Renunciation and Justice - a Problem of a Devotee and an Answer by Swami Yogatmanandaji

by Charlie (Prana) Feldman

This is an email that I wrote to Swami Yogatmananda about a spiritual problem that was concerning me. Swamiji was able to clarify the issue with his reply, which is printed below.  

Dear Swamiji,

I think you once mentioned that while eastern religions accentuate renunciation, western religions accentuate justice. I think that is a major cultural difference between east and west. Even though I grew up with no religious ideal, I had the ideal of justice in the background. Because justice cannot exist without injustice, that ideal seems absurd. Some people realize this and don't bother to advocate for justice at all, and go on to do antisocial things. Examples would be the Yippies, the Gestaltists, the Subgenius, and others. Their goal in life seems to be to play, with the goal being power, but not caring whether they get it or not, since it is all play. I had a mentor in college who took this point of view, so I ended up thinking that this was an unjust world or later, an unjust cosmos.

Grace of Swamiji

by Vithoura Ngo-Phat

Out of the blue
You came back into my life
Lost contact with you since I moved away
Lost contact because, you were retired
And no longer took care of devotees
But your rang my phone unexpectedly
You said with your loving and soft voice
Come back to Massachusetts
But Swamiji, my life and work were here in Maryland


A few months after
Getting a notification
Of a pink slip
Realizing that I would lose my job
I remembered that phone call
Around Christmastime
Looking at the ice storm
Outside of my window
Freezing rain
Glazed ice
Covering green pine trees

"I'm at a much better place now"?

by  The Father's Child

I hear myself say often, "I'm at a much better place now." Am I really at a better place? I heard a friend of mine say this the other day, and the phrase started circling in my mind. It made me wonder; if we are at a better place, how come, then, that without much change to the environment/circumstances, we still become unhappy, distressed at other times? It hit me then, no we are not in a different place; we are going around in circles around the same place as the center! The center is our object of focus, and we travel on the circumference along happiness, sorrow, despair, distress, anger, misery, and multitudes of such emotions that tire our very existence.

But Father, I really want to be at a better place...drag me out of this orbit. Drag me before I forget that am really stuck now.

What's Life

by BeJoy

They claimed, "It's One!" Unity without division.
Conjured by false ego, these are mere delusion.

But now, Mother! I feel it's got to be Two.
What's life but an endless saga of just me and you!

Your Goal of Life

by Abhijit

I recently found out about your Goal of Life. I know! I know! Who am I to talk about your goals? True, I don't know anything about your goals. But when it comes to your Goal of Life, I just found out about it.

Let's say your Goal of Life is Goal-A, whatever that may be. Imagine you achieve that. Just imagine. What next? Life continues...What Next? Well, then you would have to have another goal set, say Goal-B. That makes Goal-B the Goal of Your Life (not Goal-A). That too when fulfilled, will have to replaced by Goal-C. And so on, there is no end to it.

Conserving Energy to Find the Solution

by The Father's Child

I whine a LOT ! Just as I was whining about how life has panned out to my Father, he asked, "Didn't you complain about all this two years ago?" Quite right, but you haven't helped much to alleviate my situation ... except how could I say this outright? He is my Father, and I could tell him without a second thought, but what stopped me was the guilty conscience that I wasn't reporting my problem to him with the idea of self-improvement, but rather to have him wave his magic wand and change the world around me - just so I may tread this dream in all joy rather than tears. My Father doesn't like cowardice and I well know that.