This article wraps up the Light series that I wrote mostly in 2023. It takes a more positive approach than the previous series (Terra), which showed how pure life-energy from the source (Light, or divine consciousness) gets dragged down by Earth and its spiritual shadow. Here we show how that perfect life-energy is always ready to raise humanity up out of the shadow into finer states of spirit and consciousness.

Links to the complete articles that are all summarized below:

00 Introduction: Into the Light 
01 Energies on Earth and in Spirit Are Worlds Apart 
02 Out of Suffering 
03 We (and Driverless Cars) Navigate with Morals 
04 Mind-Body-Spirit in Harmony
05 Miracles and Siddhis (Divine Intercessions)

You can also go to any of those complete articles throughout the summary below, by selecting its number, like “00” directly below.

Article Summaries

00 – Introduction: Uplifting the World

The Light series explores the following:

• How do familiar energies of our world, such as sound and light, compare to the life-energies (sometimes called “divine light”) that create and sustain the entire cosmos?
• Why do we suffer so much if we consist essentially of perfect life-energy from the source?
• How do we navigate our lives with morals, which means “to understand, to acknowledge, to devise, and to act?”
• How can we find body-mind-spirit harmony for the best possible peace and happiness during a lifetime?

01 – Energies on Earth and in Spirit: Worlds Apart

Potential, kinetic, thermal, electrical, longitudinal, transverse, sound, radiant, chemical, gravitational, nuclear, subtle….

So many kinds of energy! To put them all into perspective for this article I had to juggle them until they fell into three neat piles:

• Earthly energy includes sound waves and ocean waves (sometimes called physical or mechanical waves). They travel at various speeds, and they vibrate molecules (and other material things like water) from the outside, by pushing-pulling-pushing-pulling them into wave-like patterns that produce energy.
• Universal energy (better known as electromagnetic energy) includes radio waves, microwaves, light, and X-rays. They carry photons as they travel through the physical universe at the speed of light. They vibrate molecules from the inside, by passing through the atoms, energizing their electrons, and making the molecules vibrate… radiating energy. Photons have a “wave-particle duality,” meaning they can exist as either matter (particles) or energy (waves)… which suggests that they’re at the border of the spirit realms, where matter ceases to exist.
• Cosmic energy (what I like to call “life-energy”), is the essence of the source that manifests everything in the cosmos. The various forms of life-energy travel instantaneously through all dimensions and universes and vibrate other life-energies. They don’t seem to vibrate matter, though—at least not easily—since matter and its particles only exist (or seem to exist) in dense physical universes like ours, where life-energies apparently get deformed or deflected to a large degree… somehow.

Maybe it’s possible to understand and measure all of these energies in familiar ways—for example by their amplitude, wavelength, and frequency.

In any case, energy (and existence itself) seems to be mostly about waves and vibrations.

Well, with one major exception: Pure life-energy (I believe) has a wavelength of zero and a frequency of infinity. That pure, nonvibrating, immeasurable life-energy exists only in the source that’s at the center of everything, creating and sustaining the entire cosmos.

This article (#01) takes a close look at all those energies, speculating on how we might better understand life-energy nowadays thanks to our knowledge of light, sound, and other familiar energies… and vice versa: how our understanding of life-energy might be able to teach science a thing or two 🙂 about the familiar energies of our world. 

02 – Out of Suffering

The title of this article suggests a couple of things:

• Out of suffering can come peace, strength, and understanding… and
• There’s a force in the cosmos that can lift us out of suffering, or at least turn it to our advantage.

First we look at why we suffer. I wrote a previous article about this, but in a nutshell:

• Earthy things can make us suffer: accidents, addictions, assaults, competitors, crimes, deceptions, disasters, diseases, genetic defects, hunger, loss, parasites, poverty, poisoning, predators, war….
• Psychological things can make us suffer: fear of death, sense of separateness, wishful thinking, attachments, expectations, negative emotions.… (read more…)
• Spiritual things can make us suffer: karma, meddling spirits from the shadow, our soul choices for a lifetime….

Bottom line: To live on Earth is to suffer.

This article (#02) looks at a sort of principle-of-the-cosmos that can minimize our suffering amid all the dramas of a lifetime and can turn suffering to our advantage. (That principle is simply to foster conscious contact with the source that’s at the center of everything.)

03 – We (and Driverless Cars) Navigate with Morals

We navigate our lifetimes on Earth the way driverless cars navigate the road.

