The Cross and The Lotus Journal · 2020. 3. 2. · in Seattle in 1972 [Bible Reading is Thessalonians, Ch. 2, Verses 1-17] This coming week is the beginning of Holy Week. It is one

The Cross and The

Lotus Journal

March, 2020 ~ Vol. 21 No. 1

Dedicated to the Realization of God and Service to Him in All Forms

Mother with Easter Lilies

The cross and lotus symbolizes the unity between East and West. The lotus is the sign of illumined consciousness, the thousand petal lotus of the crown chakra. The cross is the symbol of the body surrendered to the will of God. Following the way of the cross results in the resurrection of illumined consciousness.

The Cross and the Lotus, symbol of man. East and West blended, join hand in hand.

Marching toward the infinite light and life divine. Lift up your eyes and see the star,

descending from heaven where e’er you are. Be filled with the peace and ecstasy of God’s almighty love.

Aum-Amen.

– The Reverend Yogacharya Mother Hamilton

The Cross and The Lotus Journal is published by

The Cross and The Lotus Publishing U.S.A.

Website: www.crossandlotus.com

E-mail: [email protected]

© 2020 The Cross and The Lotus Publishing is dedicated to the publication of materials that promote God-realization. Our spiritual lineage begins with Jesus Christ and Babaji and flows down to us through Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramhansa Yogananda, Yogacharya Mother Hamilton and Reverend Yogacharya David Hickenbottom. The three ordained ministers, Rev. Larry Koler, Rev. Jill Hough and Rev. Peter Schultz continue this work with the help and support of many sincere devotees.

Mother Hamilton often said she was the product of two fully illumined Masters, her own Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, and Swami Ramdas. We therefore feature articles about Swami Ramdas and Anandashram in addition to our lineage. We are dedicated to realizing God and serving devotees of every race, color, creed and religion. We bow to the feet of Saints and realized Masters of all religions.

The Cross and The Lotus Journal Page 3

March 2000: This is the first publication of The Cross and The Lotus Journal. Its purpose is to provide inspiration and infor-mation for the spiritual devotee. Our plan is to make this a quar-terly journal that will contain uplifting articles, quotes and timely information. We plan to have it available by internet and snail mail as well as through center leaders.

It has been one year now since my return from India. What a wonderful privilege it was to travel that land, to meet some of its great saints, to visit places of pilgrimage that I have so long heard of and admired. To become imbued with the spirit of that land is to draw closer to that Spiritual Presence that pervades all time and space. I feel greatly blessed by that Spirit and have striven to share what I have received with all of you.

Since my return I have begun The Cross and The Lotus Pub-lishing. Its purpose is to publish Mother’s works and to respond to Swami Satchidananda’s request to me to be the distributor of Anandashram books in North America. Also, I have published My Spiritual India,* a personal account of my pilgrimage to In-dia in 1998 to 1999. Many have said this account has been an inspiration for them. This is my greatest wish. There are more publishing works ahead….

An Anniversary How wonderfully God guides us and He is full of surprises! In

doing some Cross and Lotus filing we came across the very first journal. Now, maybe David would have been aware of this (and maybe it was he who found it for us), but we did not know that this edition marks the 20th anniversary of The Cross and The Lo-tus Journal! Below is an excerpt of David’s first Dear Friends:

[*This was the first printing of “Book 1” of My Spiritual India, now included in the recently released book by the same title—editors.]

Page 4 The Cross and The Lotus Journal

The Human Ego Sits in the Temple of God An Excerpt from a Talk given by

The Reverend Mother, Yogacharya M. Hamilton

in Seattle in 1972

[Bible Reading is Thessalonians, Ch. 2, Verses 1-17]

This coming week is the beginning of Holy Week. It is one of the very special weeks throughout all of the year. It is that week which should be spent in fasting, in prayer, in penance and meditation. The reason for this is that it is in commemoration for what Jesus, the son of man, endured as he went the way of the cross, the 14 stations of his own cross.

This chapter tells us tonight that there must come a falling away first, that that wicked one must first be revealed, who sits on the throne of God telling himself that he is God. And that one is the human ego, and that one must fall away before the Christ within you can be made manifest.

This ego-consciousness is so large that before we come to the spiritual realization of who and what we are it takes over our whole being, our whole life. It manifests itself as separate from God. It thinks that it does all things, thinks all things, and speaks all things. It is a thing apart, the great little “I” that everybody is so engrossed with. And yet everyone must, at some time or


another, come to this point where they are willing to walk that last mile and go through the stations of their own cross, or the planes of consciousness within themselves, in order that they might become one with the Divine within themselves.

Total Surrender to His Will

This is certainly not an easy task, but we could make it easier for ourselves if we will accept all that God sends to us every moment as coming from Him, and give ourselves in total surrender to His will alone. These are the two requirements that are absolutely necessary if we are to attain our goal. And there is only one goal in this whole universe and that is the realization of our oneness with that Eternal Being who is the very Self of everything that we see in all space, in all of the various planets and universes.

Everywhere God is equally present. There is none other but He. But we don’t realize that in the beginning and we occupy our minds with worldly things, with worldly pleasures, until we become so steeped and so engrossed in those things that we forget completely and totally the fact that we are in truth He Himself, come to this earth in human form to do His will, to serve Him in all of humanity, to lift up our consciousness and to become one with that Light of the world.

A Week of Holy Preparation

…It is a tremendous week, a beautiful week, a week in holy preparation for the experience which is to come: the death of this “man of perdition” which we make so much about. We mourn the fact that Jesus, the son of man, died on his cross. And yet, when we stop to think about it, this is an absolute necessity, and he himself said so when he said, Father, if it be Thy will, take this cup from my lips. But it was but for this hour that I came. He knew that in order to realize totally his divinity with God, that this human ego had to be crucified or transformed. And the transfiguration had to take place upon his own cross; that there was no other way, and so he set himself to do whatever was necessary. And he knew what was going to happen to him. And in the Bible he is made to tell his disciples to go into Jerusalem and let them know of his coming. And they strewed palms in front of him. And to this day that strewing of palms is celebrated, and we have Palm Sunday as a result of it.


This whole week is for that preparation. But, you see, it actually takes more than a week. This week has been set aside, but it takes years sometimes in preparing the soul for this tremendous experience. Because when that time comes, you see, your whole being, your whole body is going to be filled with the light of God. But before that can happen to you, you must release your consciousness from the three bodily jars in which it is held a prisoner.

Pranayama Purifies the Consciousness

…Did you ever stop to think how great you can become in God, how shining your eyes, how shining your face, how purified you will be if you can learn to control your breath? This doesn’t mean to hold it in your body, to do anything injurious to yourself, but to learn to watch it, to be fully conscious while you watch this breath come in and go out. It takes time, certainly, but you can start with a few minutes every single day of your life, and the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. And gradually you will see the change within yourself because it not only purifies your consciousness, but it purifies your whole being—every part of it.

