PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA Message

“Come to Me, O Krishna, as the Divine Cowherd” by Paramhansa Yogananda

“Come to Me, O Krishna, as the Divine Cowherd” by 

Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

 O Krishna, Lord of Hindustan, I sorrowed by the lonely Jumna river bank, where Thy flute-notes thrilled the air and led the lost calves to their homes. O Lotus of Love, musing on the sad absence of Thy delusion-dispelling eyes, I saw Thine invisible Spirit take form, frozen by my devotion’s frost.

Thy divine form of sky-blue rays, with feet of eternity, walked on the banks of my mind, planting lasting footprints of realization there. I am one of Thy lost calves which followed Thy flower-footprints on the shoals of time. Listening to the melody of Thy flute of wisdom, I am following the middle path of calm activity, by which Thou hast led many through the portals of the dark past into the light.

Since all of us are of Thy fold, whether moving, sidetracked, or held stationary by the fogs of disbelief, O Divine Christ-na, lead us back to Thy fold of everlasting freedom. O Krishna, Thou reignest on the heart-throne of each knower of Thy love.

From Whispers from Eternity, 

"Who is a Yogi?" By Paramhansa Yogananda(East-West, January 1926)

"Who is a Yogi?" 

By Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

(East-West, January 1926)

“Not a sword-swallower, crystal gazer, or snake charmer, but one who knows the scientific psycho-physical technique of uniting the matter-bound body and soul with their source of origin, the Blessed Spirit.

He is a Yogi who says:

‘I shall go within

To bring Thee without

Where I am Thou must come.’

Such an enlightened one dives deep within the soul thru meditation, and brings God-realization without to apply it in worldly life. He is a Yogi who acts for all, and not he who shirks activity or is a fugitive from the battle of life. If we all go to the forest, we will have to build a city there and face the problems of life just the same.

A business man, literary man, artist, musician, laborer, or king; all can be Yogis, if they so choose. A Yogi aspires to know the Spirit through living according to the spiritual laws of life, thru renunciation of all material fruits of success and by devoting such fruits to the good of all. Such a man as the Hershey chocolate king, who has given his entire fortune of eighty millions to a school, and now works in his own factory, has accomplished renunciation equal to that of great saints.

We must struggle to attain success and have the broadening experiences of life. Many would-be Yogis say, ‘My wife died, I lost my wealth; hence I will forsake everything and become a hermit.’ Why, they have nothing to forsake! Such sacrifice is not real. It is the renunciation of the fruits of successful action, the translation of selfish ambition into selfless service for all, that is true sacrifice.”

"Banks of Eternity" by Paramhansa Yogananda

"Banks of Eternity" by 

Sri Sri Paramahansa 

Yogananda 

At last I found the banks of eternity and there I sat, musing, to plunge, swim, and melt in that ocean of immortality. Melting myself within Myself I became the ocean of luminous light. All dream waves of many incarnations have melted into the sea of one flame.

All rivers of my desires have become one vast sea of desire for God. The loves of many lives have commingled to become one cosmic love. The joys of many centuries have gathered together and become the all-pervading joy.

Beloved of my heart, since Thou hast created me, it is in Thy power to release at once the atoms of my body into the freedom of Thy light. No longer do I want to play with this wave of life or with other waves of lives.

Bless me that I may expand this soul into Thy Spirit — expand my wisdom into Thy wisdom, and expand my bliss into Thy bliss. I, the tiny wave of life, must become the ever-expanding ocean of immortality.

Deliver Us fro Delusion*Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda*

Deliver Us from Delusion*Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda*

Success Through Unity***by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda ***

Success Through Unity

by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda 

People build their aspirations and form their desires according to their prenatal and postnatal influences. Heredity and national, social, and family characteristics, tastes, and habits mold the life of a child. Children, in the beginning of their lives, are about the same everywhere, but, as they grow older and the family and social characteristics begin to exercise their influence, it is then that individuals begin to reveal national and racial traits.

It seems as if God is trying to evolve the art of right living by expressing His Truth through a combination of particular civilizations, mentalities, and nationalities. No nation is complete in itself. An absorption and collection of the best in all nationalities may supply us the best information on the art of living. It is important to note that Jesus and the Master Minds of India not only attained the best in all civilizations since the earliest era to the present time, but they manifested the highest ideals embodied in all religions. Therefore, the art of right living can be found in the study of the best in all nationalities, plus the study of the individual lives of great Saints.

Diversity and Unity

Diversity is the Law of Nature. Unity is the way that leads to the Infinite. By discord and diversity, the world is thrown into the boiling pot of sorrow, wars, and death. Uniting Souls with Truth by ideal living is the way to happiness, peace, and immortality. Through individual, industrial, and political selfishness, explosives of the feeling of race superiority, and by the excluding commercialism of dogma, entrenched religions have kept races divided and shattered by social, industrial, political, religious, and financial wars, resulting in depressions, ignorance, and mass misery.

A combination of the spiritually-efficient qualities with the scientific materially-efficient qualities as represented in the lives of great men can offer us an art of living which will produce physically, mentally, morally, materially, socially, and spiritually the highest type of all-round men in all nationalities. Do not take only those principles which develop the physical at the expense of the Spiritual phase of man’s life, or vice versa, but also take those which equally and harmoniously develop the superman with his balanced physical, mental, moral, and Spiritual qualities.

