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Gurudev's Birthday

Loving and Divine Soul,
On this auspicious occasion of Gurudev's birthday, I am sending my love, prayer, and best wishes to all of you.

A century of his life is over and another new year has started. Gurudev's divine life is still a beautiful source of inspiration not only for those who came in contact with him, but also countless seekers in the world who pursue their sincere effort to progress on the spiritual path. He never emphasized to follow him blindly, but to open your own eye of understanding and unity, which he called the third eye. This third eye, or the eye of spirituality, can be opened by prayer, meditation, and discriminative attitude toward real and unreal experiences.

Gurudev often quoted from the Bible: "If therefore thine eye be single, then thy whole body shall be full of light." Two of our eyes are extrovert and full of duality and division. We should train ourselves to open the eye of unity and harmony, which is what Jesus was emphasizing, so that we will not have the attitude of friend and enemy. We all are children of God. When this eye of unity is open we can see the presence of the Divine everywhere.

On this special day, I am praying to Gurudev to bless us with his divine love, kindness, and compassion. Let his life show us how to live a life of love and joy.

With love,
Prajnanananda

MOTHER'S DAY 2008

Loving and Divine Soul,

God bless you.

I pray for all of you and for all the mothers who brought us into this world. In the Vedic culture there are seven mothers:

the Earth
the rivers,
the Divine Mother, God as the Mother
the mantras,
the holy scriptures
the cows who give us milk, as the mother feeds the baby
the birth mother.

On this special day let us express our love to our mothers, whether they are in a physical body or they have departed.

Let us manifest motherly love, kindness, and compassion in our hearts.

I am praying for all. Please meditate nicely.

With love,
Prajnanananda

EASTER 2008

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

(Luke 23:34)

My Loving and Divine Soul,

The thought of Jesus is reverberating in my head more and more with the coming of Easter. He is my Passover lamb. Jesus did not hesitate to be crucified for the sake of truth and love. His life of complete surrender to God, filled with prayer and sacrifice, reminds me of the critical nature of human beings. How could people go to such a state of revenge through false accusation, critical assessment, and judging in the wrong way? Jesus said, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged” (Luke 6:37). He also said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:8-10). How beautiful is the message of Jesus, which is even relevant today.

Although in the passage of time there is so much change in the world, there is no such visible change in human nature and behavior. Even now one can find the same nature and behavior of human beings. Therefore, at the present time, the message of Jesus is very relevant for us to change our own attitude; transforming our negative qualities into goodness, compassion, and forgiveness.

On this special day Jesus prayed to the Lord, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Let us also pray, “O God, give us more tolerance, love, and faith.”

Let us contemplate on the message and life of Jesus. Meditate sincerely.

Gurudev loved Jesus, and read and taught from the Bible regularly. We should try to follow Gurudev’s example.

On this special day I am praying to God to bless all of us and to forgive our ignorance and foolishness and bless us with love, kindness, and compassion.

I am writing this letter to you all from Gurudev’s ashram, at Hariharananda Gurukulam, where his holy body is taking final rest. The four-month brahmachari training course is coming to its end and I will be happy to see you all soon.

With love,
Prajnanananda
Easter, 2008

Balashram Ladakh Trek

Loving and Divine Soul,

Many kriyavans went on a trek in the Sinai Desert last November for spiritual and charitable purposes. Words cannot express the profound spiritual experience that we had there. The charitable aspect of the trek organized by Kriya Yoga UK was to help raise monies for the infrastructure of Hariharananda Balashram, the residential school for poor children of Orissa, and the organizers say their goal was reached.

Hariharananda Balashram is entering its fifth year of operation with another 38 children joining in April. The current 162 children are growing up so beautifully in all regards - academically, creatively, physically, socially, morally, and spiritually. When I see these children and how much they are achieving in their lives, it gives me so much joy. I do not think I have ever seen a group of 162 children living together and being so happy and joyful. An act of charity on our part gives them an opportunity that they would not otherwise have.

Kriya Yoga UK is committed to helping the children of Hariharananda Balashram and is planning another trek this July, which I also plan to join. This year we will be trekking in the beautiful Ladakh area of the Himalayas.

For more information about the 2008 Hariharananda Balashram trek the organizers have created a website at www.balashramtrek.org about the last trek and information about the upcoming trek at. All center leaders please forward this letter to local kriyavans. Please note that the funds will go via Kriya Yoga UK to Prajnana Mission in India for Hariharananda Balashram.

