Excerpt from Kriya Yoga: Spiritual Awakening for the New Age by Nayaswami Devarshi
I’ll share a story showing how suffering can be transcended with Kriya. When I lost my wife of twenty-five years to cancer, I discovered that all of my lofty spiritual philosophy could not heal the mixed emotions of my all too human heart. We have all experienced, or will experience, the loss of a loved one. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the emotions that come up: grief, sadness, perhaps old regrets or hurts (received or given), or the wish that one could instead “live happily ever after.”
I found that I couldn’t philosophize my agitated feelings away. Dwelling on them also wasn’t helpful, though all too easy. I knew that suppression was not the answer. Yet the downward pulling feelings were so compelling that they became a nearly constant burden — even taking over my meditations. Much as I was tempted to try to push my grief away, I understood from other experiences that the only way out was up: somehow to transmute that human feeling into divine feeling.
Daily I began, during Kriya practice and at other times, offering that human feeling of grief — and its positive component of human love — from my heart to God. Results didn’t come instantly. Even now I continue to work on the process.
In the end, persistence in working with the feeling, rather than pushing it aside, gave results that far exceeded my expectations. Rather than the grief simply “going away” or just “moving on” — as some well-meaning friends told me would eventually happen — that grief became transmuted into a divine love and a much purer soul connection. It has become one of the greatest gifts of my life.
Join us for Paramhansa Yogananda’s Mahasamadhi Weekend Retreat in Taupo 7-9 March 2025
