souls with a floral costume of super-qualities which may directly qualify them to enter the Paradise of all-freeing ultimate wisdom.
Through individual, industrial, and political selfishness, explosives of the feeling of race superiority, and by the excluding commercialism of dogma, entrenched religions have kept races divided and shattered by social, industrial, political, religious, and financial wars, resulting in depressions, ignorance, and mass misery.
To Make Model Citizens
In order to bring all humanity into the mansion of union and universal happiness, science, politics, social and individual ethics, international industries, and the science of international laws of living, all universally useful moral and religious sciences, should offer ideal standards of the international laws of hygiene, peace, prosperity, education, moral codes, and applied psychological and spiritual laws, which would make each of the fifteen hundred million human inhabitants of this earth an all-round, perfect world citizen.
Then each Soul would be able to say: "Down through the window of Memory I looked. I recall the early hours of my childhood, when the sun of my consciousness first began to appear. As it slowly rose out of the darkness of the unconscious mind, it dimly lighted only one part of my little mental horizon that lay encompassing my mother, playthings, and a few multi-colored desires. Later, as my consciousness grew brighter, a great part of my mental horizon was illumined. I saw in it not a few things only, but many things—my friends, relations, neighbors, country—all these were revealed and included. Now, as I look within, on the mental sky, the sun of my consciousness seems to be shining brighter than ever in its supreme power. It no longer lights one direction only, or only one portion of my mental horizon, or only a few friends or relatives, or one nation, but all nations, nay, all creatures and Nature, all planets all stars, all shining electrons, all Universes, and all Space are included. I did not know that out of the inky darkness of my mind I would discover the Sun of Cosmic Consciousness."
By Bridging Science and Religion
Science is directly helping man with material comforts through her golden inventions. The same science, indirectly, is helping man to be the reformer of dogmatic religions and to explain many miracles found in Nature and spoken of in religion. Science shows how, by changing the vibration of a pound of water into ice, that solidified water, instead of mixing and sinking, can be made to float on top of the water. It suggests through the scientific imagination that perhaps Jesus controlled the psychological relation between matter and mind and thus changed the atomic vibration of His body, enabling Him to walk on water.
It is by understanding that life continues after death that we can unite our consciousness with the Cosmic Consciousness of God and find the cord of one life, one law, one rhythm, and one wisdom uniting us all. To seek World Unity just for utilitarian purposes may give us a temporary peaceful life on earth by preventing wars, but unless we feel that we are children of the One Father, God, and that we are to continue our march beyond the portals of the grave towards the mansion of immortality, we cannot seek real World Unity. It is only when we feel that we are prodigal immortals on earth, and that our gift of discrimination must be used to find a true art of common living, that we make the effort to unite all wisdom in our hearts and to realize that all of us are world-brothers marching hand in hand back to the mansion of God. It is no use seeking World Unity if there is no God, no life after death, and if all men are not brothers, bound by one cord of Divine Life. That is why all persons seeking World Unity must discuss the problems of life and death.
Life is no longer the monopoly of organic matter. Inorganic substances, such as minerals, by their attractions and repulsions, also show the presence of Life. According to the experiments of the great scientist, Prof. J. C. Bose, of India, even a piece of tin is living and its vibrations can be recorded during its life and death struggles. It can also be poisoned and killed.
The old theory that matter is different from Spirit is gone. All matter, including solids, liquids, and gaseous substances can be converted into electronic energy and made to disappear into Spirit. Prof Einstein speaks of space swallowing up all matter. Out of space comes every form of intelligent Creation, therefore, space looks very suspicious and can be accused of hiding an omnipresent Intelligent Being who is responsible for an extremely systematic Creation. The old theory that matter is like a pot furnace, constantly losing heat and life, has been exploded by Prof. Millikan of California. This eminent physicist found that not only is matter being disintegrated into energy or radiation, but that energy or radiation is again being reintegrated into matter. The cosmic Rays, or the birth cries of the atoms, are radiations inundating the earth incessantly from limitless space.
"Matter and energy, and time and space, are in a melting pot," declared Prof. Lovett Evans before leading British scientists recently. . . "the enormously rapid developments of physics in recent years strike the onlooker dumb with almost religious awe. On further study, lines of separation previously held to be rigid will fade away, and there will be found continuity between matter and energy, between the living and the non-living, between the conscious and the unconscious."
After Death
There is no difference between inorganic and organic life except that they are separate manifestations of the one Life. Nothing is dead. The atoms in the flesh of even a corpse are rapidly vibrating and constantly moving with life. Different forms of life are manifestations of the same Life Force. Just as ice, water, steam, and hydrogen oxygen gases are different forms of the same thing, so also solids, liquids, gases, stones, crystals, plants, animals, and human beings, both living and dead, are manifestations of Life. The spirit contained in matter, and matter, are the same, just as hydrogen oxygen gases contained in a closed jar made out of a block of ice, are of the same essential composition as the jar itself. The thing contained is made of the same material as the container. If it were otherwise, matter and Spirit would be the result of two co-existing Infinite forces, which is impossible. As the ocean becomes the waves, so does Spirit become matter. Spirit and matter are the same as the ocean and the waves. The waves are disturbed ocean and matter is distorted, objectified Spirit.
The waves, except in form, contain all the essential qualities of the ocean; similarly, matter, organic and inorganic, manifestly or latently, contains all the qualities of the Spirit. Thus we can say that Life sleeps in the crude earth, dreams beauty in the flowers, wakes with power in the animals, and in man has consciousness of Infinite possibilities.
By James M. Warnack
To you, of you, for you, and about you
I am singing this song of triumph,
And the song is true, with no false note in it,
And it concerns myself as well as you,
And it echoes backward through all time,
And vibrates forward into endlessness.
And this is the song I sing,
And I know you will hear it,
And one day you will believe it,
And know it, and live it:
You are forever and ever
The triumphant One;
Forever you are the master
Of love and of life;
Eternally you are the beauty
That inspires you;
Always and always
You are the joy
You are seeking.
If, for a little time,
You seem lost
From your Self,
Remember,
Lovers of mine,
That it is not forever.
Remember that you
Have only invited the shadows
To prove to yourself
The living light of your Spirit.
At this moment I offer you
No medicine or healing;
I give you no potion
To drown your pain
Or your sorrow,
But I tell you this:
That one day you shall awaken
And find the great Peace
That even now hovers about you.
Not THROUGH pain
But IN pain
Shall you discover this solace;
And in that moment
When you shall come into your own,
You shall not care
Whether your eyes are bandaged,
Or whether you see
With the vision of other mortals;
You shall not care
Whether your body be chained
Or whether you roam
The mountains and meadows in freedom;
It shall make no difference
Whether you burn with fever,
Or whether your brow and your blood
Be calm as the twilight,
For in that moment
You shall have found
The wonder of living,
And you shall have known
The perfection
Of your own existence.
You shall smile
Through the flames
Or the darkness
That may surround you;
You shall dance, unafraid,
Through the valleys
Of torture and terror;
You shall sing
On the bed of pain;
You shall laugh
On the pillow of sorrow;
You shall be the triumphant One
Forever and ever!
And then, Oh, then,
You shall rise
(And I shall be with you),
And leaving the grave
That you made
In an hour of forgetting,
Shall calmly ascend
To the heaven
Within your own Being,
To shine evermore
In the sky
Of your glorious Selfhood.
OF CHRIST
"THEN said the Jews: ‘Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days?’ But He spake of the temple of His body. When, therefore, He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.
There was a man of the Pharisees, names Nicodemus, a ruler of the jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him: ‘Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him.’ Jesus answered and said unto him: ‘VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO THEE, EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN AGAIN, HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD.’
Nicodemus saith unto him: ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?’ Jesus answered: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
The Jews misinterpreted the saying of Jesus about raising the temple in three days. Naturally they wondered how Jesus could rebuild the temple of Jerusalem in three days if it were destroyed, when it took forty-six years to build it the first time. His raising the body after death was much more wonderful than rebuilding a broken temple in three days would have been.
At the Passover many believed in Jesus because of His miracles, but Jesus did not count upon man’s testimony for the spread of His message. He went on preaching His gospel, being impelled by His Infinite Force.
Nicodemus visited Jesus secretly in the night, for he was afraid of social criticism. Yet it took a lot of courage, faith, and sincere curiosity for him to seek Jesus. Upon meeting, he declared that only Divine Beings, who had actual God-contact, could work the super-laws which govern the inner life of all Beings and things.
Jesus, in his answer to Nicodemus in the following way: "VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO THEE, EXCEPT A MAN BE BORN AGAIN, HE CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD," suggests the way in which we can contact God and the way in which Jesus contacted God. Jesus meant that only super-Beings who contact God can perform miracles, and that anyone can contact God and can perform miracles if he is born a second time.
In the Hindu Scriptures the newly born child is called Kayastha, which means "body bound." The two physical eyes in the child are given by its physical parents to look into alluring matter, but when the child grows older, and at the age of seven, or later, is initiated, his Spiritual Eye is opened by his Spiritual father, or Preceptor. Through the help of his Preceptor, the initiate can use this telescopic eye to see Spirit, and then he is called Dwija, or the twice-born, or the Brahmin, or the one who knows Brahma or Spirit.
Alas, even in India this initiation from the body consciousness to the Spiritual consciousness has become just a formal ceremony performed by the priests, who only baptize the body in water, but great Hindu Masters baptize the body in Spirit. John the Baptist also said that he baptized with water, but that Jesus was to baptize with Spirit.
Jesus meant that the ordinary consciousness is tied to the flesh, and that through the two physical eyes and senses, with their limited powers of perception, man can see only into the tiny playhouse of this earth.
When a person is flying in an airplane, he sees no walls, but only the vastness of limitless space and free skies, but if he is suddenly locked up in a little cage surrounded by walls he loses sight of all the vision of vast space.
Likewise, when man’s Soul is thrown out of the vast eternal Spirit into the little bodily cage, he beholds nothing but the limitations of matter and the little earth experiences. So, Jesus said, with the modern scientists, that we can see and know as much as our limited power of the senses allow. Just as, by a two-inch telescope, the details of the distant stars cannot be seen, so Jesus said that man cannot know anything about the Astral world by using only the limited power of his senses.
Scientists tell us that if the powers of the senses were expanded, the earth would look much more beautiful and would be full of colors and blinding lights of glow-worm-like atoms. The modern microscope can magnify bacteria only 17,000 times, but it is necessary to magnify much more before many persons can see bacteria or particles of matter made of electrons and atoms.
Jesus said that after man’s Soul, is born in water or protoplasm, and then by self-development is born again through the awakening of the sixth sense, intuition, and the opening of the Spiritual Eye, his illumined Soul goes out of the body and can then enter into the Kingdom of God.
Just as, by a 200-inch telescope, a man can enter into the vast region of star-peopled space, so by developing the intuitional sense through meditation he can enter the Kingdom of God and behold the birthplace of thoughts, stars, and Souls.
Jesus meant that body-bound Souls can see nothing but limited matter through the small outer windows of their senses. It is only when Soul opens the inner window of Oneness with the Spirit by meditation that he can enter into the perception of the vastness of omnipresent Spirit.
Jesus said that the body born of flesh has the limitations of the flesh, whereas the Soul, born of the Spirit, has potentially limitless powers. The ordinary man knows himself as so many pounds of flesh. Such a person, being born of flesh, sees nothing but flesh or matter in and around him, but when, by meditation, the Soul’s mind is transferred from the body to the invisible powerful presence of the Soul, then it realizes its Oneness with the eternal Spirit and not with the limited body. Jesus said, as the Hindu Masters have said, that man has to be born in body and in Spirit in order to know God.
Nicodemus could not see how a Soul could be born twice, so he asked Jesus if He meant that old men could reincarnate in their mother’s bodies and become young again. Jesus was not talking of reincarnation; that is, of a second birth after one birth and death. He was explaining how a Soul in one life could be born entangled in the flesh and sense limitations, and then by meditation could acquire a new birth in Cosmic Consciousness.
The matter-bound Soul, lifted into the Spirit by God-contact, is born a second time in Spirit. Here the body remains the same, only the Soul’s consciousness, instead of roaming on the material plane, enters into the eternally joyous Kingdom of the Spirit.
Jesus was describing a metaphysical law of penumena (substance of cause) and of phenomena (the appearances of substances or effect) when He compared the Spirit, and the Souls emerging from it, with the invisible wind and its presence, declared by its sound. Just as the source of the wind is hidden, and is known by its sound, so the Spirit substance is invisible, hidden beyond the grasp of human senses, and the birth of Souls from the Spirit is the visible phenomena. By the sound, the invisible wind is known. By the birth of intelligent Souls, the invisible Spirit is manifest.
Jesus was only stating that, as it is difficult to find the source of the wind, so it is difficult to find the Spirit source from which all things come. Jesus said that all Souls born of Spirit are known by their existence, but very few know all about the Spirit source from which they come.
(To be Continued.)
By Mary Lake Rose
WOULD you be prosperous, never experiencing the slightest need even in times of so-called economic depressions, such as the world is experiencing today? Are you aware of the fact that there are at least a few of God’s children who have experienced that conscious AT-ONE-MENT with the ALL LIFE so that they positively know no lack at any time? Would you be interested in knowing some of these Universal Laws of Abundance which, through exact application, give not only to a few but to one and all who obey them, that LIFE ABUNDANT? If so, then your attention is invited to the careful consideration of the following:
Divine Abundance
That individual who would align himself with God’s all-abundance must eradicate forever from his mind all thought of lack or poverty. Universal mind is perfect; it knows no lack, and he who would align himself with that never-failing Supply House, must create the consciousness of Abundance, even if he does not know where his next meal is to come from.
Think of Divine Abundance as a mighty refreshing rain; whatever receptacle is at hand receives it; it falls upon the just and the unjust. If one holds up a tin cup, one receives only that quantity; if one holds up a barrel, that is filled. What kind of vessel are YOU holding up to the Divine Abundance? Perhaps the vessel which you wish to put forth is faulty; if not, it must be repaired and made ready before it can receive the Divine Abundance. So it is with man.
If the vessel which you are putting forth each day into God’s Kingdom of Abundance is faulty, it must be repaired and made ready before it can receive His bountiful blessings. That vessel must be repaired by casting out all fear, doubt, envy, and hate, and then be cleansed by the purifying waters of peace, tranquility, devotion, and Divine Love. He who fails to equip himself with the tools of Divinity must forever be among "The hewers of wood and the drawers of water."
An important part of man’s equipment is that of his Life’s purpose. The whole world stands aside for the person who knows where he is going. Purpose augments power; therefore, one must swing one’s life about a purpose. There are no vacations in the Law of Purpose; it is like an iron string that continues like the quiet flowing stream.
When one has resolved definitely upon a purpose in life, then one must serve that purpose. Work is not a curse, as all humanity realizes today as never before. Work is bringing forth what is in one; it is the tree of life. Work in the nth degree is pouring out oneself to the purpose one has chosen. Get out and work from 7 a.m.—all day. Give more of your service, more strength, more effort, more time, more love than you ever expect to receive in return. The Divine Abundance follows the Law of Service. Serve, and then try to forget completely what you are going to receive for it. "Do with a might what your hands find to do," and in these distressing days give your service to somebody. If you have not definite channel through which to serve, make one. There are plenty of Missions in Los Angeles and throughout the world in which you can place your services.
If each day presents no better opportunity, lend a helping hand to that decrepit old lady or man trying to make way through the traffic; speak a cheery word to the downcast. There are a thousand ways for the one who wills so to do. "Cast thy bread upon the water; and thou shalt find it after many days," for God’s laws are unfailing. Learn to coordinate with the indwelling power—give and receive, but GIVE FIRST. "Give of your best to the Master. Give of the strength of your life."
The supreme acid test of giving to one from whom you never expect to receive, is love, which is the greatest thing in the world. Give in generosity and peace if no more than the widow’s mite. Through the laws of giving and of tithing, generosity is created. If one wants something, one must make a pathway for it. GIVE and then receive. "Give to the world the best that you have and the best will come back to you."
By way of illustrating this law of service and love—giving with no thought of receiving—you will please pardon a personal reference. During my early apprenticeship in religious work, at least three years of loving service were given cheerfully and freely on behalf of those in actual need. Food, clothing, reading matter, and flowers were delivered in Los Angeles to Catholic, Jew, and Gentile alike, and lengthy trips were also made to many of the neighboring cities, to the County Hospital, and even to the County Poor Farm—all in behalf of those in dire circumstances.
It took a great deal of time, effort, gasoline, and LOVE. It was giving a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus the Christ. And you ask me: "Was it worth while?" to which I unhesitatingly reply: "A thousand fold." That experience was the Soul’s Awakening, the true revealer of the purpose of life.
Try something of a similar nature for yourself, and just see what it will do for your life and its needs. It will heal many a wound and soothe many a heartache. It will lift you, personally, entirely out of that insignificant realm of materiality and selfishness into that of the UNIVERSAL, and when one is consciously aligned with the Universal every need of one’s life is fulfilled. Since gratitude is one of the most powerful agents of attractions, have faith and give thanks before you receive, then MEDITATE upon the Universal abundance.
