Come out into Nature

Come out into Nature—not the nature of maps and marked paths—not even the nature of America or any particular country—but the Nature of God…and of yourself. That Nature is filled with whispers of ruling powers which inhabit trees and flowers, streams and mountains. They will feed your inspiration and speak to you in your own immortal language. There is such sweetness and loveliness, profound lessons of law and justice, mystic messages, and virtues “civilized” man has yet to learn. And freedom! No wealth of mere possession can buy the sheer luxury of such freedom; it comes only by the grace of God to a heart attuned to creation’s glory. Time “lost” in Nature is priceless. It is also healing. It will take the aches out of your joints and mind, preserving health and harmony and uplifting your spirits.

Frontiers of the Spirit
Swami Kamalananda

Twelve Lights on the Subjective Life

1. Cultivate the consciousness of the inner life. “Do not follow the way of the worldly-minded.” (Isha Upanishad). Learn to seek God by seeing God.

2. Seek to earnestly know who you are. Self-knowledge is the source of freedom, peace, joy and love. It is the basis for enlightened character.

3. Realize the truth regarding the immortality and perfection of soul, thereby overcoming the worry and anxiety which arise from false identification with the physical and mental bodies.

4. Treasure the virtues of the Soul. They are wisdom, goodness, selflessness, purity, joy and love. Desire for “special status” of social position, fortune, and vain beauty obscures the true wealth of the Soul.

5. Cultivate humility. Humility is not self-abnegation nor cowardly passivity, but strength of character by the grace of God. It is identification with the source and perfection of all our powers of righteousness. In the words of Jesus of Christ Consciousness: “I of mine own self do nothing. Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

6. Learn to transcend the self-limiting concepts of time, space and relationship by renouncing such attachments to the world of opposites as these: myself/others; pleasure/pain; life/death; success/failure; praise/blame; fortune/misfortune; superiority/inferiority.

7. Value the sacredness of love—believing in and acting according to its transforming and perfecting power. Selfless love ennobles every life and establishes the heart on God. It strengthens the will, brings peace to the mind and purifies the heart.

8. Give up the idea that your inmost self is separate from others. In our truest life—in our aspirations and even in the difficulties we face in walking the path of God—we are one. No blessing or gift from God is exclusive or momentary.

9. Place the ideal of God above all else in your life. The objective structure of our life is meaningful and rewarding only inasmuch as it is sustained and guided by spiritual understanding and enduring faith. Have courage to let all go but God.

10. Learn to perceive this universe as friendly and your life as auspicious and blessed. Everything is the manifestation of God, and soul is perfect—now and evermore.

11. Find ways to practice and share your idealism through service. Selflessness, the duty of spirituality, is the glorification and adoration of divinity everywhere. It includes charity, trust, understanding, kindness and helpfulness.

12. Accept that the spiritual art of living is hard work, requiring sincere and devoted effort at all times: “Narrow is the way and few be those that find it.”

Frontiers of the Spirit
Swami Kamalananda

Spiritual Wealth

Discovery of the spiritual wealth of your life does not mean that you will automatically become prosperous, healthy, famous or popular. Nor does it mean you will find a life of ease, free from care or responsibility. But you will enjoy true wealth, well-being and serenity. Realize the enduring precious value of the spiritual unfoldment of human character. Do not expect every objective experience you encounter in life to be beautiful and good. Think, rather, of your own inner life as powerful, good and beautiful—a precious gem that you yourself are fashioning and perfecting by the light of God. If disappointments come, don't abandon your spiritual goals, and never squander your wealth of character. Every human life has its limitations; such is life. Life on earth cannot be perfected, and no personality fulfills our ideal. But wherever you seek goodness lacking, supply it from the infinite treasures of your own heart. Understand the shortcomings of yourself and others and fill the gap by pouring out yourself. That is living by the wealth of soul. A spiritual ideal enriches life with harmony, compassion, gentleness and beauty.