Driverless cars are complicated and smart—(like robotic versions of ourselves). They have working bodies and chassis (skin and bone), wheels (legs), sensors (nerves), actuators (muscles), processors and memories (brains), and operating systems and apps made of software algorithms (knowledge and intelligence).

At the heart of them both—a person and a driverless car—I believe there’s a set of morals.

That’s debatable, of course, depending on how we define “morals,” which on this website means:

To understand, to acknowledge, to devise, and to act.

• Moral behavior for us humans means understanding the world around us, within us, and in-beyond of us; acknowledging it; adjusting and updating our understanding to fit the current situation; and acting accordingly. The process is built into our body, mind, and spirit.
• Moral behavior for a driverless car means understanding the traffic conditions around it, acknowledging them, adapting to them, and acting accordingly. The process is built into the software (algorithms) and employed by the hardware (sensors, actuators, and so on).

This article (#03) looks at the difference between morals and ethics (rules of right and wrong), and how morals by the above definition need a spiritual or in-beyond component to make them right, or good.

04 – Mind-Body-Spirit in Harmony

Most of the cosmos seems to operate on the simple law of resonance: To exist is to be in harmony.

We’re told that someone living in a finer spirit world is automatically pulled into a community of like-minded people. Everyone gets along in kindness, mutual respect, and mutual support. They’re resonant.

The cosmic law of resonance apparently dominates the lives of most spirits as completely as the universal law of gravity dominates us physical humans—pulling us relentlessly to Planet Earth, and pulling Earth relentlessly toward the sun.

Beings throughout most of the cosmos are simply pulled into resonant, like-minded groups.

But on Earth?… not so much. Sure, we gravitate into groups with common goals and interests, but we don’t really resonate with everyone in the group. Certain people and traits get on our nerves—personality differences, bad habits, bullies, despots, gossips, rivals, complainers, slackers, over-achievers, bootlickers… whew.

Enjoying a life of peace, order, and happiness is rare in our world because of all the dramas that disturb the resonance.

So the first step toward finding a happy life amid all the drama is to understand and acknowledge that we’re a composite of body, mind, and spirit.

More specifically, we’re each a stressed body, a restless mind, and a calm spirit. That’s simply a fact of life here on Earth.

The goal, then, is to help those 3 parts of our self to get along with each other—to resonate—and in this article (#04) we look at 4 simple steps that might be useful.

First, though, the article takes a close look at spiritual nesting (depicted in the first diagram above)—showing how the calm spirit is built into the stressed body.

Then we consider ways to integrate body, mind, and spirit by training the relaxed mind to help the stressed body resonate with the calm spirit… especially through heart meditation.

After all, for centuries mystics in the Far East have called the heart “the seat of the soul.”

05 – Miracles and Siddhis (Divine Intercessions)

(Note: This article summary is pretty big, even after removing most of the details and backstories and copious notes from the original article. Most of the miraculous events have been rearranged chronologically.)

Lots of amazing, mysterious things happen in this world. At the top of the list are miracles and siddhis.

In this article we look at just a few of the more famous miracles and siddhis of recent times, and along the way we’ll try to figure out how they’re possible… what these “divine intercessions” really are*… and why they seem to happen more often to Catholics (especially young Catholic girls) and to Hindu spiritual practitioners.

*Note: They apparently occur when divine life-energies imbued with brilliant consciousness and vitality stream into our world from finer realms close to the source… but there’s more to the story.

CATHOLIC MIRACLES

The Catholic Church has a long history of miracles, and this article explores three breathtaking events that occurred at different places and times—Lourdes (1858), Fátima (1916), and Garabandal (1961)—where Mother Mary and various angels and saints made an appearance on Earth. Along the way we’ll try to figure out how miracles like those happened… and why.

Note: Part of the reason why, of course, is that the Catholic faith developed around the miracles of Jesus and spread quickly from the Holy Roman Empire (encompassing nearly half of Europe) out across the world, to become a powerful, stable spiritual force on Earth… but, again, there’s more to the story.

Lourdes, 1858, apparitions on 15 consecutive days

In the 1850s, the Crimean War stunned most of Europe, while the spread of human slavery with its barbarism and cruelty was pushing America toward its own catastrophic “Civil” War. Meanwhile, in Lourdes, France, a small town (pop. 4,000) at the foot of the Pyrenees, 13-year-old Bernadette Soubirous lived with her struggling family in an abandoned building on the edge of town, near Massabiele Grotto, a large cave surrounded by lush vegetation near the river Gave. Her only education was the Catholic teachings that she studied at night. She was a happy child, responsible for taking care of her brothers and sisters.

