Arjuna Chooses Krishna

Yogacharya David

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Anger can be one of our greatest tests upon the way up in our search for God-consciousness. Either a deep rage or a brooding discontent interferes with our connection to the Divine. When we analyze it, we come to know that anger is caused by attachment to how things are supposed to be. If you think traffic is supposed to be moving fast and there is a sudden stoppage, a flare of rage may erupt. It is the thought that traffic should be flowing at high speed, and then it is not that causes the disturbance.

In our desire to continuously experience the qualities of the Divine we must cut the binding cord of attachment. In this work of letting go we differentiate between attachment and having an ideal. We can have the ideal that there should be no violence in this world, everyone should work their problems out non-violently. Yet, we find ourselves in a world where violence is all too prevalent. I have known those who are very disturbed by the violence in this world, and in their disturbance they are livid. Their thoughts and emotions emit violence in their rage. How can they bring peace to this world when they have none of it themselves?

In the Mahabharata, the epic poem from India, there is a collision of forces that ends up in a massive war involving millions. Krishna belongs to one of the royal families drawn into the conflict. He first attempts to mediate a solution, but when King Duryodhana is insistent on maintaining an unrighteous position, Krishna makes a decision to bequeath his army to one side, and he, unarmed, will stand with the other. Arjuna (self-control) is first to choose, he takes Krishna, not his army. King Duryodhana (material desire) thanks his lucky stars that his enemy Arjuna has picked Krishna, leaving Krishna’s army for himself.

Duryodhana is recklessly angry, trying to prove himself and find security through his position in the world. Arjuna is calmly determined and looks to Krishna as his guide. Arjuna does not yet realize that Krishna is a divine incarnation, however he does know that Krishna is wise and very special; he definitely wants him by his side. Though the battles are hard fought and many times goes against Arjuna, eventually he and his side win the war.

The key is that he has asked Krishna to be the driver of his chariot. Although in a worldly sense a charioteer is beneath the dignity of royalty, Krishna accepts the position. Spiritually this puts him in command of Arjuna on the battlefield. It is Krishna who teaches and directs Arjuna. Arjuna fights without anger, neither does he give into despondency. He fights because it is God’s direction to do so, to fulfill righteousness.

We find in Arjuna exactly the right attitude in life. This world is a battlefield of competing interests, to run away leaves the field to those who are driven by lower desires. If good people do not become policemen, then those posts are left to scoundrels and the world suffers. This is true of all positions, from the janitor to CEOs of large companies, political leaders and spiritual ministers. Dharma, right action, betters the world, adharma, wrong motives, brings suffering.

The essential factor is that you must serve with a focus upon doing what is right, putting God’s direction in the driver’s seat. When you are driven by angry vitriol or seething revenge, no good can come of it. When you stand aside out of fear or tepidness, the world suffers. To find the right balance of calm decisive action based upon the highest light you know will produce the highest and best results for yourself and the world at large. Determine to demonstrate your Arjuna within—put God first and enter into the world to do what is right, with all your might.

Blessings–Not Luck

Yogacharya David

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What do we mean when we say, “Good luck?” We are wishing someone well, that things go his way. And what does it mean for things to go his way? We all know there are times in life when everything seems to just go easier, contrasted to other times when it feels one difficulty after another is trying to stop us. Good luck means either the impediments disappear or that they are overcome.

But why any impediments at all? Is it bad luck that is at fault? The same person with the same body conditioning may be walking down a slight hill, talking, smiling and laughing all along the way, or he may be climbing a steep incline, all talk ceases, the lungs act like overworked bellows and he feels as though he will not make it to the top! Is the hill climbed bad luck?

When we find someone who is struggling to put one foot in front of the other we want him to have strength, endurance, have some things go his way. The individual may focus upon his own abilities, however to the thoughtful person it becomes clear that every individual is connected to something higher, and events that swirl all around have a Source beyond random chance—there is a Creator, a God. Rather than ascribing this source to luck, you ultimately want another to be blessed by the giver of all good things. Good luck really means: God bless you.

If you would but know it, all things in your life are a result of the law of cause and effect, the law of karma. However, higher than the law of karma, or the stars, genetics or any other influence from the material world is the power, intelligence and grace that comes directly from Divine Consciousness.

Replacing no, I can’t consciousness with yes, I will consciousness is a tremendous step in evolution. But a giant leap forward comes in uniting individual will with the supreme Creator’s will, which makes all things possible. Light is stronger than the dark, love more powerful than fear, omniscience true and separation false; in all ways, the Presence of God is superior to anything this world offers.

It is the human mind that is the battleground for these two ways of perceiving the source for overcoming—the human and the Divine. Years and lifetimes of survival mode makes us think we must rely only upon our own wits and capabilities. And, although it becomes clear there is a Divine Consciousness which is the true source of our being, past programming remains strong in feeling, it is just me.