How to Build World Unity

Scientists, politicians, business men, and social workers by limited specific methods unconsciously and indirectly are trying to pave the path to World Unity. The exponents of scientific religions, philosophy, and ethics of human conduct try to consciously garner the picked blossoms of Truth from the gardens of all forms of wisdom, and try to decorate human Souls with a floral costume of super-qualities which may directly qualify them to enter the Paradise of all-freeing ultimate wisdom.

Science is directly helping man with material comforts through her golden inventions. The same science, indirectly, is helping man to be the reformer of dogmatic religions and to explain many miracles found in Nature and spoken of in religion. Science shows how, by changing the vibration of a pound of water into ice, that solidified water, instead of mixing and sinking, can be made to float on top of the water. It suggests through the scientific imagination that perhaps Jesus controlled the psychological relation between matter and mind and thus changed the atomic vibration of His body, enabling Him to walk on water.

In order to bring all humanity into the mansion of union and universal happiness, science, politics, social and individual ethics, international industries, and the science of international laws of living, all universally useful, moral, and religious sciences should offer ideal standards of the international laws of hygiene, peace, prosperity, education, moral 50

codes, and applied psychological and Spiritual laws, which would make each of the fifteen hundred million human inhabitants of this earth an all-round, perfect world citizen.

Then each Soul would be able to say, “Down through the window of Memory I looked. I recall the early hours of my childhood, when the sun of my consciousness first began to appear. As it slowly rose out of the darkness of the unconscious mind, it dimly lighted only one part of my little mental horizon that lay encompassing my mother, playthings, and a few multi-colored desires. Later, as my consciousness grew brighter, a great part of my mental horizon was illumined. I saw in it not a few things only, but many thingsmy friends, relatives, neighbors, countryall these were revealed and included. Now, as I look within, on the mental sky, the sun of my consciousness seems to be shining brighter than ever in its supreme power. It no longer lights one direction only, or one portion of my mental horizon, or only a few friends or relatives, or one nation, but all nations, nay, all creatures and Nature, all planets, all stars, all shining electrons, all Universes, and all Space are included. I did not know that out of the inky darkness of my mind I would discover the Sun of Cosmic Consciousness.”

Do Your Part

Follow fearlessly the Truth wherever you perceive it. Love your family and country deeply so that you may learn to love and serve people of all nations more, and learn to find God in all men of whatever race or religion. While honoring God in all man-made temples, learn to worship and contact Him in the temple of deepest silence. Practice meditation for one hour in the morning and one hour at night. Learn the highest methods of scientific concentration and meditation as taught by great Hindu Masters. Do not be sidetracked to dogmatic, untested religious beliefs, but try to find the one highway of Self-Realization which leads quickly to God through the forests of belief and theology. The entire process of evolution in Nature and Man seems to suggest the necessity of removing the storm of ignorance in order to effect the union of delusion-projected waves of Life with the One Ocean of Spirit.

Offer This Prayer Daily

Our One Father, we are traveling by many true paths unto Thy one abode of Light. Show us the One Highway of Common Realization where meet all by-paths of theological beliefs. Make us feel that the diverse religions are branches of Thy One Tree of Truth. Bless us that we may enjoy the intuition-tested, ripe, luscious fruits of self-knowledge hanging from all the branches of manifold Scriptural teachings.

In Thy One Temple of Silence, we are singing unto Thee a chorus of many-voiced religions. Teach us to chant in harmony our love’s many expressions unto Thee, that our melody of Souls may rouse Thee to break Thy vow of silence and lift us on Thy lap of Universal Understanding and Immortality, that we my hear Thy Song’s Refrain in all our tender chants to Thee.

How to Solve the Mystery of Life after Death

How to Solve the Mystery of Life after Death

by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

 Paramahansa Yogananda

The existence of life after death is the greatest mystery guarded by nature. No one is allowed, no matter how great a saint he might have been, to come back after death and tell the masses of people (or to tell anyone except perhaps a few devotees) of the life-eternal. Not one of the billions who have died since the world began has returned to life in the same body, and stood on a lecture platform and cried, “Behold, here I am, come back from the dead, and I now understand the mysteries of the hereafter.”

God does not want to influence anyone through the testimony of his saints, or by the miracles they perform. God wants his human children to awaken to their immortal soul nature by their own free will. Everyone must individually solve the mystery of life and death.

The paradox of delusion is that every individual is a mixture of the changeless soul and the changeable body. The soul is individualized Spirit, operating through a physical body. It is God Himself who has descended into the bodies of all His human children.  Individuals play many different parts through many incarnations, while remaining unchanged in their soul natures, but because they identify themselves with the limitations and changes of the body, they forget their true unchanging natures as souls.

The spiritual eye: pathway to soul consciousness
Solutions to the mystery of life and death must be received in direct contact with the Infinite in meditation. In meditation, by concentrating at the point between the eyebrows, you can behold the spiritual eye, the gateway to the infinite world of Spirit. The spiritual eye, when seen clearly, has three colors: a golden ring on the outside; inside of the golden ring, a dark blue globe; and inside of the blue globe, a white five-pointed star.