Bernadette had 18 encounters with Mother Mary in 1858. Here’s a glimpse:

• February 11: Bernadette goes out with her sister and a friend to collect firewood, but she lags behind because of her asthma. She’s removing her shoes and socks to wade in the water when she says the cave suddenly exhales a gentle wind and rustling sound and emits a golden glow. A beautiful woman materializes before her wearing a white robe with a blue sash and a yellow rose on each foot, and holding a yellow rosary in her hand.
• February 25 and 28: Bernadette encounters the woman again and is told (telepathically) that a church should be built near the grotto.
• March 10 (or thereabouts): The woman tells Bernadette to come to the grotto for 15 consecutive days, to pray the rosary, to drink from the stream, to pray for the conversion of sinners, and, again, to urge the priests to build a chapel there at the grotto. (Quite the to-do list!) Bernadette has to scoop out four large handfuls of sandy soil from the tiny spring to get enough water to sip. Then the woman vanishes.
• March 11-24: The crowds that grow over the next 15 days watch Bernadette strolling solemnly through the cave, studying its features, communing with the invisible angel, and sharing the information she gets. She’s told again to locate a stream, to wash in it, and to the tell the priests to build a chapel there. She’s also told three secrets that she can share with no one. (She’ll take those secrets to her grave at the end of her short life. Meanwhile…)
• March 25: On the fifteenth day, the woman identifies herself as Mother Mary and tells Bernadette to pray and to make sacrifices for sinners.

The Basilica at Lourdes would be completed in 1872. In the ensuing decades millions of people would flock to the spring for its healing power, but only about  7,000 would claim to be healed by immersing their bodies in the water. Only about 70 of those miracles would be certified by the Church. Bernadette would spend her life serving as a nun, and the Church would declare her a saint after her death in 1875 at age 35.

Fátima, 1916, apparitions on the 13^th every month

During the first world war, or WW1, with humanity sinking into darkness, a miracle of light began to materialize in a family pasture in Fátima, Portugal. Nine-year-old Lucia and three of her girlfriends were out tending sheep in the big pasture called Cova da Iria, when they all saw a human figure begin to materialize above the trees in the meadow. Not just once, but on three different occasions between May and October. The girls were awe-struck. “It looked like a statue made of snow that became almost transparent by the rays of the sun,” Lucia reported later to family and friends.

The following spring (1916), Lucia (now 10) went out shepherding, this time with two of her cousins—Francisco (9) and Jacinta (7)—and the angel returned, this time as a fully formed apparition. The angel told the astonished kids that Mother Mary would visit them the following year. And so began the miracles of Fátima, when Mother Mary appeared to Lucia and her two cousins on the 13th of every month, from May to October, 1917, and delivered a unique message to the kids (in the form of mental words and pictures) at each of these monthly events.

Each monthly message typically had the same simple reminders: Pray the rosary every day, and come back next month on the 13th. Mary also talked to the kids often of sins, sufferings, reparations, and supplications. Each message had a few unique details, but the third message (July 13) and final event (October 13) were momentous and spectacular:

• July 13. With the first world war raging in Europe, this is the longest and most urgent message. It includes three secrets that the kids are not to tell anyone. (Later, though, when their local bishop orders Lucia to tell him the secrets as an act of holy obedience, Lucia reluctantly recounts 1) a terrifying vision of hell where the souls of poor sinners go, 2) a predicted end of WWI and the start of WW2 with its atomic bombs, and the worrisome trend of godlessness that is taking root in communist Russia and could spread around the world, and 3) a vision of church leaders and laypeople being murdered by soldiers.). Some excerpts: In October I will tell you who I am and what I want, and I will perform a miracle so that everyone may see and believe.… God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart…. If people obey, the war will end and peace will reign. Otherwise, an even bigger war will break out, presumably with atomic weapons: When you shall see a night illuminated by an unknown light know that this is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its many crimes of war, hunger, and persecution of the Church and the Holy Father…
• October 13: Mother Mary reminds the kids to tell the priests that a chapel should be built here in the pasture in honor of “The Lady of the Rosary.” She says the war will end soon. Then the angel Mary lifts her hands to the sky, and Lucia shouts, “THE SUN!”

Then came an astonishing 10-minute event that’s come to be called “The Miracle of the Sun.”

Miracle of the Sun, Oct 13, 1917

It was a cloudy, rainy day in Fátima, which didn’t bode well for a miraculous event. Finally, though, the sun broke through the clouds, and one of the girls looked up and shouted, “THE SUN!”

