Swami Sri Yukteswar Quotes

Swami Sri Yukteswar:

Forget the past. The vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames. Human conduct is ever unreliable until man is anchored in the Divine.

Everything in future will improve
if you are making a spiritual effort now.

The darkness of maya is silently approaching. Let us hie homeward within.
(With these cautionary words Sri Yukteswar constantly reminded his disciples of their need for Kriya Yoga.)

Remember that finding God
will mean the funeral of all sorrows.

Wisdom is not assimilated with the eyes, but with the atoms. When your conviction of a truth is not merely in your brain but in your being, you may diffidently vouch for its meaning.

The rishis wrote in one sentence profundities that commentating scholars busy themselves over for generations. Endless literary controversy is for sluggard minds. What more quickly liberating thought than ‘God is’ - nay, ‘God’?

But man does not easily return to simplicity. It is seldom ‘God’ for an intellectualist, but rather learned pomposities. His ego is pleased, that he can grasp such erudition.

Destroy wrong desires now; otherwise they will remain with you after the astral body has been separated from its physical casing. (...) Every natural passion can be mastered.

 A true devotee is finally freed from all instinctive compulsions. He transforms his need for human affection into aspiration for God alone - a love solitary because omnipresent.

Forget the outward symbols of renunciation, which may injure you by inducing a false pride.

Nothing matters except your steady,
daily spiritual advancement;
for that, use Kriya Yoga.

Quotations there have been, in superabundance. But what original commentary can you supply, from the uniqueness of your particular life? What holy text have you absorbed and made your own? In what ways have these timeless truths renovated your nature? Are you content to be a hollow victrola, mechanically repeating the words of other men?

Do not confuse understanding with a larger vocabulary. Sacred writings are beneficial in stimulating desire for inward realisation, if one stanza at a time is slowly assimilated. Otherwise, continual intellectual study may result in vanity, false satisfaction, and undigested knowledge.

Humanity - so variegated in its own eyes! — is seen by a master to be divided into only two classes: ignorant men who are not seeking God, and wise men who are.

Do not allow yourself to be thrashed by the provoking whip of a beautiful face. How can sense slaves enjoy the world? Its subtle flavours escape them while they grovel in primal mud. All nice discriminations are lost to the man of elemental lusts.

Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desiresand satisfactions. Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change. The flux of the human heart is gone forever at the transfixing touch of pure love.

The body is a treacherous friend. Give it its due; no more. Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, trying at the same time to remove yourself beyond their power. Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor will flee!

Some people try to be tall by cutting off the heads of others!

"Good manners without sincerity are like a beautiful dead lady," he remarked on suitable occasion. "Straightforwardness without civility is like a surgeon's knife, effective but unpleasant. Candor with courtesy is helpful and admirable."

A worthy leader has the desire to serve, not to dominate.

Sri Yukteswar addressing young Yogananda: If you don't like my words, you are at liberty to leave at any time. I want nothing from you but your own improvement. Stay only if you feel benefited.

— from Autobiography of a Yogi