Paramahansa Yogananda was an Indian monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellowship / Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) of India, (source) and who lived his last 32 years in America. In this article, I’ve collected the best and inspiring quotes of Paramahansa Yogananda about life, love, god, meditation, success, and encourage.
Best Quotes of Paramhansa Yogananda
- “An artist doesn’t really create anything – he just rearranges what is already there.”
- “Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become.”
- Forget the past, for it is gone from your domain! forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! control the present! Live supremely well now! This is the way of the wise.
- He who is wise does his best to overcome difficulties, but he smiles, first, last, and all the time. There is no better panacea for sorrow, no better revivifying tonic, than smiles. There is no greater power with which to overcome failure than a real smile. There is no more beautiful ornament one can wear than a genuine smile of peace and wisdom glowing on the face.
- If you permit your thoughts to dwell on evil you yourself will become ugly. Look only for the good in everything so you absorb the quality of beauty.
- It is better to die struggling than to abandon your efforts while there is still a possibility of accomplishing something more; for even when death comes, your struggles must soon be renewed in another life.
- Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families, and nations.
- Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.
- Many people excuse their own faults but judge other persons harshly. We should reverse this attitude by excusing others’ shortcomings and by harshly examining our own.
- Most of the world is like a mental hospital. Some persons are sick with jealousy, others with anger, hatred, passion. They are victims of their habits and emotions. But you can make your home a place of peace.
Yogananda quotes on success
- The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.
- Consider whether fulfilment of the goal you have chosen will constitute success. What is success? If you possess health and wealth but have trouble with everybody (including yourself), yours is not a successful life. Existence becomes futile if you cannot find happiness. When wealth is lost, you have lost a little; when health is lost, you have lost something of more consequence; but when the peace of mind is lost, you have lost the highest treasure.
- Everyone should learn to analyze himself dispassionately. Write down your thoughts and aspirations daily. Find out what you are — not what you imagine you are! — because you want to make yourself what you ought to be. Most people don’t change because they don’t see their own faults.
- Success should be measured by the yardstick of happiness; by your ability to remain in peaceful harmony with cosmic laws.
- Release for constructive purposes the power you already have, and more will come. Move on your path with unflinching determination, using all the attributes of success. Tune yourself with the creative power of the spirit.
- The success or failure is the just result of what you have done in the past, plus what you do now… You should transfer your attention from failure to success, from worry to calmness, from mental wanderings to concentration, from restlessness to peace, from peace to the divine bliss within.
- Your success in life does not depend only upon natural ability; it also depends upon your determination to grasp the opportunity that is presented to you. Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance.
- Success is not rightly measured by the worldly standards of wealth, prestige and power. None of these bestows happiness unless they are rightly used. To use them rightly one must possess wisdom and love for God and man.
- Your thoughts will inevitably bring you either to failure or to success—according to which thought is the strongest.
- Success must be measured by happiness—by your ability to remain in harmony with cosmic laws—rather than by health, prestige, or wealth.
Yogananda quotes on love
- Analyze yourself. All emotions are reflected in the body and mind. Envy and fear cause the face to pale, love makes it glow.
- Love is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families and nations.
- Love is the song of the soul singing to God. It is the balanced rhythmic dance of planets – sun and moonlit.
- Giving love to all, feeling the love of God, seeing His presence in everyone… that is the way to live in this world.
- Love gives without expecting anything in return. I never think of anyone in terms of what he can do for me. And I never profess love to someone because he has done something for me. If I didn’t actually feel love, I wouldn’t pretend to give it; and since I feel it, I give it. Love cannot be had for the asking; it comes only as a gift from the heart of another. Be certain of your feeling before you say to anyone, ‘I love you’. Once you give your love, it must be forever. Not because you want to be near that person, but because you want perfection for that soul. To wish for perfection for the loved one, and to feel pure joy in thinking of that soul, is divine love; and that is the love of true friendship.