Different people saw different things as the sun came out, but this is a general scenario that most people experienced:

“The dark clouds broke and the Sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal…. Witnesses reported that their previously wet clothes became ‘suddenly and completely dry, as well as the wet and muddy ground that had been previously soaked because of the rain that had been falling’.”

Some people at Fátima saw nothing out of the ordinary, while these specific visions were seen by many different people:

• The sun danced around in the heavens.
• The sun zoomed toward Earth on a zigzag course as though it were going to crash.
• Brilliant rainbow colors spun out of the sun like a pinwheel.

The three children themselves saw all of those visions. Also, they said that while the heavenly light show was going on…

• Apparitions of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and Saint Joseph hovered over the crowd, blessing the people.

Garabandal, 1961, apparitions on random days

In the 1960s, thousands of nuclear warheads were being stockpiled by the USA (America) and the USSR (Russia) during the “cold war” that was boiling and blustering between the two “Superpowers,” pushing the world ever closer to the brink of utter annihilation. Meanwhile, on a clear, pleasant June evening in 1961, Conchita and her three girlfriends Jacinta, Mari L, and Mari C (ages 11 and 12) were playing on the outskirts of Garabandal, a small mountain village in northern Spain, when they were startled by a thunderclap, and suddenly a brilliant, beautiful angel was hovering before them. The four girls stared in awe.

The angel appeared to them again the next day and announced that a few weeks later, on July 2, they would see Mother Mary. And so began a series of amazing events, as people started to come from miles around to witness the divine visitations, which began happening several times a week in 1961-62, at unpredictable times, day or night. The girls were silently informed when each meeting was to happen, and they’d run (sometimes backwards) along tortuous mountain trails (without stumbling or falling) to the meeting site. As soon as the vision appeared, they’d sometimes fall on their knees in unison, hard and noisily among the sharp rocks (never showing signs of abrasions or injuries). Their faces reflected perpetual beauty and ecstasy as they stared up at the apparition of Mary, whom only they could see. When the growing crowds made loud noises, or when the girls were poked or pinched or even struck, they were never distracted, nor were they ever harmed in any way. When bright lights were shined directly in their eyes at night, they didn’t blink, and their eyesight wasn’t affected. On one occasion, a communion wafer was videotaped materializing in one girl’s mouth.

These events, observed by many, would clearly be deemed miraculous by most of us. The girls would get messages from Mother Mary and convey the information to the people. They’d sometimes quickly gather items (rosary beads, for example) from the visitors beforehand to have them blessed by Mary, and then later, somehow, the girls would be guided back through the crowd to return each spiritually infused item directly to the proper stranger. Sometimes they accidentally dropped items in their hurry to see Mary, then, after their session, Mary would tell them exactly where to find each lost item so it could be returned (already blessed) to its owner.

The Garabandal messages were straightforward:

People are sinful and unrepentant. As a result, human conditions are getting worse and worse. God one day soon will issue a warning of cosmic scale that everyone on Earth will be able to see and feel. The girls said they know the nature of the miracle and when it will happen, but they’re not allowed to reveal the details until eight days before the big event, giving people time to prepare. If people heed the message, there’s a chance for redemption of humanity. Otherwise, the proverbial end time or judgment day will be upon us.

Notes: The four Garabandal girls were born in 1949 and 1950 (same as me and my wife Regina, respectively). Three of the girls are still alive, but they’re all approaching their ‘expiration date’ (same as Regina and me). So… the stipulation that the girls (now in their 70s) will announce the big event eight days in advance suggests that the revelation might be ‘coming soon to a neighborhood near you.’ We’ll see how things unfold, say, in the next 10 years… but no point holding our breath….

About the secrets that Mother Mary told the kids at Lourdes, Fatima and Garabandal? I suspect they’re all similar to the ones Lucia in Fátima was forced to divulge to her bishop: Darkness is encroaching on humanity once again, so another apocalypse is coming unless humanity learns to get along peacefully. As our spirit friends told our INIT group through a computer in 1996: ”We have often given you the real purpose of ITC contacts: Mankind at the end time should be led back to the principle (God or the source). Light and darkness shall unite and form a whole again. What people experience now is not the actual beginning of the apocalypse, but only the first symptoms of it.” Maybe Mary and her entourage have to drop by every so often with these Catholic miracles simply because time is so illusory here on Earth, and it’s hard to make accurate predictions. They apparently know an apocalypse is coming, they’re just not sure when all the big excitement will begin—Earth shifting on its axis due to polar melt, perhaps, or horrific fires and floods, or nuclear war… or whatever else is in store. Who really knows when (or even if) such an event will happen. Time is nebulous. If it doesn’t happen before Conchita and her three Garabandal friends have all died, then Mother Mary might choose the next generation of Catholic girls to entrust with the secrets. One thing seems to be certain, though: Miracles like these (and the siddhis below) only come together when people are pure of heart.

SIDDHIS OF THE FAR EAST

Good religious practices like Western prayer (above) and Eastern meditation (below) can refine the human spirit and purify the heart, providing fertile ground for divine intercession. Nowhere is that more evident than in India, where miracles called “siddhis” are almost commonplace…

… at least, siddhis used to be commonplace in India, before common sense took over during the “Age of Reason” or “Age of Enlightenment” some 300 years ago. When we examine miracles (siddhis of India in particular), we might have to reevaluate the whole idea of “common sense”—that is, what seems normal to us humans as we perceive the world through our five senses. At the same time, we might have to ask: Is “Age of Enlightenment” really the same as “Age of Reason,” or is it the opposite? You’ll see what I mean, below.

The best description I can devise for Hindu spirituality is this: Many pillars or streams of brilliant light extend from India to the source, which Hindus call Brahman. These divine streams of life-energy are forged by noble lineages that extend hundreds, sometimes thousands of years, in which enlightened teachers teach students how to sustain conscious contact with the source, who then become enlightened teachers of other students, and on and on across the generations. It’s through these noble lineages that the ancient wisdom was preserved—passed from teachers to students across the ages—until languages were devised (probably before Babylonian times, recalling the Tower of Babel), and they could be written down as the Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, and other holy texts.

Note: Many of those “siddhas”* who can sustain conscious contact with God eventually die and then settle in brilliant afterlife realms, where they stay spiritually connected to their students on Earth, offering guidance and support and infusing them with streams of rich life-energy. Some of those bright teachers eventually decide to return to Earth for another lifetime… and they sometimes inform their refined friends on Earth where they’ll reincarnate, and into which family. And thus continue the noble lineages across the centuries, forging these streams of light to the source. Great prophets like Jesus are apparently some of those finer beings who come to Earth with a built-in conscious connection to God.

So let’s take a look at some of those noble lineages of enlightened teachers, called siddhas, and the miraculous things they’ve experienced, which are called siddhis.

*Note: Siddha, translated from Sanskrit, means “perfect one” or “accomplished one,” and siddhi can refer either to the achievement of perfection, or to one of the many miracles that happen once that perfection is achieved. It’s that spiritual perfection, the result of sustained conscious contact with the source, that mystics of the Far East and Middle East (Hindus, Buddhists, Sufis….) have deemed “enlightenment” in the cosmic sense of the word. Siddhas are more familiarly referred to as “swamis” or “yogis,” or in a teaching capacity as “gurus”… though most gurus and swamis and yogis have never achieved a sustained conscious contact with the source to become “siddhas.”

Babaji, Lahiri, Sri-Yukteswar, and Yogananda

This is certainly India’s most famous siddha lineage, simply because it was described in intimate detail in Paramahansa Yogananda’s milestone book, Autobiography of a Yogi. (Most of the information below comes from that book.)

Note: To help readers avoid getting distracted by lots of names and aliases of the gurus, we’ll call them, simply, Babaji, Lahiri, Sri-Yukteswar, and Yogananda. At the end of the article is a brief bio of each guru, with all their complete names and some personal information. Other names will also be shortened: Pranavananda becomes Pran, Kevalananda becomes Kev, and so on. The abbreviations aren’t meant to be disrespectful—just convenient for writing and reading the article.

Here’s their story (condensed and paraphrased:

Mahavatar Babaji

Highlights from Babaji’s life, especially the siddhis he experienced:

