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The world's various religions are based more or less on the beliefs of man. But the true basis of religion should be a science that all devotees may apply in order to reach our one Father-God. Yoga is that science.
Yoga is a system of scientific methods for reuniting the soul with the Spirit....Yoga teaches us how to rise above the delusion of separation and realize our oneness with God.
Some people say that the Hindus are more adapted to the practice of Yoga, that Yoga is not suited to Westerners. This is not true....Yoga is for everybody, for the people of the West as well as for those of the East. One would not say that the telephone is not for the East just because it was invented in the West. Similarly, the methods of Yoga, although developed in the East, are not exclusively for the East but are useful to all mankind.
Loving God "with all thy mind" means withdrawing one's attention from the senses and giving it to God; giving to Him one's whole concentration in meditation. Every seeker of God must learn to concentrate. A prayer that one utters while at the same time thinking of other things in the background of the mind is not a true prayer.
The purpose and goal of Yoga [is] to regain the lost paradise of soul consciousness by which man knows that he is, and ever has been, one with Spirit.
The Hindu masters taught that to gain the deepest knowledge one should focus his gaze through the omniscient spiritual eye (at the point between the eyebrows).... Those who go deep enough in their concentration will penetrate that "third" eye and see God.
[Publishers Note]: During deep meditation, the single or spiritual eye becomes visible as a bright star surrounded by a sphere of blue light that, in turn, is encircled by a brilliant halo of golden light. This omniscient eye is variously referred to in scriptures as the third eye, the star of the East, the inner eye, the dove descending from heaven, the eye of Shiva, and the eye of intuition. "If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light" (Matthew 6:22, KJV).
The light seen in meditation is the astral light from which our tangible creation is made. Beholding this light, one feels a unity with all things.
The selections
featured here are excerpted from Paramahansa Yogananda's book,
MAN'S
ETERNAL QUEST.
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Insight and Inspiration
