It will again be published through the great spiritual cooperation of a very dear Yogoda student, who has undertaken to have it printed every month. May God bless him in every way. (The picture to the right was not actually published in this magazine at this time, but the donor was Rajarsi Janakananda. Editors note.) We rejoice that God and the great Masters of India have chosen this very noble spiritual instrument to spread the message of Yogoda.

All loyal Yogoda students please make a definite effort to increase your spiritual abundance by saving at least ten cents a day until you have saved five dollars ($5.00), which will pay for one years’ subscription for EAST-WEST magazine for two friends. Invest your spirituality in the spiritual welfare of others, and great will be your reward. Your efforts to make the magazine self-supporting will do immense service for humanity. "Seek and spread the Kingdom of God first and then health, abundance and happiness will be added unto you." Nor be ye of doubtful mind.

Thou Light of my Life—Thou camest to spread Wisdom’s glow over the path of my soul. Centuries of darkness shifted, before the march of Thy benign help. As a naughty baby, I cried for my Mother Divine, and She came to me as my Guru-Swami Sri Yukteswar. At that meeting, O my Guru, a spark flew from Thee, and the faggots of my God-cravings, gathered through incarnations, smouldered and blazed into bliss. All my questions are answered through Thy flaming, golden touch. Eternal, ever-present satisfaction has come to me through Thy glory.

My Guru, Thou the Voice of God, I found Thee in response to my soul-cries. Slumbers of sorrow are gone, and I am awake in bliss.

If all the gods are displeased and yet Thou art pleased, I am safe in the fortress of Thy pleasure. And if all the gods protect me by the parapets of their blessings, and yet I receive not Thy benedictions, I am an orphan, left to pine spiritually in the ruins of Thy displeasure. O Guru—Thou didst bring me out of the bottomless pit of darkness into the Paradise of Peace.

Our souls met after years of waiting. They trembled with omnipresent thrill. We met here, because we had met before.

Together we will fly to His Shores, and then we will smash our planes of finitude forever and vanish in our Infinite Life.

I bow to Thee as the Spoken Voice of Silent God. I bow to Thee as the Divine Door leading to the Temple of Salvation. I bow to Thee—to Thy Master, Lahiri Mahasaya, harbinger of Yoga in Bengal, and I lay the flowers of my devotion at the feet of Babaji, our supreme Master!

Swami Yogananda, returning from a visit to Yosemite National Park, said to a friend: "For many hours I stood there on that mountain, my feet in the snow and my head on the bosom of my Father."

That this great man, surrounded by such grandeur, should temporarily forget his environment and become lost in the glory of the Absolute, whence all things come, is no wonder to me. I, too, have seen Yosemite—God’s grandest poem, printed in raised letters, that even the mentally blind might read.

Peak piled on peak, tier after tier, stretching out and away forever, a cosmic theater in which the gods may sit to watch the human drama; baby foothills smiling in their sleep; tiny stars flung by the glacier gods from a towering precipice; lofty redwoods everlastingly young, and barren trees on brown hills dreaming of the days when they were green; footprints of giants in the boulders; sweet azaleas whispering fragrant secrets to the streams; mariposa lilies, embraced by ardent love-vines, peeping from crevices in the rocks, and breathing, singing bits of blue sky flitting among the trees at dawn—that is Yosemite.

Yosemite Valley! Who would dare attempt to describe that staggering, stupendous, sublime spectacle that makes the heart ache with a nameless joy and fires the mind with a madness to express the inexpressible?

Since seeing Yosemite, I no longer believe in "laws of Nature." I believe only in the divine law of the eternally miraculous.

A child once said to me: "I wonder how it would feel to feel like "Nothing." Now I know. One feels like nothing when he first see Yosemite Valley. Yet the paradox is that soon after the first glimpse, one feels like "everything". At first, the beholder is awed, almost frightened by the height, depth, and vastness of the scene, but gradually its grandeur steals into his soul and he becomes, as it were, at one with the wonder he beholds.

Yosemite Valley is felt, even more than it is seen. It may be vividly remembered but not pre-imagined. One’s only regret, while in the valley, is that he is not Argus-eyed. In every direction one is greeted by the majestic, on every hand he is faced by the sublime.

To read about Yosemite means little. One must see the national park, and especially the valley, in order to be able to say: "Mine eyes have beheld the most glorious manifestation of the power of the Lord. I do not need to have been everywhere to know that there could be nothing more wonderful anywhere. Everything inspires entrances, hypnotizes—from the little green bird, with a flute in his throat, who steals raisins from the cookies on your breakfast table, to El Capitan, raising in majesty from the valley floor."

To appreciate Yosemite, one must arise with the birds and then start out to visit the many wonderful waterfalls, Happy Isles, Mirror Lake, the Indian Caves, and scores of other fascinating spots. He must climb Mist Trail and be baptized by the spray of Vernal Falls with its diurnal rainbows. He must wade through ferns and flowers, rocks, trees, and underbrush and drink from the sweet, cool waters of the ages. He must look from Glacier Point and Inspiration Point at the scores of peaks of the surrounding terrain. He must go to the Mariposa Forest and see the great trees, thousands of years old and hundreds of feet high, and sit beneath their everlasting shade and dream of the past and the future. He must feed the deer and bears, throw bread to the squirrels that leap from rock to rock, and watch the bluejays flitting in and out among the trees.

Then, back at camp in the evening, how glorious the night! One sits on his cot and watches the fire fall hundreds of feet from Glacier Point, and then, turning his gaze heavenward, sees the Big Dipper reaching down as if to fill itself from Yosemite Falls, sees fair Corona crowning Glacier Point, and the various constellations of the stellar universe keeping watch over their respective peaks, and down on the earth there is a glad rushing river, star-sprinkled lakes, white tents and rustic cabins, gleaming lights and mellow music, and praise and peace.

Yosemite Valley! Eden of earth! We who have seen you shall remember you forever!

The cry of "Depression" is rending the air in this Land of Millionaires. Beneath the prosperous lights of main streets all over the country, and the gaudy, tempting shop-windows, and the silent swish of expensive automobiles, there is a silent, seething cry of poverty. In the Orient you see the streets well strewn with beggars in tattered robes, but here in this Paradise of Business, this Land of Mergers, you see well-dressed men and women without money in their pockets or food in their stomachs. The well-dressed rich and the shabby poor, both declare themselves in their own way by their dress and their walk, but the Occidental middle class, who need to dress like the rich and are yet poor—for them I feel.

Without conscience and without heart the Rolls-Royces and Packards, containing their laughing, bejewelled, selfishness-petrified human beings, pass by these outwardly diffident, but inwardly poverty-singed unfortunates. Where is the voice of the Christian Bible which says: "Man is made in the image of God, where is it drowned in this tumult of inequalities and injustices?

The Industrialists’ cry, "Buy more and keep money in circulation," will not solve the problem. The very roots of depression have to be sought out and cauterized. To exhort the people to buy more and more of what they do not need, by the installment plan, is to make them slaves until death gives them freedom.

The history of the earth is filled with stories of fighting; brother killing brother; clan clashing with clan; races and nations destroying one another; big industrial kings beheading small business kings with the sword of the merger system and the chain stores.

Swords, ammunition, guns, and air-bombs cannot work the havoc of destruction unless the lack of understanding about the right social, national, and international laws of life makes mankind use these self-purpose, defeating agencies to aggravate their mutual misery. Misunderstanding of the universal laws of peaceful, prosperous living is responsible for depressions, famines, plagues, industrial, social, and national man-made cataclysms and wars. International misunderstandings breed in their wombs their Satanic offsprings of selfishness, which is the real cause of all economic upheavals.

Individual, social, national, international, and industrial forms of selfishness are the children of universal selfishness. Selfishness is the wrong mode of living, inaugurated by human beings in the hope of self-interest and happiness. In the final analysis, selfishness has been found sooner or later to destroy the real self-interest and happiness of man. In a community of one thousand people, if each one is the enemy of the other, each one has nine hundred and ninety-nine enemies to overcome before he is free to do anything successfully. In a nation of one hundred million industrial people, when each one desires to be a millionaire, he has to battle with 99,999,999 industrial enemies. Industrial wars and competitions prompt only a few to get more when they have plenty. The others all wish to possess more than they really need, and they go all through life working to death to pay bills, or buy more and more food, or regain lost health, all the time increasing their luxurious habits of living. The desire to live at the cost of the death of others, and the desire to be luxurious by directly or indirectly making others poor, are sins against God’s true laws, which govern all proper industrial transactions. Whether in the family, the church, or the shop, these same laws of right activity must be obeyed in order to save human civilization from self-contradiction and from inharmony.

The desire to be a millionaire is a false standard of self-holiness, and he who wishes to be a millionaire not only harms himself, but also injures others by leading them into the paths which lead to greatest unhappiness. The poor clerk in the hotel sees a well-dressed millionaire alighting proudly from his chauffeur-driven, expensive car, and envies his outward appearance of happiness. He tries to "keep up with the Jones’s" by borrowing, by bluff, by showing off, and by buying second-hand, high-priced cars that have a costly upkeep.

Few people realize that a man who shatters his health and happiness with fears, over-work, nervous breakdowns, and heart trouble in order to become a millionaire, is misleading unthinking fools to follow a path which leads to a place where life is spent posing and pretending to be happy. This false standard of civilization, namely, "to be a millionaire as the highest goal of life," keeps people foolishly taking more and more, by organized graft, from the mouths of the needy. Besides this, false costly habits, lazy luxurious modes of living, and flickering praises melting on the lips of thoughtless people, due to he showing-off of wealth, whip a man to be more insanely greedy to possess, by industrial crookedness and shady deals or by hold-up methods, more and more of material things. Luxury, the desire to possess money by any method, the fear of the poor house, loss of material prestige in the eyes of the family or society, and selfishness, are the harbingers of crime, poverty, and lack of sympathy. If everybody would live and dress simply, then misery-breeding, luxurious living would be out of fashion, and people would strive to spend more time in spiritual development.

How can we ever prevent man from chasing to the portals of the tomb the almighty dollar in the hope of becoming rich or happy?

The remedy is to destroy selfishness; make plain living and high-thinking the standard of world civilization; penalize luxury; discourage the ownership of tax-heavy, unwieldy estates, big houses, servants, maids, costly cars and clothing. Boycott completely those who own piles of money and who coldly pass by their brother even when they see that he is scorched with poverty and dying of hunger. Make costly clothing an object of ridicule and then the equality and brotherhood of man will be established.

The average so-called free-born American citizen, generally an habitual industrial, economic slave, who earns about two thousand dollars a year, after 20 years of work from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., hard labor in factory prisons, earns forty thousand dollars. Ask him how much he has saved. He will reply: "Oh well, I will make some more, pay off my debts, and then save." One-fourth of his earnings he spends for mal-nutritious and one-sided foods. Half of it is spent in buying furniture and cars on the ever-entangling installment system. The desire to own every year a new model of a better and better car breeds perpetual slavery, which results only in his trying to earn more and more in order to pay more and more incurred debts. This keeps the age-weakening man in constant fear, worry, and economic slavery. If by chance he saves the rest of the forty thousand, he invests it in the stock market, which suggestingly tempts him to double his money without effort, or "get rich quick," and unfortunately leaves him penniless. If the tiger of the stock market does not devour his money, then the wolf of a bad bank failure makes him lose everything, after his body has grown weak in serving people, and when he can no longer offer his services and live thereby. An animal in the Zoo has a better security than the so-called free-born individuals of rich countries.

Rich concerns eat up little industries, destroying the individual’s desire for self-expression and the freedom of spontaneous, healthy labor. Thus, we see health-destroying, forced factory labor. The big tigers of commerce begin to eat up the big tigers of industry, and then to prove which is the victor, they gnaw at each other’s throats by slashing prices, or by allowing grain to be fed to food-gorged hogs, or causing fruits to be thrown into the Hudson River, rather than give them gratuitously to the millions who are jobless and starving.

