Saints

"We Altar Attendants really liked going to other churches when they had their church’s holiday... Typically, the hosts never thought of sitting us. When Vladika was urged to take his place, he would ask the person in charge of the banquet ‘Where are my Altar Attendants sitting?’ Typically they would be slightly embarrassed and say something ‘Oh, we’ll find them a place in the kitchen’ or more often than not, just say ‘We don’t have a place for them’. At that time, Vladika would say that he is not sitting down until his Altar Attendants are seated. Then a slight panic would ensue, as people scrambled for an extra table and some chairs. We loved that scene, and very much appreciated Vladika’s loyalty and concern."

"But to act on the rules enjoined, For Man to be a Super-man. These rules no mortal brain has coined, But form a part of Heaven's Plan."

"And every year a golden crop, Of these Immortals will arise To help safely to the top, The savants who train for the prize. (Verses 381 - 386)"

"What I aver is not a dream Nor wishful thought nor fantasy Though it may now fantastic seem"

"Religion is, in truth, a route To be pursued unto the last, Not for discussion or dispute Nor ostentatious rite or fast (Verses 291 - 294)"

"This well-observed phenomenon, So new to modern intellect, Has been exhibited, off and on, In varied tongue and dialect,"

"Right from the old Egyptian times, By many a richly gifted mind, Of which the evidence in some climes, One can in holy scriptures find."

"It soon will be a reality, To make it ready for the shift From the old order to the New, In which the strong the weak will lift, And the rich to the poorer give."

"There is no way to find this out, No way to wake up from the dream, No method to remove the doubt, Save knowledge of the State Supreme."

"We are not using the totality of the human brain. According to various estimates, most of us use only ten percent of the brain and according to some only eight percent. That means 90 percent of the brain is un-utilized, that there is still a large margin in the brain which could be used for other purposes, and nature has provided it for certain purposes which are not yet known to science."

"This is my experience, that the human brain is still organically evolving in the direction of the great mystics, in the same direction as the great geniuses. For this evolution a certain type of life is necessary."

"Children should be brought up with the ideal cultivated in them that the universe is ruled by an intelligent power, that they must cultivate purity, honesty, truth, compassion and live ideal lives. In that way they will conform to the evolutionary needs. That is the best thing we can do for the children."

"The chapter of St. Tikhon's Orphanage has never been written. The amazing way in which Blessed John gathered and fed the children requires an able writer to capture it for posterity. The children would be underfed, abused and frightened, until Archbishop John would come and very often take them personally into his orphanage and school. Each child and there were over three thousand who went through the orphanage had a traumatic story."

"It is a fallacy to hold That Life’s patrician is the prime, And outcast tribe the sterile old, Who live for death to bide their time."

"This book is from the Super-Mind A fast dictated gift sublime, The Message it contains will find Full confirmation in due time."

"This promised dream-world, as designed For man, by Heaven that has imbued With these ideals the human mind, Will ne’er be given up but pursued."

"As an Altar Attendant... observing, especially during Eucharist, the intensity and power of his praying was spell binding. It seemed to me that he was not standing on the floor, but elevated. I mentioned this to others, and they agreed. St John was not a big man physically, but when he blessed the bread and wine, at that moment, making the Sign of the Cross over the Challis and Discus (plate) as required, he would thump the Altar Table, as he made the Sign. He could not have reached so far without being elevated. Recalling it now, I still get chills."

"The persecution of Blessed John Maximovitch the Wonderworker did not end with his death. It is true that some trouble-makers repented and publicly wept, kissing the coffin when everyone was parting with the Saint. But his enviers continued to resent him, as they do even up till today, when it is politically convenient to pronounce him a saint. After his death some leaders in his Synod, having seen that he had ended triumphantly, decided to put a stop to the publishing of his miracles and memoirs about him, in order to conceal their deeds against him."

"When he heard confessions, he did not make it a big thing... he called confession a "dusting off"... the layers of ungodly impressions which settle upon the soul automatically if the soul does not resist and preserve its freshness. After each confession from Archbishop John, which as I said was nothing extraordinary, I felt very enlightened, although I must confess I always feared him because I knew he clairvoyant."

"O people of the world unite, and pave the way to peace sublime, Divided you yourself invite disastrous wars, unrest and crime."

"His incredible, self imposed, ascetic restriction on sleeping in bed was known to many. For 44 years of his monastic life, he slept for 4 or 5 hours per night sitting in his chair."

"If he was in his room and you wanted to see him, you didn’t just knock and wait for him to respond. What you did was knock and say “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us”, and when he responded with an “Amen”, you walked in."

"The legend runs that only a small number of families of Kashmiri Hindus survived the massacre and all the present population of Kashmiri Pandits is descended from them. It was said that cartloads of sacred threads, which the Hindus wear, were collected and thrown into the Dal Lake from the decapitated bodies of the killed and tortured. Crowds of women committed suicide to escape the clutches of the ravishers. Women, it is said, carried lethal poisons in their pockets to be swallowed when no other way was left to save their honor."

"The word yoga is met for the first time in Vedas in the Katha Upanishad and some description of it is contained in Svetasvatra, the last of the early Upanishads. It is more frequently met with in Puranas, the epics and other later literature, and is sometimes synonymously used for tapa and dhyana (i.e., religious austerity and meditation). Basically Yoga is nothing more or less than systematized concentration. Fixity of attention, whether on a God or a Goddess, on a symbol or a diagram, on the void or any material object, or whether on a mantra or any particular region of the body, is the main exercise of every ancient form of Yoga."

