And the Lord said "I will wait"

In one of His aspects, a very touching aspect, the Lord may be said to be a beggar. He yearns for our attention. The Master of the Universe, at whose glance all stars, suns, moons, and planets quiver, is running after man and saying: "Won't you give Me your affection? Don't you love Me, the Giver, more than the things I have made for you? Won't you seek Me?" 

But man says: "I am too busy now; I have work to do. I can't take time to look for You." And the Lord says: "I will wait."

- Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

`If I am warm with God's love, how can I feel the cold?'

I have seen in humble little huts and caves in India men with no food, nothing at all; nor are they beggars. They are richer than the world's millionaire's. Because they are the friends of all, people love them, and love to feed them. In bitingly cold weather, I saw one saint in the Himalayas who had nothing on. `Won't you catch cold?' I said. Sweetly he answered: `If I am warm with God's love, how can I feel the cold?' Saints like him are greater than any crowned king. If without food, without any visible means of security, such men can be like kings, peaceful and without worry, why can't you?

Paramahansa Yogananda, The Divine Romance

A lesson of Humility from Mahavatar Babaji

"The scene was a Kumbha Mela at Allahabad," Lahiri Mahasaya told his disciples. "I had gone there during a short vacation from my office duties. As I wandered amidst the throng of monks and sadhus who had come from great distances to attend the holy festival, I noticed an ash-smeared ascetic who was holding a begging bowl. The thought arose in my mind that the man was hypocritical, wearing the outward symbols of renunciation without a corresponding inward grace.
"No sooner had I passed the ascetic than my astounded eye fell on Babaji. He was kneeling in front of a matted-haired anchorite.

"'Guruji!' I hastened to his side. 'Sir, what are you doing here?'
"'I am washing the feet of this renunciate, and then I shall clean his cooking utensils.' Babaji smiled at me like a little child; I knew he was intimating that he wanted me to criticize no one, but to see the Lord as residing equally in all body-temples, whether of superior or inferior men. The great guru added, 'By serving wise and ignorant sadhus, I am learning the greatest of virtues, pleasing to God above all others—humility.'"
— from Autobiography of a Yogi (p.317)

Working with Detachment towards worldly ties or spiritual ties

Working with Detachment towards worldly ties or spiritual ties
Swami Kriyananda narrates from Yogananda's life.

The Master summoned Clifford Frederick, a disciple at Mount Washington, to his desert retreat, Clifford came, but was privately worried about the duties he was neglecting by his absence.

The Master said to him, "I know you are worried, but this, now, is your responsibility.  I go by the orders of the "Supreme Boss" up there.  It is to Him you are answerable.  Don't bother with anything else.  Be free, inside.

"If God told me at this very moment , "Come home", I would gladly drop everything - organisations, buildings, work, books, people - everything, to do His will.  This world is His business.  He is the Doer, not you or I."

Deeply meditating disciples should concentrate on their guru - Yogananda.

Deeply meditating disciples should concentrate on their guru…It is sufficient for a disciple to think strongly of his guru before meditation. He will then find his meditation on God to be reinforced by God's power flowing through the direct channel of the guru. During meditation, the spiritual vibration of a great master silently works on lesser yogis who may be meditating with him, or who are in tune with him, regardless of distance.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Arrogance and Living with a Guru, cannot go on together. Yogananda narrates.

Sri Yukteswar's impartial justice was notably demonstrated during the summer vacation of my first college year. I welcomed the opportunity to spend uninterrupted months at Serampore (Hermitage) with my guru.


“You may be in charge of the hermitage.” Master was pleased over my enthusiastic arrival. “Your duties will be the reception of guests, and supervision of the work of the other disciples.”
Kumar, a young villager from east Bengal, was accepted a fortnight later for hermitage training. Remarkably intelligent, he quickly won Sri Yukteswar's affection. For some unfathomable reason, Master was very lenient to the new resident.


