Does Satan Exist?
Where is the “Blessing” in Persecution?
Reading and Affirmation for August
From the book The Beatitudes: Their Inner Meaning by Swami Kriyananda
Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within.
The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.
The Bible tells us in Chapter 4 of the Gospel of St. Matthew:
Then [after baptism] was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
To most modern minds, this passage seems quaintly obsolete. Psychologists would say – have said, in fact – that the temptation of Jesus, if it occurred at all, was purely psychological. They call it a projection of desires lurking in his own subconscious mind.
The subconscious plays a strong part, certainly, even if not a unique one, in any testing the spiritual seeker must undergo.
The Bhagavad Gita, in dealing with this undeniable reality, quotes Arjuna in the third Chapter, and then Sri Krishna’s reply:
“Yet tell me, Teacher! [said Arjuna] by what force doth man
Go to his ill, unwilling; as if one
Pushed him in that path?”
[Krishna replied:]
“Desire it is!
Passion it is! born of the Darknesses,
Which pusheth him. Mighty of appetite,
Sinful, and strong is this! – man’s enemy!”
Yet even Krishna describes passion as “born of the Darknesses.” The fact is, as Paramhansa Yogananda wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi, “All thoughts vibrate eternally in the cosmos.…Thoughts are universally and not individually rooted; a truth cannot be created, but only perceived.” Psychology, yes, but psychology attuned to currents of consciousness that pervade the entire universe, attracted by each of us according to our own personal inclinations.
Yogananda, quoted in The Path, said, “I used to think Satan was only a human invention, but now I know, and add my testimony to that of others who lived before me, that Satan is a reality. He is a universal, conscious force whose sole aim is to keep all beings bound to the wheel of delusion.”
We should take pains, then, to attract uplifting currents of universal consciousness, and to avoid attracting the negative, which – disease that it is! – can infect our thoughts even while it leads us to believe that our thoughts are purely our own.
Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.
Whispers From Eternity
108. Demand to see God in Everything
O Father, may I behold Thee: above, beneath, behind, around — wherever I turn my gaze! Train the children of my senses never to stray from Thee, who dwellest at the heart of everything. Turn my eyes inward, to Thy changeless beauty. Attune my ears to silence, that I may hear Thy subtlest music. Breathe on me the heavenly scent of Thy sacred presence.
Orient-wise I will worship Thee, placing the candles of my five senses on the altar of my love. Thus I will contact Thee in the first pale shafts of dawn; absorb Thee in the bright light of noon; expand in Thee with the hidden glow of twilight; and merge in Thee in the silver moonlight. Always will I keep alight on my inner altar the mystic taper of my love for Thee.
Paramhansa Yogananda
Inspiration from the Rays of One Light
Then [after baptism] was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Matthew 4:1
We will take these meaningful words into our meditation together for deep reflection and contemplation. But firstly, we will listen to the beautiful Psalm of David, sung by Mary Kretzmann.
Psalm of David
Listen to the Psalm of David
Reflect, Meditate and Listen to Instrumental Music
Reflection from the Rays of the One Light
Peace Sangha
This week, I was moved by the words of Matthew 4:1 from the Rays of the One Light
Then [after baptism] was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Here is a poem I created called “The Cosmic Test”.
The Cosmic Test
The wilderness became her Divine preparation
No comfort
No distractions
No support from the outer world
Stripped, standing bare, standing naked in the wild
Standing before God’s challenges and tests
Where temptation exposed her strength
So that His inner truth could be mine
Realising she was never alone
The wilderness became a classroom of Divine training and intimacy with God
Temptation did not weaken Her
It revealed His unshakeable Light
The cosmic test of spiritual maturity
That can only come through the high level of insight
Aum Peace Amen