You see, we are constantly faced with this venous blood which is within us—the carbon in our systems—and it is this that causes us a great deal of difficulty. And through the watching and control of the breath, gradually your whole person is purified. The oxygen you take in becomes very rarified and you will find that your heartbeat slows down and finally ceases altogether. This doesn’t mean that you lose consciousness, but rather that your consciousness is absorbed in God. And you watch this breath coming and going.

Now, “It’s a difficult thing,” you say. “How can you watch your breath?” But when I say the word “watch,” I mean to be conscious of the fact that you are breathing because every moment of your life you are breathing; your heart is beating. Every part of your body is functioning, and yet you are not fully conscious of that. You are only conscious of this little ‘I’, this one who sits on the throne, telling himself he is God: “I do this. I am that. I think this. I say this,” or “I have done, or said, or thought all of these things”—the consciousness of how great the little ‘I’ is all of the time.


Seeing the Thousand-Petaled Lotus of the Brain

All of a sudden, when you start doing this new technique, you become conscious of a function within your body that happens without any conscious volition of your own, and you realize that inside of this tremendous vehicle there is going on so much that you are not aware of consciously, and that it is this Life, this Power, this Spirit within yourself that makes you move and live and breathe and have your being—that all of these workings are there, and if you will consciously follow this line of thought, all of a sudden your whole being is indrawn. And many there are who have been given the vision and the workings of the inner body. They have seen the lungs and how they pump. They’ve seen the various organs, how they move. They have seen the blood, running like a stream through the veins. They have seen the function of the heart.

And then there are those that have gone so far that all of a sudden they are drawn out of the body, and they stand over it, still attached to it by the silver chord which holds the life force in the body, that there they are. And this is covered very thoroughly in the first chapter of Revelation where, when you do this, you see the thousand-petaled lotus of the brain. But it looks like electrical filaments—like hair, like wool; like wool, you see—and the great light. And then gradually, as the grosser vibrations of the body go down toward the feet, it is like grass. And you see this. You stand over it.

Symbolism of the Two-Edged Sword and the Two Thieves

As I’ve told you, thousands of years before Christianity ever came into being as such, the Indian people had the knowledge of the cross and its meaning, and they made the sign of the cross up here—the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost—although they didn’t say these words.

These two eyes are the two thieves on your spiritual cross, and when you are able, consciously, to leave your body and stand over it, you see this direct light that goes from the medulla straight through to the Christ Center. This is the “two-edged sword,” the positive and negative electrical currents. And then you see this cross, which is up here—the light, the two thieves on the spiritual cross—because what these two eyes see is not the reality of God. It is only the reflection of it.


Crucifixion of the Qualities of the Mind

This is a tremendous thing, you see, and yet the whole Christian world concentrates on the physical crucifixion, the crucifixion of the gross ego, and they fail to take it into the higher realm of the spirit because even the ten subtle qualities of the mind must be completely crucified and transformed, because they are subtle. And in these qualities of the mind is still seated all of the memories of the pleasures of the senses.

If you will only practice the things which you have been taught—if you would learn to get up in the morning and direct your first thought to God and give Him thanks for the blessing of this new day, and prepare yourself to go into it armed with His power, His intelligence, His wisdom, His everything, and above all His love; and ask Him to guide you and direct you, and then surrender yourself to Him for that day, I am sure that at the end of that day when you stop again to commune with Him, having looked over your day—if you started and lived in that way, you will find a very different day than you do now.

This is all in preparation for this Holy Week which is to come, and this crucifixion or transformation of the human into the Divine within yourself. You can make it difficult and do it all at one time, or you can repeat the name of God and you can meditate on Him and you can pray to Him, and you can make it easier for yourself.

Love for Love’s Sake Alone

You can live the life. You could open your mind and your heart. Freely you receive, so freely you should give—of everything you are, of everything you have in this world because it is all of God’s. We have the use of it, but we are not the owners of it in truth. He is the sole possessor, originator, sustainer of every single thing there is, and yet we clutch all of our possessions, all of the objects, the forms which we are so attached to, to our very bosom, and we refuse to let them go. But when this moment of total surrender comes and that love fills your being—when you love for love’s sake alone, not for anything that you will get out of it, but for love, for the sake of love—and you build and fashion everything that you do as you would for your Beloved, it is then you truly know what life is all about. Because, you see, you are not really able to serve the


world until you come to this point of consciousness, when that falling away comes first, because there must be the transitional period.

You Suffer because of Attachment

You must transcend the humanness within yourself. And that is the time of suffering because—this suffering is brought about because you still have this tremendous attachment, this idea of possession within yourself. And regardless of what it is for, even the things within your own body and your comfort—and you want your body to feel comfort—you don’t want it to go through the pain that is perhaps necessary for you to go through in order that you might reach this state of Divinity. And yet this pain, this suffering, is a blessed experience because, as it says, it purifies! And in that purification comes the consciousness of the oneness with God. There comes that union with the Infinite Beloved that is beyond all human expression.

All of these things are necessary. And so this week is set apart in order that you might know and commemorate this time which happens within every man when he has reached that point in his development where he is ready to surrender himself at the feet of God—to crucify his own human ego and to transform it into the Divine.

We Hold on to our Burdens

You know, many times we pack burdens on our shoulders, and we do this because we are afraid to face whatever is necessary in order to rid ourselves of these burdens. We carry them. We pack them. And we cry out to God and to man for help, and yet we will not relinquish them. We look every place but to the Father, and we have only to lift our eyes. He knows of our suffering. It is not His will that we suffer, He who has only good for us, but because we have been so steeped in this ego-consciousness for so many incarnations and centuries, it is necessary that these things be broken away, even as barnacles from a ship. You have to take the pickaxe, and you have to chip them off.

You know, we are so anxious to accumulate money and possessions. We are so anxious to make sure that we have money in the bank for a rainy day or for anything that we want, to fulfill our needs. But do we ever think of putting anything in the bank of God? That is the greatest treasury of the world, and if we store


up treasure in the heaven of our own being, that is something that will never disappear. War or famines or earthquakes or any tragedy that you could think of—floods—will never dispel it because these are the greatest riches that anyone can have, and these riches are eternal.

Prepare Ourselves for Easter Sunday

…Let us make this coming week a week truly to count. Let us think about the Lord. Let us think about his passion. And that passion is the experience which he went through as he went the way of his own cross. It is the suffering that he endured, the various experiences which came from it. Let us dwell on those things, and let us dwell on the reason for it. And let us lift our consciousness up, and let us do penance and perhaps a little fasting, and much prayer and much meditation.