By concentrating deeply at the spiritual eye, you can induce the superconscious state. As you meditate more and more deeply, you will arrive at ever more profound levels of superconsciousness and your awareness of the body and its limitations will begin to fall away. In ecstatic communion with the Divine, you will experience the eternal life behind your mortal life. You will not only think but realizethat you are formless, omnipresent, omniscient, and far above all bodily limitations and changes.

Any devotee who experiences the eternal life behind this mortal life lives forever; that is, he is conscious of his existence after his death, even if he has to experience several more incarnations on earth. Such a devotee has solved the mystery of life after death.

Why wait for death?
We came from the astral world and we shall return to it. We go to the astral world after death but why wait for death? It is important to spend more time in the astral world. If you can consciously go there now, you will certainly be able to go there consciously after death.

The life force is very strong in the eyes. By fixing your awareness at the point between the eyebrows with deep concentration, and by being able to hold the divine light, when it appears, for any length of time, you can gradually learn to send consciousness and life force through the spiritual eye into the Infinite.

Just as a baby chick breaks through its shell of limitation, by deep concentration at the spiritual eye and “intuitional heat,” your soul will break through the shell of finiteness. Your soul will then experience, not a region of chaos and dark sleep, but the astral world or “heaven” which souls visit after death, and where they enjoy temporary freedom from the sufferings of mortal life.

Your soul goes to the astral world now, when you are asleep, but you are not conscious of it. Live there now by deep concentration upon peace and calmness in meditation. By increasing the intensity of your concentration at the spiritual eye and the depth of your calmness, you can be in the astral world, free from the limitations of the cage of manifestation.

Communicating with departed loved ones
Communicating with departed loved ones, like the existence of life after death, is a closely guarded secret. Only selfless, patient, all-loving individuals are able to establish a link with departed loved ones after death.

To communicate with a departed loved one, concentrate deeply at the point between the eyebrows until you can see your spiritual eye with both closed and open eyes. You must be able to hold that concentrated state for as long as you desire. Then visualize the soul you want to meet and constantly broadcast to him to come into the light. Only good souls, who loved you and whom you love, should be invited.

If you have patience and strong personal zeal, eventually you will be able to see and speak to that image on the screen of the spiritual eye, as in a talking picture. With greater spiritual development you will be able to see, with open eyes, souls you once knew and loved. In true communication with a departed soul, one should not lose consciousness –– one should consciously commune with the invited soul. These states are usually devoid of exciting emotions.

Only by deep, incessant meditation can you bring your dear departed loved ones to you. It may take months, or even years, but if you are patient and keep increasing the depth of your call in meditation, you will succeed.

Contact saints through deep devotion
The fact that great saints, after their death, do not appear to the sight of the masses of people, does not mean that they appear to no one. Advanced devotees, by their devotion, can see or talk to saints in vision. With further spiritual development, they can see saints with open eyes, and talk to them or touch them, even as the advanced disciples of Jesus were able, by their deep devotion, to see and touch Jesus after his resurrection in the body.

In the case of Jesus, we have the testimony of his discerning disciples, and of Mary Magdalene, that Jesus Christ was resurrected in the flesh. Hundreds of years after the passing of Jesus, St. Francis used to meet him in the flesh almost every night in Assisi. We must believe his testimony, for certainly a saint as great as St. Francis could not lie. If such an experience was possible for St. Francis, then why is it not possible for anyone, by persistent devotional seeking, to see Jesus Christ?

Your true home is not here
Most people lose all interest in this world at the time of death. That is natural and right: after all, they are soon going to have to leave it. That mental disinvolvement at the approach of death should remind everyone of the need for being inwardly non-attached all through life, even while busily engaged in worldly activities.

Learn to live in this world as a guest. Your true home is not here. This world isn’t yours; it is God’s. He is the Doer, not you. The deed to the house you live in may be written in your name, but whose was it before you acquired it? And whose will it be after you die? This world is only a wayside inn, a brief halting place on the long journey to your home in God.

Think of yourself, then, as a visitor on earth. Of course, as long as you are here, try to be a good guest. Be on your best behavior. Act responsibly in discharging all of your earthly duties. Take good care of the things God has given you to use. Never forget for a moment, however, that they are His, not your own.

Death: a test of love
The ordinary mortal does not perceive the pre-natal and post-natal continuity of existence; hence he is afraid of death. But the wise, by meditation, shift their consciousness from the changes of birth and death to the changeless Spirit.

The wise man who has opened his spiritual eye, beholds all change as dancing on the bosom of changelessness. Because he sees the change called death as only an outwardly moving link in the chain of immortality, which is hidden from our view, he is able to live in the world without attachment, and with a happiness that nothing can destroy.

The wise never grieve for a soul who has departed from one body residence into another. It is attachment and selfish love which make one grieve for a departed loved one or friend. If we really love them, we will continue to love them after they are taken away from us to advance on their path of reincarnation.

In the sorrow of separation from their loved ones through death, fools cry for a while and then forget, but the wise find the impulse within themselves to seek their lost love in the heart of the Divine. Death teaches us to be in love with the Divine only, and not to be attached to the temples of flesh in which the Divine temporarily resides.

