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Daily Meditator: December 2008
How to Experience God Through His Qualities
People’s goal, when they begin meditating, is often simply to find more peace in their lives. But God wants to give us much more than that.
As Paramhansa Yogananda said, “God is seeking us far more than we are seeking Him.” As we continue to meditate and purify our consciousness, our receptivity and experience of God naturally deepens.
The passage below is from the book The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda. It describes universal ways in which God can be worshiped and experienced. You may already know of the 8 aspects of God, but it is extremely beneficial to keep these qualities—and their promise of blissful communion—dynamic to your consciousness.
When you see a tourist brochure, it almost always has a prominent, beautiful photograph that inspires you to say: “I want to go there.” In the same way, the more we attune to these qualities of God during meditation, the more living and magnetic they will be to our consciousness.
It is an excellent practice to select one of these qualities and focus on it during your meditations and even during your free moments in the day. Paramhansa Yogananda said that the secret to communing with the cosmic sound of Aum is intensity and duration. This is true for any of the eight aspects or ways of knowing God.
In 1975 I first heard Swami Kriyananda speak of the sacred Aum sound; I can still vividly recall his words today: "Listening to the sound of Aum you'll find the greatest bliss imaginable. It is the loveliest sound in the universe. You'll never tire of it; you could listen to Aum for all eternity."
I was so thrilled by the fact that one could actually experience God in such a tangible way, that I began to practice the technique for communing with the inner sounds seven times a day.
As you read the following passage by Yogananda, I encourage you to select one of the qualities of God, and use visualizations, meditation techniques, and your devotion to attune to God in this particular way more deeply this coming year.
There are eight aspects in which God can be experienced: as Light, Sound, Peace, Calmness, Love, Joy, Wisdom, and Power.
To experience Him as Light during meditation brings calmness to the mind, purifying it and giving it clarity. The more deeply one contemplates the inner light, the more one perceives all things as made of that light.
To experience God as Sound is to commune with the Holy Ghost, or Aum, the Cosmic Vibration. When you are immersed in Aum, nothing can touch you. Aum raises the mind above the delusions of human existence, into the pure skies of divine consciousness.
Peace is an early meditative experience. Peace, like a weightless waterfall, cleanses the mind of all anxiety and care, bestowing heavenly relief.
Calmness is another divine experience. This aspect of God is more dynamic and more powerful than that of Peace. Calmness gives the devotee power to overcome all the obstacles in his life. Even in human affairs, the person who can remain calm under all circumstances is invincible.
Love is another aspect of God — not personal love, but Love infinite. Those who live in ego-consciousness think of impersonal love as cold and abstract. But divine love is all-absorbing, and infinitely comforting. It is impersonal only in the sense that it is utterly untainted by selfish desire. The unity one finds in divine love is possible only to the soul. It cannot be experienced by the ego.
Joy is another aspect of God. Divine joy is like millions of earthly joys crushed into one. The quest for human happiness is like looking around for a candle while sitting out of doors in the sun. Divine joy surrounds us eternally, yet people look to mere things for their happiness. Mostly, all they find is relief from emotional or physical pain. But divine joy is the blazing Reality. Before it, earthly joys are but shadows.
Wisdom is intuitive insight, not intellectual understanding. The difference between human and divine wisdom is that the human mind comes at things indirectly, from without. The scientist, for example, investigates the atom objectively. But the yogi becomes the atom. Divine perception is always from within. From within alone can a thing be understood in its true essence.
Power, finally, is that aspect of God which creates and runs the universe. Imagine what power it took to bring the galaxies into existence! Masters manifest some of that power in their lives.
The expression, ‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,’ describes only one side of Jesus’ nature. The other side was revealed in the power with which he drove the moneychangers from the temple. Just think what magnetism it took to combat single-handedly all those men, entrenched as they were in habits and desires that had been sanctioned by ancient custom!
People are often appalled by the power they see expressed in the lives of saints. But remember, you will never find God until you are very strong in yourself.
Whatever aspect of God you experience in meditation, never keep it contained in the little chalice of your consciousness, but try always to expand that experience to infinity.
Related links:
- Selected tracks from Metaphysical Meditations CD.
These guided meditations are based on the mystical poetry of Yogananda, and are read by Swami Kriyananda.  audio format.
In Divine Joy,
Bharat Cornell
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Ananda
Meditation Ministry
14618 Tyler Foote Road
Nevada City, CA 95959
530-478-7561 ext 7014
meditation@ananda.org
www.learn-meditation.org
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