Take this simple outline and pin it up on the curtain over your work table, or give it a prominent place on your office desk. Make a definite resolve that you are going to live out daily the factors involved therein. Test and prove Universal Law to your own satisfaction, as I have done, and I can assure you that you will know no lack.
The simple outline referred to involves the following factors:
Voltaire’s last words were these:
"I die, worshipping God,
Loving my friends,
Not hating my enemies,
But detesting superstition."
Edward Carpenter
Who you are, I know not,
But I have it before me
That you shall know.
For a certainty,
You are not greater or less than me.
I neither look upon you
With envy nor with pity,
With deference, nor with contempt.
Endowments, dignities, and accomplishments,
.....Are of no account whatever;
But honesty, and to stand in time
Under the great law of Equality
—After which you will be satisfied
.....And joy will take possession of you.
Until then, farewell.
Do not follow me,
But go your own way voyaging
—And then haply
Some time we shall meet.
Physical and Astral Sounds
Chapter I, Stanza 14
Tatah sankhascha Bahijarshcha Panabanaka Gomukhah Sahasaibavhyahanyanta sah shabdastumulobhabat Tatah (them); sankhascha (conch shells and); bhaijarscha (kettle drums); panabanaka gomukah (trumpets, tabors, and cow horns); sahasa aba (most suddenly); abhyahanyanta (blew forth); sah shabdastumulobhabat (that sound was tremendous).
In the 12th and 13th Stanzas we saw how the Ego consciousness revives material desire and the senses by disrupting the calm breath. The four factors of mind, breath, vital essence, and body are ever interrelated. When any one of the four factors is disturbed, the other three automatically become disturbed too.
Hence, the devotee who aspires to develop uniformly and steadily in spirituality must always calm the mind with the practice of concentration, keep the breath quiet by proper breathing exercises, preserve the vital essence by self-control and good company, and keep the body quiet and not in perpetual motion and restlessness.
When Ego disturbs the breath after deep meditation, the Soul again tries to revive its intuitive consciousness by the revival of Astral vibrations. As Prince Soul returns to his spiritual kingdom in meditation, he passes from the flesh consciousness through the Astral Kingdom. The way of the Soul from the body to superconsciousness lies through the Astral Kingdom. The Astral Kingdom constitutes the vita-electrical system of the body. As the body is woven with tissues of flesh, so the Astral body is woven with filaments of the electrical Life Force.
The circulation, pumping of the heart, and movement of breathing in the physical body all emanate physical sounds. The Soul hears these sounds when it is concentrated on the inside of the body. When the Soul, as Ego, concentrates upon the outside body, it hears the sounds of the physical world, but as the Soul, in meditation, passes from the physical sounds of matter and the droning sounds of circulation, and the thump of the heart, it begins to hear the various vibratory sounds of the Astral vital forces, like the blowing of conch shells, or round, full, rolling vibrations.
In the battle between the Ego and the senses pulling towards the body, and the Soul moving towards the Astral, the devotee hears the roaring sound of the breath when he becomes identified with the body, but listens to the Astral bells and music of the spheres when he approaches the Soul through the Astral Kingdom.
Stanza 12 specially describes those ugly vibrations of the senses (Kurus), which keep the devotee’s attention upon the internal physical body. These sounds, emanating from the vibrations of the senses, are shrill and disturbing like the cow horns, tabors, and kettle drums.
Tatah swataihairyukta mahati shyandana sthitou Madhabah Pandabaschaiba dibbou shankhou pradathmatuh. Tatah (after then); swataihai (with milk-white steeds); yukta (yoked); mahati shyandana (in the grand chariot); sthitou (seated); Madhabah (Krishna); cha Pandaba (and Arjuna); dibbou (celestial); shankhou (conch shells); pradathmatuh (blew splendidly).
Then, also, Madhabah and Pandabah, seated in their grand chariot, pulled by white stallions, blew their celestial conch shells splendidly.
The 14th Stanza describes how the devotee’s consciousness (Arjuna) in meditation beholds itself seated in the chariot of Intuition with the Soul Force (Madhaba) vibrating different conch-like Cosmic sounds.
In meditation, behold the chariot of Intuition, drawn by stallions of white lights racing in all directions from a dark blue center (Soul’s abode).
Madhabah (Ma, Lakshmi, or Primordial Nature.) Dhaba (Husband, or Krishna—the spiritual blue telescopic eye through which Christ Consciousness can be perceived).
Surrounding this blue light is the luminous white or golden light, the telescopic Astral Eye through which all Nature is perceived.
The 12th and 13th Stanzas describe the gross vibrations emanating form the senses, and Stanzas 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 describe the spiritual experiences and vibrations emanating from the Soul and the Astral Kingdom. The gross vibrations are heard when the Soul is still on the plane of the consciousness of the inner body with its heart beats, and so forth. The Astral vibrations are heard when the Soul goes beyond the sounds of the inner physical body. The spiritual Astral Vibrations, which are heard by the Soul in its journey through the Astral, are described in the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Stanzas. These spiritual sounds will be described in the next issue.
By Commodore David Mackay
IT WAS just the title of a song coming over the radio that gave birth to the idea which created the thoughts, and to which meditation furnished the wings by which they may be carried into the consciousness of others whose Paradise has gone awry.
Paradise symbolizes happiness or heaven, and heaven’s first law is harmony of opposite polarities in corresponding vibrations under the rule of love and brotherhood, or influence of Venus, and when we speak of Venus, you must understand that we do not simply mean that focal center away off in space that appears as a star to our physical eyes in the firmament of heaven; that is merely an optical illusion. Venus, like radio, knows no space; like prosperity, it is just around the corner, or more correctly, it is ever-present and available WHEN we harmonize our scattered forces and manifest polarity in our own little universes.
Let this truth possess you: that God is the whole, the All, whose great existence surpasseth the grandest thoughts of men or gods—that He is omnipresent. So all the planets of our Solar System are, in like manner, parts of a perfect harmonious Whole. They are interpenetrated by each other, even as the juice of an orange interpenetrates the pulp or envelops the seed within the pulp, or the germ within the seed.
According to the Ancient Wisdom, as interpreted by the Sages of India, we are now in the third century of the Bronze Age of an ascending Dwapara Yuga. Bronze is ruled by Venus. This item of knowledge signifies much of interest to the deep student of mysticism.
The fact that our planet, after aeons and ages of wanderings far afield through dark and dismal swamps in the underworld of dense matter, has returned once more into the light and benign influence of Universal Love, to arise into a new vibration under the mistress of the Electric Age, should bring abounding joy to the consciousness of all faithful watchers upon the Towers of Light within the Temple Court. Yea, verily, it should, and for this specific reason: It was in the realm of Venus, where Eden’s bowers bloomed and Paradise prevailed in love and brotherhood, that the tragedy of the Ages—the Fall—took place. From Venus we fell, to Venus we must arise.
The trouble in Paradise originated because of the Creator’s gift of free-will to man. Man chose to break the Law of Polarity and scattered the Life Forces, through which he became buried in the grave of matter and compassed with sorrow and suffering. Whirling in chaos, and not knowing just what had caused the trouble or the reason for the suffering, he finds himself alone and separated from his parts, subject to disintegration and death.
The fact of man’s free-will and liberty to choose his own line of action settles forever the question of personal responsibility and fixes it squarely where it belongs. Let no one presume to shift that burden from his shoulders in an effort to evade the responsibility or avoid the consequences, for in so doing he only delays his redemption and consigns himself to prolonged suffering in the prison-house of dense matter, to remain in isolation and in bondage to inharmonious chaotic forces for another prolonged cycle before conditions favorable to emancipation and the restoration of harmony again present themselves.
Nevertheless, notwithstanding that there is doubtless a vast multitude of indifferent Souls, who are lagging behind and missing the present great Cosmic urge towards expansion of consciousness and the gathering together and fusing of the scattered Life Forces in that harmonious equilibrium which Venus typifies, still there prevails a mighty movement toward Self Realization of that Paradise where Love will again be their ruler and Brotherhood their law—the lost ideal which timeless memory recalls from a dim and distant past, and toward which the Songs of God look through eyes which once were dull, seeing, as through a glass, darkly, the glories of Paradise restored under the same realm of Venus where it was lost, and they shout for joy in chorus with the song of the morning stars and sweet music of the spheres.
Just what does this restoration mean? It means a returning from chaos and a very circumscribed and limited human consciousness to Divine and infinite Cosmic Consciousness. It means an awakening from material coma, in the sleep of ignorance, like that which fell upon Adam, into a newness of life more abundant. Paradise departed and chaos came upon our race through yielding to the subtle serpent of physical sensation, which culminates in the scattering of the Life Force, which leads to disintegration and death. Thus was the delusion of physical birth and death ushered into the fallen depolarized state or lowered vibration of dense matter in Earth.
