June 2010 Newsletter

Dear Friend,

A man prayed every morning to God. Every morning he made the same plea: “Please God, let me win a million dollars in the lottery.” For many, many years this man prayed this every day. The years went by. The man married, had children and raised his family. His wife died. As he aged further, his children died and he buried them – and he grew bitter. But still, every morning he raised his hands in prayer and again asked to win the lottery.

By his 97th birthday, the man had made this plea twenty-seven thousand seven hundred and forty one times. God appeared to the old man. “John, please,” the Creator of heaven and earth said, “help me out. Buy a ticket.”

Are you doing your part?

Joy to you.

Timothy

Inspiration from Yogananda

The sincere seeker, in contrast to the armchair "seeker" who wastes his life spinning intellectual theories, takes heart at the thought of the hard work before him. A true warrior, though afraid, plunges courageously into battle when the strength of his arm is needed. A true alpinist, though apprehensive of the sheer cliff he faces, sets out resolutely to conquer it. And the sincere truth seeker tells himself, "I know what an arduous task it must be to achieve perfection, but I will give it all I have. With God’s help, success, surely, must be mine!" By deep, daily efforts in meditation he conquers flesh-consciousness at last, and regains his long lost awareness of the divine bliss within.

O devotee, take heart! No matter how dry, clay-hard, and cracked the soil of your heart has become during famine years of sense indulgence, of failure and disappointment, it can be watered and softened again by peace-showers of inner communion. Your spiritual enthusiasm, long wilted, can be revived. Only drink once more the ancient wine of God communion. In the field of fervent spiritual endeavor, as, daily, you work the softened soil of renewed soul perceptions, sow once again the seeds of spiritual success, and watch them grow into a new crop of divine joy.

From a new book from Crystal Clarity:
How to Have Courage, Calmness and Confidence
The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda, Volume 5

The Kerela experience is once-in-a-lifetime.

Doing it with Gyandev & Diksha as your personal guides
- who also teach and lead you in
meditation, yoga, and Ayurvedic cooking -
makes it a once-in-several-lifetimes experience!

“The Kerala experience is just the right amount of
rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, and fun.”

— Suzanne, Nevada City, CA    

See many pages of information and photos of Kerela.

Radiant Health Tip
for June

The secret of radiant health is to

Be a Cause, Not an Effect

Look at these programs all starting up in
JUST ONE WEEKEND!

A Deeper Practice of Yoga June 17 – 20 Lift Your Consciousness! This program is led by Gyandev, the Director of Ananda Yoga. Despite his youthful appearance, Gyandev have served at The Expanding Light Retreat for 23 years! We may be a bit biased – but in our view there is no better yoga teacher on the planet. Gyandev will be assisted by other Retreat staff too, so you’ll also benefit from their experience.

Living in Simplicity June 18 – 20 Peter & Marga Goering Create a clear and concise plan for creating more simplicity and calmness in your own life. Peter and Marga live what they teach – and know how to share it in a way that you can absorb and make real in your life. Nobody does it better than Ananda Village!

Meditation Teacher Training June 18 – 27 Diksha McCord & Savitri Simpson Learn to deepen your own meditation practice – and how to effectively teach meditation to others. Join the uncounted others who have gone deep with these amazing teachers over the past many years. You will be astonished at how much you personally gain and leave with full confidence to teach others.

Inspiration from Kriyananda

“….. then began the most thrilling literary adventure of my life.

“Autobiography of a Yogi is the story of a young Bengali Indian's intense search for God. It describes a number of living saints he met on his journey, especially his own great guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar. It also describes, more clearly than any other mystical work I have ever read since, the author's experiences with God, including the highest one possible, samadhi: mystical union. In chapter after chapter I found moving testimony to God's living reality, not only in infinity, but in the hearts and lives of living human beings. I read of how Yogananda's prayers, even for little things, had been answered, and of how, by placing himself unreservedly in God's hands, his unanticipated needs had been met unfailingly. I read of intense love for God such as I myself yearned to possess; of a relationship with Him more intimate, more dear than I had dared to imagine possible.

“Until now, I had supposed that a life of meditation might give me, at best, a little peace of mind. But here I discovered, all at once, that the fruit of the spiritual life is a love and bliss "beyond imagination of expectancy"!

“Until recently I had doubted the value of prayer, except perhaps as a means of uplifting oneself. But now I learned, and could not for a moment doubt, that God relates individually, lovingly, to each and every seeker.”

From The New Path; My Life With Paramhansa Yogananda, by Swami Kriyananda