Here it is, the first Atma Kriya Newsletter, written with a wide variety of interesting articles that we hope will inspire you to seek Divinity in your daily life.

In this first issue, just before Christmas, the theme is about experiencing Christ-Consciousness. Christ Consciousness means to see the world through the heart and mind of the Divine, to refrain from judging others, to love unconditionally, to be positive and be in Oneness.

So, let this Christmas be a time of spiritual transformation. Let us think about how He would like us to spend this time. Don’t forget, it’s His birthday! The best gift for the Divine who already has everything, is just to love Him, to focus on Him in meditation and to keep remembering Him while going about our worldly duties.

Let us celebrate the birth of Christ on the altar of meditation and inner silence. We wish for all of you to experience the real birth of Christ, within you.

With Lots of Love,

But in addition, Atma Kriya compared to other Kriya Yoga systems naturally unfolds bhakti for the Divine. Spiritual progress is not measured by your knowledge, but by how much love you have. Bhakti is the most powerful tool for personal transformation. If you can harness the power of bhakti, then spiritual transformation is assured. It is the undercurrent of all forms of spiritual practice and it is the only path that can lead you to liberation. To realize the Atma, which is real spiritual knowledge, one needs to have true bhakti. As one begins to perceive that the indwelling Self is the sole doer in you, that He Himself is functioning in the body, then Self-Realization is attained.

In the history of Kriya Yoga, whenever there has been a decline in its practice, a spiritual Master has always been sent to re-establish the technique amongst mankind. In recent years, Mahavatar Babaji has given the teachings of Atma Kriya to Swami Vishwananda to spread.

The science of Self-realization is best learnt from a self-realized Master or one of his appointed teachers. But how can one distinguish a true Master? As Jesus said: “You will know them by their fruits”. Divine power is the real fruit. The true Master or Guru is a person who will immediately infuse Divine power in the disciple at the time of initiation. The real spiritual Master will give you evidence of His Divine power, just as Jesus and his apostles did. In Atma Kriya, the giving of Shaktipat is the process of awakening a person’s Kundalini and healing energy. Shaktipat stands for “Descent of Grace”, and can only be given by a Sathguru. It happens by the grace of the Guru Parampara - Mahavatar Babaji and Swami Vishwananda. This grace has also been passed on to the Atma Kriya teachers.

Mahavatar Babaji has designated Atma Kriya and Kriya Yoga as primary vehicles for spiritual evolution in these times, and has said that it is suitable for even a house-holder as a means of achieving Self-realization. Paramahansa Yogananda referred to Kriya Yoga as the “aeroplane route to God”, because like Atma Kriya, a practitioner could achieve in just a few moments by one inhalation and exhalation, the spiritual evolution a common person would undergo in one year. Thus, it was possible for an ordinary person to greatly develop their conscious level in one lifetime and achieve Self-realization.

Lahiri Mahasaya said that the immortal karma yoga of the Bhagavad Gita was also the Kriya Yoga he revived; that it was the method known and passed down throughout the ages and written about in the scriptures, from the Upanishads to the Mahabharata. Patanjali practised something akin to Kriya Yoga. Many other spiritual Masters in the past have also had knowledge of a similar kind of Self-realization technique, including King Janaka, Socrates, Jesus Christ, Saint Paul, Saint John, Kabir Das and Guru Nanak, to name but a few.

Is Kriya Yoga mentioned in the Holy Bible? Yes it is. Jesus says seek first the Kingdom of God. Kriya Yoga means to look within yourself and seek God and His Kingdom within you.

In John 14:10, Jesus said, “Believest ye not that I am in my father and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not for myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” This verse has the same meaning as the words Kriya and Yoga. Kri means whatever activity you are doing – word and deed, and ya means it is done by Him, the almighty Father.

Jesus came to teach mankind of his unity with God. This oneness with God is what is called yoga. The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means ”to join” or “unite”.

In Matthew 11:29, Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls”. In this verse, the Greek word translated to “yoke”. So in the Holy Bible that “yoke” which Jesus wanted every person to take upon themselves, is the process through which one attains conscious union with the Heavenly Father, “I am in my Father and the Father is in me.” When a man reaches God, he himself becomes perfect. Self-realization is the practise of worshipping God internally so as to become God, or attain union with Him.

The path of Self-realization and the path of ego-ignorance are the two eternal paths of the world. The latter leads to rebirth while the former to liberation. Therefore, be steadfast in your practice of Atma Kriya at all times.

When Saint Barnabas died, the monks buried him in the chapel in front of the statue of the Virgin. They put his balls and knives in his coffin for the Abbot said that he might need them to make God happy in heaven.

By his life Saint Barnabas showed mankind, that “only one thing is needed to please God: to do even the smallest thing out of great love.” (Saint Faustina)

Virgin Mary, from whom Christ took birth, represents the purity of our heart. Very often she is represented as pure, white lilies, without any stain. Human heart should be like this. And then from the purity of your heart God can take birth. The Lord is already there! Deep inside, waiting to come out.

So keep practising it: everyday say to yourself, ‘I am the Spirit, I am the Christ!’, and let it reflect outside.

One such miraculous event occurred at the beginning of 2009 in Poland, during mass in St Anthony’s Church in Sokółka. While the priest was distributing the Holy Communion to the people, he dropped one of the Hosts on the floor. As the liturgical procedure orders, it was immediately put into a pot with water to be dissolved. However, after a couple of days the water became red. Something else was discovered, what looked like a piece of blood clot. Two independent doctors tested it and both of them came to the same conclusion, it was a piece of human heart tissue. As Jesus said: “This is truly my body and this is truly my blood.”