Periodically, as comes the Dawn of a new Cosmic Day, the opportunity presents itself through favorable conditions, when Adam and Eve may return to Paradise, and the fallen gods regain their lost estate. Such a time is the present Bronze Age, under the favorable influence of Venus, sponsor of Universal Brotherhood, and Goddess of Love.
The Master Minds of India, through the science of Yogoda, a scientific technique of salvation and a spiritual technique of Self Realization, teach that the DIVINE PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE is that the mates shall help each other to regain that lost Paradise, and not that they shall continue to DISSIPATE THE LIFE FORCE in the procreation of more bodies under the Fall.
Yogoda teaches the specific way and manner of OVERCOMING THE FLESH with its affections and lusts, in order that the physical and spiritual forces may be fused in harmonious polarity, whereby they may become CREATORS OF THEMSELVES and be verily born again, through regeneration, "not of the will of the flesh," but by the spiritual will of God in immortality—fully redeemed from sin, sickness, and death into Paradise regained.
Because we possess the power of Free Will, we little dream of our capacities and powers which lie latent within us. Only slight glimpses of phenomenal achievements in the realm of Earth reach our limited consciousness from time to time, but it has not entered into the heart of man to conceive of the heights of creative power to which the Spiritual Will of man may reach. Think on these things and secure wings for your thoughts in meditation.
Model Home
In the model homes section at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago there is exhibited a modernistic brick house which is planned to resist fire, storm, and earthquakes. It is a six-sided structure of three stories, with striking conveniences and attractiveness. It is brick inside and out, with painted interior brick walls, polished brick floors, unpainted brick ceilings, brick roof, brick stairs, and brick porches. In other words, it is a house of brick, reinforced with steel rods.
The house has a combined living and dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, bathroom, roof sundeck, entrance hall, and furnace room. The doors, windows, and door frames are metal, painted on the outside with silver liquid metal paint and on the inside with bronze. The windows open in sections. The inside screens roll up like a window shade. The first floor of the house comprises an entrance hall and a big room housing the furnace and air-conditioning units.
The combined living and dining room has walls of cool reddish brick, laid in a basket-weave pattern, and waxed terrazzo floors. The ceiling is coated with cream-colored asphalt paint. Adjacent to the fireplace are built-in brick book shelves. The kitchen has walls paneled with white, cloudy glass tile and a blue ceiling.
On the third floor are the bedrooms. The brick walls of one are painted in horizontal stripes of four shades of gray. The ceilings are grayish green and the floor is black. The second bedroom is the only room not having brick-finished walls. Instead, the walls and ceiling are covered with plaster board. The walls are bright blue and the ceiling is white. The green-and-white bathroom is paneled in glass tile.
Preparing for an era of all-metal homes, the Mellon Institute of Pittsburgh announces a new marble-surface steel. The marble effect is imitation, made by a laminated resin surface woven inseparably with the steel. Any other finish made with the new laminated resins can be added. In this manner steel can be either paper-coated or cloth-covered. It can also be made to imitate wood.
Decorative finishes already are applied to steel by other methods, the Institute announces, but this is the first process to make the surfaces such an integral part of steel. The adhesive is an alloy, such as tin or zinc, which fuses with both the steel and the covering. The process is a development of the felt-lined steel produced by the Institute about a year ago. By the new method, steel can be substituted for most of the layers of fabric or paper now required. Only a very thin layer of surface veneer is needed. It is attached by one pressing operation.
"A sheet of steel may be produced," the Institute further explains, "having designs ranging from any textile pattern through imitation marble, wood, and so forth. The steel with these decorative resin surfaces is a potential material for construction for wainscoting in hotels and office buildings, as well as a wall material for kitchens and bathrooms, and in other rooms when the steel house comes into common use. Doors and interior trim for buildings also may be made from this constructional material, as well as certain forms of steel furniture and novelties."
Health, Intellectual and Spiritual Recipes
ONIONS BAKED WITH CHEESE
Slice 2 pounds of white onions into thin rings, then cook in boiling salted water until tender. Put 4 slices of toast in the bottom of a baking dish. Arrange on them a layer of the onion rings, then a layer of grated or sifted American cheese. Repeat, using 4 slices of toast again, the rest of the onions, and the rest of the cheese. You will need for this recipe 1/4 pound of the cheese, and 8 slices of buttertoast. Grated cheese can now be bought in packages.
Beat 2 eggs slightly, add 2 cupfulls of milk, 1/2 teaspoonful of salt, and 1/8 teaspoonful of pepper. Pour this over the mixture in the dish. Dot with one tablespoonful of butter, and sprinkle with paprika if you wish. Bake in a moderate over (350 degrees F.,) for about 40 minutes. This will serve 8 persons.
Cook 2 tablespoonfuls of barley until tender. Chop one onion, 2 carrots, and 6 white potatoes, and add them to one can of tomatoes and one chopped red pepper. Cook for 2 hours, then add one chopped head of celery, one tablespoonful of oil, and salt to taste. Now add the cooked barley and put all the ingredients through a colender. Add one bay leaf 15 minutes before serving. Five minutes before serving add a little finely chopped parsley.
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Two cups Delicious apples (with peels left on), measured after grinding; 1/2 pint bottle Maraschino Cherries, juice included; 1/2 cup Pistachio Nuts. Send all through chopper then add cup sugar. Serve with whipped cream with a few ground pistachio nuts. Serve four.
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(Makes 2 Quarts)
1 pint cream
2 tall cans evaporated milk
1 pint whole milk
6 eggs
2 cups sugar (vary to taste)
1/2 lb. marshmallows, cut in quarters
Pinch salt
1 qt. strawberries crushed with a little sugar (more berries if desired)
Beat eggs, add sugar, milk, evaporated milk, and salt. Heat in double boiler until hot but not to boiling. Cool. Add crushed berries and cream. Freeze.
The cream may be whipped and added after the mixture begins to freeze.
HAPPINESS comes, not by helplessly wishing for it, but by dreaming, thinking, and living it in all the moods and actions of life. No matter what you are doing, keep the under-current of happiness, the secret river of joy, flowing beneath the sands of various thoughts and rocky soils of hard trials.
Some people smile most of the time, while beneath the mask of laughter they hide a sorrow-corroded heart. Such people slowly pine away beneath the shadows of meaningless smiles. There are other people who smile once in a while, and they may also be very serious at times, yet beneath the beautiful rocky appearance there may be gurgling a million fountains of laughing peace.
Learn to be secretly happy within your heart in spite of all circumstances, and say to yourself: "Happiness is the greatest Divine birthright—the buried treasure of my Soul. I have found that at last I shall secretly be rich beyond the dream of Kings."
After bathing yourself in the Ocean of Peace in the dreamland, as you awake with happiness, say: "In the sleepland I found myself free from mortal worries. I was a King of Peace. Now, as I work in the daytime and carry on my diurnal battles of duties, I will no longer be defeated by insurgent worries of the kingdom of wakefulness. I am a King of Peace in the sleepland, and I shall continue to be such a King in the land of wakefulness. As I come out of my Kingdom of Peace in the sleepland, I will spread that same peace in my land of wakeful dreams.
Lemuria and Atlantis—By Laurie Pratt (Tara Mata)
A STRIKING proof of the truth of the cyclic nature of man’s progress and decadence, and of the presence on this earth of high civilizations tens of thousands of years ago, has been offered during recent years by geological and archaeological evidence of the existence and culture of the sunken continents of Lemuria and Atlantis. Colonel James Churchward’s three scholarly books on Mu (Lemuria) point out that Lemuria was the "mother of the world" and that her civilization was vastly more ancient than that of Atlantis. The latter was colonized by emigrants from Lemuria.
Churchward advances many interesting reasons to support his belief that Lemurians brought their civilization to ancient Egypt, Greece and other parts of the world. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a sacred memorial to the Lemurian forefathers of the Egyptians who perished when Mu sank under the blue waters of the Pacific. Churchward translates the Egyptian hieroglyphic name of this book, Per-m-hru, as "Mu has gone forth from the day." The relation of the ancient Greeks to Mu is shown forth by the construction of the Greek alphabet which, as Churchward proves, "is composed of Cara-Maya vocables forming an epic that relates the destruction of Mu."
This theory, that colonists from Lemuria, and later from Atlantis, spread their civilization all over the ancient world, is not accepted by many scholars, but it must be admitted that it is the only explanation that satisfactorily accounts for the otherwise puzzling similarities to be found in the ancient architecture, art, language, religion, traditions and customs of widely separated lands, such as Central America and Mexico on one side of the world, and Egypt and Babylonia on the other.
