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The Wisdom of Yogananda #4
How To Be A Success: The Wisdom of Yogananda, Volume 4
In this volume of all-new, never-before-released material, Paramhansa Yogananda―who has millions of followers around the world―shares how we can achieve the highest success of material and spiritual efficiency.
- GenresSpiritualityNonfiction
156 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 31, 1899
About the author
Paramahansa Yogananda
865 books2,365 followersParamahansa Yogananda (Bengali: পরমহংস যোগানন্দ Pôromohôngsho Joganondo, Sanskrit: परमहंस योगानंद Paramahaṃsa Yogānaṃda), born Mukunda Lal Ghosh (Bengali: মুকুন্দ লাল ঘোষ Mukundo Lal Ghosh), was an Indian yogi and guru who introduced many westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book,
Autobiography of a Yogi
.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 30, 2014
Yogananda talks quite a lot about how to do business from a spiritual perspective. Very reaffirming and insightful!
November 16, 2023
Thanks to Brian Johnson for his recommendation to read this book. I had never heard of Yogananda but now I will read more of his books. Great read for someone looking for practical wisdom in a quest for fulfilling true purpose.
March 7, 2019
Solid book. I didn't enjoy it as much as his other book "How to be Happy All the Time" which I finished in only a couple days, but there are a lot of strong insights in this one.
April 10, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed his Eastern wisdom.
September 28, 2023
This book is a collection of articles that appeared in Yogananda’s magazines in the 1920s and 1930s.
This is our second Note on one of Yogananda’s books.
As I mentioned in our first Note on a little booklet called The Law of Success, I bought a bunch of books by Yogananda after I read a line from one of Michael Singer’s books thanking him for his “unending flow of inspiration.”
This book is a collection of articles that appeared in Yogananda’s magazines in the 1920s and 1930s. It repeats some of the wisdom covered in The Law of Success, so if you want to get one book from Yogananda on success, this is the one to get.
As I read it, I was struck by the parallel practical wisdom between Yogananda and other teachers of his era. In many ways, he reminds me of an Indian, often more spiritual version of old-school Western teachers like Orison Swett Marden, James Allen, Ernest Holmes, Dale Carnegie, and Napoleon Hill.
Yogananda arrived in the United States in 1920 at the age of 27. It’s fascinating to see him bring his ideas from the East into our culture in the West.
To put it in perspective, Orison Swett Marden created Success magazine in 1891, James Allen published As a Man Thinketh in 1903, Ernest Holmes created Science of Mind magazine (and churches) in 1927, Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936, and Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich in 1937.
If you’re interested in seeing what a yogi who inspired Steve Jobs has to say about success, I think you might enjoy the book as much as I did.
Some of my favorite big ideas from this book include:
1. Initiative + Will Power - Steve Jobs x2.
2. Concentration - The power of.
3. Control Your Habits - If you want to succeed.
4. Why People Fail - In short: They give up.
5. The Heroic Big 3 - Systematize your protocol, Hero!
P.S. I’ve added How to Be a Success by Paramahansa Yogananda to my collection of Philosopher’s Notes--distilling the Big Ideas into 6-page PDF and 20-minute MP3s on 600+ of the BEST self-development books ever. You can get access to all of those plus a TON more over at https://heroic.us.
“Is there a power that can reveal hidden veins of riches and uncover treasures of which we have never dreamed? Is there a force that we can call upon to give health, happiness, and spiritual enlightenment? The saints and sages of India have taught that there is such a power. They uncovered truths that we have overlooked or forgotten, and these truths will work for you, too, if you give them a fair trial.
Your success in life does not depend only upon natural ability; it also depends upon your determination to grasp the opportunity that is presented to you. Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance. They are created by you, either now or at some time in the recent or distant past. Since you have earned them, use them to the best advantage. You can make your life much more worthwhile, now and in the future, if you focus your attention on your immediate needs and use all your abilities and available information to fulfill them. You must develop all the powers God gave you, the unlimited powers that come from the innermost forces of your being.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda from How to Be a Success
This is our second Note on one of Yogananda’s books.
