Paramahansa Yogananda

 Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramahansa Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur into a devout and well-to-do Bengali family. He lost his mother at an early age and was the fourth of eight children. Deeply aware of spirituality, young Mukunda showed an early inclination towards the self-realization path. In his youth, he sought out many of India’s sages and saints, hoping to find a teacher who would guide him on his spiritual quest.

It was in 1910, at the age of 17, that he met and became a disciple of the revered Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri at Benaras, at whose ashram he would spend the better part of the next ten years, receiving strict but loving spiritual discipline. After he graduated from Calcutta University in 1915, he took formal vows  as a monk of India’s monastic Swami Order, where he received the name Yogananda (signifying bliss or ananda through divine union, that is, yoga).

A gifted orator, Yogananda’s address to the gathering, on ‘The Science of Religion’, was enthusiastically received and his message of infinite possibility resonated across the country, marking the beginning of an upsurge in the West of the spiritual wisdom of the East. The same year, he also founded the Self-Realization Fellowship to disseminate his teachings on India’s ancient philosophy of yoga and its time-honoured science of meditation across the world.

In 1925, he established the international headquarters for Self-Realization Fellowship at Los Angeles, which became the spiritual and administrative heart of his growing work.

During his years in America, Paramahansa Yogananda devoted himself to fostering greater harmony and cooperation among all religions, races, and nationalities. He took the knowledge of yoga and meditation to millions across the globe, not only through his public lectures and classes but also through his writings and the centres he established in countries around the world.

Mahatma Gandhi and Paramahansa Yogananda met a decade later when the latter visited India on a year-long sojourn in 1935, after first touring parts of Europe and the Middle East. While in India, he spent some time with Gandhi, Nobel-prize-winning physicist C. V. Raman, and some of India’s renowned spiritual figures, including Sri Ramana Maharshi and Anandamoyi Ma.

After his autobiography was published, Yogananda spent the last years of his life devoting himself to literary work, editing and revising his earlier work and gradually withdrawing from public life.

Paramahansa Yogananda quotes 

“Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself......” 

“Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become.” 

“You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may learn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk in water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.” 

“Read a little. Meditate more. Think of God all the time.” 

 “You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God's creative principle works in you.” 

“Live each moment completely and the future will take care of itself. Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each moment.” 

“You have come to earth to entertain and to be entertained.” 

“There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.” 

“If you permit your thoughts to dwell on evil you yourself will become ugly. Look only for the good in everything so you absorb the quality of beauty.” 

“forget the past, for it is gone from your domain! forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! control the present! Live supremely well now! This is the way of the wise...” 

( A story by Yogananda ..

There was a lot of prejudice in this Church, there was a negro Janitor who always wanted to sit in the pews of the white church. I don't see why they call Black and White, because when you remove the skin they are all red and horrible.

The minister was a good man, but he did not dare to sit him there 'If I let you sit here, there won't be any congregation' said the minister, he promised him that he would let him one day, but he couldn't keep his promise, everybody objected and threatened to leave the churchSo he was crying to Lord Jesus 'Please tell me Jesus, why can't I sit in the pews?'

Christ came and said 'Well, you shouldn't be at all grieved about it, this church has been created three years isn't it? And I have been trying to get inside for three years and I have not been able')

More Quotes ...

“The power of unfulfilled desires is the root of all man's slavery” 

“Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.” 

“Be afraid of nothing. Hating none, giving love to all, feeling the love of God, seeing His presence in everyone, and having but one desire - for His constant presence in the temple of your consciousness - that is the way to live in this world.” 

“You do not have to struggle to reach God, but you do have to struggle to tear away the self-created veil that hides him from you” 

“Stillness is the altar of spirit.” 

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” 

“Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them.” 

“It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas so much as your plain everyday habits that control your life....Live simply. Don’t get caught in the machine of the world— it is too exacting. By the time you get what you are seeking your nerves are gone, the heart is damaged, and the bones are aching. Resolve to develop your spiritual powers more earnestly from now on. Learn the art of right living. If you have joy you have everything, so learn to be glad and contented....Have happiness now.” 

“Having lots of money while not having inner peace is like dying of thirst while bathing in the ocean.” 

“Every tomorrow is determined by every today.” 

