Yoga Sagar

SR No.: 014011
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Paramhamsa Satyananda
Publisher: Bihar School of Yoga Munger
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 436
Language: English
Classification: Seminar & Articles
File Size: 24 MB

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all is your own image of mind. One basic fact that you cannot deny, is the limited experience of God. In Vedanta, there are no atheists, because first of all nobody can deny one's own existence. There is a life principle that keeps one alive and nobody can deny that. Since one cannot deny one's own existence, one cannot deny God.
The word God comes from the Greek theos, which means 'idol'. It does not mean that God has a nose, ears, two eyes, because He comes, as Krishna says, in different forms to the devotee. So, actually what you call God is the shape of one's spiritual aspiration. It is the shape of one's devotion or the devotion of the group. For the Catholics it is Jesus Christ; for Hindus, Rama or Krishna; for Buddhists, Buddha; for Jews, Elohim, Adoni, Father in heaven. So God is an image, an invention or creation of man. However, the purer the koshas, the purer the image. The spiritual light is one and the same, that is what has been said. However, God never created anything equally. That is a myth again, because physically we are not equal, mentally we are not equal, in will we are not equal. We are all unequal, but there is one common ground on which the very recent concept of democracy is based. Democracy is no more than seventy years old. Previously, those who had property had voting rights, as was the case in England. So, in spiritual life, there is only one common ground, which is a shining presence, a spiritual presence, in which we are all equal. If we accept that, then we will be able to be just to each other. Then we will be able to respect each other's rights and to trust each other, with a sense of dignity. That is the highest aim of yoga, to feel the presence of God, to feel a spiritual presence in every one. That is the greatest contribution of Hinduism and all other religions. They have taught us that God is transcendental, but His power is in all. However, in Vedanta God is immanent, He is in all, while yet being transcendental. So I think that is a very unique contribution.
No one can deny that there is a principal life force, which sustains everything. You can call it energy and matter, prana, or the individual soul. Once it disappears, no amount of electrical impulse, no amount of physical energy or of the four kinds of energy in physics - the electromagnetic field, the decohesive'weak' force, the cohesive 'strong' force and the forces of gravity – can sustain life. There definitely is a force which maintains this life force.
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