“Mukunda, let Kumar assume your duties. Employ your own time in sweeping and cooking.” Master issued these instructions after the new boy had been with us for a month.


Exalted to leadership, Kumar exercised a petty household tyranny. In silent mutiny, the other disciples continued to seek me out for daily counsel.


“Mukunda is impossible! You made me supervisor, yet the others go to him and obey him.” Three weeks later Kumar was complaining to our guru. I overheard him from an adjoining room.


“That's why I assigned him to the kitchen and you to the parlor.” Sri Yukteswar's withering tones were new to Kumar. “In this way you have come to realize that a worthy leader has the desire to serve, and not to dominate. You wanted Mukunda's position, but could not maintain it by merit. Return now to your earlier work as cook's assistant.”


After this humbling incident, Master resumed toward Kumar a former attitude of unwonted indulgence. Who can solve the mystery of attraction? In Kumar our guru discovered a charming fount which did not spurt for the fellow disciples. Though the new boy was obviously Sri Yukteswar's favorite, I felt no dismay. Personal idiosyncrasies, possessed even by masters, lend a rich complexity to the pattern of life. My nature is seldom commandeered by a detail; I was seeking from Sri Yukteswar a more inaccessible benefit than an outward praise.

Kumar spoke venomously to me one day without reason; I was deeply hurt.

“Your head is swelling to the bursting point!” I added a warning whose truth I felt intuitively: “Unless you mend your ways, someday you will be asked to leave this ashram.”

Laughing sarcastically, Kumar repeated my remark to our guru, who had just entered the room. Fully expecting to be scolded, I retired meekly to a corner.

“Maybe Mukunda is right.” Master's reply to the boy came with unusual coldness. I escaped without castigation.

A year later, Kumar set out for a visit to his childhood home. He ignored the quiet disapproval of Sri Yukteswar, who never authoritatively controlled his disciples' movements. On the boy's return to Serampore in a few months, a change was unpleasantly apparent. Gone was the stately Kumar with serenely glowing face. Only an undistinguished peasant stood before us, one who had lately acquired a number of evil habits.

Master summoned me and brokenheartedly discussed the fact that the boy was now unsuited to the monastic hermitage life.

“Mukunda, I will leave it to you to instruct Kumar to leave the ashram tomorrow; I can't do it!” Tears stood in Sri Yukteswar's eyes, but he controlled himself quickly. “The boy would never have fallen to these depths had he listened to me and not gone away to mix with undesirable companions. He has rejected my protection; the callous world must be his guru still.”

Devotional demand is greater than law, the law of cause and effect

Bro. Anandamoy story about Master, a devotee and the power of DEVOTION~~

Before I came into the ashram there was a young man who was in Encinitas, and he had heard nothing about Master or the teachings, Self-Realization Fellowship, and he just happened to walk through the gate at Encinitas. And he felt wonderful peace there, and the beauty of the grounds. And he looked around, and the Master was outside. And (Master) saw him and said, “You! You shouldn’t have come this time!” And he went up to him and blessed him, and he invited him to stay.

And later on Master explained that young man had been his disciple in a previous incarnation, and he had left the teachings and done all kinds of things wrong. And because of that bad karma, according to the law of cause and effect, in this life he should not have come back to the teachings.

But, the Master said, because he had DEVOTION, it was that devotion which transcended the law of karma, and it was that devotion which brought him back to the path again.

And then I entered the ashram and then for a little bit I was put in charge of that young man. And that bad karma was still there, you know (laughter from the audience). Devotion brought him back into the ashram. But he was an utter nuisance (laughter), utter nuisance. Whatever he did turned out wrong, it was absolutely terrible (laughter).

And finally Master sent him to Phoenix (lots of laughter) because they had started there a beginning of a little temple. And that wasn’t the end of it because that young man used to call Master constantly. And to be sure that Master had time for him, he’d call Master at two or three o’clock in the morning, and always collect (laughter).

