The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
by Parker · 82 things on NewTwos
- God is love; his plan for creation can be rooted only in love
- Enjoying the greatest possible material power, he organized peace
- Dharma (cosmic law) aims at happiness of all creatures
- Man is essentially a soul, incorporeal and omnipresent
- The one who pursues a goal of evenmindedness is neither jubilant with gain nor depressed by loss
- A man arrives penniless in the world, and departs without a single rupee
- Good and evil is the challenging riddle which life places sphinxlike before every intelligence
- Honest introspection, the exquisitely painful approach to wisdom. Self-scrutiny, relentless observance of ones thoughts, is a stark and shattering experience it pulverized the stoutest ego. But true self-analysis mathematically operates to produce seers
- Truth humbly retires before such arrogant originality
- Man can understand no eternal verity until he has freed himself from pretensions
- The human mind, bared to a centuries slime, is teeming with the repulsive life of countless world-delusions
- Struggles of the battlefield pale into insignificance here, when man first contends with inner enemies
- Thoughtless is the man who buried his ideals, surrendering to the common fate
- Inner research soon exposes a unity of all human minds. The brotherhood of man stands revealed. An aghast humility follows this leveling discovery. It ripens into compassion for ones fellows, blind to the healing potencies of the soul awaiting exploration
- Only the shallow man loses responsiveness to the woes of others lives, as he sinks into narrow suffering of his own
- Bricks and mortar sing us no audible tune; the heart opens only to the human chant of being
- Lay aside what you have in your head (selfish desires and ambitions); bestow freely what you have in your hand; and never flinch from the blows of adversity
- Love, hate, Joy, fear, pleasure, pain, excitability, stupor, and countless other appropriate responses to stimuli are as universal in plants as in animals
- The life of a devotee of science is inevitably filled with unending struggle. It is for him to cast his life as an ardent offering—regarding gain and loss, success and failure, as one
- The weakling who has refused the conflict, acquiring nothing, has had nothing to renounce. He alone who has striven and won can enrich the world by bestowing the fruits of his victorious experience
- All creative scientists know that the true laboratory is the mind, where behind illusions they uncover the laws of truth
- We should forever be free from the desecration of utilizing knowledge only for personal gain
- Pursue truth with infinite patience
- As all things can be reflected in water, so the whole universe is mirrored in the lake of the cosmic mind
- Even when you feel hunger, do not mention it
- Remove the age-old delusion that bodily imperatives outwit the souls. Realize the Spirit’s all-sufficiency
- Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfaction. Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change
- Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you
- Attachment is blinding; it lends an imaginary halo of attractiveness to the object of desire
- Good and positive suggestions should instruct the sensitive ears of children. Their early ideas long remain sharply etched
- Follow any simple diet which proves suited to ones constitution
- Be comfortable with your purse. Extravagance will bring you discomfort
- A true yogi is able to pass into and maintain the super conscious state, regardless of multitudinous distractions never absent from this earth
- All forms of life have an equal right to the air. The saint who uncovers the secret of creation will be in harmony with Nature’s countless bewildering expressions
- It is your thoughts that make you feel alternately weak and strong
- Your health follows your subconscious expectations
- Thought is a force
- Whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely instantly comes to pass
- In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle
- Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, trying at the same time to remove yourself beyond their power. Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor will flee
- I want nothing from you but your own improvement. Stay only if you feel benefited
- The hard core of egotism is difficult to dislodge except rudely
- The words a person uses, and the actual thoughts behind them, may be poles apart
- A worthy leader has the desire to serve, not to dominate
- Just as hunger, not greed, has a legitimate purpose, so the sexual instinct has been implanted by Nature solely for the propagation of the species, not for the kindling of insatiable longings
- Even when the flesh is weak, the mind should be constantly resistant. If temptation assails you with cruel force, overcome it by impersonal analysis and indomitable will. Every natural passion can be mastered
