Paramahansa Yogananda Quotes

Making others happy, through kindness of speech and sincerity of right advice, is a sign of true greatness. To hurt another soul by sarcastic words, looks, or suggestions, is despicable.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

You have come to earth to entertain and to be entertained.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

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.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself......

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

The ills attributed to an anthropomorphic abstraction called society may be laid more realistically at the door of Everyman. Utopia must spring in the private bosom before it can flower into civic virtue, inner reforms leading to outer ones. A man who has reformed himself will reform thousands.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Having lots of money while not having inner peace is like dying of thirst while bathing in the ocean.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

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. After that you should utilize all necessary material means to achieve your goal.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

If you retain the joyous aftereffects of meditation throughout the day, or part of the day, you will see that this joy will correctly guide you in everything. Saints are guided by this joy, in the consciousness of which no erroneous actions are possible. Retain the acquired joy of meditation throughout the day.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

The power of unfulfilled desires is the root of all man's slavery

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Feel body as luxury-- as a bird feels when shooting through the air, and as a child does always -- is health

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Man's conscious state is an awareness of body and breath. His subconscious state, active in sleep, is associated with his mental, and temporary, separation from body and breath. His superconscious state is a freedom from the delusion that existence depends on body and breath. God lives without breath; the soul made in his image becomes conscious of itself, for the first time, only during the breathless state.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Those in the West who have adopted Christ as their own should remember that he was an Oriental. Love and sympathy for Jesus should be expanded into love and sympathy for all Orientals, and for all the world.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

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

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness thinking of others first . . . when you learn to live for others they will live for you.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

When you learn to live for others they will live for you.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

The physical ego serves as its own worst enemy when, by delusive material behavior, it eclipses its true nature as the ever blessed soul.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

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.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Man is important in one sense only. He was made in the image of God: That is his importance. He is not important for his body, ego, or personality. His constant affirmation of ego-consciousness is the source of all his problems.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

It is wisest to be impartial. If you have health, but are attached to it, you will always be afraid of losing it. And if you fear that loss, but become ill, you will suffer. Why not remain forever joyful in the Self?

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

My keen love of travel was seldom hindered by Father. He permitted me, even as a mere boy, to visit many cities and pilgrimage spots.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Many great works of art, poetry, and music are inspired by astral memories. The desire to do noble, beautiful things here on Earth is also often a carryover of astral experiences between a person's earth lives.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda

The man form is higher than the angel form; of all forms it is the highest. Man is the highest being in creation, because he aspires to freedom.

~ Paramahansa Yogananda