"Mukunda (Yogananda Paramahansa's name before he was absorbed in the Swami
Order), I see your father is regularly sending you money. Please return it to
him; you require none here. A second injunction for your discipline concerns
food. Even when you feel hunger, don't mention it."Whether famishment gleamed
in my eye, I knew not. That I was hungry, I knew only too well. The invariable
hour for the first hermitage meal was twelve noon. I had been accustomed in my
own home to a large breakfast at nine o'clock.The three-hour gap became daily
more interminable. Gone were the Calcutta years when I could rebuke the cook
for a ten-minute delay. Now I tried to control my appetite; one day I undertook
a twenty-four hour fast. With double zest I awaited the following
midday."Dyanandaji's train is late; we are not going to eat until he arrives."
Jitendra brought me this devastating news ... Darkness was descending as our
leader entered the door … "Dyanandaji will bathe and meditate before we can
serve food." Jitendra approached me again as a bird of ill omen.I was in
near-collapse … Impending doom was averted at nine o'clock. Ambrosial summons!
In memory that meal is vivid as one of life's perfect hours.Intense absorption
yet permitted me to observe that Dyananda ate absent-mindedly. He was
apparently above my gross pleasures … "Swamiji, I am puzzled. Following your
instruction, suppose I never asked for food, and nobody gives me any. I should
starve to death.""Die then!" This alarming counsel split the air."Die if you
must Mukunda! Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the
power of God! He who has created every form of nourishment, He who has bestowed
appetite, will certainly see that His devotee is sustained! Do not imagine that
rice maintains you, or that money or men support you! Could they aid if the
Lord withdraws your life-breath? They are His indirect instruments merely. Is
it by any skill of yours that food digests in your stomach? Use the sword of
your discrimination, Mukunda! Cut through the chains of agency and perceive the
Single Cause!"power of words from swamy yogananda-auto biography. quote
I found his incisive words entering some deep marrow. Gone was an age-old
delusion by which bodily imperatives outwit the soul. There and then I tasted
the Spirit's all-sufficiency. In how many strange cities, in my later life of
ceaseless travel, did occasion arise to prove the serviceability of this lesson
in a Benares hermitage!It was this counsel of Dyananda to Mukunda that
completely and absolutely swept me off my feet. "What strength, what absolute
faith" I had thought and somewhere deep down, my soul told me that these were
the words on which my life was to be based.

Sent by: josyula dattatreyulu <jdattatreyulu (AT) yahoo (DOT) co.uk>
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