As we enter our beautiful season of holy days, our minds will raise to the ideal of thanks. We will find ourselves meditating on gratitude, considering the many gifts given to us, both human and divine. So this Sunday, let us gather in the Temple and take the time to contemplate what it truly means to receive. And correspondingly, why openness and receptivity play such a grand role on our spiritual paths.

What enlightens our minds, illumines our hearts, and guides our lives? It is to that which we must awaken. Let us go beyond the season of light… toward a greater realization of the power and blessings of light. Let us move beyond the color and light of our celebration and festivity, to the light of our soul and the light of the universe.

"Shivoham” is Sanskrit for “I am God.” It is also the name of a beautiful devotional hymn composed by Swami Shankaracharya in the 8th century AD. In this complex world we live in each of us has multiple identities: I am “father”; I am “mother”; I am “child;” I am “American,” and so forth. Identity is an important concept in psychology. Psychologist Erik Erikson says “an identity crisis is a time of intensive analysis and exploration of different ways of looking at oneself.” Researcher James Marcia asserts “identity achievement occurs when an individual has gone through an exploration of different identities and made a commitment to one.” What is that “one” identity committing to which we live the fullest, happiest, most productive life of all? I am God — Shivoham!

All sublime scriptures are metaphors that contain an inner spiritual Truth which remains hidden from the unenlightened mind.  The discovery of that inner Truth makes the scripture a living fountain to quench our spiritual thirst for life’s meaning.

No one doubts the importance of maintaining a strong and resilient mind and many are the current approaches to support its “health” throughout life. Some emphasize activities and techniques that FOCUS the mind while others would promote ways to EXPAND the mind. Which is preferable? Let us see!

Understanding the nature of the mind and its powers in the light of Yoga is of supreme importance to our faith and to God-realization. You never need to fear loss of memory or diminishment of mind with age. The mind can always be your most trustworthy resource and unfailing companion on the spiritual path.  Let us see how!

When walking the spiritual path, we hear much about the concept of grace. Yet, different religious traditions seem to have quite distinct definitions of what it constitutes. They speak about grace in many forms; as beauty, as favor, as mercy. Are these concepts mutually exclusive, or do they share some common foundation? Let's gather together in the Temple this Sunday morning to consider the many manifestations of grace, and meditate upon their divine essence.

Live life to the fullest.   How do we do that? It is easy to fall victim to our weakness of mind, to our changing emotions, to our physical frailty. We need to remind ourselves that we have the ultimate source of wisdom, peace and strength eternally available to our election. In our meditation we call upon God to reveal to us our absolute perfection.

Letters are bound together through meaning to form words; words are bound together through meaning to form sentences; sentences are bound together through meaning to form the verses of a holy scripture. The sacred thread of deep meaning, the sutra that binds that holy scripture together, is the ideal of God and God realization. Indeed the sacred ideal of God and God realization is the sutra that unifies all the seemingly disparate elements of life itself. The ostensibly fragmented and unrelated “verses” of our lives are unified through the ideal of God and God realization.
 

When you talk to God, what do you say?  How do you say it?  Do you speak the words of poems, prayers and songs, or do you observe silence?  Do you convey thoughts or emotions? Do you express love, devotion, and appreciation — or concern, disappointment and fear? When you talk to God, what do you say?

With the final days of summer upon us, let us join together and ground ourselves in practice after a beautiful season of both relaxation and activity. This Sunday may we see beyond the seemingly transactional nature of our day-to-day lives, and meditate on the divine ideal of service. We will take time to view this pillar of the spiritual life in the light of devotion, in the light of action, and consider not just what we do, but more importantly, how we do it.

We will learn that Jesus of Christ Consciousness was an Absolute Monist, a yogi, a fully realized soul, Son of God, and that you and I have within us this same Reality, i.e., the light and perfection of our Soul. God within you is your soul.  God within me is my soul.  We are all possessed of this innate divinity and it is our spiritual mission to unfold that soul to its absolute perfection.  In the words of Christ, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  He was not talking to himself, but to you and me.   

Our return to congregational worship is a reminder of our soul’s return to the Source on a Path that is Eternal. The Eternal Path to God has always been open to all, making it equally inviting and eternally valuable to all. When we create borders to it or divide it into distinctive traits or collective identities its meaning diminishes to us. All names and forms are temporary. Remembering the Path as eternally vast and open expands our sense of freedom for all, love for all, and knowledge of all. True spirituality is the practice of identifying the soul’s One Source, One Presence and One Goal at every step of the way. But, “Which path is best for me?” Mark that the question comes to your mind individually. The path, though open eternally to all, awaits our personal and individual choice and election, and every life is free and also spiritually responsible to make it. Spiritual experience is cultivated and “custom made” through each heart and mind, eternally and at each moment. We are not chosen by God as a people or as a collective faith. “Our daily bread” is each soul taking nourishment every day through its own self effort on the inner path of God-realization. 

Without speaking in philosophical riddles we can identify the profound mystical source of Yoga that form our spiritual “roots” and our sacred heritage of God and Gurus.

This Sunday we will meet in our Temple to honor, contemplate and celebrate fatherhood. When we offer the Eternal Truths each week, we say, "I and my Father are One." May our meditation on this statement bring us closer to that truth, closer to our fathers, both earthly and divine. And, as the day falls on a particularly auspicious place on the calendar this year, the Summer Solstice, let us join together to bask in the light of "Our Father which art in Heaven."

At the conclusion of each session of the Kriya Series we offer the beautiful prayer of Swami Yogananda Paramahansa God! God! God!, a sublime and inspiring prayer of God-Consciousness. The philosophy of God-Consciousness is also expounded in the Isha Upanishad which enjoins: Whatever exists in the phenomenal universe should be perceived in the light of the supreme Self, Isha, God, Consciousness-Existence-Bliss Absolute. Why is “God!” repeated three times in the title of the prayer and in each stanza? What is the significance of it having seven stanzas? This Sunday we will meditate on the message of this profound prayer.

The Isha Upanishad offers the thought that we should desire to live the full measure of life.  What guides us toward the realization of such divine fullness?

In order for us to achieve this realization, the knowledge of our own soul must grow.  By our meditation we liberate the mind and remove all false knowledge and limitation. We can, therefore, nurture the noble thoughts that come to us from every side, exploring the divine powers of suggestion that exist everywhere. 

Sunday’s service will be in remembrance of the immortal soul known to us in this life as Jens Erik Steensen: his family life as well as his dedicated service to the ideal of the Swami Order of Absolute Monism as an assistant minister of this church for over forty years.

This Sunday we will meditate upon the true spiritual significance of the Sabbath. In the "battle din of activity" that makes up our daily lives, people from all times and lands have set out to establish and promote a time solely defined by spiritual rest, a time to strive for the divine ideal of stillness. While often considered a practice principally undertaken in Judeo-Christian custom, these moments set aside to honor God have deep roots that can be seen from Zoroastrianism to Buddhism to Native American spiritual traditions, and everywhere in between. Let us join together in the temple to rejoice in the day the Lord has made.

Each one of us is uniquely endowed with the ability to bring God’s light into manifestation. We each have our own unique gifts, affinities and proclivities through which we must let the pure light of God shine upon all of creation untarnished by the littleness of ego. This is our sacred duty, privilege and joy. As Jesus of Christ Consciousness implored of us: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

On this blessed Mother’s Day, let us our turn our reflection to the life giving power of that indwelling Self of us all.  

When the infinite becomes finite in this individual life, it does not lose its infinity. It is merely granting that life giving power to manifest in cosmic form.