May His grace showered at the beginning of the year continue to accompany us. May we remember to look beyond the visible and remind ourselves of His love and presence.

Finally, I encountered the straw that broke the camel's back, and started falling into the depths of darkness. I felt that after many years I was falling again into the clutches of depression, and that this time it wouldn’t go away so easily. However, when the situation was very bad and I felt completely alone in the world, something was telling me: stand up, rise one more time, you can do it, sit down, start breathing calmly, try to think about God for a little while. So I did. Although tears were flowing down my cheeks, my throat was choked with pain and I didn’t believe in the sense of what I was doing, I started praying. Some time passed, I have no idea how long, and then the marvelous figure of Lord Babaji appeared to me – transparent, radiating wonderful light. I felt I was not the same person any more. I felt enormous love. This love slowly started filling each of my cells. There was peace and realization that I was not alone and never shall be. He will always be with me.

I believe that He is always with every one of us. Maybe He is especially present when it seems that there is nothing. I know that if He hadn’t helped me, I wouldn’t have managed. It was a real miracle.

For me Babaji is Pure Love. Simply, the love which you want to achieve. In the past I thought that the biggest happiness came from being loved. Now I understand that actually it is the opposite that brings you happiness, which is to love others.

A person near a village, while driving his horse carriage slowly, was searching a water-reservoir because his horses were very tired and thirsty. All of a sudden he saw a small hut. In its courtyard, a ten or twelve year old boy was sitting. Having seen the horses tired and thirsty from a distance, the boy went into the hut and immediately brought back a bucket full of water and stood by the roadside before the carriage arrived. The coachman, having reached there, stopped the carriage and asked the boy, “What do you want?” The boy replied, “I want nothing. I have come here to provide water to your horses.” Having said so, he put the bucket full of water before the horses. The horses drunk the water and were satiated.

After that the coachman took out some silver coins from his pocket, to give to the boy. The boy said, “Sir! I have not provided water for money. I am a poor lame boy. My mother works in a field and earns our livelihood. My mother says to me that whatever God does, He does only for our welfare. So, if He made me lame, it must be for a good purpose. She has asked me to provide water to the thirsty men and animals. It is also a service to God, because within eight miles there is no stream of water, nor a village. I liked my mother’s suggestion and so I started drawing water from the well to provide for hungry men and animals. I regard it as God’s work and as my duty. I do not charge money for it.”

When the coachman looked at the face of the boy, he saw in it the radiance of beneficence and righteousness. Having seen the good conduct of the boy, the coachman was very much pleased and he began to think of God’s Glory. After that the coachman, encouraging the boy and thanking him, left from there. The coachman learnt his lesson that when even a poor and lame boy could be so generous and beneficent, without any selfish motive, why couldn’t he become generous and beneficent like him. So, he also started doing good to others selflessly.

What glory of beneficence!

Consciousness is not made of material. Consciousness is transcendent. Do you see the paradigm-changing view right here—how consciousness can be said to create the material world? The material world of quantum physics is just possibilities. It is consciousness, through the conversion of possibility into actuality, that creates what we see manifest. In other words, consciousness creates the manifest world.

So you feel there’s a kind of purposiveness to the way the universe is evolving; that, in a sense, it reaches its fruition in us, in human beings?

Amit Goswami: Well, human beings may not be the end of it, but certainly they are the first fruition. Because here is then the possibility of manifest creativity, creativity in the sentient being itself. The animals are certainly sentient, but they are not creative in the sense that we are. So, human beings certainly right now seem to be an epitome, but this may not be the final epitome. I think we have a long way to go and there is a long evolution to occur yet.

In your book you even go so far as to suggest that the cosmos was created for our sake.

Amit Goswami: Absolutely. But it means sentient beings, for the sake of all sentient beings. And the universe is us. That’s very clear. The universe is self-aware, but it is self-aware through us. We are the meaning of the universe. We are not the geographical center of the universe. Copernicus was right about that, but we are the meaning center of the universe.

Source: http://www.amitgoswami.org

3. Chop up the walnuts and brown it for a little while. Mix them together with the spices, the rasped almonds, the flour and the baking powder into the fruits. (See point 1 and 2)

4. Pour it in an approximately 30cm long rectangular baking tin, which is covered with a greaseproof paper. Scatter out the pine nuts and press it a little bit into the smoothed surface of the dough.

5. Bake it in a preheated oven at 200° Celsius for 50 – 60 minutes. After 50 min, you take a little wooden rod to check if the cake is baked.

Because this recipe does not contain any fat or animals products, it is also convenient for vegetarians and for people who like sweets but do not like to gain weight. For children it is an ideal snack, because it is containing many minerals and vitamins but little sugar. Wrapped in tin foil the fruit loaf or cake keeps well for at least one week.

Ginger tea has a spicy, invigorating taste. It's used as a home remedy for indigestion, nausea, and to ward off colds, flu, and sore throats.

• 1 ginger root
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon cardamom
• honey
• lemon
• 4 cups of water

Peel the ginger root and slice it into thin slices. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan. Once it is boiling, add the ginger, cinnamon and cardamom. Cover it and reduce to a simmer for 15-20 minutes. Strain the tea. Add honey and lemon to taste. You can add also a bit of raspberry sirup, if you like.

Note: Keep in mind that if you are making ginger tea as a home remedy during cold and flu season, sweeteners are not recommended.