• No mention in the history books. According to legend, Babaji has been on Earth since his birth in 203 AD*, living mostly in the Himalayas, but doesn’t show up in history books because his soul purpose has been to support mankind quietly, especially through the lives and teachings of other swamis whom he observes and supports constantly from behind the scenes, and sometimes visits by materializing in their presence. He speaks in Hindi but can also converse vocally in any language, as well as exchange information silently, mind to mind. While great prophets and luminaries like Krishna, Christ, Gautama Buddha, and Mohammed come to Earth for a lifetime at certain crucial periods, Babaji moves in and out of our world over the course of centuries to provide on-going support for humanity. Babaji doesn’t eat or drink, although as a social courtesy to visiting disciples, he’ll sometimes take a bite of fruit or cooked rice in milk and butter.
• Disciple Lahiri. Lahiri could wield miracles easily and naturally because he was Babaji’s main disciple of the 19^th Century and got a lot of attention and support from the master. But Lahiri said it’s not an exclusive relationship. “Whenever anyone utters the name of Babaji with reverence, that devotee attracts an instant spiritual blessing.”
• Sis urges Babaji to stay. One evening Ram Gopal, “the sleepless saint,” had his first extraordinary encounter with Babaji. Ram was a close disciple of Lahiri at Varanasi at the time. Alone on the banks of the Ganges late one night, Ram encountered a lovely young woman levitating, surrounded by a soft halo. She came out of meditation and told Ram, “I am Mataji, the sister of Babaji. I have asked my brother and Lahiri to meet me tonight to discuss a matter of great importance.” In moments, the four of them were together. Lahiri, Mataji, and Ram knelt at Babaji’s feet. A sense of glory passed through Ram, but he was a bit stunned when Babaji announced his intent to leave the Earth after all these centuries and return home to finer spirit. His sister Mataji said, “I’m aware of your plan, beloved Master. It’s why we’re here tonight. Why would you leave your body?” Babaji said, “What difference does it make whether or not my Spirit is visible or invisible to people?” With sisterly wit, Mataji replied, “Deathless Guru, if it makes no difference, then please don’t ever relinquish your form.” After a pause, Babaji said solemnly, “I see that God is speaking through your lips, Blessed Sister. My body will continue to remain visible to a small number of people on Earth.”

*It’s unlikely that Himalayan yogis like Babaji actually sit in caves for centuries in their physical bodies. That would be a little boring, even for a siddha. According to these accounts, spiritual masters like Babaji live in many worlds at the same time—on Earth and in various spiritual worlds, or Lokas, and their physical bodies are just used as physical anchors on Earth that some of them choose to sustain over long periods of time. Their subtle physical bodies can apparently levitate, bilocate, and even “disappear” (or cease to exist on Earth) for long periods of time, and then rematerialize when a siddha has an important task to do on Earth, such as to visit a living siddha.

Lahiri Mahasaya

Here are a few highlights from Lahiri’s life, especially the siddhis he experienced, as recounted by his students:

• Lahiri meets Babaji. At age 33, Lahiri was a government accountant for India’s military in the town of Ranikhet at the foot of the Himalayas. He loved going out for long walks in the hills, and one day was beckoned to a cave, where a young man in a robe smiled and welcomed him. The young man asked if the cave felt familiar. This is my first time here, Lahiri thought, why would it be familiar? The young man tapped him on the forehead, sending a surge of life-energy (shaktipat) through his body, and Lahiri exclaimed, “Of course I remember now! You’re my guru Babaji. You’ve always belonged to me. I spent many years of my last incarnation in this cave!” Babaji replied, “I’ve waited more than 30 years for your return, watching you through your astral journeys, emerging as a babe into your current life, your struggles… I’ve always been watching, waiting for this perfect day….”
• Lahiri resurrects dead Rama. The two young disciples Rama and Sri-Yukteswar were best friends, and when Rama got seriously ill of Asiatic cholera, Sri-Yukteswar begged master Lahiri to heal his friend. The master just smiled and said Rama will be fine. Then Rama died one evening. The next morning, when Sri-Yukteswar trudged back to the ashram after a night of grieving, Lahiri smiled and asked how Rama was doing. Sri-Yukteswar moaned, “He died yesterday. They’re planning his cremation today.” Still smiling, the Master said, “Take seven drops of castor oil from that lamp and drop them into Rama’s mouth.” Yukteswar protested, “He’s dead, Master.” Still smiling, Lahiri said, “Just do as I say.” So Yukteswar returned to the corpse, pried open the stiff lips, and allowed seven drops of oil to drip onto the teeth. He was stunned when Rama’s body shuddered violently, his eyes flew open, and he croaked with a dry voice, “I saw Lahiri in a blaze of light! He told me to quit sleeping and come with you to see him!”
• Lahiri restores blind Ramu’s eyesight. Ramu was a disciple, blind from birth, who would often fan the master Lahiri with a palm leaf during his meditations. Another student urged Ramu to ask the master to restore his eyesight, so the next day Ramu approached master Lahiri reluctantly and humbly (he didn’t like special attention), and asked if he could heal the blindness. Lahiri said, “Ramu, I see you’ve been put up to this, but you’ve been misinformed. I have no healing power.” Ramu replied, “Certainly the Infinite Power within you does?” The Master said, “Ah, that’s different. God has no limitations.” So, after some meditation, he touched Ramu’s forehead between the eyebrows and said, “Keep your concentration here while chanting the name of Rama (the popular Hindu god Rama, not his fellow disciple Rama) for 7 days.” On the seventh day Ramu woke up with perfect vision.
• Swami Pranavananda finally connects with God. “I used to meditate for eight hours every night,” swami Pran told Yogananda. “I had wonderful results! Cosmic truths lit up my mind. But there was always a little veil between me and the Infinite.” So Pran said he visited his guru, Lahiri, and implored him to help with that final step—conscious contact with the source. After much pleading, his guru finally said, “You may go now and meditate. I have interceded for you with Brahman.” So Pran went home, and while meditating that night he was flooded with light and timeless knowledge. “Never from that day forward has the blissful creator remained hidden from my eyes,” he said.
• Swami Kevalananda is shown the infinite cosmos.  One evening Kev and a dozen or so other young disciples were seated in a semi-circle around master Lahiri, who was channeling wisdom from the ancient teachings of the Vedas. When a student asked about the planes of consciousness, or Lokas, Lahiri smiled and replied, “I will undergo those states now, and presently tell you what I perceive.” For several hours Lahiri went into great detail about those arbitrary levels of spirit that flourish with brilliant life between our material universe and the source (see the earlier diagram of the 7-level cosmos).

