During the month of July, the Assisi Institute is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the purchase of our building. In this spirit, I am going to reflect on the Gospel reading for today in the context of our mission, which is the same as Yogananda’s mission. Whether or not you are a participating member of the Assisi family, I think you will find today’s message relevant. Our Guru Yogananda told us, “To reestablish God in the temples of souls through revival of the original teachings of God-communion as propounded by Christ and Krishna is why I was sent to the West by Babaji… Babaji is ever in communion with Christ… The work of these two fully illumined masters is to inspire nations to forsake wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism and the boomerang evils of materialism.”
At the Assisi Institute we are endeavoring to create “a hive of spiritual honey,” not only for our own spiritual realization, but as a way of opening the door to others who are searching for life’s true meaning and not finding it in secular society. Life truly works only when we are anchored in the consciousness of God’s love! Now, let us look at today’s Gospel from Mark 6:30-34:
“The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving, and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.”
What does this mean for us at the Assisi Institute? Like the apostles, we endeavor to nurture a space of silence and solitude, a place of rest for consciousness communion with God. From this place of God-communion, we must offer others the opportunity to live from consciousness of God’s love. In truth, the work of the Assisi Institute has only just begun. We are building and will continue to build a sure foundation that will serve the mission of Yogananda, teach what Jesus and Krishna taught, and offer heavenly manna to those hungering for truth, beauty, and goodness.
Beloved Jesus, Divine Guruji,
Master Babaji,
You know how we need
To come away to a deserted place
And rest.