Paramahansa Yogananda Reveals the Light of the Spiritual Eye

Paramahansa Yogananda Reveals the Light of the Spiritual Eye

By Rajarsi Janakananda

An Experience of the Healing Light

Just five years ago I had the great privilege of meeting Paramahansa Yogananda for the first time. I had always been interested in truth and religion, although I had never accepted any church. My life was business; but my soul was sick and my body was decaying and my mind was disturbed. I was so nervous I couldn't sit still.

After I had met Paramahansaji and had been with him a little while, I became aware that I was sitting very still; I was motionless; I didn't seem to be breathing. I wondered about it and looked up at Paramahansaji. A deep white light appeared, seeming to fill the entire room. I became a part of that wondrous light. Since that time I have been free from nervousness.

I found that I had discovered something real, something immensely valuable to me. I had had to be sure. Not until my experience of the healing light did I realize that I had found entrance into a spiritual realm previously unknown to me.

The beautiful thing in these teachings is that one doesn't have to depend on blind beliefs. He experiences. Heknows he knows, because he experiences. Ordinarily man is conscious only of his thoughts and of the material world that he can smell, taste, touch, see, and hear. But he is not conscious of the soul deep within him that makes it possible for him to think and to cognize the outer world through his senses. He doesn't know anything about That which is behind the scenes, just behind the thoughts and senses. One should learn to realize the presence of this Life, the real Life; and attain the union of his own consciousness with that Life.

Wealth Without Wisdom Cannot Give Joy

Before I met Paramahansaji the thought had not occurred to me that man could be conscious to a fuller extent than I was at that time. Yet, having enjoyed the things of the world, I had come to a point of distress; because, as I said a moment ago, my soul was sick and my body was not well. Nothing seemed to satisfy me. If you have had an opportunity to observe the rich, those with vast possessions, you have found that most of them are discontented and unhappy. Wealth without wisdom cannot give joy. All of us are seeking joy in life; in everything we do we are seeking happiness.

Self-Realization Path — A Blend of Yoga and Devotion

On the path of Self-Realization one becomes alive again. He actually lives. He feels the divine Life within him. He experiences the union of his individual soul with the universal Spirit. The Self-Realization path as taught by Paramahansaji is scientific. It is a combination of yoga — a science that is practiced within one's own being — and devotion to God. Together, yoga and devotion will bring man to a realization of his own divinity.

Religion can have but one purpose: knowledge of one's own life as the omnipresent Life. That attainment is Heaven. From my own experience I am firmly of this opinion: without making a successful effort to achieve soul realization, man cannot win salvation or final freedom in Spirit.

A Combination Needed of Western and Eastern Treasures

America is rich in material accomplishments. And India is rich in the wisdom of Spirit. A combination of the two will lead to an ideal world civilization.

One who lives in the material world alone, in the consciousness of materiality, is attached to possessions. Attachment develops slavery. We become slaves to habits and possessions. It is not possessions that make us slaves, but ignorance and attachment.

One with material attachments is never free. He has placed his faith in things that he is bound to lose. Only one possession is lasting: Spirit. Take the Spirit out of anything and it has no attraction at all. Life is truly Spirit.

Two things stay with us when the body goes: life and consciousness. We can get rid of everything except life and consciousness. Those are eternally with us. Self-Realization Fellowship teachings show one how to develop a proper consciousness — an awareness and inner experience of Spirit.

Paramahansaji doesn't ask his students to accept anything as a matter of belief only. "Practice Kriya Yoga," he says, "and discover for yourself the glories of the soul within."

Paramahansaji: Embodiment of Love

A master is like an angel of God. In our beloved Paramahansaji we have one who is the very embodiment of love and unselfishness. He is the possessor of divine joy. His contact goes back to a chain of illumined masters. To the Western mind this statement may sound a little strange, but it is true. The masters are linked, one with another. They have contact with the Spirit, and through their powers that Spirit is transmitted to other men. What a blessing it has been for us that India (a country that many people think of as a land of snake charmers) sent to our shores a master who can help us to achieve God-consciousness.

Those who commune with Spirit know a beauty, a sweetness, that is not experienced in any other way.

How heavenly it is to enjoy the company of a saint! Of all the things that have come to me in life, I treasure more than all else the blessings Paramahansaji has bestowed on me.

The Ancient Hindus Developed a Soul Science

I must admit I was prejudiced at first. Once I was one of those who thought of Hindus as snake charmers. Now I revere India as the land whose saints develop the highest of all sciences — yoga, the techniques for soul-exploration.

References**** The occasion was a banquet to celebrate the return of Paramahansaji from his eighteen-month tour of India and Europe. Rajarsi Janakananda (1892-1955) was Paramahansa Yogananda's first spiritual successor as president of YSS/SRF.

SRI SRI PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA MESSAGE TODAY

SRI SRI PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA MESSAGE TODAY

"Your soul's message cannot reach God through your mental microphone if it is broken by hammers of restless-ness, so you must repair it by practicing deep silence both in the morning and before sleep, until all restless thoughts dis-appear. When the mental microphone is repaired by calm-ness, affirm deeply: " My Father and I are One," until you feel the response of God through ever-increasing peace in meditation. This increasing peace, or bliss, is the surest proof of God's contact and response.