- Happiness depends to some extent upon external conditions, but chiefly upon mental attitudes. In order to be happy one should have good health, a well-balanced mind, a prosperous life, the right work, a loving heart, and above all, wisdom or knowledge of God.
- In the state of love, no matter what you do, it’s going to be good.
- Love is short-lived unless it is divine love. What of all the lovers through the ages who have promised eternal fidelity to one another under the light of the silvery moon. Their skulls are strewn over the earth, and the moon laughs at most of them and says, “How they lied, for their love has not been forever.”
- Remember this: When I am gone, only love can take my place. Be absorbed night and day in the love of God, and give that love to all.
Yogananda quotes on courage
- Be careful what you choose to do consciously, for unless your will is very strong, that is what you may have to do repeatedly and compulsively through the habit-influencing power of the subconscious mind.
- Conserve the vital energy, follow a balanced diet, and always smile and be happy. He who finds joy within himself discovers that his body is charged with electric current, life energy, not from food but from God. If you feel that you can’t smile, stand before a mirror and with your fingers pull your mouth into a smile. It is that important!
- The environment is stronger than will power. If you want to be spiritual, seek good company and don’t mix with those whose bad habits may wrongly influence you. Be always with people who inspire you; surround yourself with people who lift you up.
- Fearlessness means faith in God: faith in His protection, His justice, His wisdom, His mercy, His love, and His Omnipresence… To befit for Self-realization man must be fearless.
- Faithfulness in the performance of small duties gives us the strength to adhere to difficult determinations that life will someday force us to make.
- You may control a mad elephant; You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger; Ride the lion and play with the cobra; By alchemy, you may learn your livelihood; You may wander through the universe incognito; Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful; You may walk in the water and live in fire, But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
- You do not have to struggle to reach God, but you do have to struggle to tear away the self-created veil that hides him from you
- Wise guidance never violates people’s, Free Will. A superior who demands obedience of his subordinates should show respect for their capacity to understand, and also for their Innate Right to their own Free Will.
- It is better to die struggling than to give up the struggle while there is still the possibility of accomplishing something more, for after death your struggles will soon be renewed in another life.
- Fear is destructive to the initiative, courage, judgment, common sense, and will power.
Yogananda meditation quotes
- A strong determination to be happy will help you. Do not wait for your circumstances to change, thinking falsely that in them lies the trouble. Do not make unhappiness a chronic habit, thereby afflicting yourself and your associates. It is blessedness for yourself and others if you are happy. If you possess happiness you possess everything; to be happy is to be in tune with God. That power to be happy comes through meditation.
- All successful men and women devote much time to deep concentration. They are able to dive deeply within their minds and to find the pearls of right solutions for the problems that confront them.
- Before embarking on important undertakings sit quietly calm your senses and thoughts and meditate deeply. You will then be guided by the great creative power of Spirit.
- Meditation is the science of reuniting the soul with Spirit. The soul, descending from God into flesh, manifests its consciousness and life force through seven chakras, or centres of light, in man’s cerebrospinal axis.
- Each tomorrow I will meditate more deeply than today. I will meditate during most of my leisure hours.
- First, practice the presence of God in daily life by making your meditation very deep. It is better to meditate a little bit with depth than to mediate long with the mind running here and there. If you do not make an effort to control the mind it will go on doing as it pleases, no matter how long you sit to meditate.
- Meditation must be practised every day. Start now! Do not look to the future. Begin this very moment to think of God. In this thought, you are a king. Why be a prisoner of mortal moods and habits? To carry out one’s resolutions is a constant battle. Never give up your good resolutions.
- Many students of yoga perform their exercise in a haphazard way; then wonder why they do not ‘get anywhere’ and why they fail to feel communion with the Infinite even after apparently serious meditation.
Yogananda quotes on god
- Be afraid of nothing. Hating none, giving love to all, feeling the love of God, seeing His presence in everyone, and having but one desire – for His constant presence in the temple of your consciousness – that is the way to live in this world.
