God Is for Everyone - Softcover

Kriyananda, Swami

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565891805 ISBN 13: 9781565891807

Publisher: Crystal Clarity Publishers, 2004

Synopsis

The core of Yoganandas teachings, this book presents a concept of God and spiritual meaningthat will broadly appeal to everyone, from the most uncertain agnostic to the most fervent believer. Clearly and simply written, thoroughly nonsectarian and non-dogmatic in its approach, God Is for Everyone is the perfect introduction to the spiritual path. This book brings fresh new insightto ourselves and our most sacred practices.

About this title

About the Author:

J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda) is an internationally known author, lecturer, and composer. Widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on meditation and yoga, he has taught these principles and techniques to hundreds of thousands of students around the world.

An advocate of simple living and high thinking, his more than 80 books emphasize the need to live wisely by one’s own experience of life, and not by abstract theories or dogmas.

In 1968, Walters founded Ananda Village in Nevada City, California, dedicated to spreading the spirit of friendship, service, and community throughout the world. Ananda is recognized as one of the most successful intentional community in the world. Today, over 1,000 people reside in five Ananda communities throughout the U.S. (Seattle, Palo Alto, Portland, Sacramento and Ananda Village) and in Europe. The European retreat and community located in Assisi, Italy, also serves Ananda meditation groups in Europe, Croatia, and Russia. Both the Nevada City and Assisi communities have world-renowned guest retreat facilities where thousands of visitors annually visit for renewal or instruction in many aspects of meditation, yoga, and the spiritual life. Walters has also established "Living Wisdom" schools for grades K-12 in Nevada City, Sacramento, Portland, and Palo Alto.

Mr. Walters books and music have sold over 3 million copies worldwide and been translated into 28 languages. He is the author of more than 80 books on a variety of topics including leadership, education, creativity, and moral values. His Best-selling titles include Awaken to Superconsciousness, Meditation for Starters, God Is for Everyone,The Art of Supportive Leadership, The Path – One Man’s Quest on the Only Path There Is, Money Magnetism, The Essence of Self-Realization, Affirmations for Self-Healing, Education for Life, and his best-selling Secrets gift books.

A composer since 1964, Walters has written over 400 musical works. His music is inspiring, soothing, and uplifting. Many of his new albums are instrumental works with brief affirmations or visualizations. Chuck Dilberto, of Awareness Magazine says, "Walters’ words and music are full of his life and light. His sole intention is to heal, something we could all use during these chaotic times". His recent albums include Secrets of Love, Music to Awaken Superconsciousness, Windows on the World and Surrender: Mystical Music for Yoga. As a composer, Walters is best known for the top-selling albums Mystic Harp and Mystic Harp 2, featuring the legendary harpist Derek Bell, of the 5-time Grammy Award-winning group The Chieftains.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Paramhansa Yogananda was born in 1893 in India. His line of gurus sent him to America in 1920, where, during the 1920s, he became quite possibly the best-known public speaker. In 1946 he published his world-famous Autobiography of a Yogi, which has sold millions of copies and, in eighteen translations, is still (in 2003) one of the best-known and best-selling spiritual books in the world. In addition he wrote several other books, all of them classics in the field of religion and spirituality.

In 1925 Paramhansa Yogananda founded Self-Realization Fellowship, a worldwide organization headquartered on Mt. Washington in Los Angeles, California.

Yogananda during his lifetime attracted many thousands of students and disciples. He is generally considered today one of the leading spiritual figures of our times.
J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda) has been a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda's since 1948. He has given thousands of lectures over the years in many countries, acquainting people with his Guru's teachings. In addition, he has written over eighty books and edited two books of Yogananda's which have become well known: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Explained and a compilation of sayings of the Master, The Essence of Self-Realization. Among his other books is his autobiography, The Path, which describes his three and a half years of discipleship under the great Guru until Yogananda's death in 1952. All of these activities have been in obedience to his guru's personal instructions.

In 1968 Walters founded an intentional community near Nevada City, California, based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. The community's name is Ananda. Since then, Walters has founded five other Ananda communities in four American states and in Italy, where he lives at present.
"Spiritual religion", as explained by Paramhansa Yogananda, one of the great spiritual masters of the twentieth century, offers a pragmatic, eminently useful set of solutions to our most profound problems. The Divine Spirit is the hidden inspiration behind all that we do, the one true experience that we all seek, the lasting happiness that eludes us when we seek it elsewhere. No mere abstraction, God is a real, ever-present, ever-conscious force available for us to tap into at all times.

Importantly, this is a vision of spiritual practice that emphasizes the underlying unity of all religions, while respecting the many different ways and forms of worship. In these times of intense religious strife, this landmark approach to religious unity is certain to help usher in an era of true mutual respect and understanding among the world's great religious traditions.

God Is for Everyone is a thrilling, compassionate exploration of our deepest human needs... and the only way to fulfill them. This book brings fresh new insight to ourselves and our most sacred practices.