Is one week of all of the year too much to ask, that we dwell in the consciousness of the Lord, when He gives us everything we are and everything we have? I don’t think so. Let us prepare ourselves for this Easter Sunday. Let us remember about Good Friday. And let us meditate and ask ourselves: “Why is it called Good Friday?” when we as Christians are taught that it was such a terrible time of mourning, and we feel so badly about what happened.

The Truth will be Revealed

You know, if you will go within yourselves, and take some of these things that are given to us in all of the scriptures of the world and meditate on them, the truth will be revealed to you. They will no longer be just stories or parables. All of a sudden you will know that everything that’s in there is the truth that is within your own being, within your own consciousness. And if you persist in that, one day you too, like the Christ, having gone through the crucifixion, can say: I and my Father are one. Blessed Spirit I am He.

This little separate self must die. Then we shall find that we are in the Real, and that Reality is God, and He is our own true nature, and He is always in us and with us. Let us live in Him and stand in Him. It is the only joyful state of existence. Life on the plane of the Spirit is the only life, and let us all try to attain to this realization. – Swami Vivekananda


Free Will: Two Versions, One Truth Swami Ramdas: When man is not independent he cannot be

said to have any free will. Free will means individual will. When he considers that he is exercising his will, it is, in fact, the Divine Will that is acting through him. So man has no free will. What he thinks is free will is not free will. In everyday life when a man engages himself in some work or the other, he thinks he is so engaged on his own initiative and makes a decision. But some-times he meets with obstacles. He struggles and finds himself unable to carry it out. There comes a clash between his will and another’s will. He is disappointed and suffers. But, if he knows that the will he is exercising is the Divine Will and takes the op-position also as Divine Will, that is self-surrender. Here there will be no clash. If he undertook the work at the behest of the Divine Will and if the Divine frustrated it, he won’t be affected thereby. He would say, ‘God’s will be done’, and keep calm.

Mother Hamilton: The last time I was in India I had the priv-ilege of visiting a very great jivan mukta…He undertook to give me in capsule form a complete review of Advaitism which means a belief only in the oneness of God…God is everywhere equally present, and there is no duality whatsoever. So then he went on to say that man thought that he had free will, but in truth he did not. He came with every thought, word and action planned for him ahead of time. I disagreed with him heartily, and I told him so. So, we discussed the thing back and forth and back and forth, and he became very adamant about it. I knew that I had free will—that I could choose to be good or I could choose to be evil. So I went inside of myself finally, and I said to God, “God, you must help me out of this. Now, I know this is right. I know the truth! You’ve got to bail me out here.” So, finally He gave me the thing to ask him, and I said, “Swamiji, may I ask you a ques-tion?” “Ah, yes, yes!” he said. I said, “You believe only in the oneness of God. There is no duality any place in the world. Is that correct?” “Yes.” I said, “Does God have free will?” “Well, of course, God has free will!” I said, “Well, if there’s only one, and God is it, and He has free will, and we are He, then why do we not have free will?” So he looked at me, and his eyes got big-ger, and finally he looked at his disciples, and he pointed out for them, “The only thing that’s wrong with her is that she thinks too fast for me in English.”


[David refers to Yogananda’s article, “God is Light and Joy.”]

Master’s and Mother’s Goals

What a tremendous God-man Master [Yogananda] was, and how complete he was. When you read his writings, he incorpo-rates science, philosophy and the heart of a bhakti all in one lov-able package. And he came to really help this world and to change this whole western environment that we were in. He saw the promise, as Sri Yukteswar did, that East could help West, and West could help East; that in the East, you see the great spir-itual science and longing. It’s not that the West has been com-pletely devoid of it, but it has lost touch with its Christian roots, its true Christian roots.

Mother came to teach original Christianity. There’s so much more to Christ’s teachings than the simple maxim of “Have faith. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior and you will be saved.” …There is so much more to the story, but we have to be given the means, the tools by which to seek that out.

And that’s why Master came. He came with the goal, clearly articulated: God and His kingdom are within you, said the Christ.

Ever New Joy An Excerpt from a Talk given by

Reverend Yogacharya David Hickenbottom

on Camano Island on January 13, 2019


Master echoed that, and reinforced it, and said it’s absolutely true. And then he demonstrated it in his own life. In his wonder-ful Autobiography of a Yogi, he talks about his meetings with so many different saints. He shows what is possible.

God Manifesting Individually

Now, not all saints manifested in the same way. Master Maha-saya, who he thought the world of…he was such a loving indi-vidual, and so humble, and he had one kind of personality. And then he came to meet Sri Yukteswar, and Sri Yukteswar had such a different personality and demonstrated God in different ways. There are many, many ways that God may manifest through humankind because He made each one of us individual-ly, and through that individualism He expresses Himself.

There’s something that is the same. When I met Mother, I rec-ognized God inside of her. I recognized the power, the intelli-gence, the upliftment that all came with Mother. And then I met Swami Satchidananda, and he also had great uplifting power, great purity, great focus upon God and gurus; and yet, his out-ward expression was so very different. And through these differ-ences, it helps us to know that we don’t have to imitate how somebody else is. We really have to step into our true Self and become our true Selves.

This is the great secret. You are not to become somebody else. When you explore and know God more intimately, you truly be-come yourself. You feel that “this is who I have always been.” And as a result of that, you feel more and more comfortable in your own skin. As Master said, you don’t have to be “out to prove something”—in fact, if you are, you’re not God-realized. You are here to fulfill God’s will for you. And as Mother said, and Master intimated in these writings here, that at some point you get to this purity of consciousness.

God’s Will for Us

When Mother went to God and she said, “What is your will for me?” and God replied back to her in a very interesting way, and He said, “Your will is my will”—now, that’s not something we’re used to hearing. And it comes about at a certain stage of development of consciousness that your will is so focused on doing God’s will that even when you feel that it is your will, it is God’s will being expressed through you.


Now, in one sense this is a very dangerous teaching because the ego gets a hold of that and says, “Well! So, whatever I think is God’s will.” And this is a test, of course. This is not the truth of what’s being spoken about. It comes as a spontaneous experi-ence, that you feel yourself merged into God, and God merged into you.

Attunement to Truth

Now, we have examples of those who have claimed that they are speaking as God and doing as God, and yet clearly the fruit that comes from that tree does not have the sweetness of God connected to it, does not have the purity of God with it; there-fore, it is premised on a lie. But this should not discourage us.

It’s a terrible thing when those who follow faithfully another and that one is not what they said they would be or what they are. That’s a terrible thing. And when you read the life and the teachings of Jesus, you see that he really withheld his judgement from so many, but who he really leveled were those who claimed to be representing the temple and the true teachings of Judaism and yet they didn’t have any idea of what the truth was, because if they did, when they heard Jesus’ voice, when they heard the truth that he taught, the vibration that went with it, they would have instantly recognized: “This is God speaking through this individual.”

