Tag: Internal

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Ocean of Intuition

by Paramhansa Yogananda

Beneath the ocean vast
Of intuition, deeply cast
Yourself. You touch the Cause Supreme,
Spread with pearly wisdom’s beam;
And watch tumultuous difference and want retreat,
When your soul the Supreme Soul would meet.

Armoured by will of steel,
Untouched by lamentation, worry sharks.
Moving in deep wisdom’s light,
Your darkness disappears.
Soul solace will appear.
With heart made pure and clear,
You will see Him everywhere,
One, one Living Sea, eternal, near.

The storm of breath
Has roused the waves in stealth,
Over thy mental sea.
Speak thy Command,
“My storm be calm,
All, all waves to melt in One-Soul-Sea.”

I said,
“It was but in a dream
That I found myself
Soaring through clouds of life and death.
I am awake.
For me there is neither birth nor death.
The form of the dream-vase will go,
Its too-little-living-space within
Vanished into the Greater Space.”

— June 1927

Poems

Peace

by Paramhansa Yogananda

I obey Thee in the temple of discipline.
I love Thee in the temple of devotion.
I worship Thee in the temple of my love.
I touch Thy feet in the temple of stillness.
I behold Thy eyes in the temple of delight.
I feel Thee in the temple of emotions.
I fight for Thee in the temple of meditation.
I enjoy Thee in the temple of peace.
Peace flows through my heart, and blows through me as a zephyr.
Peace fills me like a fragrance.
Peace runs through me like rays.
Peace stabs the heart of worries and noise.
Peace burns through my disquietude.
Peace, like a globe of fire, expands and fills my omnipresence.
Peace, like an ocean, rolls in all space.
Peace, like red blood, vitalizes the veins of my thoughts.
Peace, like a boundless aureole, encircles my body of Infinity.
Peace flames blow through the pores of my flesh, and through all space.
The perfume of Peace flows over the gardens of blossoms.
The wine of Peace runs perpetually through the wine-press of all hearts.
Peace is the breath of stones, stars, and sages.
Peace is the ambrosial wine of Spirit flowing from the cask of Silence,
Which I quaff with my countless mouths of atoms.

— December 1932

Poems

My Littleness Changed

by Paramhansa Yogananda

When I woke in You
And my body-dream was no more,
I found my littleness changed
into Thy vastness,
My body into Thy body.
My eyes I found
In every speck of space.
My hands I found
Working in all energies.
I found all space
The sensitive derma
Of my vast body.
And I can feel
All creatures
Of creation
Crawling all over me.
I hear the music of the spheres.
I see everything
With my eyes omnipresent.
I feel
The sensations of all life
Through the nerve-threads of my love.
I dreamed and saw
That I was a little body
And I woke to find
I am You,
You are all.

— September 1937

Poems

Leaving Thy Vow

by Paramhansa Yogananda

Blossoms come and seasons change,
They all speak of Thee.
The moon slightly shows Thy smile,
The sun holds Thy lamp of life.
When wilt Thou talk to Me,
Leaving Thy vow of silence?
Wake! Wake! from Thy sleep
Speak to me now, O Lord.
I have been swimming for Thee
In the sea of my tears.
In the arteries of leaves
I see Thy blood flowing,
In every thought of mine
Thy heart is beating loud.
Throw away the shroud of Nature,
Wake from Thy sleep, O Lord.

— September 1937

Poems

I Looked for You

by Paramhansa Yogananda

I looked for You
Ever since You breathed individuality
Into my soul’s dew
And separated me from You.
Because I am the wave
Jerked out of Your sea and have
Ever tried myself to reunite
With Your boundless bosom of freedom and light;
Though lashed
And by other waves and by karma dashed
Yet again and again
The storm of my own desires o’er the cosmic main
Would send me sailing alone, sad,
With colliding brother waves, cruel, restive, mad.
I am the wavelet life in great unrest
Swimming on Your cosmic sea-breast,
And yet how elusive You are
So near and so far.
My little life swam in loneliness and worries
Beneath the vistas of centuries,
Beneath countless lights of milky way, moons and suns,
Beneath the darkness of many desires undone,
Beneath the fogs of intricate incarnations
And ‘neath clouds of doleful delusions.
Now at last I discovered
Just beneath my ignorance You lay covered,
‘Twas I who ignored You —
Not You, not You —
When You were so near
Kept by my absent mind so far —
The ocean of life
Through all my strife
Supporting, ever-sustaining
Ever-pursuing, ever watchfully remaining
To protect me from harm
Just beneath the truant wavelet of my little life
Blessed with Your charm.

