Yogananda, Paramahansa, 1893-1952; Yogis -- India -- Biography
Reluctantly I opened my eyes, and saw that the temple doors were
being locked by a priest, in conformance with a noon-hour custom.
I rose from my secluded seat under the open, roofed hall, and stepped
into the courtyard. Its stone floor was scorching under the midday
sun; my bare feet were painfully burned.
“Divine Mother,” I silently remonstrated, “Thou didst not come to
me in vision, and now Thou art hidden in the temple behind closed
doors. I wanted to offer a special prayer to Thee today on behalf
of my brother-in-law.”
My inward petition was instantly acknowledged. First, a delightful
cold wave descended over my back and under my feet, banishing
all discomfort. Then, to my amazement, the temple became greatly
magnified. Its large door slowly opened, revealing the stone figure
of Goddess Kali. Gradually it changed into a living form, smilingly
nodding in greeting, thrilling me with joy indescribable. As if by
a mystic syringe, the breath was withdrawn from my lungs; my body
became very still, though not inert.
An ecstatic enlargement of consciousness followed. I could see
clearly for several miles over the Ganges River to my left, and
beyond the temple into the entire Dakshineswar precincts. The walls
of all buildings glimmered transparently; through them I observed
people walking to and fro over distant acres.
Though I was breathless and my body in a strangely quiet state, yet
I was able to move my hands and feet freely. For several minutes
I experimented in closing and opening my eyes; in either state I
saw distinctly the whole Dakshineswar panorama.
Spiritual sight, x-raylike, penetrates into all matter; the divine
eye is center everywhere, circumference nowhere. I realized anew,
standing there in the sunny courtyard, that when man ceases to be a
prodigal child of God, engrossed in a physical world indeed dream,
baseless as a bubble, he reinherits his eternal realms. If “escapism”
be a need of man, cramped in his narrow personality, can any escape
compare with the majesty of omnipresence?
In my sacred experience at Dakshineswar, the only extraordinarily-enlarged
objects were the temple and the form of the Goddess. Everything
else appeared in its normal dimensions, although each was enclosed
in a halo of mellow light-white, blue, and pastel rainbow hues. My
body seemed to be of ethereal substance, ready to levitate. Fully
conscious of my material surroundings, I was looking about me and
taking a few steps without disturbing the continuity of the blissful
vision.
Behind the temple walls I suddenly glimpsed my brother-in-law
as he sat under the thorny branches of a sacred BEL tree. I could
effortlessly discern the course of his thoughts. Somewhat uplifted
under the holy influence of Dakshineswar, his mind yet held unkind
reflections about me. I turned directly to the gracious form of
the Goddess.
“Divine Mother,” I prayed, “wilt Thou not spiritually change my
sister’s husband?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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