We hope that you can join us on this spiritual and charitable journey. It is all to fulfil the dream of Gurudev of serving those in need.

You all please meditate nicely and enjoy divine bliss.

With love,
Prajnanananda

New Year Message, 2008

Loving Divine Soul,

Let the blessings of God and gurus be upon you all.

One year is going and the new year is coming and knocking at the door. Christmas and New Year come very close to each other. During Christmas one is to bring closure to the existing year, with love, prayer, and God consciousness, and to begin the new year with the same spirit. All is well that ends well. All is well that begins with strong determination and full of spirit.

Time is passing. Let us be more practical in our daily lives. I remember a beautiful teaching of Chanakya, a great philosopher of India, who taught the art of living in a practical way. It says:

shanti tulyam tapo nasti na santoshat param sukham
na trishnayah paro vyadhih na ca dharmo daya samah

There is no greater meditation than being in peace. There is no greater joyfulness than contentment. There no greater disease than expectations or unnecessary desires. There is no greater art of living than kindness, compassion, or forgiveness.

Let us cultivate these four qualities and virtues in the beginning of this new year:

shanti, or peace
santosha, or contentment
vitrishna, or limited expectation or desire
daya, or kindness, compassion, or forgiveness

Begin this New Year with more vigor and strength. Intensify your spiritual practice with more meditation, prayer, and a discriminative outlook.

I am praying for you all.

Let the shower of love and peace from God and masters make our lives more divine and fruitful.

Do not waste valuable time.

With Love,
Prajnanananda

Broadcast Talk from San Francisco Bay Area

April 15th , 2007

Gurur Brahma, gurur Vishnu, gurur devo Maheshwarah

Guru is Brahma - Just like Brahma is the creator of a new life guru is a creator giving a new spiritual life to the disciple.

Guru is Vishnu - Just as Vishnu sustains life the guru sustains the love and devotion in the disciple

Guru devo Maheshwarah - Just as Maheshwara destroys the guru destroys the fear, anger, ego and weakness of the disciple

Guru is said to be the mother, the father, the friend and the companion. I bow to my Guru and his children and students everywhere. Easter is just over, Passover is over, last week was the birthday of Prophet Mohammed, yesterday was a New Year celebration in someparts of India and here we are celebrating the Birth Centenary of Gurudev. I send my love to you all from the San Francisco Bay area.

This is the last centennial program in the West. Rests of the programs are all in India. Programs everywhere were nice, well planned and well organized with love and enthusiasm to celebrate the love, compassion and kindness of gurudev.

The Celebrations will come to an end in six weeks. The closing ceremony is in Cuttack, Orissa in India and from Wednesday I will be present in all programs there. The Centenary year was a thrilling experience to express love to our beloved Master, to follow his foot prints and his leadership.

My prayer to all of you- "Life is beauty, opportunity and it is very rare. This opportunity is time bound. If you are not careful and conscious this opportunity slips away from the hands. Being human one should transform one self with love, compassion and kindness.

It is now spring in Northern Hemisphere and autumn in Southern. The trees are colorful bearing flowers and with heavy aroma giving us the message to transform.Let summer come or winter, let us not waste a single moment. Gurudev's message was of peace, love and harmony. How much of this do we practice in mind, thought and interaction with others.

Do not waste time in laziness, procrastination and carelessness. Be strong and move further. Not weak and timid. Mind is the cause of all troubles. Be strict, be disciplined and experience progress.

Physical separation is no separation if we open up our hearts to receive the grace of God. If you are sincere you can feel the subtle presence through your breath. Gurudev said your breath is my presence in you.

Every exhalation is death and every inhalation is a new life. So each breath is a life. How are we spending this one breath - one life? Be new and renew yourself. Be strong .Have strength in body and mind and harmony in your look and out look. Love is pure. Pure love overcomes everything. Gurudev is looking at you with his beautiful eyes. Time passes away. It does not wait for any one.

Gurudev once in an airport in Europe pointing to the sign "Change" indicating foreign Exchange said to me - You know what change means -it is to change our mind not just money.

Yesterday was cloudy and raining. Today is Sunny and bright. Just as there is an outer nature we also have an inner nature that keeps changing.

Once looking at the street cleaners in Europe (dressed in orange) Gurudev said, "They are just like us. They are sweeping the outside and we sweep the inside of people. A master is saying he is the sweeper, Love God, Love guru, Make life a beautiful song.

Let not the river of life dry up in the desert of worldly life.