We can do that when we’re reading through books about saints and about various individuals and there’s something that is au-thentic about when they speak. It resonates with that place of truth inside of you. I remember Mother having tremendous diffi-culty with one individual who’s considered a great saint in India, and she considered him her opposing force. And when I was at Anandashram, I checked out one of his books. I didn’t know much about him and so I checked out one of his books, and I tried to read it. And all the words looked like they were supposed to look. He was talking about the things he was supposed to be talking about, but it had no spiritual power behind it. It sounded flat.

And if you have a musical instrument, and it may have the ca-pacity to play the right notes, and yet it doesn’t because it’s not properly tuned. So when we read the words of great spiritual masters it’s one of the things that, as we tune to our own guru


lineage and those teachers that Mother talked about that she felt were fully realized, it increases our attunement to truth. We get something like a tuning fork inside of us that begins to vibrate with it. And when there’s something that’s off, something that’s not quite right, then we instantly identify that.

Get Grounded in the Teachings

And that’s the great value of getting very grounded in our own teachings. It’s not that truth is not present in others, but that we should attune ourselves to the point where we can recognize when something is at the right pitch and when it’s off.

…You know, Sri Yukteswar was taking Master through the scriptures and they would take one sentence, one paragraph at a time. And the great Master, Sri Yukteswar, would have Yoga-nanda concentrate and meditate, and the small group around him. You know, Sri Yukteswar didn’t have hundreds or thousands who were all surrounding him. He had a few. And so, he would instruct them to meditate upon this truth that they had been read-ing in the scriptures, or listening to. And they would spend a day, and two days, and then a week, and then two weeks, and three weeks on a single phrase. And Master would be eyeing this up and he’d be thinking, “We’ll never get through these scriptures! I’ll never get all of the Master’s wisdom.”

You see, he was thinking like that. But Sri Yukteswar had something bigger in mind. He had bigger game. And so, he was out to focus the attention on the inward attunement so that when Yogananda said something from his realization, Sri Yukteswar would be able to identify it. “Aha! That’s it. That’s the truth.… Okay. Now we can move on.”

And they only got a short way through the Bhagavad Gita, and then Sri Yukteswar turned to Master and he said, “All right. You now have the tools where you can read these scriptures and delve into the truth that’s in them,” because he recognized that Master was consistently starting to go to that deeper level and under-stand not just the principles, not just the mentality behind it, but the intuitive truth.

When Master was interpreting Jesus’ sayings and his life, and he was meditating one night, Jesus appeared to him. And in this vision he saw a cup, a chalice, pass between Jesus’ lips and go to his own, and Jesus said, “We have drunk from the same cup.”


Isn’t that beautiful! Isn’t that beautiful. And that’s what all true spiritual masters want for those who God gives to them, that they should drink from the same cup—not the cup of personali-ty, not the cup of individualism, but the cup of God; that they should taste that truth, that bliss, that joy, that upliftment, that light, the everything that is of God. It is so beautiful and so per-fect. It is so far beyond what we can even imagine when we start this journey.

Not Miracles, but Ever New Joy

You know, in some ways realizing God is less than what you thought, in the sense that we have some mistaken notions about it. We think, as Master thought, Oh, well, when I have God-realization I’ll be able to do all of these miracles everybody else has been able to do, that I’ve read about, that I’ve seen with my own eyes, and so on. And when Sri Yukteswar and he shared in the bliss of God and then Sri Yukteswar said, “All right. You are now realizing God,” he hadn’t attained the fullest, highest state, but he was well on the way.

And Master thought about it, and he thought about this role of miracles. And he didn’t seem to be manifesting anything more than any other time, and so he doubted that. And Sri Yukteswar said, “God-realization is not the ability to manifest miracles. There are those who can manifest miracles and do not know God. There are those who know God and do not manifest mira-cles. God-realization is ever new joy.”

Think of that. Think how close to home that is, how deeply personal and part of your own experience of your Self, that joy should bubble up from the depths of your being.

I can tell you from my own experience that God is ever new joy. And I wondered one time—I remember that I was walking down the street and it was a boulevard; it had trees planted in the center and it was a beautiful day, and I was experiencing so much of God’s bliss and I wondered—it was just one of those passing thoughts that goes through your mind at times, but I wondered: Will this grow old?

…You know, one of the natures of addictions is you have this tremendous hit of a “high” to start with. And then, in the nature of addictions, that high, because it’s stimulating a certain part of the brain, it can’t be sustained. And so, it starts to dissipate and


so you use more and more of the drug in order to get the same amount of high, and you can’t ever really do it.

But with God, it’s totally different. You get that hit of bliss and then it deepens, it broadens, it expands. It only gets better! And it’s ever new. And there’s something about it that is the same, that you identify it; you say, “Okay, that’s bliss. I know that.” And yet, it’s like an orchestral piece that is constantly changing its rhythm and its mood, and it’s up and it’s expansive. And then it moves in a different direction. And it’s always uplifting, it’s always beautiful. And you become a connoisseur of bliss, all the variance that comes to you. And yet, it all comes under the same category of bliss.…We imagine all kinds of things that would constitute our bliss, but in a worldly, material kind of mind; and yet, having any one of those things for even a short amount of time, it would begin to dissipate. But with God, it only deepens, it only grows; it only becomes fuller, more complete.

God goes to Work

…Yearn for that! Master talked about a time in life when he yearned for it. And he just felt that God was so far away. And yet, the yearning was so great inside of him. And it’s torture when you go through that. But it is the emptying out and the cleaning of the cup inside. And it is necessary that we do so, not because God is being mean to us or trying to torture us or any-thing else. It is because we have accumulated all of this “not-God stuff” that is inside of us. And it’s cluttered us, it’s caked to us, it’s encrusted upon us, and it keeps us from realizing our oneness with God.

And so, God goes to work. He takes us at our word when we say this is what we want, and He begins to chip away. And as He chips away, it can be painful. But if we have patience, if we have endurance, if we have a tenacity of desire for God—and most of all, if grace is actively working inside of us—then nothing else will do. There is nowhere else for us to go. This must be what happens. And if this doesn’t happen, then nothing else matters.

And even happiness…things may come and things may go, but God alone is real. He is the Joy, He is the Bliss, He is the Every-thingness, and He is your true Self, even now, if you would but realize it.

[Master’s Mahasamadhi is on March 7; Sri Yukteswar’s on March 9]


Minister’s Message [Featuring the thoughts & inspirations of one of our three ministers]

A Master of Calm and Peace, Chandra Swami

By Reverend Larry Koler

Through the guidance of our beloved friend, Swami Chitswaroopananda, Cate and I had a chance to meet a great saint—and one that I never had known about be-fore. I learned that David had wanted to visit this great God-man during his planned trip for last fall. It was this that drew me most strongly to the idea and the desire to visit Chandra Swami Udasin during our trip to Rishikesh. I wanted to perform any little service to David’s memory.

