Some Jottings from the book '‘Swami Kriyananda As we have known him’'

The saving grace of the book ‘Swami Kriyananda As we have known him’ – by Asha Praver are the various photos of the Swami. His smile is what I succumbed to (its so gentle and disarming). Have a luk at http://www.swamikriyananda.org/

Nothing much in the book except for the closest of his disciples. And except the loose jottings below

“Softer than the flower,
Where kindness is concerned;
Stronger than the thunder,
Where principles are at stake.”

- Vedic definition of a man of God

“Even one moment
In the company of a saint
Can be your raft
Over the ocean of delusion.”

- from a Sanskrit chant, Anandam

“A sad saint is a sad saint indeed!” – St.Francis de Sales

“The deeper the Self-Realization of a man,
The more he influences the whole universe
By his subtle spiritual vibrations”

- Paramahansa Yogananda

“Patanjali defines the state of yoga, meaning ‘union with God’, as ‘Yogas chitta vrittis nirodh.’ Yoga is the ‘neutralization of the whirlpools of feeling.’ These whirlpools - chitta - reside in the heart.

“Jesus put it this way, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall inherit the kingdom of God.’ Purity means the absence of any other desire except the desire for God. That is our natural state. It is not something we have to acquire. All we have to do is remove the impurities of the heart which keep us from knowing ourselves as we truly are: One with God.”

“The quality of non-avarice, developed to perfection,” Swamiji explains, “generates a subtle mechanism that enables a person to attract things to himself effortlessly. He is never anxious then, that his needs, whatever they may be, wont be supplied. They will be, infallibly.”

“Ramakrishna claims that he saw visions of Krishna and Kali. How can the universe be structured so that an entity like Krishna that doesn’t exist anymore or an entity like Kali, that never existed, can manifest as a vision? Is it real or merely mythical?”

……….Without any hesitation he answered. “Krishna and Kali are just a collection of qualities,” he said, “like you or me. Those qualities exist in the cosmos. If you meditate on cosmic vibration with enough energy and concentration, you can pull those qualities out of the universe in that form.”

………This is the essence of karma yoga: We are all serving – and in that sense helping – God. There is nothing personal about it – not his role, not mine. We are just smoothing the way for what is trying to happen.