Paramahansa Yogananda - Inner Peace: How to Be Calmly Active and Actively Calm

About This Book

Inner Peace: How to Be Calmly Active and Actively Calm is a compilation of extracts from Paramahansa Yoganandas writings, lectures, and informal talks. These selections originally appeared in his books, in articles in Self-Realization (the magazine he founded in 1925), in the three anthologies of his collected talks and essays, and in other Yogoda Satsanga Society of India/Self-Realization Fellowship publications.

Copyright 1999, 2017 Self-Realization Fellowship

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Ebook edition, 2017.
ISBN: 978-81-89955-10-6 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-93-83203-75-8 (Kindle edition)

Contents

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Preface

By Sri Sri Daya Mata

(1914-2010)

Third President and Sanghamata (1955-2010) of Yogoda Satsanga Society of India/Self-Realization Fellowship

Peace, serenity, inner balance are mere words until we actually see their expression in someone we meetor feel their manifestation in ourselves. Throughout my twenty-some years with Paramahansa Yogananda, I was blessed to experience daily the indescribable aura of peace that emanated from him; it empowered him with a remarkable ability to put all who came to him in touch with the deep well-spring of peace in their own souls.

Our eras advances in technology have been amazing, but oftentimes they seem to improve outer conditions only at the high cost of increased stress and complexity in our personal lives. As the quest for balance becomes more and more of a priority, people the world over are realising that perhaps the most necessary new science is an ancient one: Yoga, whose timeless methods of harmonising body, mind, and soul offer a truly effective system for attaining inner peace.

From the wisdom-trove of Paramahansa Yogananda, we are taught the most valuable of yoga postures: to stand unshaken, as he often put it, midst the crash of breaking worlds. To become unshakably anchored in inner security, in the peace which passeth all understandingthat is the promise genuine spirituality can fulfil, and that is the focus of this present volume.

Calm inner serenity, Paramahansa Yogananda taught, does not require a timid withdrawal from energetic active pursuits. Indeed, his own extraordinary outer accomplishments of successfully pioneering Indias teachings of meditation in the West required the utmost of a dynamic, creative personality. He carried on his work not primarily in some secluded hideaway, but in the bustle of cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angelesin the noisiest and most restless places on the planet! Yet he was always joyously centred in the native imperturbable calmness of the soul.

One of his followers favourite stories about Paramahansaji is of a spontaneous demonstration (fortunately never repeated) of the power of that peace. In New York City, three robbers with guns accosted him on the street. He simply gazed at them, and said: Do you want money? Take it. He held out his wallet. Inexplicably, the gunmen made no move. In his presence, they were completely transfixed by the spiritual vibrations he radiated. Finally one of them blurted out: Beg your pardon. We cant do it. They turned and ran away.

Whenever he was in public places, people passing by would stop and stare at him, and ask us who were with him, Who is he? Who is that man? There was always about him a quiet, tangible vibration that drew people to him.

In this compilation we have gatheredfrom Paramahansajis comprehensive books, essays, lectures, and talks to his studentsa sampling of wisdom that you can apply to experience as a daily reality the tranquility and assurance of which he speaks. This handbook will introduce you to the spectrum of principles and practical advice he gave for creating a blessed inner harmony: the art of creative outer activity without losing peace of mind; methods of stress removal and relaxation; identifying and transcending disturbing emotional statesanger, fear, worry, oversensitivitythe enemies of inner serenity; and, most important, communion with the divine source of peace in the depths of your own soul, the temple of God within you.

Peace of the soul mends fragmented personal and family harmony, and also the disintegrating fabric of our communities. It has the power, if taken as a way of life, to bring balance and healing to your existence; your vibration of peacefulness, in turn, will touch all who cross your path and will contribute in a profound way to the cause of lasting peace in our global family.

Los Angeles

August 1999

Though many persons think of yoga primarily in terms of physical postures and exercises (hatha yoga), the term properly refers to a comprehensive system of meditation and balanced spiritual living whose ultimate aim is union of the individual soul with the infinite Spirit.

Peace

Paramahansa Yogananda

Peace flows through my heart, and blows through me as a zephyr.

Peace fills me like a fragrance.

Peace runs through me like rays.

Peace stabs the heart of noise and worries.

Peace burns through my disquietude.

Peace, like a globe of fire, expands and fills my omnipresence.

Peace, like an ocean, rolls on in all space.

Peace, like red blood, vitalizes the veins of my thoughts.