- Always remember, nothing can touch you if you inwardly love God.
- As God talked with Arjuna, so will He talk with you. He lifted up the spirit and consciousness of Arjuna, so will He uplift you. As he granted Arjuna supreme spiritual vision, so will He confer enlightenment on you.
- As God is omnipresent in the cosmos but is undisturbed by its variety, so man, who as a soul is individualized Spirit, must learn to participate in this cosmic drama with a perfectly poised and equilibrated mind.
- Ever-new Joy is God. He is inexhaustible; as you continue your meditations during the years, He will beguile you with an infinite ingenuity. Devotees like yourself who have found the way to God never dream of exchanging Him for any other happiness; He is seductive beyond the thought of competition.
- God has not to be earned. He has only to be sought. Meditation is the only way. Beliefs, reading books — these cannot give you realization. … Meditation brings proof of the existence of God. … The more you meditate the more you will feel the endless joy of God.
- He is the wisest who seeks God. He is the most successful who has found God.
- In this world, everyone wants to use us for his own purpose. Only God—and a real master who knows God—can truly love us. The ordinary human being does not know what love is. When somebody gives you the pleasure you tend to think you love that person. But in reality, it is yourself you love—your ego has been pleased by the other person’s attention; that is all. Would you go on ‘loving’ that person if he should cease to give you pleasure?
- In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping, Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving, My soul constantly hums, unheard by any, God, God, God.
- The sun shines equally on diamond and charcoal, but the former has developed qualities that enable it to reflect the sunlight brilliantly, while the latter is unable to reflect the sunlight. Emulate the diamond in your dealings with people. Brightly reflect the light of God’s love.
Yogananda quotes on healing
- 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.
- When you love God, and when you see God in every soul, you cannot be mean. If someone behaves hurtfully toward you, think of the best ways to behave lovingly toward him and if he still refuses to be considerate, remain withdrawn for a time, but let no demonstration of unkindness mar your behaviour.
- I will be calmly active, actively calm. I am a prince of peace, sitting on the throne of poise, directing the kingdom of my activity.
- Never do anything that taints your mind. Wrong actions cause negative or evil mental vibrations that are reflected in your whole appearance and personality. Engage in those actions and thoughts that nurture the good qualities you want to have.
- Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.
- The soul loves to meditate, for in contact with the Spirit lies its greatest joy. If, then you experience mental resistance during meditation, remember that reluctance to meditate comes from the ego; it doesn’t belong to the soul.
Inspiring Life Quotes By Paramhansa Yogananda
- Peace is the enjoyment of life, activity is the expression of life. A balance between the activity of the West and the calmness of the East is needed.
- Self-realization is the knowing in all parts of body, mind, and soul that you are now in possession of the kingdom of God; that you do not have to pray that it come to you; that God’s omnipresence is your omnipresence; and that all that you need to do is improve your knowledge.
- The happiness of one’s own heart alone cannot satisfy the soul; one must try to include, as necessary to one’s own happiness, the happiness of others.
- The things you need in life are those that will help you to fulfil your dominant purpose. Things you may want but not need may lead you aside from that purpose. It is only by making everything serve your main objective that success is attained.
- You naturally love those who are dear to you, and you must learn to give that kind of love to the whole world.
- You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God’s creative principle works in you.
- Work for god, love god alone, and be wise with god. When an ordinary man puts the necessary rime and enthusiasm into meditation and prayer, he becomes a divine man.
- Make a little money and be satisfied with it by living a simple life and expressing your ideas, rather than have lots of money and worries without end.
- You alone are responsible for yourself. Your friends and the world of activity will not answer for your needs when the final reckoning comes.
- Make a little money and be satisfied with it by living a simple life and expressing your ideas, rather than make lots of money and have worries without end.
I’m Murshid Akram, a introvert who love reading and sharing positive vibes through quotes and sayings. I believe with love and compassion we can make this world a better place.