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Kriya Yoga/Advaita Vedanta
It's whole, it's perfect, it's sublime, it's pure; it's transcendent, it's divine. Only then was he able to approach the light. This is all of course a subjective dramatization of an internal process of revelation. What is your name?—that was his desire to know. The answer that came to him from within was: my name is I am. But I am what? Moses, or his mind, could not see that as a complete statement or revelation.
L.M.: It's beyond the conceptual mind.
S. SHANK: Yes, and so he asked what does that mean: I am-what? Is that all, I am? No, was God's reply, tell the people that "I am that I am.” I am that hamsa that I am. It is the same realization. Moses revealed the same truth. And surely, he initiated those who were qualified into that transcendental reality. A seemingly abstract, nonverbal reality that is nonspatial, nontemporal, nonphysical, nonsensory, and nonconceptual. It is without beginning and without end. So that is the basis of hamsa-and one who is initiated into it is taught exactly how to meditate on hamsa. There are many benefits that derive from this practice, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
L.M.: When did you get initiated into hamsa?
S. SHANK: I was initiated by Swami Premananda. I was in college at the time, my sophomore year. I had been initiated into hamsa prior to that through Self-Realization Fellowship; I had taken their correspondence course,
the lessons.
L.M.: When did you take the lessons?
S. SHANK: I took them the
L.M.: Just the
year before?
Jain Education International
year before.
S. SHANK: I realized very early on that Swami Yogananda was guiding me. And just to pinpoint how he was: it was my senior year of high school, and I was in the public library. I was a prolific reader even then, but I had not found a book that spoke to my spiritual condition and need. One particular day, I was in the library, and suddenly, I felt something touch and nudge my foot.
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