Resurrect Your Soul in God

From Inner Culture, April 1937

Christ is risen from beneath the sepulcher of your indifference if you would behold Him in the light
of your devotion.

He is risen from the imprisoning walls of flesh if you, a sleeping son of God, would come out of
your bodily prison into the freedom of Spirit.

Crucify your ignorance and hide-bound evil customs, and rise from beneath the tomb of
narrowness into the freedom of Cosmic Brotherhood.

Resurrect your soul from the tomb of reincarnations.

Christ-fragrance is ascending from the living graves of material human consciousness, and
descending on the devotion of true devotees everywhere. Wash the altar of your heart with tears
of repentance, so that Christ Consciousness, love of all races, all creatures, may resurrect within
you.

When your body is crucified with disease, ascend into the consciousness of health.
When your mind is crucified with trials and temptations, awaken into the sphere of self-control.

When you are entombed in sorrow, resurrect yourself into happiness.

When you are buried beneath restlessness, resurrect your mind into continued deep silence.

Your God-love has long been crucified by your inner indifference remaining hidden within you;
awaken it, and resurrect it into the consciousness of the Absolute Bliss by daily deep
concentration.From Talks and Articles by Paramhansa Yogananda

Always Look to the Light

Excerpted from The Essence of Self-Realization, by Paramhansa Yogananda, recorded and
compiled by Kriyananda

A room may be in darkness for thousands of years, but if a light is brought into it, in that very
instant the darkness vanishes. So is it with sin. You cannot drive sin out of the mind any more
than you can beat darkness out of a room with a stick. By concentration on delusion, indeed, you
may only increase its hold on your mind. Bring in the light of God, however, through deep
meditation and devotion, and the darkness will vanish as though it had never been.

If one thinks of sin as breaking God's commandments, the thought then arises of God's anger
and stern judgment. But the Lord is our very own! We are His children. Why should He judge us?
It is we, rather, who judge ourselves when we imagine that anything we do is beyond forgiveness.
But if we understand sin as error, we realize that our errors can be rectified.

Never be afraid of God. Tell Him the things you've done wrong. Remind Him that you are His
child. That is much better than whining, 'Lord, I am a sinner! I am a sinner!' You are made in His
image. Pray, then, 'Well, Lord, I have made mistakes, but once I know You, there can be no more
temptation for me.'
Give to God not only the good that you do, but also the bad. I do not mean that you should
deliberately do things that are wrong. But when you cannot help yourself, because of habits that
are too strong, tell your mind that God is performing those actions through you.

It is He, after all, who has dreamed your existence. You have merely hypnotized yourself with the
thought of your weaknesses. If you make the Lord responsible for them, it will help you to break
the false hold they have on your imagination. You'll find it easier, then, to recognize in yourself
the perfect image of God

Loving One's Enemies

The secret of Christ's strength lay in his love for all, even his enemies. Far better to conquer by
love the heart of a person who hates you than to vanquish such a one by other means. To the
ordinary man such a doctrine seems absurd. He wants to return ten slaps for the one he has
received and add twice as many kicks for good measure. Why should you love your enemy? In
order that you may bring the healing rays of your love into his dark, hatred-stricken heart….Thus
will the flame of your love burn the partitions of hatred and misery which separate your Soul from
other Souls and all Souls from the vast sea of Infinite Love.

You need not fawn on your enemy. Silently love him. Silently be of service to him whenever he is
in need, for love is real only when it is useful and expresses itself through action. Thus will you
rend the veils of hatred and of narrow-mindedness which hide God from your sight

Keep Centered in God - Not Matter

From Yogananda's Super Advanced Course

When you act in the world, forgetting God, you have changed your center from God to matter.
And this grafted material nature will throw you into the whirlpool of change and will stifle you with
worries and sorrows. Now revert to your own nature. Change your center from material desires to
desire for God. These material nature beggaries are only your grafted nature, so the only way you
can forget these is to remember God as Peace and Bliss in your heart always. Ask God to make
your peace, silence, joy and meditation his holy altars, where your soul may meet and commune
with Him in the holy of Holies. Let your prayer be: "Make my understanding the temple of Thy
guidance!

Invoke God as power in the temple of consciousness during the day. Let every action and every
word that you utter be tinged and tipsy with God-love intoxication. Talk and act sensibly as a man
who drinks a lot and yet keeps his senses awake and in command. Be drunk with God and let
every action of your daily life be a temple of God's memory. Perform every action to please Him;
and in the indestructible shrine of your devotion God will listen in every thought.

Carry your love of God deep in your heart before you sleep. Cradle it there, so that when you
dream you may dream of Him as resting on the fragrant altar of sleep, as Krishna or Christ or
Peace or Bliss. In the temple of Sleep or Dreams, feel God as Peace or as ever-new Bliss.
Actually, God embraces you on His Bosom as Peace and Joy when you go to sleep in your
subconscious chamber or your temple of dreams. Then you are sleeping locked in His Arms of
Tranquility. So, before you fall asleep, realize that you are going to embrace Him in sleep and
dreams.