You must broadcast your message, " My Father and I are One," until you feel the overpowering, all-solacing bliss of God. When this happens, you have made the contact. Then demand your celestial right by affirming, " Father, I am Thy child. Guide me to my right prosperity."

Do not will and act first, but contact God first and thus harness your will and activity to the right goal.

You cannot get an answer by simply calling to someone through a microphone and then running away. So, also, you must not pray once and run away, but you must continuously broadcast your prayer to God through your calm mental mi-crophone until you hear His voice. Most people do not pray with the determination to receive a response.

The surest way to the attainment of health, wealth, peace, and wisdom, lies in first reclaiming your lost divinity by continuously broadcasting your message to God through your calm mental microphone until you receive His answer through the increased bliss of meditation."

P.Yogananda

Why a Guru Is Necessary-PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

Why a Guru Is Necessary

We meet little teachers in the beginning through our vague desires to know truth. But the GURU (or Preceptor) is the living embodiment of scriptural truths and is the agent of salvation appointed by God in response to a devotee’s demands for release from all the bondage of matter. It is very difficult to choose the right path from the many religious paths and varied religious opinions. Most people who wander from church to church seeking intellectual inspiration never find God, for intellectual inspiration is necessary only until one begins to “drink” God. Otherwise, intellectual inspiration (when it forgets to taste God) is detrimental to self-realization. It is more easy to follow a living, breathing, talking man (who lives truth) than a mute scripture. If a saint has reached his goal, whether by the shorter Yoga route, or by the long-winded spiritual-prayer way, he experiences actual self-realization. Anyone following him certainly would reach the goal by using either method. Unlike ordinary prayers, real prayers, which alone can bring conscious response from God, must be offered in meditation, intensely and for many hours continuously until Divine response comes.
The signs of a Guru

The signs of a GURU are as follows: his eyes are still and unwinking whenever he wants them to be so; by the practice of Yoga his breath is quiet without his forcibly holding it in his lungs; his mind is calm without effort. If a man has eyelids that blink continually and lungs acting like bellows all the time, and a mind always restless like a butterfly, and he keeps on telling you he is in cosmic consciousness , laugh at him. Just as a man cannot pretend that he is sleeping while he continues to run, so one with restless eyes, breath, and mind cannot convince you, who know better, that he is in cosmic consciousness. Just as sleep manifests in the body by certain physiological changes, so the muscles, eyes, breath, all usually become still during cosmic consciousness. No GURU can be developed alone by years of study in the intellectual factory of a theological seminary, which deems it has attained its ends when it confers B.D. or D.D. degrees. Such titles can be won by men of good memory, but character, self-control, and intuition can be developed only by knowledge of advanced psycho-physical methods of self-realization and deep daily meditation. 

Secret of Religion

The secret of true religion lies in the cave of stillness, in the cave of wisdom, in the cave of the spiritual eye. By concentrating on the point between the eyebrows and delving into the depths of quiet, one can find answers to all the religious queries of the heart. A disciple should tune in with the will of his GURU. Such tuning in of your habit-led and whim-guided will with the wisdom-guided will of your GURU is far different from mechanical obedience to an unspiritual guide, no matter whether he is traditionally, religiously, or socially elected. To follow the blind unthinkingly is to fall with them into the ditch of ignorance completely. To follow the awakened, if you are blind, is to reach the goal without danger. How can you take away the blot from your brother’s eyes if there is still a blot in your own?

Freedom of Will

Very few people truly know what freedom of will means. To be compelled to do things by the dictates of your own instincts and habits is not freedom. To be good because you have been so for a long time and to refrain from evil because you are accustomed to do so is not freedom. When your will is perfectly free to choose good instead of evil anytime, anywhere, because you really feel good, you will know real happiness: then indeed are you free. Evil gives only sorrow. When the influences of heredity, prenatal and postnatal habits, family, social, and world environment, all cease to influence your judgmentwhen you can act, guided only by your highest inner intuitive discrimination-then only are you free. Until then, the way to all righteousness lies in tuning in your whim-guided will with the wisdom-guided will of your GURU. Harnessing your will to wisdom, you will cease to be swayed by prejudice and error, for you will then always be guided by righteousness.

Find and Cling to Your GURU

Hence, the first requisite in your spiritual path lies not entirely in going to church services and being a passive member, satisfied merely with listening to sermons, but also in finding your spiritual GURU who will discipline you and take a personal interest in your spiritual welfare and lead you as far along the spiritual path as you wish to go. Having found him, follow him closely, obey him with intelligent devotion, and practice what he teaches you; thus ultimately you will attain your highest goal. 

Freedom of Will, and Obedience-PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

Freedom of Will, and Obedience-PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

My Guru said to me: “Allow me to discipline you, for freedom of will consists not in doing things according to the dictates of prenatal or postnatal habits or mental whims, but according to the suggestions of wisdom and free choice.” He continued, “If you tune in your will with mine, you will find freedom. Formerly, my will was guided by habits, but when I tuned it in with the God guided and Wisdom guided will of my Guru, I found freedom.”

To tune in with a soul whose will is guided by wisdom is to find freedom of will. Most teachers who slavishly control their students after the pattern of dogmatic teachings, destroy the power of free will in them, but obedience to a Guru does not produce spiritual blindness in the disciple. On the contrary, it develops his third eye of wisdom and intuition. Most teachers want their students to see through the teacher’s eyes, but a Guru disciplines the disciple only until he can guide himself through wisdom. A Guru (a Preceptor) is sent by God.

