The Divine Romance by Paramhansa Yogananda

Story: This is the book that changed everything for me. My mother gave me this book between 2000 – 2003 after my deportation (Entertaining story in the link). I was in a bad place going worse. When I started reading this book I stopped eating, going out and clubbing which I used to do religiously every weekend. The message in the book was doing this to me. At some point it tells you to ask for Kriya and me being desperate I just mentally asked for Kriya and didn’t think anything further of it. A couple of weeks later my brother mentions Kriya through a different foundation (Art of Living) so I go for it and it changed my life. I must say reading the book nearly 2 decades later felt like this book was so basic and a little on the dogmatic side but I am still grateful to this book and owe it a lot. Think of it as the spiritual ABCs you need to learn before constructing sentences.

The worldly man eats to satisfy his greed, and the yogi eats to keep his body well.

Notes:
– Consciousness in its essence is ever pure. It engages in all actions, both good and evil, yet remains unaffected and untarnished. A sword may cut a leaf and become stained by it, yet the sword itself is not changed. Such is consciousness. A sword that has been used to kill an innocent man is condemned as evil. A sword that has been used to destroy a wicked enemy is honoured as virtuous. Similarly, when consciousness is used to do good things, it is called spiritual consciousness, and when it is used to do wrong, it is called evil consciousness.

The sage Patanjali formulated the Yoga system into eight steps for achieving union with the divine:
1. Avoid unrighteous behaviour—yama.
2. Follow certain moral and spiritual precepts—niyama.
3. Learn to be still in body and mind, for where motion ceases, there begins the perception of God—asana.
4. While concentrating on the state of peace, practise control of the life force in the body—pranayama.
5. When your mind is your own, that is, under your control through pranayama, and then you can give it to God—pratyahaia.
6. Then begins meditation: first, concentrate on one of God’s cosmic manifestations such as love, wisdom, joy —dhaiana.
7. What follows in meditation is an expansion of the realization of God’s infinite omnipresent nature—dhyana.
8. When the soul merges as one with God, who is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss, that is the goal —samadhi.

Glossary (just the important ones):
astral body. Man’s subtle body of light, prana or lifetrons,- the second of three sheaths that successively encase the soul: the causal body (q.v.), the astral body, and the physical body. The powers of the astral body enliven the physical body, much as electricity illumines a bulb. The astral body has nineteen elements: intelligence, ego, feeling, mind (sense-consciousness); five instruments of knowledge (the sensory powers within the physical organs of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch); five instruments of action (the executive powers in the physical instruments of procreation, excretion, speech, locomotion, and the exercise of manual skill); and five instruments of life force that perform the functions of circulation, metabolization, assimilation, crystallization, and elimination.

Aum (Om). The Sanskrit root word or seed-sound symbolizing that aspect of Godhead which creates and sustains all things,- Cosmic Vibration. Aum of the Vedas became the sacred word Hum of the Tibetans,- Amin of the Moslems; and Amen of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians. The world’s great religions state that all created things originate in the cosmic vibratory energy of Aum or Amen, the Word or Holy Ghost. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….All things were made by him [the Word or Aum]} and without him was not any thing made that was made” {John 1:1, 3, Bible). Amen in Hebrew means sure, faithful. Even as sound is produced by the vibration of a running motor, so the omnipresent sound of Aum faithfully testifies to the running of the “Cosmic Motor,” which upholds all life and every particle of creation through vibratory energy.

chakras. In Yoga, the seven occult centres of life and consciousness in the spine and brain, which enliven the physical and astral bodies of man. These centres are referred to as chakras (“wheels”) because the concentrated energy in each one is like a hub from which radiate rays of life-giving light and energy. In ascending order, these chakras are
muladhara (the coccygeal, at the base of the spine);
svadhisthana (the sacral, two inches above muladhara);
manipura (the lumbar, opposite the navel);
anahata (the dorsal, opposite the heart);
vishuddha (the cervical, at the base of the neck);
ajna (traditionally located between the eyebrows; in actuality, directly connected by polarity with the medulla); and
sahasrara (in the uppermost part of the cerebrum).
The seven centres are divinely planned exits or “trap doors” through which the soul has descended into the body and through which it must reascend by a process of meditation. By seven successive steps, the soul escapes into Cosmic Consciousness. In its conscious upward passage through the seven opened or “awakened” cerebrospinal centres, the soul travels the highway to the Infinite, the true path by which the soul must retrace its course to reunite with God. Yoga treatises generally consider only the six lower centres as chakras, with sahasrara referred to separately as a seventh centre. All seven centres, however, are often referred to as lotuses, whose petals open, or turn upward, in spiritual awakening as the life and consciousness travel up the spine.

