"An Auto -Biography of a Yogi"-Quote's

[Deveswar]

1.   Man is essentially of incorporeal nature.
2.   Out of the slow dwindling of my divine ecstasy, I salvaged a permanent legacy of inspiration to seek G-d.  “He is eternal, ever-new joy!” This memory persisted long after the day of rapture.
3.   The explosive vibratory power in speech could be wisely directed to free one’s life from difficulties, and thus operate without scar or rebuke.
4.   Kali is the symbol of G-d in the aspect of eternal Mother Nature.

5.   50 Amherst Street in Calcutta.

6.   “I mean a pension of fathomless peace—a reward for many years of deep meditation.” ----Swami Pranabananda in Benares

7.   4 Gurpar Road, Calcutta, with attic room
8.   Even he with the worst of karma who ceaselessly meditates on Me quickly loses the effects of his past bad actions.
9.   Swami Kebalanda---Sanskrit tutor, also known as “Shastri Mahasaya”
10.   no matter what the disciple’s problem, the guru advised Kriya Yoga for its solution. 
11.   Ahankara, egoism; literally, “I do.”

12.   Do not seek absolute values in the relative world of nature.
13.   Kali represents the eternal principle in nature.  She is traditionally depicted as a 4 armed woman.  The arms represent the essential duality of matter or creation.
14.   Self-scrutiny, relentless observance of one’s thoughts, is a stark and shattering experience.  It pulverizes the stoutest ego.
15.   Only the shallow man loses responsiveness to the woes of others’ lives, as he sinks into narrow suffering of his own.
16.   One of those long winded fellows whose conversational powers ignore time and embrace eternity.

17.   India’s unwritten law for the truth seeker is patience.

18.   Bhaduri Mahasaya was the “levitating saint”
19.   Worldly people do not like the candor which shatters their delusions.
20.   He was reminding me to love G-d more than meditation.

21.   The lotus flower’s unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul.
22.   Trees possess a circulatory system; their sap movements correspond to the blood pressure of animal bodies.

23.   The Motherhood of God, that you have worshipped in forms both human and divine, could never fail to answer your forsaken cry.
24.   Master Mahasaya was a disciple of a Christlike master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
25.   “Isn’t it true, little sir, that the Beloved’s name sounds sweet from all lips, ignorant or wise?

26.   Human inadequacy becomes clear in the gloomy abode of miscellaneous bones.
27.   Never admit that you live by the power of food and not by the power of G-d!
28.   His lips were strange to ardor.  Silence became his oceanic heart.
29.   If ever you find me falling from a state of G-d-realization, please promise to put my head on your lap and help to bring me back to the Cosmic Beloved we both worship.
30.   Yukteswar’s chief hermitage was in Serampore, on Rai Ghat Lane.
31.   The dual scales of Maya that balance every joy with a grief!

32.   G-d first; money is His slave.

33.   A guru must be on intimate terms indeed with the Creator before he can obligate Him to appear!
34.   Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.
35.   Attachment is blinding.
36.   Yogananda went to the Scottish Church College in Calcutta.
37.   follow any simple diet which proved suited to one’s constitution.
38.   To a man who has realized himself as a soul, not the body or the ego, the rest of humanity assumes a striking similarity of aspect.
39.   “Be comfortable with your purse, extravagance will buy you discomfort.”
40.   A yogi must be able to pass into, and continue in, the superconsciousness, regardless of multitudinous distractions never absent from this earth.
41.   At Puri, where Sri Yukteswar had a second hermitage.
42.   Man has the natural privilege of roaming secretly among his thoughts.
43.   Forget the past; the vanished lives of all men are dark with many shames.
44.   Endure all dualities with calmness.
45.   Disbelieve in the reality of sickness, even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor will flee!
46.   good manners without sincerity are like a beautiful dead lady.
47.   Candor with courtesy is helpful and admirable.
48.   You will go to foreign lands, where blunt assaults on the ego are not appreciated.
49.   Jnana, wisdom and bhakti, devotion: tow of the main paths to G-d.
50.   A worthy leader has the desire to serve, and not to dominate.
51.   Destroy wrong desires now; otherwise they will follow you after the astral body is torn from its physical casing.
52.   What holy text have you absorbed and made your own?
53.   When your conviction of a truth is not merely in your brain but in your being, you may diffidently vouch for its meaning.
54.   Softer than the flower, where kindness is concerned; stronger than the thunder, where principles are at stake.

