The excerpt is inspirational whatever your faith or beliefs; it’s from “A Biography of Mata Amritanandamayi [Amma, the hugging nun]”, written by Swami Amritaswarupananda, a devotee.
Hold onto what helps; let go of what doesn’t. A bit of skepticism is healthy, though don’t be closed-minded.
In Raja Yoga there are three ways to verify something:
1. Witness or experience it.
2. Rationally infer it.
For example, if there was no snow on the ground when you went to bed, but there was snow on the ground when you woke up, it’s rational to infer that it snowed while you were asleep.
3. Have it verified by an authority.
Herein an authority is universally recognized as an authoritative source or expert in their field. For example, my teacher, Edwin F. Bryant, Professor of Religions of India, at Rutgers University is a highly-regarded expert on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras – which in turn is universally-recognized as the primary authoritative source of Raja Yoga. 😉
In this case, the author of Amma’s bio is clearly an expert in his field.
