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    In Divine Friendship: Letters of Counsel and Reflection
    In Divine Friendship: Letters of Counsel and Reflection
    In Divine Friendship: Letters of Counsel and Reflection
    Ebook472 pages5 hours

    In Divine Friendship: Letters of Counsel and Reflection

    By Swami Kriyananda

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    About this ebook

    This extraordinary book of letters, written by Swami Kriyananda in response to questions and inquiries from his friends, students and critics over a thirty-year period, responds to practically any concern a spiritual seeker might have—how to meditate deeply; strengthening one's faith; developing divine attunement; accelerating spiritual progress; overcoming negative self-judgments; responding to illness, the right attitude toward money and profit, becoming a good leader, attracting a mate, sexuality, raising children—any many, many other subjects.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrystal Clarity Publishers
    Release dateApr 14, 2008
    ISBN9781565896086
    In Divine Friendship: Letters of Counsel and Reflection
    Author

    Swami Kriyananda

    A prolific author, accomplished composer, playwright, and artist, and a world-renowned spiritual teacher, Swami Kriyananda (1926–2013) referred to himself simply as a close disciple of the great God-realized master, Paramhansa Yogananda. He met his guru at the age of twenty-two, and served him during the last four years of the Master’s life. He dedicated the rest of his life to sharing Yogananda’s teachings throughout the world.  Kriyananda was born in Romania of American parents, and educated in Europe, England, and the United States. Philosophically and artistically inclined from youth, he soon came to question life’s meaning and society’s values. During a period of intense inward reflection, he discovered Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, and immediately traveled three thousand miles from New York to California to meet the Master, who accepted him as a monastic disciple. Yogananda appointed him as the head of the monastery, authorized him to teach and give Kriya initiation in his name, and entrusted him with the missions of writing, teaching, and creating what he called “world brotherhood colonies.” Kriyananda founded the first such community, Ananda Village, in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California in 1968. Ananda is recognized as one of the most successful intentional communities in the world today. It has served as a model for other such communities that he founded subsequently in the United States, Europe, and India.

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      In Divine Friendship - Swami Kriyananda

      "This is what I would like to see ever-more deeply in you: childlike trust in Divine Mother, devotion,

      LOVE

      openness to Her guidance and love, holding nothing back from Her because you are completely Hers."

      April 5, 1995

      Dear ———:

      If we feel God’s love in someone’s love for us, then that is right and good. I remember once in India telling the woman saint, Anandamoyi Ma, how much I and others in America loved her. Her reply was, There is no love except God’s love.

      The worldly ego might take her reply as a put-down, but I understood it as a reminder that we can truly love others only to the degree that we do so consciously as instruments of God’s love.

      It is easy to feel love for those who are kind and good, and easier still if they love us. But the test of godly love is to be able to feel it also for those who hate us. And especially for those who are determined to destroy us. God says to us, They are My children, too. In other words, If you love Me, you must love them also, for they too are Mine. We must love not only them, but all the tests that God sends us.

      Ultimately, the only important thing you can do in life is love God. The only fact that truly matters in life is that God loves you.

      It is a simple fact that the more we try to do good, the more enemies we will have—along with those who sincerely love, appreciate, and support us. But even were everyone to turn against us, the supremely important fact of God’s love will never change. The tests we face, therefore, are always blessings. If nothing else, they inspire us to keep that one divine priority fixed ever before our gaze. Everything else passes. Our relationship with God is eternal. He is our own, as no one else ever will or ever can be.

      The solution to our worries is love, and more love—divine love, not egoic love (the ego’s love is rooted in likes and dislikes). As the Bible says, Perfect love casteth out fear.

      Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see God. When your love for Him is effortless and complete, you will have Him.

      In divine friendship,

      April 4, 1995

      Dear ———:

      I understand you’re on a retreat. That’s wonderful! We all need to retreat now and then, not for recreation, but to re-create ourselves.

      In thinking about love, it’s important not to emphasize someone’s personal love for you, or yourself as the receiver. What’s important on retreat is to understand as deeply as possible God’s love for you, and yours for God. He loves you far more than any human being ever could—far more than you could ever love yourself, except in Him. So don’t be afraid to open yourself to that love completely, inviting it into all the dusty corners of your heart, and sweeping them clean.

