Autobiography of a Yogi

by Paramahansa Yogananda

Though He is the sole Owner of the cosmos, silently showering us with gifts from life to life, one thing yet remains which He does not own, and which each human heart is empowered to withhold or bestow—man’s love.

Many yogis, however, wear garments of silk, which preserves certain subtle bodily currents better than cotton.

Each man is a part of the Creator, or Cosmic Man; he has a heavenly body as well as one of earth.

quick or uneven breaths are an inevitable accompaniment of harmful emotional states: fear, lust, anger.

The restless monkey breathes at the rate of 32 times a minute, in contrast to man’s average of 18 times.

The tortoise, for instance, who may attain the age of 300 years,{167} breathes

only 4 times per minute.

The rejuvenating effects of sleep are due to man’s temporary unawareness of body and breathing. The sleeping man becomes a yogi; each night he unconsciously performs the yogic rite of releasing himself from bodily identification, and of...

region and the six sub-dynamos of his spinal centers. The sleeper thus dips unknowingly into the reservoir of cosmi...

The yoga method overcomes the tug of war between the mind and the matter-bound senses, and frees the devotee to reinherit his eternal kingdom.

“Remember,” he had said slowly, “that he who discards his worldly duties can justify himself only by assuming some kind of responsibility toward a much larger family.”

I saw clearly the arid results of ordinary instruction, aimed only at the development of body and intellect. Moral and spiritual values, without whose appreciation no man can approach happiness, were yet lacking in the formal curriculum.

Realizing that man’s body is like an electric battery, I reasoned that it could be recharged with energy through the direct agency of the human will.

“The devotee who forgoes the life-experiences of marriage and family, and exchanges the problems of a small household and limited activities for the larger responsibilities of service to society in general, is undertaking a task which is often accompanied by persecution from a misunderstanding world, but also by a divine inner contentment.”

In tears, I placed the apparently lifeless pet on my lap. I prayed piteously to God to spare its life. Hours later, the small creature opened its eyes, stood up, and walked feebly. The whole school shouted for joy.

The deer appeared in a dream, and spoke to me: “You are holding me back. Please let me go; let me go!” “All right,” I answered in the dream. I awoke immediately, and cried out, “Boys, the deer is dying!” The children rushed to my side. I ran to the corner of the room where I had placed the pet.

According to the mass karma which guides and regulates the destinies of animals, the deer’s life was over, and it was ready to progress to a higher form. But by my deep attachment, which I later realized was selfish, and by my fervent prayers, I had been able to hold it in the limitations of the animal form from which the soul was struggling for release.

I realized anew that God wants His children to love everything as a part of Him, and not to feel delusively that death ends all.

“You shall soon be dead.” The reply came from my lips with an irresistible force.

the attraction of the past awoke with redoubled intensity.

He proves mathematically that the velocity of light is, so far as man’s finite mind is concerned, the only constant in a universe of unstayable flux. On the sole absolute of light-velocity depend all human standards of time and space. Not abstractly eternal as hitherto considered, time and space are relative and finite factors, deriving their measurement validity only in reference to the yardstick of light-velocity.

If joy were ceaseless here in this world, would man ever seek another? Without suffering he scarcely cares to recall that he has forsaken his eternal home. Pain is a prod to remembrance.

After acquiring inward treasure, you will find that outward supply is always forthcoming.’

Except for my knowledge that God is present in my stomach, as in every atom of creation, the lime would have killed me. Now that you know the divine meaning of boomerang, never again play tricks on anyone.”

Men of God-realization like Trailanga allow the divine law to operate instantaneously; they have banished forever all thwarting crosscurrents of ego.

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”{197}

“The Son of God is the Christ or Divine Consciousness in man.

The ‘glory’ or nimbus around the head of the saints is a symbolic witness of their capacity to render divine homage.”

Cosmic law cannot be stayed or changed, and man would do well to put himself in harmony with it.

A divine decree, resting beyond the gaze of human beings, works mysteriously to bring all things into outer manifestation at the proper time.

The “Moon of Heav’n” is the outward cosmos, fettered to the law of periodic recurrence.

forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism, and the boomerang—evils of materialism.

Prenatally blessed by many lives of lonely meditation, you must now mingle in the world of men.

Even in the world, the

yogi who faithfully discharges his responsibilities, without personal motive or attachment, treads the sure path of enlightenment.

“Even a little bit of the practice of this religion will save you from dire fears and colossal sufferings.”’

I knew he was intimating that he wanted me to criticize no one, but to see the Lord as residing equally in all body-temples, whether of superior or inferior men.

The great guru added, ‘By serving wise and ignorant sadhus, I am learning the greatest of virtues, pleasing to God above all others—humility.’”

“Always remember that you belong to no one, and no one belongs to you. Reflect that some day you will suddenly have to leave everything in this world—so make the acquaintanceship of God now,”

Whose work is all this, and Who is the Doer of all actions? Whatever the Lord has made me say is bound to materialize as truth.’

He thought he had found India; surely there is a karmic link between those two lands!”

‘You have nothing to fear,’ I would tell them. ‘You don’t need your defensive thorns. I will protect you.’ Gradually the useful plant of the desert emerged in a thornless variety.”

Memory is not a test of truth; just because man fails to remember his past lives does not prove he never had them. Memory is blank concerning his womb-life and infancy, too; but he probably passed through them!” He chuckled.

The modesty with which he wore his scientific fame repeatedly reminded me of the trees that bend low with the burden of ripening fruits; it is the barren tree that lifts its head high in an empty boast.

I realized at once that her strange life is intended by God to reassure all Christians of the historical authenticity of Jesus’ life and crucifixion as recorded in the New Testament, and to dramatically display the ever-living bond between the Galilean Master and his devotees.

“Go and tell Alexander that God the Supreme King is never the Author of insolent wrong, but is the Creator of light, of peace, of life, of water, of the body of man and of souls; He receives all men when death sets them free, being in no way subject to evil disease. He alone is the God of my homage, who abhors slaughter and instigates no wars.

I then, becoming Spirit, shall ascend to my God, who enclosed us all in flesh and left us upon earth to prove whether, when here below, we shall live obedient to His ordinances and who also will require of us all, when we depart hence to His presence, an account of our life, since He is Judge of all proud wrongdoing; for the groans of the oppressed become the punishment of the oppressor.

One of these masters, Thayumanavar, has left us the following challenging poem: You can control a mad elephant; You can shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger; You can ride a lion; You can play with the cobra; By alchemy you can eke out your livelihood; You can wander through the universe incognito;

You can make vassals of the gods; You can be ever youthful; You can walk on water and live in fire; But control of the mind is better and more difficult.

Attachment to bodily residence, springing up of its own nature [i.e., arising from immemorial roots, past experiences of death],” Patanjali wrote,{288} “is present in slight degree even in great saints.” In some of his discourses on death, my guru had been wont to add: “Just as a long-caged bird hesitates to leave its accustomed home when the door is opened.”)