The story of Atlantis is better known, because more recent, than that of Lemuria. The famous Republic of Plato was largely inspired by Greek traditions founded on memories of the great civilization of Atlantis, and in two other books, the Timaeus and Critias, Plato gives vivid descriptions of the lost continent and its people. Other ancient Greeks wrote about Atlantis a the "blessed," "happy" or "fortunate" land, the Edenic garden of the world in a long-past Golden Age, remote even to the Greeks of Plato’s time. Roman writers of the same period referred to the vast sea between Europe and America as Maris Atlantici, the Atlantic Ocean, thus indicating their belief that these waters covered the Atlantean continent.
The Atlanteans are described by Plato and others as having been in possession of marvelous scientific knowledge and power. Particularly notable was their conquest of space by the use of airplaines1 and through television. Churchward believes that the Lemurians and Atlanteans spread the knowledge of aerial travel over all the ancient world. He writes, in his fascinating book, The Children of Mu:
Ancient Knowledge of Airplanes
"These are the most detailed accounts I have found about the airships of the Hindus 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, except one which is a drawing and instructions for the construction of the airship and her machinery, power, engine, etc. The power is taken from the atmosphere in a very simple inexpensive manner. The engine is somewhat like our present-day turbine in that it works from one chamber into another until finally exhausted. When the engine is once started it never stops until turned off. It will continue on if allowed to do so until the bearings are worn out. These ships could keep circling around the earth without ever once coming down until the machinery wore out. The power is unlimited, or rather limited only by what metals will stand. I find various flights spoken of which according to our maps would run from 1000 to 3000 miles. All records relating to these airships distinctly state that they were self-moving, they propelled themselves; in other words, they generated their own power as they flew along. They were independent of all fuel. It seems to me, in the face of this, and with all our boasting, we are about 15,000 to 20,000 years behind the times . . . There are many Chinese records of about the same date regarding these ancient flying machines." It is noteworthy that recent excavations in Crete have brought to light records which mention Cretan airplanes.
Though Plato’s account of Atlantis met with slight credence from scientists up until recent times, the discoveries of Dr. Henry Schliemann, eminent archeologist, have placed the existence of that land beyond doubt. "When in 1873," writes Dr. Schliemann, "I made the excavation of the ruins of Troy at Hissarlik and discovered in the second city the famous treasures of Priam, I found among that treasure a peculiar bronze vase of great size . . . engraved in Phoenician hieroglyphics with a sentence which reads: ‘From the King Chronos of Atlantis’ . . . Among a collection of objects from Tiahaunaco, South America, is another vase identically the same as I found among the treasures of Priam."
The significance of the Phoenician hieroglyphics is explained by Professor Nicola Russo, in The Atlantis Quarterly: "The Phoenician alphabet, which is the first of all the European alphabets, is derived from the Atlantean alphabet, which was taught to the Maya of Central America . . . Atlantis was the home of the Aryan or indo-European, and of the semitic, not excluding the Turanian, peoples . . . The male and female divinities of the ancient Greeks, of the Phoenicians, of the Indians, and of the Scandinavians, were kings, queens and heroes of Atlantis, and the acts of heroism which mythology attributes to them are none other than a confused record of historical happenings . . . Atlantis perished in a terrible convulsion of nature, in which the entire island was submerged, with the loss of all the population. Those few who had time to escape from the general disaster on boats and on rafts carried the account of the event to the people who were in the East and West—a tradition that has come down to our days with the legend of the universal Deluge . . . That Atlantis before the time of Plato was known in sacred traditions and legends is proved by the fact that Homer and Hesiod were already acquainted with the legend of Atlas, condemned by Jove to bear the heavens on his shoulders. Herodotus also, in the fourth book of his History, mentions the Atlanteans, and Diodorus, in his Library of History, tells of the Atlanteans, a people more civilized than the people of these countries, and inhabiting a rich land containing many cities."
Lewis Spence, the learned scientist whose researches have thrown important light on the vanished civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria, points out that Suidas claimed that both Homer and Hesiod were Atlanteans. In the Homeric epics, the blind bard "sings of his country, the country of the gods, Atlantis".
The vases found by Schliemann establishes the fact that there was a King Chronos of Atlantis, and in this connection it is of interest to note that the ancient Greeks preserved traditions of their Golden Age, which they made coincident with the reign of a King Chronos, who may well have been the ruler over the Atlantean forefathers of the Greeks.
A group of survivors of the Atlantean cataclysm settled in northwest Africa, and were known as "Atlanteans" to Greek and Roman writers, who named the Atlas Mountains, in that region, in their honor—Atlas being the Latin singular form of Atlantes.
Scientists of the Carnegie Institution, recently excavating at Chichen Itza, in Yucatan, found, among the imposing ruins of the Pyramid of the Warriors, a Temple dedicated to the Atlanteans.
The Antilles group of islands in the West Indies, and the Azore and Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa, are believed by competent scholars to constitute veritable remnants of Atlantis, and to indicate roughly the extent of her western and eastern boundaries. All these island groups are situated on an ocean ridge which is subject to great earthquakes, and this region, according to Scott-Elliott, "has been the scene of volcanic disturbance on a gigantic scale, and that within a quite measurable period of geologic time."
An article in The Atlantis Quarterly for September, 1932, refers to a recent discovery by the archeologist, Nicolas de Ascanio, on Teneriffe, largest island of the Canaries, of vases and pottery "of exquisite proportions and workmanship. . . M. de Ascanio does not hesitate to assert that the pottery and mortar in question are, ‘with the exception of arms, the most ancient products of human industry actually known’. That we are here in the presence of remains of an advanced civilization that existed long before the present race of aboriginals inhabited the islands cannot be doubted. . . The conclusion that the beautiful examples of ceramic art under discussion are veritable relics of Atlantean craftsmanship is, we think, established, and constitutes one of the most remarkable corroborations of Plato’s history of Atlantis."
Professor Russo, in an article in the same issue of the magazine above referred to, stresses the importance of the results of a scientific expedition in the ship Meteor around the Azores. "The mythical island, which has been the object of so many studious investigations, according to the testimony of a recent German scientific expedition, must have been located where the Azores now lie, and the peaks of the Azores must be the tops of the mountains of the submerged Atlantis. . . The contour of the upper submarine plane of the Azores sounded by the ship Meteor is indicated to us exactly by the situation and the conformation of Atlantis, in accordance with what is left to us in their writings by Plato and the geographers of antiquity. This is the reason why the learned Germans maintain the submersion of Atlantis must be calculated as 9,500 years B.C., a period during which the earth penetrated into the mooned ray of action. Under the magnetic influence of this satellite, the waters of the ocean rose to the point of overwhelming Atlantis, so that only the tops of the highest mountains remained. The communications of these scholars come opportunely to throw light upon the darkness of so many mysteries that enwrap the Edenic Island, they serve as a link connecting Egypt and South America, and exhibit the similarities of the characteristics of their civilizations."
Lewis Spence believes that continental Atlantis was destroyed at the end of the Tertiary period (Miocene times), leaving two large islands. One of these, the largest, was the only Atlantis with which the ancient Greek and Roman writers were acquainted. Most of this island was finally submerged by a cataclysm of nature at a date which geological, historical and traditional evidence agrees on as about 9,500 B.C.
Plutarch tells us that Solon, the Athenian law-giver and ancestor of Plato, visited Egypt in 600 B.C., and that "Souchis, a priest of Sais, and Psenophis, a priest of Heliopolis, told him that 9000 years before, the relations of the Egyptians with the lands of the west had been interrupted because of the mud which had made the sea impassable after the destruction of Atlantis."
"When Atlantis was first submerged," Churchward writes, "she only went down deep enough to be awash at low tide so that at low tide mud banks appeared with masses of seaweed which made the northern Atlantic impassable to shipping." This was the real reason why the ancient Greeks never ventured to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar). Later on, Atlantis sank to her present depth, and ships could move freely over her burial place.
Some ancient writers refer to Atlantis as Poseidon. "An Egyptian papyrus states that Poseidon was the first king of Atlantis and that he was followed by a long line of Poseidons, thus forming a Poseidon Dynasty" (Churchward).
The Platonic story tells us that "Atlantis was the center of civilization and conquered the whole world." Dr. Schliemann makes the following observations on the connection of Egypt with Atlantis: "In the Museum at St. Petersburg, Russia, there is a papyrus roll, one of the oldest known. It was written in the reign of Pharaoh Sent of the Second Dynasty. The papyrus relates that ‘Pharaoh Sent sent out an expedition to the west in search of traces of the Land of Atlantis from whence, 3350 years before, the ancestors of the Egyptians arrived, carrying with themselves all of the wisdom of their native land. The expedition returned after five years with the report that they had found neither people nor objects which could give them a clue to the vanished land.’ Another papyrus in the same Museum by Manetho, the Egyptian priest-historian, gives a reference of a period of 13,900 years as the reign of the Sages of Atlantis. This papyrus places the height of the civilization of Atlantis at the very beginning of Egyptian history, approximately 16,000 years ago."
