Word has just come from Swami Hirananda, in charge of the Bankura branch of the Ranchi school in India, that Mahatma Gandhi, world-famous and beloved spiritual-political leader of India's millions, has recently paid a visit to the school and has blessed the students there. The Mahatma showed great interest in the educational work of Swami Yogananda in India and America.
What to Read
1. Bible. One verse daily—try to feel it.
2. "Song Celestial." Edwin Arnold's translation of the Hindu Bible, Bhagavad Gita.
3. Passages from Shakespeare.
Definitions
1. Spirit—Unmanifested Absolute.
2. Soul—Individualized Spirit.
3. Ego or self—The pseudo-soul.
e.g.—A prince forsook his palace and lived so long in a slum that he forgot his original state. The prince may be compared to the Soul, and his false thought of himself as being poor, as the Ego. The Soul in itself, being the image of God, is blessed, but when it identifies itself with the body as the Ego, it considers itself limited by its conditions and environment, and is thus un-free and miserable.
4. Swami—Title of one who belongs to the Order of Renunciation and Service ...founded in the 7th century A. D. by Lord Shankara, one of the greatest spiritual teachers in India's history. The title of "Swami" can only be bestowed on a disciple by one who is himself a Swami, tracing his title from Shankara's time. A Swami is required to consider himself beyond caste, creed and dogma, identifying himself with the whole human family.
Every morning at seven o'clock, Swami Yogananda sends a Divine Healing Prayer Vibration to his students and all who ask his help in healing and liberating themselves from physical or mental disease or the spiritual suffering of ignorance. Anyone who wishes to avail himself of this help ...which Swami is happy to extend to all, may write to the Los Angeles Headquarters and briefly state the nature of his or her trouble.
Burbanks Testimony
Santa Rosa, Calif. December 22, l924.
I have examined the Yogoda system of Swami Yogananda and in my opinion it is ideal for training and harmonizing man's physical, mental and spiritual natures. Swami's aim is to establish "How to Live" schools throughout the world, wherein education will not confine itself to intellectual development alone, but also training of the body, will and feelings.
Through the Yogoda system of physical, mental and spiritual unfoldment by simple and scientific methods of concentration and meditation, most of the complex problems of life may be solved, and peace and good-will come upon earth.
The Swami's idea of right education is plain common-sense, free from all mysticism or non-practicality, otherwise it would not have my approval. Such schools have been established in India, also Centers in Los Angeles, Boston, New York and other Western and Eastern cities, and have aroused tremendous enthusiasm among leading Americans in this country.
I am glad to have this opportunity of heartily joining with the Swami in his appeal for international schools on the art of living, which, if established, will come as near to bringing the millennium as anything with which I am acquainted.
(Signed) LUTHER BURBANK