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