One concern may become rich by slashing the prosperity of many other concerns with the sword of selfishness, but that very weapon may be wrested from him and used against him by another more powerful war-lord of industry. Most great industries in past years broke the Divine law of "The greatest good for the greatest number." That is why they are failing. When the very people who have built a nation are left to die like old horses, when they no longer can offer their services, and they are made to feel more useless than animals, then despair rouses God’s agencies, God’s laws, which protect alike both His weak and His strong children. They are prompted to work silently to disrupt these man-made selfish laws of industry. industrial greed for trade supremacy caused a devastating war. Industrial greed in peaceful times has caused a most destructive depression. Hence, the ideal of business, to make money at all costs, must be changed. The ideal of business should be to give the best service, to supply the real needs of man, and not to encourage his habits of luxury, which destroy his body, mind, and soul. Plain living is not self-denial, but self-fulfillment, the really luxurious way of securing a living. Real brotherhood, and the sharing of profits between capital and labor, would make both the capitalists and the workers equally rich and happy. Security of food at all times; medical help when disabled; free transportation; and education would make people feel that they are all members of the same family, of one nation. Let the government levy good taxes and with those taxes give security to each member of a national family. By making the standard of living plain and equal and by giving material security to man, crimes and wars will be forever outlawed, for then no one will have greed for money to feed the Satan of banished luxury. The Satan of luxury, poverty, selfishness, and international misunderstandings, would then be banished. Equality, peace and brotherhood in the world are impossible as long as selfishness and luxury remain. Individual and social selfishness must be abandoned for the common good of nations, and national selfishness must be abandoned before members of nations can live happily without wars—in the family of the United States of the World. Let the root causes of depression as depicted above be removed and wars will automatically vanish. Revolutions will be unknown. Let us remember that it was extreme imperial selfishness, contrasts between luxury and poverty, brother treating brother as slave, tyranny of one brother over another, brother murdering brother, one brother living rich by making other brothers poor, all these it was which loosened the invisible dynamite of discontent that blew up the gun-guarded Empire of the Czars. Today, we hear that Russia is the only country in the world where there is no unemployment problem, where no one walks the streets with cowardice, where millionaires are not passing by in Pierce-Arrows, with galvanized, heartless laughter. However, no matter how prosperous Russia may seem today, I, personally, do not approve of the way she forced her new democracy. Is that democracy going to last; that democracy built on martial law. It remains to be seen. The present democracy was gained by the un-Christian, un-spiritual laws of wholesale murder and slaughter.

I believe in the Spiritual Democracy which Mahatma Gandhi is trying to establish by the peaceful ways of love and by the renunciation of luxury. When people renounce luxury, man will not have to slave from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. He will not have to forget the rise of the dawn and the sun creeping silently over the hills and dales. He will not have to bolt his breakfast down his throat, or run to the train in order to be a part in the mad whirl of this world’s machinery only to come back home tired and angry, ready to collide with a neglected, nagging wife. Industrial life is destroying real human life, that introspective, meditative, restful, peaceful, calm life, and is plunging people in the mad war of selfishness and insatiable greed.

The Christ-way and the Gandhi-way give all—"each for all and all for each;" and so also does the Yogoda way of seeking self-happiness by making all others happy. These three are the only ways of burning the roots of depression and stabilizing the economic condition of the world; also they are the surest methods of destroying crime, poverty, and wars.

Material and financial equality and an equal standard of plain living by banishing luxuries will give man more time to enjoy his family, to hear uplifting, educational discourses, and also more time for meditation, peace, and the Bliss-contact of God. Community ownership of property by mutual spiritual agreement will make impossible forevermore the nightmares of taxes and sudden foreclosures on home mortgages after a lifetime of payments.

How can we by spiritual methods begin a material United States of the World?

After showing that selfishness should be forsaken by individuals, and nations, and all souls in the earth, I must now show how a practical Utopia can be created in this tax-ridden, complicated system of modern government. Political evolutions must be slowly-rapid, and must be carried on by spiritual methods. No matter what I say, history show that big governments, drunk with power, never listen to the warnings of real world patriots and savants until the inevitable crisis comes, due to the continuous breaking of God’s spiritual laws. This was very clearly seen in the fall of the Czars. So, little-group models of ideal civilizations must be started in every community for happy and peaceful living, with much meditation and much chivalry shown. These groups should be well balanced, financially secure, and they should exist always in high thinking and plain living.

This is how it should be worked out. Groups of twenty-five young married couples and singles people should strive hard and concentrate their souls’ force by living very economically for five years, until each couple has ten thousand dollars cash. This, multiplied by twenty-five, would make a trust-fund of $250,000. Some of this should be used to buy and build twenty-five small cottages, by their own labor, on twenty acres of community-owned farm land. All butter and milk should be obtained from home-bred cows, and vegetables should be grown by the members of this spiritual farm on their own land. Lambs should be grown for wool for dresses, socks, and other articles. Hats should not be worn. All the people should wear sandals or go barefooted.

Education of the children of the married couples should be given in the community schools by the highly educated parents in a community hall with wooden partitions, or under the trees in summer. Meditation, the scientific art of knowing God, should be the ideal aim of all the children. Parents should be satisfied with one child and exercise moderation and self-control in marital life. All taxes, the expense of educating the children, and miscellaneous expenses, should be taken from the interest on the $250,000. Then, when the twenty-five children grow up, each one should be sent, with limited financial help, out into the world to earn ten thousand dollars each, by using concentration, super-charged with Divine training, and the super-methods of the Divine, learned in this ideal colony. Then, these children, grown into fully-developed men and women, should marry ideal mates, educated in Divine Spiritual communities. These twenty-five couples should then build other communities such as their parents built.

The question now comes: "What would happen to the $250,000, after all of the original 25 families die?" The answer is that it should be used by other groups of 25 couples to build other such colonies.

Each spiritual colony should take the vow of plain living and high thinking, the brotherhood of man, fellowship of all religions, renunciation of luxury, and the joint ownership of lands, transportation, education, food, and money, and they should eat and dress in the community way, but spiritually each soul in the community must be unencumbered so that he may develop and advance as deeply as he can.

If people would follow the above rules, then God’s world would be harmonious, climates would be better, and from everywhere pestilence, famine, and disease would flee, for then all the nations would be as one, co-operating in international laws of transportation, food, education, and religion. Forsake luxury, selfishness, and greed for money, and lead lives of security free from worries.

THIS WILL ESTABLISH ABSOLUTE UNIVERSAL PEACE AND HARMONY.

From God’s garden gather Love petals.

Take care to fill your basket full.

While drops of crystal dew still cling.

Until at noon when heat is burning;

Go, take you well-filled basket

Along the dusty way.

Scatter these fresh love petals

Where weary children pass each day.

Think not your basket empty

As your last petal falls,

For the drops of crystal dew

Have kissed love’s roses,

Distilled the moisture there,

Transformed the petal basket

Into a heart of Love, filled

With rarest fragrance—

The Perfume of our God.

At Gethsemane, out of that perishable confinement of the body of Jesus, they let loose His spirit so that it could be free to roam in the heart of many people, and kindle their ignorance, dispelling the light as they awakened.

Oh, Gandhi! The prison walls have become a temple by Thy Presence!! And Thou art more dangerously eloquent by Thy Silence!! Thy physical voice is muffled ‘neath the pison vaults, but Thy silent voice of Spirit is loosened, and is beating the drums of universal sympathy and attention, to rouse the races slumbering in hatred, in political selfishness, in greed for possessions, in mutual deceptions, and in brother making war preparations against brother.

Gandhi! Politically crucified, Thou are not only the saviour of a race, of India, but also of all the selfish, hatred-stricken races of the world. And now there comes Thy prison, like a Judas, to take Thee away from us, but Thy prison shall be Thy best message bearer, the greatest preacher of Thy truth for all times, and Thy supreme slave to build a mansion of love for Thy truth and Thee in the heart of each race.

Gandhi! Thy Bible, all the warriors of futurity will read and follow, and therein learn to combat, not their brothers, but the Satan of Ignorance and all his army.

Gandhi! Thy saintliness, and the fragrance of the unfading flower of Thy determination, will charm the menacing fire of cannon,until they sing instead the Freedom of India through Peace.

Gandhi! Thy flute of peace will tune the wild beasts of political misunderstandings in the race! Just as God did not choose to use His miraculous powers to discipline man, but chose love instead, so Thou hast chosen the path of love, not force, that mightiest love to free India. For Thy love will awaken love, will melt gunpowder, selfishness, political strife, hatred, wars, fighting airplanes, bombs, machine guns and armies into the consistency of All-Freeing Love.

Oh, Gandhi! Thy Love will build the United States of the World, and thy seal will be in every heart!

All Oriental Scriptures, such as the Bahgavad Gita, or the Hindu Bible, and the Christian Bible, have a three-fold meaning. In other words, the Scriptures deal with the three factors of human beings, namely, the material, the mental and the spiritual. Hence, all true Scriptures have been so written that they serve to be beneficial to the body, mind, and soul of man. True Scriptures are like the wells of Divine waters, which can quench the three-fold material, mental, and spiritual thirsts of man. In addition, the Scriptures, in order to be worth while, should really help the business man, the mental man, and the spiritual man. Although both the material and the psychological interpretations of the Scriptures are necessary, it should be remembered that the scriptural authors undertook with great pains to point out to man that the spiritual interpretations are of supreme importance to him.

A materially or intellectually successful man may not be the truly, scientifically successful man who makes a perfect success of life; whereas, a spiritual man is the happy "all-round" man, who is healthy, intellectual, contented, and truly prosperous, with all-satisfying wisdom. Since by intuition the spiritual authors first sought to make man primarily spiritual, I give the spiritual interpretation with the psychological and material interpretations interwoven. These interpretations will help alike the spiritual aspirant, the intellectual man, and the business man.

The psychological interpretation of the above passage is that man should struggle hard and honestly until victory is won. No competition or reverses should discourage him. He should keep on fighting in spite of failure because to give in means death, but to die still battling for success gives him satisfaction even in death. If we do not die struggling before we reach the end of the trail, we are bound to meet with success, but if we do not struggle, we have failed to use our God-given powers, and we are bound to acquire sin or sorrow. We are sinful also because we failed to demonstrate that we are made in the image of God, and because we did not exercise all our Divine heritage, our powerful will, to succeed.

The psychological interpretation of the above passage is that the mental powers of man become stronger when they successively and continuously battle with trials, with temptations to make money by dishonest methods and with sense temptations, which beset all life. The law of life offers man the power of resistance so that he may show his sonship of God by bringing out his hidden immortal powers. Therefore, psychologically, it is a sin against the laws of soul-progress to acknowledge defeat by not struggling strongly against all kinds of trials. To give up the continual struggle against sense appetites is to become a slave to them, and to become the victim of suffering, for only he who is a master of the senses can be truly happy, whereas a man who is ruled by his senses is very unhappy.

The spiritual interpretation of the above passage is that, unless the soul battles continuously to overcome the consciousness of the flesh by experiencing soul-consciousness in meditation, that soul acquires sin. If the Son of God, or the image of God dwelling in flesh, does not fight against the limitations of the flesh, but identifies himself with it, then he invites sorrow. To be in soul-consciousness is to remember the Spirit, but to be in flesh-consciousness is to forget the power of the soul to feel Omnipresence. The soul that is identified with body experiences and the limitations of the consciousness within the boundaries of the physical body, is cognizant of solidity, the fragility of bones, the fear of accidents, the fear of life and death, a dependence upon experiences for increase in knowledge, and the fears of sickness, poverty, and ignorance. Every soul has to battle continuously with limitations of body-consciousness such as these.

Through meditation, the soul remembers its home in Omnipresent, Absolute, Blissful Spirit, but after a short meditation the soul goes back again to the remembrance of the troublesome limitations of the body. Therefore, the soul, through the liquid fire of meditation repeatedly has to battle with ignorance and body-consciousness in order to wipe out the intoxicating influence of cosmic delusion and sin.

This sinful cosmic delusion, which produces the body-consciousness, is the root-cause underlying the three-fold physical, mental, and spiritual sorrows of man.

Like the above, the Christian Bible has three interpretations of which the spiritual interpretation of the words of Jesus Christ is given in the following article.

"How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?"

The above depicts the proper Divine Attitude of Jesus to His parents. In the above statement, the perfect life of Jesus brings forth a perfect utterance as to how a Divine child, consecrated to serve humanity, should behave. Jesus hints that it is the highest duty of parents not to worry about a Divine child like Jesus, who was protected by the King of Kings. He implies also that the highest duty of the son was to look after the celestial business of spreading the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father. He implied that duty to our Heavenly Father comes first and foremost, and that duty to parents, although important, is secondary.

