By Paul Fetler
Forcefully, a paw will unexpectedly pat one of my legs, back, forearms, hands, sometimes with affectionate kicking to follow! Bibi, our tabby cat with piercing green eyes, makes it clear if she wants attention, even though she gets an equal amount with her two male siblings Boris and Max. Companionship, closeness, reassurance, playfulness; clearly, we are not the only species that display these needs. Indeed, the yoga master Parmhansa Yogananda taught that soul friendships are great blessings and wishing goodwill towards all living creatures is a something to strive for.
However, Yogananda also taught that all ordinary human longing for love and intimacy with other beings (including, I would imagine, pets) are outer expressions, beautiful as they may be, for a deeper hidden yearning for intimacy of the soul to be with Spirit.
Tuning In
In recorded talks the yoga master can be heard thunderously broadcasting to people to wake up and seek God within themselves first. He wrote and spoke, using the modern instruments of communication of the day, such as radio antennas, broadcasting stations, walkie-talkies, telephones, to describe the subtle mechanics of how to get tuned-in directionally towards the wavelengths of the Divine. Ways that meditation practices can create a protective magnetic field that allows one inwardly to rise above subconscious mental radio static and subliminal egoic desires that play on like noisy product advertisements!
When praying and meditating, I sometimes think of myself like a transistor radio tuning into God’s harmonious music in relation to a radio station and Power Source. I did not invent this transistor body, nor need to comprehend the Power Source of Spirit, but I can be willing to lift my spine and antenna of awareness to the radio Power Station of the spiritual masters. If the signal is fuzzy, it is on me, and I can turn the dial with prayer for guidance and meditate to listen in better! It is reassuring that there are universal spiritual mechanics at work in practicing this. Also, extremely humbling for it takes dedication, patience, and consistent application to keep renewing.
Clearer Reception
Yogananda would say to his disciples that he could not magnetize them to higher awareness if they would not let him. He did not force anyone to plug in to the Divine channel to God that he was. Rather, like a Power Station, he continually, like all great spiritual masters, radiated waves of pure bliss and love to all.
There are times when I get distracted, my circuitry feels restless, and I am more distant from the Divine signals. It is then I need reboot my own intention for a stronger connection, pause whatever I am doing, and ask honestly, “how much do you really want to feel free again in order to go deeper into the priceless calm I have already experienced?” Surrendering with prayer, my awareness antenna lifted in hopes to make connection. The more my heart can be a clearer and willing receiver, unfiltered without hesitation, the quicker I feel an unfailing spiritual cleansing. The vast love I feel flowing back can make my inner transiter radio with its tinny mental sounds recede replaced by a smooth stereophonic beauty that is deeply soothing, clarifying, and luminous.