Dawn!

Dawn!

Light abundant and sufficient for each day to fill creation afresh with vitality and strength, with power to grow and find illumination. Awakening each day, may I find Thy light revealed in my soul with the certainty of Truth and Bliss.

Behold the Mystery of Light and the ways it comes to Life: Hold in  your hand a match unlit. How does light exist within it, hidden? Strike the match, and the light comes to life.

Within you consciousness, the flicker of light expands and connects what was hidden from you, bringing forms and colors into one sphere of meaning that becomes you and connects us.

Light ignites our hearts in many ways, always joining, embracing, expanding… Some hearts are slow to illumine. Like coal they need time, but once aglow, their quiet warmth soothes and endures for a long time.

Some hearts hold light as water does, subdued in dark and silent depths, yet brilliant and energizing in streams and cascading falls.

Some hearts spread their light like the ignited incense - a fragrance offered into all directions freely, inviting and pleasing to all.

Some hearts, like peerless transparent diamonds reveal the full spectrum of Light.

From dawn to dusk the sun’s light shines forth and the world appears to us as formations of lights and shadows. As we watch the setting sun, the same world disappears again into darkness. Where is Creation’s light then — That light which will pour into tomorrow’s creation?

Where is your Light now? Are you an explorer by daylight only? Or can you peer into the Light of the East, the Self-source that illuminates all worlds, both night and day?

Swami Kamalananda
The Forest of Forever

Ujwala: Illumination

Light encircles each day
with its garland of seven illuminations.
In solemn stillness of Pre-dawn
is foretold the course of
each heavenward destiny.
Dawn heralding advent of rose-golden rays
in beneficent blessing, spanning across
the horizon of time and space.
Gaze upon this day of Thy creation!
Each morning bathing the day with renewed
vitality and opportunity.

From its glorious apogee
the Sun infuses all earth
with the power of pranic light
ensuring growth and evolution.
Twilight, the ending edge of day,
withdraws consciousness again
into self-contemplation
of the mystery of light and shadow.
Gaze, we all, with subjective wonder
at the serene beauty of this evening!
The moon, quiet and full of calm
and vast constellations offer
unanimous confirmation of
Thy benediction over all.
Filling the spheres with the
still darkness of night.
Rise from the depth of dreamless sleep
into worlds of shadowless midnight
To commune in realms unknown,
with pervasive and ineffable peace.

Awake, awake, this heart’s desire!
To again find promise of abiding Light
in each new day dawning!

From Skyland to Skyview

An excerpt from The Forest of Forever by Swami Kamalananda

Skyview Farm is the material “Forest” of this book, but I wish to begin with a preamble through an earlier Forest from my guru's early years in America: his formative influence in the great Shenandoah National Park and Skyland in Virginia.

Within a few years of his arrival in Washington in 1928, Swamiji (then a Brahmachari) met a couple whose influence and generosity would further his work in establishing his first church on Western Avenue while he simultaneously became an inspiration to their work in establishing the Shenandoah National Park.

Adi Nairn Pollock and her husband George Freeman Pollock worked for years in the early 1900’s to negotiate the transfer of their properties extending from Front Royal and further on in the vicinity of Sperryville, Virginia, to the east and Luray to the west, to an apex in lofty Hawksbill Mountain and the slightly lower though imposing Stony Man Mountain.

Adi had become a follower of the light of Yoga, trusting Swamiji spiritual guidance throughout the years of her husband's rigorous life of welcoming friends and visitors to their cherished mountain retreat at Skyland. “Polly” and Adi would invite “B.J.” (as Adi affectionately called Brahmachari Jotin) for visits to their Massanutten Lodge And the beautiful lands, also thoughtfully furnishing him a cabin all to himself. His noble bearing and presence drew other visitors to him; They warmly referred to him as the ‘Prince of Skyland.’

The Skyland of Swami's time is not the same as today's Skyland, which is easily reachable as a scenic car drive from Washington, D.C. In his time it was virtually isolated from the mechanized world. The trip itself provided a real adventure! When Swami went to visit Skyland he would leave (usually after his Sunday worship service) to drive to Luray and then go by secondary road to reach the foot of the mountain. This was a long and time consuming journey in the 1930s! The climb to Skyland would then be made by horse — either with carriage or on horseback, or for some, on foot.  (He rode horseback.) Some roads were merely dirt, unpaved, narrow, steep and with sharp curves. In bad weather of course they were dangerous! He would need three days just for travel to spend a few days there as if in another world.

While visiting at Massanutten lodge many times in those years Swamiji would speak on India's spiritual heritage, also sharing readings from Rabindranath Tagore with Mrs. Pollock and interested guests.

Few would understand how great were the sacrifices and major contribution of Mrs. Pollock's own wealth to the lengthy process of building the private, then state, and finally national properties to become a National treasure as the Shenandoah National Park. And fewer still would know the key influence of Swami Premananda in supporting the cause.

