Stephen Sturgess - The Book of Chakras & Subtle Bodies: Gateways to Supreme Consciousness

The Book of

CHAKRAS & SUBTLE BODIES

Stephen Sturgess

Dedication

This book is dedicated and offered with love and gratitude to my spiritual masters: Jesus Christ, Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami r Yukteswar, and my beloved guru Paramhansa Yogananda, who has shown me the true path to God.

I also dedicate this book to Swami Kriynanda and Roy Eugene Davis, two direct disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda who have inspired and initiated me into the ancient technique of Kriy Meditation, that was passed down in succession of gurus from Mahavatar Babaji.

And finally I dedicate this book to Giulia Tripepi, a beautiful soul who has been a constant support and love to me in my life. To the memory of my mother and father. To my dearest sister, Tanis Smith. And also to my special friends: Liladevi and Jayadev at Ananda, and Richard and Christine Fish, who have remained loyal spiritual friends to me on the Kriy Yoga path for 30 years.

May this book inspire you, the reader, to live in the higher consciousness of your true Self within, that you may find true inner joy and peace.

Stephen Sturgess

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The law of life is this: The less one lives in harmony with the truth within, the more one suffers; but the more one lives in harmony with that truth, the more one experiences unending happiness.

Paramhansa Yogananda

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Paramhansa Yogananda
(18931952)

About the Author

Stephen Sturgess has been practising yoga and meditation since 1969, when he was first introduced to it by Swami Pragyamurti, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Satyananda Sarasvat of the Bihar School of Yoga in India.

During the years since, Stephen has studied, practised and experienced the different paths of yoga and meditation hha, rja, kriy, kualin, tantra, jan, karma and bhakti which have increased his spiritual insights, experience and spiritual knowledge. Stephen was initiated by Swami Satyananda Sarasvat in 1979 and given the spiritual name of Shankara. It was also in this year that he received the British Wheel of Yoga Teaching Diploma and began teaching yoga.

In 1982 Stephen met Swami Kriynanda (a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda). The night after this meeting, Paramhansa Yogananda appeared to Stephen in a superconscious dream, and told him that he was his guru, and that the Kriy Yoga path is the path he should follow.

In addition to his primary devotion to yoga and meditation, and related subjects, Stephen has a BA (Hons) Ayurveda degree from Thames Valley University (2004). He is also a graphic designer, artist and writer. He lives in London and continues to guide and inspire others on the spiritual path of Kriy Yoga meditation.

Stephen is the author of The Yoga Book, published by Watkins Publishing (1997, 2002) and Yoga Meditation (2014).

Stephens website is .

Also by Stephen Sturgess

THE YOGA BOOK

YOGA MEDITATION

Contents

Introduction

The Kingdom of Light Within

God made mans senses pointing outwards from the time of his birth, so that man always looks outside of himself and never within. Extremely rare is that wise person, who, desiring immortality, directs his senses inward and perceives the truth of his own innermost Self.

Katha Upaniad, 2.1.1

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The Pharisees asked Jesus: When will the kingdom of God come?

And Jesus replied: The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, Here it is, or There it is, because the kingdom of God is within you.

Luke 17: 2021

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To find, know, and experience this inner kingdom, and to discover the truth of who we are and what God is, a shift of emphasis must be made from the external to the internal world. You need to discard the old outworn concepts of God being far away sitting on a throne up there and out there, somewhere at the end of the universe, rewarding those who are good and punishing those who are bad. And where is heaven? Heaven is where God is and God is everywhere. God is omnipresent. There is no presence within you that is not Gods presence, so you cannot be separate from God. God is present within you as you are within God. In God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17: 28). God is not more present in heaven than He is on earth, for omnipresence means that God is eternally present, undivided, and that He pervades everything. There is nothing outside of the ultimate Reality, God.

The difference between heaven and hell is in the awareness not the location. Heaven and hell are not objective places set in time and space. When you are aware that God alone is, when your consciousness is in God, that is heaven. When there is an absence of awareness, that is hell.

Be Still and Know Your Self

Self-knowledge is the awareness that the Self alone is. The Self is the kingdom of God within us. Due to being forgetful of our true nature we continually search outward in the objective world for happiness and joy. The Self is the joy we are searching for. Joy is within you now; it is not something which is attained in the future. You do not have to go to the Himalayas or anywhere else to find that infinite Joy, which is your God-Self, for it is as close to you as your own breath. The Self is the Kingdom of God; there is nothing outside the Self. It is always present within you here and now. All you have to do to realize the kingdom of God is to be still and know your Self.

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Be still, and know that I am God.

Psalm 46: 10

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In stillness there is no ego-sense of I, only the pure I am. There is no movement of the mind because you are beyond space and time. You are present in the now-moment. By becoming aware of the oneness of your being, the Self, you will realize Gods all-pervading presence within you and in everything.

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When your eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light.

Matthew 6: 22

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In this verse, Jesus is making a mystical statement that has largely been misunderstood and mistranslated by Christian theologians and followers of Christianity. The deeper meaning of this succinct statement is referring not to the physical body but to the subtle body, the astral body of light, within which the chakras are located.

When Jesus said, When your eye is single... he was not referring to the gross physical eye, but to the Spiritual Eye, the positive pole of the j chakra (also known as the third eye, and Christ Consciousness Centre), the fifth centre of consciousness, situated in the astral spine or suumn. The Spiritual Eye is the centre of spiritual perception and intuition that yogis meditate on at the midpoint between the eyebrows. The Spiritual Eyes inner vision can be achieved without the physical eyes that see in the waking state, and the mental eye that sees in the dream state. When the mental eye is closed the physical eye has no vision. In comparison, the Spiritual Eye perceives the truth of everything from within, through intuitive awareness in the present, in the now moment. By meditating on the Spiritual Eye, you become aware of the Self, your pure existence, through the light of the Self. Just as you can see your eye only through the reflection in a mirror, the Self can see itself only through the mirror of the mind. When the mirror of the mind is removed, your true Reality, the Self, remains present.