— October 1937

Poems

God Alone

by Paramhansa Yogananda

I drank the crushed beauty of a sextillion stars;

I sipped the sap of all sane pleasures;

I made a bonfire of all sorrows and basked in the

blaze of bliss.

I quaffed the commingled love of all hearts;

I mingled paternal, maternal, and fraternal love

together,

And drank that to the dregs.

I squeezed the Scriptures for a drop of peace;

I pressed poems from the winepress of Nature;

I stole the sweetness from the honeycomb of pleasures;

I stole gems from the mine of thoughts;

I read, I smiled, I worked, I planned, I throbbed,

I aspired

But naught was sufficient,—–

Only nightmares of incompleteness, ever-receding

Will-o’-the-Wisps of promised happiness

precipitated and haunted my heart.

But when I cast all dreams away,

I sat in the sanctuary of Peace,

And my Soul sang, “ God alone! God alone!

— From Inner Culture Magazine, September 1935

Poems

Freedom

by Paramhansa Yogananda

Brave cords bind me hand and foot

Yet lo, I am free, ever free.

Disease, try your tortures,

Yet, I am free, ever free.

Health, try your lures,

Yet, I am free, ever free.

Death, destroy my body-prison if you will,

Yet, I am free, ever free.

Long chains of desires

Forged in the furnace of incarnations

Have tried to bind me,

But I escaped from life to life

And I am at last free, ever free.

I enter through the rainbow

Into the free skies

I am free, ever free.

None can bind me

Unless I bind myself.

None can free me

Unless I know I am free —

When I know naught exists

To ever bind me,

Then I know I am free, ever free

— From Inner Culture Magazine, August 1937

Prayers

Divine Joy

by Paramhansa Yogananda

Bless us with Thy intoxicating, ever-new, joyous, supremely satisfying contact.

Teach us to drink Thee, that every blood cell, every thought, and every feeling

may become saturated with Thy joy and have their pleasure-thirst quenched

forever.

After tasting Thee, lead us to temptation if Thou wilt.

After we are sure of Thy most tempting, everlasting gift of Thyself,

then test us with all Thy temptations if Thou wilt.

Teach us by comparison between felicity and sense distraction to completely

remove, of our own accord, all material pleasures from our hearts.

Bless us first with the light of Godly habits, so that whenever the darkness of bad

habits approaches, it will be spontaneously driven away.

Teach us to forsake the misery-making ignorant ways of living by letting us know

and feel the comforting ways of wise living.

Teach us to be so attached to Thee that we can not be at all attracted to

material pleasures.

Teach us by Thy love to conquer all loves for worldly life.

Millions do not love Thee because they know not of Thy alluring Love.

Millions love matter because they meet it first.

Divine Beloved, why dost Thou not come first in human life?

Oh, Father, how canst Thou expect frail Souls, ignorant of Thee and burdened with bad habits, to know Thy all-healing Joy.

Of all Thy punishments, forgetfulness of Thee is greatest.

Punish us not, therefore, with forgetfulness.

No matter what our tests may be, teach us to bear them joyously by feeling Thy Presence all the time in our hearts.

For the knowledge of Thy Presence in the heart makes all our tragedies and comedies of life but dramas of extremely ecstatic entertainment.

— From East-West Magazine, August 1933

Poems

The Awakening

by Paramhansa Yogananda

Make me transparent with purity, that Thou mayest shine through me.

Make me luminous with wisdom, that I may behold Thee in me.

Still the moving mirror of my mind, that I may behold Thy

Mooned Face, undistorted by my restlessness, ever reflected there.

