An introduction:
Paramahansa Yogananda often emphasized that a powerful way to expand our consciousness Godward is to see our daily responsibilities as opportunities to deepen our attunement with the peace and joy of Spirit.
“If you work with the consciousness that you are doing it to please God, that activity unites you with Him,” Paramahansaji said. “Therefore do not imagine that you can find God only in meditation. Both meditation and right activity are essential, as the Bhagavad Gita teaches.”
This month we celebrate the birth anniversary of Bhagavan Krishna, known as Janmashtami, with joyous meditation services and devotional chanting — and a renewed appreciation for the eternal principles he conveyed in the Bhagavad Gita, India’s beloved scripture of yoga. Sri Krishna illuminated that every action can become an offering to the Divine, and thereby every aspect of our role in life can be spiritualized.
In the words of Paramahansaji that follow, we hope you will find inspiration for spiritualizing your own activity — so that each moment can lead toward greater realization of your soul’s blissful oneness with the Divine.
From the talks and writings of Paramahansa Yogananda:
To commune daily with God in deep meditation, and to carry His love and guidance with you into all your dutiful activities, is the way that leads to permanent peace and happiness.
Duty performed as an offering to God is as spiritually beneficial as meditation. God loves that devotion which makes of action as well as silence an oblation to Him.
Knowing that you are a child of God, make up your mind to be calm no matter what happens. If your mind is fully identified with your activities, you cannot be conscious of the Lord, but if you are calm and receptive to Him within while being active without, you are rightly active.
Never cease performing worthwhile actions! Christ, Krishna, Babaji, all worked, and still work, to save souls and to do their share to help God’s drama of creation. Follow that example, that pattern of right action, set by the great ones throughout the ages.
I behold you all as actors in this cosmic play. The Lord is the director. Although you have been cast in a particular role, He has not made you an automaton. He wants you to perform intelligently and with concentration, and with the realization that you are playing your role for no one but Him. This is how you should think.
Before you perform an action, while you are performing an action, and when you have finished that action, think of Him. The Gita says: ‘He who watches Me always, him do I watch. He never loses sight of Me, nor do I lose sight of him.’ [A paraphrase of Bhagavad Gita VI:30]
Find God by striving to make your daily activities less identified with ‘me’ and ‘mine’ and more identified with God. Each one of you can feel that you are performing all your activities in the consciousness of God; for example, by eating not for yourself, but to look after the body temple in which God resides; by doing your work not with the idea of personal gain, but as a service to God, and with the thought of God.
There will be greater joy in your life when you strive to please God, not self. When you awaken in the morning, affirm: ‘Lord, I offer this day unto You. The little ego no longer holds sway in this body; You alone dwell here.’
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