Jesus knew that parental love and affection, being blind, might demand from Him greater attention to His earthly father’s business than to His Heavenly Father’s business, for which He came on earth. He also here signifies to His parents that they should know, and at the same time wish for Him to be busy with His Heavenly Father’s business. Since parental and filial relationships are brought about by God, parents should first teach their children that it is good to be proficient in God’s business.

The above saying was the first hint by Jesus to His parents as to what they would have to expect, and about what His life was going to be. As all noble parents are lovers of God and of His business, so they should wish the first interest of their children to be in God’s business. All parents should start their children on the right road in life by making them first proficient in contacting God, and in doing all things with God Consciousness. A life guided by God’s inner, intuitive direction can be successful, healthy, and complete only when activity is balanced with wisdom and happiness.

The ordinary man thinks that this world, his family, and his work are his business, but the spiritual man knows that parents, children, family ties, the business world, and all else are God’s business. He knows that every one should help to maintain a world by love and service compelled and actuated by instinctive blood-ties. Hence, all business should be spiritualized; that is, everything should be done with the consciousness of God within, and man should try to please God by harmonizing all things with His ideals.

The Hindu scriptures say that when one duty conflicts with another, then it is not duty, but something to be avoided. Religious duties should not conflict with the duties of business; neither should duty to business conflict with spiritual duties. When such conflict occurs, the spiritual duty is incomplete and should be modified. Business duties also should be revised when they militate against spiritual duties. Spiritual and material duties should work together like two stallions, pulling the car of life harmoniously and uniformly to one happy goal.

A successful life, therefore, must be begun with spiritual culture first, for all material and moral actions are governed by spiritual laws. All business must first conform with God’s business of Divine laws in order to be of lasting benefit to mankind. Any money-making business which caters only to human luxury, and false or evil propensities, is bound to be destroyed by the workings of the divine law of the survival of the worthiest. The business which does harm to the real spiritual comfort of people is not doing real service, and is bound to meet with destruction because of the very nature of its activities.

Universal Christ-Consciousness appeared in the vehicle of Jesus, and now through Yogoda Self-Realization, and these intuitionally received interpretations of the Scriptures, the Christ-Consciousness is coming a second time to manifest through the consciousness of every true Yogodan. "All those who received Him, to them gave He the power to become the Sons of God."

As a small cup cannot hold an ocean within, no matter how willing it may be to do so, likewise the cup of material human consciousness cannot grasp the universal Christ-Consciousness, no matter how desirous it is, but when the student, by the Yogoda method of Meditation and Concentration, enlarges the caliber of his consciousness to Omniscience, he can hold the universal consciousness in all atoms (Christ-Consciousness) within his own. This is what is meant by "Received Him." Thus, according to Jesus, all souls who can actually find their souls one with Christ-Consciousness, by intuitive Self-Realization, can be called the "Sons of God."

Matthew 3:13. "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John to be baptized of him, but John would have hindered him, saying:"I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?" But Jesus answering, said unto Him: "Suffer it now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." Then He suffereth Him, and Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway from the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon Him, and lo, a voice out of the heavens saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

The original ceremony of baptism by water came from India. Baptism means immersion in water in order to cleanse or purify. Purification of the body should precede the purification of the mind. Hence, all souls who desired to begin living the spiritual life had to purify their bodies. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness," but baptism of the body, unless followed by baptism of the mind, becomes practically meaningless. If we bathe and thus purify our bodies, we will find that our mind will temporarily become purified, but unless we change our souls’ wickedness by calmness, and meditation, and constant spiritual vigilance, we will remain the same old devils with bad habits in spite of the temporary purifying effect of the water on our bodies. To illustrate this metaphorically, a Hindu saint said to his would-be disciple: "Son, it is necessary to bathe in the Ganges to purify the mind from sin. The sins will leave you temporarily while you bathe in the holy waters; but they will wait for you in the trees skirting the Ganges, and as soon as you come out of the sacred influence of the holy water, they will again jump on you."

It must be remembered, however, that bodily baptism by water has its good points. The custom in India is to take spiritual lessons from a holy man only immediately after bathing. To take spiritual lessons with a sweaty, unclean body is not effective. The Baptists do well to immerse their initiates in water, but the ceremony of immersion without following it up with continued spiritual lessons in meditation and God-contact is of little value.

The aristocratic, modern way of baptism consists in sprinkling water on the head. This is all that is left of the original custom of purifying the body by water. Baptism by the sprinkling of water may be all right for most civilized people, for they usually bathe themselves daily. Then, too, immersion of initiates in water may be unnecessary if they are mentally evolved, but sprinkling of water on the head of evolved people is unnecessary, unless this is done only out of respect to the ancient, baptismal ceremonies.

It is evident that Jesus, although he was so evolved, did not fail to go into the water. He did not fully immerse, for the River Jordan was practically dry at that time. Thus it is all right for spiritually-minded people to bathe before being baptized, but it is also true that in modern america many aristocratic people would refuse to be baptized if they had the prospect of a second bath in the church. They would rather forego entering Heaven than be publicly immersed in water. For such people, spiritual instruction, without this second bath, is all right.

Another important matter in connection with the baptism of Jesus Christ is that He insisted on being baptized by John, who in self-realization was far inferior to Him. John said he was not worthy to unloose the lachet of the shoes of Jesus, and that he baptized only with water, while Jesus baptized with Spirit. Alas, modern baptism has become baptism by water only. Yogoda methods are showing the real way of baptizing self with Spirit and ultimate wisdom. Feeling his spiritual inferiority, John wondered why Jesus wanted to be baptized with water. This action of Jesus distinctly demonstrated the ancient pre-Christian, Hindu custom and the real spiritual way, which every God-aspirant should follow.

The method of finding God is different from the methods demanded by most colleges for any kind of specific training. Even in medical training, the student never learns if he roams from college to college, joining different medical institutions, and listening to a few lectures, but without going through intensive training in materia medica, physiology, dissection, and other studies in one college. Also, it is true that a student cannot join all the universities at the same time.

A student should follow one course in one college until he receives a certificate that he has completed certain studies, but alas, in spiritual denominations even the loyalty the usual intellectual college expects is not given to the denomination by the aspirant, nor is the time necessary for Self-Realization given to the practice of the spiritual lessons, by thousands of students in the Western world. Such people continue taking lessons from any new, good, bad, or indifferent teachers, who happen to come to town and advertize. I say that people should discriminate between the so-called teacher, who uses religion only to make money or just a living, and the real teacher who may use business methods in his religion in order to serve his brethren with real spirituality.

It is extremely necessary to remember that in the beginning it is wise to compare many spiritual paths and teachers, but when the real GURU (Preceptor) and the real teaching is found, then the restless searching must cease. the thirsty one should not keep seeking wells, but should go the best well and daily drink its nectar. That is why in India, in the beginning we seek many until we find the right path, and the right master, and then remain loyal to him through death and eternity, until final emancipation.

We can have many teachers first, but only one GURU, and no more teachers afterwards. Teachers call those who come to learn from them students, but a GURU calls the spiritual aspirant who comes to him, a disciple. Jesus himself said: "None cometh unto the Father but by me." This signifies that human souls are mostly truant children of God roaming away from Him in the wilderness of suffering. Such souls are impelled by the scourge of sorrow to have faint glimpses of their lost home of spiritual blessedness. They begin to long for God, and inwardly pray for a way out of the conundrum of life, then when the prayers of such errant children become deep and strong enough, God is touched and sends help. It is then that the One Father of All sends a superman on earth to give help to the lost seeking souls. Such a man, ordained by God, to help the individual in response to deep prayer, is not an ordinary teacher, but a GURU or a vehicle, whose body, speech, mind, and spirituality, God Himself uses to bring the lost souls back to the Home of Immortality.

In the Hindu scriptures and "Whispers From Eternity" it is written: "As a naughty baby, I cried for my Mother Divine, and she came to me as my GURU. My Guru, I found Thee in response to my soul-cries. If all the gods are displeased and yet, Oh, Guru, if Thou art pleased, I am safe in the fortress of Thy pleasure, but if all the gods protect me by the parapets of their blessings, and yet I receive not Thy benedictions, I am an orphan, left to pine spiritually in the ruins of Thy displeasure. Together, Guru and Disciple, we will fly to His Shores, and then we will smash our planes of finitude forever and vanish in our Infinite Life."

The above conception of Guru and Disciple depicts the only real way to retrace the truant soul’s footsteps back to God. This Guru and Disciple relationship is not the enslaving relationship between the blind church or temple members and an ignorant so-called priest of a temple or church, elected, not by God, but by the temple or church organization, or by a higher church dignitary, honored by orthodox followers, but unknown to God.

My Guru said to me: "Allow me to discipline you, for freedom of will consists in not doing things according to the dictates of pre-natal or post-natal habits or mental whims, but according to the suggestions of wisdom and free choice." He continued: "If you tune in your will with mine, you will find freedom. Formerly, my will was guided by habits, but when I tuned it in with the God-guided and Wisdom-guided will of my Guru, I found freedom."

To tune in with a soul whose will is guided by wisdom is to find freedom of will. Most teachers who slavishly control their students after the pattern of dogmatic teachings, destroy the power of free will in them, but obedience to a Guru does not produce spiritual blindness in the disciple. On the contrary, it develops his third eye of wisdom and intuition. Most teachers want their students to see through the teacher’s eyes, but a Guru disciplines the disciple only until he can guide himself through wisdom. A Guru, (a Preceptor), is sent by God.

If a disciple, after following a Guru for a long time, should spurn him, then he actually spurns the help sent by God. A Guru is not a help for this life only. He also makes a spiritual soul-contact with the disciple, and says: "Let our friendship be eternal, and let us help each other through incarnations until we are both completely emancipated in spirit. Sometimes, likewise, an advanced disciple can help a Guru, and vice versa. Such friendship is not based on any selfish consideration or on any condition. Such Divine friendship and perpetual good-will expressed between two or more souls gives birth to the ever-pure, unselfish, all-emancipating, Divine Love. My Master said to me, "I will be your friend from now until Eternity, no matter whether you are on the lowest mental plane or on the highest plane of wisdom. I will be your friend if ever you should err, for then you will need my friendship more than at any other time."

When I accepted my Master’s unconditional friendship, he said: "Will you be my friend under all circumstances? Will you protect me in my highest or in my lowest strata of mind?" I was amazed—I was stupefied, for how could I dream of my Master being in the lowest strata, but until I vowed to be his friend always, under all circumstances, he did not rest. He was gladdened when I said, "I will be thine always."

It was then, after this amazing spiritual compact, that I understood the significance of a Guru, and really, I never found complete satisfaction, comfort, and God-consciousness until I tuned myself in with the Divine consciousness of my Master.

Jesus knew of the above law of emancipation. He must have found in John his reincarnated Guru, (a Guru, although inferior in spiritual quality, is a Guru just the same, a vehicle of God always). That is why Jesus insisted on being baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus also had spoken of John the Baptist as the reincarnated prophet, Elias, (Elijah). Next, in connection with the baptism of Jesus Christ, it is very important to remember the spiritual baptism and the spiritual experiences of Jesus, which followed his physical baptism with water by John.

This will be explained further in the next issue of East-West.

These spiritual interpretations are the result of a long unfulfilled promise to Yogoda Students, and they are also the methods which the Masters have taken to show the world the common, scientific platform of intuitive perception, where the Christian Bible, the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, (Hindu Old and New Testaments), and the true scriptures of all true religions, can find unity. Many people acclaim that the spiritual interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita and the Christian Bible is what is predicted as the "Second Coming of Christ", because in such interpretation there is revealed and liberated the truth hidden in the dark caves of theoretical and theological studies.

Jesus Christ was crucified once, but His Christian teaching has been, and is now being crucified by ignorant people. The Yogoda movement is attempting to show how the Christ-Consciousness of Jesus, free from theological crucifixion, can be brought back a second time into the souls of men.

These spiritual interpretations are born of intuition, and will be found to be universally true if they are meditated upon with intuitive perception. They are received and interpreted through Christ-Consciousness.

