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The hard core of egotism is difficult to dislodge except rudely. With its departure, the Divine finds at last an unobstructed channel.
Sri Yukteswar’s intuition was penetrating; heedless of remarks, he often replied to one’s unexpressed thoughts. The words a person uses, and the actual thoughts behind them, may be poles apart. “By calmness,” my guru said, “try to feel the thoughts behind the confusion of men’s verbiage.”
daresay Sri Yukteswar would have been the most sought-after guru in India had his speech not been so candid and so censorious. “I am hard on those who come for my training,” he admitted to me. “That is my way. Take it or leave it; I never compromise.
I try to purify only in fires of severity; these are searing beyond the average toleration.
A teacher could not spread India’s message in the West without an ample fund of accommodative patience and forbearance.”
The soul is the immutable, unqualified image of God.”
“Do not allow yourself to be thrashed by the provoking whip of a beautiful face,”
“Just as hunger, not greed, has a legitimate purpose, so the sexual instinct has been implanted by Nature solely for the propagation of the species, not for the kindling of insatiable longings,”
Even when the flesh is weak, the mind should be constantly resistant. If temptation assails you with cruel force, overcome it by impersonal analysis and indomitable will. Every natural passion can be mastered.
Daily renewed sense yearnings sap your inner peace;
A true devotee is finally freed from all instinctive compulsions. He transforms his need for human affection into aspiration for God alone — a love solitary because omnipresent.
She saw him only as her little boy, not as a sage.
Yet Shankara, reorganizer of the ancient Swami Order, disregarded the injunctions. After the death of his beloved mother, he cremated her body with heavenly fire that he caused to spurt from his upraised hand.
Shankara and Sri Yukteswar had wholly merged their being in the Impersonal Spirit; they needed no rescue by rule.
“So you have inexplicably failed to isolate the Supreme Power in your test tubes!” Master’s gaze was stern. “I recommend a new experiment: examine your thoughts unremittingly for twenty-four hours. Then wonder no longer at God’s absence.”
“Quotations there have been, in superabundance.” Master’s words convulsed me with mirth, as I squatted in my corner at a respectful distance from the visitor. “But what original commentary can you supply, from the uniqueness of your particular life? What holy text have you absorbed and made your own? In what ways have these timeless truths renovated your nature? Are you content to be a hollow victrola, mechanically repeating the words of other men?” “I give up!” The scholar’s chagrin was comical. “I have no inner realization.”
“Sacred writings are beneficial in stimulating desire for inward realization, if one stanza at a time is slowly assimilated. Otherwise, continual intellectual study may result in vanity, false satisfaction, and undigested knowledge.”
Dabru Ballav had gathered his disciples around him in the sylvan solitudes. The holy Bhagavad Gita was open before them. Steadfastly they looked at one passage for half an hour, then closed their eyes. Another half hour slipped away. The master gave a brief comment. Motionless, they meditated again for an hour. Finally the guru spoke. “Do you now understand the stanza?”
“Do you know the Bhagavad Gita?” “No, sir, not really; though my eyes and mind have run through its pages many times.”
“If one busies himself with an outer display of scriptural wealth, what time is left for silent inward diving after the priceless pearls?”
Men who were pridefully conscious of their wealth or worldly position were likely, in Master’s presence, to add humility to their other possessions.
university degree, in any case, is not related to Vedic realization. Saints are not produced in batches every semester like accountants.”
His financial independence was one reason why my alarmingly outspoken master was innocent of the cunnings of diplomacy. Unlike teachers who have to flatter their supporters, my guru was impervious to the influences, open or subtle, of others’ wealth.
He fitted the Vedic definition of a man of God: “Softer than the flower, where kindness is concerned; stronger than the thunder, where principles are at stake.”
Occasionally an outsider, fevered over some imaginary grievance, would berate Sri Yukteswar. My imperturbable guru would listen politely, analyzing himself to see if any shred of truth lay within the denunciation.
“Some people try to be tall by cutting off the heads of others!” The unfailing composure of a saint is impressive beyond any sermon. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”
When he so desired, Master could instantly attune himself to the mind of any man (a yogic power mentioned in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras III:19). His powers as a human radio,
“The guest is God,” a Hindu proverb, has commanded devout observance in India since time immemorial. In my later world travels, I was charmed to see that a similar respect for visitors is manifested in the rural sections of many countries.
did not need sleep, for I was ever with God. My body was more rested by the complete calmness of superconsciousness than it could have been by the imperfect peace of the ordinary subconscious state.
In superconsciousness, all internal organs remain in a state of suspended animation, electrified by the cosmic energy. By such means I have found it unnecessary to sleep for years.”
don’t you see, my dear boy, that God is Eternity Itself? To assume that one may fully know Him by forty-five years of meditation is rather a preposterous expectation.
Wrath springs only from thwarted desires. I do not expect anything from others, so their actions cannot be in opposition to wishes of mine. I would not use you for my own ends; I am happy only in your own true happiness.”