And when you are deeply sleeping or meditating, feel Him embracing you as the Omnipresent
Bliss. The Great Omnipresence touches you in sleep and meditation, and through His Bliss-touch
He wants to make you forget your little, painful, worrying memories, mental and physical aches
and Spiritual agonies, which you garnered during your truant stay, in the slums of matter.
Hold fast to your once lost spiritual treasure of joy. Now that it is regained, increase it by giving it
freely to others and generously investing it in other hearts. Remember that whatsoever we
selfishly keep for self is lost; and whatsoever we freely give in love to others, that treasure cannot
be lost but yields its ever-increasing harvest of happiness without end. Worry and selfishness are
highwaymen on the roadways of life, and they hold us up and rob us of our wealth of joy and
peace. So, determine to hold fast to joy, no matter if death shall frown at your doors or your own
subconscious mind may tell you that "all is lost."

Drown all confusing noises in the silent, sweet harmony of your perfect, invincible joy. Remember
this, my beloved: With Her veil of sleep and peace, Mother Divine wipes away the dark sorrows of
her ignorance-besmirched children. Go then to your dreams as a child to its mother's arms.
Divine Love will be enshrined in all your memories of past incarnations and present thoughts. And
then you will find that evil and misery were only your own imaginary dream-creations. You slept
and dreamed a nightmare of evil; you awake in God and feel only joy and good existing
everywhere. And then you will pray the only prayer that I pray for myself: "Heavenly Father, may
Thy love shine forever on the shrine of my devotion. May my devotion for Thee forever burn on
the altar of my memory, and may I be able to kindle love for Thee on all altar-hearts

Matter and Spirit

Excerpted from an article, Life Everlasting, that appeared in Inner Culture, February, 1936

There is no difference between inorganic and organic life except that they are separate
manifestations of the one Life. Nothing is really dead. The atoms in the flesh of even a corpse are
rapidly vibrating and constantly moving with life. Different forms of life are manifestations of the
same Life Force. Just as ice, water, steam, and hydrogen oxygen gases are different forms of the
same thing, so also solids, liquids, gases, stones, crystals, plants, animals, and human beings,
both living and dead, are manifestations of Life.

The Spirit contained in matter, and matter, are the same, just as hydrogen oxygen gases
contained in a closed jar, made out of a block of ice are of the same essential composition as the
jar itself. The thing contained is made of the same material as the container. If it were otherwise,
matter and Spirit would be the result of two co-existing Infinite forces, which is impossible. As the
ocean becomes the waves, so does Spirit become matter. Spirit and matter are the same as the
ocean and the waves. The waves are disturbed ocean, and matter is distorted, objectified Spirit.
The waves, except in form, contain all the essential qualities of the ocean; similarly, matter,
organic and inorganic, manifestly or latently, contains all the qualities of the Spirit. Thus we can
say that Life sleeps in the crude earth, dreams beauty in the flowers, wakes with power in the
animals, and in man has consciousness of Infinite possibilities.

It is by understanding that life continues after death that we can unite our consciousness with the
Cosmic consciousness of God and find the cord of one life, one law, one rhythm, and one wisdom
uniting us all. It is only when we feel that we are prodigal immortals on earth, and that our gift of
discrimination must be used to find a true art of common living, that we make the effort to unite all
wisdom in our hearts and to realize that all of us are world-brothers marching hand in hand back
to the mansion of God

Our Highest Duty

From Inner Culture, July 1942

Question: "What is my highest duty?"—Y.I.

Answer: Your highest duty is to God. His power is greater than the sunlight and all else put
together. When death comes, your duty to the world will end immediately. That is what God wants
to show you—that this world is only a playhouse wherein you were sent to play; but to forget your
Heavenly Father will lead to misery.

God is the life behind your life, the sight behind your eyes, the taste behind your tongue, and the
love behind your love. To realize this to the fullest extent is Self-realization. Without God's power
you can do nothing. If you always hold this thought, you cannot go wrong, because you will have
purified the temple of your mind and soul with the vibrations of God.

The voice of the Infinite is strong and powerful, and when that power surcharges your body, all
wrong vibrations vanish. When you feel that that Eternal Power in every way is talking through
your voice, through your silence, through demonstration, through your reason, then you know that
you have something that will last beyond the grave.

You Are Not the Body

You think that you are the body, but you are not. Your consciousness is centered in the body, but
when you are asleep, your consciousness is beyond this. Your love is mostly concentrated on
your little body, but that love must be expanded to the kingdom of the Infinite. Since we are all
limited, we must reclaim our kingdom by expanding our love. Think what a beautiful world this
would be if all of us loved others as we love ourselves. Meditation is a sure way to prove that you
are not the body but a child of God. We are the waves of the ocean, the waves of life, and at
death we merge in the Ocean of God and then come out again as a wave in the next life.

Do not excuse yourself by saying that you are too busy to think of God. You must give up some of
your useless pursuits and idle thoughts to make time for Him. The world takes out of you all it can
and keeps you engaged with many worthless habits and unproductive activities. Day after day
you wish to be different and make new resolutions, but you are being carried a prisoner, bound
hand and foot by the cord of your habits woven by you, through your environment. To eat, work,
and die is not enough; the animal does the same.

Use your precious gift of reason and try to find God. You need not go into the forest where other,
although different, temptations will assail you and perhaps conquer you. Your duty is in the world
where your karma (action) has placed you to work out your salvation by serving your fellow-men.
You can find God in the solitude of your own room when, in the early morning hours and at night
before sleeping, you compose yourself for meditation and thought on the great divine principle
that created you.

Be Determined to Know God

Mortal law is governed by the law of cause and effect, but you cannot get what you visualize until
you know God. When you know Him, then the law of cause and effect is removed and you
acclaim your divine birthright. Good actions without reference to God may bring good results
according to the law of cause and effect applied to human actions, but they cannot produce the
knowledge of God. If the sun tries to shine through a crystal, and you put your hand in front of the
crystal, the sunshine cannot penetrate it. So it is with God. His power is shining everywhere, but if
you put forth your hand of restlessness, God's light cannot shine through clearly.

God will not reveal Himself to you unless your thoughts for Him in meditation and at other times
are strong enough to blot out all unimportant distracting thoughts. You must determine today to
know God and act on your desire by making every effort now to cultivate His friendship. It is not
necessary to neglect your worldly duties. Perform them with the thought that you are realizing
Him through them and that thus you are pleasing Him.
Only when we unite our souls with God shall we get back the birthright which we have lost. We
only get prosperity and happiness according to the measure of our past actions and
determination. Don't live as a slave, but as a king. The wave becomes the ocean and the ocean
again becomes the wave. So, we become God and God becomes us. He is all there is in the
universe that can keep us entertained evermore. All things else will tire us except God alone!

Spiritualizing the Newpapapers

From East-West, March-April 1928

"Blessed are those who do not indulge in sensational news."

Millions start the day with the gruesome sight of murder headlines in the morning newspapers.
The sleep-refreshed young mentality starts the day's race for success with the dark cloud of
wrong thoughts hanging over his mind. The law of "All's well that starts well" is trampled upon.

Newspapers have more or less become the tin gods worshipped by the mass mind. They can
make or unmake a man, at least in the public eye. Human opinion, however, and God's opinion
are different. One forsaken by all humanity may not be forsaken by the God of Truth. One
worshipped by all the world may not be true to himself. He may not be acceptable in the eyes of
Truth. It is the duty of truth-loving people to reform the newspapers since they almost completely
control unthinking, child-like mentalities.

Modern journalism originated in the desire of man to know all about his fellow man and about his
environment. The busy man looks at a paper and at a glance knows in what relation his business
and social affairs stand with the community. Newspapers are the gods of information. They are
the soul of modern business. They are the epitome of the city news. The modern world cannot
get along without them. They can act as the breath of life to noble human activities or they can
react like chlorine gas to asphyxiate people's independent thinking.

Through the sluice-gates of newspapers the reservoir of human mentalities is constantly fed. That
is why a truth-loving country should keep a strict eye on the operation of these gates through
which the river of information flows into the public mind. Muddy and defiled water must not be
allowed in when clean and sparkling streams are available.

Freedom of the press must respect the law by which true freedom can alone exist. Intoxicated
with the wine of freedom, some newspapers often abuse their powers. They often do not know
how to operate the gates of information. They have not learned how to exercise self-control and
thus prevent the wild river of muddled information from overrunning and clogging the tank of
human mentalities. Moreover, newspapers ought not to introduce poisonous news into the tank of
human minds, for the thirsty, undiscriminative masses drink poisonous, unwholesome news
wherever they find it and hence suffer with nervousness, worry, fear and subconscious criminal
suggestions.

Criminal Suggestions

In a few minutes a newspaper prints the heading: "Four hold-up men cleaned up a million. No
trace of the robbers found." The weak and poverty-stricken, or criminally-bent mentality reads it
and induces a few friends to join him to try to get rich quick by this unholy method. Unwholesome
news whets the appetite for crime.

Hold-ups at the point of the gun with the aid of automobiles were unknown in many parts of the
world until the idea was unwittingly introduced into the minds of weak mentalities through the
channels of western newspapers and movies. That is why sensational movies and newspapers
should be gradually crowded out by educating the tastes of children and adults to a higher
standard.

Some newspapers and some film producers, in order to be the best sellers of the day, vie with
one another in breaking all gates of propriety, morality, purity and truth in order to overflood and
devastate human mentalities with their sensationalism. In order to reform sensational movies and
newspapers we must first reform ourselves and our children. "Catering-ism" is the watchword in
everything in America. Business, religion, lectures, all must be made to suit what is called "public
demand."

