All energy is consciousness

Nov 7, 2009, 12.00am IST
SWAMI KRIYANANDA.

Truth can be likened to a pyramid - from its pinnacle, the highest expression of truth radiates, while its broad base gives strength and stability.


In a society like that of India, which for thousands of years has had a broad-based acceptance of spirituality, atheists too know a great deal more about spiritual truth than most westerners. I've been amazed by the number of people in India who tell me they don't believe in God, and then go on to demonstrate that they do.

They don't necessarily define God in terms of a flute-playing, blue Krishna. But the thought of an infinite consciousness is so ingrained in them that it's impossible for them to reject it.

Because the highest expression of spiritual teachings throughout the ages has usually been found only at the pinnacle of the pyramid, very few people reached it. Spiritual teachings were often esoteric, and the few who received them would seek solitude in the mountains or monasteries.


When Paramhansa Yogananda brought Kriya Yoga to the West, he understood the need to create a broad-based pyramid that was accessible to many. In fact, Kriya Yoga is the core of that pyramid because it helps magnetise the inner spiritual spine, and thus bring everything into alignment with a higher reality.


This universe seems solid but the truth is that it's just energy. Scientists are beginning to accept the truth that Indian sages taught thousands of years ago - that all matter is energy and that energy is really consciousness. The Infinite Consciousness brought out of itself ideas and clothed them with will power and energy. Then it vibrated that energy more grossly to become this physical universe.

Today, our senses are so constantly stimulated that the average person has an attention span of only one or two seconds. The deeper aspect is that we are always dissatisfied with that kind of restlessness. We think that by skating on the surface of life we'll have more experiences, and therefore more wisdom. We simply become more and more superficial. The more you live at the surface, the further and faster you may be able to skate, but the less you will absorb and understand.

The way to experience that expansion of awareness that all human beings seek is to rise above body consciousness. This is only done through deep meditation. The more you meditate, the more your senses become refined. Everything becomes a part of you. When you can really rise out of body consciousness, suddenly you discover that all is you. You are not this little ego - you are in all.

When Yogananda came to America, his purpose was to help all sincere seekers understand that if we approach life with this philosophy, and with the practice of Kriya Yoga, we will find God. When we do this, and bring all our energy into our inner Self, everything falls into place.

Usually sages tell you, ''The world is all delusion. Meditate and leave it all behind.'' Yogananda took the approach of the Vedas. He showed that by using Kriya Yoga, you can change yourself, and from your spiritual centre you can help transform this world.

Kriya Yoga has value beyond measure because it helps you become centred, so that everything you do improves. It takes your awareness from your own centre into attunement with that Divine Consciousness which is ''centre everywhere, circumference nowhere''.