1st Day. The Ocean of Spirit has become the little bubble of my little soul. The bubble of my life cannot die, whether floating in birth, or disappearing in death in the Ocean of Cosmic Consciousness, for I am indestructible consciousness, protected in the bosom of Spirit’s Immortality.

2nd Day. Today I will do something for somebody. Today I will give something to a hungry man.

3rd Day. I am protected behind the battlements of my good conscience today. I have burned my past darkness. I am interested only in today. Today I know I am the Light of Goodness. I am a lighthouse for souls ship-wrecked on the sea of sorrow.

4th Day. Today I feel Him in the thrill of peace, which touches the meditation-tuned radio of my heart.

5th Day. On the throne of silent thoughts the God of Peace is directing my actions today.

6th Day. Today I will show my brothers the Temple of God, through the door of my peace.

7th Day. I will make the weeping ones smile by smiling myself, when it is difficult to smile.

8th Day. I will dash to the home of freedom, by desiring nothing else but the God-contact which comes through the peace of meditation.

9th Day. In the kingdom of my love I will call all nations my own countrymen—Americans, Hindus, Englishmen, Germans, Frenchmen, Nubians, Heathens, Chinese and Japanese, and also animals and plants, and all living creatures—to dwell in equality and peace.

10th Day. I am the servant in the home of everyone’s Divine Love.

11th Day. In the light of faith in my Father, I behold the shadows of sickness obliterated now and forever, as I fully realize that light exists always, unless I shut my eyes of wisdom and become overwhelmed by my self-created darkness.

12th Day. I will seek to make others truly happy, as I strive to make myself divinely happy.

13th Day. I will look upon disease as a surgeon lancing the boil of my accumulated body-poisons.

14th Day. I am dauntless if I make up my mind to feel that nothing can make me fear.

15th Day. My smile I behold on the lips of all saints. All saints smile through me.

16th Day. I spread Yogoda every day through my example, actions, and words.

17th Day. I will wake with the dawn, and rouse my sleeping love to waken in the dawn of true devotion for the Peace-God within.

18th Day. I will serve all, through my spiritual happiness.

19th Day. I will fear nothing except myself, when I deceive my conscience.

20th Day. I have made up my mind to smile, and none are going to make me cry.

21st Day. Christ-Consciousness in me is the shepherd to lead my restless thoughts to my Home of Divine Peace.

22nd Day. I will love God, as Jesus loved Him. I will let my selfishness drown in the well of love for others.

23rd Day. I will feel for others as I feel for myself.

24th Day. I will make the best of my life, in order to make others better, by the example of first making myself better.

25th Day. I will drive away all despondency, and make a mighty effort to feel God by meditating until He appears.

26th Day. Behind the throb of my heart, I shall feel the throb of God’s Peace.

27th Day. I will consider none as strangers, for they are all my brothers, children of my one Heavenly Father.

28th Day. I will listen to Thy sermons through the voice of my reason.

29th Day. I will behold God, through the window of flowers, scenery, and the doors of peace, which are flung open by the hand of intuitive meditation.

30th Day. I will be the fishers of souls. I will catch the ignorance of others in the net of my wisdom, and offer them to the God of all Gods.

The Hibbert Journal recently published articles by Dr. Stedman regarding Bosanquet’s account of religion. Prof. J. H. Muirhead has not lost any time in making a counter-reply to the indictments. These articles betray, above all things, the tireless quest of the human mind, to know in empirical terms the real nature of God. It will be no exaggeration to say that all arguments regarding religion will confound the truth about God, and will end forever in futile surmises.

The Katha Upanishad truly says: "Atman cannot be known by the study of scriptures, by the intellect, nor even by much learning of the sacred philosophies. It is attained by him who chooses; to him this Atman reveals its true form." The pure in heart alone can see God. Philosophers and theologians have to acknowledge that the Infinite nature of God cannot be glimpsed by the poor vision of the finite mind. So-called ideal, good, or abstract terminologies are mere intellectual concepts, having no real intimacy with Reality. To know God means to feel Him. God reveals Himself to the finite mind in the form of Bliss-Consciousness—the purest form of feeling, flooding the boundaries of human thoughts and feelings and bringing along with it the assurance of Immortality. This is purely a matter of perception. No amount of logic or philosophy ever can solve this dilemma in the human intellect. If you wish God to reveal His Eternal and Ever-New Joy to you, you must meditate and meditate on Him, in the sacred seclusion of your soul.

The Wickersham Commission brought to the surface the knowledge of many heretofore hidden sins of the social and political life of this country. In particular, wide attention has been drawn to the corruptions rife in the management and control of prisons throughout the land. The public should not forget the findings of the commission until the ills are remedied throughout the system, right into the prison cells. Every erring child of God especially needs sympathy, love, and justice from the more fortunate ones. Legislation certainly can cure some of the social and administrative evils, but as long as man remains as he is now, in spite of all curative legislation, his very nature, like the curly tail of a dog, will always go back to his crooked ways. Consequently, in order to create a social conscience, and a more spiritual attitude of thinking in the social mind, our educators, ministers, and politicians should make real God-Contact for themselves, and the teaching of it to others, the goal of their lives. Only through such transformation in their ideals can they hope to change the outlook of grosser minds in the populace as a whole. The world does not need prison houses and prisoners in this day of enlightened thought. What we need is more educational facilities for rehabilitating poor, ship-wrecked characters, and more teaching in "How to Contact God in Reality" spread within the reach of all mankind.

Young people, especially our college students in this country, are reported to be tired of churches and the whole church system. They seldom attend church to seek spiritual food. If this is true, the churches should take notice. The Protestant Church has brought freedom of thought during the past few hundred years, but it has not shown to the seeking soul that God is in the Temple of his own Meditation. This is the next step for the present-day church to take on the pathway of progress. Give the youth a taste of God in his daily life. Show him unfailing means by which he will surely know that God is not merely a phantasmagoria of theologians, to be thought of only on Sundays, but that He is a Reality, more vital than Life itself. Show him how, until he really feels this for himself and contacts God in Reality, and the world will progress by leaps and bounds along its pathway of progress toward God-Consciousness. Oh, that the time may soon come when every person, high and low, rich and poor, well-educated or illiterate, in every far-flung corner of this world, will be taught from babyhood this Realization of God!

In this connection, if we turn our thoughts to India at the present time, is it not strange that Mahatma Gandhi’s vast army of spiritual soldiers are mostly college-bred men and women, yet without exception, all are God-intoxicated. The contrast from this point of view between America and India, is very sharp, although the reason is very simple. The reason is that the youth in India is taught to go above or beyond "Churchism", and feel in deep meditation, each one for himself, the approach of God on the threshold of his innermost soul.

To serve this purpose in America, the University of Self-Realization, the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Headquarters in Los Angeles, California, is dedicated to the men and women of the world.

Christ-man Time, with its sacred associations and dear memories, carries us back into childhood, when we begin life in sweet trust. It seems to appeal to our hearts now in a way that perhaps nothing else does; and the thought that comes with this appeal is: "What a pity that we are not more intimately associated in trust and in the common interests and general welfare of our fellowmen! How pathetic that in spite of all our associations in our relationship as a nation and a race, we are to a very large degree selfishly separated—divided by personal interests that in the truest sense are impermanent."

The whole system of thought and effort today tends to keep the human family apart, and to me a moment like this is a rare opportunity for each and all of us, for it will never come again. So let us think more closely of the preciousness of the time, and use it for the future, more thoughtfully and unselfishly.

Those of us who are Yogoda students realize that there is no such thing as chance in life—that our lives are governed by immutable and Divine laws, and that there is ever surging in our hearts the Divine Spirit of Christ, which is most truly our own Divine nature. Even the poorest and humblest, and even the greatest human failures, have in their possession this spirit.

I am introducing Christ as one who had lived many lives and had thus gained sufficient experience to bring Him to a realization of the reality of the Spiritual life and of the great needs of humanity. We call him Jesus the Initiate, one of the Spiritual Teachers of Humanity.

My thought is not so much with the historical Christ, as it is with the Divine, or Spiritual Christ—that Spirit which I declare every man possesses. Let us throw ourselves into the thought of the greater possibilities of human life. Let us hold to all that is noble and sweet and treasurable in the life of the historical Christ, and let us also realize that He has been misunderstood and misinterpreted from the beginning, even by those who considered themselves His most faithful followers.

To know this great Teacher better, one must realize that evolution extends through successive incarnations. This teaching of reincarnation affords a key to the proper understanding of the life and mission of Jesus. Take his sayings from beginning to end, study them from the Yogoda standpoint, and you will find yourself in a large area of thought, moving out into broader conceptions of life’s purpose. If you follow this line, the future of humanity will look brighter to you.

It was Robert Browning who said:

"There is an inmost center in us all,

Where Truth abides in fullness; and around,

Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in;

This perfect, clear perception, which is Truth."

Many people will interpret this perhaps as meaning that the Truth was within the physical—in the flesh, but from our standpoint we can see that it is the tendencies of the flesh that shut out the Truth, and that hold the soul in subjection to such a degree that it cannot express itself, and it is that "inmost center" of Truth, which according to the Yogoda teaching is the Spirit of Christ or the Divinity of Christ, and this Divine power is in every man.

If we can move in study, in research, and in analysis, away from the letter of the law, and take almost the very antithesis of the former interpretation of the Christ, we shall then find ourselves very near to the Truth, and to the soul-meaning of the immortal life of man. We shall discover that man holds a key, a treasure of treasures, the sacred golden key that will enable him to unlock the prison gates of flesh and to come forth into the light in all his spiritual dignity.

The word "overcome" applied rightly in harmony with this idea of the Divine Spirit, evolves a wonderful power of optimism, at a time when the world is awry, when man hardly knows what tomorrow will bring him, when he finds humanity pitted against itself, state against state, country against country; and when the Gulf of Separation is widening. In spite of the intellectual advancement in this day, truly as a people and as a race we are not going forward and upward.

The message of the Spiritual Christ—the Divine part of man’s nature—is the keynote that will bring comfort and encouragement to humanity if it can be met rationally and unselfishly. Some of our great modern thinkers and workers in this work-a-day world are still weighed down by the influence of dogmatic education, of limited opinions, and by the psychology of the present age, which evolves doubt, selfishness, fear, and hatred.

As the human mind can carry only just so much weight, only just so many burdens, it cannot fill the shelves of the intellect with the non-essentials of beliefs and opinions, and then expect to evolve those intrinsic forces, those rare, ever-abiding, and eternal factors of the spiritual life, which is the life of Christ.

When approaching life with new aspirations, hopes, and resolutions, we must put our mental houses in order. We must immediately change our outlook on life, take a new viewpoint, and study Truth and the Immortal issues of life from a new angle. The incentive is great. It will inevitably force man to dig deeper into his nature, to the very center of his being, "where Truth abides in fullness."

By following this path, the daily problems so difficult to cope with, will begin to adjust themselves to such a degree that all along life’s journey man will catch little glimpses of the kingdom of Heaven on Earth, which Jesus taught is nearer than you dream, is indeed within the heart of man.

Truly, religion is a reality in every man’s nature, even though he may never have professed any particular form of religious belief, never studied it, never taught it, or indeed even thought about is. Man is a religious being, and of all the realities, religion is the greatest. Some people will not accept this philosophy or this opportunity; but no matter what they believe or how they live, Truth is indestructible. It is a living power and will stand for all time. The human race has arrived at a point of uncertainties, of doubts, and of fears, and people are drifting away from the Light, and if those who have it not do not arouse themselves and awaken in the consciousness of the Spirit of Christ, they will drift and learn their lessons through pain and despair.

Many of the external and fascinating attachments of life, which we love and hug so dearly, those things which we in our selfishness consider the most precious, will fade away in the course of time, but the great inner knowledge, the inner life—Truth—will never desert us; for there is constantly abiding in man this inner power, this controlling Spirit of Christ, which will bring home to all the very knowledge that man has instinctively sought for ages.

In spite of the glorious and inspiring incentive of the possibilities of man’s attainment in the life of Christ, still there is unrest in human affairs, still inquiry, still lack of faith in the self and in humanity. The "gross flesh" still hems in the Divine quality of which I spoke.

