Paramahansa Yogananda Quotes

The body is literally manufactured and sustained by mind.

The true basis of religion is not belief, but intuitive experience. Intuition is the soul’s power of knowing God. To know what religion is really all about, one must know God.

The deeper the Self-realization of a man, the more he influences the whole universe by his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.

Seeds of past karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the fires of divine wisdom.

To work with God's happiness bubbling in the soul is to carry a portable paradise within you wherever you go.

The entire universe is God's cosmic motion picture, and that individuals are merely actors in the divine play who change roles through reincarnation; mankind's deep suffering is rooted in identifying too closely with one's current role, rather than with the movie's director, or God.

Continual intellectual study results in vanity and the false satisfaction of an undigested knowledge.

Retire to the center of your being, which is calmness.

The happiness of one's own heart alone cannot satisfy the soul; one must try to include, as necessary to one's happiness, the happiness of others.

Yoga is, as I can readily believe, the perfect and appropriate method of fusing body and mind together so that they form a unity which is scarcely to be questioned. This unity creates a psychological disposition which makes possible intuitions that transcend consciousness.

If you don’t invite God to be your summer Guest, He won’t come in the winter of your life.

Every morning I offer my body, my mind and any ability that I posses, to be used by Thee, O infinite creator, in whatever way Thou dost choose to express Thyself through me. I know that all work is Thy work, and that no task is too difficult or too menial when offered to Thee in loving service.

Roam in the world as a lion of self-control; see that the frogs of weakness don’t kick you around.

Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.

If you criticize others judgmentally, rather than simply commenting on their behavior impartially, that shows that you have their faults to work on in yourself. By criticizing others, moreover, you increase those faults in yourself. What you condemn in others, you will have to experience, someday, yourself. That is the karmic law. In that way, people are taught compassion.” — Paramhansa Yogananda