That is wrong, unless the demand is wholesome. If people want to eat cocaine, opium, cobra
poison, or to indulge in a flattering religion which is afraid to even constructively criticize, or to
hear only those lectures which gloss over and explain away their faults, should the business men,
religious leaders and lecturers reason, let us give the people what they want, let us sell them
poison, flattery and untruth, let us thus kill their souls and choke their mentalities of progress, it
doesn't matter since we are getting rich? No right-thinking man would want society to be run
along such lines.

The law of honesty should be the policy of newspapers, movie concerns, business men, religious
leaders and reformers. They should only cater to the wholesome taste of people. That will bring
out the latent good taste even in apparently lost souls who have artificially developed a bad taste
for good things.

Who is responsible if the described-in-detail crime news, murder headlines and indirect divorce
suggestions begin to influence and mold the clay mentalities of children, burning and hardening
them into fixed habit-thoughts of evil? Is not sensationalism responsible for taking a large part in
suggesting crime in children and to weak mentalities? Let us save the masses from the drug of
sensationalism. Let us have more newspapers with aims and platforms like the Christian Science
Monitor and a few other American papers who are trying to be fair and constructive. The New
York World has a "Department of Accuracy and Fair Play" which investigates and gives publicity
to cases of false and unjust publicity. This is a step in the right direction.

Murdering Reputations

Some newspapers have grown bold and despotic in order to be the best sellers. They don't stop
at anything. They libel a man, writing half-truths or evading the true facts about him, just for the
sake of sensationalism. They give headlines to scandalize him, and syndicate their news, for
most papers take it and swallow it wholesale. They murder a man's life-long-earned reputation in
a few minutes and go scot [??sic] free, laughing. If the person is exonerated and the time for
retraction comes, no more headlines. Most of the papers hide behind indifference, do not print the
retraction, saying it has no news interest. If they do prin it, they give it an insignificant place. If the
man sues in court for libel, the process is endless and expensive, and some newspapers even
encourage this as a publicity stunt. They employ the best attorneys to fight the libel case. If they
lose some money they make up thei losses by printing more sensational headlines like the
following:

"Reverend John Denies He Was a Bandit and Criminal." The unthoughtful people are led to buy
the papers out of curiosity and thus unknowingly patronize injustice. Some religionists will then
raise a hue and cry and say, "Oh, don't sue the papers; that's against Christ's principles." That's a
fine view, but why not root out the evil instead of allowing it to grow to be later endured by Christ
principles?

Many people will remember the case in London a few years ago of "Mr. A." Hari Singh of
Kashmir, who was blackmailed by a woman and her accomplices. Under threat of blackmail and
of newspaper headlines of scandal, the woman and her accomplices extracted seven hundred
thousand dollars from the Prince. Later on we hear that the Prince told of this unfortunate
experience to one of the English judges.

The judge felt a righteous indignation and began to move heaven and earth to break the net of
blackmailers who prey upon wealthy or noted people, public men and great ministers by falsely
scandalizing them and extracting money from them on threat of newspaper headlines.

Thus we hear a law was passed in England by which all cases of blackmail involving noted
persons are heard behind closed doors without the presence of newspaper men. When a case of
this kind is settled, only a short correct report is given to the newspapers. No mention is ever
made of the nature of the charge if the blackmailed man is found guiltless.

Should not America enact such laws and safeguard the lives of public men and women which
consist in their reputation? Besides, the English newspapers are very conservative and make
thorough investigation before passing any remarks about a public man. The English libel laws are
very strict and rigidly enforced, which is far from being the case in America.

No Public Man Is Safe

From a thorough study of the situation of public life in America, I am of the opinion that the
reputation of no public man is safe from being wrongly newspaper-handled. Many newspapers try
to create prejudice against individuals and nations to suit their nefarious ends of narrow, bigoted,
short-sighted political views.

Bad-motived newspapers, lecturers, books, movies and magazines can let loose all the
messengers of evil–racial hatred, seeds of war, prejudice, too strict immigration laws based on
pure injustice or political inequality or racial and color prejudice, gossip, scandal, love of criminal
news, and thrills by the suffering of others.

Such newspapers, instead of teaching Christ-love which promises forgiveness and spiritual help
even to Mary Magdalenes, just try to foster intolerance and revengefulness, self-deception and
persecution of others for a fault which the persecutors themselves do not try to get rid of, or
sometimes for no fault at all.

Some syndicating news agencies at times make wholesale productions of lies and baseless
scandals. I have studied and examined so many cases of untruthful exaggerations, whipped and
bluffed untruths, that I wonder how the Sunday sheets of some papers containing sensational
news can continue to exist.

However, one hardly ever sees any contradictions made by the persons persecuted. Why is this?
I hear there is an unwritten law among some newspapers that when they are sued for libel they
keep silent about it and that news is not syndicated. Since they control public opinion they don't
want to turn the wrathful spotlights of public opinion on themselves, whereas they rejoice when
they turn those furious burning lights on some innocent person.

Most papers gloat at the prospect of scandalizing someone. They are too ready and willing to use
the materials cunningly supplied by blackmailers, but often quite unwilling to print retractions and
save the reputation of innocent people from being murdered at the hands of evil publicity. Do
Christian newspapermen consider this is right?

