Man's Eternal Quest Quotes

“The initiative to undertake your most important duty in life is often buried beneath the accumulated debris of human habits.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“It is important to avoid identification with pain or anger or any kind of mental or physical suffering that comes. The best way to dissociate yourself from your difficulty is to be mentally detached, as if you were merely a spectator, while at the same time seeking a remedy. Don’t expect to attain unalloyed peace and happiness from earthly life. This should be your new attitude: no matter what your experiences are, enjoy them in an objective way, as you would a movie. You have to find true peace and happiness within yourself. Your outer experiences should be only fun.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“If you can go to a movie and see a picture of war and suffering, and afterward say, “What a wonderful picture!” so may you take this life as a cosmic picture-show. Be prepared for every kind of experience that may come to you, realizing that all are but dreams. Each human life constitutes a drama; and the events of each day represent a drama. You are living a fresh one each of the year’s 365 days. The thought that you are merely a player in these dramas is very comforting. Realize that the acting out of whatever part you are called upon to play does not affect your real being. At the end of every earthly incarnation you are the same—the immortal soul—untouched by sickness, sorrow, or death. “He who cannot be ruffled by these (contacts of the senses with their objects), who is calm and evenminded during pain and pleasure, he alone is fit to attain everlastingness!” (Bhagavad Gita II:15.)”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“Man lives in the body as a prisoner; when his term is over, he suffers the indignity of being thrown out. Love of the body is therefore nothing more than love of jail. Long accustomed to living in the body, we have forgotten what real freedom means. Being a Westerner is no excuse for not seeking freedom. It is vital to every man that he discover his soul and know his immortal nature. Yoga shows the way.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“The soul, all-perfect and ever perfect, is compelled by the law of evolution to incarnate repeatedly in progressively higher lives— retarded by wrong actions and desires and accelerated by spiritual endeavors—until Self-realization and God-union are attained. Having then transcended the Lord’s delusion, the soul is forever freed. “Their thoughts immersed in That (Spirit), their souls one with Spirit, their sole allegiance and devotion given to Spirit, their beings purified from poisonous delusion by the antidote of wisdom— such men reach the state of non-return” (Bhagavad Gita V:17). In the Bible it is similarly written: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out” (Revelation 3:12)”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“The greatest of all enemies of man is himself”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“One should not take his troubles too seriously, lest they darken the subconscious mind. Difficulties come to us in order to awaken us to the realization that this life is a dream. This lesson we all have to learn. Then we can understand why there is so much difference in everything in the world: some people are poor, some are rich; some are healthy and some are sick. Although it may seem to be a terrible and cruel game, the justification of the complications of life is that all of it is only a dream. Take it as such.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“Between the restless thoughts and God there is a wall; the ordinary person doesn’t try, so he never gets over that wall. But the spiritual fighter goes on. When the mind becomes still, you are in the kingdom of the Infinite. Those who have spent too much time on foolish things remain fruitlessly knocking outside.
Communion with God is the only thing to live for. You will have to come to that
understanding eventually, often after much suffering.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“If only people knew wherein lies their own good! To those who act wrongly the Self is an enemy. Befriend the Self and the Self will save you. There is no other savior than your Self. The fetters of ignorance and bad habits keep you bound. It is because you are determined to follow your wrong habits that you suffer. If only you would picture life a little ahead; lest the time, the precious time that is given you, slip away fruitlessly. The Hindus have a saying: “The child is busy with play, the youth is busy with sex, and the adult is busy with worries. How few are busy with God!”
Banish the imaginary hope that happiness will come from worldly fulfillment. Prosperity isn’t enough, “gracious living” isn’t enough. You want to be eternally happy. Seize the God within you and realize that the Self is Divinity.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“Intensity, secrecy, devotion, and constancy are necessary. You don’t know when death will come. Every minute keep your mind on God. Everything you want and need is right within you; seek long and seek deeply. I meditate for hours; I see no one until I am finished. You must make up your mind that you are not going to be bothered by anyone or anything. Then you won’t know time.
That is the only way to find Him. Don’t waste your time. When you are able to live in the divine consciousness, four to six hours of sleep are plenty; you will never feel tired, you will never miss sleep. Sleep is under my control; it is the same with eating. I have something infinitely greater.”
― Paramahansa Yogananada, Man's Eternal Quest

“Life is very tricky and we must deal with it as it is. If we do not first master it ourselves we cannot help anyone else. In the seclusion of concentrated thought lies hidden the factory of all accomplishment. Remember that. [...] Exercise your will continuously. During the day and at night you have many opportunities to work in this factory, if you do not waste your time. At night I withdraw from the world’s demands and am by myself, an absolute stranger to the world; it is a blank. Alone with my will power, I turn my thoughts in the desired direction until I have determined in my mind exactly what I wish to do and how to do it. Then I harness my will to the right activities and it creates success. In this way I have effectively used my will power many times. But it won’t work unless the application of will power is continuous.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“Our life experiences are all part of a dream. If you know you are dreaming, you don’t suffer from your bad experiences in the dream. But if you are identified with the dream, and in it someone strikes your head and kills you, that dream death seems a true and terrible experience until you wake up and understand it was not real. It is the same after death. Once you are out of this body, you realize you are not dead; you are free of a nightmare.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“The root cause of the world’s troubles is this selfishness born of ignorance. Each person thinks he is doing right; but when he seeks to satisfy only his own interest, he is setting in motion the karmic law of cause and effect that will inevitably destroy his own and others’ happiness.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest

“Man’s thoughts are a microcosmic borrowing from God’s thought power and so have the ability, even when undeveloped, to affect significantly his own health, happiness, and success and, when strongly reinforced by kindred thoughts of others, the world in which he lives.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest