The Experience of God - in the words of Paramahamsa Yogananda

THE LORD’S PRAYER

by Paramahansa Yogananda  from "Whispers from' Eternity"

  

O Heavenly Father, Mother, Friend, Beloved God! may our

ceaseless silent utterance of Thy holy Name transform us to Thy

likeness.

Inspire us/ that our matter worship be changed to adoration

of Thee. Through our purified hearts may Thy perfect kingdom

come on earth, and all nations be liberated from misery. Let the

soul freedom within us be manifested outwardly.

May our wills grow strong in overcoming worldly desires and

finally be attuned to Thy faultless will.

Give us our daily bread: food, health, and prosperity for

the body; efficiency for the mind; and, above all, Thy love and

wisdom for the soul.

It is Thy law that "with the same measure ye mete, it shall

be measured to you." May we forgive those who offend us/ ever

mindful of our own need for Thine unmerited mercy. ,

Leave us not in the pit of temptations into which we have

fallen through our misuse of Thy gift of reason. Shouldst Thou

wish to test us O Spirit, may we realize Thou art enchanting beyond

any earthly temptation.

Help us to deliver ourselves from the shadowy bonds of the

sole evil: ignorance of Thee.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

IN THE NIGHTLY GARDEN OF DREAMS

In the nightly garden of my dreams grow many blossoms:

the rarest flowers of my fancy. There, warmed by

the astral dream-light, unopened buds of earthly hopes

audaciously spread petals of fulfillment.

In the dream glow I spy specters of beloved forgotten

faces; and sprites of dear, dead feelings, long

buried in the soil of subconsciousness. All arise in

shining robes.At the trumpet call of dream angels I

behold the resurrection of all past experiences.

Lord, Thou hast given us freedom to forget our daily

troubles by nightly visits to dreamland. May we escape

from mortal sorrows forever by awakening in Thee.

 THE DIVINE GYPSY

I will be a gypsy—

Roam,roam, and roam.

I will sing a song that none has sung!

I will sing to the sky,

I will sing to the winds,

I'll sing to my red clouds!

I'll roam, roam, and roam--

King of the lands through which I roam.

By day, the shady trees will be my tent,

At night, the stars shall be

My candles, twinkling in the firmament;

And I will call the moon to be my lamp

And light my silver, skyey camp.

I will be a gypsy--

Roam, roam, and roam.

I will eat the food that chance may bring;

I will drink from crystal sparkling spring;

I will doff my cap and off will go,

Like a wayward brook of long ago;

I will roll o'er the green

And scatter the joy of all my heart

To birds, leaves, winds, hills--then depart

 To stranger and stranger lands, from East to West.

Oh! I will be a gypsy--

Roam, roam, and roam!

But always, when I lay me down to rest,

I'll sing to Thee my gypsy prayer,

And find Thee, always, everywhere (within me).

PRAYER

O Divine Mother, .I often heard Thy gentle voice saying:

"Come home," but it was drowned in the noises of the wild cravings

of many ·lives. Now I have forsaken the jostling crowds of

desires. In the solitude of my mind, my devotion is bursting to

hear Thy voice again.

AFFIRMATION

I will make a bonfire of all my desires for

material possessions and burn them in the one

great ever-increasing flame of desire that seeks

only to know Thee.

DIVINE LOVE

O Love, thou art the mystic echo from the caverns of heart,

And the inaudible voice of feeling.

Thou art the unseen charmer of souls.

Thou art the fountain flowing from the bosom of friendship.

Thou art the Divine Cupid, enticing mystic souls

To pierce the heart of all living things.

Thou art the silent language of souls,

And the invisible ink that lovers use

To write letters on the pages of their hearts.

Thou art the mother of all affections,

And in Thy breast throbs the heart of God.

Love is the silent conversation between two hearts,

And it is the call of God to all creatures,

Animate and inanimate,

To return to His house of Oneness.

Love is the heartbeat of all life,

And the angel of incarnation.

Love is born in the garden of soul progress,

And it sleeps behind the darkness of outer attachments.

It is the oldest and the sweetest nectar,

Preserved in the bottles of hearts.

Love is the light that dissolves all walls

Between souls, families, and nations.

Love is the unfading blossom of pure friendship

In the garden of both young and mature souls".

Love is the door to heaven, the completed songs of souls.

PRAYER

I come to Thee with the song of my smiles.

Whatever treasures lie in the secret safe of my

soul, I have brought eagerly to Thee. I have

brought all the honey from the hive of my

heart. Whatsoever is mine, that also is Thine.

The taper of my happiness will merge with Thy

blaze of Bliss.

 AFFIRMATION

I am the resistless fire of smiles. I shall fan myself

with the breeze of God-Joy and shall blaze my way through the

darkness of all minds. My smiles will bear His smiles, and

whoever meets me will catch my divine joy. I shall strew fragrant

purifying torches of smiles in all hearts.

GOD! GOD! GOD!

From the depths of slumber,

As I ascend the spiral stairway of wakefulness,

I whisper:

God! God! God!

Thou art the food, and when I break my fast

Of nightly separation from Thee,

I taste Thee, and mentally say:

God! God! God!

No matter where I go, the spotlight of my mind

Ever keeps turning on Thee;

And in the battle din of activity, my silent war-cry is ever:

God! God! God!

When boisterous storms of trials shriek

And worries howl at me,

I drown their noises, loudly chanting:

God! God! God!

When my mind weaves dreams

With threads of memories,

On that magic cloth I do emboss:

God! God! God!

Every night, in time of deepest sleep,

My peace dreams and calls: Joy! Joy! Joy!

And my joy comes singing evermore:

God! God! God!

In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping,

Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving,

My soul constantly hums, unheard by any:

God! God! God!

PRAYER

Teach me, O God, to sow the seeds of wisdom, health,

prosperity, and happiness in the garden of my life.

FOR THEE I WAS MADE

I was made for Thee alone. I was made for dropping

flowers of devotion gently at Thy feet on the altar of the morning.

My hands were made to serve Thee willingly; to remain

folded in adoration, waiting for Thy coming; and

when Thou comest, to bathe Thy feet with my tears.

My voice was made to sing Thy glory.

My feet were made to seek Thy temples everywhere.

My eyes were made a chalice to hold Thy burning love

and the wisdom falling from Thy nature's hands.

My ears were made to catch the music of Thy footsteps

echoing through the halls of space, and to hear Thy

divine melodies flowing through all heart-tracts of devotion.

My lips were made to breathe forth Thy praises and Thine

intoxicating inspirations.

My love was made to throw incandescent searchlight flames

to find Thee hidden in the forest of my desires.

My heart was made to respond to Thy call alone.

My soul was made to be the channel through which Thy

love might flow uninterruptedly into all thirsty souls.

PRAYER

O Divine Sculptor, chisel

Thou my life to Thy design.

AFFIRMATION

,

All my powers are but powers borrowed from Thee.

No one is greater than Thou, O my Father. I cease to

live and express without Thy wisdom and strength. Thou

art so big; I am so little. Teach me not to be proud.

THY MAGIC POWER

Make my eyes behold what Thou dost see.

Make my ears catch the bursting of Thy voice

In the billows of all creation.

Make my speech the fountain of nectared words

Showered over souls scorched with bitterness.

Make my lips utter naught but the songs

Of Thy love and joy.

Beloved, work through me the work of truth.

Keep my hands busy serving all my brothers.

Keep my voice forever casting seeds of love

For Thee on the soil of seeking souls.

Keep my feet ever moving on the pathway

Of right action.

Lead me from dark ignorance to Thy light of wisdom,

Lead me from temporary pleasures

To Thine ever new joy within.

Make my love Thy love,

That I may know all things as mine.

Father, throb through my heart and make me feel

Sympathy for all living creatures.

Kindle in me the flame of Thy wisdom

And burn the dark forest of my mundane desires.

Let Thy reason be the preceptor of my reason.

Think through my thoughts,

For it is Thy magic power

Which uses my mind as Thy mind,

My hands as Thy hands,

My feet as Thy feet,

My soul as Thy spirit to perform Thy holy works.

PRAYER

Divine Mother, teach me to till

the soil of my mind with discipline,

and sow the seeds of good habits.

AFFIRMATION

I form new habits of thinking by seeing the

good everywhere, and in beholding all things as

the perfect idea of God made manifest.

THE ONLY REALITY

I take a sacred vow!

Never will I throw my love's gaze

Below the horizon of my constant thought of Thee!

Never will I take down the vision of my lifted eyes

And place it on aught but Thee!

Never will I turn my mind to do anything

Which reminds me not of Thee!

I will abhor nightmares of ignorant acts.

I will love dreams of noble achievements.

I will love all dreams of goodness,

For they are Thy dreams.

I may dream many dreams.

But I am ever awake thinking of Thee.

In the sacred fire of constant remembrance

Burning on my soul's altar,

I will ever behold Thy face

With my ever watchful eyes of love.

Through Thy grace, I know that health and sickness,

Life and death, are but dreams.

When I finish my dream story of good dreams

And awaken behind the world-painted screen of delusion,

I shall behold Thee as the One Reality.

PRAYER

O Divine Shepherd of Infinite Perception, rescue the lambkins

of my thoughts, lost in the wilderness of restlessness, and lead

them into the fold of silence.

***

AFFIRMATION

I will find Thy presence on the altar

of my constant peace, and in the joy that

springs from deep meditation.

PRAYER

Divine Mother, let the magic wand of my intuition stop the

gale of passions and unnecessary desires, and in the rippleless

lake of my mind, let me behold the undistorted reflection of the

moon of my soul, glistening with the light of Thy presence.

***

MAY I ACT FROM FREE CHOICE, NOT HABIT

Teach me, O Father, to seek the soul's

lasting happiness rather than temporary sense pleasures.

Strengthen my will power, that I escape

from bad habits and reform myself by meditation

and the influence of spiritually minded companions.

Give me the wisdom to follow happily the

ways of righteousness. May I develop the soul

faculty of discrimination that detects evil, in

even its subtlest forms; and that guides me to

the humble paths of goodness.

I would direct my life by the God-given

power of free choice, not by the compulsions of

hardened habits.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, teach me to contact Thee first and thus

harness my will and activity to the right goal.

YOU WERE HIDING FROM HIM

Forsake the tipsy dance of forgetfulness! Be sobered by

the understanding that you must not neglect to honor the Silent

Guest in your temple. Forgive your enemies but not yourself-the

greatest enemy of your own Self, who forgets to befriend

your Best Friend waiting in the temporary parlor of your life.

The light of life is waning, and darkness is approaching

fast. Kindle the unextinguishable lamp of love, that by its

light you may behold Him when the chimerical gloom of death

throws its curtain of darkness around you.

You were away and He was here in your heart, always waiting

and waiting for you, and now you come whining that you

have been waiting for Him. It is you who have been hiding

from Him. And now that you have found Him, you must lose

sight of Him no more in the self-woven cocoon of your own unknowing.

Open your error-drunken eyes and behold the light,

tapping at the gates of your closed eyelids. Open the inner

eye of silence! Behold Him spread allover your being. Pull

off the veil of sorrow, and find His blissful presence. Remove

the self-created darkness of delusion and behold aim right

within your bosom.

You ran away from your all-containing soul-home to stay in

the dark hovel of evanescent pleasure. Now come and behold

your home of all-fulfillment within you. He has not been hiding

from you--you have ever been hiding from Him!

PRAYER

O Father, teach me to realize Thy nearness behind the voice of

my prayer. Teach me to breathe Thy breath in my own breathing.

***

I WILL DRINK OF THEE

O Divine Gardener, till the wild soil of my mind with

the plough of Thy wisdom and sow therein the seeds of my

devotion. Under Thine unvarying vigilance, the seeds will

sprout and yield a harvest of Thy blessings.

In the winepress of my heart I will convert those luscious

blessings into the nectar of Thy love. I will fill

the spacious bottle of my soul with the aged wine of Thy

love, and I will ask all my thoughts and feelings, and all

my wisdom and intuition, to be joyous with the intoxicating

wine of Thy constant affection.

