The Essence of Self-Realization Quotes

“The company you keep is important. If you leave your coat in a room where people are smoking, pretty soon it will smell of smoke. If you leave it outside in the garden, later on, when you bring it indoors, it will carry with it the fragrance of fresh air and flowers.
"Such is the case with the mind. Your garment of thoughts absorbs the vibrations of those with whom you mix.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“Where motion ceases," the Master said, "God begins.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“Visualize many pots filled with water, standing in a garden. Then imagine the moon shining down from above. In every pot, the moon's reflection will appear separate. In fact, however, all the pots reflect the same moon.
"That is how God is in the souls of men. Though reflected in every human being, He is forever untainted by human consciousness. Even if you broke all the pots, the moon's light would remain the same.
"Wise is he who, beholding the light of life shining in his little `pot' of human consciousness, looks up to its origins in the `moon' above-in God. But foolish, he who becomes
engrossed in the moon in its reflection. When the pot breaks, what will he have left?”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“What is the use of spending all one's time on things that don't last? The drama of life has for its moral the fact that it is merely that: a drama, an illusion.
"Fools, imagining the play to be real and lasting, weep through the sad parts, grieve that the happy parts cannot endure, and sorrow that the play must, at last, come to an end. Suffering is the punishment for their spiritual blindness.
"The wise, however, seeing the drama for the utter delusion it is, seek eternal happiness in the Self within.
"Life, for those who don't know how to handle it, is a terrible machine. Sooner or later it cuts them to pieces.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“Forget the past. The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. Human conduct is ever unreliable until man is anchored in the Divine. Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.'
"I always like to remind people of this simple truth: A saint is a sinner who nevergave up!”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“The Master, addressing a new disciple: "What keeps the earth from shooting out into space, away from the sun?"
"The sun's gravitational pull, Sir," replied the disciple.
"Then what keeps the earth from being drawn back into the sun?"
"The earth's centrifugal force, which pulls it constantly outward, away from that center."
The Master, with an inward smile, dropped the subject. Months later, the disciple realized that his guru had been speaking metaphorically of God as the sun, Who draws all things back to Himself, and of man as the earth, ever trying to escape the pull of God's love while chasing after worldly desires.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“A disciple asked, "How can intuition be developed?"
Yogananda: "The best way is, every time you meditate, to sit calmly for a long time after doing the techniques. It is during this period that you will be able to deepen your awareness of God's presence within you. Go ever deeper in your enjoyment of that presence.
"The longer and more deeply you enjoy the peace within, the more quickly will your intuition develop.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“The lesson of reincarnation is to neutralize the waves of likes and dislikes, of desire and aversion, by the expression of kindness, forgiveness, and compassion to all, and by steadfast contentment in the Self. We must love others not for their human personalities, but because they are manifestations of God, Who dwells equally in all.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“Spiritual ignorance is the greatest sin. It is what makes all other sins possible.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“Possession of material riches, without inner peace, is like dying of thirst while bathing in a lake. If material poverty is to be avoided, spiritual poverty is to be abhorred! It is spiritual poverty, not material lack, that lies at the core of all human suffering.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“As for seeking agreement among all religions in the world," the Master continued, "it would be a mistake to suppose that all of them derive equally from the same level of divine insight.”
― Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“Whether one becomes a saint or a sinner is to a great extent determined by the company he keeps.”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda

“Self-realization means realizing your true Self as the great ocean of Spirit, by breaking the delusion that you are this little ego, this little human body and personality." --”
― Swami Kriyananda, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda