Yogananda Quotes

“Paramhansa Yogananda gave the following prayer-affirmation to help us creatively develop our individual qualities while tuning into divine guidance:
I will use my creative thinking ability to gain success in every worth‑while project that I undertake. I will help myself that I may bring into proper use all my God‑given powers.
I buried dead disappointments in the cemeteries of yesterday. Today I will plow the garden of life with my new creative efforts. God will help me if I help myself, praying to Him to help me to bring success to my efforts. (Metaphysical Meditations, 1932 Ed.)”
― Paramhansa Yogananda

“For good reason you are not allowed to remember your past incarnations. Suppose you have been born ten times. You have therefore had ten mothers. How can you love them all the same? You are meant to learn that behind those ten mothers there is One Mother; behind all friends, One Friend; behind all fathers, One Father; behind all loves, One Love. How wonderful is that recognition! It is as if you had been playing hideand-seek in the corridors of incarnations, and then you find Him! When I realized that One Love, I could not contain myself. My mind vanished into the Infinite Kingdom. It is so, even now. The joy of Spirit is endless.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, Man’s Eternal Quest: Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life – Volume 1

“Wrath springs only from thwarted desires. I do not expect anything from others, so their actions cannot be in opposition to wishes of mine. I would not use you for my own ends; I am happy only in your own true happiness.”
― Sri Yukteswar

“Christ did not go through the sublime drama of his life merely to provide sermon material for generations of preachers and their Sunday audiences. He lived, died, and was gloriously resurrected as an inspiration to others to live a divine life and attain in themselves his experiences of God and the afterlife. Jesus Christ was crucified once; but his teachings are crucified daily at the hands of superstition, dogmatism, and pedantic theological misinterpretations.”
― Yogananda

“I find the whole world at my command. The elements, which seem so mysterious, the scriptures, which seem so contradictory —all things are made clear in the great light of God. In that Light everything is understood and mastered. To gain this wisdom of God is the only purpose for which you were sent here; and if you seek anything else instead, you are going to punish yourself. Find your Self and find God.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, To be Victorious in Life

“Everything that I do with the consciousness of God becomes meditation. Those who habitually drink can work while they remain under the influence of the alcohol. So, if you are habitually intoxicated with God, you can work without interrupting your inner divine communion.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, To Be Victorious in Life (Self-Realization Fellowship)

“Behind the subconscious mind is the superconscious mind. The power of God within you, the power of limitless control, lies in the superconscious mind. That mind cannot be suggested with failure, but it can be eclipsed by the suggestion of failure. The superconscious mind is the all-knowing intuitive consciousness of the soul. That mind can be tapped in deep concentration and in soul-contact in meditation.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, To Be Victorious in Life (Self-Realization Fellowship)

“All souls come from God—individualized rays of pure Spirit— and evolve back to their native perfection by exercise of their God-given free will. The ignorant and the wise alike require equal opportunity from the hand of a just and loving God in order to fulfill this quest. For instance, a baby who dies prematurely cannot possibly have used its free will to be either virtuous enough to be granted salvation or vicious enough to be damned. Nature must bring that soul back to earth to give it a chance to use its free will to work out the past actions (karma) that were the lawful cause of its untimely death, and to perform sufficient good actions to attain liberation. Ordinary souls are compelled to reincarnate by their earthbound desires and effects of past actions.”
― Paramahansa Yogananda, The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You (2 Volume Set) 1St edition by Yogananda, Paramahansa published by Self-Realization Fellowship Hardcover

“These stories help us recognize Divine Love in myriad forms, and prompt us to tend the most creative relationship of our lives; the ever-expanding kinship with the God of our heart that makes any life extraordinary.”
― Margaret Wolff