How is your meditation apply going?

“How’s your meditation apply going?” I used to be requested this query by a devotee one morning after Sunday service at Ananda Sangha Delhi. I used to be 19 years outdated. I had solely not too long ago learn the Autobiography of a Yogi and located Ananda Sangha to be taught Kriya Yoga as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda.

My Struggles with Habits & Self-Management

I replied to the query with a pinch of embarrassment. “My apply goes positive however I’ve this foolish behavior of binge-watching films. I do know it’s dangerous however typically I can’t keep away from it. It’s an enormous distraction and is affecting my meditation.”

My fellow devotee consoled me and suggested me to not fear. “Watching a film now and again is actually okay. Furthermore, adverse habits will fall away on their very own after a while,” she added.

It was past my understanding how a behavior might simply fall away by itself! But, that’s precisely what occurred. That behavior simply began to wither away. Patterns of habits that appeared compelling to me have been now not engaging. I used to be amazed!

I had been curious about widespread self-help books since my teenagers. Each e-book I learn pressured the significance of willpower and self-control to beat private limitations. Naturally, I believed I needed to wage a warfare in opposition to my decrease tendencies and I at all times felt like a lone warrior surrounded by enemies with out ample weaponry.

Kriya Yoga: My Inside Transformation

Now, for the primary time, I felt that I wasn’t combating alone. Similar to Arjuna had Krishna as his charioteer within the Bhagavad Gita, I had a Greater Energy serving to me to rise above limitations. It opened my eyes to the facility of Divine Grace.

These experiences have been intensified after I obtained Kriya Yoga initiation. My apply modified me (and continues to take action) from inside. Earlier than, I used to be making an attempt to repair myself from the surface and now, Kriya is fixing me from the within. I had beforehand struggled to interrupt freed from sure adverse habits with out a lot success however with common Kriya apply, these habits dropped like ripened fruit from a tree.

Tales of Lives Modified by Grace

I’m not the one one who has had such experiences. Many meditators and kriyabans (those that apply Kriya Yoga) discover that their lives are fully modified to the purpose the place they hardly acknowledge their previous selves in any respect! A big a part of this interior transformation is the victory over self-limiting needs and tendencies.

Paramhansa Yogananda had a pupil who had a dramatic expertise alongside these strains. He was an alcoholic. His habit however, he was decided to be taught and apply Kriya Yoga – however with just a little twist. Since he couldn’t go away whiskey alone, he would do his kriyas with a drink in a single hand and his rudraksha beads within the different. This went on for fairly some time, till sooner or later he now not wanted that bottle anymore. He grew to become a religious alcoholic and God’s bliss was the one intoxicant he wanted.

God doesn’t thoughts your faults, He minds your indifference!

We would really feel spiritually discouraged, confronted with the myriad faults and tendencies we have now but to beat, however heed these phrases of Paramhansa Yogananda:

God doesn’t thoughts your faults, He minds your indifference!

We don’t want to fret about all the issues we have to transcend and neither ought to we really feel responsible about previous unhealthy actions. As a substitute, we will deal with this stuff – loving God and bringing His mild into our lives via meditation and proper religious residing.

I as soon as heard a narrative a few disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. He had a pernicious behavior of consuming massive quantities of ice cream. He knew it was not good for him and wished to beat it. But, as with all different behavior, the urge to eat ice cream was overwhelming.

However the disciple got here up with an excellent concept – the following time he had the urge, he would go forward and get the ice cream however maintain the picture of his Guru proper in entrance of him. Then he would benefit from the ice cream whereas taking a look at his Guru — and whereas the Guru was taking a look at him! As you may think about, this didn’t go on for a really very long time.

After a couple of rounds of this experiment, the ice cream appeared to lose its tempting energy. What was earlier so engaging, now appeared just a little foolish. Thus, he was in a position to break away from the maintain that the behavior had on him.

Making an attempt to Show My Worthiness

In my efforts to enhance, I’ve usually been deluded to suppose that I’ve to make myself worthy of God’s love and charm. I’ve discovered that God’s grace is ever-present to assist us rise above delusion. After we open to His grace by doing our religious practices and being in tune with the Guru, we cooperate with that Divine Energy.

Turning into Receptive to the Divine Inside

Finally, I found that no progress is feasible with out God’s grace and that His grace just isn’t reserved just for a selected few. We want solely to open the curtains if we would like the daylight of His grace in our lives. As soon as God’s mild enters our consciousness, all darkness is banished endlessly.

You can’t drive sin out of the thoughts any greater than you may beat darkness out of a room with a stick. By focus on delusion, certainly, you might solely improve its maintain in your thoughts. Deliver within the mild of God, nonetheless, via deep meditation and devotion, and the darkness will vanish as if it had by no means been.  -Paramhansa Yogananda

Could all of us be ever extra receptive to His shining presence in each second, and in each atom of creation.