Swami Kamalananda
Frontiers of the Spirit

Guru

“The word ‘guru’ comes to us from the Hindu heritage, yet the ideal of divine guidance is found throughout all spiritual traditions. It is so because the ideal and relationship of guru authority are integral to religious experience. Who was the guru of Plato? Did not Socrates lead Plato to the path of self-realization as his disciple? The guru of Shankaracharya, Govinda, initiated him into the light of meditation and inner revelation. John the Baptist protested that he could not initiate Jesus because Jesus was more spiritually advanced than he. He saw the divine unfoldment of Jesus. Yet, Jesus reminded John that every soul at one time is formally introduced and consciously makes a vow to God. ‘Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.’

Humanly speaking, guru is to be honored because he embodies the ideal we are seeking. Humanly imperfect, divinely perfect, guru is the image of our ideal. If we cannot recognize divinity in the human form we will not recognize it in formlessness. In reality, guru is our own self. Guru is the one who reveals to us our own soul. Guru is the self-revealing one. It is God whom we see in guru. God is the Supreme Guru, in reality the only Guru. God reveals Himself to us in our human guru.

The most profound meaning of guru is presented to us as Krishna, our Supreme Self, in the Bhagavad-Gita. It is the most sublime because it most clearly reveals the law, ideal and reality of Guru as well as the identical divinity of disciple, the self as individual (Arjuna). In Krishna we understand who is guru; in Arjuna we see how to fulfill perfect discipleship.

Who is this Guru, Krishna? ‘The one who draws the whole universe unto himself,’ or ‘the one to whom the whole universe is attracted,’ as the name ‘Krishna’ in its Sanskrit derivative ‘Akarshan’ denotes. This is not a personal god, but the ever abiding Self. Krishna is in each one of us as our soul. He speaks in the Gita as Atman, the closest indwelling self who reveals the Paramatman, or Supreme Self.

Krishna as the guide of Arjuna reveals the truth and ideal of guru—that is, our own divine, ever pure and perfect soul, Self-conscious and ever one with God. Embodying the ideal of human guru, Krishna leads Arjuna to discover the life of his own soul.”

Frontiers of the Spirit
Swami Kamalananda

Life is Guided by Consciousness

All life is guided by consciousness. Consciousness is responsible for all our happiness or unhappiness, peace or sorrow in life. Right now we are our consciousness. Our consciousness reveals the authority over our daily experience. Therefore, it is wise to evaluate the course of our own consciousness to see what authority we are obeying most of the time. What is our perspective, vision, awareness, ideal that guides our learning and growth? As Jesus wisely said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our treasure or predominant identification of consciousness determines our happiness.

The quality of our life improves when we live more in the understanding of our pure consciousness. Our pure consciousness is the light of soul. It is ever one with the pure light of the universe. Wise individuals heed the guidance and authority of their souls giving them intrepid strength to face the most awesome struggles of life.

Happiness is found in following one's own path perfectly, and the ideal path is progressive. Fulfillment of even limited ideals leads us on to greater and nobler ideals. The ideal life improves with experience and by the growth of ideal. My ideal has evolved with my life. What I seek; what I am aware of; what I work towards; what I love; what is of utmost importance to me—the composite consciousness of these as my ideal has guided my life and determined my happiness at each stage, leading to fulfillment that carried me on to enlarged ideals and comprehension. I have found that God has directed my path to ever new frontiers and as I enter them I feel increasingly the blessedness of this treasured wealth of life.

From Frontiers of the Spirit
Swami Kamalananda

A Word for Nature

Books and words comprise scriptures, but they are not the only revelations of life. All creation is “word,” God's cosmic scripture for us to read and understand. The method of study is glorification, communion, and feeling that the stream of life that flows through our and Nature's veins is One.

