As we are not able to help ourselves, so we have to surrender ourselves to the Supreme completely.
Then He will take care of us as well as the world.
#SriRamanaMaharshi
In the nature of their being, creature and creator Are in substance one.
They differ only In adjuncts and awareness.
#SriRamanaMaharshi
The whole cosmos is contained in one pinhole in the Heart.
#SriRamanaMaharshi
The Pandit: “Well sir, how do you find Theosophy?”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Bhakti is the one thing needed – love for the Lord. Do they (the Theosophists) seek Bhakti? If so, it is good. If their ideal is God-realization, it is good. Just by believing in the lunar, the solar and the stellar regions, and in great souls, does not mean that one is seeking the Lord. One should practice spiritual disciplines to gain Bhakti for His lotus feet; one must call for Him with a longing heart. … God is not to be found in any religious text, philosophy, or in the Vedanta. You will not succeed unless you are restless for Him. … You need to have deep longing for God. …
Sadhana (spiritual disciplines) is essential. Can one see the Lord quickly, without any effort? … You can’t have the vision of the Lord just by repeating that the Lord exists. You have to practice sadhana.
Even Bhagavati (the Mother of the Universe) practiced penance seated on five skulls to serve as an example to mankind. Sri Krishna was the Supreme Brahman Himself. He also performed austerities for the instruction of mankind after he found the Radhayantra (Power of Divine Consciousness)”.
#SriRamakrishna
#Buddha was a yogi who became enlightened but says there is no Self. Buddha was a great God incarnate because he introduced the idea of universal love. In his research of universal love, he found how that universal love and rituals of the Vedas are confusing and separate the humanity. So he removed those things and said "mind and nature: there are two realities." Whenever people asked is there God, he did not answer. He taught the dharma, virtuous life, as a uniting force. The way he used the term dharma, sometimes it meant God, sometimes the Self. Buddha did not use the term Self. But he used the term higher mind or enlightened mind.
#Babaji
God day and namaste,
The oceans, the mountains, the rivers, the land, and all living beings are the same in the east and the west. The truth doesn't change because of time and space. So the path of truth is the same everywhere. It is up to us, whether we see things with a clear mind or with a deluded mind People of the same religion kill each other because of simple disagreements and philosophy. People kill each other because they practice different religions. People kill each other because they have a different color, country, or culture. But still they think they worship God. It's very hard for me to accept these things that their religions allow them to do.
The aim of life is to attain God, which is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.
Truth, love, and reality are all terms for the same God. If one is seeking God, it does not matter which path the person follows.
#Babaji
The Importance of Sleep
Sleep is nature's tonic for a healthy life. The more sound sleep one has, the healthier one will be. The number of hours of sleep required depends on your physical and mental capacity to resist fatigue. Without sufficient sleep, you will have no efficiency.
The amount of sleep required varies with one's age, temperament and the amount of work done.
According to an old adage, there should be six hours of sleep for a man, seven for a woman and eight for a fool. As age advances one requires less sleep. For an old man above sixty, five hours of sleep may be sufficient. Adults who do hard physical labor may sleep for eight hours. Go to bed at 10pm and get up at 4am. Too much sleep makes a man dull and lethargic.
#SriSwamiSivananda
The Vital Force
Prana or the vital force is expended in thinking, willing, acting, talking, writing, etc. A healthy and strong man has an abundance of Prana or nerve force or vitality. The Prana is supplied by food, air and solar energy. The supply of Prana is taken up by the nervous system. It is absorbed by breathing. The excess of Prana is stored in the brain and nerve centers. When the seminal energy is sublimated or transformed, an abundance of Prana is supplied to the system. It is stored in the brain in the form of Ojas.
The Yogi stores an abundance of Prana through the regular practice of
Pranayama, just as a storage battery can be made to store electricity. That Yogi who has stored up a large quantity of Prana radiates strength and vitality all around. He utilizes this divine energy for practicing deep meditation.
#SriSwamiSivananda
The Science of Relaxation
Action produces movements, movements cause habits. Man has acquired many artificial habits. He has allowed nature's original habits to lapse. He has brought tension to the muscles and nerves through hurry and scurry and incorrect habits of posture. He has forgotten the first principles of relaxation. He will have to learn lessons on relaxation from the cat, the dog and the infant.
The science of relaxation of the muscles is as important as their contraction. I lay great emphasis on the relaxation of the mind, the nerves and the muscles. Relaxation is of two kinds-physical and mental. There is another classification. If you relax certain muscles of certain parts only, it is partial relaxation. If you relax all the muscles of the whole body, it is complete relaxation.
#SriSwamiSivananda
Meditation is not done with effort; it happens on its own, it reveals itself on its own. But for meditation to manifest on its own, one has to undergo the discipline of meditation. But doing it and it happening are quite different.
#AnandamayeeMa
The sincere devotee loves God deeply whether he is nonactive and silently meditating on God or in the midst of a whirl of outer activities. He is awake in God during all hours and in all walks of life.
#ParamahansaYogananda
When you make up your mind to do good things, you will accomplish them if you use dynamic will power to follow through.
No matter what the circumstances are, if you go on trying, God will create the means by which your will shall find its proper reward.
