• Table of Contents
  • Be the Dwelling Place of God by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Understanding the Mind by Swami Rama
  • Intensive Silence Retreat by Manon van den Berge
  • A New Center Is Born by Patricija Kos
  • Swami Ritavan in Budapest by Puskás Kata Szidónia
  • Shavasana Retreat in March
  • Dance Workshop in February
  • Two New Books
  • Dear Yoga Mentor, My Question Is…
  • AHYMSIN Board: September 2016 by Rabindra Sahu
  • Stomaji’s Visit in Athens by Sofia Foteina
  • Jelle Grupstra’s Center by Stephen Parker (Stoma)t
  • An Unexpected Blossoming by Joachim Volger
  • Northern California Silence Retreat by Maryon Maass
  • Workshops in Greece by Stephen Parker (Stoma)
  • Around the Globe Facebook Sharings
  • 2016 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Be the Dwelling Place of God

by Swami Veda Bharati

[This passage has been taken from a transcription of a lecture given by Swami Veda Bharati in 1992].

When you work on purifying yourself, that purity naturally overflows the bounds of your personality and inundates all those around you. Your silence cools the world, when there is sufficient silence within you. You cannot blame others for conditions in your personal life, else you will also blame others for the collective life of the planet.

Remember that love is first; the Beloved is found after. May you seek silence on that sentence. Joy is first. It meets the exterior stimuli much after. Love, joy, consciousness, and God are all synonyms. Seek the basic meaning of any one of these words and the rest are found as well. Love is not a feeling, it is a force, a palpable force. Joy is not a temporary sentiment, but a force, a palpable force that wells up and fills you from inside. Otherwise, all of the exterior alambanas that you hang on to for love and joy are going to crumble to dust one after the other. It is through celibacy, through intensifying the prana force, through silence and meditation that you will discover within yourself the source of love and of joy.

In the ancient texts on the philosophy of Bhakti, devotion, it is said, "Love is God." The name of God is "Prema", Love. Elsewhere in the Upanishadic texts, we are told that Joy is God, "Anandam Brahma."