Paramahansa Yogananda famous quotes

Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Smile #Yoga #Eye

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

#Life #Care #Calming

Truths are not truths to you unless you realize them within yourself. Without realization, they are just ideas. For spiritual perception, spiritual consciousness, lies not in vague theological ideas, but in the acquisition of Self-realization.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Spiritual #Lying #Self

It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas so much as your plain everyday habits that control your life....Live simply. Don’t get caught in the machine of the world— it is too exacting. By the time you get what you are seeking your nerves are gone, the heart is damaged, and the bones are aching. Resolve to develop your spiritual powers more earnestly from now on. Learn the art of right living. If you have joy you have everything,so learn to be glad and contented....Have happiness now.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Spiritual #Art #Ideas

Nothing is impossible unless you think it is.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Thinking #Impossible #Nothing Is Impossible

If you want to be sad, no one in the world can make you happy. But if you make up your mind to be happy, no one and nothing on earth can take that happiness from you.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Mind #Earth #Want

Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Attitude #Law Of Attraction #Responsible

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

#Friendship #True Friend #Heart

Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them. You will want to change them when you realize that each thought creates according to its own nature. Remember that the law works at all times and that you are always demonstrating according to the kind of thoughts you habitually entertain. Therefore, start now to think only those thoughts that will bring you health and happiness.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Thinking #Law #Want

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.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Evil #Quality #Looks

To work with God's happiness bubbling in the soul is to carry a portable paradise within you wherever you go.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Soul #Paradise

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

#Happiness #Time #Congratulations

So long as we believe in our heart of hearts that our capacity is limited and we grow anxious and unhappy, we are lacking in faith. One who truly trusts in God has no right to be anxious about anything.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Spiritual #Believe #Heart

We are what we think we are. The habitual inclination of our thoughts determines our talents and abilities, and our personality. So whatever you want to be, start to develop that pattern now.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Thinking #Personality #Patterns

Words saturated with sincerity, conviction, faith, and intuition are like highly explosive vibration bombs, which, when set off, shatter the rocks of difficulties and create the change desired.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Faith #Rocks #Intuition

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...
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Wise #Past #Way

Have only love in your heart for others. The more you see the good in them, the more you will establish good in yourself.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Yoga #Heart

If you want to be loved, start loving others who need your love....If you want others to sympathize with you, start showing sympathy to those around you. If you want to be respected, you must learn to be respectful to everyone, both young and old....Whatever you want others to be, first be that yourself; then you will find others responding in like manner to you.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Needs #Want #Firsts

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!
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Mirrors #Joy #Important

Everything is Spirit - in essence, though hidden in manifestation. If you had the perception, you would see God in everything.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Essence #Perception #Spirit

Thought is the primary energy and vibration that emanated from God and is thus the creator of life, electrons, atoms, and all forms of energy.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Vibrations #Energy #Atoms

Our great whirling planet, our human individuality, were not given to us merely that we might exist for a time and then vanish into nothingness, but that we might question what it is all about. To live without understanding the purpose of life is foolish, a waste of time. The mystery of life surrounds us; we were given intelligence in order to solve it.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Order #Understanding #Individuality

God made us angels of energy, encased in solids - currents of life dazzling through a material bulb of flesh.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Angel #Energy

In the spiritual life one becomes just like a little child, without resentment, without attachment, full of life and joy.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Spiritual #Children #Attachment

The so-called miraculous powers of a great master are a natural accompaniment to his exact understanding of subtle laws that operate in the inner cosmos of consciousness.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Law #Understanding #Cosmos

Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don't know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Art #Sleep #Self

Meet everybody and every circumstance on the battlefield of life with the courage of a hero and the smile of a conqueror.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Hero #Circumstances #Conqueror

I could not think of being unkind, even to a mortal enemy. It would hurt me. I see so much unkindness in the world, and there is no excuse for me to add to it. 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...
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Hurt #Mean #Thinking

The body is only a garment. How many times you have changed your clothing in this life, yet because of this you would not say that you have changed. Similarly, when you give up this bodily dress at death you do not change. You are just the same, an immortal soul, a child of God.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Giving Up #Children #Grieving

Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Fear #Yoga #Calm

Intuition is soul guidance, appearing naturally in man during those instants when his mind is calm.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Men #Soul #Intuition

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

#Happiness #Heart #Compassion

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.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Attitude #Yoga #Judging

Stillness is the altar of spirit.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Spirit #Stillness

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
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Struggle #Self #Tears

Love is the Song of the Soul singing to God.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Song #Love Is #Soul

When you learn to live for others, they will live for you.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Community

Thinkers do not accept the inevitable; they turn their efforts toward changing it.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Yoga #Effort #Accepting

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.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Love #Light #People

Change yourself and you have done your part in changing the world
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Done #World #Changing The World

The material and the spiritual are but two parts of one universe and one truth. By overstressing one part or the other, man fails to achieve the balance necessary for harmonious development... Practice the art of living in this world without losing your inner peace of mind. Follow the path of balance to reach the inner wondrous garden of Self-Realization.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Spiritual #Wisdom #Art

Analyze yourself. All emotions are reflected in the body and mind. Envy and fear cause the face to pale, love makes it glow.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Envy #Mind #Body

Be honest with yourself. The world is not honest with you. The world loves hypocrisy. When you are honest with yourself you find the road to inner peace.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Hypocrisy #Inner Peace #World

I come not to entertain you with worldly festivities but to arouse your sleeping memory of immortality.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Inspirational #Memories #Sleep

Be inwardly ever newly joyous, like the ever-fresh laughing waters of a gurgling brook.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Laughter #Laughing #Water

Untrained warriors are soon killed on the battlefield; so also persons untrained in the art of preserving their inner peace are quickly riddled by the bullets of worry and restlessness in active life.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Art #Warrior #Worry

Extend the boundaries of the glowing kingdom of your love, gradually including your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, all countries -- all living sentient creatures.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Country #Glowing #Community

Medicine has its limitations, Life Force has none.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Medicine #Force #Limitation

Through love and sincerity continuously beautify your inner life in every way, by daily looking into the mirror of introspection.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Mirrors #Way #Sincerity

When we serve others, we serve ourselves. Do not think, I will help others - think rather, I will help my own, my world, because I cannot otherwise be happy.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Appreciation #Thinking #Helping Others

Sing songs that none have sung
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Song #Singing

The entire universe is God's cosmic motion picture, and that individuals are merely actors in the divine play who change roles through reincarnation; mankind's deep suffering is rooted in identifying too closely with one's current role, rather than with the movie's director, or God.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Play #Suffering #Roles

Know that this universe is nothing but a dream bluff of nature to test your consciousness of immortality.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Dream #Tests #Spirituality

Love cannot be had for the asking; it comes only as a gift from the heart of another
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Heart #Asking

If you possess happiness you possess everything: to be happy is to be in tune with God.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Tunes

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.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Thrones #Sitting #Kingdoms

I relax and cast aside all mental burdens, allowing God to express through me His perfect love, peace, and wisdom.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Perfect #Relax #Burden

The Divine has loved me as mother, as father, and as friend, behind all friends. I searched for that one Friend behind all friends, that one lover whom I now see glimmering in all your faces. And that friend never fails me.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Mother #Father #Faces

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.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Running #Spiritual #Courage

Success is hastened or delayed by one’s habits. It is not your passing inspirations or brilliant ideas so much as your everyday mental habits that control your life.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Inspiration #Ideas #Everyday

You are walking on the earth as in a dream. Our world is a dream within a dream; you must realize that to find God is the only goal, the only purpose, for which you are here. For Him alone you exist. Him you must find.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Dream #Our World #Goal

A saint is a sinner who never gave up.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Saint #Gave Up #Sinner

Your part is to awaken your desire to accomplish your worthy objectives. Then whip your will into action until it follows the way of wisdom that is shown to you.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Desire #Way #Action

