The Wisdom of Yogananda

Paramahansaji was leaving the Mt. Washington Center to give a lecture, but he stopped for a few minutes to talk with one of the disciples. The Master said: “It is a good idea to keep a mental diary. Before you go to bed each night, sit for a short time and review the day. See what you are becoming. Do you like the trend of your life? If not, change it.”

By practicing the meditation techniques I have given, you will realize God. And as you deal with people, wherever you are, give first consideration to the needs of others. Let your comfort be in thinking of the comfort of somebody else. There is no need to speak of it. When you do good to yourself, you never announce it; but as soon as you help others, you want everyone to know how noble you are. It is most admirable when you do for others as naturally — and as inconspicuously — as you do for yourself. Then you are not developing the I, but manifesting God within you — God who has been eclipsed by the I. That is a most wonderful way to expand your consciousness. You will no longer feel you are bound by your body. You will begin to feel your identity with people, becoming sensitive to what others are feeling.

How few have had the training in childhood that helps us as we grow older. Though many persons may have been taught the divine laws from Scripture, such as the Ten Commandments, those edicts were not brought down to the pale of human existence and practical utility in daily life. As a result, they are either not followed or applied only when expedient. But the saints analyze the reasons behind God’s laws. They don’t command you to follow them. They tell you it is your privilege to do right or to do wrong, but that if you do wrong you will suffer the consequences.

Mind has great power. And concentrated mind is the supreme, all-accomplishing power. I have seen the most marvelous demonstrations of this power of concentration. This power is everything, provided you do not give up.

When you think of serving Him, all work is a pleasure. I want you all to have that consciousness of the blessed presence of God. But without work, without divine service, you shall never get there. You cannot get there by meditation alone. Meditation means meditation on God in seclusion, and meditation on God in activity — because that is meditation, too.

Never hold God at a distance. Never! He is the nearest of the near, the dearest of the dear, the closest of those who are close to us. Sri Daya Mata, Enter the Quiet Heart

How shall we please You? You don’t require to be pleased; You want our heart’s purest love. O Father, You are like a little child, so easy to please.

I am Thy love-enchanted dewdrop, sliding safely over the leaf of earthly lures to enter Thy taintless waters of wisdom. I want not to lose myself but to become infinitely enlarged by merging in Thy Sea. I shall be Thine omnipresent dewdrop, imbibed by all God-thirsty lips.

When Jesus quotes the scripture that “ye are gods,” he signifies that all souls are made in the pure image of God, the Father. If one hundred people are basking under the sun, ten with their eyes wide open and ninety with their eyes closed, all are revealed by the sun. But the ninety who have their eyes closed see neither the sun nor themselves as do the ten whose eyes are open. Similarly, souls with open eyes of wisdom behold themselves as emanations of God, while others, even though they too are “children of the most High,” do not realize it because their eyes of wisdom are closed. Thus, although the scripture says of all humans“ye are gods,” there is a difference of perception among them according to the degree of their Self-realization.

Whence did reason come? What is its source? It is intuition, the omniscient faculty of the soul, that fathers the faculties of reason and discrimination. We must daily recharge our reason and good judgment by contact with the soul through deep meditation if we are to achieve true success and fulfill the purpose of our earthly sojourn.

You can’t fail to reach God ultimately. It is foolish to ask,“Will I be able to get into the kingdom of heaven?” There is no other place you can stay, for that is your real home. You don’t have to earn it. You are already God’s child, made in His image. You have only to tear away the mask of the human being and realize your divine birthright.

The only purpose of life is to get away from the delusion of this material world. Wait no longer. How dare you forget God! I testify to you of the existence of God’s astral kingdom; now why don’t you seek it? You are always trying to create that picture of perfection here on earth, but it is fruitless. You will never succeed, for this world is a place of too many limitations. That utopian dream is but the lost forgotten memory of your experience of the astral world.

Years ago Guruji told us (and psychologists nowadays would certainly agree) that chronic worry, fear, nervous tension, and the other negative emotions — guilt, hate, jealousy, bitterness — close off the channels through which wisdom and healing flow from the deeper levels of consciousness. People become so tense and anxiety-ridden in struggling with their problems that they get emotionally “hung up.” So when we have tried everything possible to solve our problem and nothing seems to do any good, the wisest course is simply this: Relax. Stop trying to deal with it through the limited human resources of the rational mind, which has brought you to your present state of frustration and tension. Surrender the problem to the Divine with one hundred percent faith and trust. In other words, “Let go and let God.” Sri Daya Mata, Finding the Joy Within You

I yearned to feel Thee within and without. My age-old thirst ceased only when Thy touch cooled my fiery soul and zeal-warmed body.