Many Are the Pathways to Truth (with Brahmachari Sagar)

Sunday Service at Ananda Village

Sunday Service with Brahmachari Sagar and Nayaswami Ananta and Nayaswami Maria at Ananda Village, recorded September 25th 2022. As different as the many spiritual paths outwardly may be, they all take the devotee through the same stepping stones. Through stories and examples, Brahmachari Sagar helps us tune into the one element on the path that will take us to truth, no matter how often we waver. This week's reading is: Many Are the Pathways to Truth (From Rays of the One Light - Weekly Commentaries on the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Kriyananda) Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within. The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. On the dedication page of Swami Kriyananda’s book The Path appears the following account: A group of Paramhansa Yogananda’s disciples had gone with him to see a movie about the life of Gyandev, a great saint of medieval India. Afterwards they gathered and listened to the Master explain certain, subtler, aspects of that inspiring story. A young man in the group mentioned another film he had seen years earlier, in India, about the life of Mirabai, a famous woman saint. “If you’d seen that movie,” he exclaimed, “you wouldn’t even have liked this one!” The Guru rebuked him. “Why make such comparisons? The lives of great saints manifest in various ways the same, one God.” The Bible contains a similar account in the Gospel of St. Luke, Chapter 9: And John…said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us. The more central a truth, the greater the number of contexts in which it can be applied. Truth is like a pure white light, containing within itself the full spectrum of the rainbow. Let no one tell you what your path to God ought to be. Many are The Paths. Select your own according to the dictates of your own nature, no matter how out of step that puts you with other people. Sri Krishna in the third Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, states: Trying even unsuccessfully to fulfill one’s own spiritual duty (dharma) is better than pursuing successfully the duties of others. Better death itself in the pursuance of one’s own duties. The pursuance of another’s duties is fraught with (spiritual) danger. Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.