Salt and Light
Bible Verse & Affirmation for October
What Is the Best Way to Pray?
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.
Jesus Christ and Sri Krishna, both, advised praying to God as personal. Yet both emphasized also that God is above form, and that He must be sought, ultimately, in Infinity. As Jesus put it, “God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
Yet he spoke of God constantly as our Heavenly Father. In what is known as the Lord’s Prayer, he proposed a very human prayer to the Heavenly Father, asking fulfillment for all our spiritual needs.
The Bhagavad Gita explains that man, living as he does in a human body, finds it difficult to worship Infinity as though the ego and body didn’t even exist. Far better for human beings, Krishna says, to work with reality as we know it than to affirm a reality of which the human mind is incapable of forming any clear notion. Encouraging the devotee in this direction, he says, “O Arjuna, be thou a yogi!” – that is to say, be one who works with, not in rejection of, the energies of the body and the natural tendencies of the mind.
In the twelfth Chapter of the Gita, Arjuna asks:
“Those who, ever steadfast, worship Thee as devotees [that is to say, in an “I” and “Thou” relationship], and those who contemplate Thee as the immortal, unmanifested Spirit – which group is the better versed in yoga?”
The blessed Lord replied: “Those who, fixing their minds on Me, adore Me, ever united to Me through supreme devotion, are in My eyes the perfect knowers of yoga. . . .
“Those whose strict aim is union with the Unmanifested choose a more difficult way; arduous for embodied beings is The Path of dedication to the Absolute” – the followers, that is to say, of The Path of Gyana Yoga.
Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.
Whispers From Eternity
35. I will not offer unto Thee mind-made, hothouse Songs
I will sing a song uninfluenced by the voice of any other. I will offer Thee my own pristine heart-melodies.
I will sing Thee a song unheard by any. I have nurtured this song-child myself; now I bring it to Thee for higher training.
I will offer Thee no intellectual, premeditated, art-disciplined song. What I will offer Thee are the wild songs of my heart. I will offer Thee not civilized, emotion-packed music or artfully cultivated song-flowers, but wild blossoms that grow on the high hills of my soul.
Paramhansa Yogananda
Inspiration from the Rays of One Light
“God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
John 4:24
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 ofJohn 4:24 from Rays of the One Light.
“God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
These words inspired me to create a poem called “Stillness Only Knows my Heart”.
Stillness Only Knows my Heart
I close my eyes and still my mind
And leave the world of noise behind
In sacred silence
In every breath, in every prayer
I offer to you my heart’s song
Medicine song
Where I sing alone to call you
Beyond all form, beyond all sight
Your Spirit fills my soul with light
Your love unfolds eternally
Giving thanks for a humble soul
And a spirit who is finally free
Your truth and love awaken me
Your heart shines in mine
Teach me again and again
To worship you from within
The Inner me
The true me
And let my life reflect what is thine Lord
May every thought return only to you
Your sacred love forevermore
Yours is only true
Aum Peace Amen