      On retreat, one thinks of God’s love and of other eternal verities. But it is important also to translate that love onto this practical plane of existence. Here are two sayings from a new book of mine called, Do It NOW! that you might enjoy, for we all get our feelings hurt occasionally:

      Don’t close your heart, when your feelings have been hurt. For contraction causes its own pain. How others behave toward you is like the weather: not under your control. But how you behave, and what your feelings are, need be determined by no one but yourself. To accept a hurt from anyone is to suffer twice.

      Be not afraid to love. Even if your love is unrequited, you will be the richer for having loved. Water that doesn’t flow grows stagnant.

      The more you feel God’s love in your heart, the more important it is to channel that love to everyone. As I’ve written in Do It NOW!

      Wish the best for everybody, and, in the very act of blessing them, you yourself will be blessed. A stained-glass window, when the sun-light pours through it, is brighter and more beautiful itself than the light with which it graces a church.

      God bless you,

      April 4, 1995

      Dear ———:

      Retreats generally are supposed to be times of self-examination. The important points to remember on retreat are these: There is only one true goal in life: to please God; to come closer to Him; to love Him; to unite our souls to Him.

      The way to know God is by inner stillness of heart. This stillness is attained by loving more fully, more calmly, more wholeheartedly, never by deadening the emotions or hardening our hearts against those who would harm us.

      Nothing and no one truly belongs to us; we are His alone. Joy is ours when we accept fully that we are God’s, that God’s nature is joy, and that His nature is our nature, in our souls.

      I’ve always loved a statement of St. Jean Vianney’s: If you knew how much God loves you, you would die for joy!

      In divine friendship,

      Circa 1989

      Dear ———:

      Know that my love and blessings are with you.

      It is difficult sometimes to understand what is happening when we look at life only from a human perspective. We can only trust that whatever comes is from Divine Mother. The more we love Her, the sweeter Her ways become—whatever they may be!

      Do keep in touch. Let us know how you are doing and what your plans are.

      In divine friendship,

      December 5, 1990

      Dear ———:

      A letter like this one from your mother cannot, in charity, be ignored. You must respond to her with love. You yourself have, as you’ve admitted, much anger to work out. Love is the way to expiate that anger, and her letter gives you that opportunity. Be grateful for the chance.

      Your parents made a mistake, and seem to be admitting it. While remaining strong in yourself, you must give them, too, the opportunity to correct the error—at their own pace, and according to their own understanding.

      They brought you into this life, and gave you what love they could. For your part, you also chose this family. If they want now to prove themselves good parents to you, you must be to them a good daughter. The important thing only is not to allow them to impose their desires on your own chosen path to fulfillment. But they seem to have recognized this point.

      Take this single step, ————. Don’t expect to run the whole course in a day.

      In Master’s love,

      June 18, 1991

      Dear ———:

      To define your sense of dignity and self-worth in any terms that affirm your ego is in itself, for a devotee, at least, a delusion. Let me put it this way: I’m a composer. Some people think I’m a good one. To the extent that I think I may be good, I might make this a basis for some sense of self-worth. If I did, however, I’d be like any other worldly person. My compositions would be ego-accomplishments. NO! I am not a composer! I’m a devotee. I’ve written music as part of my service to God.

      A drama director visited Ananda recently, and told me, You are the first playwright I’ve actually had a chance to talk with. I replied, I’m not a playwright! I’m just someone who has written one or two plays. Do you see? The more we define ourselves in terms of external accomplishments, the more we limit ourselves!

      Dear ———, rest your sense of self-worth on realities that are intrinsically worthwhile—above all, on soul-qualities, and on your deepest reality as a child of God.

      What Ananda is about is loving God, and serving Him. Our hopes should rest on absorption in Him, and on ultimate freedom from our mere humanity.

      Joy to you!

      January 18, 1975

      Dear ———:

      The best method that I know for unlocking any blockages of energy in the mind is to constantly offer one’s self to Master and God. The more open one becomes to divine grace, the easier it becomes simply to lay one’s inmost thoughts at His feet. His grace alone can make you whole.

      This is not a passive process. Don’t just wait for God to come and make everything right for you. Think of it as a constant, dynamic self-offering. Nothing in this universe, least of all your self and your little personality, is really yours. The less you allow yourself to remain attached to your problems, the less they will exist for you at all. And the way to become less involved is by meditation, prayer, and selfless service without any desire for the results of your own actions.

      My love and prayers are with you. May Master bless you always.