The Remedy
Seeing this condition of evil present amongst some conscienceless sensation-loving newspapers,
I have a suggestion to make. Let the leading business men, ministers and worthy public men of
each city come together to form a board for educating the newspapers. Any public man or society
scandalized by any unscrupulous newspaper or syndicate of newspapers should be invited to
state its case and give positive proofs of newspaper untruth or false insinuations to the above-
mentioned board. Let the board members investigate, and when the person or society is found to
have been attacked without adequate grounds, let them write or visit the mischief-making
newspaper publishers and editors and exercise their powerful influence to make the newspapers
give the same amount of space, kinds of type, position and page to the retraction as they gave to
the attack.

The city fathers should also write to the syndicating news agencies requesting them to print
retractions for maligned persons. The syndicates and local newspapers should be made to
consult the members of the above-mentioned board before printing any scandal about a
prominent man or society. Last of all, the newspapers must be taught by the board to respect
others' freedom as they love their own.

Freedom of the press to print anything it chooses about anybody by writing in a clever insinuating
way and distorting the truth should be accompanied by the freedom of giving the persons
criticized a chance to reply in the same way. It is cowardly to attack a defenceless, forcibly-made-
voiceless person. The same page position, kind of types and forcible language used to criticize a
person should be used in printing the reply of the person criticized, if he so desires. There should
be no putting off of the retraction or explanation by saying the news is old and uninteresting.

I once heard an account of a conversation between a reporter and an editor about a Peace
Conference. The editor listened with disgust and obvious lack of interest in his eyes as the
reporter related how smoothly the Peace Conference went along. At last the editor said, "Go put
that news in ten lines of small type on the last inside page of the paper."

The reporter, realizing that he had not brought news of interest, suddenly remembered a little
incident which took place in the Peace Conference and exclaimed, "Sir, the President of the
Peace Conference lost his temper in suppressing a crazy man who was saying irrelevant things
and trying to disturb the Conference."

The editor quickly turned to the reporter, his face beaming with the joy of evil smiles, and said,
"Get busy, put headlines on the front page, `The President of the Peace Conference Loses
Peace.'"

If some newspapers want to make half truths or exaggerated truths sensational they should make
the real truth prominent and interesting too.

A Friend's Suggestion

A sincere friend of mine, Mr. Telford Groesbeck, a prominent citizen of Cincinnati, once said to
me, "Please tell the newspapers in your lectures that we do not want the murder and scandal
headlines at all. If they still think that some of the public need it or are interested in it, let them
print about murders, arsons, divorces and gossip on a loose page and let them make the letters
on that page as big and blood red in color as they want, calling it `Red Scandal Page.'

When these newspapers are sent into good homes like ours let them be sent without that `Red
Scandal Page,' thus saving our children and homes from being infected with such destructive
thoughts."
Half truths and distorted truths are worse than the blackest of lies. They are very hard to fight. Yet
I believe that though evil travels with the wind, nevertheless truth has the power to travel against
the wind. Catering to evil tastes will precipitate more evil, disorder, inharmony and suffering into
society, and since newspapers are universally read by people, they should act like wholesome,
reforming parents and not like murderers who secretly stab those who seek their protection.

Of all social crimes, the crime of press distortion and giving prominence to scandals is of the most
unfathomable harm to the rising world generation. Let us all by moral persuasion, love,
determination and practical measures reform the newspapers and rid them of their epidemic of
sensationalism.

Jesus and all world-teachers taught us to sympathize with and help people in error, whereas
sensationalism creates the desire to rejoice in others' shortcomings. Christian newspapers that
have sinned and indulged in sensationalism should repent and cease from further blunders. Let
us spiritualize the newspapers.

Let the morning and evening papers carry headlines on the front page containing the brave
sayings of Jesus or the great prophets. Let men, women and children wake up beholding words
of truth. Let them sleep, dreaming thoughts of restful, peace-giving truth and lasting joy celestial
that dwells within them

How Can I Strengthen my Willpower?

From Inner Culture, November 1938

Question: How can I strengthen my will power?

Answer: First, you must know the difference between "wish" and "will." "Wish" is a desire, but
"will" means desire plus energy. If you did not use your will power, do you know what you would
become? You would have to lie down and not move at all. Even if you were to move your hand,
you would be using your will power.

In order to develop will power, you must first realize that behind your will is the will of God. Then
set out to do one little thing which you think you cannot do. When you have accomplished that, go
on to something bigger. Keep on exercising your will power in this way. Use this will power both in
business and in meditation. It is will power that has created everything, even your body.

The human will, when guided by error, is very bad, but when you will is tuned in with wisdom, it is
guided by Divine Will. Carrying a thought with dynamic will power means entertaining that thought
until it becomes an outward form. When your will power develops that way, and when you can
control your destiny by your will power, then you can do tremendous things. Before you will to do
a thing, reason about it. Make sure that you are directing your will toward accomplishing
something good and helpful to yourself and others

Why is Life so Full of Tests?

