The thought that this world can ever be perfected is one of man’s greatest delusions. What this world is, simply, is a school, through which the soul passes on its upward evolution.

It is important not only to draw what we can from nature, but also to give back to it, by praying to God through the devas, those subtle entities who create and sustain plant life, and by loving them and showing them gratitude.

Much of our daily life is spent in work or in other outward activities, and our minds often become engrossed in what we are doing at the expense of the thought of God. Some sort of exercise is needed to help us form the habit of feeling His presence in everything we do.

An Exercise for Every Day of the Week

Book Review: In Divine Friendship,
Letters of Counsel and Reflection from Swami Kriyananda
In Divine Friendship is a book to read slowly and meditatively. For of course these letters are addressed not only to individual seekers, asking help with individual questions and tests, but universally to all sincere seekers in need of answers to their deeper concerns. We who read Kriyananda’s letters, if we read humbly and receptively, can find answers to our own unasked questions, or can bring our deeper concerns into the light, and in doing so, strengthen our …

During the early years of Christianity, the importance of inner communion and a personal relationship with God were particularly emphasized by the Gnostics, a school of early Christians who were eventually suppressed.

Ahimsa is seen by most people as the last hope of the underdog. Yet ahimsa, rightly understood, is the “ultimate weapon” of a strong man; it turns one’s enemy into a friend, thereby banishing the possibility of further conflict.

If we want to find God, it is important that we strive to look at everything differently from how we are accustomed to doing.

The secret for bringing peace on earth is to remember that whatever peace you bring must begin on that little piece of earth where you live.

Truth seekers must understand that finding God is not like the supreme effort required, say, to climb Mount Everest. Finding God is the simplest, most obvious, and most supremely natural thing to do in the world!

When we are truthful, we have support from reality itself—from the universe. And with that support, everything will always come out for the best. But without it, things cannot but fall apart, sooner or later.

That is what teaching should mean—not telling people what they should do or know, but offering the fruits of one’s own living in the humble hope that what one says will in some way prove useful in their lives.

Our true nature is healthy. It can’t be otherwise because we are children of God. Illness and other health troubles come from not being in touch with our deepest reality.

There are some people who never do anything, and they’re always relaxed. Such lives may be pleasant, but they don’t advance you spiritually. You do not attain peace merely by escaping responsibility.

A true guru is not a man, merely, but an egoless channel for the Divine. His human body and personality are the most superficial things about him.

The essential attitude for correct meditation is one of listening. The mind must be kept receptive.

Paramhansa Yogananda came to America’s shores with a message of divine promise and hope. He had been sent by God with the divine mission of guiding mankind out of the fogs of delusion into the clear light of divine understanding.

What everyone needs is to calm his emotions, and thereby to develop intuitive feeling. Without feeling of any kind, the intellect can justify any conclusion, even the most monstrously evil.

Victory is always desirable, but to define victory in terms of egoic fulfillments, and to claim personal credit every inch of the way, is almost an insult to spiritual truth. In a deeper sense it is even a kind of defeat.

Seldom has a great master come into the world with such an outwardly commanding and heroic role as Jesus.

When we reach outward from our egos to a broader reality, our consciousness and self-identity expand.

Remember, when your love for God becomes a constant, silent yearning of your heart, all other things will melt away like morning mist before the rising sun.

Live more and more in that center where God dwells. Radiate this to others, and their lives, and your own, will be changed.

Instead of holding the thought hopelessly, “I can’t do that!” I’ve told myself, “Even though I don’t see how I can do that, I know God can do anything, even through the poorest instrument!”

For all its persuasiveness, life is as unreal as any movie. There is no substance at all to the manifested universe—except inasmuch as movies are real: as appearances, merely.

Worry-consciousness not only creates problems where none really exist, but actually interferes with one’s efforts to resolve problems where they do exist.

I believe we’re on the eve of difficult times but if you have the right kind of magnetism, even if there’s a depression, it won’t be a predicament for you.

The only free will we have is to turn toward God or to reject Him— to love Him or to spurn Him.

Yoga techniques are a means of self-improvement, that we might make ourselves a more fit instrument to receive and express God’s love.

I once had an interesting talk with my Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, on the subject of Judas. He told me, “Of course, Judas was a prophet.”