Paramahansa Yogananda
Turning Your Mind Inwardly (Uparati)

Turning Your Mind Inwardly (Uparati)

I am here to tell you that the very joy you are seeking in sex, money wine, love, fame—that joy is within yourself. You don't have to go elsewhere. You don't have to beg or flatter God; but you have to ask. You have to pray to Him sincerely and lovingly, "Come to me." (me)

Everything you want and need is right within you; seek long and seek deeply. (me)

The whole library of the universe is hidden within you. All the things you want to know are within yourself. To bring them out, think creatively. (me)

I always start from within to bring knowledge out, and not from without to pump knowledge in. ...

All questions I have had have been answered; as fast as God can respond, I receive direct replies from Him. Start from within, not from without. That is how anyone can get the experience of many years within a short time. You have not to read all the books in the library. You have not to learn everything from schools or teachers. Poetry, music, all knowledge, come without limitation from the inner source, from the soul. (jt)

Do you realize that within you, in your soul, is a superb garden? a wondrous garden of thoughts, fragrant with love, goodness, understanding, and peace, and more beautiful than any earthly flowers that grow. You cultivated a fragrant blossom whenever someone in anger misunderstood you and you continuously gave love to him. Isn't the aroma of that love and understanding more lasting than that of any rose? So always think of your mind as a garden, and keep it beautiful and fragrant with divine thoughts; let it not become a mud pond, rank with malodorous hateful moods. (me)

Remember, the kingdom of God is within you. (jt)

Look within and determine your main characteristics. Some love to write, or compose music, or dance; others enjoy finance and economics, and so on. Unfortunately, some love to gossip, and others to fight. Don't try to change in yourself what is good. But those things you do against your will, and that make you unhappy after you have done them, are what you want to get rid of. How? Affirm with conviction, before going to bed and on arising in the morning, "I can change. I have the will to change. I will change!" Hold to that thought throughout the day, and carry it with you into the subconscious land of sleep and the superconscious realm of meditation. (jt)

You are punishing the soul by keeping it buried, slumbering in matter life after life, frightened by nightmares of suffering and death. Realize that you are the soul! Remember that the Feeling behind your feeling, the Will behind your will, the Power behind your power, the Wisdom behind your wisdom is the Infinite Lord. Unite the heart's feeling and the mind's reason in a perfect balance. In the castle of calmness, again and again cast off identification with earthly titles, and plunge into deep meditation to realize your divine kingship.

Look within yourself. Remember, the Infinite is everywhere. Diving deep into superconsciousness, you can speed your mind through eternity; by the power of mind you can go farther than the farthest star. The searchlight of mind is fully equipped to throw its superconscious rays into the innermost heart of Truth. Use it to do so. (me) 

As we interiorize our concentration and live more and more in that invisible land within us, we find that our soul qualities take special forms; each materialization is a window through which we perceive the Lord's indescribable sweetness. Don't think that the search for God consists only in meditation. Every good quality that you express in thought and action yields the hidden nectar of God's presence, if your inner perception is deep enough.

When we pass through the door of the spiritual eye, we see inside ourselves the factory of intelligent Life Energy that has created the whole universe. Because we don't concentrate within, we are mystified by the imprints of the invisible Spirit in nature. We behold the productions of God; His name is written in the flower and in the sky, in everything—but He is silent. As human beings we are very much privileged, for among all God's creatures man alone has the physical, mental, and spiritual endowment necessary to seek Him, to find Him, to know Him, and to understand His language of silence. (me)

After successful pranayama, your consciousness becomes interiorized. This interiorization is the fifth step. You will find your mind fully alert and concentrated within, ready to enjoy the divine peace and presence of God in deep concentration and meditation, the sixth and seventh steps. When you are in this way able to close off distracting sensations, you will be at the altar of God.