maya. The delusory power inherent in the structure of creation, by which the One appears as many. Maya is the principle of relativity, inversion, contrast, duality, oppositional states. Paramahansa Yoganandaji wrote: “The Sanskrit word maya means ‘the measurer’; it is the magical power in creation by which limitations and divisions are apparently present in the Immeasurable and Inseparable. Maya is Nature herself—the phenomenal worlds, ever in transitional flux as antithesis to Divine Immutability. “In God’s plan and play (lila), the sole function of Satan or maya is to attempt to divert man from Spirit to matter, from Reality to unreality. “Maya is the veil of transitoriness in Nature, the ceaseless becoming of creation; the veil that each man must lift in order to see behind it the Creator, the changeless Immutable, eternal Reality.”

prana. Sparks of intelligent finer-than-atomic energy that constitute life, collectively referred to in Hindu scriptural treatises as prana, which Paramahansa Yogananda has translated as “lifetrons.” In essence, condensed thoughts of God; substance of the astral world {q.v.) and life principle of the physical cosmos. In the physical world, there are two kinds of prana:
(1)the cosmic vibratory energy that is omnipresent in the universe, structuring and sustaining all things;
(2) the specific prana or energy that pervades and sustains each human body through five currents or functions.
Prana current performs the function of crystallization;
Vyana current, circulation;
Samana current, assimilation;
Udana current, metabolism; and
Apana current, elimination.

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Contents:
Preface
Introduction

– How to Cultivate Divine Love
The Universal Nature of Love
Fatherly Love Is Based on Reason
Motherly Love Is Based on Feeling and Is Unconditional
Conjugal Love
Love Between Master and Servant
Friendship—Grandest Relationship of Human Loves
The Unconditional Divine Friendship of Guru and Disciple
God’s Love Sublimely Manifest in Bhagavan Krishna
The Perfect Love Between Soul and Spirit

– A New Look at the Origin and Nature of Cosmic Creation
The Beginning of the Cosmic Dream
The Evolution of Intelligence
Reincarnation Is a Series of Dreams Within a Dream
Life Is a Dream Unworthy of Our Tears
We Dream Our Own Limitations
Don’t Take Life So Seriously
In Meditation Delusive Dreams Vanish
Never Become Mentally Ruffled
It Is Your Own Dreams That Frighten You
The Power of the Mind Is Limitless
Only in God Are You Safe From Delusion

– Practising Religion Scientifically
Scientists Work in Cooperation With God
Belief Is Only the First Step
Self-realization Is Necessary to Experience God
The First Experiment Is Silence
The End Result of Truth Is Always Good
There Are No Harmless Lies
The Importance to You of Others’ Happiness
“Won’t Power” Leads to Will Power
A Practical Experiment in Religion
There Is Always a Way Out
No “If” About the Working of God’s Laws
Seeing Is Believing—The Science of Religion

– Finding the Joy in Life

– What Is Fate?
Why We Are All Different From One Another
Three Ways to Deal With the Effects of Actions
Even the Fate of Death Can Be Changed
Avoid Wrong Behaviour to Prevent Unpleasant Results
Never Give Up Your Good Efforts
Angels Are Made on Earth, Not in Heaven
How Meditation Changes Your Fate
The Most Important Consideration Is to Be With God
Be a Jailbreaker From the Prison of Fate

– The End of the World
The Good and Evil Actions of Man Affect the Harmonious Balance of the Earth
The Life Cycles of the Earth
Dwapara Yuga, the Present Cycle
Spirituality Must Be Kept Strong in All Nations
Loyalty to One’s Country
Treta Yuga
Satya Yuga
Rise Above the Age in Which You Are Born
The World Ends for Us When Our Minds Are Detached
The World Ends for Us When We Are Free From Desires
The End of the World Is Realized in Samadhi
End Your Dream Delusions in God

– The Why and How of Religion
Yoga Fulfils the Purpose of Religion
The Universal Science of Religion
The Age of Logic Is Here
Find Joyous Fulfilment in Divine Love
Evil Is a Boomerang
Errors in Judgment Make Us Do Wrong
A Reason for Every Law
The Real Armament: Peace and Love Obedience to a True Guru Is the Surest Way of Wisdom

– The Spectrum of Spiritual Consciousness
What Is Truth!
Spiritual Consciousness Obeys All the Rules That Make Life Complete
The Inner Versus the Outer World
Spirituality Embraces a Wide Field of Controlled Activity
Sincerity and Intensity of Effort Is What Counts
The Opposite Modes of Material and Spiritual Consciousness
Your Highest Good Lies in Spiritual Consciousness

– The Mind: Repository of Infinite Power
Our Little Minds Are Part of God’s Omnipotent Mind
The Seeds of Success Are Within You
Thought Can Be Materialized
To Achieve Something Is to Please God
Work on Your Progress With God
Make the Best of Circumstances
Never Accept Failure
Seek Divine Guidance
You Create Your Own Helplessness or Strength
Material Success Becomes Empty Without God
Make God Break His Vow of Silence
“Lord, Don’t Make Me a Spiritual Clown”
The Joy of Pleasing God

– Why Evil Is a Part of God’s Creation
Perfection Is Not to Be Found in This World
The Greatest Conquering Force Is Love
“I Can Give My Life for a Sincere Soul”
The Cosmic Motion Picture
For Him Who Realizes God, There Is No Evil

– The Mystery of Mahatma Gandhi
Religious Principles Are the Foundation of the Art of Living
Mahatma Gandhi: A Political Saviour of All Politic-ridden Nations
A Living Embodiment of Scriptural Truths
A Perfect Example to Politicians
“Each for All and All for Each ”
What Gandhi’s Ideals Have Done for India
Reestablishing the Christian Doctrine
Resisting Evil by Love
True Equality Is Achieved Through Love
Destroy Hatred, and Peace Will Come to Stay

– Magnetism: The Inherent Power of the Soul
The Effect of Dietary Habits on Magnetism
The Vibrations of the Whole World Pass Through Your Body
Calmness Protects You From Negative Vibrations
How to “Steal” Magnetism From the Saints
Use Your Time Wisely
Don’t Be a Chatterbox
The Magnetism of Unselfish Love
Let God Flow Through You
It Is the Ego That Keeps God Away
The Love of God Is All-consuming
Listen to What the Spirit of God Has to Tell You

– Psychological Furniture
What Instruments Mould Us Into Psychological Furniture
Human Peculiarities
Dangerous Psychological Furniture
Conversation Pieces
Make Constant Effort to Increase in Value
Psychological Furniture
Strive to Understand the Intrinsic Characteristics of Others
Wisdom Is a Chisel, Love Is the Sandpaper

– The Unknown Potential of Memory
Limiting Effect of Man’s Mortal Nature
Memories of Past Lives
Select Only the Good Habits of Past Lives
Forget Past Errors
Concentrate on the True and the Good
Ways to Improve Memory
Remember Your Oneness With Spirit

– Harmonizing Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Methods of Healing
The Three Basic Methods of Healing
Everything Is Thought Force
Mind Works if You Know How to Control It
Mind Can Produce Negative as Well as Positive Results
Man Is Kept Hypnotized With Delusion
Suffering Can Be for the Welfare of Others
Awaken in God to Be Free From Delusion
A Miraculous Healing
Have More Mental Strength

– Mind Power Can Help You Lose or Gain Weight
Think Thin
Don’t Be a Diet Fanatic

– How to Work Without Fatigue
Cultivated Tastes Versus Natural Hunger Instincts
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Vital to Health
Exercise Removes Fatigue
Avoid Wasting Energy
The Secret of Vitality
Will and Energy Go Hand-in-Hand
Love Is One of the Greatest Stimulants to the Will

– Ridding the Consciousness of Worry
Success or Failure Is Determined in Your Own Mind
The Lesson We Have Come on Earth to Learn
Practise Mental Neutrality
God Can Never Forsake You

– If God Is Free From Karma, Why Aren’t We?
Pain Has Three Causes
The Connection Between You and Bodily Pain Is Only Mental
In Sleep You Are Free From Karma
Death Is a Reward
Destroy Bad Karma With Right Action
The Guru’s Help
Three Ways to Rise Above Karma
Kriya Yoga Sunders the Prison Bars of Karma