Spence tells us that the modern Basques who dwell in the Pyrenees "have not hesitated to announce themselves as the last branch of the Atlantean race—and perhaps not without reason, for it is within the bounds of probability that they are descended from the Cro-Magnon race which would seem to have reached Iberian soil from an oceanic area."
Brasseur de Bourbourg, a writer of the last century, traced the etymology of the word Atlantic in the following way: The words Atlas and Atlantic have no satisfactory etymology in any language known to Europe. They are not Greek, and cannot be referred to any known language of the Old World. But in the Nahu-atlan language (peculiar to the Toltec tribes of ancient Mexico) we find immediately the radical a, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top of the head. From this comes a series of words, such as atlan, or the border of or amid the water; from which we have the adjective Atlantic. . . A city named Atlan existed when the continent was discovered by Columbus, at the entrance of the Gulf of Uraha." Another city, existing today, with a similar name, is Mazatlan, on the west coast of Mexico. It is an interesting fact, mentioned by some of the early European voyagers to this country, that certain Indian tribes called the whole continent of America by the name of Atlanta. The Nahuatlan language, as its name implies, is similar to and derived from the Atlantean language, for the ancient Maya and Toltec civilizations, so similar in many ways to that of Egypt, were brought to Mexico and Yucatan from Atlantis, who in turn was a colony of Lemuria, "mother of the world."
The subject of Atlantis, her magnificent civilization and her dramatic end, has exercised a fascination for modern as well as ancient authors. Besides the scholarly works, published in the last fifty years, by such scientists as Ignatius Donally, Schliemann, Spence, Russo and Churchward, many imaginative novels have been written around Atlantis. "A Dweller on Two Planets" by Phylos, is stimulating reading. A romance, "L’Atlantide," by Benoit, has recently been produced in France as a motion picture. "The Coming Race" by Bulwer-Lytton, very popular with a previous generation, was based on Atlantean traditions. Recently two French writers have compiled a Bibliography of Atlantis, giving over 1700 references. "Societies for Atlantean Studies" now exist in France, Italy and other European lands.
Francis Bacon, "father of experimental philosophy," wrote a stirring book in the 17th century, outlining a great plan for the development of scientific learning which was to remold the institutions of the world on a fairer basis. The founding of the Royal Society of London in 1662 was a direct result of Lord Bacon’s inspiring work, which was named "The New Atlantis".
We are very pleased to announce that a regular Yogoda Program is being broadcast over radio station WCDA of New York City every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10:30 a.m. Dr. F. E. Yasah is in charge of this program. We would be pleased to have all our Yogoda students and friends tune in on this 15-minute program and send in their comment.
Alexander the Great said:
"To my father I am indebted for living—
To my Teacher for living well."
By Lord Bryce
Whoever claims a right for himself must respect the like right in another. Whoever wishes to assert his will as a member of a community must not only consent to obey the will of the community but bear his share in serving it. As he is to profit by the safety and prosperity the community provides, so he must seek its good and place his personal will at its disposal. Benefit and burden, power and responsibility, go together.
Tendered Swami Yogananda
Before Leaving
For Chicago World’s Fair
A farewell banquet was tendered Swami Yogananda at Mt. Washington, Sunday evening, August 20th.
Swami Yogananda’s many friends at the banquet were more than pleased with the splendid entertainment provided, including an extremely interesting talk by the Swami, himself.
The Swami left Tuesday, August 29th for the World’s Parliament of Religions now being held at the Chicago World’s Fair. He is the only accredited delegate of the Yogoda Religion from the United States at this World’s Fellowship of Faiths and has been scheduled to give several interesting talks during the coming month to this group.
During the course of the evening’s entertainment the audience was very delightfully entertained by Antonia Brico, prominent Symphony Orchestra conductor and two interesting motion pictures of India.
"the Meaning of Things"
Louis Van Norman
IF WE SEEK, with patience, throughout our lives, the good, the true, and the beautiful, we are told that we shall be able to realize God, for God is Goodness. He is Beauty. He is Truth. And of all these attributes, Truth is to us the most meaningful.
But just because He is the Supreme Truth, God is also the inner meaning of things, the reason for life, the explanation of the Cosmos. To find out God, we must study His universe, particularly its most intimate manifestation—our own Spirit, our own Ego, our own Soul. This means having the consciousness of God with us every day, every moment.
Laws, said some wise man, are not made. They are discovered. The orderly process in accordance with which what we call Nature carries out her plans and programs—in modern American terms, the business management of the cosmos—has always been a mystery, a miracle, if you will, to man until he has found out just how the "wheels go round." Then it ceases to be a miracle. When a so-called miracle has been explained, science claims it for her own. There is, in fact, nothing to which science lays such insistent claim as what might be called the "de-miracalized" fact—the discovered law.
All the progress of the race has been based on the discovery of law, in both the spiritual and the material worlds, and, with each advance, our conception of God has become more exalted, our understanding of the purpose of Divinity more clear. One by one miracles have been "disproven." This does not mean that they were not performed. It means that we have discovered the laws which made them possible. They have now become commonplace.
If anyone has told Solomon the Wise that some day mankind would rush over the land, soar into the air, skim the surface of the water and dive into its depths, heat, light, and cool his home, cook his meals, and listen to voices and musical sounds produced thousands of miles away by means of a force which even today we know only by its manifestations, he would—well, words are not adequate to describe his inability to find words to express what he thought.
Yet, the attributes and performances of electricity are today among the most widely accepted facts of science, of every-day experience. No one thinks of referring to electricity as a miracle. It is amazing how the labors of modern scientists are discrediting the old time materialism and restoring the dignity of a spiritual interpretation of the universe.
The real things are those we do not see with our physical eyes, or hear, or touch, or taste with our other physical organs, but which underlie these. The realities are the things of the Spirit. Only the other day an eminent psychologist of the ultra-modern school publicly admitted that Shakespeare was literally correct when he said: "We are such stuff as dreams are made of and our little life is rounded with a sleep." Between us and reality there stands an insurmountable barrier beyond which our human knowledge and consciousness may never pass. What we see, hear, touch, smell, taste, feel, think or know, are merely shadows, symbols of objects, not the object themselves—"such stuff as dreams are made of". Until we know God, we know nothing real. It is to attain to a knowledge of this reality that we strive and meditate.
All our lives we are met by man-made untruths, direct falsehoods, half-truths, distortions. Wise and happy indeed is he who can see clearly through this web of unreality to the reality beneath. Between plausible advertising, propaganda, social hypocrisy, and the results of crowd psychology, our lives are ever beset with the unreal.
The seeker after God is, first of all, a seeker after Truth. Seek the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free." "What is Truth?" asked Pilate. Jesus had said: "I am the Way the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the Father but by me." By this the Founder of the Christian faith did not mean to imply that he, the physical man, Jesus, was to be the sole gateway to God. He meant by "I," each man, each human being who in himself has the means to salvation. "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you."
Truth, said some truly wise man, lies at the bottom of the well, not on the glittering surface. It is so easy to accept as valid the appealing superficiality. But, if beauty is only skin-deep and goodness comes from the heart, then Truth is also to be found only after prayerful, often tearful, search. "Whatsoever the facts," said another wise man, "this is the Truth—the underlying Reality."
It is to discover, to realize this underlying Truth, that we devote our lives, and only insofar as we do realize it, will be happy. All human experience teaches that the more we learn about Reality, the happier we are, because the more we understand the workings of the laws of the universe, and act in accordance with them, the fewer mistakes we make, the less suffering we are called upon to endure, and the more fit we become to "survive comfortably in our environment." Nothing could be truer than the observation: "If you knock your head against a stone wall. your head, not the wall, will be hurt."
The denial of Reality to material things, which is so puzzling to non-spiritually minded folk, is expressed clearly and strongly by Swami Paramananda in his translation of the Bhagavad Gita. In Verse 16 of the Second Chapter the Blessed Lord Krishna says to Sanjaya: "There is no existence for the unreal, and the real can never be non-existent. The Seers of Truth know the nature and final ends of both." "True knowledge," said the Chinese sage, Confucius, "consists in knowing that we know and that we do not know that which we do not know." "The true life of mankind," said Tolstoy, "arises outside of space and time."
"Until we have seen, and associated with those who have seen, felt, and realized religion in their lives," says Swami Yogananda in his ‘Science of Religion,’ "we cannot fully know what it is and in what its universality and necessity lie. Everybody in the world is a seeker after Truth. The spirit of inquiry is in us all, but it is dulled, and the willingness to know the Truth is dampened because distractions are many, tendencies are, or grow to be, perverse, and monsters of the world are also numerous."
"Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you," says the Christian Scriptures. Seek to realize Truth. When we have realized Truth, we shall have seen God.
How wonderful the reward of the discipline which enables us finally to see the realities of life, the higher implications of existence.
"The lonely path in the lowland
Hath little of grand or new,
But a toilsome ascent
Leads on to a grand and glorious view.
Peopled and warm is the valley,
Lonely and chill the height,
But the peak
That is nearer the storm-cloud
Is nearer the stars of light."
By Br. Nerode
DO you ever pause to think that this world is a Paradise made of the molten heart of God to give joy to those who have the capacity to enjoy the blessings of Life?
Do you know that this world is the vision and dream of God woven out of His Infinite Love?
Have you yet discovered that this world is the Garden of Brahma, where He has sown the Divine Seed to grow, and that you are that Divine Seed?
Do you ever dream that in you God has hidden the essence of His Beauty, Joy, Life, Activity, and Truth in the expectation that your Self Realization will abundantly enrich the world and your growth will profusely scatter the happy fragrance of His fulfilled hope?
Hide not your face behind the dark clouds of Despair. Break asunder the thick darkness of the tearful night and emerge as a shooting ray from the beaming bosom of His Divine Flame.
Above you is Light, below you is Light; around you is Light. Eternity around, Eternity above, Eternity below.
Behind you spread the golden smiles of Day. In front of you stretches the glory of another dawn.
Traveler, fear not: march on from the joy of one day to the laughter of another dawn.
Remember how the twilight sings of Hope in the songs of the birds; roses breathe of Hope in the breath of perfume; rainbows smile of Hope in the dance of colors; the earth trembles the joy of Hope in the greenness of the grass.
So, let your heart dance the dance of Hope in the rhythm of Light and the shade of the Eternal Life.
By Mildred Kyle
AGES ago, when the world was young, and the Sons of God sang together for joy in their working, the King and Queen of the Light Spaces sent their youngest Son on a long journey into the realms of that dark and sorrowful planet, called Earth, that he might seek out and win for himself a rare gem, said to be possessed of mystical powers, and to be found only in the treasure house of matter.
The Queen Mother made for Her Son a garment of Light, and she wove it out of substance drawn from the power house of Eternal Radiance. In its weaving was secreted the name of the Father and the Mother, so that the Son would never forget that he was the child of a King and a Queen. Its Radiance would prove to be a lamp unto his feet and would guide him through the dark and devious paths of matter.
The Son set out on his journey with all the joy of thoughtless youth, full of confidence in his own powers, and with the thrill of adventure, such as is felt by a youth when leaving the parental shelter for the first time, in order to try his wings in newer, even though lesser, worlds. He had heard vague rumors of dark secrets held by the Spirits of Earth; of mighty dragons that devoured all those who approached too near their habitation.
Of all these things the Son had heard, and had been warned to beware of the powers of darkness and the Soul-destroying demons that lay in wait for the unwary, but he only laughed at the thought of danger. Was he not the child of the Infinite Light Spaces—his Father the King, and his Mother the Queen? Did he not have the protecting power of the Light Robe woven for him by his Mother, which made him invulnerable? And so, filled with joyous confidence, the Son fearlessly entered the realm of matter for new and greater adventures.
Now, the rulers of matter heard that a child of the Light Spaces was approaching their Kingdom, and so they called together the workmen and said to them: "Workmen and Builders, listen to what we say. The King and Queen of the Light Spaces are sending their Son to our Kingdom that he may take from us the gem that is secreted in the treasure house of matter—the gem, which, if taken away, would rob us of our power and cause our Kingdom to fall to pieces. The King’s Son is very young and very ignorant of the laws of matter, but he is filled with all the arrogance of youth and thoughts of power, for he is protected by the Robe of Radiance woven for him by his Mother, the Queen, that he might be protected from harm and to make of him an immortal. Now, listen to our commands, ye workmen and builders. Build ye a temple that will hold him fast, fashion the rooftree so that he cannot look upward into the Light Spaces, but must look outward into the dimmer light of Earth. Take ye from him his Light Power, and rob him, if ye can, of his boasted immortality."
Then the workmen and the builders went forth and erected a house for the abode of the Son. With five windows they fashioned it, each window giving a different vision. From one window he could see objects of earth, from another he could feel the objects of earth, from another he could hear the sounds, from another he could taste the flavor of things, and from still another he could smell the odors of Earth. He had no understanding of the meaning of all the things these five windows revealed to him, so he became bewildered and confused and lost his perspective, until he no longer knew the real from the unreal.
The Spirits of the Earth made friends with the Son and welcomed him to their feasts. They brewed the Spirit of the Earth from the grain and the vine and gave him to drink. They killed their flocks and gave him to eat. In gladness, they drank, and ate, and laughed together until the Son forgot he was the child of a King and a Queen. He forgot his mission to recover the gem, forgot the secret embroidered in his robe by the Queen Mother, and spent all his substance in riotous living, until his Light Power was gone and his high vision was lost, and only the dim light of Earth remained for his guidance.
Then the Spirits of Earth mocked the Son, and said: "Oh, Child of Light, where are your vaunted powers? Where is your Father? Where is your Mother? Why came you among us?"
The Son had no answer to their questioning. He had forgotten his Father and Mother, and could no longer remember why he had come, nor from whence. Therefore he was dumb before his tormenters. He sat in desolation, like an orphan lost in a strange land, like a bird from heaven caught and caged in matter. He was cheerless and songless, for the music had gone out of him and the Rhythm of Life was lost.
One day a Messenger form the Light Spaces passed through the realms of matter and saw the Son sitting in darkness, and heard him weeping aloud and saying: "I am lost in a wilderness and know not which way to go. The darkness overwhelms me. I am filled with fears of the unknown. I feel within me a power I cannot name, a hope I cannot define, but I am told that this hope is another of the great delusions of this badly tangled world." Thus moaned the Son in his sadness, and then became silent.
Then, in a voice that was softer than silence, the Messenger from the Light Spaces whispered and said: "Oh, Son of Light, know you not that you are the child of a King and a Queen, that by your Mother, the Queen you were given the Light Robe by which you were to become invulnerable and immortal? In that Robe was woven the secret name of the Most High. the Name, rightly uttered, will summon to your aid the Rulers of the Light Spaces, be they at the end of the Universe. Awake, Oh Son, from the slumber of forgetfulness imposed upon you by the Spirits of Earth. Awake! Sleep no more."
Then the Son awoke and remembered. Again he knew that he was the child of a King, sent to earth on an important mission, which was as yet unfulfilled. He turned his face to the Light and uttered the Secret Name, which was taken up by the music of the Spheres and was carried to the very Heart of Infinite Love.
As the Rulers of the Light Spaces listened, they heard the Son cry to them and say: "Oh Light, I cry to Thee from the darkness. It has swallowed me up, and the terror of death is upon me. Send me Thy Light Power to deliver me from this world of chaos. I remember the King, my Father, and the Queen, my Mother, but I have lost the Light Robe given me by the Queen, my Mother, and I am no longer worthy to be called their Son. Let me return, I pray Thee, to be a servant in the household of my Father and my Mother."
The King of the Light Spaces hearkened to the cry of his Son, and sent his Messenger, with all speed, to give him aid and show him the way home. Then, said the Messenger to the Son: "Oh Son, where is the Light Power that was given thee at the beginning of thy journey?"
And the Son replied: "The Rulers of matter, under whose domination I have sojourned, have stolen from me my Light Power. My strength they have taken away, and they have robbed me of my inheritance. I am lost, indeed."
"Arise," commanded the Messenger of Light, "and put forth they strength. Regain the Light Power that was to be a pillar of fire for thee during the long night of thy journey through matter. When thou canst hold it against the forces of darkness, more Light shall be given thee, for to him who retaineth his Light, more Light shall be given."
Then the Son began the search for his lost Light. He turned his gaze within his temple and saw that the creative fires which men call sex had taken his Light Power, and he said: "Oh Fire, you have taken from me my Light Power; give it to me again."
The Creative Fire replied: "What is lost, is lost. All my substance has been wasted in the down-flowing stream that passed through thy temple, but I, who am ever creating the new, can re-create thy Light Power. I will show thee the way. Hold me ever sacred within thy temple. Turn not the essence of my Being to water which flows outward in the down-going channel. Then, in thy temple, within its holy of holies, I shall re-create thy Light."
The Son put forth his energies to retain the creative fire within his temple. He checked the down-flowing stream and held it as a sacred trust within his own temple. Then, the creative fire performed the mystery of its Being, and behold, a new Light shone within him, bringing a power and inspiration hitherto unknown to him. With this new power surging through him, he turned again to the Light Spaces.