“Self-realization is the knowing in all parts of body, mind, and soul that you are now in possession of the kingdom of God; that you do not have to pray that it come to you; that God’s omnipresence is your omnipresence; and that all that you need to do is improve your knowing.” 

 “Before embarking on important undertakings sit quietly calm your senses and thoughts and meditate deeply. You will then be guided by the great creative power of Spirit.” 

(Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

Steve Jobs read Autobiography of a Yogi by Indian yoga guru Paramahansa Yogananda when he was in high school.

Then he reread it while he stayed at a guesthouse in the foothills of the Himalayas in India.

Jobs explained:

There was a copy there of Autobiography of a Yogi in English that a previous traveler had left, and I read it several times, because there was not a lot to do, and I walked around from village to village and recovered from my dysentery.

The book remained a major part of Jobs’ life. He reread it every year.)

(Yet another story by Paramahamsa ...

Yajnavalkya

King Janaka was one of the favorite students of sage Yajnvalkya. Yajnavalkya would always keep an empty front seat in his classes, so that if Janaka came, he could sit there and listen to his teachings.

Yajnavalkya had many bright students, and some dull ones too. The dull ones complained among themselves that 'Sage Yajnavalkya valued wealth of King Janaka more than the knowledge of his "bright" students and that was why he always kept an empty seat in the front'. Sage Janaka was aware of his students' dissatisfaction about this.

One day King Janaka was listening to a discourse by Sage Yajnavalkya at his forest Ashram along with the other students of sage Yajnavalkya. There was a huge forest fire at a distance, it was moving everywhere rapidly, one of the soldiers came running to the king and informed, "Lord the forest fire has burnt parts of the palace."

"Go do what is necessary then." said the King, instructed him on whom to contact and what to do and kept listening to the discourse.

The other students of the sage ran in various directions to save their clothes and stuff, while King Janaka was attentively listening to the words of Sage Yajnavalkya.

When the other students of Yajnavalkya came back after the forest fire receded, they saw Janaka sitting there, fully involved in the learning not bothered about the kingdom. They felt ashamed.

Sage Yajnavalkya retorted "The king with all his wealth, queen & Palace wasn't as much worried as you were for the sake of your torn loin clothes, Now you must have realized why keep an empty seat for him to occupy whenever it is possible for him from his busy life. Come on now, sit, let's study.")

Undying Beauty - Poem by Paramahansa Yogananda

They did their best

And they are blest-

The sap, the shoots,

The little leaves and roots;

The benign breath,

The touch of light –

All worked in amity

To grow the rose’s beauty.

Watch its splendour,

Its undying grandeur,

The Infinite Face

That peeps through its little case.

Watch not in grief

Its falling petals or its brief

Sojourn here;

For its career

Done, its duty ends;

Toward the Immortal’s home it tends.

The sap dried,

The summer petals fled,

Its body pines;

Yet its death’s divine;

Through the death it spurns

Its deathless glory’s won;

The rose is dead –

Its beauty lives instead. 

(Steve Jobs 

 Chief executive officer (CEO) of Apple Inc

Steve Jobs’ Last Gift To Friends Was The Book Autobiography Of A Yogi By Paramahansa Yogananda, According To Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff.

Benioff told his story of attending the memorial service following Jobs’ death, where the attendees were handed a small brown box on their way out. “This is going to be good,” he thought. “I knew that this was a decision he made, and whatever it was, it was the last thing he wanted us all to think about.”The box contained a copy of Paramahansa Yogananda’s book, “Autobiography of a Yogi.” It was a spiritual book that inspired Jobs throughout his life. The book, first published in 1946, espouses ‘Self-Realization‘ and the practice of Kriya Yoga meditation.

 According to Isaacson’s biography, Jobs “first read it as a teenager, then reread it in India and had read it once a year ever since.” In 1974, Jobs travelled to India, seeking some spiritual enlightenment. “He had the incredible realization that his intuition was his greatest gift, and he needed to look at the world from the inside out,” Benioff said. “Steve was a very spiritual person. In many ways he was a guru.”

“We need to all be working on actualizing ourselves,” Benioff added. “If you want to understand Steve, it’s a good idea to dig into it [Autobiography of a Yogi]. He was not afraid to take that key journey.”)