Autobiography of a Yogi (Self-Realization Fellowship)

by Paramahansa Yogananda

If I could bolster up my numerous requests with one or two good arguments, he would invariably put within my reach the coveted goal

Know they why/reason

“Why be elated by material profit?” Father replied. “The one who pursues a goal of evenmindedness is neither jubilant with gain nor depressed by loss. He knows that man arrives penniless in this world, and departs without a single rupee.”

Material possessions are temporary and non existent at the start and end of our lives. Do not let it sway your emotions

At first I grieved because he was no longer physically living. As I began to discover his secret omnipresence, I lamented no more.

Building himself up to be something or someone that lives on after death positively impacting the lives of many of he dies

Those simple and apparently harmless phrases to Uma, spoken with deep concentration, had possessed sufficient hidden force to explode like bombs and to produce definite, though injurious, effects.

Words with deeper meaning and intent have a much more profound effect one’s life

“God is simple. Everything else is complex. Do not seek absolute values in the relative world of nature.”

“Swamiji, I think I could impress my subconsciousness with the thought that tigers are pussycats, but could I make tigers believe it?” “Of course strength also is necessary! One may not expect victory from a baby who imagines a tiger to be a house cat! Powerful hands are my sufficient weapon.”

There must be acceptance to subconscious as well as preparedness

“Do you think, revered Swami, that I could ever fight tigers?” This was the first time, and the last, that the bizarre ambition ever visited my mind! “Yes.” He was smiling. “But there are many kinds of tigers; some roam in jungles of human desires. No spiritual benefit accrues by knocking beasts unconscious. Rather be victor over the inner prowlers.”

Slay the tigers in your mind preventing you achieving your definite chief aim (vision)

“‘Enough of tiger taming.’ He spoke with calm assurance. ‘Come with me; I will teach you to subdue the beasts of ignorance roaming in jungles of the human mind. You are used to an audience: let it be a galaxy of angels, entertained by your thrilling mastery of yoga!’

Focus your attention inwards and overcome the ignorance that lies within

“The world is full of uneasy believers in an outward security. Their bitter thoughts are like scars on their foreheads. The One who gave us air and milk from our first breath knows how to provide day by day for His devotees.”

Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.

Moral: Attachment is blinding; it lends an imaginary halo of attractiveness to the object of desire.

‘A man who accepts a job under anyone is a slave.’ That impression became so indelibly fixed that even after my marriage I refused all positions. I met expenses by investing my family endowment in land. Moral: Good and positive suggestions should instruct the sensitive ears of children. Their early ideas long remain sharply etched.”

Thought is a force, even as electricity or gravitation. The human mind is a spark of the almighty consciousness of God. I could show you that whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely would instantly come to pass.’

It is not the physicist but the Self-realized master who comprehends the true nature of matter.

“In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.”

“The body is a treacherous friend. Give it its due; no more. 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!”

“If one busies himself with an outer display of scriptural wealth, what time is left for silent inward diving after the priceless pearls?”

“Wisdom is not assimilated with the eyes, but with the atoms,” he said. “When your conviction of a truth is not merely in your brain but in your being, you may diffidently vouch for its meaning.”

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”25

Shrooms

All thoughts vibrate eternally in the cosmos. By deep concentration a master is able to detect the thoughts of any man, living or dead. Thoughts are universally and not individually rooted; a truth cannot be created, but only perceived. Any erroneous thought of man is a result of an imperfection, large or small, in his discernment. The goal of yoga science is to calm the mind, that without distortion it may hear the infallible counsel of the Inner Voice.

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.

Because man himself is an expression of the Creative Word, sound exercises on him a potent and immediate effect.

What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place, and because he possesses spiritual resources that are not subject to planetary pressure.

The wise man defeats his planets — which is to say, his past — by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter.

The soul is ever free; it is deathless because birthless. It cannot be regimented by stars. “Man is a soul, and has a body. When he properly places his sense of identity, he leaves behind all compulsive patterns. So long as he remains confused in his ordinary state of spiritual amnesia, he will know the subtle fetters of environmental law.

“The deeper the Self-realization of a man, the more he influences the whole universe by his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.”

God created each man as a soul, dowered with individuality, hence essential to the universal structure, whether in the temporary role of pillar or parasite. His freedom is final and immediate, if he so wills; it depends not on outer but inner victories.

“Sri Yukteswarji will initiate you into Kriya Yoga,” I replied. “It calms the dualistic turmoil by a divine inner certainty.”

The rishis have pointed out that solely by these achievements may a human being demonstrate that he has mastered maya, the dualistic cosmic delusion. He alone may say from the depths of realization: “Ekam sat” (“Only One exists”).