Then in the beginning of 1950, when Master went out to the desert to be free from the distraction of the organization, in order to be in seclusion to finish his writings, before he left he said, ‘Now for heaven’s sakes, don’t tell him where I am!’ (lots of laughter) ‘I want to be free for my work.’ And not even all the monastics knew where Master was, we knew he was out in the desert area. And then Master called me out there, too, and I was there for several months…and one day as I was working outside, a car pulls up, stops, out comes ____, hmm? (lots of laughter)

And he said, “Tell Master I’m here.” (lots of laughter) “Got to see him.” And I said, “WHO told YOU where Master is?”

He said, ‘Nobody.’ He said, “I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I sat in the car and I drove off and prayed to God to lead me to Master, and here I am.”

Bro. Anandamoy: “DEVOTION.” (huge laughter)

Master said since God is not bound by his cosmic law, devotion is also necessary to summon his attention. Devotional demand is greater than law, the law of cause and effect, because it touches the heart of God and makes him answer his naughty and good children alike.

“Divine Mother is my only necessity.”

Sister Parvati story, Direct Disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda ~~ “DIVINE MOTHER IS MY ONLY NECESSITY"~~

Sister told a story: The night before she was to leave for India she was in her room doing last minute packing. She suddenly remembered she had forgotten to purchase an item that was absolutely essential for her trip. It was truly a necessity she could not do without. But it was too late to do anything about it. After fretting about it for a while she decided that she could not afford to worry any more. Inwardly she left it in the hands of Divine Mother. She went on packing her things, and put the issue out of her mind.

A while later there was a knock at her door. It was another nun. The nun said she knew how busy Sister was and apologized for bothering her. But, she said, for some reason she had felt compelled to come to her room to bring her something she thought Sister might need for her trip. The item was exactly the one that Sister needed, to the last detail. Sister said when she got to India she wrote on an index card and kept it on her altar during all her years in India: “Divine Mother is my only necessity.”

OM!

50th Anniversary of the Dedication of Lake Shrine, 2000. L to R, Sister Parvati, Mukti Mata, Uma Mata, Bros. Anandamoy, Bhaktananda, Bimalananda

Reading too many books? Quote from Yogananda.

Yogananda : Don't waste time on distractions: reading too much, and so on.  Reading can be good if it is instructive or inspiring, but if you let it interfere with meditation it becomes an evil.  Read only a little bit, to find inspiration, but spend most of the time in meditative Silence.

No one can give you desire for God. You must cultivate that desire in yourselves.

Yogananda : No one can give you the desire for God.  You must cultivate that desire in yourselves.  God Himself couldn't give it to you.  For when He created human beings, He didn't make them puppets.  You must desire Him, yourselves.

"Be wary of developing too keen an intelligence.  Many people use their power of reasoning cleverly to justify their delusion.  Concentrate more, on developing heart quality.  Devote as much time as you can, daily, to meditation; to actually experiencing God.

"Don't sleep too much.  Sleep is the unconcious way of contacting God.  Sleep is counterfeit ecstasy."

"Don't joke too much.  I myself, as you know, like a good laugh, but if I make up my mind to be serious, no one can make me even smile.  Be happy and cheerful - above all inwardly.  Be outwardly grave, but inwardly cheerful."

"Don't waste the perception of God's presence, acquired in meditation, by useless chatting.  Idle words are like bullets: they riddle the milk pace of peace.  In devoting time unnecessarily to conversation and exuberant laughter, you'll find you have nothing left inside.  Fill the pail of your conciousness with the milk of meditative peace, then keep it filled.  Joking is false happiness.  Too much laughter riddles the mind and lets the peace in the bucket flow out, wasting it.

"Wine, sex and money: These are the three great delusions.  Don't be trapped by them.  Some of you are weak, I know, but don't be discouraged.  Meditate regularly, and you will find the joy inside that is real.  You will then have something to compare to sense pleasures. 

When seeking God-realization becomes the sole purpose of life............