Sadhana Kendra Ashram (sadhanakendra.org is the source for the four photos here) is a very special place and I hope that many of you have a chance to visit sometime. This great master, Chan-dra Swami, has created a very peaceful haven that is permeated with the intentionality and designs of this saint. The place is charged with a calm and peace which flows from the ground there and is felt through your body and your brain.

I was so distracted by the feelings of the place and the build-ing we were first led to that I was not paying attention to any-thing that was being said. I assumed we were being given a tour and so when we were asked to as-cend a stair-case to a bal-cony area (see top of next page) for a daily meet-ing I was sur-prised to see all the people there. They had been so Sadhana Kendra Ashram along the Yamuna River

http://www.sadhanakendra.org/


very quiet. When the door first opened onto the balcony I had the distinct feeling of being very warmly embraced by the large fam-ily of Swamiji’s disciples. This is all due, I’m sure, to the train-ing and practice of people who follow a truly realized master and one who is teaching people the art of meditation. These were meditators and the result is this calm. And right after we were seated, we had the great spiritual benefit of getting our personal vision of Chandra Swami as he entered the room, and the sun of divinity that beamed from his face and presence spread through the space, providing even more warmth. Shakti.

A while later we were invited to enjoy the benefits of the med-itation hall that has been charged with the vibrations of meditat-ing souls and blessed by the presence of a great master, a great

teacher. Up-on entering the hall, one at once real-izes that the place is de-signed for this purpose and it is the easiest place in the world to meditate.


Happy Mother’s Day The gift of motherhood is one of the most beautiful of all of

God’s blessings. How great a privilege it is for a mother to be able to hold her child in her arms, this precious part of God which He has formed out of His own substance. It is the bene-diction of the holy sacrament of marriage and the harvest of the love which brought it into being. How fulfilling it is to care for it, to weave dreams for its future, to guide and direct it in the highest way possible. It is not what she receives in return that is important to her; the joy to her is in the giving. It is her self-less love which fashions not only the destiny of the child, but the world in which it lives.

The child acts also as the teacher. Through the experiences of life which it brings to her, she learns patience, understand-ing and wisdom. Patience develops self-control and self-mastery. Understanding touches the heart and broadens the consciousness, while wisdom brings the knowledge of truth that each soul comes with its own destiny to fulfill, and must be given that privilege.

It is the hopes and the dreams, the sorrows and the disap-pointments, the trials and tribulations, and the great joys of hu-man motherhood which can finally bring the seeking soul en-lightenment, and to that moment of realization where she sees all as her own. Having attained this universal vision, still she remains the child and the servant of God who alone is the Be-loved Mother of us all.

– Mother Hamilton

Your mother may not show her affection outwardly, yet she is and always remains your real mother. Even though you may want to put God the Mother aside, she will not leave you. Are you not Her offspring? Keep in mind that everything is under Her dispensation; She provides for each the right thing at the right time in the right way. Yes, certainly, it is to be welcomed if the desire for the Real awakens. A mother is she who has the capacity to know precisely and measure out to her child exact-ly what he needs. It is because she knows how to make allow-ances for her child’s mistakes, how to forgive, that she is called mother. – Anandamayi Ma


A Dream of Mother Hamilton By Rebecca Harvey

My first introduction to the teachings of Mother came from my late husband, John, who was her disciple during the 1970s. But it was meeting Yogacharya David in 2013 which kin-dled my ardent attraction for her, and insatiable need to know her. Although I did not meet Mother in person, her influence has been the guiding force in my life. I simply cannot imagine where I would be today without her Grace. The night of Dec. 28, 2016, a great blessing came in the form of a dream of Mother. The fol-lowing is what I remembered and wrote down upon waking:

Waiting by the exit door of the busy Shop N Save grocery store of my hometown at Christmastime, I watched the crowded checkout stands. Suddenly, there was Mother! She had paid for her groceries and was walking past the checkout. When I looked at her, I saw she was radiant. Luminous. Almost blinding in her purity, power and light. She was all in white, in a robe of stiff, satiny material that swished when she walked. She was smiling, fun, lighthearted, and also sharp, powerful, keen, wise. She saw everything (that God wanted her to see). She was like an angel, like a queen in her bearing. She was lit from within and glowing, yet the aspect she wore was so normal. Other people did not no-tice or recognize her, but the whole place was full of joy and peace in her presence.

She walked quickly and purposefully. I bounded to her side and trotted along next to her as she left the store. She began talk-ing jovially about “what a time she had” in finding the items she had been shopping for. Although she was speaking about some-thing so ordinary, there was deep meaning and instruction in it for me.

We left the store together and walked across to a parking space—the second car from the end. I then realized I had come along as her helper and had driven her to the grocery store so she could get something to bring for a party or a potluck we were on our way to.

Mother was not tall, not outwardly a big woman at all, but my God, she was Radiant! I felt as ordinary next to her as a peanut beside an orchid in bloom—or a diamond or a star. But I was one of her children, and she enjoyed me, loved me, and taught me. She was so beautiful and so powerful. Jai Mother!


Experiences with a God-Man

Opening to Joy

By Judy Ellis

Ever since beloved Davidji left the body in Mahasamadhi, I’ve been grieving. Every day, tears have fallen. My heart has ached inconsolably as cherished memories have flooded my thoughts, each one flavored with that Unconditional Love only a true Mas-ter can shower upon his or her devo-tee. Of course I’ve known—intellectually, that is—that my most beloved Teacher is now free of all physical pain, that he is released from that “heavy lead overcoat,” the body, and that now his radiance shines ever more brightly and his power to help all suffering humanity is now unlim-ited. But each time I’d surrender this

grief, laying it all at my Lord’s feet, soon afterwards I’d take it right back again, even admitting that at times what I’d felt had shades of a “pity-me-party” to it. Then, only a few days ago in fact, Divine Grace created an opening within me, and with it, fertile ground in which to plant the seed of awareness that this grief has been blocking God’s joy-filled Presence from entering in.

Mother once told the story of the soul who, upon entering the Pearly Gates, couldn’t help but notice an enormous room filled with packages, all addressed to people on earth. Upon enquiring, this soul found out that these gifts could not be delivered. Why? Because the people had kept all of their doors and windows closed. They were not yet open to receiving all that God had in store for them. Now, through Grace alone, I am choosing to keep my doors and windows open. Through Grace alone, I will re-member to identify myself with the Projectionist in the booth, rather than that which He is playfully projecting onto the screen of duality.

Aum Sri Ram Jai Ram. Victory to God in all the Masters!