– The Yoga Art of Overcoming Mortal Consciousness and Death
Physiological Methods of Self-mastery
Is Death a Misfortune or a Blessing in Disguise!
The Spiritual Psychology of Pain
The Suffering of Death Is Self-inflicted
Why, After Death, the Ordinary Man Forgets His Former Life
How to Cut the Cords of the Soul’s Attachments

– How Feelings Mask the Soul
Feelings and Emotions Obscure the Soul
Indulgence Enslaves the Soul
A Balanced Attitude Nurtures Soul Awareness
Work With Keen but Unattached Interest
Motive Is Criterion of Right or Wrong Action
Calmness Is the Parent of Right Action
See Yourself as a Soul, Not the Physical Body
Practice Deep Meditation and Retain Its Effects

– The Yoga Ideal of Renunciation Is For All
Depend More on God
God Appreciates One-pointed Devotion
Yoga: The Universal Middle Path
Perform All Duties to Please God
Play Your Role Well in the Drama of Life
Be in the World but Not of It
Live in the Consciousness of God
Stand Unshaken Midst the Crash of Breaking Worlds
Do Not Be Frightened by God’s Cinema
Make God the Polestar of Your Life
God’s Judgment Is Just

– “With All Thy Getting, Get Understanding”
Seek the Help of a Spiritual Teacher Who Knows God
Life Without Understanding Is Spiritual and Material Suicide
Understanding Must Have Both Heart and Head
True Understanding Tells You When You Are Right or Wrong
My Guru’s Guidance Made Me Clearsighted
Don’t Oscillate in Keeping Your Good Resolutions
Stand By What Is Right
Find Understanding Through Communion With God

– Criticism

– Where Is Jesus Now, and What Is He Doing?
How Liberated Masters Watch Over the World
Christ Has Not Gone—He Is Watching You
Christlike Behaviour Is Difficult, but Rewarding
The Permanent Monument of Christ-love
From My Indian Guru I Learned the Real Meaning of Christ’s Teachings
Love Those Who Abuse You
How a Quarrelsome Man Was Changed
If You Associate With Skunks, You Cannot Smell the Roses
Greater Than the Wounds of Battle Are the Wounds to Your Soul
Don’t Soil Your Soul With Those Who Are Mischief Makers
If You Would Come to Me, Live the Life of Christ

– Do Souls Reincarnate?
We Have Made a Mess of God’s Creation
We Feel Mortal Because We Lack Continuity of Consciousness
We Don’t Want to Remember Troubles of Past Lives
Live Rightly Now, Regardless of What Lies Hereafter
We Are Not Products of Blind Chance
Present Tendencies Reflect Temperament of Past Lives
Your Divine Nature Is What You Must Cultivate
Seek the Answer to the Mystery of Life and Death
How to Recognize Souls You Have Known Before
Help Enemies of the Past Through Love and Forgiveness
Seek God: He Will Show You Glimpses of Your Past
If You Make the Effort, You Will Find God
When God Comes, the Veils of Delusion Drop Away
“I Come Only to Tell You of That foy of God”

– Where Are Our Departed Loved Ones?
The Unperceived World of Thought
Where Is Heaven!
We Are Made of God’s Thoughts, Which Death Cannot Destroy
Know the Right Way to Find Your Loved Ones
The Astral World Has Many Spheres
Communication With the Astral a Secretly Guarded Science
The Saints Cannot Come to the Spiritually Unprepared
Technique of Sending Thoughts to Departed Souls
We Can Find Loved Ones Who Have Been Reborn
True Love Draws Souls Together Life After Life
The Soul and Its Joy Last Forever

– Reflections on Love

– The Known and the Unknown
How to Develop Your Talents
Recognize the Tendencies That Make You Unique
Mass Education Must Allow for Individual Development
Past Desires Produce Present Tendencies
How Much Free Will Do We Have!
Cosmic Law Is Activated by Our Decisions
Live Life for God

– Controlling Your Destiny
Our Acts, Past and Present, Forge the Chain of Our Destiny
The Example of Great Men Shows That Our Destiny Is Not Fixed
Be Mentally Dissociated From the Body’s Limitations
Almighty Power Lies in the Mind