- Conserve your powers. Be like the capacious ocean, absorbing quietly all the tributary rivers of the senses. Daily renewed sense yearnings sap your inner peace; they are like openings in a reservoir that permit vital waters to be wasted in the desert soil of materialism. The forceful, activating impulse of wrong desire is the greatest enemy to the happiness of man. Roam in the world as a lion of self-control; don’t let the frogs of sense weakness kick you around
- Keen intelligence is two-edged. It may be used constructively or destructively, like a knife, either to cut the boil of ignorance, or to decapitate oneself. Intelligence is tightly guided only after the mind has acknowledged the inescapability of spiritual law
- Inwardly humble and outwardly unbendable
- He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city
- Wrath springs only from thwarted desires. I do not expect anything from others, so their actions cannot be in opposition to wishes of mine. I would not use you for my own ends; I am happy only in your own true happiness
- How quickly we weary of earthly pleasures. Desire for material things is endless; man is never satisfied completely, and pursued one goal after another
- Outward longings drive us from the Eden with; they offer false pleasures that only impersonate soul happiness
- Thoughts are universally and not individually rooted; a truth cannot be created, but only perceived
- Though the ego in most barbaric ways conspires to enslave him, man is not a body confined to a point in space but is essentially the omnipresent soul
- You have conquered fatigue and fear of hard work; you shall never be bothered by them in the future
- An imperative duty of man is to keep his body in good condition; otherwise his mind is unable to remain fixed in devotional concentration
- Anyone who practices a scientific technique for divine realization is a yogi
- Yoga is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts, which otherwise impartially prevents all men, of all lands, from glimpsing their true nature of spirit
- The thoughts of most persons are restless and capricious; a manifest need exists for yoga: the science of mind control
- The eightfold path of yoga: 1. Yama or moral conduct. Yama is fulfilled by non injury to others, truthfulness, non stealing, continence, and noncovetousness. 2. Niyama or religious observances. The niyama prescripts are purity of body and mind, contentment in all circumstances, self-discipline, self-study, and devotion to a guru. 3. Asana or right posture; the spinal column must be held straight, and the body form in a comfortable position for meditation. 4. Pranayama or control of subtle life currents. 5. Pratyahara or withdrawal of the senses from external objects. 6. Dharana or concentration, holding the mind to one thought. 7. Dhyana or meditation. 8. Samadhi or superconscious experience
- He who rejects the unusual worldly duties can justify himself only by assuming some kind of responsibility for a much larger family
- By the simple Yogoda techniques, one may consciously and instantly recharge his life force from the unlimited supply of cosmic energy
- The devotee who forgoes the usual life experiences of marriage and family rearing in order to assume greater responsibilities—those for society in general—performs a work that is often accompanied by persecution from a misunderstanding world. But such larger identifications help the devotee to overcome selfishness and bring him a divine reward
- True education is not pumped and crammed in from outward sources, but aids in bringing to the surface the infinite hoard of wisdom within
- Remember that you belong to no one and that no one belongs to you
- Reflect that some day you will suddenly have to leave the world
- Cease being a prisoner of the body. Learn to escape into spirit
- Stunt yourself to the active inner guidance; the divine voice has the answer to every dilemma of life
- Our eagerness for worldly activity kills in us the sense of spiritual awe
- Divine union is possible through self-effort, and is not dependent on theological beliefs or on the arbitrary will of a cosmic dictator
- For the faults of many, judge not the whole
- Trees bend low with the burden of ripening fruits; it is the barren tree that lifts its head high in an empty boast
- Evil produces misery
- Good results in true happiness
- Man fears the unknown
- A man will be beloved if he does not make himself feared
- Every problem would lend itself to solution if we determined to make the law of truth and nonviolence the law of life
- Let nations ally themselves no longer with death, but with life; not with destruction, but with construction; not with hate, but with the creative miracles of love
- One should forgive, under any injury
- By forgiveness the universe is held together. Forgiveness is the might of the mighty; forgiveness is sacrifice; forgiveness is quiet of mind. Forgiveness and gentleness are the qualities of the self-possessed. They represent eternal virtue
- “I call myself a nationalist, but my nationalism is as broad as the universe. It includes in its sweep all the nations of the earth. My nationalism includes the well being of the whole world. I do not want my India to rise in the ashes of other nations. I do not want India to exploit a single human being. I want India to be strong in order that she can infect the other nations also with her strength.” - Mahatma Gandhi