Paramahansa Yogananda on devotional practice

Paramahansa Yogananda on devotional practice

A follower of another spiritual system objected to yoga practices, saying they distracted her from her devotional practice. “Iwish I was just in love with God,” she said. “To use techniques to discover Him repugns me, seems very mechanical to me.”

“It is wonderful to be in love with God” – approved the master – “but it is a mistake to think that the practice of authentic Yoga involves mechanism.

On the spiritual path, a super-emotionality is an obstacle.

If you won’t stop blowing out the candle, how will you allow it to burn?
Likewise, if you don’t try to order your feelings, you will become emotionally intoxicated…
So how will you be able to experience the much deeper state of “intoxication” with divine bliss?
God never comes if we call on Him in a state of inner disorder, of mental chaos.

His true essence is silence, silence; He speaks to the soul in silence.
By this I do not mean that it is wrong to cry for God, to shed tears of love for Him.
But often, an intense feeling, expressed too ardently, wears off quickly.
After singing for the beloved and crying, asking Him to come, it is important to control your feelings and sublimate them in order to achieve the tranquility of deep inner communion.
The feelings expressed when the heart is restless are like a storm in a thimble.
If you hold the bud of devotion too tightly, he will not be able to open his petals to receive the rays of sunshine of divine love.

Only when you calm your heart’s feelings will you be able to receive the embrace of Infinity.

Reflect for a moment: after calling out to a person, isn’t it normal to shut up and wait for a response?
After praying and singing God’s name, why not silently wait for His answer in your heart?
Meditation corresponds exactly to this phase of listening. For this it is necessary to become inwardly receptive to His silent response.

The essence of the Yoga system is silence and receptivity, which the practice of a certain number of techniques induces in the mind;

so it’s okay to be in love with God, but more and more pay attention to the love He gives you. Do not intoxicate yourself with your own feelings, but with the ecstasy you perceive as a result of communion with Him.”

Leo Radutz, founder of the Abheda system, initiator of the Good OM Revolution