From Inner Culture magazine, April 1941

Through tests we learn life's lessons. Tests are not meant to crush us: They are to develop our
powers. They come through the natural law of progress and are necessary for us to advance from
lower to higher steps.

Mind is the source of all your troubles and all your happiness. You really are stronger than all
your tests. If you don't realize it now, you will have to realize it later. God has given you the power
to control your mind and body and thus be free from pain and sorrow. Never say, "I am through."
Do not poison your mind by thinking that if you walk a little more you will over-exert yourself, or if
you cannot get certain foods you will suffer, and so on.

Never allow your mind to entertain thoughts of illness or limitation: You will see your body change
for the better. Remember that mind is the power that is creating this body, and if the mind is
weak, the body becomes weak. Don't grieve or worry about anything.

If you strengthen your mind, you will not feel bodily pains. No matter what happens, you must be
absolutely free in your mind. As in a dream, you may think that you are ill but, awakened by a
slap, you see it is not true. So in the state of wakefulness you must know that this life is also
nothing but a dream. Mind has no connection with the body apart from what connection you give
it. When your mind can completely remain apart from the body at will, you will be free. Remember
that you are immortal.

In order to pass life's tests, you will need rejuvenation in both body and mind. You will need to
develop elasticity of the mind. If you can't meet life's tests, you will be helpless when trials and
tribulations come.

At times life seems to be a cruel game. The only justification for it is that in reality it is only a
dream. You have had many experiences through many incarnations and you will have others in
future incarnations, but they should not frighten you. You must play all parts in the motion picture
of life, inwardly saying, "I am Spirit." This is the great consolation that wisdom gives us.

Realize the presence of the Infinite. Behold God, your own Father, your own Spirit, behind the
shadows. In your heart of hearts realize this, no matter what your impulses dictate. Let nothing sit
on the throne of your heart but God. If you love God's creation more than God, you will be
disillusioned. God must be first, last, and always. Do not follow the dictates of this earthly
dreamland, for dreams sometimes turn into nightmares. Break this dream delusion by waking in
God, and you will be safe forever

Spiritualizing a Prayer or Demand

The following article is from
Whispers From Eternity (1929 Edition)

Just as a wet match, when struck, does not produce fire, so a mind saturated with restlessness is
unable to produce the fire of concentration, even when prodigious efforts are made to strike the
cosmic spark.

The flame of inspiration is hidden within the lines of the prayers and demands in this book; but
since they are saturated with the diverting waters of printer's ink, paper, and intellectual
meanings, one has to do away with these distractions in order to bring forth the flame of wisdom
from within them. Different minds reading the same prayer will interpret it differently, and feel it
differently. The vast ocean of truth can be measured only according to the capacity of one's own
cup of intelligence and perception. So will the inspiration behind the prayers and demands be felt
according to the depths of one's intuition and feeling.

In order to benefit by all the God-warmth within any of these prayers or demands, one should
take only one paragraph at a time from any demand, mentally picture the meaning, visualize the
imagery of the figure of speech, and meditate deeply on it, until the fiery meaning emanates, free
from word limitations.

A word is like a drunken, dumb man, who feels what kind of liquor is in him but who is unable to
express himself clearly about it. He may, by merely a cry or a little gesture, indicate the kind of
wine he drank. So are the words in these demands drunk with God, but they would never be able
fully to express and explain the quality of the wine of inspiration within them, except by way of a
little gesture and a mumbled cry of suggestion.

One may wish to read a complete prayer or demand, to get a quick view of its entire meaning. But
if he will read it over and over again, many times, and then, with closed eyes, repeatedly try to
feel the deep inspiration behind and within it, he will thus spiritualize it -- that is, rouse the
inspiration slumbering beneath the thick, silken quilt of words.

Prayers and demands are like plants which daily grow new blossoms: the flowers change, but the
plants remain. Similarly, a prayer-plant may have the same branches and leaves of words, but
every day will yield new roses of God-feeling and inspiration, if one regularly waters the plant with
meditation. The prayer-plant should be protected from the storms of doubt, distraction, mental
idleness, leaving-meditation-until-tomorrow (the morrow that never comes), absent-mindedness,
and thinking-of-something-else while imagining the mind is wholly on the soul of a prayer.

Such parasites on the prayer-plants should be destroyed by the germicides of self-control,

determination, and loyalty to a teaching. Thus, daily the glowing, immortal roses of inspiration
may be gathered from the plants of these prayer-demands.

Be still, and let God answer through you. Learn to know Him by knowing your Self. Visualize Him
as formless but with form, silent but with voice as well. For example when God is described as a
visible Cosmic Idol, worshipped with drum-beats of ocean-roar, one should actually try mentally to
visualize the entire concept behind the Cosmic Idol. And when the Almighty is spoken of as the
Divine Mother, one should feel the same devotion to God, the Universal Mother, as a loving child
feels toward its mother.

