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The great Indian-American yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, has bestowed on us a legacy of literary works as well as his liberating techniques of yoga. His Songs of the Soul demonstrates a God-realized soul communing with nature and people and finding nothing but God everywhere. His Whispers from Eternity "serve to bring God closer to us, by describing the liberating feelings that arise from actual communion with Him," says Amelita Galli-Curci, writing in the Foreword of that volume. Again with Metaphysical Meditations we are uplifted toward soul-awareness by the beautiful poetry that not only inspires but also serves as a vehicle to aid in carrying the mind to celestial realms.
May the heads of all countries and races be guided to understand that men of nations are physically and spiritually one . . . . Let us pray in our hearts for a League of Souls and a United World.Following this prayer for a united world, the foreword tells us that "Meditation is the science of God-realization. It is the most practical science in the world. Most people would want to meditate if they understood its value and experienced it beneficial effects." The great yogi goes on to tell us the purpose of meditation is the attainment of the awareness of God and the soul's eternal oneness with God. Because meditation uses a high form of concentration, the chanting or repeating of certain affirmations in the form of songs and poems is very beneficial. The great yogi intructs us to choose a meditation that meets a present need and then sit quietly, focusing our attention at the point between the eyebrows; then we audibly or mentally repeat the words of the meditation slowly and with great concentration until we feel the concept becoming a part of our own consciousness. This kind of "reading" is not so different from the kind of reading we employ in experiencing any poetry. Poetry always requires more of us than prose; we must use extra concentration when reading a poem. This type of reading is quite foreign to most readers once they enter high school, and that is exactly the time that students begin complaining that they can't understand poetry. Although fast reading becomes the norm for readers of prose, slow, deliberate, concentrated reading is necessary for understanding poetry, which is more experience than merely mental understanding. Therefore meditation and affirmation can be useful tools in studying poetry, or actually, any subject including law and medicine.
The copyright of the article Poetry and Meditation in Modern U.S. Poetry is owned by . Permission to republish Poetry and Meditation in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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