Dear One,
Joyous Christmas greetings to you from the ashrams of Paramahansa Yogananda! As we enter this holy season of spiritual promise, a solacing heavenly peace emanates with increased strength from the infinite Christ Consciousness—God’s loving and omnipresent awareness in creation. If we make ourselves receptive, those elevating peaceful vibrations have the power to transform us profoundly by bestowing a tangible experience of our true soul nature. That awakening soul-understanding is the gift I pray you will receive at Christmastime—wrapped with eternal care by our Divine Beloved God, inscribed by Him with your name, and placed with His perfect tenderness in your hands.
“Meditation opens the door to Christ Consciousness,” Paramahansaji said. “We should be persistent and sensitively alert, and let God’s love and light expand in us from the spark of Christ Consciousness that is cradled in each of us.” With a single-hearted loyalty to God, putting aside the many demands of his outer mission, Jesus would create opportunities to fully absorb himself in deep meditative communion with the Heavenly Father. Regardless of our outward role in the drama of creation, let us also commit to the paramount importance of regularly casting off the world to go within, infusing with eager yearning for God our practice of the blessed methods of meditation our Guru has given us.
It was at the behest of Jesus and Mahavatar Babaji that the ancient Kriya Yoga science was sent in this age as a priceless treasure. Through its techniques and way of life, and our devotion to God as His children, we can turn the motivating inspiration of Christ and the Great Ones into our own realizations of strength, joy, wisdom, and love. As we do so, the Christ Consciousness that was perfectly manifested in their lives will be increasingly born in us.
This true celebration of Christmas, which our Guru extolled, will also empower us to courageously face and inwardly triumph over all challenges with which we are met. By taking shelter in the celestial gift of Kriya Yoga, over time our capacity to hold firm in the consciousness of divine support for ourselves, our loved ones, and our world will expand; and we will gradually gain an intuitively assured faith that we are never outside the protecting aura of our Divine Benefactor. My prayer for you is that your heart and home be filled with Christ-joy this Christmas and always—with the uplifting vibrations of unconditional love and enduring peace continuously flowing from God, Christ, and Gurus.
Wishing you and your loved ones a most blessed Christmas,
Swami Chidananda Giri