Incredible India By Steve Fisher

Larry and Cate had encouraged me, on several occasions, to take the time to visit India and Anandashram. I always consid-ered that I didn’t feel the need to go because if God is equally present everywhere, why should I take a murderous 20-hour plane ride to a country I have never visited in order to find God? Is God more equally present in India? Miraculously, the answer seems to be a resounding yes. The long history and culture of India is infused with the Spirit of our Father God. One cannot be there and not feel it.

There are two specific and warm memories that particularly stand out during the month I spent in India. The first was after being at the ashram for a few days. I took some time to climb the mountain behind the ashram to visit the temple honoring Hanu-man. On the return trip, there was a little brown dog coming up the road toward me. As we met, I squatted down to see if he would shake hands which, to my surprise, he did. We then parted ways in opposite directions, but when we were about 50 yards apart we both turned and looked at each other just before he sauntered off into some woods. Two nights later, I spotted my little friend sitting among a crowd of devotees at the ashram after dinner. I made my way through the crowd and stood in front of him to say hello, at which point he immediately held up his paw to shake hands with me. No one can ever convince me that it wasn’t God greeting me directly through my new little friend.

The second very fond memory occurred the night before leav-ing the ashram. I was summoned by Shruti (one of Swami Muk-tananda’s assistants) to a private audience with Swamiji. I had no idea this was coming, so was quite surprised. I nervously asked Shruti, “What shall I say to him?” “Just be honest,” Shruti said with a smile. Swamiji was sitting on the veranda outside his quarters as we approached. He motioned me to sit and immedi-ately said in a somewhat stern voice, “What is it?” I thought “Whoa, what am I supposed to say to that?” I told him that I had somewhat felt like a fraud being here because I couldn’t embrace partaking in the 7 days of chanting Ram Nam. I told him I had come here to spend time in deep, quiet meditation with God. I then had to admit that maybe my timing was a little off consider-


ing the rather loud and celebratory nature of why nearly 500 souls were here in the first place, to commemorate Swami Satchidananda’s Centenary. We both had a good laugh at that.

I went on to tell him it was my nature to seek God in quiet and soli-tude, so I could listen to the actual sound of Om and chanting of Ram Nam within.

He gave me a wonder-ful affirmation by

saying, “Perfect.” I explained to him that although I have abso-lute respect for him and all gurus teaching people about the na-ture and need for God in their lives, God is my one and only Guru. He just looked at me and said, “Correct.” By this time my heart was melting and I couldn’t help but ask if I could give him a hug. He said ‘yes’ with a big smile and I can only say it was like heaven to be in his embrace. I will never forget.

Above: Backwater Boat trip:

L-R,Bk: Sw. Chitswaroopananda, Peter, Mira, Rebecca, Travis, Lois, Greg, Steve, Babu

L-R Front: Michelle, Shruti, Cate, Jill, Larry

Photo Right: L-R Back: Swamis Chandrananda & Muktananda

Mar, Rebecca, Mira, Lois

See Mira’s article next page.


I think you would like the Ashram… By Mira Castle

The 48 hours of air travel are worth it. Exhaustion takes leave and a thrill fills my being. We have arrived into the welcoming arms of Anandashram.

At dinner at Loon Lake the previous fall, David suggests I would enjoy the ashram. I had not considered traveling to India. I inquire about the wildlife, the likelihood of seeing tigers, and the potential to surf and SCUBA dive. Ever patient with this rajasic sadhaka, David shares some of his adventures there, including an elephant ride and tiger darshan, but that Indians are not known for venturing into the ocean. Again, he suggests I would enjoy the ashram. A discussion ensues at our table on ashram daily life. Another assurance by Davidji of how I would enjoy the ashram; hint taking root. I ask if he will go. Yes, he says, in November 2019. If you are going, Gurudev, I will go also.

Come August, 2019 my mind is reeling and heart heavy. My thoughts of the ashram trip make no sense anymore. Nothing does for a while. But I am convinced by my India companion and guide, Rebecca, that the trip should go on.

And so we’ve arrived here by taxi: seamlessly navigated a highway where center lines are a mere suggestion, cattle stroll with honking cars, lorries, and motorized rickshaws, and whole families zip by on mopeds, baby on the gas tank, father steering with one hand, texting with the other, and mother riding side-saddle on the back, burka flying in the wind, no helmet in sight. This is India! For the first time in my life I am in a whole com-munity focused on God alone, surrounded by a country where God’s name is chanted, praised, displayed on buildings, taxis, homes, and handbags. And here, at the Abode of Bliss, God’s name is even now reverberating in the tropical trees and flowers, vibrating from building walls, and resonating in all hearts as teams of devotees send forth Ramnam in 2-hour shifts around the clock. I learn this is not the norm. We have arrived amidst the centenary anniversary celebration of Swami Satchidananda’s birth. There are throngs of devotees and special events each day.

The only reason for my journey is not here, but as we enter un-der the arch proclaiming victory to God, something says he is all around, his heart permeating the very grounds, mandir walls,


Centenary Hall, and especially the office space where he sat at the feet of his “second mother,” Satchidananda, for daily darshan. As I enter the canteen for the first time, weary from travel, I look up and behold the penetrating eyes of my gurudev. I am moved to tears. His photo has been installed amongst the other saints, across from Mother’s. I know my guru is here indeed.

It takes a few days of fumbling through cultural norms and ta-boos, then the purpose of my journey begins to unfold. I want to know if anyone here remembers my father when he came to Mother as she suffered here. Lois introduces me the very next day to three siblings, Sriram, Sushila, and Shridar Bhat, love pouring forth from each. They were here with Mother and Sri-ram, then a boy of 10, waited on Mother during her stay. I ask if he remembers my father, and he asks for a photo. I have one of a young Herlwyn on my laptop, standing with my mother, Mother, and Father Hamilton on the steps of their home. A smile spreads across Sri Ram’s face, “Yes, I remember this man!” This is the first among many wishes granted, almost instantaneously, at the ashram. Each a reminder to ask for nothing but realization!

Centenary celebrations passed, I see another side of Anandash-ram. Fewer people, quiet, and a dependable schedule of devotion, meals, afternoon tea at Cate’s, punctuated by occasional adven-tures: hikes up Manjapati Hill before sunrise, boating in the back-waters near the sea, and a glorious “dip” into the Arabian Sea, just as dolphins swim by!

It is during this quieter time that I learn of morning meditations in Swami Muktananda’s office, where Davidji sat at the feet of Satchidananda. I will now not miss a single morning. Even on the hard floor, I find that I need not stir for the duration. I forget my physical body and sink into stillness. My consciousness expands so that I know that the world, I Am. Solar system, I Am. Galaxy, I Am. Supernovas and star nurseries, I Am. Then awareness of the universe as a whole, spinning slowly clockwise below. As my body-consciousness returns, I hear talking. I don’t want this sit to end, but truly, deeply, I feel pure gratitude for this experience, surely enabled by the vibrations of saints who’ve sat, and sit now, in this room, not the least of whom, my own gurudev, Davidji, to whom I owe my every step Homeward. I am humbled to dust by the gift of this experience and all of the gifts of this abode of bliss. And of course, David was right; I very much enjoyed the ashram. Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram.


