Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God!

[Guest guest]

"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) (DOT) co.uk>

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