Open all the windows of Faith, that I may behold Thee in the

Mansion of Peace.

Fling open the Doors of Silence, that I may enter Thy Temple

of Bliss.

Awaken the memory of past Incarnations,(no cap on I?) wherein I sought

Thee and loved Thee.

Remember when I met Thee in the bower of the Milky Way

and worshipped Thee in the ever-changing, living Temple of Nature(?)

Beloved Divine, make me know at once and forever that Thou

hast always been mine, ever mine.

My error dreams are past and buried beneath the sepulcher

of oblivion, and I am awake basking in the sunlight of Thy

Awakening.

While I slept this sleep of earthly life,

I dreamt this Nature dream.

I awoke, and now I dream of Thee alone.

I was the small bee seeking the honey of Thy Happiness,

So I drank from the many blossoms of human life and Nature,

But it was when I drank the fragrant sweetness from Thy Lotus Feet,

That I hummed with desires no more.

— From East-West Magazine, March 1934

Devotion and Prayer

God First

by Paramhansa Yogananda

Before the baby sky was born as the blue, out of the dark breast of Eternity, who existed? God first. It was He who with His omnipresent brush spread blue all over the ceiling of dark space. Who was it who peopled the hall of space with the family of planets? – God first. Naught could breathe without His first breath. That is why – God first.

The wind sighs after His sigh. The rain falls after He weeps for the parching throats of men and the dry earthly clouds. The sun shines when He warms the flesh of living creatures.

I saw His skiey face wrinkled all over with His smiling muscles of silver rays. I love His children, the frolicsome wind, the chattering liberal rain, the vitalizing sun, and the soothing moon, after I have loved – God first.

He first asked my father, and mother, and friends to love me, so I love God first. I breathe after He breathed through me; I throb after He flowed life into me; I think after He thought in me; I reason because He put reason in me; I will because He taught me how to use my will freely.

So the portals of my heart are open to God first. All my duties I can perform only after borrowing the powers of action from God, so my first duty is to love God first. The first thought of the morning, the first love of my heart, the first ambition of my Soul, the first desire of all desires, the first attraction of my feelings, the first and foremost effort of my reason and will is – God first.

If all my friends are taken away, I shall remember that God is my foremost friend, for He never leaves me even when I ignore Him. If dark death calls to free my caged Omnipresence from it prison cell of flesh, I shall not moan because I have to leave my brother prisoners, or the prison furniture, temporarily given to me to use. I shall repent of my vagrant wanderings, my prison-term due to intoxication of ignorance, and joyfully think of my long-left home of Omnipresence and my ever-welcoming Father-God first. When I am free, I shall ask my Father to help me, so that I may help my other brothers to free themselves.

— September 1934

Letters by Yogananda

A Christmas Letter to Students, All Individuals, and All Nations

by Paramhansa Yogananda

Dear Friends:

Let us decorate the growing Christmas Tree of Civilization with the flaming flags of all brother nations. Let us drown our differences and behold the branches of our National Life spreading out from the tree of one International Life. Let us demand that America, India, Germany, Russia, France, China, Japan, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, Egypt, and all nations, learn to decorate their flags on the Christmas Tree of Brotherhood and celebrate the coming of the United Nations of the World through their awakening in Christ.

Let all brother nations contribute their best to make a League of Hearts and a League of Wisdom in preparation for their coming Union. Let all nations consider themselves as Children of God, with different names only. May the love of nations be the twinkling lights with which to decorate the Christmas Tree of World Union.

Let us obliterate the oddities of dogmatism and behold all religions as the branches of the One Tree of Truth. Let all sects celebrate around this One Christmas Tree of Universal Religion in the coming United States of the World.

Let us behold the soft twigs of our temporary joy-loving senses, not projected away from, but joined together to the everlasting Christmas Tree of Divine Joy.

May we all learn to climb up the Spinal Tree of Life and pass by the starry knots into the Infinite Kingdom of Christ.

In this coming Christmas, we shall celebrate the coming of One Kingdom, One Religion, One Brotherhood, One Human Nationality, One Wisdom, One Ever-New Happiness, One Language, One Race, One Universal Law, One Freedom, contact of One God, and One Understanding for all human brothers.

May this Christmas and New Year time fill you with the adamantine determination to improve yourself and others, as Christ would wish you to do, to usher in Paradise on Earth.

Very sincerely yours,

Swami Yogananda

— December 1933

Letters by Yogananda

Christmas Greetings

by Paramhansa Yogananda

To Friends, Students, And All Eastern And Western Brothers

From Jerusalem and India, reinforced by the perception of the Sons of God, I bring unto you a new message of Spirit. Blessed is the Soul, instrument divine, to occasion this.

Earth-bound possessions and glory must all fade away sometime, but God-possessions hold through eternity, serving supreme usefulness. The best way of converting earthly things into indestructible possessions is to use them for spiritual service.

The pen of thought writes on the dark page of either and makes the invisible spirit-truth become visible, and my fountain pen makes the unseen thoughts visible. Therefore, I am painting God on this page with ink, thoughts, and Self-Realization that all may behold His glory.

As truth peeps through the window of thoughts and words, so God manifests through Christ intelligence and vibratory creation. No one can know about Jesus through reading a book of theoretical theology; one must feel His Presence in the bower of deep meditation.

Behold the birth of Christ in the cradle of meditation-tuned thoughts and in the tender twigs of devotion. Without the thread of Christ-consciousness and Christ-peace, the beads of nations would fall apart and scatter on the rocks of selfishness.

The Christ of Christmas must be celebrated in the cradle woven by the hearts of all races. Christ must be lived, to be known. He is ever-living and is born in all good actions, in every act of material and spiritual service, and in the manger of meditation.

The dove of inner peace coos about Christ when He is born in the heart of a true devotee. Why worship material comfort on the altar of change? Learn to adore spiritual comfort in the temple of indestructibility.

May you all enlarge the Christ-cup of your consciousness so that Christ’s ocean of ambrosia may find a fit receptacle to quench the thirst of stars, of specks, of space, or hungry thoughts of all, of joys of all, souls and hearts of all men and races.

I pray that Christ may be born in the cradle of new international understanding. I demand that Christ be born in all friends as the Divine Friend, in the students, as Self-Realization, in the nations as love of unity, in all men as spiritual ambitions, and in sincere devotees as eternal ever-new joy and perpetual wisdom.

Let us pray out of the dark night of war that Christ may be born in a new United States of the World. May all devotees of Self-Realization behold Christ in all individuals, all families, all races, all creatures, all things, and may they feel Him in the spinal Christmas tree, in the star of wisdom, in omnipresent, ever-new joy, cosmic sound, cosmic light, cosmic vibration, cosmic wisdom, and cosmic love.

In these twenty centuries past, Christmas has been celebrated 1935 times but how few people have realized the significance of the birth of Jesus. Every year the birth of Christ is recognized by God and the angels who celebrate the occasion for the good of all creation.

Let each one celebrate this coming Christmas by preparing his consciousness through weeks of previous deep meditation. In the hamlet of meditation the new-born Christ consciousness will be extremely fascinating, uplifting, and expanding.

Prepare to decorate the Christmas tree of your spinal consciousness with many new perceptions and with the ever-twinkling stars of wisdom and the lotus blossoms of divine love. At the foot of this Christmas tree, lay all of your material desires to be presented forever to the Christ joy within you. Then, on awakening Christmas morn, near the many-branched Christmas tree of your consciousness, decorated with golden good thoughts, Christ will come to receive your presents and to give to you His imperishable gifts of omnipresence, omniscience, divine low [sic, correct to “love” – Ed.], cosmic light, ever-wakefulness, and ever-new joy, bound with the golden strings of eternity, and His ever-burning, dazzling threads of love.

Lay the imperishable gifts of perpetual good will, spiritual service, and unconditional love beneath the Christmas tree of civilization with its many branches of races, for there Christ loves best to come to receive all His gifts on the day of His birth in all hearts.

Give gifts of your soul to those you love and to those who love you not – to those you know and to those you know not, for Christ is born in them all equally.

— From Inner Culture Magazine, December 1936

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