Let us consider, on the one hand, the unrealities, the unsatisfying aspects of life which I have mentioned; and then on the other hand the Yogoda view of life—man Divine in essence, soul progressing through many lives, learning lessons from each experience, broadening the mind under the influence of that higher state of consciousness—the Spirit in Christ—which proclaims man’s divinity, until it becomes a conviction. Then man feels his larger responsibility and reaches out in the fullness of the new strength and knowledge, with a quality of compassion that he has never known before, feeling that he embraces humanity in the spirit of charity and justice. This state of mind and of living belongs only to the life of the Divine Christ.

We may read, think, and work away from this truth in all its sublime beauty; yet in the course of time, along the great pathway of human effort and disappointments, we must ultimately come to it. Hence, I say to you: "Seek the deeper meaning of life from the inmost recesses of your nature, where Truth abides in fullness."

I find in my travels and in my interviews with some of the most learned men of the times, that even those of great scholastic attainment are unprepared to meet life’s responsibilities. I find them resting on set beliefs and doctrines, perched on a dusty shelf in their brains, beliefs which are emphasized on all occasions, in all arguments, and backed up by quotations from other great intellects like their own, who, like themselves, are lost in the shadows of unrealities. Rarely, in the present age, is it possible to find even an educated man of the highest scholarship opening up the inmost recesses of his inner nature. Men of the former type have no conception that there is anything beyond a half-trust or a half-faith or a half-acceptance of the old theological doctrines; or, on the other hand, they adopt the opposite position of cold materialism.

As the miner digs in the ground and works with the conviction that there is gold hidden deep inside, and pushes on with energetic perseverance in spite of all discouragements, working only for material aggrandizement, thus we can conceive that the same energy rightly applied to spiritual research and endeavor would bring him to the realization of this inner mystical Spirit of christ.

Through these simple suggestions, if you are interested in them, read the words of Jesus and see how differently you will interpret them, how much more interesting and helpful will be the historical Jesus, whose life was controlled by the Spirit of Christ; on, on, through many incarnations, until He reached a state of human perfection and chose to return to the world, that the Light from His Father—Deity—might be more fully manifest in the hearts of men.

If this were not so, how could He have spoken of the kingdom of Heaven on Earth? How many people are there today who believe that it is possible to make a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth? Do we not find the majority even of so-called spiritually-minded people of today carrying themselves away from this plane in their conception of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yogoda teaches us that it can be found in the individual life, and that all we have to do is to seek for it. Once in possession of the knowledge of the Divine Christ in him, man will know that he could have found this Kingdom of Heaven long ago if he had thought more deeply and lived more unselfishly—if he had dared to throw aside his former beliefs, his hard-set opinions.

It is not phantasy nor fanaticism that colors the spirit of my talk with you. It is the simple, plain thinking of one who has an urge in his life, an urge for better things, for humankind, a quality of separation that manifests itself in trust and continuous work.

Whence come our aspirations? Why do they give us their beautiful and sacred touches at our best moments? They come in varying degrees from that "inmost center in us all"—the Spirit of Christ.

It is blundering work for me to attempt to make clear to you in a few minutes all that I feel on this subject. These ideas that I have given you are in one sense simply a challenge, and in another sense an encouragement, to show you that you do not need to wait to pass out of this life in order to find your heaven, or to find the knowledge that will bring you to your heaven. You do not have to ignore any truths that have been proven according to your conscience; but you surely have still something more to learn, as I also have.

The fact is, we are so separate, so divided in all our interests. We move along splendidly, I admit, in our material interests, with a great deal of pride, but these are impermanent. I am talking of realities that will stay with a man from the beginning of his efforts until the great ultimate—until he reaches the end—the goal or perfection. I am unable to think out any plan by which I can bring simple truths home to the sad and the unhappy and the discouraged, other than by saying that to study the Yogoda System and to make it a living power in your life, is to find Truth, Wisdom, and Religion that is far older than the oldest now known. This embodies in itself the essential teachings of all religions.

The true way can be found by reading the Yogoda books and feeling the touch of all that is best in them, by appealing to one’s own nature, by seeking a broader conception of life and an opportunity for more service—service to oneself, service to the family, service to our country, and to humanity.

We find so many in the world rebelling against conditions; so many questioning their Bible, questioning their God, and above all, questioning the apparent injustices in the world. Read the newspapers if you have no other source of information, and you will see constant evidences of man’s inhumanity to man, and of the failures to practice Brotherhood in the world, but the moment we take our Yogoda lessons and commence to study and practice them daily, we begin to find a key to the solution of life’s problems, a revelation of new possibilities for man.

Now it was this touch, this urge, this knowledge, coupled with a great love for humanity that brought Swami Yogananda from the little worldly life of his boyhood home in far-off India. It was this compassion, this Divine urge from the inmost part of his nature that made him feel that there must be explanations and remedies for the injustices that he witnessed in India, watching his fellow countrymen’s sufferings and sorrows before his emancipation.

It is possible that the names of the founders of all great religions will be forgotten in time, but the Christ-Spirit, which is the essence of religion, will continue to be manifested throughout eternity. The forms of religion may perish, but the fundamentals of religion are eternal. In the phenomenal universe names and forms are forever changing, but the glorious soul which it is our goal to understand is the blessed, changeless, truth of being. The outstanding demand of the world’s great sage and hero, Jesus Christ, was that man should know and adore the soul above all else. The virile, heroic Jesus has never yet been adequately portrayed in poetry or painting. However, Christendom is growing weary of the anaemic, sickly, sorrowing Christ so long held aloft as a pattern. Jesus was a man of physical strength, super-human power, and deep and abiding gladness. In this dawning century of power and joy the church that fails to interpret Christ in terms of joy and power is doomed to lose its prestige and its influence.

His laughter caught my heart. His joy broke upon my sorrow. With my silence I dug a deep well in my heart. As I lay beneath the pines under the blue, I swung in the hammock on which my body lay and I felt the sky astir and His Presence moving through me. My body became still and my Silence kept digging into my bosom, until it sprang a bottomless well.

The bubbling waters of my well clamored and called all thirsty things around me to come and drink of its inspirations. Suddenly the vast blue pouted, and plunged its blue lips into the well of my heart. The pines, the sailing clouds, the mountains, the earth, the planets,—everything put its mouth into my Well of Bliss. All things drank of me. Then, satisfied, they plunged in me, within the Well of my Immortality. Their gross bodies touched the transmuting waters of my Soul, and they all became purified into luminosity.

Just as the snow-dusts of sugar lose themselves in a pot of sparkling water, so the cloudlets, tall hills, scenic beauties, stars, lakes, worlds, brooklets of laughing minds, long winding rivers of ambitions of all creatures, travelling through many trials of incarnations, all melted in the Oceanic Well of my All-dissolving Silence.

The smiles of the youth grew brighter and he joyously and pityingly spoke in a Voice of Song: "Ah, just a day, yea, but a day between me and my long-lost Beloved. Yea, the hours of the day are slow to die. When they have expired, my Beloved will open the prison gates of my life and embrace me in Her Infinite Arms, the balloon of life will break, and the imprisoned breath of life will cross the mortal shore and reach my Immaculate Kingdom of dainty dreams, where no nightmares of illness will dare to cross the threshold of my peace.

I am the billow of the sea, in the sea I will be free. I am a dust of Light, I will swim in the Stars. I am a drop of ambrosia, I will be a sea of nectar. I am the river of the moon, I will melt in iridescence. My nightmare of desires has ceased, my dreams of grief are broken, the light of laughter has awakened. The lamp of many lives flickering over my earthliness, is extinguished forever. My light has plunged into His Light and is laying over the splendors of Eternity. The shadows of fanciful fears have slipped away and His Light has spread over the dark nooks of my soul.

I am making preparations with laughter and songs. I have clothed all my thoughts with new robes. I have asked my reverent feelings to sing a celestial chorus, and I have roused all the folks living in the villa of inspiration to observe this gala day for me—the day of my entry into the Infinite Kingdom as a son of the King of Peace. I have asked the Sentries of my will and determination to banish all sad inhabitants from my Kingdom and kill the Satan of fear, pain, sorrow, and attachment, at sight. My celebration of entering the Bliss Kingdom must be attended only with laughter and songs—no timidity or dark sorrow will be allowed to join my festivity. All the subjects of my mortal Kingdom are roused today to continuous unleashed watchful merriment. They are all waiting to welcome the entry of the Divine Messenger, Delightful Death, when he will come to open the latch of finitude and let them in—into the free Kingdom of Infinity.

All the inmates of my consciousness are rejoicing to leave this mortal prison, where they have been lashed with worries, thrown into the dungeons of uncertain, unsafe living, and constantly pounded by accidents, failure, disease, and unhappiness. My inmates are glad to dump the broken cage of brittle bones and throw the cage of flesh into the fire of Infinity and let the Bird of Paradise out to soar in the skies of Blissful Omni-presence. The inmates of my life are quiveringly, joyously waiting for the slow hours to pass by in order to welcome Savior Death to come of His own sweet accord and let them into His Kingdom at His sovereign command.

"Oh, dear ones," the youth continued. "Rejoice in my joy on the eve of my freedom from the mortal prison—long before you. For me no breaking of bones, no accidents, no fear of failure, nor of financial loss will ever exist, no unpaid bills will ever keep sawing through my mind, no greed for possessions will ever be gnawing at my soul. No discourtesies, or naggings, or quarrels, or pain, or disease will ever dare make a noise when all the doors of my senses are closed, for I will be out roaming with my Beloved on the tracts of Cosmic Freedom. Pray do not wish me to be back in your prison, just to join you helplessly in your chorus of wails, but if it is needed I will gladly come a million times, wearing the robes of Immortality, to take you out of your moral prison to my home of Blessed Freedom."

I am free! I will soon be out, and will be indeed very sad to look at you through your prison bars of mortal life, locked up in your misery-making mundane prison.

"’Tis now less than a day," as the doctors say. I will be away on my Infinite way. No music is sweeter than the song I will sing every moment: ‘Now less than a day. Less than a day, ‘til my Beloved comes today, in the dazzling chariot of Death to take me away to take me away to the Kingdom of Deathlessness, to the Palace of Bliss-Dreams, far, far, away."

You weep for me dark tears, weeping for your loss in me, but I weep for you joyous tears, because I am going before you, for your welfare’s sake, to light candles of wisdom all the way, and will wait to welcome you there, where I will be with my Only Beloved and Yours.

A spontaneous expression or action usually reveals the character of a person best. In pre-arranged or predetermined circumstances a really vicious person might do an act of virtue; an idiot might speak words of wisdom; a cruel-hearted beast might behave as a loving child of God; whereas, the every-day, unpremeditated conduct of an individual is a fairly dependable index of his true character. Indeed, we are often surprised to find how perfectly a casual expression reveals the inner nature.

This great truth is very well, perhaps best proved in the life of the great Savior, Jesus Christ. One afternoon, beholding a tired and hungry multitude, the great Son of God said, "I have compassion on Them." This one, simple expression has revealed the whole nature of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was beside the Sea of Galilee. His disciples were with Him, and a huge multitude had followed after Him for three days. On the third day they were all hungry and weary. The disciples knew that soon everyone must cry aloud for food, so they stopped Jesus and said, "Master, please tell these people to go back to their homes, because we have no food to give them." And Jesus said, "They have continued with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. I have compassion on them." Can you realize the tenderness Jesus had within His heart for these people? Beloved, try to feel the Divine tenderness expressed in these words, "I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. Now for three days they have continued with me and have had nothing to eat. I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way, I have compassion on them."

These people were not the disciples of Jesus, for whom he was in a certain sense responsible and to whom He was bound by the closest human ties. They were just a multitude of ordinary humanity, following Him to secure their own individual ends, some to be healed of deadly diseases, some out of curiosity to see the miracle of which they had heard, some with the half-hearted belief that He was the promised Messiah. Yet, Jesus did not regard them as mere strangers. He received them as His own. Still more, He accepted them as His very self, as part of His very own being. How, then, could He "send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way?"