With the opening of the New Year, all the closed portals of limitations will be thrown open and I shall move through them to vaster fields, where my worthwhile dreams of life will be fulfilled.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Dream #New Year #Moving

Little stones that are pelted into the lake of consciousness should not throw the whole lake into commotion.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Change #Lakes #Stones

Intuition is the discriminative faculty that enables you to decide which of two lines of reasoning is right. Perfect intuition makes you a master of all.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Two #Perfect #Intuition

I am no longer the wave of consciousness thinking itself separated from the sea of cosmic consciousness. I am the ocean of Spirit that has become the wave of human life.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Ocean #Thinking #Sea

You must stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#World #Crash

He who finds joy within himself discovers that his body is charged with electric current, life energy, not from food but from God.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Joy #Cooking #Body

Do not think of yourself as the body, but as the joyous consciousness and immortal life behind it.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Thinking #Body #Consciousness

Mankind is engaged in an eternal quest for that ‘something else' he hopes will bring him happiness, complete and unending.For those individual souls who have sought and found God, the search is over: He is that Something Else.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Soul #Quests #Individual

When the #‎ mind is strong and the #‎ heart is pure, you are free
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Strong #Heart #Mind

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. . . Live each moment completely and the future will take care of itself. Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each moment.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Past #Worry #Secret

Have the unflinching determination to move on your path unhampered by limiting thoughts of past errors.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Determination #Moving #Past

Build your inner environment. Practice Silence! I remember the wonderful discipline of the Great Ones. When we used to talk and chatter, they would say: "Go back into your inner castle." It was very hard to comprehend then, but now I understand the way of peace
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Practice #Discipline #Silence

Do your best and then relax. Let things go on in a natural way, rather than force them.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Relax #Way #Goes On

Coercion or compulsion never brings about growth. It is freedom that accelerates evolution.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Growth #Coercion #Evolution

Read a little. Meditate more. Think of God all the time.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Thinking #Littles

Most people consider the course of events as natural and inevitable. They little know what radical changes are possible through prayer.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Prayer #People #Events

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

#Men #Roots #Desire

Meditation is like giving a hug to our ourselves, getting in touch whith that awesome reality in us. While meditating we feel a deep sense of intimacy with God, a love that is inexplicable.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Reality #Giving #Meditation

If you have a strong mind and plant in it a firm resolve, you can change your destiny.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Strong #Determination #Destiny

You have come to earth to entertain and to be entertained.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Earth

Retire to the center of your being, which is calmness.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Balance #Mindfulness #Calmness

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

#Ocean #Inner Peace #Dying

When you meditate the glory of the Divine shines forth. You realize then that all along there was something tremendous within you and you did not know it.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Meditation #Shining #Realizing

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 knowing.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Knowing #Self #Soul

He who is persistent will realize God. So try your best to make meditation a regular experience in your life.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Yoga #Meditation #Trying

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.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Lying #Yoga #Meditation

The wave is the same as the ocean, though it is not the whole ocean. So each wave of creation is a part of the eternal Ocean of Spirit. The Ocean can exist without the waves, but the waves cannot exist without the Ocean.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Ocean #Spirit #Wave

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

#Sarcastic #Hurt #Kindness

Learn to be calm and you will always be happy.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Yoga #Calm #Always Be Happy

When you worry, there is static coming through your mind radio. God's song is the song of calmness. Nervousness is the static; calmness is the voice of God speaking to you through the radio of your soul.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Song #Voice #Worry

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.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Creative #Meditation #Important

Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Persistence #Guarantees #Results

No matter what you are doing, keep the undercurrent of happiness. Learn to be secretly happy within your heart in spite of all circumstances.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Happiness #Heart #Matter

Be as simple as you can be; you will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Simple #Calming #Uncomplicated

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 water and live in fire; But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Play #Elephants #Fire

In your heart must well that sympathy which soothes away all pains from the hearts of others.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Pain #Heart #Compassion

Success should be measured by the yardstick of happiness;  by your ability to remain in peaceful harmony with cosmic laws.
-- Paramahansa Yogananda

#Law #Peaceful #Yardsticks