O! seeker after soul-awakening! Every day, dry with the heat of concentration the form-wet
matchsticks of words in a demand; then repeatedly strike them on the tinder of your mind, and at
last you will see the divine flames leap out

Is God a Father or a Mother?

The following article is from
Inner Culture magazine, October 1939

Question: Is God a Father or a Mother?—B.W.

Answer (Yogananda): God is both the Father and the Mother Principle. If we consider God as
transcendental, He is neither Father nor Mother, but as soon as we think of God in terms of
human relations He becomes the Father or the Mother.

When God created this universe He had two aspects—the Father or positive aspect and the
Mother or negative aspect. Pure reason or wisdom is the Father aspect of God. All nature that we
behold is the Mother aspect of God, because in nature we find beauty, gentleness, and kindness.
The flowers, birds, and the beauties of nature all speak of the Mother aspect of God—the
creative, motherly instinct of God. When we look at all the good things in nature, we feel a
tenderness rise within us; we can see and feel God in nature.

Reason and Feeling

Pure reason and pure feeling have intuitive qualities. Pure reason sees as clearly as pure feeling.
Women have a keen intuition. They lose it only when they become overexcited. In logic or
reason, if the premise is wrong, the conclusion will be wrong, but intuition or pure feeling can
never be wrong.

God is often spoken of as the three aspects—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost is the
Mother aspect of God. All creation is the Son. The Father and Mother aspects of God had to have
a son or emblem in which to express their love. We are the children of that love. When we see a
family, we see the miniature of that greater family—God represented in the father and in the
mother with both father and mother expressing their love in the child.

Family Relationship

Why is it that in a family there is a mother, a father, and a child? Because that is what God is. He
is Infinite Wisdom and He is Infinite Feeling. He had to have a vehicle through which He might
express His wisdom and feeling. When God manifested Himself in Creation He gave His wisdom
a form, and that became the Father. He gave His feeling a form, and that became the Mother.

When we give everything away to the Divine Mother and love unconditionally, then the Divine
Mother comes to us. If we once feel that love in our heart which is the love of the father and the
mother, and the love of the mother to the child, and the love of the lover to the beloved—then we
will know that we are in the love of God

Invoke God's Presence Throughout Each Day of Your Life

From Yogoda Course, 1930

Invoke God as power in the temple of consciousness during the day. Let every action and every
word that you utter be tinged and tipsy with God-love intoxication. Talk and act sensibly as a man
who keeps his senses awake and in command. Be drunk with God and let every action of your
daily life be a temple of God's memory. Perform every action to please Him; and in the
indestructible shrine of your devotion God will listen in every thought.

Carry your love of God deep in your heart before you sleep. Cradle it there, so that when you
dream you may dream of Him as resting on the fragrant altar of sleep, as Krishna or Christ or
Peace or Bliss. In the temple of Sleep or Dreams, feel God as Peace or as ever-new Bliss.
Actually, God embraces you on His Bosom as Peace and Joy when you go to sleep in the
subconscious chamber of your temple of dreams. Then you are sleeping locked in His Arms of
Tranquillity. So, before you fall asleep, realize that you are going to embrace Him in sleep and
dreams.

And when you are deeply sleeping or meditating, feel Him embracing you as the Omnipresent
Bliss.

The Great Omnipresence touches you in sleep and meditation, and through His Bliss-touch He
wants to make you forget your little, painful, worrying memories, mental and physical aches and
spiritual agonies, which you garnered during your truant stay in the slums of matter.

Enthrone peace and joy in your heart. Feel that joy, no matter whom you meet and no matter
what you do. If you can do this, though the universe shatter itself into nothingness or your soul or
body be torn by trials, you will find Him dancing in your memory forever and forever. Let pure joy
dance in your memory, and God will dance with you.

Hold fast to your once lost spiritual treasure of joy. Now that it is regained, increase it by giving it
freely to others and generously investing it in other hearts. Remember that whatsoever we
selfishly keep for self is lost; and whatsoever we freely give in love to others, that treasure cannot
be lost but yields its ever- increasing harvest of happiness, world without end.

Worry and selfishness are highwaymen on the roadways of life, and they hold us up and rob us of
our wealth of joy and peace. So, determine to hold fast to joy, no matter if death shall frown at
your doors or your own subconscious mind may tell you that ''all is lost.'' Drown all confusing
noises in the silent, sweet harmony of your perfect, invincible joy

Wake Up and Accept the Gift of Life

Excerpted from articles in Inner Culture, December 1935 and 1936

Take this Christmas celebration seriously and through deep and sustained meditation invite the
Christ to manifest himself to you. Jesus himself said that to all those who received him, he would
give the power to become the sons of God.

Why not make yourself ready to receive him now? It is easier at this season than at any other
time, for the whole world is filled with a spirit of good will, love, and peace. The entire cosmos
celebrates this season of joy for the light that permeates all space.

