How to Succeed in Finding God
By Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
A Thursday evening inspirational service given at Self-Realization Fellowship International
Headquarters, Los Angeles
By Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
A Thursday evening inspirational service given at Self-Realization Fellowship International
Headquarters, Los Angeles
Close your eyes. Feel that you are Spirit watching your finite body. Feel that the room is filled with joy; it surrounds and permeates you, within and without. Affirm: “Joy and I are one. God and I are one in divine ecstasy. O Infinite Spirit, surcharge my body, my mind, and my soul with Thy heavenly bliss. Give me realization, that I may consciously know Thy presence within me. Aum, Peace, Amen.
Repent of your indifference to God. Those who are indifferent to Him suffer. Give unto Him your love. He is your Father; you are His child. It is your duty and privilege to love Him. Offer Him your heart right now. One moment of sincere soul call will arouse God, and His response will surely come if you will continue to call to Him. Friends, name, fame, money—all mortal possessions are ephemeral and will vanish. But with God all joys are real and everlasting. With your heart’s sincerity give Him a soul call—a magnet call, a heart-rending call of deepest longing—and you shall receive His mercy.
I shall talk to you tonight as my inspiration comes, on a few points about meditation. If it were possible for me to remind you every day, every minute, about the importance of meditation, I would do so.
Meditation, complete absorption of the attention in God, is the only way to the Infinite. It is so difficult for most people to find God because they don’t meditate. They would find Him very easily if only they would learn to meditate in the right way. Various teachers and paths have differing definitions of meditation. There is a difference between concentration and meditation. Concentration is a necessary preliminary to and component of meditation; it means to withdraw your attention from all objects of distraction and focus it on one thing at a time. Untrained persons do not think deeply; when they are trying to focus on something, their minds run away in a hundred directions. When you are able to absorb the attention completely in one subject at a time, to be lost in one concept of thought, that is called concentration.
The practice of concentration varies according to the object and purpose of concentration. Your mind is usually busy all the time, constantly jumping from one thought to another. It is therefore easier in the beginning to concentrate on one subject with a variety of related thoughts than to try to concentrate on just one thought pertinent to that subject. So the first exercise in practicing concentration should be to absorb the attention in all the thoughts you can about one subject, to the exclusion of unrelated mental wanderings. After you have thoroughly mastered this, then your disciplined mind is prepared to concentrate on one thought alone. Take a single thought from a subject, such as: “I am peaceful” or “I am love eternal” or “I am happiness eternal,” and think only that thought without any other relative ideas. If you are able to awaken that thought—to feel it within your heart and mind, so that your whole system realizes the intrinsic truth expressed in that concept, and the attention does not wander—then you have achieved true concentration upon that thought.
Now, what is the use in such practice? The idea is that concentration is power. Everything in the universe required concentrated thought to come into being. When you look at a flower, do you wonder what made it? The thought of God. Everything you see is the product of concentration—either God’s or man’s. How thoughtless we are! When we admire the wonderful inventions and works of art created by man, we acknowledge the marvellous powers of concentration that were necessary to produce them. But we take for granted the miraculous creation of trees, flowers, human beings—as if they are simply dropped from heaven! But they are the result of God’s creative concentration.
When ordinary persons try to put their minds on creating or accomplishing something, they find distractions and give up. But great souls are those who exercise the divine power of concentration that is hidden within them. Concentration is not given to some people and denied to others through heredity; it is an inherent quality of the soul. The power of concentration comes from God and is a native gift in each of us as His children. But persons who live in a state of restless distraction and never exercise their powers of concentration never seem to achieve anything.
Concentration is more than mere visualization. They are two different things. Visualization, employing only the mind’s faculty of imaging, produces hallucinations. Concentration brings in the will force of the soul. Focused or guided visualization is one of the parts of concentration, but concentration is the whole. Concentration and will force go together. Will gathers the power of attention; and as it does so, the will force becomes stronger and stronger until it becomes one with Divine Will. This Divine Will Force controls all cosmic energy; it lets loose forces in the ether that change one’s environment so that the environment becomes compatible with the strong vibrations of one’s wish.
Persons who concentrate a little bit and then give up do not know the power of concentration. They wish to accomplish something before they have sufficiently developed that power, so when obstacles loom they are apt to become discouraged: “Well, I concentrate and still nothing happens.” Their attention is distracted by impatient thoughts of the desired result, rather than concentrating on the steps necessary to achieve that result. To concentrate on having a house without making an effort to get that house will not do.
Mind has great power. And concentrated mind is the supreme, all-accomplishing power. I have seen the most marvellous demonstrations of this power of concentration. This power is everything, provided you do not give up.
No achievement happens of itself. If some persons have “smooth sailing” it is because they had worked hard before and thereby attracted that seemingly effortless success. But even if you are not one of them, that doesn’t mean you cannot succeed now. First, you need to understand the forces you have to contend with. Every action you perform—physically or mentally—leaves a trace in your mind. Yoga calls them samskaras—the habit-tendencies or predisposed moods created by the things you have already done, whether in this life or a previous incarnation. Whenever you try to break out of the mould and accomplish something constructive or new, immediately your past wrong actions try to nullify your present good efforts. But if you keep on trying, and concentrating, that power of concentrated thought will obvert your past actions that are trying to keep you down.
Another thing: company is vitally important—it is stronger than will power. If you mix with saintly people, you think their life is the way to live. And if you mix with worldly or evil people, you think theirs is the only way. Mind is influenced by environment. Do not be a victim of your environment; choose good company that inspires your continuous self-improvement.
Thought is fire; use its concentrated power to consume all obstacles to achievement. Most people are mentally lazy. Physical laziness is sometimes forgivable, because that person may simply need a rest; but there is no justification for being mentally lazy. Most of you never use concentrated mental power to destroy the samskaras, the subconscious mental patterns left by your past wrong actions, which are the real obstacles to success.
If you let yourself be continuously driven by the effects of your past actions, you will find yourself in a bad way. Suppose you jump into a fast-moving stream or river. Of course you will be carried along with its current, possibly to great harm. But the first act of jumping into the stream was your own fault. You started the cause that brought about the effect. Likewise, you created your stream of wrong thoughts—first allowing them entry into your consciousness and then repeatedly swimming along with them—and now you are allowing yourself to be carried away by their force. You must break away.
How? By use of concentration and willpower to bring that stream of conscious and subconscious thoughts under your control. Ordinarily you don’t know how restless your mind is until you try to practice concentration and meditation. It is only when you sit quietly and begin to introspect that you see the myriad thoughts coursing through your mind. But if you continue to sit still and practice the yoga techniques of concentration,* refusing to be distracted by the restlessness of your thoughts, you will find suddenly that your mind has become calm. The mind is like a child; you have to patiently humour it without getting upset by it. Gradually it will come under your control. “With the intuitive discrimination saturated in patience, with the mind absorbed in the soul, the yogi, freeing his mind from all thoughts, will by slow degrees attain tranquility.”*
When as a result of concentration and meditation, your mind comes under your control—when you can step out of the stream of restless habit-compelled thoughts into an inner calmness and quietude—you can attune the mind to constructive positive thoughts of accomplishment. Then it is necessary to use your will to follow through. For instance, when you make up your mind in the morning about what you are going to do that day, you have to use sufficient will power, garnered from concentrated thoughts focused on your intention, to follow through on those plans before the day is over. Thereby, you are actually accomplishing success, not merely wishing for it.
If you are unsuccessful, it is evident that you do not make the effort to go deep enough when you concentrate, and you do not persist long enough to get results. First you have to concentrate deeply and free the mind from the static of restless thoughts. Then you have to wait to feel mental attunement with God’s will. If your mind radio has static, you cannot get His message; but when your mind is calm, you can tune your concentrated power of thought to God and receive His broadcast.
This brings us to meditation, which is that form of concentration by which you connect yourself with God. Concentration is a broader term than meditation; it can be upon God or upon any other subject. But meditation means concentrating on God alone. Most people apply their mind power to gain specific material things. But if you learn how to meditate and apply your concentration on God first, you become charged with the Divine Will Power. When you have that Divine Will Power you can accomplish anything. Not all the reverses in life can dislodge your goal-directed thought when you are in tune with the Divine. What you will when you are in tune with that Power has to come to pass, because every thought that is given sufficient energy has to express itself. No causation goes without its effect.
Now the question comes, why is meditation the way to the Infinite? Because meditation is the causation by which you tune out thoughts of mortal limitation and attune the consciousness to God’s presence within you. By meditation you merge in the Fountain of all powers—the Fountain that has given light to the stars and strength and life to the foods we eat; the Fountain that has given beauty to the world and love by which we may love God and one another. This universe is governed by law: thus, every result has a corresponding cause. Deep meditation is that causation whose effect is God-realization. If you set that cause in motion within you, and never give up, the result is scientifically certain. Even if you do not find God right away, it does not matter; if you persevere in meditating and constantly calling to Him, you will unequivocally find His response.
If only you knew how much power you have within yourself! God made you His child and you have chosen to be a beggar. Jesus, by the God-realization of meditation, knew he was a child of God. You can also know that you are His child. You must go to the Source. To have God is to have all power.
This drama of earthly life is to be so played that through it you might learn to know your divine Self. Jesus came, Buddha came, other great souls came, but have they saved you? No. But they have shown you the way by which you can save yourself. Just to believe in Jesus will not save you. You must make the effort to attain what he attained. “The harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are few.” You have to labour for that Infinite Consciousness.
Meditation requires that instead of praying only for the products of God, you turn your attention to the factory, God Himself. Why not go to that Source whence all creation emerges? Meditation is not a vague mental wandering; it is to be so concentrated within that hours slip away without your knowing it. By right meditation, ecstasy comes. Ecstasy is contact with the Source of all power. In ecstasy you touch that state in which anything can be done. If you persevere, a time comes when you find that the assurance and protection of God’s power never leaves you. It does not matter if the whole world is against you, if the whole world forsakes you, when you are with God. God will never forsake you. But you need to be sincere in your love for Him. You will not be successful if you seek God with any ulterior motive. It is all right to tell Him of your need, but want God Himself more than all else. Approach Him with complete surrender. Without God’s power you cannot think or will or talk or love or do anything. Why should you give more importance to other things than to Him?
God is conscious of your needs. If you appeal to Him with unconditional love and sincerity, He will answer. Do not be discouraged if He does not answer right away. That is His test. If in spite of His silence you still believe He is listening, and still keep on talking to Him, He will respond. He will answer through results. But do not look for the results. Just say, “God, I love You with all my might, with all my sincerity, with all my heart. And Lord, if I am seeking something less than You, forgive me and help me to think of You alone. Without Your wisdom, how could I understand anything? Without Your love, how could I love at all? How could I will to do anything without Your power, which is behind my will and my love and all my feelings? Why are You hiding from me? I must convince You that I love You, that I want You alone. You must reveal Yourself, for I cannot go on in my life alone. Thou art my life, Thou art my Father, Thou art my Mother, Thou art my everything. Reveal Thyself unto me!”
If you go on like this, with sincerity, He will answer. God knows everything that you are doing. You cannot fool Him. The thing He most dislikes is when you try to dissemble with Him or are insincere. Sincerity touches His heart in the greatest way. Where there is sincerity, there is God’s response. What have you to be afraid of? Do not think you have to be perfect; that is foolish. Before God, everyone in this delusive finite world can be considered a “sinner.” Just pour out your heart to Him, in the humble simplicity of a loving child.
God will not measure your defects or your merits. The preeminent merit is to be sincere with God—sincerity to Him in meditation is most important. At night or anytime you sit to meditate, meditate with all your heart and soul. When you pray with deep sincerity, all restless thoughts fall away, all sensory distractions vanish, and in that stillness you find Him coming to you. Then you will realize how wonderful life is, how great your life is, supported by the omnipresence of God’s consciousness that lies just behind your own consciousness.
Think how wonderful life will be when you have no compulsion to seek anything at all, because you have found everything you seek in God! Nothing can enslave you then. That is the freedom I am enjoying; and I pray to God that this freedom and grace be always with me. When you know that God is a part of your being, you feel no reason to seek from Him any other gain. I sought spiritual power once; but now I don’t ask God for anything. I love Him and I know He loves me; I don’t want anything else.
Whence did you get your parents and your children; and why is there hunger and nature provides food to satisfy that hunger? These things all come from God. They are part of His purposeful divine plan. His Power is so plainly working all the time in this intelligently ordered creation; and still you refuse to concentrate on that Power. He is giving you all the signs of His presence that you will receive. Why do you waste your time pursuing the gifts instead of the Giver? It is foolish to do so. Meditate! At first you will struggle with your thoughts and then with your body; but if you can go deeper into meditation, your thoughts will settle down and body will become calm and joy will come into the temple of your heart. When joy comes, you know you are contacting God. But you are too much in a hurry about meditation; you do not wait to receive His message. Meditate with calm perseverance; pray and look for His response in your heart centre. Pray again and again. When that joy comes, then notwithstanding what you are going through outwardly, you feel that everything is all right. But if you betray that joy of the Divine Presence—ignoring it in favour of material pursuits—then everything will betray you. No matter how convinced you are that this or that will make you happy, you will find that it does not.
You are alone in this world: Nobody is responsible for making you happy except yourself. Let nothing or no one cheat you out of that happiness, that all-satisfying inner joy which you will want to share with all.
You have to work for everything you need or want. Do you receive your wages without working? Do you get anything without working for it? So it is with God. You must prove to Him by your spiritual efforts that you want Him more than anything else. The minute you have proven that, He will come to you. Organizational power and all great achievements of this world are temporary. They will vanish. But the blessing of God is worth having, because that will go with you beyond the portals of the grave. Then why are you sitting idle? You must know that you are a child of God. You don’t have to earn that heritage; it is already yours. But you must reclaim it. Make God know that you want Him alone. The time that you spend in idle talk and trivialities should be spent in meditation. Then you will develop.
Everything you have that you were seeking has been given to you by God. So why forget Him? Without Him you would not have love or life or health or anything. He is the cleverest who seeks God, because that devotee is going to receive everything. Having Him, no other gain is greater. As Jesus promised: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things else shall be added unto you.” Once I had “all things,” and I willingly gave them away. I have something far greater—the love of my beloved God. I want nothing—just the joy of existence and the pleasure of talking about Him to others.
As long as the soul is forced to depend on external things it cannot be happy, because these are always changing. The soul can never be permanently satisfied with anything but the love of God. Some people learn this paramount lesson of life through wisdom and discrimination; others must learn through the slow evolutionary process of many incarnations, or by burning their fingers in the fires of sorrow. The moment you realize that in all other pursuits it was God you were seeking, then you are on the path toward your Infinite Home.
It was when I lost my mother that I began to seek God more earnestly. I sought and sought everywhere, yearning to behold again those beloved black eyes of Mother. I gave poetic voice to my anguish:
She died—
And I cried—
And I sought those lost two eyes everywhere.
I searched in the stars,
Until, bedimmed by my tears,
They twinkled black eyes everywhere.
But they were not those that I lost!
All love and affection that she gave me seemed to be gone; and I cried, “Doesn’t she love me anymore? Where has she gone?” And I cried on. As I went on crying and searching, storming the very gates of heaven with my yearning, suddenly the voice of the Divine Mother came, “Many times I have suckled thee through many breasts.” In that instant I realized that it was God I was seeking—that behind the love of my earthly mother it was the One Spirit that loved me through her form.
Looking, searching for her everywhere,
I found my Divine Mother;
And in Her love
I found my mother’s love;
And in Her omnipresent eyes,
I found those lost two black eyes.
What a wonderful realization I had! All the persons I have loved—all the friends I have had—I see that it is God who is in them, loving me and loved by me. All those who come to me—I see it is God. And where God is, there is my paradise. I seek nothing in preference to Him.
Through incarnations you have sought fulfilment of the soul’s longing for love. Sometimes you were an outcast, forsaken by the world; and in some life you have been a martyr who died for a beloved cause; and countless times a lover and a beloved, a parent and a child, and so on. In all these different loves you are like a puppet being danced by hidden strings, until at last you realize that there was only One who loved you behind all other loves—but He never wanted to tell you how much He loved you. He waits for you to discover and love Him freely and spontaneously, without compulsion. I am talking to you of the genuine love of the Spirit.
God reveals Himself to us by His humbleness. We are mere pygmies before Him, but He patiently endures the audacity of us tiny human beings. Despite His sovereign power, He does not compel us in any way. He calls us only by His love. He loves us dearly. Otherwise he would not have sent Jesus and Krishna and other Great Ones to show us the way home. With His infinite love and patience and humbleness, He is waiting for us to love Him.
God is playing hide-and-seek with us, His children. But devotees know the truth of God’s promise: “He who watcheth Me always, him do I watch. He never loses sight of Me, nor do I lose sight of him.”
One thing you must learn here on earth is that you are a child of God. When you know that, you will know that everyone is a child of God even as you are. What a tremendous realization! that all persons are of God—that everyone and everything that comes to you comes from God! The more you appreciate the divine image in everyone, the more you are alive with God’s consciousness. It is not difficult then to love all persons with love that is forgiving and compassionate and good, no matter what they do to you, because you see it is God who comes in the form of every being. In time, as you learn to love God more, you see Him within everyone—friends or enemies. If you can hate anyone, you have not realized God at all. The divine man gives his love equally to all, even as the sun gives impartially of its light.
The most difficult person you have to deal with is yourself. You refuse to work for that which is in your own highest interest. How assiduously people labour in their factories and workplaces, and yet they will not make even the least effort to know God! Why not surrender yourself to that Power? Take out a couple of hours from your sleep each night and meditate. Make the contact with God. Take my advice. When everybody else is sleeping, fall at the feet of the Spirit. You must throw shells of your yearning at the bulwark of silence. “O God of joy, I know You are here. You are just behind my thoughts—just behind the subconscious land of sleep. Reveal Yourself unto me!”
Every night the Divine Mother comes to wipe away all your mortal sorrows in the subconscious joy and freedom of sleep. But then morning comes and starts to blacken your consciousness again. Meditation brings you conscious contact with that joy. You go beyond the land of sleep and keep that joy with you during the day, so that even when you are crucified by trials you are able to say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If you do not lose that joy no matter what comes, then you know you have God with you.
I don’t have to try anymore. He is always with me. Once in a while I feel I am in this world, but it is like a forgotten dream—because I live in that eternal wakefulness which is the only Reality. This earth is a school, a motion-picture dream-drama for your education and entertainment. Whether beholding a comedy or a tragedy in the movie theatre of this life, remember that it has no ultimate reality. Keep your consciousness attuned to the Lord, and say: “That was a great picture, but I have conquered its illusory power over me. I am not frightened by it, for You are with me always.”
That happiness in Spirit is the only thing to live for. Meditate each day; and when you have contacted that happiness, then go about your work. Without that inner awareness of God’s joy, you cannot enjoy life—indeed, you are not even truly living. Someday these things will be taught in schools. The schools do not teach children how to live, how to have that divine happiness. These universal teachings should be given in the schools—not to emphasize any particular religion, but to show that the way to happiness is meditation and contact of God, and that by such contact one may learn from God what one should do. In order to hold on to your inner happiness, never find fault with others; learn to blame and correct your own flaws. Be sincere with everyone, express kindness and love to each person. Love is the most powerful force that you can have. Love is dynamite. Humbleness is dynamite. Concentration is dynamite. These will destroy all obstacles and barriers to success. Meditation throws your concentration and the shells of your devotion against the walls of your indifference until you break through and contact that blissful Power within.
My Master shook me with his wisdom; and as I responded that realization came that I was a child of God. Those who love God and seek to commune with Him love to meditate. Here at Mount Washington you must regularly come together to meditate. And use your free time to be alone with God in meditation. There are so many wonderful places here to meditate. What of it if you do not become successful in the way the world thinks of success? To be successful with God is far more important, for that success you can take with you when this life is over. You want that contact of God of which Jesus spoke. If you have that, Jesus’ promise that “all things will be added unto you” will be fulfilled anew. Meditate on God. Seek no credit from man. Do not show your devotion to others. In your heart hoard your devotion, concentrate your devotion only on Him; and He shall speak to you. He shall guide you consciously. And in everything that comes, you shall see it is that Power which is loving and sustaining you. There is no greater security than this.
Use your God-given intelligence to find Him. Why have you to be reminded that you are here alone and that a hundred years hence you will not be known? Because you are here today and busy with life, you do not think that anything will happen to you. But “tomorrow” we will be gone. I come not to socialize or talk of useless things, but to awaken your consciousness. Now. Not tomorrow, but tonight. Take some time away from sleep and meditate. And don’t give up. Don’t succumb to sleep until you have made that contact with God. From tonight begin, and you will succeed. In every little gap of time that you have, talk to Him. And have faith that He is listening to you. He is right behind the darkness of your closed eyes; and as you talk and He listens, you will find that life becomes transformed. You will realize why your parents and family and friends love you—because of God—and you will be day and night drinking of that love direct from His presence.
No matter what weaknesses or faults you have, meditate. Talk to God again and again. And once you can get Him to talk, He will never leave you. Though contact of God may seem to be the most difficult thing, it is the easiest if you will sincerely try. The one who has made up his mind to know God will find Him. God you have already with you. You just have to know Him and receive Him in your consciousness.
It is such a joy to drink His name with all of you. That is why I say to Him, “Lord, I want only those to come who are in earnest in their desire for You and who will faithfully seek You.” I glorify not myself but Him who sent me. That is also what Jesus said. It is a beautiful saying; it is alive with truth. Every word in the New Testament is living. Yet people read these words and still want more to stimulate them! That is because they don’t meditate on those truths to convert them into their own personal realization.
I thank you for the joy of your attention. Join me in offering our united devotion to the Father. Pray for me, and I shall pray for you, that we all manifest in pure sincerity the consciousness of God. In that selfless consciousness learn to physically help people by service, to mentally help people by kindness and encouragement, and to spiritually help people by radiating the joy of God that you feel. To transmit God’s consciousness you do not have to talk much; just feel it, and automatically those around you will be uplifted. Do not seek the acclaim and testimony of man, but the testimony of God. One moon gives more light than all the stars in the heavens. Similarly, one devotee of realization that this organization will produce is greater than thousands of persons who just read Scripture and go to church once a week. So, be loyal in your activities and continuous in your habit of meditation. I do not want to hold you except by your own realization. We are not after anything but to give you realization of that Supreme Power. And that Power shall be revealed to you all if you are sincere in your loyalty, devotion, and desire for God. By heeding the simple truths I give you, you can find God. You don’t need a new religion. You know what God wants; what you need is to live by it. What I have told you tonight, please practise that in your life every day.
Repent of your indifference to God. Those who are indifferent to Him suffer. Give unto Him your love. He is your Father; you are His child. It is your duty and privilege to love Him. Offer Him your heart right now. One moment of sincere soul call will arouse God, and His response will surely come if you will continue to call to Him. Friends, name, fame, money—all mortal possessions are ephemeral and will vanish. But with God all joys are real and everlasting. With your heart’s sincerity give Him a soul call—a magnet call, a heart-rending call of deepest longing—and you shall receive His mercy.
I shall talk to you tonight as my inspiration comes, on a few points about meditation. If it were possible for me to remind you every day, every minute, about the importance of meditation, I would do so.
Meditation, complete absorption of the attention in God, is the only way to the Infinite. It is so difficult for most people to find God because they don’t meditate. They would find Him very easily if only they would learn to meditate in the right way. Various teachers and paths have differing definitions of meditation. There is a difference between concentration and meditation. Concentration is a necessary preliminary to and component of meditation; it means to withdraw your attention from all objects of distraction and focus it on one thing at a time. Untrained persons do not think deeply; when they are trying to focus on something, their minds run away in a hundred directions. When you are able to absorb the attention completely in one subject at a time, to be lost in one concept of thought, that is called concentration.
The practice of concentration varies according to the object and purpose of concentration. Your mind is usually busy all the time, constantly jumping from one thought to another. It is therefore easier in the beginning to concentrate on one subject with a variety of related thoughts than to try to concentrate on just one thought pertinent to that subject. So the first exercise in practicing concentration should be to absorb the attention in all the thoughts you can about one subject, to the exclusion of unrelated mental wanderings. After you have thoroughly mastered this, then your disciplined mind is prepared to concentrate on one thought alone. Take a single thought from a subject, such as: “I am peaceful” or “I am love eternal” or “I am happiness eternal,” and think only that thought without any other relative ideas. If you are able to awaken that thought—to feel it within your heart and mind, so that your whole system realizes the intrinsic truth expressed in that concept, and the attention does not wander—then you have achieved true concentration upon that thought.
Now, what is the use in such practice? The idea is that concentration is power. Everything in the universe required concentrated thought to come into being. When you look at a flower, do you wonder what made it? The thought of God. Everything you see is the product of concentration—either God’s or man’s. How thoughtless we are! When we admire the wonderful inventions and works of art created by man, we acknowledge the marvellous powers of concentration that were necessary to produce them. But we take for granted the miraculous creation of trees, flowers, human beings—as if they are simply dropped from heaven! But they are the result of God’s creative concentration.
When ordinary persons try to put their minds on creating or accomplishing something, they find distractions and give up. But great souls are those who exercise the divine power of concentration that is hidden within them. Concentration is not given to some people and denied to others through heredity; it is an inherent quality of the soul. The power of concentration comes from God and is a native gift in each of us as His children. But persons who live in a state of restless distraction and never exercise their powers of concentration never seem to achieve anything.
Concentration is more than mere visualization. They are two different things. Visualization, employing only the mind’s faculty of imaging, produces hallucinations. Concentration brings in the will force of the soul. Focused or guided visualization is one of the parts of concentration, but concentration is the whole. Concentration and will force go together. Will gathers the power of attention; and as it does so, the will force becomes stronger and stronger until it becomes one with Divine Will. This Divine Will Force controls all cosmic energy; it lets loose forces in the ether that change one’s environment so that the environment becomes compatible with the strong vibrations of one’s wish.
Persons who concentrate a little bit and then give up do not know the power of concentration. They wish to accomplish something before they have sufficiently developed that power, so when obstacles loom they are apt to become discouraged: “Well, I concentrate and still nothing happens.” Their attention is distracted by impatient thoughts of the desired result, rather than concentrating on the steps necessary to achieve that result. To concentrate on having a house without making an effort to get that house will not do.
Mind has great power. And concentrated mind is the supreme, all-accomplishing power. I have seen the most marvellous demonstrations of this power of concentration. This power is everything, provided you do not give up.
No achievement happens of itself. If some persons have “smooth sailing” it is because they had worked hard before and thereby attracted that seemingly effortless success. But even if you are not one of them, that doesn’t mean you cannot succeed now. First, you need to understand the forces you have to contend with. Every action you perform—physically or mentally—leaves a trace in your mind. Yoga calls them samskaras—the habit-tendencies or predisposed moods created by the things you have already done, whether in this life or a previous incarnation. Whenever you try to break out of the mould and accomplish something constructive or new, immediately your past wrong actions try to nullify your present good efforts. But if you keep on trying, and concentrating, that power of concentrated thought will obvert your past actions that are trying to keep you down.
Another thing: company is vitally important—it is stronger than will power. If you mix with saintly people, you think their life is the way to live. And if you mix with worldly or evil people, you think theirs is the only way. Mind is influenced by environment. Do not be a victim of your environment; choose good company that inspires your continuous self-improvement.
Thought is fire; use its concentrated power to consume all obstacles to achievement. Most people are mentally lazy. Physical laziness is sometimes forgivable, because that person may simply need a rest; but there is no justification for being mentally lazy. Most of you never use concentrated mental power to destroy the samskaras, the subconscious mental patterns left by your past wrong actions, which are the real obstacles to success.
If you let yourself be continuously driven by the effects of your past actions, you will find yourself in a bad way. Suppose you jump into a fast-moving stream or river. Of course you will be carried along with its current, possibly to great harm. But the first act of jumping into the stream was your own fault. You started the cause that brought about the effect. Likewise, you created your stream of wrong thoughts—first allowing them entry into your consciousness and then repeatedly swimming along with them—and now you are allowing yourself to be carried away by their force. You must break away.
How? By use of concentration and willpower to bring that stream of conscious and subconscious thoughts under your control. Ordinarily you don’t know how restless your mind is until you try to practice concentration and meditation. It is only when you sit quietly and begin to introspect that you see the myriad thoughts coursing through your mind. But if you continue to sit still and practice the yoga techniques of concentration,* refusing to be distracted by the restlessness of your thoughts, you will find suddenly that your mind has become calm. The mind is like a child; you have to patiently humour it without getting upset by it. Gradually it will come under your control. “With the intuitive discrimination saturated in patience, with the mind absorbed in the soul, the yogi, freeing his mind from all thoughts, will by slow degrees attain tranquility.”*
When as a result of concentration and meditation, your mind comes under your control—when you can step out of the stream of restless habit-compelled thoughts into an inner calmness and quietude—you can attune the mind to constructive positive thoughts of accomplishment. Then it is necessary to use your will to follow through. For instance, when you make up your mind in the morning about what you are going to do that day, you have to use sufficient will power, garnered from concentrated thoughts focused on your intention, to follow through on those plans before the day is over. Thereby, you are actually accomplishing success, not merely wishing for it.
If you are unsuccessful, it is evident that you do not make the effort to go deep enough when you concentrate, and you do not persist long enough to get results. First you have to concentrate deeply and free the mind from the static of restless thoughts. Then you have to wait to feel mental attunement with God’s will. If your mind radio has static, you cannot get His message; but when your mind is calm, you can tune your concentrated power of thought to God and receive His broadcast.
This brings us to meditation, which is that form of concentration by which you connect yourself with God. Concentration is a broader term than meditation; it can be upon God or upon any other subject. But meditation means concentrating on God alone. Most people apply their mind power to gain specific material things. But if you learn how to meditate and apply your concentration on God first, you become charged with the Divine Will Power. When you have that Divine Will Power you can accomplish anything. Not all the reverses in life can dislodge your goal-directed thought when you are in tune with the Divine. What you will when you are in tune with that Power has to come to pass, because every thought that is given sufficient energy has to express itself. No causation goes without its effect.
Now the question comes, why is meditation the way to the Infinite? Because meditation is the causation by which you tune out thoughts of mortal limitation and attune the consciousness to God’s presence within you. By meditation you merge in the Fountain of all powers—the Fountain that has given light to the stars and strength and life to the foods we eat; the Fountain that has given beauty to the world and love by which we may love God and one another. This universe is governed by law: thus, every result has a corresponding cause. Deep meditation is that causation whose effect is God-realization. If you set that cause in motion within you, and never give up, the result is scientifically certain. Even if you do not find God right away, it does not matter; if you persevere in meditating and constantly calling to Him, you will unequivocally find His response.
If only you knew how much power you have within yourself! God made you His child and you have chosen to be a beggar. Jesus, by the God-realization of meditation, knew he was a child of God. You can also know that you are His child. You must go to the Source. To have God is to have all power.
This drama of earthly life is to be so played that through it you might learn to know your divine Self. Jesus came, Buddha came, other great souls came, but have they saved you? No. But they have shown you the way by which you can save yourself. Just to believe in Jesus will not save you. You must make the effort to attain what he attained. “The harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are few.” You have to labour for that Infinite Consciousness.
Meditation requires that instead of praying only for the products of God, you turn your attention to the factory, God Himself. Why not go to that Source whence all creation emerges? Meditation is not a vague mental wandering; it is to be so concentrated within that hours slip away without your knowing it. By right meditation, ecstasy comes. Ecstasy is contact with the Source of all power. In ecstasy you touch that state in which anything can be done. If you persevere, a time comes when you find that the assurance and protection of God’s power never leaves you. It does not matter if the whole world is against you, if the whole world forsakes you, when you are with God. God will never forsake you. But you need to be sincere in your love for Him. You will not be successful if you seek God with any ulterior motive. It is all right to tell Him of your need, but want God Himself more than all else. Approach Him with complete surrender. Without God’s power you cannot think or will or talk or love or do anything. Why should you give more importance to other things than to Him?
God is conscious of your needs. If you appeal to Him with unconditional love and sincerity, He will answer. Do not be discouraged if He does not answer right away. That is His test. If in spite of His silence you still believe He is listening, and still keep on talking to Him, He will respond. He will answer through results. But do not look for the results. Just say, “God, I love You with all my might, with all my sincerity, with all my heart. And Lord, if I am seeking something less than You, forgive me and help me to think of You alone. Without Your wisdom, how could I understand anything? Without Your love, how could I love at all? How could I will to do anything without Your power, which is behind my will and my love and all my feelings? Why are You hiding from me? I must convince You that I love You, that I want You alone. You must reveal Yourself, for I cannot go on in my life alone. Thou art my life, Thou art my Father, Thou art my Mother, Thou art my everything. Reveal Thyself unto me!”
If you go on like this, with sincerity, He will answer. God knows everything that you are doing. You cannot fool Him. The thing He most dislikes is when you try to dissemble with Him or are insincere. Sincerity touches His heart in the greatest way. Where there is sincerity, there is God’s response. What have you to be afraid of? Do not think you have to be perfect; that is foolish. Before God, everyone in this delusive finite world can be considered a “sinner.” Just pour out your heart to Him, in the humble simplicity of a loving child.
God will not measure your defects or your merits. The preeminent merit is to be sincere with God—sincerity to Him in meditation is most important. At night or anytime you sit to meditate, meditate with all your heart and soul. When you pray with deep sincerity, all restless thoughts fall away, all sensory distractions vanish, and in that stillness you find Him coming to you. Then you will realize how wonderful life is, how great your life is, supported by the omnipresence of God’s consciousness that lies just behind your own consciousness.
Think how wonderful life will be when you have no compulsion to seek anything at all, because you have found everything you seek in God! Nothing can enslave you then. That is the freedom I am enjoying; and I pray to God that this freedom and grace be always with me. When you know that God is a part of your being, you feel no reason to seek from Him any other gain. I sought spiritual power once; but now I don’t ask God for anything. I love Him and I know He loves me; I don’t want anything else.
Whence did you get your parents and your children; and why is there hunger and nature provides food to satisfy that hunger? These things all come from God. They are part of His purposeful divine plan. His Power is so plainly working all the time in this intelligently ordered creation; and still you refuse to concentrate on that Power. He is giving you all the signs of His presence that you will receive. Why do you waste your time pursuing the gifts instead of the Giver? It is foolish to do so. Meditate! At first you will struggle with your thoughts and then with your body; but if you can go deeper into meditation, your thoughts will settle down and body will become calm and joy will come into the temple of your heart. When joy comes, you know you are contacting God. But you are too much in a hurry about meditation; you do not wait to receive His message. Meditate with calm perseverance; pray and look for His response in your heart centre. Pray again and again. When that joy comes, then notwithstanding what you are going through outwardly, you feel that everything is all right. But if you betray that joy of the Divine Presence—ignoring it in favour of material pursuits—then everything will betray you. No matter how convinced you are that this or that will make you happy, you will find that it does not.
You are alone in this world: Nobody is responsible for making you happy except yourself. Let nothing or no one cheat you out of that happiness, that all-satisfying inner joy which you will want to share with all.
You have to work for everything you need or want. Do you receive your wages without working? Do you get anything without working for it? So it is with God. You must prove to Him by your spiritual efforts that you want Him more than anything else. The minute you have proven that, He will come to you. Organizational power and all great achievements of this world are temporary. They will vanish. But the blessing of God is worth having, because that will go with you beyond the portals of the grave. Then why are you sitting idle? You must know that you are a child of God. You don’t have to earn that heritage; it is already yours. But you must reclaim it. Make God know that you want Him alone. The time that you spend in idle talk and trivialities should be spent in meditation. Then you will develop.
Everything you have that you were seeking has been given to you by God. So why forget Him? Without Him you would not have love or life or health or anything. He is the cleverest who seeks God, because that devotee is going to receive everything. Having Him, no other gain is greater. As Jesus promised: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things else shall be added unto you.” Once I had “all things,” and I willingly gave them away. I have something far greater—the love of my beloved God. I want nothing—just the joy of existence and the pleasure of talking about Him to others.
As long as the soul is forced to depend on external things it cannot be happy, because these are always changing. The soul can never be permanently satisfied with anything but the love of God. Some people learn this paramount lesson of life through wisdom and discrimination; others must learn through the slow evolutionary process of many incarnations, or by burning their fingers in the fires of sorrow. The moment you realize that in all other pursuits it was God you were seeking, then you are on the path toward your Infinite Home.
It was when I lost my mother that I began to seek God more earnestly. I sought and sought everywhere, yearning to behold again those beloved black eyes of Mother. I gave poetic voice to my anguish:
She died—
And I cried—
And I sought those lost two eyes everywhere.
I searched in the stars,
Until, bedimmed by my tears,
They twinkled black eyes everywhere.
But they were not those that I lost!
All love and affection that she gave me seemed to be gone; and I cried, “Doesn’t she love me anymore? Where has she gone?” And I cried on. As I went on crying and searching, storming the very gates of heaven with my yearning, suddenly the voice of the Divine Mother came, “Many times I have suckled thee through many breasts.” In that instant I realized that it was God I was seeking—that behind the love of my earthly mother it was the One Spirit that loved me through her form.
Looking, searching for her everywhere,
I found my Divine Mother;
And in Her love
I found my mother’s love;
And in Her omnipresent eyes,
I found those lost two black eyes.
What a wonderful realization I had! All the persons I have loved—all the friends I have had—I see that it is God who is in them, loving me and loved by me. All those who come to me—I see it is God. And where God is, there is my paradise. I seek nothing in preference to Him.
Through incarnations you have sought fulfilment of the soul’s longing for love. Sometimes you were an outcast, forsaken by the world; and in some life you have been a martyr who died for a beloved cause; and countless times a lover and a beloved, a parent and a child, and so on. In all these different loves you are like a puppet being danced by hidden strings, until at last you realize that there was only One who loved you behind all other loves—but He never wanted to tell you how much He loved you. He waits for you to discover and love Him freely and spontaneously, without compulsion. I am talking to you of the genuine love of the Spirit.
God reveals Himself to us by His humbleness. We are mere pygmies before Him, but He patiently endures the audacity of us tiny human beings. Despite His sovereign power, He does not compel us in any way. He calls us only by His love. He loves us dearly. Otherwise he would not have sent Jesus and Krishna and other Great Ones to show us the way home. With His infinite love and patience and humbleness, He is waiting for us to love Him.
God is playing hide-and-seek with us, His children. But devotees know the truth of God’s promise: “He who watcheth Me always, him do I watch. He never loses sight of Me, nor do I lose sight of him.”
One thing you must learn here on earth is that you are a child of God. When you know that, you will know that everyone is a child of God even as you are. What a tremendous realization! that all persons are of God—that everyone and everything that comes to you comes from God! The more you appreciate the divine image in everyone, the more you are alive with God’s consciousness. It is not difficult then to love all persons with love that is forgiving and compassionate and good, no matter what they do to you, because you see it is God who comes in the form of every being. In time, as you learn to love God more, you see Him within everyone—friends or enemies. If you can hate anyone, you have not realized God at all. The divine man gives his love equally to all, even as the sun gives impartially of its light.
The most difficult person you have to deal with is yourself. You refuse to work for that which is in your own highest interest. How assiduously people labour in their factories and workplaces, and yet they will not make even the least effort to know God! Why not surrender yourself to that Power? Take out a couple of hours from your sleep each night and meditate. Make the contact with God. Take my advice. When everybody else is sleeping, fall at the feet of the Spirit. You must throw shells of your yearning at the bulwark of silence. “O God of joy, I know You are here. You are just behind my thoughts—just behind the subconscious land of sleep. Reveal Yourself unto me!”
Every night the Divine Mother comes to wipe away all your mortal sorrows in the subconscious joy and freedom of sleep. But then morning comes and starts to blacken your consciousness again. Meditation brings you conscious contact with that joy. You go beyond the land of sleep and keep that joy with you during the day, so that even when you are crucified by trials you are able to say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” If you do not lose that joy no matter what comes, then you know you have God with you.
I don’t have to try anymore. He is always with me. Once in a while I feel I am in this world, but it is like a forgotten dream—because I live in that eternal wakefulness which is the only Reality. This earth is a school, a motion-picture dream-drama for your education and entertainment. Whether beholding a comedy or a tragedy in the movie theatre of this life, remember that it has no ultimate reality. Keep your consciousness attuned to the Lord, and say: “That was a great picture, but I have conquered its illusory power over me. I am not frightened by it, for You are with me always.”
That happiness in Spirit is the only thing to live for. Meditate each day; and when you have contacted that happiness, then go about your work. Without that inner awareness of God’s joy, you cannot enjoy life—indeed, you are not even truly living. Someday these things will be taught in schools. The schools do not teach children how to live, how to have that divine happiness. These universal teachings should be given in the schools—not to emphasize any particular religion, but to show that the way to happiness is meditation and contact of God, and that by such contact one may learn from God what one should do. In order to hold on to your inner happiness, never find fault with others; learn to blame and correct your own flaws. Be sincere with everyone, express kindness and love to each person. Love is the most powerful force that you can have. Love is dynamite. Humbleness is dynamite. Concentration is dynamite. These will destroy all obstacles and barriers to success. Meditation throws your concentration and the shells of your devotion against the walls of your indifference until you break through and contact that blissful Power within.
My Master shook me with his wisdom; and as I responded that realization came that I was a child of God. Those who love God and seek to commune with Him love to meditate. Here at Mount Washington you must regularly come together to meditate. And use your free time to be alone with God in meditation. There are so many wonderful places here to meditate. What of it if you do not become successful in the way the world thinks of success? To be successful with God is far more important, for that success you can take with you when this life is over. You want that contact of God of which Jesus spoke. If you have that, Jesus’ promise that “all things will be added unto you” will be fulfilled anew. Meditate on God. Seek no credit from man. Do not show your devotion to others. In your heart hoard your devotion, concentrate your devotion only on Him; and He shall speak to you. He shall guide you consciously. And in everything that comes, you shall see it is that Power which is loving and sustaining you. There is no greater security than this.
Use your God-given intelligence to find Him. Why have you to be reminded that you are here alone and that a hundred years hence you will not be known? Because you are here today and busy with life, you do not think that anything will happen to you. But “tomorrow” we will be gone. I come not to socialize or talk of useless things, but to awaken your consciousness. Now. Not tomorrow, but tonight. Take some time away from sleep and meditate. And don’t give up. Don’t succumb to sleep until you have made that contact with God. From tonight begin, and you will succeed. In every little gap of time that you have, talk to Him. And have faith that He is listening to you. He is right behind the darkness of your closed eyes; and as you talk and He listens, you will find that life becomes transformed. You will realize why your parents and family and friends love you—because of God—and you will be day and night drinking of that love direct from His presence.
No matter what weaknesses or faults you have, meditate. Talk to God again and again. And once you can get Him to talk, He will never leave you. Though contact of God may seem to be the most difficult thing, it is the easiest if you will sincerely try. The one who has made up his mind to know God will find Him. God you have already with you. You just have to know Him and receive Him in your consciousness.
It is such a joy to drink His name with all of you. That is why I say to Him, “Lord, I want only those to come who are in earnest in their desire for You and who will faithfully seek You.” I glorify not myself but Him who sent me. That is also what Jesus said. It is a beautiful saying; it is alive with truth. Every word in the New Testament is living. Yet people read these words and still want more to stimulate them! That is because they don’t meditate on those truths to convert them into their own personal realization.
I thank you for the joy of your attention. Join me in offering our united devotion to the Father. Pray for me, and I shall pray for you, that we all manifest in pure sincerity the consciousness of God. In that selfless consciousness learn to physically help people by service, to mentally help people by kindness and encouragement, and to spiritually help people by radiating the joy of God that you feel. To transmit God’s consciousness you do not have to talk much; just feel it, and automatically those around you will be uplifted. Do not seek the acclaim and testimony of man, but the testimony of God. One moon gives more light than all the stars in the heavens. Similarly, one devotee of realization that this organization will produce is greater than thousands of persons who just read Scripture and go to church once a week. So, be loyal in your activities and continuous in your habit of meditation. I do not want to hold you except by your own realization. We are not after anything but to give you realization of that Supreme Power. And that Power shall be revealed to you all if you are sincere in your loyalty, devotion, and desire for God. By heeding the simple truths I give you, you can find God. You don’t need a new religion. You know what God wants; what you need is to live by it. What I have told you tonight, please practise that in your life every day.
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