"True religion is a firm belief in an Almighty Creator, in immortality, in self-perfection, in service, truth, love and compassion for all fellow beings, as the only way for the sanctification of human life to manifest the glory of the soul."

"Properly speaking, Yoga is an adjunct to religion and has always been treated as such in India, the country of its birth. The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj which means to yoke or join. As such, Yoga signifies the union of the individual soul with universal Consciousness or, in the language of the Upanishads, with the uncreated, all-pervading Brahman."

"We should have a population for which we have sufficient out of all that is produced by the earth. This can only be possible when the needs of the population and the planning done for it are on a global basis."

"What would be needed are men and women who are cultivated, trained, and who have reached to other dimensions of consciousness, in charge of important offices. That is the only way to safety."

"See how calm and reposeful Nature is and how restless is man... He doesn't know that he has to evolve in a certain direction, that he has to reach a dimension where he will combine the scientist, the sage and the illuminated in himself."

"It is an admixture of natural life, lived in solitude, amid beautiful surroundings of nature and what we call an arboreal life, which is absolutely necessary for the poise and harmony of the human mind."

"For political leadership one needs more than a pure heart and a good intellect. He or she must have the talent for administration and the charisma to rule. People with less character but better talent sometimes prove to be better leaders than those who were good-hearted but did not know the art of leadership."

"Please don’t think that after the awakening of Kundalini all human problems will be automatically solved. The universe is so complicated and human nature so deep that to the last day man will continue to gather wisdom to enable him to live in greater and greater harmony and joy."

"Did you ever surfeit a drinker to this heart? Bring to my lips, Saqi, lips of the purple flask. Scent-like, it cannot lie concealed behind the veil, The beauty which has tasted the delight of being unveiled. Brief is our span of life, fleeter than the lightning flash, Fated are we to finish in haste each assigned task. Whosoever I approach to unfold my heart, Comes forth at once with his own tale of woe. You haven't seen, O Dard, the world's destructive might, Flask-like it mingles in dust each drinker's blood."

"Solitude and nature are absolutely necessary for the proper development of a human being."

"Everyone who is transformed by the action of Kundalini blooms into a genius. When more and more facts about this still-mysterious and mighty force are known, more and more men and women will endeavour to arouse the power."

"As for those in whom the power awakens in a malignant way, it will be possible when physicians come into possession of more facts about it to apply methods and other remedies to counteract the effects of an unhealthy awakening."

"If I say that Kundalini performs no less important a function, not only for the individual but for the whole of the race, shouldn’t it be a matter of the deepest interest for us to know how it functions? It is at work every moment of our lives in building the brain and the nervous system, and it is therefore most necessary for the safety of mankind that some people deeply interested in it arouse this power so that the world might benefit by their experience."

"The knowledge of the secret of Kundalini, when accepted and amplified by the experience of other competent investigators, will bring home to humanity the need for strict adherence to the laws of evolution and for adjusting their social and political systems in harmony with these laws."

"Kundalini is the evolutionary mechanism in man. It is slowly but inexorably leading mankind towards a higher state of consciousness. In the normal human being the condition of one’s heart is always a matter for careful attention because the heart plays a most important function in keeping the body alive."

"At this moment mankind is unsafe in the hands of present-day politicians. Considering the progress she has made in physical science and technological skill, it is imperative that superconscious minds be placed in charge of human affairs."

"دوستو، دیکها تماشا یہاں کا بس تم رہو خوش ہم تو اپنے گھر چلے۔"

"جگ میں کوئی نہ ٹک ہنسا ہوگا کہ نہ ہنسنے میں رو دِیا ہوگا"

"Sanctity is not just a virtue. It is an attainment of such spiritual height, that the abundance of God’s grace which fills the saint overflows on all who associate with him. Great is the saint’s state of bliss in which they dwell contemplating the Glory of God. Being filled with love for God and man, they are responsive to man’s needs, interceding before God and helping those who turn to them."

"Many were aware that it was not necessary to ask Vladika to visit someone. The Lord Himself inspired him where and to whom to go."

"We would go to Vladika to get his blessing before exams. One time I went and he said, “Why are you asking for my blessing, you didn’t study, go away.” How he knew that is a mystery to me, but I knew that I would do miserably, and I did."

"How difficult is to please you people. I celebrate too long and he too short!"

"No one in the world has (ever) laughed, the least bit without weeping at the same time."

"If we look for a moment at the great mystics of the past, the prophets like Christ and Buddha, Shankaracharya, Vyasa, or Mohammed, we find evidence of this in their own lives. It is a desire tospeak the truth, a desire to speak to mankind with unbounded love, compassion, mercy, and charity. This is found in all of them."

"My friends, we have seen enough of this play. We are going home, you can stay."

"For the next 45 nights, a most unusual event occurred: According to many local townspeople, an extraordinarily bright light appeared above his tomb, lighting the night sky. Finally, after the mysterious light persisted, officials at the monastery petitioned the ecclesiastical authorities for permission to exhume Charbel's body. When the grave was opened four months after Charbel's death, his body was found to be incorrupt."