Paramahansa Yogananda Quotes

He is the wisest who seeks God. He is the most successful who has found God.

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

Medicine has its limitations, Life Force has none.

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

You don't know what is going to come to you in this world; you have to go on living and worrying. Those who die are pitying us; they are blessing us. Why should you grieve for them?

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

Another qualification of success is that we not only bring harmonious and beneficial results to ourselves, but also share those benefits with others.

It is foolish to be afraid of death. Just think. No more repaired tires on the body vehicle, no more patchwork living.

The more you meditate, the more helpful you can be to others, and the more deeply you will be in tune with God.

What you are is much greater than anything or anyone else you have ever yearned for. God is manifest in you in a way that He is not manifest in any other human being. Your face is unlike anyone else's, your soul is unlike anyone else's, you are sufficient unto yourself; for within your soul lies the greatest treasure of all - God.

In the state of love, no matter what you do, it's going to be good.

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

When you make up your mind to do good things, you will accomplish them if you use dynamic will power to follow through. No matter what the circumstances are, if you go on trying, God will create the means by which your will shall find its proper reward.

The things you need in life are those that will help you to fulfill 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.

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.

The spine is the highway to the Infinite. Your own body is the temple of God. It is within your own self that God must be realized.

The soul is bound to the body by a chain of desires, temptations, troubles and worries, and it is trying to free itself. If you keep tugging at that chain which is holding you to mortal consciousness, some day an invisible Divine Hand will intervene and snap it apart and you will be free.

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.

A smooth life is not a victorious life.

Whenever you want to produce something, do not depend upon the outside source: go deep and seek the Infinite Source.

Those who look at the surface of the sea must behold the birth and death of the waves, but those who seek the depths of the ocean behold one indivisible mass of water. Similarly, those who acknowledge "life" and "death" are tossed by sorrow, while those who live in the illimitable superconsciousness behold and feel the One Ineffable Bliss.

As I radiate love and goodwill to others, I will open the channel for God's love to come to me.

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.

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

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

As a broken microphone cannot broadcast a message, so a restless mind cannot transmit prayers to God

Great healers, people of divine realization, do not cure by chance but by exact knowledge.

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.

What you lose in the world will not be a loss to your soul.

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.

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

Sing songs that none have sung

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

Nothing is impossible unless you think it is.

Success is not rightly measured by wealth, prestige and power. Success is measured by the yardstick of happiness.

God is love. His plan for creation can only be rooted in love. Does not that simple thought, rather than erudite reasoning, offer solace to the human heart?

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.

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.

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

Carrying a thought with dynamic will power means holding it until that thought pattern develops dynamic force. When a thought is made dynamic by will force, it can manifest according to the mental blueprint you have created.

Happiness lies in making others happy, in forsaking self-interest to bring joy to others.

He who conquers the mind, conquers the world.

Self-realization means to know truth through yourself, and not through others. By seeking God first, through Self-realization, all things-strength, power, prosperity, wisdom, health, and immortality-will be added unto you.

One may have many teachers, but only one guru, who remains as one's guru even in many different lives, until the disciple reaches the final goal of emancipation in God. You must remember this, once that relationship is formed.

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.

Those persons who have perceptive eyes enjoy beauty everywhere.

A wish is a desire without energy

The universal law of karma ... is that of action and reaction, cause and effect, sowing and reaping. In the course of natural righteousness, man, by his thoughts and actions, becomes the arbiter of his destiny.