Self-Realization Fellowship Blog

The following post from Sri Daya Mata, beloved third president of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, contains excerpts from her introduction to Paramahansa Yogananda’s Inner Peace: How to Be Calmly Active and Actively Calm.

Peace, serenity, inner balance are mere words until we actually see their expression in someone we meet — or feel their manifestation in ourselves.

Throughout my twenty-some years with Paramahansa Yogananda, I was blessed to experience daily the indescribable aura of peace that emanated from him; it empowered him with a remarkable ability to put all who came to him in touch with the deep well-spring of peace in their own souls.

Our era’s advances in technology have been amazing, but oftentimes they seem to improve outer conditions only at the high cost of increased stress and complexity in our personal lives. As the quest for balance becomes more and more of a priority, people the world over are realizing that perhaps the most necessary “new” science is an ancient one: Yoga, whose timeless methods of harmonizing body, mind, and soul offer a truly effective system for attaining inner peace.

From the wisdom-trove of Paramahansa Yogananda, we are taught the most valuable of yoga “postures”: “to stand unshaken,” as he often put it, “midst the crash of breaking worlds.” To become unshakably anchored in inner security, in “the peace which passeth all understanding” — that is the promise genuine spirituality can fulfill.

Calm inner serenity, Paramahansa Yogananda taught, does not require a timid withdrawal from energetic active pursuits. Indeed, his own extraordinary outer accomplishments of successfully pioneering India’s teachings of meditation in the West required the utmost of a dynamic, creative personality.

He carried on his work not primarily in some secluded hideaway, but in the bustle of cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles — in the noisiest and most restless places on the planet! Yet he was always joyously centered in the native imperturbable calmness of the soul.

One of his followers’ favorite stories about Paramahansaji is of a spontaneous demonstration (fortunately never repeated) of the power of that peace.

In New York City, three robbers with guns accosted him on the street. He simply gazed at them, and said: “Do you want money? Take it.” He held out his wallet.

Inexplicably, the gunmen made no move. In his presence, they were completely transfixed by the spiritual vibrations he radiated.

Finally one of them blurted out: “Beg your pardon. We can’t do it.” They turned and ran away.

Whenever he was in public places, people passing by would stop and stare at him, and ask us who were with him, “Who is he? Who is that man?”

There was always about him a quiet, tangible vibration that drew people to him.

Peace of the soul mends fragmented personal and family harmony, and also the disintegrating fabric of our communities.

It has the power, if taken as a way of life, to bring balance and healing to your existence; your vibration of peacefulness, in turn, will touch all who cross your path and will contribute in a profound way to the cause of lasting peace in our global family.