– Guests—Good and Bad
A Letter to God

– How to Free Yourself From Bad Habits
Habit Defined
Watch Out for Hidden Bad Habits of Past Lives
Train Children to Develop a Preference for Right Habits
When You Say No to Temptation, Mean It
Don’t Cater to Likes and Dislikes
Bad Habits Are Like an Octopus
Train Your Will to Be Unenslaved
A Story of “Won’t Power”
By Concentration, Habits Can Be Installed at Will
Introspect to Know Yourself as You Are
Perennial Peace and Joy Lie Within, Not in Externals
The Time to Create Spiritual Habits Is Now
Technique for Creating and Destroying Habits
Make-believe Pleasures Cannot Substitute for the Bliss of God

– The Garden of Flowering Qualities

– Oriental and Occidental Christianity
True Christianity
Oriental Conditions of Life Were Different
Why Christianity Changed in the West
Real God-communion Is Needed
East and West Need Balance
Knowing God Scientifically

– A World Without Boundaries
Understanding Must Be Freed From Prejudices
Love the World as You Love Your Nation and Family
International Understanding Dissolves Divisive Boundaries
Peace Will Come When We Learn to See God in All
Peace Begins at Home and in the Schools
Without Selfishness There Would Be No Wars
Yoga Meditation Reveals Our Divine Nature
If Everyone Learns God-communion, Peace Will Reign

– To Know God Is to Love All
A God of Love, Wisdom, and Beauty
God-contact Answers Every Question
He Who Is Mentally Undefeated Finds God
The Garden of Truth Is Found in God-communion
Look to Your Spiritual Welfare 362

– How You Can Approach God
The Monkey Trial—And Its Sequel
Proof of the Existence of God
The Way to Know God

– The Cosmic Lover

– Personal and Impersonal God
God Is Both Personal and Impersonal
Even the Finite Is Infinite
The Absolute Cannot Be Described
God Manifests in Human Incarnations
The Guru Is a Model of God
Those Who Are One With God Can Appear in Form Any Time
Realizing God Requires Unflinching Determination
The Right Meditation Techniques Are Necessary
Don’t Put Off Your Search for God

– How to Find a Way to Victory
The Mind Must Remain Undefeated
Evil Is Anything That Obstructs God-realization
The Conquest of Self Is the Greatest Victory
Be Secure in Your Innate Goodness
Do Not Neglect God for Work, Nor Neglect Work for God
God Doesn’t Teach Through Mystery but Through Illumined Souls
Success Lies Within the Seeker
Rejoice in God’s Bliss, and Serve Others
To Win God Is the Ultimate Victory
Don’t Waste Your Opportunity to Seek God

– “I Am Blessed to Behold Him”
A Fresh Beginning for the New Year
The Movie Drama of Life
Realization From Mountains or From Living Souls1
The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar
God Is More Tempting Than Temptation

– Take God With You Through Life
Man Is Made in the Image of God
God Will Not Force Himself on You
The Guru Is Sent by God
God’s Answer to His Devotee
A Loving Message for America
Our Destination Is God
A Controlled Mind Lessens Pain
Follow Those Who Have Found God

– The Aurora of Bliss 420

– Answer the Call of Christ!

– Divine Communion With God and Christ

– The Eternal Romance
God Stands at the Dooi of Your Consciousness
God Yearns for Our Love
The Desire Behind All Desires
Ignorance Means Not Using the Power God Gave You
God Is the Most Lovable Being
There Is More to Life Than Appears Outwardly
God Is Always With Us
The Romance With God Is Eternal

– A Scripture of Love

Paramahansa Yogananda: A Yogi in Life and Death
Aims and Ideals of Yogoda Satsanga Society of India
Glossary

ILLUSTRATIONS
Cover: Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, 1951
Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (Frontispiece)
Sri Yogananda with Lt. Governor and Mrs. Goodwin J. Knight, at dedication of SRF Lake Shrine, 1950
Paramahansa Yogananda’s yoga classes in two cities
Paramahansa Yogananda on ship en route to Alaska, 1924
Sri Yogananda and Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, 1924
Sri Yogananda with Magistrate A.D. Brandon, Pittsburgh, 1926
Yogoda Satsanga Society of India Administration Building, Sakha Math and Ashram, Ranchi Jharkhand
Swami Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda in religious procession, Kolkata, 1935 Paramahansa Yogananda, 1951 402 SRF International Headquarters, Los Angeles, California
Self-Realization Fellowship Hermitage, Encinitas, California

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