Do not waste your time

That is the real reason why we celebrate his birthday—in order to remind ourselves of the divine
qualities of Jesus and to awaken ourselves to a realization of the enlightening, loving Christ
presence in our own consciousness.

If you want real emancipation, do not waste your time. Do not go to bed until you make the
contact with God. Do not go to sleep unless you feel that He is with you. If you will do this every
day, you will see such happiness come into your life that it goes beyond all understanding. Follow
the way of the Christ and do not give up.

Spend more time in solitude

If you would experience this joy, spend more of your time in solitude.

Remember, the only real happiness is in communing with God in meditation. Although you
meditate two or three hours at night, and then sing and talk to him, at first you will find no
response. Then, suddenly, a light will appear. Suddenly a fragrance will come. This is the way
God manifests himself to man, but it requires great persistence on your part.

Give extra time to meditation for at least the week preceding Christmas. Take several hours the
day before, and be sure to meditate on Christmas morning. Accept this great gift which the Father
meant for you. Do not let Jesus’ living and His suffering be in vain. He came to bring you joy and
glory and peace and light. These he offers to you always but with special tenderness and love at
this holy season. Wake up and accept the gift of life

The Cradle of Your Heart: A Christmas Message

From Inner Culture magazine, December 1934

During this coming Christmas Season, open a new portal of sublime devotion so that the Christ
Omnipresence will be able to come anew within your consciousness.
Every day, every hour, every golden second, Christ has been knocking at your dark gates of
ignorance. Now, in this august sacred dawn, Christ is especially coming in answer to your inner
call, to awaken the consciousness of His Omnipresence within you.

Weave the cradle of your tender perceptions with the threads of your meditation, and make it
commodious enough to hold the baby Infinity within its welcoming vastness. Christ is born on the
viridescent* blades; His gentleness is cradled in all fragrance. The opalescent sea-decked globe,
the star-spangled cradle of the blue, and the red love of Martyr and Saints have vied with each
other in offering a dwelling place for the all-pervading baby Christ.

This Christ of everywhere is sleeping in the breast of Eternity, and He loves to take a new birth at
any time, anywhere, especially in the cradle of your true affection. Though every speck of space
is a cradle where Christ is born anew as the splendor of new wisdom and expression, you can
never see Him unless He chooses to be seen in the cradle of your unceasing devotion.

The cozy crib of your heart has for a very long time been small, holding your self-love alone, but
now you must make it enormous, so that the social, national, international, creatural, and Cosmic
Christ love may be born there and become welded together.

This Christmas must not only be celebrated by appropriate festivities and the exchange of
material gifts, but also by deep, continuous meditation, making your mind a Cosmic Cathedral for
Christ. You must offer all your most precious gifts of love, good will, and service to uplift your
inimical brothers, as well as your friendly brothers, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Since Christ is everywhere, you must worship his nativity in the Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan,
Jewish, and all true religious temples. Since all Truth flows from the all-pervading Christ
perception, learn to worship that sacredness in all sane religions, beliefs, and teachings. Since
Christ dreamed Divine people into existence, you should celebrate the birth of Christ in your
newly awakened equal love for the Jew, the Gentile, the Hindu, the Mohammedan, and for all
nationalities and races.

Since all the new-blown blossoms and Astral twinklings are images of Christ, garland them all
with your love. Behold the birth of an intoxicating Christ-love for your parents, friends, relatives,
neighbors, and all races. In the Cathedral of your Soul, invite all your restless thoughts and
assemble them in the service of your deepest united love for Christ.

With the Christmas packages around the family tree, make every thought an altar of Christ, and
saturate the Christmas packages with your good will. Worship Christ as born in all space in the
star, in the leaf, in the blossom, in the nightingale, in the nosegay, and, above all, in your velvet
devotion. Unite your heart with all hearts, so that Christ my be born and remain there forever and
forever

An Easter Message
From Inner Culture magazine, April 1938

Easter may bring lilies, bunnies, and eggs for you to celebrate Christ's resurrection; but I pray that
the lily of Christ wisdom grow in the garden of your soul, that you taste the sweetness of Christ
love in your heart, that you enjoy the infinitely colored egg of true happiness—and that, like the
fast-footed bunny, may you quicken your pace towards your divine home.

I want you to pray to Christ the following prayer in the secret temple of deep meditation:
"Thou didst resurrect Thyself from the bondage of flesh, karma, ignorance, and reincarnation, so
inspire us with Thy invisible wisdom that we may know how to resurrect the Divine Image within
us from the confinement of sense lures. From the miasma of doubt resurrect our vision into the
region of Invincible Understanding. From the atmosphere of mental smallness teach us to
resurrect our large-heartedness in the kingdom of love for all.

"From the darkness of delusion resurrect us into the sphere of Thy lambent effulgence. From race
and class prejudices teach us to resurrect our spirit of brotherhood into the oneness of universal
union. Bless us, O Christ, that from this moment we use our inner sense to follow all the mental,
moral, and spiritual laws by which we can resurrect our souls from the enthrallment of cosmic
delusion into the everlasting freedom of God-contact