Winter – A Time for Spiritual Awakening

This time of year is very special for a variety of reasons. Think of what most people do during winter, when it’s more quiet and darker outside earlier. Maybe people sleep more or maybe they watch more movies, television. Maybe they go out more because of boredom. But for a devotee and disciple it can be a very special time. It’s a time when Nature is more withdrawn. Even bears hibernate. 

It’s a time when there’s less outward activity going on. There’s a stillness that you feel. It’s also a holy time. You have Master’s birthday, time of Christmas and New Year during winter. It’s a very special time and we should realize that winter is a time to go within even more – to interiorize more and not to go out and do so many things and be outwardly active. It’s more of a time to withdraw.

Going into the spiritual eye, into the light, through the darkness and then beginning to see a light and going through that tunnel – it is such a wonderful feeling of being with God, of going inside, listening to Aum and just merging into that wondrous sound and dissolving yourself, the sense of ego, of ownership of worries, as you begin to listen to Aum. At this time of year, it’s easier to be able to go inside into the light, into the spine.

To be centered in yourself, into the feeling of who and what you really are is such a blessing. It’s a blessed time and I would suggest to you to use this time well. Let us see what can we do to go more within.

1. Focus a little more on your meditation: Take a step or more in your meditation. Do practise the techniques of which there are so many. Before you meditate, prepare yourself. Energize your body, do some yoga postures, one of the techniques that prepare you to be still. Stillness is important. We live on a rajasic planet. The aim of meditation during this time of the year is Guru Given Deeper Meditations. You can be more still in yourself and meditate with the gurus. It’s a wonderful practice to just feel one of the Masters beside you or you can feel others too like I feel Babaji is sitting on one side, Master’s on the other. Swamiji encouraged us to meditate with the Gurus.

2. Pray more: People hold on to their problems. It is like they like the problem. Don’t hang on to your problems. Offer them. And at this time of more inwardness, offer them to God. Just say: I offer this to you – my children, my job, my finances, my health, my neighbours, my relatives – whatever it is, offer it up and just say, “I know you’re with me. I know you will help me.” You may have to hold that prayer up for a while but I have seen it over decades and I have never seen it fail. When I really offered to God, some delusion of my own, I always received an answer. So, offer prayers and devotion at this time and free yourself.

3. Chanting: Some people feel they don’t have a good voice. But if you’re chanting in your room by yourself, only God hears you. Master says chanting is half the battle. You can get the chant on the music app or online. Chanting calms you down and opens the heart. When that happens, you feel uplifted. Better still, if you can, get a harmonium and take classes and learn. If I didn’t have music, I don’t know what I would have done. Life is too stressful. And what chanting does is that it immediately calms the nerves and helps you feel God’s presence. This winter try to learn one chant a week. That’s a good goal.

4. Read Books: Read something every day from Autobiography of a Yogi or The New Path or Conversations with Yogananda or Essence of Self-Realization. I just open a page and there’s my guidance – right there. I’m sure you’ll probably find that too. Just read a paragraph or read a page or read a chapter. You can take one or two or three books – “This winter this is my reading material”. It could be you read “The Autobiography of a Yogi” from cover to cover or “The New Path” or you might just open a page every day and read something and ask Master, “Talk to me. Tell me what you want me to do. Guide my life. Give me instruction. Discipline me. What do you want me to do?” And then you’ll find that guidance there.

5. Finally, I would say spend some time alone. Seclusion is the price of greatness. Being always amongst people, you can’t sustain that. You need time alone. We’re talking about a conscious seclusion time, retreat time. Be alone with God and Guru. You can do everything you have been wanting to do but you didn’t have the time to do. More yoga postures. More study, listen to more talks of Master and Swamiji- listening to them, more meditation, longer meditations. There’s no rush when you’re in seclusion. If you can only do a day, do a day.

Swamiji said the in seclusion he had the first time, he slept a good deal of the time because he was so exhausted. Then he meditated for long hours like eight to 12 hours at a time. He said the second time he meditated more. Maybe for the first day rested, first couple of days and then he meditated many hours a day every day for two weeks. And he said that seclusion – the energy, the magnetism the attunement – that he got from that, lasted him an entire year.

We don’t realize how much spiritual recharging really renews us, gets us in tune and uplifts us, clarifies and gets rid of bad karma and stress and everything that holds us back and really pushes us forward and helps our spiritual progress. We need that push.

These are all methods, tools and ways to get us to be able to go within. Once you go within, do lift the energy up. Focus at the spiritual eye and go into the light. There is darkness first but then there’s that great light of God.

God bless you all. Have a wonderful winter!