He identified himself with them through His Compassion. He identified Himself with them to such an extent that He became almost one with them. Their suffering was His suffering. Their hunger was His hunger. Their weariness was His weariness. Their death would have been the death of Himself. Therefore, He could not "send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way." In this instance we behold Jesus Christ as a true man, showing love and tenderness—his real attitude towards humanity. In this example He has taught us how we should live with one another in this world in accordance with the Golden Precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

The entire life of Jesus was a life of compassion. Every action was an expression of His compassionate heart. It is impossible for us to review all of them, but the selection of a few incidents may sufficiently reveal to us this prevailing motive which prompted Him to do His work.

His first public work took place in a little country village called Cana of Galilee, where at a marriage festival He changed water into wine. To some of us He merely performed a miracle through some supernatural power, a power yet unknown to physical science, but well known to the Yogis, the spiritual scientists of all times and all lands. Nevertheless, granting that it was a miracle, what was the real motive? Was it to show his own spiritual power? If we are to believe that He did it to show His spiritual power, then we shall be degrading Him to the level of the black magician who performs his tricks at the corner of the street for the passer-by to see and praise. If, on the other hand, we say that He did this miracle to glorify God, then certainly that was a very poor way for a great soul like Jesus to manifest the glory of the Almighty. We really cannot believe that He wanted to glorify God by this action, because an almost similar opportunity had come to Him before. When Jesus had fasted in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, the tempter came to him saying, "There are the stones. Surely the great Son of God can change them into bread to satisfy His own hunger." But Jesus rebuked him with those immortal words. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Thus, we may realize that Jesus did not perform the miracle at Cana to show his own spiritual power, or to glorify his spiritual Father.

What then, was the motive of this action? It was His compassion. Just picture the circumstances of the incident. The spiritually-minded householder had invited his friends to this marriage feast. It may never have occurred to you that this host was a spiritually-minded man.Perhaps you would like to know what proof I have that he was. The fact that women like Mary and men like Jesus and His disciples were invited to that feast is sufficient proof of the holiness of that man. Now, a host of this nature found that provision for the entertainment of his guests was insufficient. Without doubt, everything within the means of the family had been provided for this great occasion, but still there was not enough. The hospitable man felt humiliated and miserable when he found there was no more wine to serve his guests. Mary seems to have noticed it first and she knew that Jesus had power to help their host. So she approached her Son and said, "They have no wine." The reply of Jesus seems almost brusque, as he spontaneously refused to use His spiritual power in such a case. He knew that such an action would violate certain fundamental spiritual laws. Then, of a sudden, Jesus realized the humiliating situation of His host. He looked at the kind old man who was His friend. He saw in his face the signs of humiliation and grief. His loving heart was touched. He could no longer refuse to help him out of his difficulty. His compassion overpowered Him and He reluctantly acceded to his mother’s request. Jesus changed water into wine. Compassion was the true motive of this act. Without doubt, Jesus violated a law of spirituality in this act. He utilized His spiritual power for material gain. In a life of spirituality this is a most heinous crime. Yet, when we consider this action of Jesus from another standpoint, the standpoint of compassion, we cannot but support His conduct. True it is, He violated a spiritual law, but He obeyed a higher law, perhaps the highest law. The law of love and compassion. Love is the highest law. Compassion is the highest virtue. Jesus obeyed the law of love, when in His first public work in Cana of Galilee He revealed His compassionate heart which governed all the days of His life.

In the course of His ministry among men, Jesus performed various kinds of miracles. Among them healing took a most prominent part, and the stories of these indicate that He performed more physical healings than any other Savior of whom we have historic record. The dumb came to Jesus and burst into song in praise of the glory of God. The blind were blessed with sight for the first time by beholding the glory of God in man and in nature, because Jesus had touched their eyes. The lame began to dance with joy and praise God, because Jesus told them to stand up and walk. It is a matter of record that all who came to Jesus to be healed were healed. To what motive can we ascribe this Godly work of Jesus? Was it to glorify Himself? Certainly not. Was it to glorify God? Perhaps. But the principal reason for all His healing work was neither of these. The principal reason was His compassion for suffering humanity.

There is one incident which clearly shows us the real motive that prompted Jesus to heal humanity of its physical diseases. This incident occurred at Jerusalem, near a pool by the sheep gate which was called Bethesda. It was the belief of the people that at a certain season an angel came down into the pool and troubled the water, and that the one who could first step into the water after it was troubled would be healed of any disease he might have. Many must have been healed in that way, and many more were waiting, anxiously watching for the opportune moment. Among these was an impotent man, impotent for thirty-eight years. Who knows how long he might have waited there in the hope of being healed? Probably it had been a very long time, for he had no man to help him. Every time he observed that the water was troubled and would have stepped into it, someone else who was less afflicted stepped down before him. He had lost many a chance. Yet, he was waiting, perhaps only to be disappointed again. God always helps the man of faith, though there may be no mortal to care for him. So it was in the case of this poor cripple. One day Jesus happened to pass by. He saw the helpless man and at once knew his condition and how long he had been waiting. Jesus came near him and asked, "Wilt thou be made whole?" The man replied, "Sir, I have no man to help me, and when the water is troubled another always steps down before me." Then Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed and walk." And immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked.

Mark, what a compassionate heart! This man did not ask to be healed by Jesus, but the moment Jesus saw him He had compassion on him and healed him. In every other recorded case of physical healing the people came to Jesus to be healed. They prayed to be healed and were healed. Helpless ones lay beside the road in the hope that Jesus would pass near enough for them to touch the hem of his garment and be healed, and they were healed. But in this instance Jesus Himself went to the man and asked, "Wilt thou be made whole?" This man did not even know who Jesus was, for he addressed Him as "Sir." The poor soul did not know that the very incarnation of God was standing before him offering to break his bondage. Indeed, very often when mercy comes from God, it comes thus unexpectedly upon us. Verily, compassion was the basis of all the physical healings of Jesus. He healed the sufferers because He had compassion on them.

The Gospels also give the record of moral healing in the ministry of Jesus Christ to suffering humanity. But they give us the record of only one case. According to the Mosaic law, a woman taken in adultery was to be stoned to death. Such a woman was brought before Jesus by the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus looked at the accused and her accusers. He did not answer them a single word, but He stooped down and wrote with His finger on the ground. What could He have written that would so confound every man who stood there with a stone ready to cast at the woman? He wrote the various sins which infest the human heart. Then He said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." After a little while all the accusers had turned and fled. Jesus looked down at the woman at his feet and said, "Woman, where are those thins accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?" And she answered, "No man, Lord." Then Jesus said unto her, "Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more."

Mark, again, the compassion of Jesus. He could have publicly denounced those men by citing their individual sins before the multitude. He could have bitterly rebuked the woman for behavior which he condemned elsewhere in no uncertain terms, saying, "He that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." But He did neither. He knew perfectly well that none of them was without sin, but instead of accusing them He had compassion on them. Jesus could not denounce the men because He had compassion on them. He could not condemn the woman because He had compassion on her. He had compassion not only on the accused, but also on the accusers. Through His compassion Jesus healed the woman of moral sin. It seems probably that he healed these men of their bigotry, as well. This compassion that works both ways is after all the highest expression of compassion. This Divine compassion was the motive of His moral healings.

Jesus gave spiritual healings, too., Here, again, we have record of one instance. It was in the case of His disciple, Peter. It was on that last sad night of communion and leave-taking between Master and disciples. Jesus was alone with the twelve. Naturally, their talk turned to devotion and faithfulness. Among the disciples Peter was the most ardent and zealous. He was given to acting and speaking on impulse without forethought or reservation. That night, of a sudden, Peter protested his love for his Master, saying, "Lord, I will lay down my life for thy sake." Jesus answered quietly, perhaps with just a note of sadness in His voice, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice."

Later, that same night, Jesus was arrested. Before He was committed to the high priests and Pilate, He was taken into a hall where He was surrounded and tortured by rough soldiers and other men and women who appeared to hate Him. Now, Peter and John had both gone along with Jesus to the place. John who was know to the high priest, went in with Jesus, but Peter stood outside at the door. Then the damsel that kept the door said to Peter, "Art thou not one of this man’s disciples?" and Peter replied, "I am not." John was looking for Peter, but he could not find him in the hall. When he learned that he was still outside, John went out and brought Peter in with him. Peter did not go to his Master. He stood near the fire with the crowd, warming himself. Someone in the crowd asked him if he was not one of Jesus’ disciples, but he denied again. By this time Peter was very much afraid. He was recognized here, so he thought it was best for him to leave the place. He started to make his way stealthily toward the door, but a servant of the high priest, a kinsman of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, who would for this reason have good cause to remember his, said, "Did I not see thee in the garden with him?" Peter again angrily made his denial. Peter denied. He denied again. He denied for the third time. The moment he had done this immediately the cock crew. Peter stopped and remembered the word of Jesus, his Master, and went out and wept bitterly.

Thus briefly, a very poignant scene of spiritual awakening is described, a scene of spiritual awakening which no mortal could ever forget. Let us pause for a moment to picture the details of that scene. Hearing the cock crow, Peter, who had been so persistent in his denial that he forgot every other consideration, suddenly remembered the saying of his Master and instinctively looked toward the end of the room where Jesus was. Jesus looked at him. He just looked at him. But what a look that was, a look of love, a look of sympathy, a look of understanding, a look of compassion. That look pierced so deep into the heart of Peter that he went away, out of the sight of the beloved Master whom he had denied, and wept, wept bitterly. One look, the compassionate look of Jesus, awakened the sleeping conscience within Peter. That conscience began to prick Peter so sharply that he realized his own weakness. So he went out and wept bitterly over his own shortcomings.

Beloved, the first real step in spirituality must always be the awakening of our own individual conscience, the conscience that shows us our defect, our own misdeeds, our own shortcomings. That compassionate look of Jesus perhaps for the first time lighted in Peter the torch of spirituality in the true sense. From the moment of that spiritual illumination he could never be the same again, because he was healed by that compassionate look of his spiritual infirmities.

The compassion and love of Jesus in His last words to His disciples must touch the heart of every man and woman who reads or hears them. Mark these words of Jesus, almost His last to those chosen few. Jesus was giving them His last message. He told them about His coming crucifixion. They were completely dejected and disheartened. Their grief was unbearable. They could not endure the thought of separation from their beloved Master. They came close to Him. They embraced Him. Oh, how heartrending was that scene. Beholding the sorrow of His disciples, His loving heart was moved with compassion and He said, "I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you again. Beloved, do not weep, do not grieve. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you again." Such was the compassion of Jesus for His disciples, no, not for them alone, but for all. "I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you again."

Yet, there is one more instance which proves more than any other the compassionate heart of Jesus. Behold Him on the cross with nails piercing His hands and a crown of thorns upon His head. Upon one side a thief was reviling Him. At the foot of the cross the rabble mocked him. A little aside, a small group huddled together, weeping for Him. Looking down upon them from the throne of His compassion the King of Kings beheld them all. His friends who were accusing Him, His friends who were mourning for Him. Then, lifting up His eyes to heaven He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." At this moment the compassion of Jesus knew no bounds. Man has not seen on the face of the earth a better manifestation of Divine Compassion than this. It was truly the Divine Compassion. He had compassion on all of them, His foes who had delivered Him to be crucified, as well as His friends. He had compassion on those who out of their ignorance were ruining their own lives, as well as for His loving disciples, His mother and other loved ones who were mourning for Him. In the highest sense every one of them was in misery, the profound misery of a world which could crucify one of the highest expressions upon earth of the Godhead, the very origin and source of their own existence. So Jesus was moved with compassion for all of them equally, and cried aloud, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

It was not because they committed a sin in the earthly sense of the term that Jesus had compassion on them. What difference could it make to Him whether His physical body was destroyed or preserved? They could not crucify His soul. He had compassion on them rather because of their hard-hearted cruelty, their ugliness and ignorance. He had compassion on them because of their miserable condition, and from the very core of His compassionate heart He cried, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Forgiveness is not a negative quality, it is a positive virtue. To forgive is to give sweet speech for sour reviling, love for hatred, kindness for anger, and above all, wisdom for ignorance. In this sense Jesus the christ prayed for forgiveness, forgiveness for all mankind. Father, I pray You, forgive them, because I have compassion on them. Forgive them. Give them sweet speech. Give them love. Give them kindness. Give them wisdom. Forgive all their miseries and give them peace in their hearts. Father, forgive them, for I have compassion on them. Amen.

Today, I drove on country roads

For miles and miles, where duty called,

I saw bare trees and grasses dry,

And snow and ice the highways by.