As I mentioned in our first Note on a little booklet called The Law of Success, I bought a bunch of books by Yogananda after I read a line from one of Michael Singer’s books thanking him for his “unending flow of inspiration.”
This book is a collection of articles that appeared in Yogananda’s magazines in the 1920s and 1930s. It repeats some of the wisdom covered in The Law of Success, so if you want to get one book from Yogananda on success, this is the one to get.
As I read it, I was struck by the parallel practical wisdom between Yogananda and other teachers of his era. In many ways, he reminds me of an Indian, often more spiritual version of old-school Western teachers like Orison Swett Marden, James Allen, Ernest Holmes, Dale Carnegie, and Napoleon Hill.
Yogananda arrived in the United States in 1920 at the age of 27. It’s fascinating to see him bring his ideas from the East into our culture in the West.
To put it in perspective, Orison Swett Marden created Success magazine in 1891, James Allen published As a Man Thinketh in 1903, Ernest Holmes created Science of Mind magazine (and churches) in 1927, Dale Carnegie wrote How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936, and Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich in 1937.
If you’re interested in seeing what a yogi who inspired Steve Jobs has to say about success, I think you might enjoy the book as much as I did.
Some of my favorite big ideas from this book include:
1. Initiative + Will Power - Steve Jobs x2.
2. Concentration - The power of.
3. Control Your Habits - If you want to succeed.
4. Why People Fail - In short: They give up.
5. The Heroic Big 3 - Systematize your protocol, Hero!
P.S. I’ve added How to Be a Success by Paramahansa Yogananda to my collection of Philosopher’s Notes--distilling the Big Ideas into 6-page PDF and 20-minute MP3s on 600+ of the BEST self-development books ever. You can get access to all of those plus a TON more over at https://heroic.us.
February 7, 2020
This is one of the best motivational books that I have read latterly. However, having read a number of books by the same author, viz., "Journey to Self-Realisation", "Man's Eternal Quest" and "Divine Romance", I am not at all, therefore, surprised that Swami Sri Yogananada Paramahansa's words have such enduring effect upon me.
Lest anyone should suspect that I am bias, I can assure him that I have read scores of other motivational books by secular writers like Sam Harris, for instance; hence, my conclusion about Swami Yogananda's writing (in general), I believe, is thoroughly objective.
What one finds in "How to be a Success" are words of faith and power that come from the depth of deep conviction and unassailable trust in the Divine Mind that Plato called "the Power", Spinoza said was "the Substance", Spencer dubbed "Unknown and the Unknowable", Kant described as "the Transcendental thing-in-itself", Schopenhauer termed "sufficient reason" and Emerson called "Oversoul".
I should strongly recommend this book to anyone who needs an immediate sense of purpose, the stimulus, and inducement to act to achieve success. No word in the text is superfluous, and no page in it will go without motivating one.
Lest anyone should suspect that I am bias, I can assure him that I have read scores of other motivational books by secular writers like Sam Harris, for instance; hence, my conclusion about Swami Yogananda's writing (in general), I believe, is thoroughly objective.
What one finds in "How to be a Success" are words of faith and power that come from the depth of deep conviction and unassailable trust in the Divine Mind that Plato called "the Power", Spinoza said was "the Substance", Spencer dubbed "Unknown and the Unknowable", Kant described as "the Transcendental thing-in-itself", Schopenhauer termed "sufficient reason" and Emerson called "Oversoul".
I should strongly recommend this book to anyone who needs an immediate sense of purpose, the stimulus, and inducement to act to achieve success. No word in the text is superfluous, and no page in it will go without motivating one.
May 3, 2011
Very Interesting book.
June 9, 2016
Most of it I knew already, but this guy did most of his work in the forties and fifties and has some very interesting insights in some of these concepts.
Read
October 13, 2018this books very good
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews