Autobiography of a Yogi (Self-Realization Fellowship)

by Paramahansa Yogananda

“What is behind the darkness of closed eyes?”

On my right forearm is a constant reminder of the power in man’s sheer word.

“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.”

“Only the shallow man loses responsiveness to the woes of others’ lives, as he sinks into narrow suffering of his own.”

The different sensory stimuli to which man reacts — tactual, visual, gustatory, auditory, and olfactory — are produced by vibratory variations in electrons and protons. The vibrations in turn are regulated by prana, “lifetrons,” subtle life forces or finer-than-atomic energies intelligently charged with the five distinctive sensory idea-substances.

Hypnotism is trespass into the territory of another’s consciousness.

The body is literally manufactured and sustained by mind. Through pressure of instincts from past lives, strengths or weaknesses percolate gradually into human consciousness. They express as habits, which in turn manifest as a desirable or an undesirable body. Outward frailty has a mental origin; in a vicious circle, the habit-bound body thwarts the mind. If the master allows himself to be commanded by a servant, the latter becomes autocratic; the mind is similarly enslaved by submitting to bodily dictation.”