      In divine friendship,

      Circa 1989

      Dear ———:

      I don’t know the book, but infer that you’ve gained from it the message to love yourself. A good message for you, personally. Yet in presenting this message to others I think you must make it clear to people that it is their inner, soul essence that they must love, the God within them, and not their egos as such, lest they slip into a kind of spiritual smugness that is a great trap on the path.

      We must accept ourselves as we are, but love only that in us which lifts us toward God. God loves us in spite of our mistakes and delusions, but that doesn’t mean He loves our mistakes and delusions. If the teaching to love oneself is not presented in the right context, it can lead to a kind of spiritual mushiness rather than to that heroic strength and determination without which little progress can be made.

      Best wishes to you.

      Love,

      Late 1990s

      Dear ———:

      If you feel unhappy and lifeless it’s because you need to give more of yourself. You want love. Of course! Everyone does. But love is obtained by learning first to give it. Love God in people, and be open and giving to all. In this way you will develop the magnetism to attract the right partner.

      Music could be one way of doing it, but whatever you do should be entered into with the thought of giving, not of getting. I think it is time you committed yourself more deeply to God and to the spiritual search, in a giving, not a getting, way.

      My love to you always,

      November 24, 2000

      Dear ———:

      Please tell ———: The ship of life needs a rudder. Otherwise it will drift about without a clear purpose. That rudder is devotion. To guide a ship, the polestar has always been a reference point. That polestar is God. It would help her to put a lot of energy into singing Master’s chant, Polestar of My Life.

      In divine friendship,

      2001

      Dear ———:

      I’m sorry for not getting to your letter sooner.

      I do think it would be good to devote more energy—not to fun, necessarily, but to devotion to Divine Mother. You and I face a similar problem: we have active and fertile brains. Love God ever more deeply. Do japa. Chant to God. In this way—yes, have fun! And do more fun things with ———.

      God bless you both.

      Love,

      March 14, 1998

      Dear ———:

      Thank you for your sweet letter. That you could even write it shows me what I have sensed in you already, that you are growing spiritually. Develop ever more in sweetness, devotion, and self-giving to God.

      The doubts you have experienced are natural. I myself have had to make an effort to dismiss them. Why, Divine Mother? was my question. But I refused to complain that She was wrong or unfair, or that She didn’t love me. I know She wants only our best. And I know what we have at Ananda is a wonderful thing.

      I also knew the behind-the-scenes truth of the matter, and I knew ——— was acting against all dharma. I was certain that, even if Master and Divine Mother had wanted for some reason to destroy Ananda, they would not have chosen as their instruments for this purpose liars, traitors, and, indeed, criminals. And so, I clung to God, and refused to lose faith.

      Still, I am sure this has been a test of faith for many others. We look back, and see how many miracles God has done for us. Now, I think, is the time for us to stand up and say, I love You, Lord, not for what You give me, but for the sheer joy of giving my life to You.

      That, ———, is what I would like to see ever-more deeply in you: childlike trust in Divine Mother, devotion, openness to Her guidance and love, holding nothing back from Her because you are completely Hers. I don’t suggest an outer change. Nor do I suggest change—only an ever-deeper devotion and trust in God.

      In Master’s love,

      October 12, 1988

      Dear ———:

      You asked me for suggestions on how you might obtain God’s guidance in your work. I meditated on it this morning, and these thoughts came to me:

      Work to deepen your devotion, and a childlike openness to God. Use your mind less. Take the knowledge you’ve gained, and offer it up to the super-conscious for your solutions rather than trying so much to think your way to your answers.

      Don’t push aside what you know, but instead offer it up to God for clarification, at the spiritual eye, praying to receive your answers from that level of consciousness. Concentrate in the heart chakra, especially, when waiting to receive your answer, and see then what comes.

      May God and Gurus bless you always in your divine search.

      Love,

      February 4, 1975

      Dear ———:

      It seems self-evident that different aspects of God fulfill the different needs of different people. Consider the numerous manifestations of both male and female gods and goddesses in Hindu temples, each one representing certain combinations of divine qualities, enlivened by the stories that accompany each one.

      In your case, it is better to think of Krishna, or Master, etc., and to concentrate on their lives as a means of inspiration, until the magnetism of your positive devotion to the male aspect displaces all negative, rejec-ting confusions about Divine Mother. When you have become single-pointedly positive in your search to know God, you will automatically begin to see the female aspect of God in a clearer light, and to realize that, far from denoting frailty, it expresses enormous strength in love and self-giving.

      In my lessons I go into great detail about the spiritual basis of masculinity and femininity, and the nature of duality. We must become the best of both, integrating deep compassion with indomitable will power. But let it come at its own speed, and for now concentrate on deepening your devotion to the Father.

      In divine friendship,

      September 11, 1990

      Dear ———:

      Astral samadhi is not going into and roaming about in the astral world, but merging in the infinite energy of which the astral worlds are projections. It is a form of AUM samadhi. Causal samadhi, by contrast, is oneness with the Christ Consciousness.

      Don’t get all tangled up in definitions, however. Love God. That’s what it’s all about.

      In divine friendship,

      February 28, 1990

      Dear ———:

      Thank you for your letter. I think perhaps your problem is that you are too much in your mind.

      When we love someone, or like him, or even respect him, there is surely no need to define those feelings. The need for definition normally arises when our feelings are equivocal, or indeed when we don’t have any special feelings on the subject.

      In the hope that your problem is the latter, I suggest you consult your heart, not your mind, on this matter.

      I will pray for you.

      In divine friendship,

      Late 1980s

      Dear ———:

      I was interested in your dream. Yes, deepen your attunement with Master. It will help you to develop deeper faith in him. Surrender every little worry to him. He is pleased when we offer him everything. Ask always, Is this what you would have me do?

      Feel him working through you, meditating through you, speaking to others through you. Serve him in everything you do. Ask him to guide you in all things, to discipline you if needed, and always to help you to feel his love for you.

      Don’t identify with your failings. Your aspiration is to reach the Infinite, and your sincere devotion will surely lead you there.

      In divine friendship,

      "Whatever skills you have, feel that these are God’s way of manifesting through you. He will use you to whatever extent you invite Him to do so.

      ADVICE AND ENCOURAGEMENT

      Above all, pray always that God’s will be done. Then leave the problem of success or failure in His hands."

      March 5, 2003

      Dear ———:

      Don’t let yourself feel guilty about anything. If people knew all the things they’d done wrong over countless lifetimes, and allowed themselves to feel guilty about them all, they’d be unable to bear the burden of existence itself. But bear it they must, anyway!

      As Sri Yukteswar said, Forget the past. The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. But everything in future will improve if you are making the right spiritual effort now.

      We can’t ever really fail anyone but ourselves. And we can’t fail ourselves, either, if we keep on steadfastly moving in the right direction: upward, toward God.

      Love,

      July 6, 1973

      Dear ———:

      Contentment is an attitude to be deliberately practiced. It is not simply a state of mind that comes to one once things are going well. That sort of happiness can be lost in a second, under the least setback. Contentment, however, if practiced determinedly, can remain with us under every circumstance.

      Good company, too, is important. Without it, contentment may be too difficult to practice steadfastly. If you could mix with contented people, you would automatically begin to acquire their magnetism, and to grow in contentment yourself. That is why I have urged you to take your next vacation at Ananda. You would like it here, I’m sure.

      With love in God and Gurus,

      December 26, 2000

      Dear ———:

      I do want you to grow spiritually through your service to God. My concern always is to keep you from letting your ego-consciousness interfere with your spiritual advancement. I’m less concerned with boosting your ego than with encouraging soul-consciousness in you. I’m well aware that a discouraged ego can hinder your progress; therefore I do my best to help you keep out of that trap. And I’m very happy to see you stabilizing in this regard.

      Do I want you to do this business? I really don’t know. I want you to succeed in it, and I’m not wholly sure you have a business head. I think of it in terms of serving Master and Ananda, anyway, not advancing your own interests. That’s always how I’ve viewed my own work.

      How much am I for what you’re doing? It all depends on how much it’s helping you, spiritually. That’s really my only criterion.

      My love and best wishes always,

      November 15, 1991

      Dear ———:

      The best way to find out whether this is your path is simply to try it first, and see. Guidance rarely comes to us when we sit back and wait for it. So long as you take positive steps, God will guide you toward the further steps to take. But if you wait for guidance to present itself to you full-blown, it may never come.

      The secret of attracting guidance is to raise one’s level of energy. By moving forward in the best way we know, we generate a flow of energy that can draw God’s guidance to us. This is true even when our initial understanding isn’t as clear as we’d like. So long as we use common sense, keep an attitude of openness, and offer our best efforts up to God, our understanding will grow, in time.

      You wrote of feeling the need to make a spiritual commitment. You are blessed to feel this way. If you are feeling inspired by Yogananda’s teachings, why not commit yourself to them provisionally? Yogananda promised that anyone who was not his disciple, but who came to him sincerely seeking his own true path, would be led to it.

      We must all seek God inside us, in meditation. But it is a mistake to suppose that we can find Him on our own. It is His way to come to us through human instruments, particularly through divinely awakened masters and their disciples.

      Yogananda’s vibration is very much alive here at Ananda. Since you’ve already felt to visit us, and to write to me, it seems natural for you to try deepening your connection here. If you feel inspired to go to another of Yogananda’s disciples instead, that’s fine, of course. But don’t try to do it on your own. The spiritual path is just too challenging for that!

      May God and the masters bless you with clarity and joy in your search.

      In divine friendship,

      August 26, 1988

      Dear ———:

      I’m sorry to hear about your discouragement. It is the negative side of humility to feel inadequate, to doubt one’s abilities. You have much humility, and the humbler we are, the better God can work through us. It is right and true to recognize one’s own fallibility. God’s is the only true strength and guidance. Only egotists glory in their own cleverness and ability. In so doing, they shut God out and, in the end, fail.

      But there is another side to humility, too. To feel inadequate is one thing, but to feel badly about it, or to take too personally other people’s criticisms, is possible only because, despite your humility, there is some ego-involvement present. Otherwise you would feel joy in your own nothingness and in God’s everythingness.

      Give it all to Him. The more you do so, the more you will find Him using you in everything. I think He has given you these tests for you to learn these lessons.

      In Master’s love,

      June 1, 1999

      Dear ———:

      I thought I had given you my reactions to your ———. I’m so sorry. I thought it was lovely. I also had a slight hesitation about it, as I have about everything you do: a sense of just what you’ve described in your letter—your lack of self-confidence. I feel it as a desire to convince, and a need to draw support from others instead of just being yourself.

      It sounds funny when you say that you don’t want ——— to discover what an awful person you are. Of course, you mean it to sound funny. But you’re not an awful person! You’re a fine person, with a great deal to give others. You’ve no call to feel this lack of self-confidence.

      However, I can understand your problem, because I’ve had it too. So maybe I can help you with it. I’ve been plagued, in the past, by self-doubt. And yet, strange to tell, I’ve never been nervous about speaking in public, which I’ve heard is one of the greatest fears people have. My cure—fortunately, before I even started—was to think, Well, if I really am a fool there’s no harm in people knowing it! So I’ve just forgotten about myself and gone ahead with whatever needed to be done. I often thought, "I’m the last person who ought to be starting a community for Master! And yet, the job’s there to be done, and there’s no one else doing it, so—here goes!"

      The whole secret lies in simply accepting that we, of ourselves, really can’t do anything right, but that God through us can literally do anything!

      Forget yourself. Simply accept that you aren’t perfect. (You aren’t awful, either. You’re just human, and no human is perfect. And no human is awful, because we’re all children of the same Father/Mother.) I repeat: Forget yourself, and ask God to use you as He will—badly, if you get in the way, but even so He can use you to whatever extent you let Him. Forget yourself, and leave the problem of success vs. failure in His hands. Do your best, with His power, and forget it.

      Love,

      August 20, 2000

      Dear ———:

      The question of bottlenecks is an objective matter, and doesn’t depend on anyone’s attitudes about it. ——— will simply drop us if we don’t deliver when we say we will.

      There is always a part of us that desires perfection, but we must—I’ve certainly had to, though never happily, in my life—adjust to objective circumstances. Sometimes a compromise of quality, though painful, is inevitable. Delivery dates are very important. We can’t afford to miss them, even if it means doing something second best, which none of us wants.

      Love,

      May 19, 2000

      Dear ———:

      I don’t know what to say. If I’ve offended you, I am very sorry. Will it change me? I’m sorry to have to disappoint you, but I must be honest. No, it will not. When I have principles to share with my friends and fellow ministers, I don’t hesitate. I feel it is good to share them. In that way, we all learn. I, too, learn. I try to keep names out of it.

      If I had thought of your communication as confidential, I certainly would have kept it that way. Since it involved, as I recall, a criticism of me and of what I say publicly, I felt that it would be good to get feedback, if only for the sake of my own more effective teaching, which I am always eager to improve.