My own journey in knowing this something higher began when I was a late teen. My own decision making and circumstances led me to crisis of great emotional pain. In the middle of the night I sat in the front yard looking at the starry sky, feeling my heart splitting in two in the most painful way possible. It was so painful that I prayed, “God, I don’t know if you exist, but if you do, if I have never needed you before I need you now. Please, help me with this pain!” Immediately I felt as if a thousand-pound weight was lifted from my shoulders and the pain in my heart was alleviated.

My rational mind argued that there was no divine intervention, but a deeper part of me could not deny it, I knew that it was. This was a momentary opening of a door to a much greater way of being. The way was slow and bumbling, but a seed was planted in the rocky ground of doubt and denial, finding enough good soil that it eventually bore a tree of realization. The most tremendous change began when I was blessed on that warm summer’s night.

Instead of wishing you good luck, I see, in the depth of my communion with the all-beneficent Lord of creation, that you are blessed—most particularly that your journey to the highest realization is greatly quickened. In that spirit, God’s greatest blessings to you.

A Meditation on Master

Yogacharya David

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2016 Loon Lake Retreat

A spiritual retreat is a concentrated time of companionable connections and deepened divine awareness–I only wish that all could attend. Each retreat is a mystery as to what the topic will be. As the time approached my prayer was that our time together fulfill the highest good of all—whatever topic God chose.

The approach of the 70th anniversary of the release of the Autobiography of a Yogi in December of this year triggered the topic—to spend our time meditating on the life and ongoing influence of our great master, Paramhansa Yogananda. When a soul such as Sri Yoganandaji realizes God, his life yields an unending source of inspiration and offers unlimited facets of a divine personality.

I asked our three ministers to read passages from the Autobiography of a Yogi that were particularly meaningful to them. Larry focused on the fascinating chapter Kashi, Reborn and Rediscovered. It is an intense experience for Master as he promises to do a thing that he is not sure how to do—finding Kashi in his new incarnation and put him solidly on the spiritual path. Through his knowledge of how the heart acts as a receiving station and the ajna a transmitter Master develops a method for finding Kashi that he fearlessly and relentlessly employs in order to fulfill his sacred promise.

That promise is made when Kashi asks about his future. Master spontaneously says, You shall soon be dead. Instead of Kashi asking that his life be spared he implores Master to find him when he reincarnates and ensure his continued spiritual journey. Kashi is unremitting in pursuing Master to fulfill this difficult occult request. Master finally relents when he sees Kashi stretched to the breaking point. It is both touching and fascinating as Master describes in humble detail how he fulfills his sacred promise to his beloved disciple.

Jill read from the chapter The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar in which Master’s guru describes afterlife, and in particular the astral worlds. In his new afterlife role Sri Yukteswarji serves as spiritual preceptor in an astral heaven where he is a guru for those souls who leave their bodies on earth in a high state of realization, but not yet fully realized. The great master intimately knows the comings and goings in all the three worlds. Jill spoke about her younger days when she was keenly aware of death, a constant feature to life, but no one wanted to talk about it. Death, the elephant in the room that went unnoticed, was finally addressed when she read the Autobiography. It spoke deeply to her longheld quest to know the truth about death.

Peter described that when he was given the Autobiography as a young teen it struck him as the ultimate adventure story. Master ran away from home to the Himalayas in search of saints as a youth, Peter could identify with this impulse and in reading the Autobiography he felt he was on an exciting spiritual journey with Mukunda. Peter related how his awakened spiritual life helped him in an outdoor adventure of his own in the Alaskan wilderness. He and a friend hiked and then paddled a raft to a campsite at the end of a remote lake. The plan was for a seaplane to pick them up in three days. They were well prepared, however when they unpacked there were no matches! Their freeze-dried food was inedible without the required hot water, so they faced a daunting prospect of no food and no warming fire in the days to come.

The two young campers displayed an unusual response to this crises—both entered into a deepened state of prayer. After placing their dilemma before God they searched around a bit and discovered matches mysteriously spread on the ground and amazingly, quite amazingly, they were dry and flame-worthy. How could these matches inexplicably be in this remote area and in perfect condition? This demonstration of God’s Grace was not dissimilar to what happened in Master’s life that he describes in the chapter Peter read, Two Penniless Boys in Brindaban. Master’s life ignited a spiritual flame in young Peter that has burned ever since.

The retreat was filled with Master, his grace definitely felt. No better topic could have surfaced for our time together, and it is proof positive that Master is a living presence that only grows with time.

Picture: Mother’s Autobiography of a Yogi

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First Yellowstone Safari

Yogacharya David

 

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Picture: Noble Bison–Two thousand pound survivor from the last ice age

After securing a campsite at Baker’s Hole just outside the West Entrance to Yellowstone it is a day of chores and getting settled in. We then take in the excellent museum  and park visitor center in West Yellowstone. It is now into evening but we are anxious to at least drive a little into the park in our rented jeep. So off we go,  gradually realizing this is an excellent time of day to see the animals as the coolness of evening brings them out; we are driving next to the Madison River where the larger animals like to come and drink and eat the sweet grass.

