Quotes from Paramahansa Yogananda

After his retirement, Pranabananda wrote Pranab Gita, a profound commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, available in Hindi and Bengali. The

You will meet continual misfortune, and be unable to find God, if you insist on deserting your ordinary responsibilities! You cannot work out your past karma3 without worldly experiences.

sadly I wondered how one with the power to win a master's love could readily respond to worldly allures. Enjoyments of wine and sex are rooted in the natural man; to appreciate them one requires no delicacy of perception. Sense wiles are comparable to the evergreen oleander, fragrant with its rosy-colored flowers: every part of the plant is poisonous.20 The land of healing lies within, radiant with the happiness that is blindly sought in a thousand outer directions.

4. Outward longings will drive you from the eden within; they offer false pleasures that only impersonate the souls happiness, The lost paradise is quickly regained through divine meditation.

Meditation utilises concentration in its highest form. Concentration

Always have I loved thee! Ever shall I love thee!

Just as lighted candles are not meant to be covered by bushel baskets but put on candlesticks to shed their light, so also, souls are lighted with the inherent presence of God, not to be enshrouded by ignorance, uselessness, materiality, and death, but that they may, with the illumination of wisdom and goodness, enlighten spiritually darkened lives.

If you don't invite God to be your summer Guest, He won't come in the winter of your life.'" "Dear

Sanskrita, "polished, complete." Sanskrit is the elder sister of all Indo-European tongues. Its alphabetical script is called Devanagari; literally, "divine abode." "Who knows my grammar knows God!" Panini, great philologist of ancient India, paid that tribute to the mathematical and psychological perfection of Sanskrit. He who would track language to its lair must indeed end as omniscient. 2

You see how God feels for us," Master replied after I had expressed my gratitude. "The Lord responds to all and works for all. Just as He sent rain at my plea, so He fulfils any sincere desire of the devotee. Seldom do men realize how often God heeds their prayers. He is not partial to a few, but listens to everyone who approaches Him trustfully. His children should ever have implicit faith in the loving-kindness of their Omnipresent Father." 5

Newton's Law of Motion is a law of maya: "To every action there is always an equal and contrary reaction; the mutual actions of any two bodies are always equal and oppositely directed." Action and reaction are thus exactly equal. "To have a single force is impossible. There must be, and always is, a pair of forces equal and opposite.

Lord responds to all and works for all. Just as He sent rain at my plea, so He fulfills any sincere desire of the devotee. Seldom do men realise how often God heeds their prayers. He is not partial to a few, but listens to everyone who

Mind, nor intellect, nor ego, feeling; Sky nor earth nor metals am I. I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He! No birth, no death, no caste have I; Father, mother, have I none. I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He! Beyond the flights of fancy, formless am I, Permeating the limbs of all life; Bondage I do not fear; I am free, ever free, I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He!

Yoga meditation is the process of cultivating and stabilizing the awareness of one's real nature, through definite spiritual and psychophysical methods and laws by which the narrow ego, the flawed hereditary human consciousness, is displaced by the consciousness of the soul.

It is never a question of belief ; the only scientific attitude one can take on any subject is whether it is true . The law of gravitation worked as efficiently before Newton as after him.

my first attempts at lisping phrase and toddling step. These early triumphs, usually forgotten quickly, are yet a natural basis of self-confidence.

To be controlled by moods is to be a part of matter. If you keep your mind on the resolve to never lose your peace, then you can attain godliness. Keep a secret chamber of silence within yourself, where you will not let moods, trials, battles or inharmony enter. Keep out all hatred, revengefulness and desires. In this chamber of peace God will visit you.

My mother once tried to frighten me with an appalling story of a ghost in a dark chamber. I went there immediately, and expressed my disappointment at having missed the ghost. Mother never told me another horror tale. Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.

You may argue that others have been born with the special talent you lack but desire to have. This is true. But they had to cultivate the habit of that ability some time - if not in this life, then in a previous one. So whatever you want to be, start to develop that pattern now.

When the self is in communion with higher power, Nature automatically obeys, without stress or strain, the will of man.

The one who pursues a goal of even-mindedness is neither jubilant with gain nor depressed by loss.

The fundamental cure for all human ills is everywhere one and the same: to raise one's consciousness. In

Let there be light! And there was light.

You may control a mad elephant; You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger; Ride the lion and play with the cobra; By alchemy you may earn your livelihood; You may wander through the universe incognito; Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful; You may walk on water and live in fire: But control of the mind is better and more difficult. In