#ParamahansaYogananda
I was blessed about the age of eight with a wonderful healing through the photograph of Lahiri Mahasaya. This experience gave intensification to my love.
While at our family estate in Ichapur, Bengal, I was stricken with Asiatic cholera. My life was despaired of; the doctors could do nothing.
At my bedside, Mother frantically motioned me to look at Lahiri Mahasaya's picture on the wall above my head.
"Bow to him mentally!" She knew I was too feeble even to lift my hands in salutation. "If you really show your devotion and inwardly kneel before him, your life will be spared!"
I gazed at his photograph and saw there a blinding light, enveloping my body and the entire room. My nausea and other uncontrollable symptoms disappeared; I was well.
At once I felt strong enough to bend over and touch Mother's feet in appreciation of her immeasurable faith in her guru.
Mother pressed her head repeatedly against the little picture.
“O Omnipresent Master, I thank thee that thy light hath healed my son!"
I realized that she too had witnessed the luminous blaze through which I had instantly recovered from a usually fatal disease.
Autobiography of a Yogi
#ParamahamsaYogananda
Although it is necessary to make money, it is more
necessary to gain happiness.
Money is made for happiness and not happiness made for money.
Those who concentrate upon making money as their only happiness do not find real satisfaction, for no amount of money can buy happiness if it is lost through systematic wrong actions.
People surrounded with money but unable to use it
properly in order to make themselves and others happy, die of happiness thirst.
Many people forget that making money
is only a means to the goal of happiness.It is as ridiculous to concentrate upon the means and forget the goal as it is to keep traveling on a road and forget your destination.
It is meaningless to develop the habit of accumulating money and not use it to make yourself and others happy.
Many people make the mistake of running after money first instead of first seeking happiness.
To try to earn money with a disgruntled, worried mind is not only unsuccessful, but it produces more anxiety and unhappiness.
The best way lies in trying to make money after first making sure of happiness.
Earning money with a serene and happy attitude leads not only to success but ensures happiness also.
Happy people make others happy by their example, for actions speak louder than words.
How to Be Happy All the Time (v. 1) by #ParamhansaYogananda
YukteswarGiri ji to #ParamahansaYogananda
“All parts of creation are linked together and interchange their influences. The balanced rhythm of the universe is rooted in reciprocity,” my guru continued. “Man, in his human aspect, has to combat two sets of forces—first, the tumults within his being, caused by the admixture of earth, water, fire, air, and ethereal elements; second, the outer disintegrating powers of nature. So long as man struggles with his mortality, he is affected by the myriad mutations of heaven and earth.
“Astrology is the study of man’s response to planetary stimuli. The stars have no conscious benevolence or animosity; they merely send forth positive and negative radiations. Of themselves, these do not help or harm humanity, but offer a lawful channel for the outward operation of cause-effect equilibriums which each man has set into motion in the past.
“A child is born on that day and at that hour when the celestial rays are in mathematical harmony with his individual karma. His horoscope is a challenging portrait, revealing his unalterable past and its probable future results. But the natal chart can be rightly interpreted only by men of intuitive wisdom: these are few.
“The message boldly blazoned across the heavens at the moment of birth is not meant to emphasize fate—the result of past good and evil—but to arouse man’s will to escape from his universal thralldom. What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place, and because he has spiritual resources which are not subject to planetary pressure.
“Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets—which is to say, his past—by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter. The soul is ever-free; it is deathless because birthless. It cannot be regimented by stars.
“Man is a soul, and has a body. When he properly places his sense of identity, he leaves behind all compulsive patterns. So long as he remains confused in his ordinary state of spiritual amnesia, he will know the subtle fetters of environmental law.
“God is harmony; the devotee who attunes himself will never perform any action amiss. His activities will be correctly and naturally timed to accord with astrological law. After deep prayer and meditation he is in touch with his divine consciousness; there is no greater power than that inward protection.”
When you are moving blindly through the valley of life, stumbling in darkness, you need the help of someone who has eyes. You need a guru."
#ParamahansaYogananda
If you find that every day you are becoming either touchy, finicky, or gossipy, then you know that you are going backward. The best test is to analyze yourself and find out whether you are happier today than you were yesterday. If you feel that you are happier today, then you are progressing; and this feeling of happiness must continue.
#ParamahansaYogananda
If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not "washing the dishes to wash the dishes." What's more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands.
Thus we are sucked away into the future-and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.
#ThichNhatHanh
Many people cannot allow themselves the time to sit and do nothing but breathe.
They consider it to be uneconomical or a luxury. People say "time is money." But time is much more than money.
Time is life.
The simple practice of sitting quietly on a regular basis can be profoundly healing.
Stopping and sitting is a good way to focus on mindful breathing and nothing else.
#ThichNhatHanh
"Feelings, whether of compassion or irritation, should be welcomed, recognized, and treated on an absolutely equal basis; because both are ourselves. The tangerine I am eating is me. The mustard greens I am planting are me. I plant with all my heart and mind. I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath. Nothing should be treated more carefully than anything else. In mindfulness, compassion, irritation, mustard green plant, and teapot are all sacred."
#ThichNhatHanh