If a disciple, after following a Guru for a long time, should spurn him, then he actually spurns the help sent by God. A Guru is not a help for this life only. He also makes a spiritual soul contact with the disciple, and says, “Let our friendship be eternal, and let us help each other through incarnations until we are both completely emancipated in spirit. Sometimes, likewise, an advanced disciple can help a Guru, and vice versa. Such friendship is not based on any selfish consideration or on any condition. Such Divine friendship and perpetual good will expressed between two or more souls gives birth to the ever pure, unselfish, all emancipating Divine Love. My Master said to me, “I will be your friend from now until Eternity, no matter whether you are on the lowest mental plane or on the highest plane of wisdom. I will be your friend if ever you should err, for then you will need my friendship more than at any other time.”

When I accepted my Master’s unconditional friendship, he said, “Will you be my friend under all circumstances? Will you protect me in my highest or in my lowest strata of mind?” I was amazed—I was stupefied, for how could I dream of my Master being in the lowest strata, but until I vowed to be his friend always, under all circumstances, he did not rest. He was gladdened when I said, “I will be thine always.”

It was then, after this amazing spiritual compact, that I understood the significance of a Guru, and really, I never found complete satisfaction, comfort, and God-consciousness until I tuned myself in with the Divine consciousness of my Master.

Jesus knew of above law of emancipation. He must have found in John his reincarnated Guru. (A Guru, although inferior in spiritual quality, is a Guru just the same, a vehicle of God always) That is why Jesus insisted on being baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus also had spoken of John the Baptist as the reincarnated prophet, Elias (Elijah). Next, in connection with the baptism of Jesus Christ, it is very important to remember the spiritual baptism and the spiritual experiences of Jesus which followed his physical baptism with water by John. 

Freedom of Will, and Obedience

My Guru said to me: “Allow me to discipline you, for freedom of will consists not in doing things according to the dictates of prenatal or postnatal habits or mental whims, but according to the suggestions of wisdom and free choice.” He continued, “If you tune in your will with mine, you will find freedom. Formerly, my will was guided by habits, but when I tuned it in with the God guided and Wisdom guided will of my Guru, I found freedom.”

To tune in with a soul whose will is guided by wisdom is to find freedom of will. Most teachers who slavishly control their students after the pattern of dogmatic teachings, destroy the power of free will in them, but obedience to a Guru does not produce spiritual blindness in the disciple. On the contrary, it develops his third eye of wisdom and intuition. Most teachers want their students to see through the teacher’s eyes, but a Guru disciplines the disciple only until he can guide himself through wisdom. A Guru (a Preceptor) is sent by God.

If a disciple, after following a Guru for a long time, should spurn him, then he actually spurns the help sent by God. A Guru is not a help for this life only. He also makes a spiritual soul contact with the disciple, and says, “Let our friendship be eternal, and let us help each other through incarnations until we are both completely emancipated in spirit. Sometimes, likewise, an advanced disciple can help a Guru, and vice versa. Such friendship is not based on any selfish consideration or on any condition. Such Divine friendship and perpetual good will expressed between two or more souls gives birth to the ever pure, unselfish, all emancipating Divine Love. My Master said to me, “I will be your friend from now until Eternity, no matter whether you are on the lowest mental plane or on the highest plane of wisdom. I will be your friend if ever you should err, for then you will need my friendship more than at any other time.”

When I accepted my Master’s unconditional friendship, he said, “Will you be my friend under all circumstances? Will you protect me in my highest or in my lowest strata of mind?” I was amazed—I was stupefied, for how could I dream of my Master being in the lowest strata, but until I vowed to be his friend always, under all circumstances, he did not rest. He was gladdened when I said, “I will be thine always.”

It was then, after this amazing spiritual compact, that I understood the significance of a Guru, and really, I never found complete satisfaction, comfort, and God-consciousness until I tuned myself in with the Divine consciousness of my Master.

Jesus knew of above law of emancipation. He must have found in John his reincarnated Guru. (A Guru, although inferior in spiritual quality, is a Guru just the same, a vehicle of God always) That is why Jesus insisted on being baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus also had spoken of John the Baptist as the reincarnated prophet, Elias (Elijah). Next, in connection with the baptism of Jesus Christ, it is very important to remember the spiritual baptism and the spiritual experiences of Jesus which followed his physical baptism with water by John. 

*IMPORTANCE of GURU in Our LIFE*PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

*IMPORTANCE of GURU in Our LIFE*PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

Why We should find A GURU First ?

The method of finding God is different from the methods demanded by most colleges for any kind of specific training. Even in medical training, the student never learns if he roams from college to college, joining different medical institutions, and listening to a few lectures, but without going through intensive training in materia media, physiology, dissection, and other studies in one college. Also, it is true that a student cannot join all the universities at the same time.

A student should follow one course in one college until he receives a certificate that he has completed certain studies, but alas, in spiritual denominations even the loyalty the usual intellectual college expects is not given to the denomination by the aspirant, nor is the time necessary for Self-Realization given to the practice of the spiritual lessons by thousands of students in the Western world. Such people continue taking lessons from any new, good, bad, or indifferent teachers, who happen to come to town and advertise. I say that people should discriminate between the so-called teacher who uses religion only to make money or just a living and the real teacher who may use business methods in his religion in order to serve his brethren with real spirituality.

