From this month’s Teaching Article by Swami Nirmalananda (December, 2021), Who or What is God?, an excerpt that includes a story about Ram Dass (1931 – 2019), formerly Richard Alpert, a Harvard professor who travelled to India in 1967 and became a disciple of a Guru. He came back to the states and helped establish several charitable organizations such as the Seva Foundation and the Love Serve Remember Foundation, wrote the best-selling book Be Here Now and many others, and travelled extensively to give talks and retreats and hold fundraisers for charitable causes. In 1997 he suffered a stroke that left him in paralysis and with expressive aphasia, which he interpreted as an act of grace. He said, “The stroke was giving me lessons, and I realized that was grace – fierce grace… Death is the biggest change we’ll face, so we need to practice change.”). Here is the excerpt from Swami’s article:

Ram Dass was one of the first Westerners to bring these teachings back from India. After his first trip, he visited his brother who was confined in a posh mental institution. On a beautiful spring day, the attendants set up tea service outside under a tree. Ram Dass’ brother came out in a three-piece suit complete with the pocket watch and chain, though Ram Dass was wearing his simple white cottons from India.

After chatting over tea for a while, his brother asked a question. “I don’t get it. You write a book, run around the country in your pajamas, telling everyone that they’re God. You’ve got fame, fans, followers and lots of money. I simply say, ‘I am Jesus,’ and they lock me up.” Ram Dass replied, “Ah, I say that I am God and so are they. But you think you’re the only one.”

This means that to know your own Divinity is not enough. You must delve inward more deeply until you see the Divine in all. I describe it as “being Shiva and seeing Shiva.” It must be done in this order: first you find your Shiva-ness, then you see Shiva in every one and every thing.

Try this for yourSelf:

Do some yoga poses, meditate, pray or chant. Or do something for someone else. Or better yet, do all of the above.

Notice how you feel afterward. You will feel more like your Self. You will know your Self better. You are experiencing your own Divinity. Now, knowing yours, practice this month seeing the same Divinity in all.

If you have difficulty accepting that you are Divine, or all beings are, be sure to read this month’s Teaching Article: Who Or What Is God?

“The poses, yogic breathing, mantras, chanting and guruseva (volunteering) make changes for you, a spiritual upgrade…You live in the knowing of your own Self, your own God-ness. And you see God in all.”

~ Swami Nirmalananda

“You are the light of consciousness, in a unique and individualized form. That light shines through your eyes, fills your heart and sparks your greatest ideas. The light of your own being arises from its inner source, spills into your life and fills your relationships with light and love and joy. This is true in your best moments. It is how you want to live all the time. Yoga gives you the ability to do so. Yoga also explains why and how it works.”

~ Swami Nirmalananda