I saw God’s love in everything.—

The sheep whose wool keeps them all warm,

The cow who doesn’t feel the cold,

The bird who shelters from the storm.

The shining pools reflected bright

The sinking sun’s resplendent light,—

Pink, blue and gold, of Heaven’s own hue,

Greens and purple, indigo too.

Now, late at night, day’s duties o’er,

I sit me down behind closed door.

The sense turmoil now noiseless is,

I revel in God-Consciousness.

This Summer School is especially for residential students of serene, harmonious disposition. Good food and lodging, freedom of the entire grounds, occasional excursions to Mt. Wilson (the greatest observatory in the world), and also to the nearby ocean beaches—all these can be had, together with Yogoda higher Training, for a nominal sum per week.

Swami Yogananda, himself, with a few wonderful teachers and disciples, will conduct this training school under the trees. Demonstrations of scientific telepathy and burial under ground will be given by Yogi Hamid Bey. Occasional lectures by Brahmacharee Nerode, R. K. Das, and other Yogoda Center leaders, who can come, will be additional features of the Training School. Training in the highest conscious contact of God and transcendental conscious trance will be given by Swami Yogananda, and training to become one with the Infinite, and at the same time to be conscious of the body, will be taught by Swami Yogananda. Despite immense difficulties, and with great sacrifice of time and spiritual service in other cities, Swami Yogananda will be at the Yogoda Sat-Sanga Headquarters during July and August, especially to conduct the Summer School.

The daily studies in the Training School will be so arranged that they will fit in with the desires of students who come for only one week, or one month, and they will at the same time suit the desires and plans of those who come for the entire two months’ training. The essential features of the Yogoda, Advanced, Super-Advanced, and Highest art of Self-Realization Classes will be revised, as well as other classes given by Swami Yogananda. A high, advanced study in metaphysics, which has never yet been given in any city, will be given for progressive work. Those students who are over 21 years of age, healthy in body, sound in mind, and strong in will, who wish to dedicate their live to the Yogoda Cause will be considered for training as Yogoda teachers. All residential students must be free from contagious diseases, bad habits, and fault-finding dispositions. They must be strictly harmonious and must apply, stating age, and sending photograph with first letter.

We strongly advise people to stay at Yogoda Headquarters for at least one month, in order to get a good idea of the spiritual and healthful influence of the Headquarters. We do not strive as much for the gaining of diplomas as we do for more and more meditation and self-realization. Special methods of step-by-step realization, and attainment of different grades of intuitional perception will be taught to students. How to climb through the different states of consciousness, subconsciousness, semi-subconsciousness, super-consciousness, immanent Christ-Consciousness, transcendental Cosmic Consciousness, and direct conscious perception of Spirit will be taught. Great methods of practical meditation, which will produce definite spiritual self-realization, will be taught to the students. Great methods of healing the body of disease, the mind of bad habits, and the soul of ignorance of self and others, will also be taught.

We do not want to create spiritual "victrolas", who will deliver sermons that have no relationship between the sermon and the soul, but we want to train real servants of God and Christ, who will scientifically contact God and deliver His sermons from the soul. Intuitive spiritual interpretations of the Christian Bible, Bhagavad Gita, and Whispers From Eternity, and development of will power and of intuitive insight, will be taught. Spiritualization of prayers to bring conscious response from God will also be taught.

On all applications please state distinctly whether you desire to remain for one week, two weeks, a month, two months, or longer.

All applications for the Summer School must be in the mail not later than June 1st. Only if accommodations are still available will applications be received later.

How to be Fatigueless—How to Develop Memory—How to Heal Diseases—The Highest Methods of Concentration and Meditation—Cosmic Consciousness—Inner Significance of "Word, Son, Father, and Holy Ghost."

Mental motion picture of Cosmo-Genesis—Reincarnation—Developing intuition—Spiritual Interpretation of the Tree of Life—Eating the Apple—Adam and Eve—Paradise Lost and Regained—Spiritual Marriage—Mental Chemistry—Lifting the Serpent in the Wilderness—Law of Karma, the Five Pranas, and other subjects.

The Great Inner Interpretation of Revelation—Consciously Contacting God at Any Time, Anywhere—Magnetic Diet—Expelling All Poisons from the Body—Reversing the Searchlight of the Senses—Finding Friends of Past Incarnations—Destroying Germs of Past Karma, Fear and Anger—Origin of Evil—Why Evil, Germs, disease, and Temptation Exist in Nature without Man’s Instrumentality—Who made God—If God Is Almighty Why Doesn’t He Free All Mankind at Once?—Converting Two Hands into Magnetic Batteries—How to Heal by the Laying on of Hands as Jesus Did—Super-Relaxation—Control of Involuntary Organs—and Conscious Contact of Cosmic Consciousness.

How to Quicken Human Evolution by Increasing the Brain and Spinal Power of Perception, and How to Live Several Hundred Years ahead of your time.

The Second Higher Advanced Method of Self-Realization Course Teaches:

How to locate Centers in the Spinal Subway, and How to Reach Cosmic Consciousness Through the Spinal Subway.

Please write for further information, and pamphlet.

Leader-in-Charge, Sradha Devi, National Headquarters, Yogoda Sat-Sanga Society of America, 3880 San Rafael Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif. Phone: Capital 9531.

Dr. M. W. Lewis, Leader, 29 Edghill Rd. Monday weekly meetings, 543 Boylston St., Boston, Mass.

Anna Krantz, Sec., 75 Goulding Ave.

R. K. Das, Leader, 2559 Eden Ave.; Bertha Shimler, Sec. 5642 Bramble Ave. Monday class meetings and Sunday public meetings held at 24 East Sixth St.

Calvin A. Judson, Leader, 623-625 Society of Savings Bldg. Friday weekly meetings at Hotel Winton.

Mary J. Dillon, Leader and Secretary, 939 Grant St. Weekly Thursday evening and Sunday 3:30 P.M. meetings held.

E. W. Basler, Sec., 1211 S. 14th St. Friday class meetings and Sunday public meetings at 8 P.M. held at 721 N. Milwaukee St.

F. Storlie, Asst. Leader, 717 Plymouth Bldg.; Ednah Hall, Sec., 2317 Harriet Ave. Wednesday weekly meetings at Mrs. Elizabeth Backus, 2201 E. Lake of the Isles Blvd.

Mrs. Harold E. Wilson, Leader, 1240 Patton St., Wilkinsburg; Miss Rachel J. Logan, Sec. Weekly Thursday meetings held in Committee Room of Carnegie Library, Forbes St.

Alyce Gubber, Leader 68 S. 6th East St., Mrs. Minnie Byrne, Sec. Wednesday and Sunday meetings held at Newhouse Hotel.

U. Punditji, Leader. Sunday morning and evening devotional services; weekly classes, Tues, Wed. and Thurs., held at 208-9 Hotel Missouri, St. Louis, Mo.

Brahmacharee Jotin, Leader. Several meetings weekly at 1424 K. St., N.W.

Afro-American Yogoda Sat-Sanga Association, 907 U. St., N. W., Washington, D.C.

Yogoda Center of Progress; General Caly Mayor, in charge; Esq. Ave. Coyoacan Y., Tacubaya, Col de Valle, Mexico, D.F.

Yogoda Center of Progress. R. J. Calder, in charge. 14 Devon Square, Alloa, Scotland

It is one of the most beautiful places in Denver, and is ideally located at 939 Grant Street just three blocks south of the State House.

The entrance to the Temple is very impressive with its wide stone steps denoting progress of Yogoda and huge columns that remind one of the everlasting strength of Yogoda.

This home was made possible by Mary I. Dillon whose love for Yogoda prompted not only the gift, but the dedication of her life to God through Yogoda.

A flourishing Yogoda Center has been organized here under able leadership. The Swami says, "Lecture campaign work at Kansas City and meeting some of the most spiritual Yogoda students there has been one of the greatest happinesses of my life."

After a course of some inspiring lectures on Yogoda had been given by Swami Yogananda in the city of Milwaukee in the spring of 1931, a group of his devoted enthusiastic students organized the Milwaukee Center.

The Center has since given all it time to the holding of public meetings, and to the reviewing of the Yogoda classes, except that the Christmas Spirit was celebrated at the Center with a Hindu Dinner, Christmas Carols, and an inspiring musical program.

Salt Lake City is our latest news item, where Swami received a warm welcome. Upon his arrival he was very cordially received by the Secretary of State as special representative from the Governor of Utah.

The Swami spoke to overflow meetings each night, loud speakers being installed on the mezzanine floor and in the corridors of the Newhouse Hotel. Only for political gatherings have such crowds assembled in the history of Salt Lake City.

Mrs. Alyce Gubber is leader of this group which holds its meetings in the Newhouse Hotel. She is leader of the meditation group also.

One of our oldest "new Centers" is the St. Louis Center, which, under the leadership of Punditji, has made the St. Louis Center one of the most devoted and active in the country. Its activities being so many and varied, space prohibits a complete report. Since its dedication by U. Punditji and R. K. Das many prominent speakers have appeared before the group. In May, 1931, thirty Yogodans with their leader, Punditji, visited Swami Yogananda at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. All were happy to see Swamiji again and to visit the new Milwaukee Yogoda class. Dec. 7th the first anniversary of the Center was celebrated with devotional songs and dedicatory services of the Temple to Swami Sri Yukteswar, whose picture was presented to the Center by Punditiji. Social diversions are not forgotten. Picnics, Hindu-American banquets, Christmas, and New Year’s activities are enjoyed by the Center and their friends.

In addition to the regular Sunday service, class meetings are held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and a public class on psychology on Friday. Special instructions and students’ spiritual problem departments are conducted by the Leader. The Center has a metaphysical Library open to the public.

Dear Ones:

With this new year, make an undying resolution: "To behold the Spirit in the Light of regular practice of the Yogoda Lessons, and to establish a Yogoda temple in every heart." So, daily, meditate deeply, at the same time spreading the message. Live Yogoda, talk Yogoda, and spread its good news everywhere. As I received the Lessons from my Master, and you received them from me, so it is your duty to spread your own testimonials about Yogoda everywhere. You know that hidden in the Yogoda Lessons is the highway to Self-Realization, through which all bypaths of religious beliefs must pass to reach the abode of Infinite Bliss. In Yogoda lies the Second Coming of christ; that is, through these five, once lost but now found again, techniques of Self-Realization from the Christian Bible, the theology-clogged cup of consciousness of the people will be clarified, and the Omnipresent Christ-Consciousness, so long shut out, will get in to rest forever. Whosoever shall enlarge his consciousness by meditation and concentration, will be able to receive and perceive Him; and whosoever will comprehend Spirit in his enlarged consciousness will be a Son of God. Realize that Christ-Consciousness, your Savior, is already come a second time, knocking at the doors of your consciousness. Through constant practice of Yogoda, you open the doors of your consciousness and let Him in. Do not crucify Yogoda by indifference. Honey requires a hive. A hive without honey is useless. The East loves to collect spiritual honey. The West loves to build big hives of spiritual organizations. To acquire spiritual honey through individual meditation is just as important as to build large hives of organizations, where the honey of collective truths may be stored for the service of your brothers and sisters in future generations.

Remember to acquire for yourselves individual self-realization, but do not neglect your spiritual organization work, for that is intensely selfish and such neglect is detrimental to your soul-progress. At the same time, spiritual organization work without individual or group meditation, is meaningless. As Christian Yogodans, your ambition should be to establish God within, on the altar of self-realization, and also to establish Him in the united hearts of all in your spiritual organization. Spiritually learn how to swim alone, and at the same time teach others how to swim. spread the work of Yogoda by renewing your habit of the practice of Yogoda Lessons every morning and evening, and train yourself to lead groups, whereby you can keep your self-realization renewed always, with the gatherings from soul-flowers in the hives of Yogoda organizations.

Yogoda’s need now is for more inspirational apostles, those who feel the Christ-Consciousness within, and who will become real apostles of Self-Realization. From today, strive to become an apostle of Christ-Consciousness, also try to be one of the world’s "Fishers of Souls" with your inspirational words and writings, and with your voice saturated with the Holy Ghost Vibration of "Aum." Go on bringing others into the Yogoda path, which is the finding of God through Self-effort, and through meditation in the temple of intuition. Let Yogoda Self-Realization and Sat-Sanga Universal Fellowship be your watch-word in your daily life.