55.   Wrath springs only from thwarted desires.
56.   Spiritual advancement is not measured by one’s outward powers, but only by the depth of his bliss in meditation.
57.   “Ever-new joy is G-d.”
58.   Devotees like yourself who have found the way to G-d never dream of exchanging Him for any other happiness; He is seductive beyond thought of competition.
59.   Also, in meditation, one finds His instant guidance, His adequate response to every difficulty.
60.   “I do realize that I have found G-d, for whenever the joy of meditation has returned subconsciously during my active hours, I have been subtly directed to adopt the right course on everything, even details.”

61.   His (Sri Yukteswar’s) public speeches emphasized the value of Kriya Yoga, and a life of self-respect, calmness, determination, simple diet, and regular exercise.

62.   He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place.
63.   The wise man defeats his planets—which is to say, his past—by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator.
64.   All human ills arise from some transgression of universal law.
65.   the very heavens seek to arouse man’s determination to be free from every limitation.
66.   the Lord is both existent and knowable.

67.   Serampore College became a branch affiliation of the University of Calcutta. I was one of the first students to enroll in Serampore as an A.B. candidate.

68.   Immediately after entering Serampore College, I had taken a room in a near by boarding house, called Panthi.  It was an old-fashioned brick mansion, fronting the Ganges.
69.   I perceive, alas! That you have brought over from the past some seeds of destructive tendencies.  Do not allow them to sprout by watering them with fresh evil actions.

70.   Kriya Yoga calms the dualistic turmoil by a divine inner certainty.
71.   The trivial preoccupations of daily life are not enough for man; wisdom too is a native hunger.

72.   Just as a rich man loses some money when he pays off a large debt for his prodigal son, who is thus saved from dire consequences of his own folly, so a master willingly sacrifices a portion of his bodily wealth to lighten the misery of disciples. 
73.   the Hindu scriptures teach that the first duty of man is to keep his body in good condition.
74.   A sickly body does not indicate that a guru is not in touch with divine powers, any more than life-long health necessarily indicates an inner illumination.
75.   the acid test of a master is a man’s ability to enter at will the breathless state.

76.   Sometimes it is a test by G-d to delay the fulfillment of prayers.

77.   has the Lord ever failed you, at an examination or elsewhere?

78.   If you don’t invite G-d to be your summer guest, He won’t come in the winter of your life.
79.   Yogananda.  The name literally means bliss (ananda) through divine union (yoga).
80.   Anyone who practices a scientific technique of God-contact is a yogi.
81.   Eightfold Path of Patanjali
a.   Steps 1 and 2 are Yama and Niyama which include:
1.   avoidance of:
a.   injury to others
b.   untruthfulness
c.   stealing
d.   incontinence
e.   gift receiving
2.   purity of body of mind
3.   contentment
4.   self-discipline
5.   study
6.   devotion to G-d
b.   Step 3 is asana
c.   Step 4 is pranayama
d.   Step 5 is withdrawal of the senses from external objects (pratyhara)
e.   Step 6 is concentration
f.   Step 7 is meditation
g.   Step 8 is Samadhi
82.   To fulfill one’s earthly responsibilities is indeed the higher path, provided the yogi, maintaining a mental uninvolvement with egoistical desires, plays his part as a willing instrument of G-d.
83.   Those who “through their disinterested service to mankind, or through their mastery over passions and thoughts, or through their single hearted love of G-d, or through their great powers of concentration, they are in a sense, yogis.”

84.   Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur

85.   By stopping the accumulation of venous blood, the yogi is able to lessen or prevent the decay of tissues.
86.   The Kriya beginner employs his yogic exercise only fourteen to twenty eight times, twice daily.  A yogi who dies before achieving full realization carries with him the good karma of his past Kriya effort; in his new life he is harmoniously propelled toward his Infinite Goal.

87.   “Lord, may thy love shine forever on the sanctuary of my devotion, and may I be able to awaken that love in other hearts.” 
88.   “he who discards his worldly duties can justify himself only by assuming some kind of responsibility toward a much larger family.” 
89.   The devotee who forgoes the life-experiences of marriage and family, and exchanges the problems of a small household and limited activities for the larger responsibilities of service to society in general, is undertaking a task which is often accompanied by persecution from a misunderstanding world, but also by a divine inner contentment.

90.   “the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine.” 
91.   If joy were ceaseless here in this world, would man ever seek another?
92.   Pain is a prod to remembrance.
93.   One’s values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture, and that not in it, but beyond it, lies his own reality.
94.   Behold, your form is nothing but light!

95.   “Seek divine wealth, not the paltry tinsel of earth.  After acquiring inward treasure, you will find that outward supply is always forthcoming.”
96.   Matter is nothing but congealed energy.