Swami Kriyananda narrates incident from Yogananda's life

When it came for living for God, the Master could be quite austere. Heber Kimball, a tall, dignified young man, visited Mount Washington with the intention of joining the monastery. The Master had put me in charge of the monks, so I mentioned Heber's interest to him.

"Tell him from me," the Master replied, "that if he stays here he can find salvation in this lifetime." This was no mean promise!

I encouraged Heber to remain, therefore. The next day, he said to me, "Please ask the Master what I should do about this problem: My parents are growing old. Is it better that I go back, find a job, and take care of them? Or should I remain here?"

I reported the question to Master, who replied very sternly: "That is for him to decide. We want only those here who are hundred percent for God!"

Did Heber stay? Yes, but he didn't remain very long.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A young woman once addressed a similar question to the Master.  "My mother needs support,"  she said, "Ought I to leave here for her sake, and take a job?"

 

"Leave at once!" the Master ordered her peremptorily. "Get out! You aren't needed here!"

 

So dismissive was he that she burst into tears.  "Master" she pleaded "my place is with you.  I don't want to leave!  I will just practice faith in God, that He will attend to her needs."

 

"That is the right attitude," he replied with a kindly smile.  "When a person gives his life to God, the Lord takes care of every aspect of his life."  The mother came, later on, to Mount Washington, and lived there happily until her death many years later.


https://www.facebook.com/GloriousSilence

Sometimes I have given away my last dollar..................................Paramhansa Yogananda

"I own nothing, yet I have everything. Sometimes I have given away my last dollar. But I was never left out. God has always provided for me. I am very rich in that respect, even though poor outside--poor, not by compulsion, but of my own willingness. If I have my Father with me, what riches more can I want? This is the teaching of the East. This is what all Americans need to remember. Behind the dollar, behind all your efforts, is that great Power. And if that Power wishes you have the right job, the right anything, you will have it tomorrow, if you are in tune with God."

Paramahansa Yogananda

Don't lead the aimless life - Paramhansa Yogananda

Be alone within. Don't lead the aimless life that so many persons follow. Meditate and read good books more.... Once in a while it is all right to go to the movies and have a little social life, but mostly remain apart and live within yourself.... Enjoy solitude; but when you want to mix with others, do so with all your love and friendship, so that those persons cannot forget you, but remember always that they met someone who inspired them and turned their minds toward God.
Paramahansa Yogananda

God feels that way, too.

We put forth our hands to receive God's gifts of life and sun and food and all the other things He bestows on us; but even as we receive them, we are unmindful of the Giver. If you have lovingly given presents to someone and then find out that he never thinks of you, how hurt you would feel! God feels that way, too.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Golden Quote of Yogananda

The Lord is found through unceasing devotion. 

When you want only the Giver, and not His gifts, then He will come to you.

- Paramahansa Yogananda

The Lord of this Universe : " Oh, that is what I have been waiting for from My child! "

Never accept discouragement or defeat in any aspect of your spiritual life. Keep on with your daily sadhana no matter what. 

 

Whenever I had periods when my heart felt dry and I wasn't having good meditations, I said: "Never mind, Lord, I will not give up. You will see, I will shake the walls of Your silence until You do respond! I am here, and I will not change my resolve. I will never leave You." 

 

The seeker after God has to convince Him, and then the Lord says: "That devotee means it. That devotee cannot be sidetracked from the path or tempted by offerings of the lesser goals of the world. That devotee wants Me. Oh, that is what I have been waiting for from My child!"

~Sri Daya Mata

Golden Quote from Paramhansa Yogananda.

"Let not anyone else know how deeply you feel for the Lord. The Master of the Universe knows of your love; don’t display it before others, or you may lose it."

— Paramahansa Yogananda, Man’s Eternal Quest, Why Waste Time! God Is the Joy you Seek

People try to find happiness in drink, sex, and money, but.................................