Note: A mental map of the cosmos is the sort of cosmic knowledge that had been passed down through countless generations of siddha lineages in India across the ages (presumably before writing became mainstream), among those who’d achieved a sustained conscious connection with the source. (more about the Lokas… )

Sri-Yukteswar Giri

Here are a few spiritual highlights from Sri-Yukteswar’s life, as recounted by his student Yogananda:

• Sri-Yukteswar’s life mission. Sri-Yukteswar met his guru Lahiri, in 1884 and spent a lot of time with him in the coming years. Ten years later he was honored by a brief visit from his guru’s guru, Babaji, who urged Sri Yukteswar to write a book comparing Hindu scriptures and the Christian Bible, something the young Sri-Yukteswar had vaguely been considering. (He had graduated from a Christian college and was drawn to science.) Sri Yukteswar completed the requested book that same year (1894), with the title Kaivalya Darsanam, or The Holy Science. It became his legacy to help bring the noble religions of East and West together with science.
• Immunity from predators. One day, while Sri-Yukteswar was sitting at an outdoor table with one of his students, a six-foot cobra slithered out of the bushes and made a beeline toward the guru. The student was terrified. Cobras in India caused more than 5,000 deaths a year in India. Sri-Yukteswar simply smiled and started to clap in a slow, rhythmic cadence as though to welcome or transfix the snake, which approached within a few feet of the guru, stopped, spread its hood, and swayed back and forth as though deciding whether to strike. They stared at each other for a minute—guru clapping and smiling, snake swaying and probably trying to detect any fear or ill intent but finding only a sense of peace—then the cobra retracted its hood and slithered away on its journey.
• The challenge of focusing the mind. During one of Yogananda’s learning sessions while meditating with his guru Sri-Yukteswar, the guru suddenly halted his discourse and said quietly, “You are not here.” Yogananda, protested, “Guruji! I haven’t stirred. My eyelids haven’t moved. I can repeat every word you said!” The guru replied, “Nevertheless you were not fully with me. Your mind was busy creating three institutions. One was a sylvan retreat on a plain, another on a hilltop, a third by the ocean.” Yogananda was taken aback. Those thoughts had indeed been present, almost subconsciously—vague thoughts he’d never really talked about. He glanced at his guru, a little embarrassed. Sri-Yukteswar said, “Your architectural dreams will materialize later. Now is the time for study!”

Paramahansa Yogananda

A few highlights from Yogananda’s early life, especially some siddhis he experienced:

