Paramahansa Yogananda Quotes

The easiest and shortest way to God-realization is through the contact of a Sadguru, which means keeping the company or sahavas of such a Master, obeying him and serving him. This remedy is like a special express train which carries you straight to your destination.

Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help.

If you go on working with the light available, you will meet your Master, as he himself will be seeking you.

I have my own spiritual guru, and I'm so happy, and I feel so satisfied that I might appreciate many other famous gurus, but, you know, I am not attracted that way because I have found the person.

An Enlightened Master is ideal only if your goal is to become a Benighted Slave.

My brother was my first guru who introduced me to spiritualism at a very young age. He later even enrolled me into Ramakrishna Mission.

The goal of life is god realisation.

I think there comes a time when you realize that you need God in your life, God's Word, and the spiritual guidance that only He can give.

Your sole purpose in life is to attain God-realization. All else is useless and worthless.

God is your very being. So the first thing is, don't think about enlightenment as a goal.

The essence of Bhagavad Gita is that we should always think of Krsna, become His devotee, worship him and offer homage unto him.

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.

I was asked on a radio interview what my mission is, and I immediately blurted out, "God realization." God realization is the place where in your heart you take your thoughts and ask yourself, "Are they in harmony with the source I originated from?"

What I want to achieve, what I have been striving and pining for these thirty years, is self-realization, that is, to see God face to face.

It's often said that God works in mysterious ways. You have to really think about what He's trying to do. You can't be lazy and believe in God; He doesn't make it that easy. It takes spirit and faith and passion to really believe. Like most things worthwhile in life, you get back what you put into it. Only with faith, you get back a lot more.

What I believe is that we have this extraordinary spirit inside ourselves, which for me is our Buddha nature. I believe we are in the process of opening and getting closer and closer to our Buddha nature and stripping away all that is covering it. I don't think I'm going to end up meeting this one being up there or out there.

Our demons are our own limitations, which shut us off from the realization of the ubiquity of the spirit . . . each of these demons is conquered in a vision quest.

If people really want to go, and really try all their lives, I think they will get in; for I don't believe there are any locks on that door, or any guards at the gate. I always imagine it is as it is in the picture, where the shining ones stretch out their hands to welcome poor Christian as he comes up from the river.

How will you get God's grace? When you discipline yourself. How will you know how to discipline? By observing others that had walked the path successfully to the goal of perfection. Who are these men who had walked to the goal? It is these that are known as Gurus. So you need their help, their personal example, their encouragement and their grace. Thus, we have come round to the answer that a Guru is necessary as well as his grace. Everything is necessary-\-\ Atma Kripa, Guru Kripa and Isvara Kripa.

Let's pursue a walk with God so close that the spotlights of this world-be they for us or against us-are eclipsed by His enormous shadow cast on our path.

Your job is to allow the Holy Spirit to remove the fearful thinking that surrounds your perfect self.

The best advice I can give anybody is to try to understand who you are and what you want to do, and don't be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that.

We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are travelling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore in that sense we have arrived and are dwelling in the light. But oh! How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived!

God has not made this world to be a nest for us, and if we try to make it such for ourselves, he plants thorns in it, so that we may be compelled to mount and find our soul’s true home somewhere else, in a higher and nobler sphere than this poor world can give.

Arise, awake! This path is arduous. So we learn from the wise, and we have to follow in the footsteps of the wise. The path of spirituality is not a bed of roses. But neither is it a chimerical mist. The Golden Shores of the Beyond are not a mere promise. The crown of human aspiration is bound to be fulfilled on the Golden Shores of the Beyond.