I shall never be content drinking Thee out of the cask

of silence. I want to pour Thee into the truth-thirsty

mouths of all minds. I want to drink Thee and dance with

Thee. Young and old, man and woman, all my brothers and

sisters, must drink Thee with me, for it is more thrilling

to drink Thee with others whom we love, and with all Thy

children whom we should love.

I will dance, filled with Thee, and I will dance with

all those who are saturated with Thee. We will dance with

Thee and Lady Blossoms, Mother Moon, Sister Stars, and the

Guardian Sun--all will join us in our joyous, ever new,

rhythmic dance of Eternity in cadence with the soul-melting

melody of the music of the spheres.

Ah, I will drink Thee and will dance with Thee eternally

in the ever changing scenes of time.

AFFIRMATION

I will acquire divinely deep concentration

and then use its unlimited power

to meet life's God-given demands.

THE DEVOTEE"S ASPIRATION

I shall be a Niagara Falls, my joy thundering

in a ceaseless cascade. The powerful flood will

sweep away the heavy logs of others' difficulties.

I shall be a tornado of laughter, toppling

the timbers and towers of sorrow. Zooming over

endless miles of mentalities, I shall demolish

their troubles.

I shall be lightning flashes in the night,

breathtakingly bringing to view the panorama of

Thy beauty--long hidden by the darkness of unseeing eyes.

I shall be moonbeams of bliss, banishing

melancholy from the earth.

I shall be rays of light, putting to flight

the gloom that lurks in recesses of human thought.

Through Thy grace the sudden shafts of wisdom will

dispel error accumulations of countless centuries.

PRAYER

SUPERIOR LASTING HAPPINESS

Thou art sacred perennial joy; Thou art the joy I seek;

Thou art the lasting joy of the soul. Teach me to worship Thee

through the joy born of meditation and doing good, and not

through pleasures born of the misguided senses.

***

AFFIRMATION

O Prodigious Power, I am renewed

and strengthened by Thine inexhaustible

 life giving energy.

MY LOVE TOLD ME TO LOVE THEE ALONE

As winter came with its garment of cold lily flakes,

My desires for summer joys were dulled

And I was told to seek the warmth of Thy heart.

As spring came dancing, decked with myriad flowers

And sprinkled with wild perfumes,

It told me to love Thee.

Summer came singing through leaves and swishing through pines,

Urging me to sing of Thee.

Even the soft-hearted sod caressed my hasty footsteps

And cautioned them tenderly to approach Thy temple everywhere.

And the fragrance told me to follow its trail

To Thy secret cloister in the forest of pollen.

And the birds told me I should try to sing of Thee as they were doing.

And the breeze, blowing over the lake,

Roused the ripples of my devotion to play over Thy bosom.

And with the bowed blades of grass I learned to bow my head to Thee.

The incense told me how fragrant Thou art

And that I should make my heart perpetually burn with sweet-scented goodness

Before Thy throne everywhere.

The mute, downtrodden, uncomplaining little stones

Told me to behold Thee in those people

Who try to tread upon my happiness.

And the foolish forgotten years told me

To send a message of love encased in every second.

And every thought told me to seek Thy hiding place in their hearts.

And my love told me to love all things in Thee,

And my love whispered to me to love Thee alone.

PRAYER

O Spirit, teach me to relax and cast aside all

mental burdens, allowing Thee to express through me

as perfect health, peace, love, and wisdom.

O SPIRIT, I WORSHIP THEE IN ALL SHRINES

Into the temple of peace come Thou, O Lord of Joy!

Enter my shrine of meditation, O Bliss God! Sanctify me with Thy presence.

Eternal Allah, hover over the lone minaret of my holy aspiration. The mosque of my mind exudes a frankincense of stillness.

On the altar of my inner vihara I place flowers of desirelessness. Their chaste beauty is Thine, O Spirit!

In a tabernacle not made with hands, I bow before the sacred ark and vow to keep Thy commandments.

Heavenly Father, in an invisible church built of devotion granite, receive Thou my humble heart offerings, daily renewed by prayer.

---From “Whispers of Eternity”---

By Paramahamsa Yogananda