I’m thankful for answered prayer. Yesterday I apologized to my husband for being grouchy. I had internal suffering going on, beating myself up, and judging myself for my mistakes, my sins. The same book that I wrote about in a previous blog came to my rescue.
I’ve made it a goal to read a chapter daily of “Autobiography of a Yogi,” by Paramhansa Yogananda daily. My aim is to start the day with a chapter, but I tend to procrastinate. If I had kept to my daily routine perhaps I would have saved myself some grief. Or maybe I read it at just the right time, before going to bed.
And, was it coincidence that I was on Chapter 12, which said just the things that gave me encouragement? Chapter 12 is entitled “Years in my Master’s Hermitage.” Yogananda gives his own master Sri Yukteswar’s sage teachings which came just when I needed to hear them. These words of wisdom gave me comfort and hope: “Forget the past,” Sri Yukteswar would console him. “The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. Human conduct is ever unreliable until anchored in the Divine. Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.”
Sri Yukteswar further spoke about how our thoughts control our body: “The body is a treacherous friend. Give it its due; no more,” he said. “Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, while trying at the same time to remove their hold. Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor will flee!”
J. Schlenker 