As I heard it, a critical moment in the legal proceedings occurred while he was visiting Skyland. Mrs. Pollock's financial resources had been stretched and consumed far beyond her expectations, and yet another demand came for even more expenditures. Exasperated and weary from it all, she was teetering on just giving up the entire project, and so she came to her trusted guru to express her dilemma:

“What shall I do?” she asked him. “This is too much! I don't think I should continue now…”

“Adi,” he explained, “I know how much you have given and done, but it will not be lost. Go ahead, Adi, If you can. Take this last step.”  “Okay, B.J., if you say so,” she answered.

Mr. Pollock's funeral services, held on September 7, 1949, were conducted by Swamiji as Minister of his “nonsectarian Self-Revelation Church in Washington.” He was introduced as a native of Calcutta, an eminent scholar and a friend of both Mr. and Mrs. Pollock, who spent much time with them at Massanutten Lodge. 

As recorded in “SKYLAND: The Heart of the Shenandoah National Park,” what he poured forth as tribute that day deepened everyone's appreciation of his friend, but will forever be a testimony to Swamiji’s own mystical reverence for Nature as well as his profound understanding of human character.

He spoke from the Forest of Forever:

“Mr. Pollack was not a religious man. I doubt if he ever entered a church during the last quarter of a century.

“I do not think Mr. Pollock ever contributed anything towards the construction of any church. Nevertheless, I can say that he was a spiritual man, and he has built a cathedral – not a cathedral of stone and marble, not a magnificent structure where human voices sing in choirs to the accompaniment of organ music. He has built a cathedral which will last as long as God preserves the United States of America. As long as America exists, this cathedral which Mr. Pollock built will endure.

“He has built a cathedral in Shenandoagh National Park where anthems are sung by bird choirs and the lighting is from the heavens above. It is a cathedral not limited to any denomination. Here men and women from all over the world will come and gather together, people of all faiths and creeds: Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews. Even the atheist will come and join in the worship of the spirit in that cathedral.

“What heart would not be lifted in the consciousness of God while seated in Stony Man, overlooking the valley? What soul would not be lifted in consciousness of spirit, realizing the beauty of God manifested when the foliage turns in a magnificent spectacle of color in the fall? It is such a cathedral that Mr. Pollack has built.

“It was very difficult for him to accomplish this task which proved arduous indeed.

“He had to go through many trials and tribulations and overcome many obstacles, but in spite of every hardship he slowly and steadfastly – I may say, stone by stone, step by step – built this cathedral of the Shenandoah National Park which will immortalize his memory. He had a dream, and that dream came true. 

“Once, when Mrs. Pollock urged him to give up Skyland, he said ‘Some day Skyland will become part of a National Park, and I am going to keep that place no matter how difficult it is. I am going to do everything in my power to build it into a National Park.’ 

“Yes, he worked hard, and his dream came true. Many of you remember when we had to go to Skyland on horses, then by taxis. Finally, the bulldozers came and the highway was built across the entire Park. Now thousands come for recreation and for revelation, too. Travellers will pass through that cathedral. Artists will come and paint its glory and beauty. Devotees will sit on the rock and in the meadows and find inspiration in the contemplation of Him who is the creator of all things.

“This is the cathedral of which Mr. Pollock dreamed and which he built. As such I say that, in the truest sense he was a spiritual man.”

The Rabbit in the Moon

The figure that appears in the moon to Indians is not that of a man but a rabbit, and the story of how it got there is a lesson of charity brought through nature's own tender creature.

The story begins with three friends: a monkey, a fox and a hare, seemingly unlikely friends, to be sure. Among them the rabbit was respected as the wisest of the three, and so they lived together while sharing the sacred vow of his guidance not to kill other creatures. In fact, the hare's greatest urging was the need for compassion and self-sacrifice.

The story relates that the chief among the gods (Indra) came once to test the wisdom of the hare's charity. Approaching the three friends disguised as a beggar he said he was very hungry and pleaded with them for food. The monkey and the fox were at a loss: berries and meager fruits - their accustomed diet - would surely not be enough to satisfy the hungry beggar. As for the rabbit, who ate only grass, something unfit for human consumption, he too was at a loss.

Desperate that their guest should receive suitable hospitality, however, the rabbit came up with a plan: He would literally offer himself! He first lit a fire, then he shook himself until all the lice and fleas could escape from his fur, and then finally he jumped into the fire, intending to offer his own flesh as meat for their hungry guest.

Indra was then moved to act, for the hare’s extreme sacrifice Indra could not allow! (After all, the king of the gods is compassion and mercy personified.) So honorable was the rabbit’s charity to him that he mercifully interceded, preventing the flames from consuming our beneficent hare. Suddenly Indra revealed himself to the rabbit. Then - for all of us to learn forever more of true compassion and self-sacrifice - he dramatically painted the figure of the hare on the face of the moon.

Excerpt from The Forest of Forever
By Swami Kamalananda