“From today until Christmas pray deep and long until every day becomes a true Christmas day of Christ-communion.” – Paramhansa Yogananda
Christmas is many people’s “favorite time of the year,” and disciples of Yogananda are no exception. Even as we string lights and garlands in celebration, nature itself calls us inward. The leaves fall, the air grows still and cold, and plants retreat to the warmth of the earth. So too are yogis invited to garland their altars and withdraw into the inner silence.
Yogananda loved Christmas. He embraced what he called “social Christmas” as a time to share gifts, feast, and enjoy his large spiritual family. There are countless stories of the care that the Master put into the selection of gifts for his disciples at social Christmas. He would shop months in advance to find just the right thing.
On one Christmas night, Yogananda handed his disciple Mr. Dickinson a square box by the Christmas tree. As Mr. Dickinson opened it, he experienced a dazzling flash of inner light. Forty-three years before that fateful night, another yogi-saint, Swami Vivekananda had told Mr. Dickinson that his Guru would make himself known with the gift of a silver cup. Even as Mr. Dickinson dedicated years of loving service to his guru Yogananda, no such cup had been gifted until that fateful night.
But for Yogananda, “spiritual Christmas” was even more meaningful than the outward festivities. On December 23rd, one day before the social celebrations, he would gather his disciples for an all-day meditation. Stories of his bliss on this day abound. Again and again he would slip into Samadhi, uplifted in divine communion in the presence of hundreds. Near the end of the meditation he often played The Blue Danube, explaining that its joy mirrors the celebration of the Masters and angels when so many souls unite in deep meditation. They dance for joy!
The All Day Meditation, 8 hours of inner communion, has continued as a spiritual tradition of Self-realization seekers around the world. Thousands gather together in temples and homes to meditate for one full day each year. Here at Ananda Portland, we gather for this sacred event on the Saturday before Christmas, which lands this year on December 20th.
Eight hours of meditation can be intimidating. But, asanyone who has tried it can attest, there is a grace about this meditation that makes it different from any other. It feels, for just one day, that all the world is going inward and the soul rejoices in the silence. Newcomers often find comfort in the periodic chanting and stretching breaks, offered every one to two hours, which help the body adjust to the long periods of quiet.
Yogananda urged us: “Let us make this Christmas a real celebration of the birth of the holy child by striving to realize the consciousness which He attained.”
I hope you can join Ananda for some or all of this sacred celebration of Christ consciousness!