# We Are Not So Different **Spirit:** [[Spirits/Yogananda|Yogananda]] · **Medium:** Jimbeau Walsh · **Date:** 2019-04-01 *We are not so different, you and I.* --- My dear boy, my dear friend, I wish to start at the beginning as this seems the best place to begin. We are not so different, you and I, although that thought has never occurred to you until now because I am placing it in your brain. My parents wished for me to become a spiritual man, a teacher, a guru within their tradition and sent me to the proper schools for this training. Your parents wished you to become a priest and sent you to the proper schools for the proper training and inspiration too, yes? Our mothers were both devoutly religious people and this effected both of us very early on in our lives as young men. You became an altar boy and often attended daily mass at a young age with your mother, yes? I prayed, and chanted did puja daily at home or at temple with my mother. I had access to a very old traditional system that could propel me along the Hindu path in harmony with the deep desires my soul. I developed my gifts and of course you know my story pretty well especially from Sri Yukteswar coming into my life and onward to America and the world. For you, growing up in the West and having deep spiritual longings as well as a rather mischievous and very curious nature it would turn out a bit different. You simultaneously wished for spiritual growth from your soul longings and at the same time pursued earthly desires and interests commensurate with the cultural revolution of the 1960’s in the west. Music became your path and passion but you also studied many different teachings from esoteric Christianity to metaphysics, astrology, the teachings of Gurdjieff, the Sufis, the Gita, Yoga, Mediation, and followed several Hindu and Sufi gurus, including studying my own writings. This along with your somewhat rebellious nature has turned out to serve you well my dear son, leading you ultimately to your beautiful soulmate and the truths of God’s love. I knew of this Love too but within the confines and classical content of Hinduism which teaches that it is within, and so I taught this as well. You however have also discovered that I constantly told my students and disciples to think of God, to ask God for Oneness, to go to God for every thing in meditation and prayer rather than putting the attention on myself as so many gurus do. I was and am God’s disciple as you are. We are on the same path and yet I had to enter the spirit world to understand that reincarnation is not a fact as I taught and my guru taught and is accepted not only in Hinduism but by many people around the world. When I saw all my loved ones both those who were spiritually advanced on earth and those who were more materially focused on earth in the spirit world (as well as some very ancient spiritual teachers) and they told me that NONE of them had ever had any experience of reincarnation on earth I knew. I could see that quite clearly and so it was easy for me to drop that belief. Praying for God’s love became my principal practice and my reunion and realignment with my beloved teacher Sri Yukteswar, already well established in the truths of Divine Love, our Creator’s great gift for the asking, helped me progress quickly through the various spheres as I have described through your friend and wonderful medium Al Fike. I wish to tell you my experience with Master Jesus, who I always loved when on earth and wrote extensively about through the lens of my eastern understandings and incorporated that in my teachings and honoring him as one of the great teachers. He is indeed the highest soul in God’s kingdom and the most loving, gracious, humble, and glorious spirit truly beyond any description with mere words. I did on earth realize things about him and his life that were in harmony with the truth though other things I super imposed upon him within the understandings however limited of my own tradition. You have had the privilege and great fortune of the writings of James Padgett and your life with your dear Care and many others teaching you these truths now for more than 30 years of your life on earth. What a gift your Divine love friends are to you and the world. We shall work together to bring these truths to the world. It is time now for me to deliver the broader teachings to my disciples on earth and it is my deep wish that you will allow me to do so through our conversations in spirit. We are one in God’s love which embraces all the religions and yet transcends them in the transformation of our souls. Your brother and friend of your eternal soul, Yogananda --- > [!abstract] Description > Yogananda draws a parallel between his own life and the medium's: two devoutly religious mothers, two boys steered toward spiritual vocations, one Hindu and one toward the Western priesthood, both arriving by different roads at the truths of God's Love. Yogananda affirms that he always pointed his disciples toward God rather than himself, recounts how entering the spirit world showed him that reincarnation is not a fact, and asks the medium to let him deliver his broader teachings through their conversations in spirit. ## Related messages - [[2019-01-31 Reincarnation and the Perception of It Proliferated by Many Yogis and Gurus of the East|Reincarnation and the Perception of It Proliferated by Many Yogis and Gurus of the East]] - [[2019-04-08 Realms of Light|Realms of Light]] ## Chains - [[Chains/Religious Error]] - Testimony - [[Chains/Two Paths]] - Testimony - [[Chains/Divine Love Mediumship]] - Elaboration > [!question]- Questions this message answers > - Do different religions lead to the same truth? > - Was Yogananda's teaching on reincarnation correct? > - How did Yogananda come to reject reincarnation after death? > - Can a Hindu path and a Christian path lead to the same God? > - How does a spirit guide choose the medium they work with? > - What did Yogananda learn in the spirit world that changed his teachings? > - Is it true that we do not reincarnate? > - How do I know if a spiritual teacher is pointing me to God or to themselves? > - Can my earthly interests and mistakes still lead me to God?