The gospels relate how Jesus taught his disciples “many tongues.” I doubt that we are intended to believe from that that he instructed them in foreign languages. Rather, that he helped them to learn how God speaks Law and Life through self-manifestation; that the trees, flowers, and all creatures are, too, the language of the Infinite. As Shakespeare said in As You Like It, “And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

There are countless religions, sects and theologies. Life is not long enough to study them all. But all derive from one expression: Cosmic Nature. Religion comes not from East or West, but from the heart of Nature. Study Nature. Nature does not exist in a single instance without expressing the most profound meaning of life.

It was Nature that awakened man to religion: Beauty, wonder and admiration are the beginning of all worship and prayer. If there were no love or beauty, religion would never have existed. Nature is the only scripture written directly and entirely by God—as such the most perfect source of self-revelation. 

The religion of Nature is not based on a personal experience of someone else in another time. According to Nature's religion, no one can be religious until he has the direct revelation for himself. Nature is the first scripture of Yoga.

As you find yourself in Nature you will evolve morally. You will expand in your spiritual consciousness. There will be an integrated harmonious development felt and revealed in every aspect of your life as you find it in Nature. All obstacles will drop away because Nature has an exclusively spiritual purpose. The whole activity of Nature exists so that the soul may emerge through successive and progressive experiences to realize that it is free in the Absolute. When the soul knows that it is free from the differentiation and form of the external Nature, then it has learned its lesson well! When it perceives its oneness with the soul of Nature, it is whole.

The companionship of Nature is not imagined. It is real. The universe of Nature in which we live is filled with the spirit akin to our own. Nature is alive with God. What that spirit awakens in the heart is a blessing. Some people consider a certain plant sacred; others bow to a stone; many worship the sun. It is always the desire to love and to feel union with God through this wonderful world that is satisfied in such reverences. 

Come out into Nature—not the nature of maps and marked paths, not even the nature of America or of any particular country—but the Nature of God…and of yourself. That Nature is filled with whispers of ruling powers which inhabit trees and flowers, streams and mountains. They will feed your inspiration and speak to you in your own immortal language.

Frontiers of the Spirit
Swami Kamalananda

Ascending Consciousness

Soul comes to God through ever-expanding consciousness of its true being. Sacrifice, the “making sacred” of life, is the most natural offering of the beauty, love, goodness and wisdom of heart and soul, body and mind. The greater the consciousness of sacrifice, the greater the realization of freedom, oneness and selflessness. Spiritual sacrifice is a positive power, because it is in accordance with all spiritual progress everywhere.

With ascending consciousness soul offers itself in sacrifice throughout its human pilgrimage to God, and sacrifice can be perceived and understood in the manifestation of the human personality at four levels:

At the first level, consciousness is limited to selfish and worldly identification. One behaves in ignorance of the beneficent oneness enfolding and sustaining all life. Hence, he perceives his existence as temporal, separate and finite. He is subject to the discomfort of unhappiness as his desires and pleasures are limited to that which comes and goes. Imprisoned within his own limitations he is not capable of deep concern for others and often acts harshly.

At the second stage, consciousness recognizes that one must compromise and adjust to relative circumstances to achieve happiness on earth. One may reciprocate kindness and offer deeds of obligation, yet, if still dominated by personal awareness, he will rebel if his own way is not followed or if his own well-being is not secured first. He sees the necessity for good as motivated by personal gain.

A truly good and noble human being is one who possesses the third consciousness—that of sacrifice. At this level the heart rules. One is fulfilled in happiness through the serving of the joy and contentment of others. The bond of oneness of life in its mutual unfoldment is felt and served through harmony, balance, joy and beauty.

A person of the fourth level of consciousness is humanly divine in the attainment of sacrifice, adoring and realizing the love of God everywhere and in all beings. Without relying on human knowledge or judgment, confirmation or approval, he willingly and constantly lives and works in harmony with cosmic good. His human kindness, love and service are offered in adoration of God with no ulterior motive of personal gain. His gentleness, compassion, inner contentment and charity inspire and guide other hearts. He is a blessing to himself and to the world.

Frontiers of the Spirit
Swami Kamalananda