97.   The only honor that man can pay his Creator is to seek Him; man cannot glorify an Abstraction that he does not know.
98.   Cosmic law cannot be stayed or changed, and man would do well to put himself in harmony with it.
99.   a land lives, not by its material achievements, but in its masterpieces of man.
100.   No nation that can produce ten men, great in the eyes of the Unbribable Judge, shall know extinction.
101.   “Whenever anyone utters with reverence the name of Babaji,” Lahiri Mahasaya said, “that devotee attracts an instant spiritual blessing.” 

102.   Babaji’s cave is on Drongiri Mountain in Ranikhet.
103.   The karmic law requires that every human wish find ultimate fulfillment.  Desire is thus the chain which binds man to the reincarnation wheel.
104.   the highest yogic attainments are not barred to the family man.  Even in the world, the yogi who faithfully discharges his responsibilities, without personal motive or attachment, treads the sure path of enlightenment.
105.   Even a little bit of the practice (of Kriya yoga) will save you from dire fears and colossal sufferings.
106.   Truth is for earnest seekers, not for those of idle curiosity.
107.   “I shall come whenever you need me.” ----Babaji
108.   I am learning the greatest of virtues, pleasing to G-d above all others—humility.


109.   John the Baptist was the guru of Jesus Christ. 
110.   In their last incarnations, John was Elijah and Jesus was his disciple Elisha.
111.   The eternal bond of guru and disciple that existed between John and Jesus was present also for Babaji and Lahiri Mahasaya.
112.   Unknown to society in general, a great spiritual renaissance began to flow from a remote corner of Benares.
113.   A significant feature of LM’s life was his gift of Kriya initiation to those of every faith.
114.   Reflect that some day you will suddenly have to leave everything in this world---so make the acquaintance-ship of G-d now.
115.   “I am ever with those who practice Kriya.”  ---Lahiri Mahasaya
116.   L.M.’s habitual state exhibited….breathlessness, sleeplessness, cessation of pulse and heartbeat, calm eyes unblinking for hours, and a profound aura of peace.
117.   We know that man is usually helpless against the insurgent sway of evil passions, but these are rendered powerless and man finds no motive in their indulgence when there are dawns on him a consciousness of superior and lasting bliss through Kriya.
118.   Our eagerness for worldly activity kills in us the sense of spiritual awe.
119.   We must bear in mind that what was mystical a thousand years ago is no longer so, and what is mysterious now may become lawfully intelligible a hundred years from now.
120.   Divine union….is possible through self effort, and is not dependent on theological beliefs or on the arbitrary will of a Cosmic Dictator.

121.   “For the faults of many, judge not the whole.  Everything on earth is of mixed character, like a mingling of sand and sugar.  Be like the wise ant which seizes only the sugar, and leaves the sand untouched.

122.   Passed now into the archives of memory, the scene of loving reunion vividly endures, unforgettable in my heart.

123.   Cures are effected rather by regulating the diet than by the use of medicines.
124.   Manu formulated the caste system in India…..
125.   ”inclusion in one of these four castes originally depended not on man’s birth but on his natural capacities as demonstrated by the goal in life he elected to achieve.”
126.   Sri Yukteswar was buried with the ancient rituals of the swamis in the garden of his Puri ashram.

127.   Whosoever knows by nirbikalpa realization that your earth is a dram of G-d can come to the finer dream-created planet of hiranyaloka,…….

128.   A beggar cannot renounce wealth.
129.   One must conquer the palate before he can control the procreative instinct.
130.   Life persists in the midst of destruction.
131.   My nationalism includes the well being of the whole world.
132.   If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history but make new history.

133.   In England, Yogananda stayed at Grosvenor House.

134.   Utopia must spring in the private bosom before it can flower in civic virtue…
135.   All matter has been proved to be reducible to energy.
136.   To become the friend of G-d, man must overcome the devils or evils of his own karma or actions that ever urge him to spineless acquiescence in the mayic delusions of the world.
137.   “He who offers G-d second place offers Him no place.”
138.   G-d lives without breath; the soul made in His image becomes conscious of itself, for the first time, only during the breathless state.
139.   It is on the anvil of this gross earth that struggling man must hammer out the imperishable gold of spiritual identity.
140.   Truth is exact correspondence with reality.
141.   He who knows, tells it not; he who tells, knows it not.
142.   the Lord is heard only in the immaculate silences.
143.   each human being has been created by G-d as a soul that will uniquely manifest some special attribute of the Infinite before resuming its Absolute Identity.
144.   Vedic truth, as all truth, belongs to the Lord and not to India.
145.   May all men come to know that there exists a definite, scientific technique of Self-realization for the overcoming of all human misery!