Love and meditate. The centennial year is coming to an end. I was the most fortunate to be speaking of Gurudev every day and remembering his love.Let this celebration of love, peace and joy never end anywhere. I bow to you all.

I will be leaving from USA in a few hours. Wherever I will be, I will be thinking and praying for you all. Do not waste time. Life is an opportunity. Opportunity should not be neglected for it may never return.

Message from Baba on Buddha Purnima

I am talking to you from the home of Gurudev, from the beautiful meditation room and in the subtle presence of Gurudev, I am sending my love, prayer and best wishes to all of you. Life is a journey and we all have to travel. In this mysterious journey of life many situations unknown, unforeseen and even unpleasant have to be faced, No one can avoid them and no one can be free from them. In this journey of life when we are traveling but we don’t know how far we have covered and we don’t know how much farther we have to go. Sometimes every traveler faces some confusion. Gurudev used to quote a line in Bengali a par andhar – this side is darkness
o par andhar - on the other side is darkness
guru hi karnadhar - the guru the guide is the boatman.

This world is like a river, we are standing on one side of the river, the river of life. On the other side of the river is the state of freedom or liberation. This side of the river is of all attachment, emotion, worries and unhappiness. That side of the river is the place of peace, love, joy and happiness. We have to be there. How to cross the river? In the Bhgavatam there is a beautiful description – each human body is a boat, we all have this boat to cross this river. Guru the spiritual Master is the boatman. If we can bring this boatman or divine guide into our life he can take us across. satarati, satarati, lokan tarayati -Because the Guru has gone to the other side and come back again to this side take all of us.

Have trust and be in the boat with boatman, the spiritual guide with love and you will reach the other side. We say time is flowing, time is flying – Really time does not change. Time is not flowing or flying our body, mind and everything else is changing. The calendar is changing. Now it is year 2005, a few days before Gurudev’s birthday. We all are sitting to meditate to feel his love. Paramahamsa Yogananda said, once I was born from the mother’s womb, in an unknown corner of the world but now I am born in the hearts of you all. Could we bring Gurudev and Gurudev’s presence to our hearts with love and let him be born within us and be within us all the time? Could you try to cherish the deep love for the spiritual Master without which it is really difficult to travel because this side is darkness and that side is darkness? In the groping darkness ignorance, insecurity, unhappiness, frustrations, many misfortunes in life we lose the joy in life. Stand strong. Let not weakness deviate us from our path. Love, pray, pray sincerely from your heart.

Tomorrow is the full moon day, the birthday of Buddha, the day of his enlightenment and the day of his mahasamadhi or Nirvana. That is why it is called the triple blessed day for the Buddhists. You may or may not know; May 27, 1907 was also a full moon day according to the lunar calendar and was the birthday of Gurudev. Gurudev was born on the full moon day. Think of Buddha, think of Gurudev and think of Jesus. In spite of all difficulties do not forget. There is a beautiful song in Bengali- Even if we forget the divine Mother, the Mother never forgets us because she is the ocean of love and compassion. Think “I belong to my mother and my mother belongs to me.” Have that trust. “I belong to her and she belongs to me. I belong to the Master and the Master belongs to me. I belong to god and God belongs to me.”

We have come to this world and today or tomorrow we have to go. But live with inner strength; live with balance, overcoming emotion and all other things that bring weakness in our lives .Try, try and try. Gurudev used to sing – gurunam hriday karo sar man amar - o my mind Cherish deep love in the name of guru. In this world of temporary existence when any pleasant or unpleasant thing happens who is there who can sit with us with a compassionate heart and tell us go on. charaiveti –move forward. charaivedi charanvai madhu vindanti – If you move forward you will attain that nectar of life. Don’t look back too much, love love love.

gurur nam hriday karo sar man amar
gurur charana bine kiya tere tribhuvane
Guru tere param saramsar

O my mind adore the name of guru, the presence of guru Catch hold of the divine feet of the guru in your heart Not physical feet. You are my everything; take me to the other side.

This was one of the favorite songs of Swami Shriyukteshwar.

In the Bhagavatam it is also said your body is the boat – you have got the human birth to cross this ocean of the world to be free and if you allow the boatman, the Master or guru to t to sail your boat, God himself becomes the favorable wind helping you to reach the goal sooner to go to the other shore. Don’t worry, pleasant or painful whatever happens in our life it is for our own growth, own strength, own emancipation own evolution. Try, try, try don’t forget every breath you love every moment you love don’t waste your time.