In Memoriam—Sriram Bhat December 25, 1947—February 2, 2020

By Cate Koler

Our dear friend, Sriram Bhat of Anandashram left the body sudden-ly, just a couple of months after his sister, Sushila, passed, and on her birthday. He is survived by his lov-ing family: his brother, Shridar, his wife, Jayashree, his daughter, Vani and granddaughter, Shreya.

Many of us who knew Sriram first met him in the presence of Swami Satchidananda, as for many years he served Swamiji as one of his right-hand men. His kind words, wise counsel, smiling face and hearty

laugh will never be forgotten; in fact, we will always remember the peals of laughter that would happen when-ever Swami Satchidananda, Swami Muktananda and Sriram Bhat were in the room together.

When I spent my extended time in the ashram in 2003/04, I was there on Christmas Day. I was following behind Swami Satchidananda on his morning walk around the ashram and mentioned to him that it was not only the birthday of Jesus, but also Moth-er Hamilton’s birthday. Swamiji re-sponded, “Yes, and it is another great person’s birthday too.” I asked him

who it was. “It is Sriram Bhat’s birthday,” Swamiji said, looking at both Sriram and me. That shows the measure of the man, when such a one as Swamiji talks about him that way. Our lov-ing pronams to our dear friend. May he rest peacefully at Papa’s Lotus Feet. Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram.


In Business with God “When you are in business with God, you are in business with

the whole world.” – Mother Hamilton

By Travis Raney

In the good work He has set before me to perform, I am a home health nurse. My profes-sional life is part of my seva, and is part of my sadhana. There is no separation. There is no clocking in or out, there are no Mondays or Fridays, there is only seva. Supporting this seva is God’s power, guiding it is God’s providence, and the ever-evolving work of the serv-ant of God is to maintain bal-ance. Jesus frequently with-drew to solitary places to pray and renew His deep connection with God so that He could most effectively carry on His

ministry to humanity. In nursing or any vocation, ensuring that we take care of ourselves is of high importance. By doing “self-care” we help maintain a healthy mind, body, and connection with Spirit.

St. Paul writes in Philippians that we should do nothing out of selfish ambition or in pride, but with humility of mind value oth-ers as more important than ourselves. When I have balance and am in connection with God, the seva flows from my heart so beautifully and I am able to bring more love, more joy, more hu-mor and fun, more healing energy and more intelligence into my patient interactions. This is why we work so hard to reveal our innate Christhood, so that upon diving deep and finding that pearl of great price, we can then return to the surface and let that pearl shine forth from our hearts to help illuminate the entire world.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. – Matt. 5:16

Bear all things with a joyful heart


Every breath, every thought, every action, every emotion must be transformed into sadhana, into the remembrance of God. Only then can one realize God. This is the price of God-Realization. – Chandra Swami Udasin

A most delightful aspect of my work as a nurse is being on-call. It is fun receiving late-night calls, going on late-night drives to do a little late-night seva. Knowing my place in this work is a key aspect to being able to act with confidence, freedom, joy and fun. Our beloved David once wrote me with a blessing for this seva: “that you always serve the highest good in all.” And that is all I do—and by “all I do”—I mean all God does.

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction. – Bhagavad Gita 2:47

I also work with RN students as part of a mentorship program with the local Tech College. It is a final course requirement be-fore graduation where the RN student tags along for 120 hours of home health nursing, gradually taking on more and more of the daily responsibilities. Along with the medical knowledge I pour out, I also pour out the highest teachings we have all been so blessed to receive from above. These teachings have helped me tremendously throughout my career, and I believe they are inte-gral in attaining to the highest level of vocational success.

The last nursing student I worked with mentioned that one of their classmates was feeling really disturbed by a couple of trau-mas that came into the ER and who didn’t make it despite the best efforts of the doctors and nurses. I explained that it is our responsibility to do the best we can in any given circumstance—to serve the highest good in all, by the highest light we know, but that we should not be attached to the fruits of our actions, nor are we entitled to claim credit for them. This entitlement alone be-longs to Iswara (the Lord).

I was pleased to hear that my student had posted in a class dis-cussion about these traumas: “wise preceptor says we should not be attached to the fruits of our actions.”

We are wise when we live the teachings the Great Masters have offered so lovingly to us. And I bow with the deepest rever-ence at their holy feet.


Yoga for Health Yoga Sprinkler (unofficially termed!)

By Briana Jones

Props: A comfortable seat that allows you to sit up straight with room around you (on a mat, chair, couch, etc.).

Inspiration:

No coward soul is mine,

No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere:

I see Heaven’s glories shine,

And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

– Emily Bronte

Practice: Find your comfortable seat and settle in. Breathe and straighten up through the spine, centering your head over your heart and your heart over your pelvis. Close your eyes and watch the breath—the belly expanding with the inhalation and gently drawing in with the exhalation. Take a few of these belly breaths, calming the nervous system and centering the mind. As you are ready, invite an idea into your consciousness of some-thing that you would like to let go of. If something comes up, specific or in general, affirm silently, “I choose to re-lease____” (fill in the blank). Repeat the affirmation at any time, grounding this intention consciously.

With the next inhalation, lift your hands up to your shoul-ders, lightly but firmly resting them there. Find a subtle lift from the pelvic floor and up through the heart center and draw the shoulders up, back and down, energetically draw-ing the shoulder blades toward each other. Bring the elbows parallel to the floor. Leading with your core, turn the torso gently to the right, then back through center and to the left. Start out slowly, increasing the speed as it feels right. Try to keep your heart lifted as you flow steadily from right to left.


Remember your affirmation, and picture whatever it is you want to release un-sticking and being flung away like water from a sprinkler. Smile, breathe and keep on going. Allow this practice to be like a spring cleaning for all

levels of your being, leaving you fresh and open for a new start. Work up to a minute or more.

When you are ready, begin to slow it down, eventually coming to stillness. Bring the hands to the heart, close your eyes and let

out a cleansing breath through the mouth. Notice any changes. Finding gratitude and love, bow your head to your heart and seal the practice with “Namaste.”

Benefits: Aligns and loosens up the spine for optimum flow of life energy. Opens the heart center and the shoul-ders, subtly engages and strengthens the core. Energetically clears the slate, releasing any stuck energy and inviting in posi-tive change. Hopefully it is fun and brings a smile to your face! Happy Spring to all! Om Guru Om.

