The Highest There Is

Try to get the strength to get guided into good fortune, gaining peaceful partners and so on. And it may be said that "A generous one is noble and carries many thereby."

Close enough?

A DELIGHTFUL philosophy of life is shown in the reply of the sailor who, when asked what he had done with his pay, said,

"Part went for liquor and part for women. The rest I spent foolishly." [Of]

Christian teaching: It is in the power of the female organ and the rest of her to put the dear one right with God, and thereby save him - put him right with God and the other way round. [1 Corinthians 7:12-14; cf. John 14:12].

According to that teaching, the sailor might have hit the mark.

Socrates taught this: "By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you will become very happy; if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher - and that is good for every man."

Let a man hope only slightly so, if at all, since trusting too much to others is the ruin of many. [Dp 242]

Master to eat, drink and enjoy yourself to remain sincere, since man is not a hypocrite in his frivolous delights.

To be oneself is the basis of great, OK progress in a life. Good-natured frivolity may crown great accomplishments, hidden or in the open.

Playing Man

That homo sapiens is subservient to homo ludens, playing man, is no far-out conviction, but one of the education camp. It is much true in the light of how la dolce vita (life, sweet life) is had: By hard work first, getting rid of such as bad neighbours and false friends, making over-all conditions serve life and play, maybe for your own, good children. There is a progression into valued play, you see.

By many rustic, yet tall enough features or counter-demagoguery we may enter and combat the current wave-lengths of Midas propaganda.

Saturday Rest, is it best?

Where they kill you for Saturday work or punish you or look down on it, Saturday rest may be best.

Anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the Lord ... has despised the Lord's word and broken his commands, that person must surely be cut off . . . [it means killed most often] [Numbers 15:30-31]

How? The Lord said to Moses about an old man who had been picking up wood on a Saturday: "The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp." So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses. [Numbers 15:32-6]

In other places you read it is a thing called "mercy" he wants, and so on.

What is Odious

At times it is fit to emulate the big shot or learn his trade. You should also try and stick to natural delights as long as you can. Keep some good assets and ample tact intact. And "Odious things are to be restricted," said St. Benedict. Brutish violence over and over on TV and in movies and games goes a long way toward the odious. Tender sex hardly so. Mind what is banned, and what is permitted, and consider what apparently is wrong too.

Yogananda does not advocate oil on the head for the fasting periods, contrary to the teachings of Jesus in the matter [Matthew 6:17-8], and yet claims to stand for original Christianity as taught by Jesus. "Original" is a word with many meanings, such as "unique and eccentric", but then again, is is "of Jesus Christ".

If you do not break out of your conform enclave, and it is not a good one, have your own home as long as you can, and do not bother about any odd sayings put in the mouth of a donkey, Jesus and prophets. [Numbers 22:30-33]. Try to make hay while the sun shines instead.

I may add from a curious gospel: "Jesus said to them, "If you fast, you will bring sin upon yourselves, and if you pray, you will be condemned, and if you give to charity, you will harm your spirits [Gospel of Thomas, logion 14]." Now what is odious?

Sayings

Talk much, and err much. (British proverb)

"Why did the teachings of Bhagavad Gita change during the centuries it grew into shape as a much collective endeavour within Vaishnavism (Vishnu worship)?" [Wy]

La dolce vita masters many.

Much of value can be robbed by slogans and tenets. To rob common sense is to rob too.

Fools may invent foul mind fashions (-isms) too.

Gullible ones believe gurus as they are told, and seldom learn to ask pertinent questions that back up themselves.

Have plenty of that self-control that does not maim yourself and lovable natures.

Gullible and half-hypnotised young ones believe much, nay, much to their loss.

Yogananda's so-called "original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ" may usher in your part: To get executed for not respecting enforced Sabbath rest. But luckily there was no such thing as original Christianity of Jesus - A word to the wise . . .

How is it, did not Yogananda's God Mom mean to have him dead from early childhood? But the plans were thwarted.

Final Words

"When invited by invisible beings one should be neither flattered nor satisfied, for there is yet a possibility of ignorance . . . [cf. Yoga sutras 3:50-51]

"By self-control on the form of a body, by suspending perceptibility and separating effulgence therefrom, there arises invisibility and inaudibility." - [Yoga sutras 3:21]