People try to find happiness in drink, sex, and money, but the pages of history are filled with tales of their disillusionment. The time I have spent in prayer has made my life unimaginably fruitful. A thousand bottles of wine could not produce the joy it has given me. In that joy is the conscious guidance of God's wisdom. When you are attuned with Him in this way, even though you unwittingly do wrong it will be righted by the Lord's omniscient direction; if you make a poor judgement it will be corrected by Him.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God!

Yogananda (Mukunda) blessed to be nurtured under Beautiful Masters

“Mukunda, I see your father is regularly sending you money. Please return it to him; you require none here. A second injunction for your discipline concerns food. Even when you feel hunger, don't mention it.”


Whether famishment gleamed in my eye, I knew not. That I was hungry, I knew only too well. The invariable hour for the first hermitage meal was twelve noon. I had been accustomed in my own home to a large breakfast at nine o'clock.


The three−hour gap became daily more interminable. Gone were the Calcutta years when I could rebuke the cook for a ten−minute delay. Now I tried to control my appetite; one day I undertook a twenty−four hour fast. With double zest I awaited the following midday.


“Dyanandaji's train is late; we are not going to eat until he arrives.” Jitendra brought me this devastating news. As gesture of welcome to the swami, who had been absent for two weeks, many delicacies were in readiness. An appetizing aroma filled the air. Nothing else offering, what else could be swallowed except pride over yesterday's achievement of a fast?


“Lord hasten the train!” The Heavenly Provider, I thought, was hardly included in the interdiction with which Dyananda had silenced me. Divine Attention was elsewhere, however; the plodding clock covered the hours. Darkness was descending as our leader entered the door. My greeting was one of unfeigned joy.


“Dyanandaji will bathe and meditate before we can serve food.” Jitendra approached me again as a bird of ill omen.


I was in near−collapse. My young stomach, new to deprivation, protested with gnawing vigor. Pictures I had seen of famine victims passed wraithlike before me.


“The next Benares death from starvation is due at once in this hermitage,” I thought. Impending doom averted at nine o'clock. Ambrosial summons! In memory that meal is vivid as one of life's perfect hours.


Intense absorption yet permitted me to observe that Dyananda ate absent−mindedly. He was apparently above my gross pleasures.


“Swamiji, weren't you hungry?” Happily surfeited, I was alone with the leader in his study.


“O yes! I have spent the last four days without food or drink. I never eat on trains, filled with the heterogenous vibrations of worldly people. Strictly I observe the SHASTRIC rules for monks of my particular order.


“Certain problems of our organizational work lie on my mind. Tonight at home I neglected my dinner. What's the hurry? Tomorrow I'll make it a point to have a proper meal.” He laughed merrily.


Shame spread within me like a suffocation. But the past day of my torture was not easily forgotten; I ventured a further remark.


“Swamiji, I am puzzled. Following your instruction, suppose I never asked for food, and nobody gives me
any. I should starve to death.”


“Die then!” This alarming counsel split the air. “Die if you must Mukunda! Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of God! He who has created every form of nourishment, He who has bestowed appetite, will certainly see that His devotee is sustained! Do not imagine that rice maintains you, or that money or men support you! Could they aid if the Lord withdraws your life−breath? They are His indirect instruments merely. Is it by any skill of yours that food digests in your stomach? Use the sword of your discrimination, Mukunda! Cut through the chains of agency and perceive the Single Cause!”


I found his incisive words entering some deep marrow. Gone was an age−old delusion by which bodily imperatives outwit the soul. There and then I tasted the Spirit's all−sufficiency. In how many strange cities, in my later life of ceaseless travel, did occasion arise to prove the serviceability of this lesson in a Benares hermitage!

No matter what happens to your body...................................................................... Paramhansa Yogananda

No matter what happens to your body, meditate. Never go to sleep at night until you have communed with God. Your body will remind you that you have worked hard and need rest, but the more you ignore its demands and concentrate on the Lord, the more you will BURN WITH JOYOUS LIFE, LIKE A GLOBE AFIRE. THEN YOU WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT THE BODY.

Paramahansa Yogananda