      My interest now is to create harmony, and to help you. Harmony can come if we recognize that, though our ideas differ, we are friends anyway, and we both love the same truths, and both love God. This kind of harmony, I am ever seeking.

      What your letter seems to be trying to do is make me feel guilty. I don’t think guilt can be a basis for any sort of harmony, and surely not the basis of any real friendship, which is what I’d like in this case.

      You have my sincere best wishes and spiritual friendship.

      In divine friendship,

      Circa 1973

      Dear ———:

      I think you are right to give your time to your creative work and yoga. You have a talent, and ought to express it. The path of creativity, and also the path to God, are lonely paths, but at the same time much more fulfilling than human involvements—especially now that you’ve had your satisfactions, as well as frustrations, from the latter.

      It really seems to me that human partnership, and all the energy that would demand of you, would now have the effect of pulling you down, where at one time it may have been a necessary release. You feel inwardly that you have something else to accomplish, and I think your real frustration now would lie in not having the freedom and the time to accomplish it. Indeed, despite what the world says, it is amazing how much time is completely wasted in inter-personal relationships!

      Do visit us sometime. Perhaps you’d even like to live here, where you’d find friends who would add to your spiritual and creative energy, instead of draining it by drawing it to themselves.

      In divine friendship,

      June 24, 2003

      Dear ———:

      I want first to thank you for your kind thoughtfulness in sending me that present. I was very touched.

      Second, I want to suggest an attitude I think would help you in dealing with your present situation—which I hope isn’t as hopeless as it looks at present.

      Thirdly, I wanted to plead with you for ———, who has been deeply hurt by your anger toward her. She has been a true friend to you, and wants the best for you. There’s a limit, however, to how much she can do as she has many other calls on her time. Nevertheless, she’s been extremely anxious on your behalf. The latest word she gave me, just a couple of days ago, is that the pro bono lawyer does want to help you.

      However, I still want to say that the wisest attitude would be to rely on God, not on any outer person or event. God is the real power in the universe. If He doesn’t come through for you, your wisest attitude will be to try to adjust your thinking to the possibility of being where you are for your whole life. Not pleasant, but if it happens that way it can only be karmic. What I’ve found in my life is that when I really adopted that attitude, suddenly everything worked out for me as I’d wanted, and quickly.

      I wish you all the best. And I pray sincerely that you will be able to come out soon!

      Love in Master,

      (Eventually this person was paroled.)

      September 21, 1998

      Dear ———:

      You asked for my suggestions on how you should respond to ———’s letter.

      You might write a brief note thanking him for the friendship and concern that prompted him to write as he did. Where you yourself are concerned, say that these are things you sincerely want to work on in yourself: that it is not easy to change oneself, but that we are all living here primarily for that very purpose.

      On a more general note, you might say that this is one of the wonderful advantages of living in a spiritual community: that we get repeated opportunities to see ourselves through others’ supportive but sincere eyes. This is divine friendship, and it is something one rarely encounters in the world, where everyone seems to want only to justify his own actions and character.

      Where ———himself is concerned, yes, the truth often IS spoken in anger, but as Master said, anger leaves a residue of disharmonious vibrations which in themselves are deleterious.

      Citing Master’s admonition, add that you hope his anger leaves him, as you yourself feel only friendship and gratitude toward him. Tell him that you hope also that his outburst will serve as a reminder in his work with others not to lose his temper with them, but to speak always with their welfare, as well as that of Ananda, in mind.

      Your letter should smooth things between the two of you and preserve ———’s good will and friendship.

      Love,

      October 3, 1987

      Dear ———:

      I am sad about your situation. You and your husband are in my prayers.

      I cannot understand the advice to cut all ties with the spiritual path. It’s true that Brother ———knows you both, and may well be aware of things in your husband that don’t come to me through your letter. I would have thought, however, that while the advice not to meditate may well have been perfectly sound, some more physical service for God would therefore have become all the more vitally necessary. Surely God is the answer to all our problems. The issue is only how we approach Him.

      Couldn’t your husband have been encouraged to work on the grounds at the Lake Shrine? Or, if his condition is such that it would have demanded too much energy to supervise him, couldn’t he have been encouraged to work for God and Gurus—that is, in the thought of them—in your own garden? Surely it was a mistake to cut him, and you, off from the path. I must admit there is much here that I don’t understand.

      If indeed your husband is possessed, isn’t there something to be

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