I am drawn to Yogananda’s teachings because he rooted them in both the Bhagavad Gita and the Jewish-Christian scriptures. Both traditions are rooted in very imperfect situations: the Gita unfolds within a terrible civil war, and the Bible takes form in the context of slavery, genocide, and the betrayal and crucifixion of a spiritual genius of the highest order. I am not being negative! Rather, I see imperfection all around me and within me. If spirituality cannot teach us how to find God within all our messiness, what value does it really have? For example, the war in Ukraine is an absolute atrocity, yet we have all been inspired by the spirit of the Ukrainian people. For me, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s courage has become a clarion call to live my own life more heroically. The holy paradox is this: enlightened people learn to find God’s light in the midst of great darkness.
Beloved God,
How can it be
That my imperfection
Is the very thing
That draws me to you
And you to me?