"Oh, Infinite Father and Mother, I have regained the Light Power I had lost, but the forces of matter still hold me; I feel their hot breath still pursuing me. Save me from their folly. I am Thy child; forsake me not, but let me return to Thee."
Again the Messenger of Light stood beside him. "Son, that which thou has regained is but a fragment of the Light with which thou wert first endowed. The Light Power was lost in many streams. Gather all the broken fragments within thyself, then thou shalt become immortal."
The Son began anew his search for his lost Light. He looked outward and around, and saw that in his long sojourn through matter he had gathered to himself many possessions — lands, gold, silver, and precious stones. These things the Son had hugged tightly to his bosom, saying: "They are mine. I love them. I own them. No one can take them from me." He had placed them under lock and key, to hold them more securely from all other Souls.
With the new Light shining within him, he looked into his possessions and saw in them the shining of his own Light Power. "Oh, Possessions," said the Son, "I have loved you as well as possessed you and yet you have robbed me of my Light Power. Give it back to me."
"We did not steal your Light Power," answered the Spirit of Possession. "You invested us with it when you put into us the love of your heart. We became your treasures by the value which you placed upon Earth. We are bound to each other as long as you hold us to yourself against all other Souls. Release us from your desire and your Light Power will return to you."
Then the Son renounced all desire possessions which might not be held by all Souls equally. The Light Power thus released from many possessions came streaming back to him, entered into his Being and merged with the already glowing Light stream, which then shone forth with greater beauty and splendor in the inner depths of his heart. Made strong by this new power, the Son again turned his face toward the region of Light.
"Oh Thou Eternal Radiance," he cried, "see, I have regained my Light Power from worldly things. Give me, I pray Thee, of Thy greater Light, that I may enter into the Kingdom of my Father."
"I cannot see thy Light," answered the Lord. "It is hidden under a darkened reflector. Make clean thy Lamp, so that all may see the Light shining within thee."
Looking within his temple, he saw that the Light was indeed shining dimly, so that the world saw it not. He cried aloud to the workers within the temple, and said to them: "Why do you obscure the Light shining within me? Clear away the shadows so that my lamp may be made clean."
"We cannot create a better body temple with the food you send to us for the building," the workers replied. "We are only the builders. Whether the walls of your temple transmit the Light within, or whether they shut it out from the beholder’s eyes. depends upon the materials you give to us for the structure."
"You have slaughtered God’s younger children, and sent their flesh and blood to be built into the structure of your temple. Their cries of pain were worked into your own flesh and blood, resulting in discord and hatred. You lusted for the taste of blood; the burning of flesh was an incense to your nostrils. The transmitter of the inner Light must not be built of the cast-off and decaying materials of other bodies. If you would have a perfect Lamp, send us the finest of materials, in their pures essence, taken from the storehouse of Nature.
"You have taken the grain from the field, and distilled from it Soul-destroying intoxicants with which to delight the palate, but they have destroyed your vision, diminished your Light Power, and made you a prisoner in your temple. For the sake of sensation you have inhaled perfidious fumes from poisonous weeds, until all the workmen in your temple are in a state of semi-slumber and can no longer build on rhythmic lines. Blame us not, Oh Son, that the temple obscures your Light. Blame yourself, that you have not heeded the law of the building."
Then the Son took thought to the building of a strong, beautiful structure. He learned to have compassion. He harmed no living creature, but left the herds to wander unharmed through the flower-girt valleys of Earth. No more did he crush the grain and pervert its natural use. He took his food, unspoiled, from Nature’s lavish hand. When eating and drinking, he remembered the Giver of Earth’s bounteous store. Thus his temple began to grow in harmony and strength, reflecting beauty and purity in the outer form, while within it shone forth a radiant Light. Again the Son turned toward the Light Spaces.
"Now is my temple purified and made clean. My Light is no longer hidden, but shines clear, that all may see. Permit me now to enter into Thy Being and become one with Thee."
From the Great Light came a voice, saying: "Oh, Son, you cannot yet enter into rest; much work is still to be done. Look about you and see."
Again the Son turned his gaze outward into the world, and with the new power of vision he beheld a host of Souls struggling in the net of bondage. All were seeking the Light. They were walking in the wilderness and chaos of matter, following paths that lead nowhere. They had missed their way home, and like lost children they wept in the darkness and loneliness.
Seeing their struggles, he took pity on them. He forgot his own quest, and ran to their aid, lifting them from the pit into which they had fallen, and set them on the path and pointed them to the Light. The sick were healed, the blind were made to see, and the discouraged and hopeless were given loving comfort.
At last, the Son, weary with his labor, looked to the heights for more strength to carry on. Behold! The radiance of his Light Robe shone out into the great Spaces, for while he had lost himself in sharing with others, he had found the secret gem, and had become a King of Light in His Father’s Realm.
A Being in shining raiment stood beside him, saying: "Thou art indeed great in Thy Father’s sight, for thou has found Wisdom, the jewel which none can take away throughout the reaches of the Universes. Thy labors on Earth are ended. Go no more into the realms of matter. That which was begun in thee is finished."
Speaks before
The World Fellowship of Faiths
At Chicago World’s Fair
HIS Highness Maharaja Gaekwar of Baroda, India, the most progressive Ruler of India, author and philanthropist, delivered the opening address of the World Fellowship of Faiths, a second Parliament of Religions, on Sunday, August 27, at 8 p.m. The welcoming address was delivered by Mayor Edward J. Kelly, and Hon. George W. Dixon presided as Honorary Chairman of the Chicago Committee of Two Hundred.
Practically without invitation, approximately one hundred and twenty-five of the most devoted Yogoda student delegates were included in the capacity crowd congregated at the World Fellowship of Faiths to hear Swami Yogananda deliver an impressive talk on "REALIZING WORLD UNITY THROUGH THE ART OF LIVING." The Swami’s lecture was interrupted by thunderous applause many times, and the congregation felt the fire of God’s vibration in his message.
Brahmacharee Jotin, leader of Yogoda Center at Washington, D.C., is especially responsible for urging the Swami to join the Congress and Swami Yogananda thanks him for the unique experience of meeting many students who had come from distant places and the joy of meeting many people of various religions in the World Fellowship of Faiths meetings.
Among the inspirational lecturers were Miss Muriel Lester who gave a very fine talk on "Mahatma Gandhi", and Dr. Edward Howard Griggs who delivered a most interesting message on "A Philosophy of Life for the Present Age."
The Swami held a private class which consisted of many prominent citizens of Chicago at the Morrison Hotel Ball Room. Commencing September 27, he is to lecture in Indianapolis, and will sincerely appreciate it if students will write their truth-seeking friends in that city to watch the papers for his coming lectures.
By S. Y.
WHEN you watch the latest perfected moving pictures, you realize how life-like the electric shadows seem. In a revival of an old picture I once saw the great and noble Lincoln shot and killed. I wept. My heart ached and I was sorry that I had witnessed such a cruel act and I couldn’t understand why such a wonderful and innocent man like Lincoln should be slain. I sighed to myself: "Lincoln is dead, gone forever, never to come back again." My heart ached and I was very sad. I felt like a rebel against the cruelty of God and Nature.
Then it occurred to me that I could stay there and wait for the picture of Lincoln to start all over again. The picture came after a couple of short reels, and when I saw Lincoln born anew and growing on the screen, I was very happy, and in joy I said: "Oh, I have seen Lincoln born again after he was killed and dead forever, as no man hath seen, and now I don’t want to see him dead again." Then I left the picture house.
Some day, likewise, when you come to realize that this universe is nothing but a series of comedies and tragedies shown by the Cosmic Operator on the screen of time and consciousness, you will weep no more for your lost loved ones, whose life films have flickered on the screen of experience in this Cosmic Movie House. Maybe, if you become quite familiar with the Cosmic Operator by meeting Him in Silence, He will repeat before your consciousness the specific true-to-sight, true-to-meaning, true-to-touch talkies which you long to see with all your lost loved actors in them.
God shelves old films of life and seldom shows them over unless some devotee, through deep desire, appeals to Him to see those old familiar films again on the screen of his consciousness. The Master Operator constantly throws on the screen of consciousness the pictures of new Soul actors, or of old Soul actors, dressed in new garments of flesh in a surrounding of constantly changing backgrounds of past and present environments. The great Story Writer revamps His old tales and repeats them on the screen of history.
In the situations I encounter today I recognize characters that were once shown to me in different forms and settings. Now they are all old and familiar to me and a voice says: "The newest surprise that each one is to get at the end of the trail of all desires, is to discover that he was always a Son of God and that he had only forgotten it while wandering through the maze of earthly desire and experience."