IV: 25

[Krishna Jaya]

Chapter 4, Verse 25

 

"There are some Yogis

Whose worship

Is an offering to the gods.

Others offer as worship

Their own souls

Into the fire of God."

 

Paramahansa Yogananda:

 

"There are many, many deities in the universe.  The Tantra Shastra, a scripture dealing with chants and fire ceremonies, describes in detail the specific vibratory chants and root sounds to be intoned during a fire ceremony to invoke the presence of deities for the acquisition of powers and boons.  Such worship of the gods (Devas) includes the practice of certain physical postures (Asanas) and spiritual techniques that awaken various nerve forces, which, in turn, stimulate the tissues, glands, and muscular vigor of the body.

 

Many saints in India have prayed to God to manifest in the forms of various deities, and have had those prayers answered.  The form assumed by that deity remains in the ether as a permanent 'blueprint'.  When a devotee calls with sufficient devotion on a deity who has been visualized by a God-communing saint, that deity appears before the devotee.  The deities are all permanently present in the ether and can be invoked by any devotee in deep meditation.

 

Many devotees are not satisfied with the thought of a vast infinite, but need to conceive of God through some tangible form.  As invisible water vapor is transformed by the chill of frost into ice, even so, by the transmuting power of devotion, the invisible God and his cosmic light can be 'frozen' into a form that satisfies the yearning devotee.  Nevertheless, spirit is only one.  Manifested deities are only temporary personifications of the one spirit."