A classic book by Arthur M. Abell, Talks with Great Composers, published in 1955 by Philosophical Library, reports fascinating conversations Abell had with a number of nineteenth-century composers on the question of how they got their inspirations. Johannes Brahms stated that he received his inspirations, always in a prayerful state. During those times of inner upliftment, he said, he felt … Read More
The Virtue of Disease
We know that disease is an obstacle on the path to God. It is very hard to find God when the body is aching and we feel all kinds of physical disharmony. Disease, further-more, is of a threefold nature, just as man is a triune being. Man has a body; man has a mind; and man has a soul. Disease … Read More
Shiva, the Great God
In wild and lonely places you may find him even now: Shiva, the Great God. Usually he is absorbed in deep meditation. And you won’t be likely to mistake him for anyone else. His Physical Appearance Well, at first glance he does look something like a beggar. His skin is covered with wood ash. His clothing is poor and skimpy. … Read More
A letter to Fellow Disciples
(I wrote this letter years ago as a Christmas present to my fellow disciples in the monastic order of Self-Realization Fellowship, in Los Angeles. I have been uncertain whether to adapt this letter to the general reader, or to offer it to him substantially as I wrote it, asking him rather to adapthis mind to what might impress him as … Read More
Bhagavad Gita (5:27,28)
In the Bhagavad Gita (5:27,28), the Lord says: “The muni controls his senses, mind, and intellect, removing himself from contact with them by neutralizing the currents of prana and apana in the spine, which manifest as inhalation and exhalation in the nostrils. He fixes his gaze in the forehead, at a point midway between the two eyebrows. Such a one … Read More
Sweet Compassion
Andy Anderson worked as a foreman on several of Yogananda’s construction projects. Swami Kriyananda narrates the following story. During the months while Andy supervised our work at India Center, he developed a deep love for Master. Master, in return, was touched by Andy’s devotion, and by his simple, kindly nature. As Christmas 1950 approached, Andy took pains to buy his … Read More
Spiritual Communities
Some of my most impressive memories of Master are of his public lectures. While they lacked the sweet intimacy of talks with the disciples at Mt. Washington, they rang with the spirit of a mission destined, he told us, to bring spiritual regeneration to the world. I remember especially how stirred I was by a talk he gave at a … Read More
Yogananda and the Boston Skeptic
This is an excerpt from ‘The New Path’. One day in Boston, Massachusetts, Paramhansa Yogananda received a letter criticizing him for ‘sponsoring’ Jesus Christ in the West. ‘Don’t you know that Jesus never lived?’ the writer demanded. ‘He was a myth invented to deceive people.’ The letter was left unsigned. Yogananda prayed to be led to the writer. About a … Read More
I know Every Single Thought you think
One day, after a gathering in Beverly Hills, I had been invited to perform yoga postures at a Jewish Bar Mitzvah. Afterward, a materialistic Jewish psychiatrist cornered me and challenged my beliefs. I defended them as reasonably as I could, and then, to clinch my argument, spoke of certain miracles to which I’d been a witness. It did no good … Read More
The Hamburgers
An incident narrated by James Coller to Swami Kriyananda James Coller, another disciple, visited us at about this time from Phoenix, Arizona; Master had appointed him to be the minister of our church there. James, though deeply devoted to God and Guru, had a tendency to be a little casual about hermitage discipline. ‘I was driving from Phoenix to Encinitas … Read More
Spiritual Marriage
Master [Paramhansa Yogananda] continued his reminiscences of those years. “A student of this work in Boston told me he wanted to be a renunciate. I said to him, ‘Your path is marriage.’ “‘Oh, no!’ he vowed, ‘I’ll never marry!’ Well, a week later he met a beautiful girl and swore to me that he was deeply in love with her! … Read More
Developing Intuition: Balancing Reason and Feeling
Feminine nature represents feeling; masculine nature, reason. In women, feeling is generally uppermost, and reason, hidden. In men, the opposite is true: reason is generally uppermost, and feeling, hidden. We can bring these qualities into balance within ourselves, as well. This is indeed the ideal condition, and comes about naturally as a person develops spiritually. Calm feeling is intuition. The … Read More