Buddha came and left but his teachings are still inspiring us. Jesus came and ascended to heaven, still his teachings inspire us. Many spiritual Masters came and left, still their teachings are in our front. Gurudev came, keep the teachings in your heart and soul in your mind. Love every single breath who knows –this might be the last breath. We out of ego and ignorance think we will be staying longer and longer who knows which the last breath is. Every breath is unique and comes only once .Love .breath is the link through this we have to reach the state of calmness and love. God is spirit; a worshipper of God should worship him in spirit and truth. God is breath; the worshipper of God should worship him in breath and truth. Love, Love, Love in each breath. How long will you hide from my vision O God, I don’t want too much of hide and seek. Reveal thyself; Reveal thyself I am praying for you, crying from my heart just now. Gurudev used to say, “don’t think it is too late, Begin just now”.

Make preparations to celebrate his birthday, within your heart in your life. Make preparation to celebrate the birth centenary in the best possible manner. We love him and he loves us .His love is the link between you, me and all the others. Intensify the love for the Master, the love for God. Again I am sending my love and best wishes for all of you and praying for all of you. Pray for each other, I pray for you, you pray for me .Let us all go in the path of love, devotion, compassion and fellow feeling- not anger, ego and jealousy Try. God bless you all. This is the moment. Watch every breath and feel that invisible Omnipresent God is blessing us. God bless you.

Guru Purnima, 2004

Loving and Divine Soul,

God and Gurus bless you all during this special full moon in July, which is celebrated as Guru Purnima, the Master’s Day, by spiritual seekers.

I am sending my heartfelt love, my best wishes, and sincere prayer to you.

In spiritual life the role of the teachers, whether they are present or past, is essential. They inspire, encourage, and if necessary they chastise the student. The spiritual teachers play many roles: the role of the father who guides and assists with love to help grow and rise above all weaknesses; the role of the mother who supports and sympathizes; the role of the friend who advises and shows the path of love for God; the role of the good advisor who loves and forgives without looking at any of our weaknesses; and the role of God’s messengers.

There is a prayer in Sanskrit:
tvameva mata ca pita tvameva
tvameva bandbhus ca sakha tvameva
tvameva vidyam dravinam tvameva
tvameva sarvam mama deva deva

“You are my mother, my father, my relative, and good friend. You are my knowledge, my treasure, and everything to me O Divine.”

Establish a loving relationship with the master inwardly through your devotion and understanding. With love we are to grow. With understanding we are to be stronger. With knowledge we are to be practical. With self analysis we will be vigilant. With prayer and mediation we are to be spiritual.

Meditate nicely. Pray sincerely. Love God and Gurus.

Let us be thankful to God for giving us such a beautiful guide in our life.

I am praying for you on this special day from the Hariharananda Gurukulam, the final resting place of our beloved Gurudev.

With love,
Prajnanananda
Puri, India

Gokulanandaji Maharaj

President Ramakrishna Mission, Delhi Jan 20, 2002

Sri Ramakrishna always emphasized the need for returning to solitude. Mind by nature is extrovert. When we try to bring our gaze inside, there is a real need to spend some time in a serene atmosphere. I congratulate the authorities that organized this event in these beautiful surroundings.

I was born in the same place as Paramahamsa Yogananada and on the same date. Whenever I am in contact with the monks of Kriya Yoga I am very happy.

You have all come to this camp for sadhana. Shri Shankaracharya said, three things are rare -a human birth, a desire for liberation and the grace of a sadguru. Even when one is fortunate to get the grace of a sadguru one still needs the desire for liberation. When the call comes from the other world we should be fully prepared.

When you do self-analysis, you hear the call of the inner spirit. So many of you are here. You are people of Daivi sampathi. You have come to learn and practice. You are fortunate.

We have a higher self and a lower self. Vivekananda said, Sri Ramakrishna made Mother Kali a living reality. We are not just body mind complexes - we are shuddha chaitanya, pure consciousness. One should cultivate viveka, vairagya and shad sampathi. Self-control, constant withdrawal from the world and shraddha or one pointed ness is essential. jaha Ram ..........jaha kam udhar nahi Ram. Give the mind in entirety. You may be in the world but be firmly convinced that God alone is eternal and all else is false.

Such retreats give us spiritual insight. I hope you will follow and practice and go back with great spiritual gain.

( Swamiji was very pleased and moved by the love and hard work of the monks of Prajnana Mission and the many projects at Balighai. He lovingly garlanded and embraced Prajnananandaji before he left.)