God gives us trials and sufferings not because He is cruel. We must cherish the faith that He does so for our own good. When we pass through sufferings, we become more and more acceptable to Him; for, tribulation and sorrow purify us, and so enable us to completely surrender to Him. Therefore, do not be cowed down by suffering. Come out of it ennobled and elevat-ed. Keep calm and peaceful in the thought of God, and you will be well again soon. Anxiety and regret retard one’s pro-gress towards health. Take all the circumstances in which you are placed as for the best. This is the penance for health of both the body and the mind. – Swami Ramdas [Papa’s birthday is celebrated on April 8.]


From the Master’s Kitchen Health Mayonnaise (with Green Beans)

By Angela Victory

• 1 chilled egg (just the yolk, or both yolk and white)

• Olive or vegetable oil

• Lemon Juice

• Honey or brown sugar

• Mint Flavor: add minced mint leaves to the above after it is ready.

Beat the egg slowly, adding olive oil or vegetable oil. When thick enough, and the desired amount is made up, then thin with lemon juice and sweeten with honey or brown sugar.

Trim green beans. Add 1 tsp. salt to boiling water and blanch beans for 3-4 minutes till desired doneness. Put on platter and sprinkle with a little more salt.

Comments from our C&L Chef, Angela Victory

I asked God: What will we do for Master’s Kitchen? Green beans. Haven’t we already done green beans?

I remember that I don’t need to know why God does what He does or says what He says—it’s my job to surrender and give my whole self to Him. As I pull out all the papers in my recipe box that are from Master’s Cookbook, I start looking for green beans. In my mind I see green beans accompanied with a dipping sauce, but page by page nothing relates to this until I reach, “Health Mayonnaise.” God, do you want me to make Health Mayon-naise? Yes. What about the green beans? Cook the green beans.

Well, I know exactly how to cook green beans and that is how my cooking partnership unfolds with God. Question by question, step by step. I am amazed how simple the Way of God can be. For me to know God, it’s not complex thoughts of grand visions


New ‘International’ Headquarters of The Cross and the Lotus Publishing

We are so happy to announce that the little cottage in our backyard, which we had been using as an Airbnb rental, is now the new office for the publishing of Mother’s and David’s teach-

ings. David’s desk has just been moved in along with all Mother’s files which David left to us. We have begun the process of sorting, filing and familiarizing ourselves with all of the documents and material. Da-

vid, Carla and some wonderful volunteers did so much of the preliminary work necessary to make the publishing of Mother’s teachings possible over the next few years. May God and Gurus bless this new space dedicated to their work! – Cate & Larry

and revelations. I get to be this unique version of God that He has created in me. I remain available, I ask Him questions, He answers and, most importantly, I do as He says. Like green beans—He wanted you to read about them and health mayonnaise in the Cross and Lotus Journal this quarter. It’s a simple story that He tells through my actions, and the entire process brings me joy and comfort.

Note: if you like a strong tasting mayon-naise, use olive oil—otherwise, use a lighter tasting oil. I added a few pinches of salt and if I had the mint, I would have used it because of the added benefits herbs bring.


Celebration of Mother’s Mahasamadhi Devotees gathered on January 31 for the 29th annual commem-

oration of Mother’s Mahasamadhi. After flower offering, Larry led us in a prayer, and read quotes by Mother and David. We all then walked the few steps to David’s gravesite where we again offered flowers and Jill read a couple of David’s quotes. A very meaningful day for all of those who were able to attend.

I won’t be able to attend today. I know the importance of being with other devotees on this day, to share our love of our beloved Guru! But I do my best to visit the gravesite when I do go to Seattle, and visit and speak to her, and just thank her for all that she gave me—to put God above all, and things will work out. She is in this HEART daily more than ever.

I have a better appreciation for Mother and how she devoted all of her life to inspire and motivate all people she came across to know who we really are! As she said many times to her last breath, regardless of what state that body was in and the many struggles that the body endured throughout her whole life, she always put God first. All of the devotees were a wit-ness to that unconditional LOVE, and greatly benefited by that love that she gave freely to all who came before her. This is not to make any judgments, but those that left, for whatever reason, benefited from being around her for many years. They and I will never be the same after spending time with her!

I’m so grateful—this is the best word that expresses my love for her and all my dear friends (devotees). Many blessings to you, much happiness and peace. – Raul Becerra, by email

Some of those who attended. L-R: Larry, Greg, Jill, Carla, Lorraine, Steve


Journal Editors: Larry & Cate Koler

Calendar of Events

Mar. 7 Paramhansa Yogananda’s Mahasamadhi (1952)

9 Swami Sri Yukteswar’s Mahasamadhi (1936)

19 Spring Equinox (8:50 p.m. PDT)

Apr. 8 Swami Ramdas’ Birthday celebrated (1884)

8 Passover—ends sundown April 16

10 Good Friday

12 Easter Sunday

May 10 Swami Sri Yukteswar’s Birthday (1855)

10 Mother’s Day

25 Memorial Day

June 20 Summer Solstice (2:44 a.m. PDT)

21 Father’s Day

Center News Maple Ridge, BC: A Christmas Service and potluck was held

at Andrea’s. All were uplifted by the Christmas talk by Rev. Jill.

Camano Island: Our annual Carol Singing (accompanied by talented young Celia) and Christmas Service & potluck was held at Jerry and Lois’ this year. Rev. Larry gave an inspired talk about the mystical aspects of the Biblical story.

Seattle Center: Rev. Larry led the group who gathered for the New Year’s Eve Service. There was a talk of Mother’s and Yogananda’s, the slide show of David’s life/ministry, chanting, meditation and delicious snacks. Wonderful beginning to 2020!

Port Townsend: On Jan. 31, devotees watched the Centenary video of Mother’s life as a commemoration of her Mahasamadhi.

Victoria BC: Rev. Jill visited the center on January 25. She gave a talk and then all enjoyed a potluck lunch.

Burnaby, BC: Rev. Jill did a Q&A session at service on Feb. 16. Regular Center services will now be Wednesdays at 1:00 pm.

Camano Island: A 6-hour silent meditation was held on Feb. 22 at Carla’s home to honor David’s birthday on February 26.

This life is a rare opportuni-ty for attaining true, real and ever existent bliss and peace. Therefore, go within yourself in a resolute spirit of adventure and discover the immortal source of your being.

Swami Ramdas

Being endowed with free choice, I am a son of God in reality. I have been dreaming that I am a mortal man. I am now awake. The dream that my soul is imprisoned in a bodily cage has vanished. I am all that my heavenly Father is.

Paramhansa Yogananda

God stands in the wings, waiting for you to give yourself over to Him, to surrender to Him, to begin to really put your mind upon Him.

Yogacharya David

Mother’s and David’s Graves From the January 31st Mahasamadhi Celebration

Documents

The Cross and The Lotus Journal · 2020. 3. 2. · in Seattle in 1972 [Bible Reading is Thessalonians, Ch. 2, Verses 1-17] This coming week is the beginning of Holy Week. It is one