The first turnoff shows some promise of a view of the river and had a boardwalk built for that purpose. Our attention is drawn to an enormous bald eagle on a snag across the flowing river. We walk down to and along the river for further sights. When we return to a close view of the eagle I walk a little closer to the river for a picture, just then he turns his head in my direction–beautiful shot. “Thank you Mr. Eagle for you darshan.”

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Picture: Large eagle gives me his darshan

On we drive, with most of the traffic going out the park in the opposite direction–good for us. A car stopped on the road in front of us alerts us to a bull bison just to the side. These majestic creatures numbered in the millions, with one herd counting in at a million buffaloes that stretched sixty miles in length! They had been hunted to near extinction for a variety of reasons, one was the value of their pelts and leather, and the second came towards the end when it was seen as a way to resolve “the Indian problem,” forcing native tribes onto reservations by robbing them of their food, shelter and tools that the buffaloes provided. The number in the park was reduced to twenty five buffaloes, a few hundred in total were left when the army stepped in to preserve the few survivors.

These beasts are enormous, weighing in at a ton for males, half a ton for females. Strong and limber, jumping a six foot high obstacle from a standing position and running 35 miles per hour they are a fearsome product of nature. Buffaloes have the distinction of having survived from the last ice age and have outlasted many of the other animals of that time period. Today the herds number in the tens of thousands and a problem now takes place when they wander off the Park grounds and are the unwelcomed guests of ranchers and homeowners–imagine one or more of these two thousand pounders munching on your lawn or wandering in the playground of the local elementary school! Having the pleasure of the darshan of this noble wonder, we drive on.

A few cars from our direction stop and a corresponding traffic jam of a mile or more coming from the other way indicate a herd of elk just off the side of the road on the strip of land that spans a few hundred feet down to the river. A large bull elk and his harem are moving down the grassy slopes and through the pine trees on a leisurely graze. We stop to get out and see these wild ones closer up (but careful to be not too close). As we stand at a distance a female wapiti ( (a term for elk from the Shawnee, meaning white rump) comes near to me. Carla, who quickly retreats, says  the cow is coming for my darshan. The head bull is not pleased with this proximity and also moves towards me through the trees to warn away any uninvited visitors–that being me! I gracefully make my way back, this being close quarters with large animals and surrounded by trees. The bull herds the cow back into his comfort zone. Just how big this bull is and how powerfully he moves is even more evident when he has me in his sights!

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Picture: Bull Elk has me in his sights

We motor on and come to a wide open field at the confluence of the Madison and the Fire Hole Rivers (called a prayag in India–a holy site), where a buffalo (formal name is bison) is off in the field. Carla has been keen to see buffalo so we stop. There is also a herd of elk down by the river. We stalk the buffalo for a while then head down to the river toward the elk. There is a very large bull and many cows, with another younger bull also in attendance.

The sun sets on this charming scene and we sit on a bench watching the various actors in this scenario, including a few human varieties. With increasing regularity the large bull elk  bugles his call, an unusual and very loud sound. Off in the distance we hear another bull elk also bugling–someone walking by suggests there may be another herd nearby.

As this scene continues to unfold a single bull elk appears off to our left and it becomes obvious he is the origin of the other bugle calls. Now this is getting quite interesting–both bulls are making alternating calls, it seems a challenger for one or all the females has found his way to the herd. By the size of his antlers he is large, but not quite as large as the current head of the herd, who weighs in at over a thousand pounds. Autumn is mating season when the males are in rut (rut is derived from Latin meaning roar, or the bugling sound they make).

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Picture in low light: Large Bull Elk bugling in defense of his harem

There are two females who are outliers from the herd and they seem to be the object of this challenger. We move down to the riverside and watch in breathless anticipation as the two bulls grow  closer, each making tremendous noise. The larger bull is slowly moving toward the challenger. We have little knowledge of their mating and challenging habits, so all of this is an extraordinary play unfolding before us. Clashing horns is not a usual part of the challenge, but a display of antlers, bugling, and posturing is effective in eventually making the challenger break off his pursuit of the one cow further up in the woods. However he makes his way across the river toward us in pursuit of the other cow.

Carla makes a wise retreat, and I have a few small trees next to me to use as defense if that should be necessary. The larger bull then comes across the creek as well and successfully defends his other cow, although she seems interested in the newcomer. Finally with bull calls, grunts (typical male) and  movements toward her, finally the female seems to come out of her entrancement with the newcomer and runs back across the river downstream where the rest of the herd is grazing down the valley. All of this has been taking place for the past thirty or forty minutes and has kept us spellbound.

By now it is getting very dark and a forest ranger has arrived at the nearby Madison Creek Campground to give a talk and slideshow on the Bison. We decide to stay for that. After a fascinating presentation we make the forty minute drive in the dark back to our campsite. Although we had a late start to our safari for our first day in the park Ram has seen to it that is has been a thriller. It really is remarkable how much can be packed into a relatively short amount of time when God is the tour guide!

 

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