Paramahansa Yogananda
Quotes
THE SPIRITUAL PATH
"Sir, shall I ever leave the spiritual path?" inquired a doubt-filled disciple. Paramahansa Yogananda answered: "How could you? Everyone in the world is on the spiritual path."
A certain student was given to constant self-examination for signs of spiritual progress. Paramahansa Yogananda said to him: "If you plant a seed and dig it up daily to see if it is growing, it will never take root. Take proper care of it, but don't be curious!"
Truth cannot be received just by listening to lectures; it comes by following the law of spiritual ardor and of spiritual labor on the part of the devotee, and by the divine compassion of God as the Lord of the all-desired and much sought after spiritual harvest of Self-realization.
"He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth for the things of the world, how he may please his wife."[I Corinthians] I had analyzed the lives of many of my friends who, after undergoing certain spiritual discipline, had then married. Launched on the sea of worldly responsibilities, they had forgotten their resolutions to meditate deeply.
To allot God a secondary place in life was, to me, inconceivable.
Let no devotee miss his daily appointment with God. The mind may suggest the movies or some other distraction; but when the time comes for God each day, keep that holy engagement.
We must be really convinced in our hearts that God-happiness is preferable to sense pleasures.
The path advocated in the Bhagavad-Gita is the moderate, medium, golden path both for the busy businessman and for the highest spiritual aspirant.
The path to God is like a razor's edge. But discouragement is never justified, because we don't have to acquire or win anything; we have only to realize that God is already within us.