To how many friends are you going to write in order to interest them in the teachings of Yogoda in the monthly East-West Magazine?

Always remember that good company is a stronger influence than your will power. Make your mightiest effort to come to Mt. Washington next summer, and join in the unforgettable Yogoda studies in this, our first and most unique Summer School, which will be conducted by a band of great Yogis and teachers.

Perhaps you are suffering from stubborn temporary, or chronic diseases. Perhaps prosperity does not come to you, no matter what creative ability you have applied. Perhaps the hastily swallowed beliefs of others, unmasticated by intuition, or not saturated with the saliva of spiritual assimilation, have produced in you theological bewilderment, or theological skepticism, or spiritual indecision, or theological indigestion.

You may be at a loss to understand which path will give you direct God-contact. If so, go to the Source of Christianity, which is the Orient. If you are in doubt, write to us. We will show you that health, prosperity, and wisdom can be satisfactorily obtained through an unlimited Divine law without fail, if you get your soul radio tuned to our Christian Yogoda Healers at Yogoda Headquarters. We have spiritual teachers, who invisibly by their concentration can help you to tune your soul-radio to receive the ever-present health, prosperity, and wisdom vibrations of God in the ether.

Just as songs seem silent and cannot be heard in a room with a broken radio, so through your mind radio, broken by worries, fear, restlessness, skepticism, or stubborn or chronic sickness, you are unable to catch the health and the power and the wisdom vibrations of God. If you have devotion and sufficient faith, they will act as an ether through which our Healers will be able to tune your mind instruments to calmness and peace. Tune in with us consciously any time between the hours of 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. (your time.) Write to us telling us which you desire: Your body tuned to receive God’s health vibrations, your mind tuned to receive God’s abundance vibrations, or your soul tuned to receive God’s wisdom vibrations.

Thousands of people have tuned in their souls, and have awakened in Self-Realization to God, finding that headaches, colds, rheumatism, tuberculosis, and cancer were nothing but nightmares. Just as disease, poverty, and ignorance can be seen and felt in a dream, so the dream of ignorance shows in all its reality throughout the fury of mundane troubles. Just as in waking, one laughs at one’s own dream-vanities, so when we awaken in faith and God-Realization, we laugh at poverty and all its accompanying courtiers.

All that we claim is that the strong, Divinely-tuned will of our Healing Helpers can demand that God tune your body, mind and soul radio so that you can then tune in on His healing broadcastings. You must thus get your body, mind, and soul radio repaired and all its doubting static tendencies removed.

Please get in touch with our Yogoda healers right away. Do not delay for any reason. The present time is always a very good time to begin anything. No matter what your problem may be, whether apparently unimportant, or whether of vast importance, we can help you without doubt.

Kindly cut out, fill in, and mail to us the accompanying coupon right away. Also please enclose return postage with your letter, and we will appreciate any love offering that you may be prompted to send us to help carry on this great and special Healing work.

Food should be eaten according to hereditary, national and individual habits. There are individual or hereditary habits of eating foods, which are bad from the point of view of general dietary laws of food combination or food chemistry. Such specific bad habits of eating food should be gradually overcome.

Bad habits of eating make the human system demand wrong foods. In such cases the right food, although disagreeable to the system, should be taken in very small quantities first, and then gradually increased until the system responds to normal food. One should learn to eat Nature’s foods, such as fruits and green vegetables, and drink at least a glassful of good milk each day.

Milk is the only food, excepting eggs, which alone can support human life. The extreme "cooked-food lover" and the "raw-food faddist" both often omit from their diets many elements needed for the proper building of the body, so that no matter what your views may be concerning food problems you will be safe if you drink plenty of milk. It will help prevent old age and the sudden deterioration of the body, which result from not giving the body all the elements that are necessary for its healthy maintenance. Never drink milk with your meals. Milk taken with a heavy dinner produces indigestion. Drink milk alone or with fruits.

This is a salad which is qualified to satisfy all the chemical demands of the body.

Chop fine one heart of lettuce, spread well with two or three tablespoonfuls of strained honey, then mix with two tablespoonfuls of thoroughly ground pecans. Add the juice of one orange pulp, eight tablespoonfuls of cream, one teaspoonful of melted and browned, sweet butter, and one tablespoonful of toasted bran. Mix lightly.

If you are suffering from catarrh, make your night meals very light. Eat mostly fruits and very little cooked vegetables, some boiled peas or boiled spinach just to satisfy the demands of your acquired habit.

Eat your heaviest meal at noon. Do not drink water nor eat before going to bed at night. Eat very little bread, a small piece of toasted whole wheat bread at noon.

Do not drink iced water with your meals, especially at night. Sleep well covered, open windows wide both summer and winter. Refrain from eating meat as much as possible. Never eat fish, meat, or eggs at night. Drink milk in the afternoon. A fruit diet and ground nuts at night are best. Take long walks in the morning, and especially at night before going to bed. Inhale and exhale all the time when walking.

Catarrh is caused mostly from overeating at night and from neglecting colds. By following the above rules conscientiously, you will begin to destroy the roots of this disease.

I ask for nothing more than long peace

In a shady place of silence.

My church is the world,

My altars—the trees,

My holy water—the streams

My Gods are all Pagan Gods—

The Moon . . . the Stars . . .

Love . . . and Silence . . .

Every Sunday at 3 P.M., the residential leader gives soul-stirring lectures, and Thursday nights special Hindu and Christian Bible classes, with inner interpretations, are held.

Only peaceful, harmonious souls are welcome to stay. Reservations for a week or more can be made by telephone if rooms are unoccupied.

The public, as well as Yogoda students, are welcome to use the grounds, Temple of Leaves, open air or indoor auditorium, for meditation and rest, from sunrise to sundown. Pass the day on this hill-top Paradise in God’s great outdoors in meditation and silence at Yogoda Headquarters. You are cordially welcome.

Due to the general depression and the difficulties attendant, the July-August, 1930 issue of East-West was the last issue published before this present issue of April, 1932.

Beginning April, 1932 the East-West magazine will be published monthly instead of every two months as heretofore. Yearly subscriptions $2.50; single copy twenty-five cents. However, our subscribers will receive as many single copies as are still due them on their subscriptions, a single monthly copy being the same price as the copy covering a two months’ period.

We shall be glad to consider manuscripts embodying the highest quality of spiritual thought. No payment will be made for printed contributions.

Kindly keep a carbon copy of your manuscripts, as we cannot be responsible for unavailable contributions unless accompanied by a fully stamped self-addressed envelope for return.

____________________________________________________________________________________

An Ideal Intuition-Awakening Gift

"Whispers From Eternity"

By Swami Yogananda

HIS FIRST NEW BOOK IN SEVERAL YEARS

With a Foreword by Amelita Galli-Curci

This long-looked for, soul-stirring book for making your prayers work is something which you can daily study and use for your all-round progress. This book will daily yield new inspirations as some plants yield new roses. This book tells you how to resurrect dead prayers, in order to find tangible response from God. Through this book, you learn how to have a heart-to-heart talk with God, Who is otherwise often silent.

The world-famous Prima Donna, Madame Amelita Galli-Curci, on her return from her recent triumphant concert tour of the Orient, has written a most inspiring Foreword to this book, in which she says:

"This book gives a variety of prayers so helpful and suited to our various needs . . . It brings God closer . . . Instead of parroting dead prayers, we learn to saturate them with God-invoking love . . . Followers of all religions can drink from this fountain of Universal Prayer . . . Pass not by the mine of realization hidden beneath the soil of words, by hurried, intellectual reading: but with meditation daily digging into the words, find the fountain of realization."

Another poet and writer, S. Gray, writes:

"This exquisite book contains the choicest thoughts, decorated by flowers of rhythmic Oriental style." The well-known Southern poet, Etta Wallace Miller, writes enthusiastically as follows:

"Imprisoned in words, the Spirit of Prayer flutters bright wings in the sun of realization. Little, confiding talks with the One Father, universal in language, musical, mystic, exquisite. A revelation of son-and-daughter relationship between humanity and its Creator."

YOGODA. Descriptive 70-page booklet of the system originated by Swami Yogananda for Bodily Perfection thru contacting Cosmic Energy, and for mental and spiritual development along the lines of the great Hindu Teachers. 15c.

SCIENTIFIC HEALING AFFIRMATIONS. This book has become a world-wide inspiration. Swami has used these affirmations at Healing Meetings in many of the large American cities, and thousands have been liberated and healed of disease of the body, mind and soul. This book gives not only many beautiful and inspiring Affirmations to use for awakening your inner powers and thus free yourself from the consciousness of sickness, poverty, bad habits and mental sloth, but it also EXPLAINS the scientific reason for healing thru the power of thought, will, feeling and prayer. Unique methods of healing for different types of mind. How to Contact the Curative life Principle and Cosmic Energy. 50c.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CHART. Ninth Edition. This book gives a Chart for Analyzing Human Nature and conduct. Practical understanding of inherent and acquired natures. A Psychological Mirror for Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline, highly recommended by University professors. Used with great practical success at Swami’s Residential Schools in India. 50c.

SCIENCE OF RELIGION. Sixth Edition, with Frontispiece of the Swami. Preface by the English poet and philosopher, Douglas Grant Duff Ainslie, who writes: "This small book is the clue to the universe. Its value is beyond estimation in words, since between these narrow covers is to be found the flower of the Vedas and Upanishads, the essence of Patanjali—foremost exponent of the Yoga philosophy and method—and the thought of Sankara — greatest mind that ever dwelt in human body—placed for the first time within reach of the multitude. This is the deliberate statement of one who has at last found in the East, after many wanderings, the solution of the riddles of the West." $1.50 (postage 10c extra).

SONGS OF THE SOUL. Fifth enlarged Edition, Intuitional Poems inspired thru spiritual Realization. For Chanting, Meditation and Soul Revelation. "Exquisite imagery and psychological description of mystic experience." "Classical solemnity of thought with fascinating suggestiveness of modern inspired poets." "We mark in some poems the power of Milton, in others the imagery of Keats, and in all the philosophic depth of the Oriental Sages." With a Preface by Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, President of New York City College. $1.50 (Postage 10c extra).

WHISPERS FROM ETERNITY. Second Enlarged Edition. Swami’s newest book. Devotional prose poems. With a Foreword by Madame Amelita Galli-Curci. $2.50 postpaid.

SPECIAL OFFER—SET OF SWAMI’S 6 BOOKS—$6.00 POSTPAID.

EAST-WEST MAGAZINE. $2.50 yearly, postpaid. 25c. per copy.

SONGS FOR PIANO. (Sheet Music), "SONGS OF BRAHMA," ancient Hindu Temple melody, 35c. "MY SOUL IS MARCHING ON," words by Swami Yogananda, 20c. "OM SONG"—Beautiful, inspiring. 35c. "IN THE TEMPLE OF SILENCE," 15c.

YOGODA EMBLEMS. Pins and Lapel Buttons for Yogoda students. Gold plated, in orange and blue enamel. $1.00 postpaid.

PHOTOGRAPHS of Swami Yogananda. Mounted. $2.00.

YOGODA CORRESPONDENCE COURSE. Send 15c for descriptive pamphlet.

The Center commands an unsurpassed view of the city below, as well as of other nearby cities, including Pasadena, the "City of Roses." The Pacific Ocean sparkles in the distance, and at night the million twinkling lights of Los Angeles and distant cities may be seen below, a veritable fairyland.

Week-day and Sunday classes and lectures are given, including a non-sectarian Sunday School for children. Yogoda Sat-Sanga Center is open for meditation and visits of all Yogoda students, their friends and the general public. The work of the internationally known Yogoda Correspondence Course is also carried on at this Center.

Persons able to support themselves, and of strictly harmonious disposition, who are planning to retire and pass life in service to all, and in cultivating cosmic consciousness through the Christian Yogoda teachings of all-round development, may apply to Yogoda Headquarters fully stating their intentions. Such people will find Mount Washington, a hermitage of their dreams, a heaven of scenic beauty and quietness and a scientific residential University of Self-Realization. This training is offered for the first time in America under ideal conditions.

For further information, please address