Contents
Preface
1. Religion: a Universal Need
2. A Brief History of Religion
3. The Goal of Life
4. Pleasure Is Counterfeit Happiness
5. Happiness Is Counterfeit Bliss
6. The Source of Inspiration
7. Religion and Spirituality
8. The Refinement of Awareness
9. The Return to Zero
10. The Science of Religion
11. The Nature of Bliss
Chapter One Religion: a Universal Need

This book has been written to demonstrate that religion is a pragmatic necessity for everyone: that God is deeply relevant to every life, and is by no means the side issue so many people have tried to make Him.

If we accept that He exists, it surely goes without saying that He cannot be some minor, or merely local, deity. In the vast universe that modern astronomy has revealed to us, God can only be thought of as infinite. To describe infinity adequately, however, would be impossible. Language derives from shared experience; it is not adequate for describing cosmic verities. The clearest human comprehension could never conceptualize a state of consciousness that is infinitely large and at the same time infinitesimally small, and that confounds reason altogether by being, for all that, neither large nor small! The Bible describes the futility of any such attempt. "My thoughts," says Isaiah speaking for the Lord, "are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." (Isaiah 55:8) Mere thought cannot span the abyss separating finitude from infinity.

Nevertheless, there is something in human nature that feels itself imprisoned by finitude. Deep within us we long to embrace infinity; this "something" will never be satisfied until we have unraveled the mystery of our existence. For despite Darwin's disparaging verdict, man is more than animal. Everyone must wonder sometimes, surely, at the strange twists and turns of life and ask himself whether some higher reality may not exist: a Reality wise, kindly (or so he hopes!), and forever aware.

Most people think of God, if at all, only vaguely. They may imagine Him obscurely as somehow omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. They may think of Him more personally (though still vaguely) as "all-merciful," or "all-wise." They may endow Him mentally with a form of some sort. In any case, they generally separate Him from daily reality as they know it.

This book offers an alternative to such abstractions. What purpose is served, indeed, by holding God at a distance? Theological definitions may persuade us to bow in reverence before Him, but they cannot inspire us to love Him. People who are religiously inclined may consider it excessively familiar to think of Him as their very own. Yet if He created us, how can He be anything but our very own? Why do we today, heirs that we are to an ancient tradition, address Him still in the familiar form, "Thou"? Somewhere in the past, God's closeness may have been more generally accepted. Today, in any case--in English, at least--"Thou" is no longer used. Even when addressing family members and close friends it seems to us strangely formal, if only because antiquated. Indeed, one wonders whether even in olden times the familiar address to God was not more often an affirmation, offered by saintly preceptors, than a reflection of the way most people thought of Him. For it was also common in the past to think of Him as the almighty Lord--hardly a concept to inspire intimacy!

It is easier, in a sense, to visualize God in the starry heavens than in our own homes. The stars, so remote from our humdrum earthly existence, suggest to our minds infinite stillness, harmony, and wisdom. By contrast, our homes are often scenes of strife and rivalry. Yet if God's omnipresence includes the very stars, He must also be right around us--even (as Jesus Christ put it) inside us. Moreover, could we view the stars up close we would see them as blazing furnaces where violent explosions erupt without cease--scenes of anything but stillness and harmony!

In any case, we cannot be forever contemplating the heavens. To the extent that we hold God aloof from our daily realities, we alienate Him from the life we know. We need a concept of God that will bring Him into our kitchens, our bedrooms, our living rooms--yes, even when those living rooms are crowded with guests. If God is everywhere, He must be quite as near as He is far away. We should make Him our immediate reality. We should seek His guidance and inspiration in our most intimate thoughts and feelings; relate to Him when the world is most demanding of our attention; seek His influence in every lightest undertaking. We should listen for His laughter behind the silliest jokes, and ask Him to infuse with His love our tenderest sentiments! If we don't see our need for Him simply in order to exist, we reduce Him to a mental abstraction: useful in mathematics, perhaps, but without any closer, more personal significance.

Ultimately, God alone can satisfy every personal need. In our dealings with other people, He is our conscience. In our labor, He is the satisfaction it gives us. When we read a good book, or listen to uplifting music, He is our inspiration. In everything we do from the performance of duty to the most trivial pursuit, He is there: watching, joining in if we invite Him to, and giving us our strength. To ignore Him means to go stumbling blindly through life, unaware that there are innumerable pitfalls before us.

People distance themselves from God when they think of Him as an abstraction. Perhaps they think that belief will "save" them, but without love what, indeed, could salvation be? Theological definitions provide no comfort for the heart. They are like antique chairs placed about, to be seen but not sat upon! Again, they are like precious chinaware, stored away safely in cupboards but rarely used. People remember God during times of suffering--but otherwise? In urgent need they may take Him out of His cupboard, dust Him off, and examine Him with greater care. Usually, however, they consider themselves well enough off without Him as they go trudging wearily from crisis to crisis, their brows furrowed in anxiety.

We need a concept of God that will motivate us to love Him. He is, whether we know it or not, our own nearest and dearest. The question is: Do we perceive ourselves as being near and dear to Him?