• Lahiri becomes the family guru. Old family friend Abinath, a sort of uncle, visited one day, took the young Yogananda aside, and told him a story. He said, “Your dad Bhagavati was my boss before you were born. I recall one day when I wanted—no, needed—to take time off to visit my guru (Lahiri), but your dad insisted that doing my office work was more important than becoming ‘a religious fanatic.’ It was a very sad day for me. While walking home along a forest path, I silently told my guru, ‘I cannot live without seeing you!’ Then, against all odds, I encountered your father on that isolated path!… and we walked together. Along the way we paused to absorb the beauty of a serene meadow glistening in the late afternoon sun, when my great guru (Lahiri) suddenly materialized before us and said, ‘Bhagabati, you are too hard on your employee!’ then disappeared. Your father was stupefied, and after a long while said, ‘Abinath, my wife and I will accompany you to visit your guru. We leave tomorrow.’” Lahiri became the family guru and his picture was the centerpiece of the family shrine.
• Lahiri heals young Yogananda. At age 8, Yogananda was dying of Asiatic cholera. Mother told her dying son to look at master Lahiri’s picture, and when he did, he says, “I saw there a blinding light enveloping my body and the entire room. My nausea and other uncontrollable symptoms disappeared!”
• Yogananda’s spiritual destiny. Shortly after that healing, Yogananda was sitting in bed in a sort of reverie when he heard a voice in his head, “What is behind the darkness of closed eyes?” There was a flash of light, then a series of moving pictures passed through his mind—different saints meditating in mountain caves. The voice said silently, “We are the Himalayan yogis.” The visions of saints were then replaced by “silvery beams expanding in ever-widening circles to infinity.” Then came a silent dialog. Yogananda asks: “What is this wondrous glow?” Voice replies: “I am Iswara. I am Light.” Yogananda: “I want to be one with Thee!”
• Absrobed in meditation. So began Yogananda’s spiritual journey. He spent so much time meditating at home in the attic that he was often chastised by his brothers and sisters for shirking his household responsibilities.
• Yogananda meets his guru Swi-Yukteswar. After high school, Yogananda joined an ashram. Now, he thought, he could meditate to his heart’s desire. But even here he was soon reminded often by his fellow students to come down out his lofty place (again, the attic) and fulfill his ashram responsibilities. On one occasion he accompanied a fellow student to purchase food and supplies at the crowded market, where Yogananda was stopped short by the sight of a tall, white-bearded priest in an orange robe standing solemnly in an alleyway, watching him. He’d been dreaming lately of a saintly man with a white, pointed beard and leonine features. Yogananda thought, My Guru!… but shook his head. Couldn’t be. As he turned to resume shopping with his friend, his feet became fixed to the ground. His friend was amused as Yogananda struggled to move his feet. My guru! he thought again. He handed his armload of packages to his friend, turned around, and ran through the crowd to stand directly before the priest. “Gurudeva!” Yogananda exclaimed. The priest replied, “Oh, my own, you have come to me! How many years I have waited for you!” They stood in silence for a long time, life-energies streaming from heart to heart. Yogananda knew that this holy man would lead him to the source… God… Brahman. And so Yogananda left the marketplace and his fellow student (and the ashram), hand in hand with his new guru—Sri-Yukteswar.

*Note about Kriya yoga? Therein lies the secret of the siddhis, according to Mahavatar Babaji and his siddha lineage. (Other lineages employ other techniques, such as “Siddha yoga.”) In a nutshell, siddhis (or miracles) are the fruits of samadhi, or a meditative state that advances through various stages of spiritual development. Samadhi stages vary from guru to guru, in both the names and the numbers of stages involved, but they all generally agree on two basic truths: 1) Living on Earth with a busy brain and its five senses blocks us from perceiving the source that rests both at the center of the cosmos (Brahman or God) and at the center of our self (atman or soul). 2) Spiritual development is facilitated by samadhi stages that can move aside the blockages bit by bit by silencing the busy brain and purifying the heart, until we can make conscious contact with the source with its rich, all-powerful life-energies (prana or Holy Spirit).
The two ultimate samadhis are often called savikalpa and nirvikalpa. Savikalpa is an experience of realizing our true spiritual self and achieving conscious contact with the source briefly, often a minute or less, and can result in profound insights and powerful life-energies streaming into and through us. Nirvikalpa is a meditator’s prolonged conscious contact (or merging) with the source. That’s when a person becomes a truly enlightened being with powers to wield miracles at will. Kriya yoga is the set of samadhi stages employed by Mahavatar Babaji and the other gurus in his siddha lineage. What makes techniques like Kriya Yoga powerful is not the techniques themselves, but the divine life-energies that stream through the practitioners from finer realms.

There are so many miraculous stories throughout Yogananda’s biography that the reader soon begins to think about the dichotomy of life on Earth and life in spirit… which is real, and which is an illusion?

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Biographies in a nutshell:

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So these articles give us a pretty good idea of how life-energy from the source, or divine light, is always present… always ready to lift us out of the shadow.

We only have to acknowledge the life-energy and take steps to make conscious contact with the source. Doing that mobilizes a vast team of fine spiritual helpers to make good things happen in our lives and in our world.