This week, Kriyabans from the Assisi Institute share aspects of the spiritual life as Isha Das turns to other work on our behalf. Today’s passage comes from Greg Schuler.
This Thanksgiving week, I am grateful for the gift of our spiritual community. I like to think that Yogananda personally told me to come here through a series of coincidences which were not really coincidences.
That moment of intense inspiration happened in my office at work.I had recently finished Yogananda’s Autobiography and was filled with the desire to follow the path of Kriya Yoga. That day, I had my first meeting with a couple who had been referred to me by a colleague. We were just beginning to make small talk and getting to know each other when the lady saw my copy of Autobiography on my bookshelf. She told me that she and her husband were yogis and devoted to Yogananda. Not only is there a picture of Yogananda on their home altar, but she listens to Autobiography constantly in her car.
When I shared my plans about how I intended to follow Yogananda on my own, she listened to me carefully and then said “No! You must have a spiritual community. This is the only way….you will need spiritual friends.” As it happened, this couple are disciples of Shirdi Sai Baba and part of a group that met in the Assisi institute building at that time. Things were becoming more clear. At the Assisi Institute, I would find a teacher in Isha Das and a warm and welcoming community. A few months later I was initiated into the path of Kriya Yoga and experienced a miraculous set of months to follow. Many months later, this wonderful, generous woman would show me her home altar and make me my first Indian meal. It was delicious and a blessing.
I know that Yogananda was behind this entire experience. In the time since I became part of the Assisi community I have made friends who have been beacons of light, illuminating the path of my spiritual journey. I am grateful!
Yogananda,
Thank you for the blessings of community
And the light it shines on me
And the world.
