We’re happy you’re joining us for this brief meditation
and a wonderful visualization
that Paramahansa Yogananda has given us
in the new Supplement Lesson 25
entitled “Understanding and Attuning
With the Power of Love.”
Our opening and closing prayers are also from that Lesson,
and our Guru called the prayer
“Show Thyself in My Flaming Devotion.”
So let’s open our hearts
to receive the full power of God’s love flowing into us now
as we begin this meditation with his prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Mother,
Friend,
Beloved God,
Jesus Christ,
Bhagavan Krishna,
Mahavatar Babaji,
Lahiri Mahasaya,
Swami Sri Yukteswar,
and our Guru,
Paramahansa Yogananda,
saints of all religions,
we bow to you all.
Reveal Thyself, beloved Divine Mother!
Hide no longer.
Shatter the walls of my ignorance
and appear unto me in all Thy splendor.
When I meditate upon Thee with closed eyes,
O Divine Mother,
lift the veil of darkness and show Thyself
in the light of my flaming love for Thee.
Aum,
Peace,
Amen.
So that you may enjoy and benefit the most
from this meditation and visualization,
let’s assume the correct posture.
That means having our spine erect, shoulders back, chin parallel to the floor,
and the eyes gently lifted to the spiritual eye,
the Christ center here between the eyebrows.
Paramahansa Yogananda described it
as the spiritual center of concentration in the body,
and he called it “the divine gateway to the Infinite.”
Now we’ll follow along
as our Guru leads us in this visualization
that he entitled “The Flame of Divine Love,”
absorbing ourselves in that expanding, ever deepening
love of the Divine.
He tells us, “Feel the divine flame of love
burning in the sanctuary of your heart.
The warming radiance of that love fills and illumines your heart.
Your heart is glowing and shining in that loving light divine.
Now that flame of love is spreading from your heart
and filling your body and mind, your whole being.
No darkness remains in you — no dark thoughts or feelings.
Feel and perceive:
love and light, love and light!
Now, like a sphere of flame, like the rising sun,
that flaming golden love is spreading its rays
into the hearts of your family.
Love awakens in their hearts.
As the sunshine of your divine love grows,
it encompasses your neighbors and then your whole city.
Now this sphere of love is getting larger —
it is spreading to all human beings, all plants, all animals.
That flame of love has calmed the aggressor impulse
in all wild animals and humans.
They bask in the sunshine of your love.
This love of yours doesn’t like to be caged in your little body —
it is swallowing up all planets and universes
and everything in them
in its vast sphere of light,
until everything is held
in the rhythmic heartbeat of your love.
Your love merges with the boundless, eternal, perfect love of God.
That love shines forever in all heart sanctuaries.
Without that infinite sunshine of God’s love,
everything would lose its halo of light,
its aura of divinity.
Realize and know:
You are divine;
all creation is divine, ever burning in that universal sphere of light —
that light which is all-consuming.
Feel this in the vast silence within you,
for silence is the altar of God;
and the joy-filled love that is burning in your heart
is the flame of the presence of God.”
We'll meditate now for a few minutes,
feeling the flame of God’s love burning in our hearts.
Please join me for our closing prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Mother,
Friend,
Beloved God,
Jesus Christ,
Bhagavan Krishna,
Mahavatar Babaji,
Lahiri Mahasaya,
Swami Sri Yukteswar,
our guru, Paramahansa Yogananda,
saints of all religions,
we bow to you all.
O ever-burning Love!
show Thyself in my flaming devotion.
May my love for Thee forever burn secretly
in the temple of my heart,
and may I be able to kindle love for Thee
on the altars of all hearts.
Aum,
Peace,
Amen.