It is extremely necessary to remember that in the beginning it is wise to compare many spiritual paths and teachers, but when the real GURU (Preceptor) and the real teaching is found, then the restless searching must cease. The thirsty one should not keep seeking wells, but should go to the best well and daily drink its nectar. That is why in India, in the beginning we seek many until we find the right path, and the right master, and then remain loyal to him through death and eternity, until final emancipation.

Guru and Teacher

We can have many teachers first, but only one GURU, and no more teachers afterwards. Teachers call those who come to learn from them students, but a GURU calls the spiritual aspirant who comes to him a disciple. Jesus himself said, “None cometh unto the Father but by me.” This signifies that human souls are mostly truant children of God roaming away from Him in the wilderness of suffering. Such souls are impelled by the scourge of sorrow to have faint glimpses of their lost home of spiritual blessedness. They begin to long for God, and inwardly pray for a way out of the conundrum of life. Then when the prayers of such errant children become deep and strong enough, God is touched and sends help. It is then that the One Father of All sends a superman on earth to give help to the lost seeking souls. Such a man, ordained by God, to help the individual in response to deep prayer, is not an ordinary teacher, but a GURU or a vehicle, whose body, speech, mind, and spirituality God Himself uses to bring the lost souls back to the Home of Immortality.

In the Hindu scriptures and “Whispers from Eternity” it is written: “As a naughty baby, I cried for my Mother Divine, and she came to me as my GURU. My Guru, I found Thee in response to my soul cries. If all the gods are displeased and yet, O Guru, if Thou art pleased, I am safe in the fortress of Thy pleasure; but if all the gods protect me by the parapets of their blessings, and yet I receive not Thy benedictions, I am an orphan, left to pine spiritually in the ruins of Thy displeasure. Together, Guru and Disciple, we will fly to His Shores, and then we will smash our planes of finitude forever and vanish in our Infinite Life.”

The above conception of Guru and Disciple depicts the only real way to retrace the truant soul’s footsteps back to God. This Guru and Disciple relationship is not the enslaving relationship between the blind church or temple members and an ignorant so-called priest of a temple or church, elected, not by God, but by the temple or church organization, or by a higher church dignitary, honored by orthodox followers, but unknown to God

PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA -View on LAW of KARMA

PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA -View on LAW of KARMA

"A visitor: "The Bible says that evildoers shall be punished, and the good, rewarded. Do you subscribe to this teaching?"

Paramhansa Yogananda: "Certainly. If we accept the principle of cause and effect in Nature, and of action and reaction in physics, how can we not believe that this natural law extends also to human beings? Do not humans, too, belong to the natural order?

"This is the law of karma: As you sow, so shall you reap. If you sow evil, you will reap evil in the form of -suffering. And if you sow goodness, you will reap goodness in the form of inner joy."

The visitor: "How specific is the law? In physics, the law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In Nature, effects are often very specifically, and not only vaguely, related to their causes. Yet we've been taught to view reward and punishment for human behavior in more general terms. If we're good, we've been told, we'll go to heaven, and if we're bad, we'll go to hell. But people don't think of themselves as reaping specific consequences for specific deeds."

Yogananda: "The karmic law is exact. There is, furthermore, no question of suffering in hell for eternity. (How could the misdeeds of a few years on earth deserve eternal punishment? Could a finite cause have an infinite effect?)

"To understand karma, you must realize that thoughts are things. The very universe, in the final analysis, is composed not of matter but of consciousness. Matter responds, far more than most people realize, to the power of thought. For will power directs energy, and energy in turn acts upon matter. Matter, indeed, is energy.

"The stronger the will, the greater the force of energy—and the greater, consequently, the energy's impact on material events. A strong will, especially if combined with awareness of the cosmic energy, can effect miracles. It can cure diseases, and make a person well. It can ensure success in any undertaking. The very seasons are obedient to the man of strong will power and of deep faith.

"Even unenlightened human beings shape their destinies, more than they themselves realize, according to the way they use their power of will. For no action is ever an isolated event. Always, it invites from the universe a reaction that corresponds exactly to the type and the force of energy behind the deed.

"Action originates in the will, which directs energy toward its desired end. This, then, is the definition of will power: desire plus energy, directed toward fulfillment.

"Energy, like electricity, generates a magnetic field. And that magnetic field attracts to itself the consequences of action.

"The binding force between human action and cosmic reaction is the ego. The consciousness of ego ensures that

a person's actions will have personal consequences for himself. These consequences may be delayed, if the will power engendering a thought or deed was not powerful enough to have immediate results, or if its thrust was thwarted by other, conflicting energies. Sooner or later, however, every action, whether of body, of thought, or of desire, must reap its final reaction. It is like a circle completing itself.

"Thus, man, made as he is in the image of God, becomes in his turn a creator.

"The results of good and bad deeds are not experienced only after death. Heaven and hell are realities even here on earth, where people reap the painful consequences of their folly, and the harmonious results of right action.

