Self-Realization Fellowship Blog

The following post is an excerpt from the talk “Self-realization: Knowing Your Infinite Nature,” which can be read in full in Solving the Mystery of Life, Volume IV of Paramahansa Yogananda’s Collected Talks and Essays — soon to be released by Self-Realization Fellowship and available now for pre-order. 

The teachings of all great religions lead toward God; but their varied outer observances are bypaths that must eventually bring the seeker to the one inner highway of meditation.

Withdrawing the consciousness from the body and finite world and merging it in the Divine is the only way to liberation in God. Jesus meditated. To the crowds he taught moral and spiritual truths — the necessary first steps toward God; but to his close disciples he taught the higher science of meditation for actual union with God.

It is not the technique of meditation alone that will bring you freedom; your character must be strong and pure. Your whole life and behavior must be in harmony with the laws of truth. The first rules of the yoga path of meditation are yama and niyama — certain things you should not do, corresponding to the Ten Commandments (“thou shalt not kill,” “thou shalt not bear false witness,” “thou shalt not commit adultery” and so on); and also the positive prescriptions you should follow: purity, even-minded contentment, introspection (self-study), devotion to God, and self-discipline.

To progress in meditation, you must be working to free yourself from pride, wrath, greed, jealousy. You must not be insincere with people; say nothing you do not honestly feel. Do not selfishly seek anything from others; if you have no expectations, then what can people take from you? No one can hurt me because I have no ambition except for God. I wish anger on no man, and no one can provoke me by a display of anger. So strive to be peaceful, self-controlled, and sincere. Otherwise, the wrong behavior will negate the propitious effects of meditation.

Every spiritual thought you think will be your eternal friend. And every evil inclination you acquire will be your enemy for a long, long time; it will pursue you until you slay it. Remember that. I am pointing out to you the step-by-step methods to God. First, free yourself from wrong thoughts and habits. Second, establish good habits and perform good deeds.

The third step is asana or posture: The body must be under your control in order to meditate deeply.

Then comes pranayama (control of prana or life force), techniques for calming the body and mind, breath and heartbeat. Pranayama is the primary art of realization. You cannot find God unless you can master the mortal breath. Breath ties the mind to the sense plane. As your breath becomes calm, your mind goes within. Breathlessness is the way to God. Practice pranayama and you will know how to meditate — how to perceive God and be one with Him.

The interiorization of the mind that comes through pranayama is called pratyahara. That is the next step: The consciousness is turned within, away from the senses. Then true meditation begins.

When your attention is freed from distractions of breath and body and outer sensations, it is able to focus single-pointedly on God. That is called dharana, concentration, the sixth step on the eightfold yoga path. In the inner stillness, one hears the mighty voice of Spirit as Aum, the Word or Amen.

As you listen to and merge in that great, comforting Cosmic Vibration, the consciousness expands with it into all space. That is dhyana, meditation on the conception of the magnitude of God.

And as the concentration and perception of meditation becomes deeper, one reaches the ultimate state, samadhi, in which the meditator, the process of meditation, and the object of meditation (God) merge in oneness. In samadhi, you know by direct experience that God and you are One.

Meditation is the only way. Jesus taught, “Pray unceasingly.” What does that mean? Not just to sit for five minutes of scattered prayer and then rush off; but to meditate until you have received an answer to the cry of your soul to know God.

As the infinite Transcendental Absolute, He is impersonal. Yet as the Father-Mother-Friend of all, that Supreme One is intimately personal; and as such, He will answer you. He is silent in the beginning; but if you are persistent in your demands, He will reply. I can feel that some of you are nearing the place where He is about to whisper to you.

Do not give up until God responds: “You must speak to me, Mother Divine. I die a thousand deaths if You do not talk to me.” When you convince Her that you are absolutely sincere, you will find the fulfillment of what I am telling you.

Make your meditation so intense that its effect lasts throughout all the day’s activities. Do not be too busy to seek the One who created you. If you become king of the world, what then? If you conquer all nations, what then? One day you will find you are dying and helpless. Why should you crave to own worldly things? They can be taken away from you anytime — as they surely will when you pass through the portals of death. Rather, make the effort to know that Something which can never be wrested from you. God is the most uncertain to those who do not meditate, yet the yogi knows Him as the most dependable Certainty. And “great will be their reward” who find Him.

Real happiness I have seen in the great yogis of India. Their earthly abode may be only a humble cave; but they are kings smiling with the joy of God, the King of kings, secure in their power over all creation.

Realize that to attain this consciousness of God is your ultimate and most worthwhile goal; I am telling you all the steps so that you know how to get there.

It is not just sitting quietly and saying a little prayer that will give you God-realization; it is churning the silence with your prayer and desire for God. The result will be something wonderful. You must make the effort: I am not here to feed you with words, but to nourish your soul with the love of God.

In this blog post, Paramahansaji mentions the importance of pranayama techniques for realizing our oneness with God. The highest pranayama techniques are part of the science of Kriya Yoga, taught to students of Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons. Paramahansa Yogananda established the SRF Lessons to present his comprehensive instruction in the step-by-step methods and “how-to-live” principles of the Kriya Yoga science of meditation. 

We invite you to also learn more about Solving the Mystery of Life by Paramahansaji, the fourth volume in the Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life. This beautiful work of timeless wisdom is now available for pre-order (and will be released by SRF this June).