Paramahansa Yogananda on Self-Realization

Paramahansa Yogananda on Self-Realization

“What is the best religion?” – one day asked a seeker of Truth.

“Self-realization!”
– replied Yogananda.

“Dis fact, this is the finality of all religions, regardless of:

• their form (Christianity, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, etc.)
• their definition
• the one he proclaims (Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, etc.).

Religions can hold that a particular ritual or temple is the only chance for salvation.

But this depends only on the inner universe of each one, on his own effort.

A thousand spiritual beings like Jesus will not be able to help you know God,

as long as you will not open your hearts to Him.

Do you think it matters to God how you define Him?

Do you think there is any dogma that encompasses Him, which is “All things and something else on top of it”?

Do not think of a Hindu or a Muslim who sincerely loves God

is it as dear to Jesus as a Christian given to the Heavenly Father?

And he certainly appreciates these more than those Christians who believe in Him with their minds and not at all with their hearts.

Neither Jesus nor other spiritual masters came to earth to draw men to them.

They came to help humanity get closer to the Truth.

That truth jesus called “he that shall deliver you” (John, 8:32)

The Divine Message is always impersonal because it expresses and is the manifestation of this Supreme Truth.

He is personal only in his relationship with the being who seeks to discover him.

Paramahansa Yogananda on Self-Realization

No master says, “You will be saved from rituals outside of your being.”

They say, “you will only be saved from what you do to establish a communion between your being and the Divinity”.

The realization of the Supreme Self is the message of all religions

It helps you:

• to discover the spiritual potential of your being
• to realize that you are nothing but the child of God.

The wave must understand that its reality, of simple wave, is temporary.

To understand that his existence does not lie in the form he has.

It resides in the ocean water, the substantial reality of which it manifests.

The realization of his true nature requires melting, immersing in the ocean and uniting with it.

Suppose a Jew converts to Christianity;

so he will no longer go to the synagogue and will go to church every Sunday.

Do you think this small change will ensure his salvation?

Certainly not.

Unless this change will not awaken in his being true love for God.

Your religion doesn’t have to be like a suit of clothes outside of your being.

It must be like a garment of light of the heart.

By costume I mean not only the physical shell, but also the thoughts and desires in which people close themselves.

They don’t represent you.

Discover that you are behind these chains, that you are like Buddha, Jesus or Krishna.
They came to Earth to help human beings perceive the reflection of the Eternal Self within them.