"People seldom think of their own actions as bad. Whatever they do seems, at least to them, well-intentioned. But if they create disharmony for others, and thus on deeper levels of their being for themselves, those waves of dishar-

mony will inevitably return to them in the form of disharmony.

"Every action, every thought, reaps its own corresponding rewards.

"Human suffering is not a sign of God's anger with

mankind. It is a sign, rather, of man's ignorance of the

divine law.

"The law is forever infallible in its workings."

SRI PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA MESSAGE 1

SRI PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA MESSAGE 1

:"I will start each new day with the realization of my Divine Sonhood.

I will realize that God’s power is limitless, and, since I am made in His image and likeness, I, too, have power to overcome all obstacles that I may encounter.

I know that each seeming difficulty is but a call to release the power which I already possess, and that with each release of power I grow stronger and wiser.

I desire only to come to complete understanding and enlightenment, and therefore I shall welcome each suggestion or criticism which shows me where I am falling short of realizing my ideal.

Each morning I willingly and joyfully offer my entire self – my body, mind, and any special ability or talent which I may possess, to be used by the Infinite Creator in whatever way He may choose to express Himself through me.

Each task I perform, I do in His name. All work is God’s work, and no task is too difficult or too menial when offered to Him in loving service.

No matter what work I am called upon to perform, I know there is a way to bring beauty and inspiration into it. May I always be alive to beauty and creative inspiration.

I shall endeavor to perform all tasks willingly and perfectly, for work well done is an acceptable prayer.

All difficulties melt away before understanding and love. May I grow in understanding each day.

In moving through my regular daily activities, I know that everything I touch,

everything I see, everything I hear, and every person I contact are expressions of God. Therefore, I walk gently and reverently through each day, ever listening for His message to me. I am filled with awe at the beauty and wonder in all Creation.

Each morning is the beginning of a new day and of a new year. As I cleanse my body and make it fit for the activity of the day, so shall I cleanse my mind of fear, prejudice, and all negation.

Whatever conditions confront me, I know that they represent my next step in unfoldment. I welcome all tests, no matter how trying, because I know that within me is the intelligence to understand and the power to overcome. I am willing to learn the lesson each experience would teach, and I am thankful for the strength and understanding which the overcoming of each trial develops.

I am an instrument for the expression of Divine power, intelligence, and beauty. I will keep my body strong and healthy, my mind clear, active and well trained, and my Soul surrounded with beauty, so that I shall be a perfect channel offering no obstruction to the free flow of Divine power through me into complete expression.

Each day I rededicate every thought, motive, and act to the service of the Divine Will.

Each condition of inharmony and criticism which I meet is a direct call to me to release the power of understanding, friendliness, and love. Each encounter with hate and anger calls for compassion and love from me. Each situation involving ugliness or emptiness calls for the release of the power of beauty in the form of creative activity. I have much work to do, and I would be “about my Father’s business.”

I must not only see the Truth, but I must fully realize and express it. This requires courage, love, and intelligent effort.

Happiness, understanding, the joy of creative expression, and perfect peace and poise can be mine only when I concentrate all my power and ability upon expressing the Father’s will.

I know that thoughts are things and that words bring forth according to their own likeness. Therefore, I shall guard my thoughts and words so that they will call forth into manifestation only that which is beautiful and true.

Since, through the law of attraction, I have drawn unto me whatever conditions I am now confronted with, I will impersonally look my situation over, and if I find things I do not like, I shall change my thoughts, and thus change the conditions. Henceforth, I shall watch my thoughts and be careful what kind of things I attract.

I shall keep my mind filled with thoughts of love, life, peace, beauty, power, plenty, joy, and wisdom. I shall endeavor to realize their full meaning and to express the ideas these words represent.

I have the most fascinating task to perform. It keeps me so occupied that there is no time or energy left to direct to the affairs of any other person. I am engaged in the business of lifting myself from ignorance to enlightenment and understanding. It requires all my attention to rid my thoughts and emotions of anger, jealousy, pride, revenge, fear, sense of lack, and sickness. These hindrances I must catch and cast out forever, so that when all the debris of negation is cleared away, the pure water of Life itself may spring forth and flow freely without obstruction to bless all who drink, with joy and understanding. This is my work. How can I be concerned wt. anything less?

I will not limit my thoughts. I am Life, Intelligence, Health, Joy, Peace, and Power. This is the essential truth of my Being, and I shall try to express these qualities completely.

Since God, or Good, is everywhere present at all times, my good is always with me, waiting for me to call it into manifestation. I shall go forth in perfect faith in the power of Omnipresent good to bring me whatever I need when I need it.

I know that the healing power of Spirit is flowing through all the cells of my body, cleansing, revitalizing, and making them strong and well.

I am made of the one universal God-substance and consequently my body functions perfectly and is “every whit whole.”

The light of Christ shines through me, and therefore my mind is clear, and order and harmony reign in all my affairs.

As a perfect pattern for an oak tree is encased in the acorn, so a perfect pattern for my life was placed in me in the beginning. I shall endeavor to see this perfect plan or idea which was set in me and shall let it push forth into manifestation without hindrance or dwarfing.

I have within me, waiting for my call, all the power and intelligence which I need to meet all the problems of this day. I shall live this day in perfect faith, calling on this power as the need arises."

by P.Yogananda