What I plan to do in this book is introduce a concept of God that will inspire everyone with the desire to know Him. For we alone are to blame if we think Him far from us. How we relate to Him is crucial to our happiness. To define Him with hairsplitting exactness may puff up our pride, but it offers no nourishment for our souls. Even to long for God, though the feeling seem to us one-sided, is incomparably more fulfilling for the heart than any pursed-lips acknowledgement that, "it is possible--indeed, I believe I can assert with a modicum of confidence--that something must actually exist up there, in regions subtler than any with which humanity is presently familiar."

The theologian presents "proofs" and syllogisms--to what practical purpose? Even he, however, must smile indulgently when he sees his little daughter playing with dolls. Will he accuse her of lavishing affection uselessly on inanimate objects? Let us hope not! Wise and learned he may be, but as a human father he must recognize her affection, though offered only in play, as an aid in preparing her for motherhood, later on.

In her childish games she may also learn something else: the importance of loving without any thought of return. The ability to love selflessly is a sign of maturity. Whether the love is wisely given is another matter--a lesson perhaps reserved for higher schooling in life.

In religion, similarly, the most important thing is to love selflessly.

A materialist in India once remarked to me scornfully: "Someday you and everyone who dedicates himself to living for God will be very disillusioned, when you wake up to find that He doesn't exist."

"You may be right," I replied with a smile, "but at least we'll have the satisfaction of knowing that we've done some good!"

Ultimately, the main beneficiary of every good deed, and the main victim of every harmful deed, is one's own self. Obviously, the question of God's existence is important. More important to us first, however, is to develop in understanding. Whether He exists becomes meaningful primarily to the degree that we are aware of His presence. Our first need is to develop sensitive awareness. The love of that little girl for her dolls is requited, in a sense, for love is itself her reward. As the poet Tennyson put it, "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Where true love is concerned--not passion, and not desire--neither subject nor object really matters. What matters is love itself.

In religion, similarly, when people claim that they accept Krishna, Rama, Buddha, Jesus Christ, or someone else as their "personal Savior," the important thing is the depth and purity of their love. The correctness of their worship is secondary. Whom they accept is less the issue than the vital question, Are we, ourselves, acceptable to God? God doesn't need reassurance that people find Him acceptable! What He wants is their love--in reciprocation for the love He has ever given His human children. If the way one worships Him is incorrect, but the love of the heart is selfless, He Himself will correct the error.

Whenever I hear the expression, "Praise the Lord!" the image comes to my mind of the Lord as a rich, pampered lady craving flattery as her social due! God doesn't need praise! His nature is ever impersonal, though in His compassion for each individual He is very personal. In the impersonal sense, He is like a radio station: He broadcasts on the waveless "wavelength" of superconsciousness. We need to tune our mental "radios" to His frequency. Otherwise, we may receive one of the many other programs that broadcast also on the "airwaves" of consciousness: selfish ambition, desire, arrogance, sectarian intolerance--the innumerable states of consciousness that are the distortions of delusion. Unless our motives are pure, we may find ourselves attuned to such an aberration, and only delude ourselves that we are receiving "inspiration."

How to distinguish between false and true inspiration? This point will be explored as we proceed further in these pages. As you'll see, it always depends on whether the program one listens to has the effect of enclosing one's consciousness in egoic limitation, or of expanding it toward infinity. Egotism is limiting, whereas humility and heartfelt generosity are endlessly expansive.

Every human being must discover what, to him, seems most deeply meaningful. The more self-honestly he addresses this question, the sooner he will find his way out of the dark passages in the cave of confusion and emerge into the light of clear understanding.

If you consider your own greatest need to be for money, visualize yourself as possessing it in superabundance. Ponder, then, the consequences of that excess. Would you be, in actuality, its possessor, or would you not rather be possessed? An excess of wealth is suffocating to happiness. Is suffocation what anyone deeply desires? Your long-lasting desires lie beyond hoarded wealth. Far more satisfying than a life of gloating over heaps of inanimate jewelry and gold is the innocent enjoyment of simple things. This has been the discovery of everyone who has been in a position to make the comparison. Be pragmatic in your seeking! Be, as I said, completely truthful with yourself. In the following pages, we'll explore the ramifications of these thoughts.

This book has another purpose also. It is to emphasize the commonality of all true religions. For the aim of them all is to uplift the human spirit, not to polarize it with bigotry and intolerance. Too long have religious representatives argued in defense of their respective dogmas. The time has come for them to seek ways of making their religions influential for universal harmony. The pages of history are stained red with the blood of countless atrocities--the consequences, all too often, of clinging to untested beliefs. This unscientific attitude must change, as people's perception of global realities becomes increasingly transformed by the speed of modern travel and communication. All the nations, and the followers of every religion, need to ask themselves, "How fundamental, really, are our differences?"

God is one. Truth is one. Scientists everywhere accept the proofs of any hypothesis as conclusive. Simple experimentation has replaced people's earlier, false notions of reality with demonstrated facts. An example is the seeming substantiality of the human body, which is now known to consist of mostly space. If people everywhere could be persuaded, similarly, to submit the substantiality of t...

About this edition

• Publisher: Crystal Clarity Publishers
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1565891805
• ISBN 13: 9781565891807
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 227