Autobiography of a Yogi (Complete Edition)

by Paramahansa Yogananda

“God is Love; His plan for creation can be rooted only in love. Does not that simple thought, rather than erudite reasonings, offer solace to the human heart? Every saint who has penetrated to the core of Reality has testified that a divine universal plan exists and that it is beautiful and full of joy.”

“Paramahansa,” from parama, “highest or supreme” and hansa, “swan”—signifying one who has attained highest realization of his true divine Self, and of the unity of that Self with Spirit.

If man be solely a body, its loss indeed ends his identity. But if prophets down the millenniums spake with truth, man is essentially a soul, incorporeal and omnipresent.

An aversion to instant acceptance is really only honouring the principle of “due reflection.”

“The one who pursues a goal of even-mindedness is neither jubilant with gain nor depressed by loss. He knows that man arrives penniless in this world, and departs without a single rupee.”

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

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

Self-scrutiny, relentless observance of one’s thoughts, is a stark and shattering experience. It pulverises the stoutest ego.

Struggles of the battlefield pale into insignificance here, when man first contends with inner enemies!

“Sir, is it necessary to prove God? Isn’t He performing miracles in everything, everywhere?”

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

A true man is he who dwells in righteousness among his fellowmen, who may buy and sell, yet is never for a single instant forgetful of God!”

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.”

“People in general are more fond of Jala Yoga (union with food) than of Dhyana Yoga (union with God).”

By a continuous living tradition and a vital power of rejuvenescence, this land has readjusted itself through unnumbered transformations.

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.

The humility of Master Mahasaya and of all other saints springs from a recognition of their total dependence (seshatva) on the Lord as the sole Life and Judge.

Distinctions of “important” and “unimportant” are surely unknown to the Lord, lest, for want of a pin, the cosmos collapse!

He who has bestowed appetite, will inevitably see that His devotee is maintained. Do not imagine that rice sustains you nor that money or men support you. Could they aid if the Lord withdraws your life breath? They are His instruments merely.

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

Good and positive suggestions should instruct the sensitive ears of children. Their early ideas long remain sharply etched.”

A master—one who has realized himself as the omnipresent soul, not the body or the ego—perceives in all men a striking similarity.

He would listen respectfully to words of truth from a child; and, on occasion, would openly ignore a conceited pundit.

Is the whole world going to change for you? Change yourself: be rid of the mosquito consciousness.”

A true yogi is able to pass into and maintain the superconscious state, regardless of multitudinous distractions never absent from this earth—the

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 Divine, he pointed out, is properly manifested through physical and mental soundness.

Brave indeed is the guru who undertakes to transform the crude ore of ego-permeated humanity! A saint’s courage is rooted in his compassion for maya-bewildered men, the stumbling eyeless of the world.

The land of healing lies within, radiant with the happiness that is blindly sought in a thousand outer directions.

Intelligence is rightly guided only after the mind has acknowledged the inescapability of spiritual law.”

The soul is the immutable, unqualified image of God.”

“How can sense slaves enjoy the world? Its subtle flavours escape them while they grovel in primal mud.

If temptation assails you with cruel force, overcome it by impersonal analysis and indomitable will. Every natural passion can be mastered.

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!”

“So you have inexplicably failed to isolate the Supreme Power in your test tubes!” Master’s gaze was stern. “I recommend a new experiment: examine your thoughts unremittingly for twenty-four hours. Then wonder no longer at God’s absence.”

“Sacred writings are beneficial in stimulating desire for inward realization, if one stanza at a time is slowly assimilated. Otherwise, continual intellectual study may result in vanity, false satisfaction, and undigested knowledge.”

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

“When your conviction of a truth is not merely in your brain but in your being, you may diffidently vouch for its meaning.”

Humanity—so variegated in its own eyes!—is seen by a master to be divided into only two classes: ignorant men who are not seeking God, and wise men who are.

He fitted the Vedic definition of a man of God: “Softer than the flower, where kindness is concerned; stronger than the thunder, where principles are at stake.”

“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

“Wisdom is better sought from a man of realization than from an inert mountain.”

The goal of yoga science is to calm the mind, that without distortion it may hear the infallible counsel of the Inner Voice.

Those amazing truths that our descendants will discover are even now all around us, staring us in the eyes, so to speak; and yet we do not see them. But it is not enough to say that we do not see them; we do not wish to see them—for as soon as an unexpected and unfamiliar fact appears, we try to fit it into the framework of the commonplaces of accepted knowledge, and are indignant that anyone should dare to experiment further.”

During deep meditation, the single or spiritual eye becomes visible within the central part of the forehead. This omniscient eye is variously referred to in scriptures as the third eye, star of the East, inner eye, dove descending from heaven, eye of Shiva, eye of intuition, and so on.

One should not dismiss the wisdom with the ‘wise.’

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.