Live the Life Shown by the Great Ones
By Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

A talk given at Self-Realization Fellowship Temple, Encinitas, California

If you can realize God in this life, then your work is finished. When God comes, you see your body, mind, and soul transformed into the consistency of God’s nature. Being made in the image of God, you can and should reflect that image in the incarnate instrumentality of your threefold being.

Let us meditate. Feel that you are charged with the creative, life-sustaining energy of God. Feel that the everlasting consciousness of God is manifesting in your body, erasing the mortal consciousness of past failures, fear, disease, old age. Repeat this thought with deep attention: “Father, Thou art present in my body, in my mind, in my soul. I am made in Thine image. Bless my body, mind, and soul, that they shine with Thine everlasting youth, power, immortality, and joy. Aum. Peace. Amen.”

God is our Father and Mother, our Friend and Beloved. Many religionists teach you to fear God, but that is wrong. No matter what our mistakes, He knows them and forgives us. He is waiting right around the corner of life to greet us, if we would only acknowledge our mistakes and seek Him through love. “Father, Thou art ours. We seek Thee not through fear but through love. It is our privilege to love Thee. We are made in Thine image, and we love Thee from our hearts—first, last, and always.”

Don’t Be Busy With the Faults of Others
From childhood, there should be emphasis on the importance of educating our young people in developing their moral and spiritual consciousness. That training is essential, because the universal principles of virtue are the foundation of a happy and successful life. And among the first lessons is to learn how to introspect to keep a watchful eye on the correctness of one’s own thoughts and behaviour, and to avoid the divisive habit of criticizing and judging others. One should criticize and change oneself first.

A woman is standing at a window looking at the passer-by. A kindly man comes along and thinks, “She is waiting for her son.” A sensual man goes by and thinks, “She is waiting for her lover.” A sociable person passes and thinks, “She is waiting for a friend.” So it is in this world, that the state of consciousness you have created within will impose itself on all your perceptions.

What you spitefully criticize in others is often a reflection of some flaw within yourself. Therefore, do not busy yourself with others’ faults; be busy changing your own. If you follow this effort to perfect yourself, you will find God. Those who have found God, who have been asked by Him to be gurus, are the ones whose job it is to be busy with correcting the lives of others. A guru has ironed out the troublesome mental kinks of his own ego, and can therefore see others with eyes of soul-wisdom and divine love. Without that self-mastery, if you try to be a “guru” of others you will lose yourself. That is why in Self-Realization Fellowship [Yogoda Satsanga Society of India] we emphasize individualized study.

As Jesus taught, “Judge not others.... Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”** If I were to dare any one of you to stand up in public and speak of all the wrongs you have done, you could not bear to subject yourself to such humiliation. Those who have erred do not need your kicks of denunciation; they need your loving hand in assistance. “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” So before you cast aspersions on anyone else, always ask yourself, “Am I without error?” Then, mindful of your own need for love and forgiveness, give that love to all.

Seek the Certificate of God’s Approval
Only love can redeem the world. That is the rallying cry of Christ. It is not necessarily those who call themselves Christians, but rather those who live Christlike lives, who are recognized by Christ. Recognition from man means nothing. Jesus didn’t care what people called him. Despite all the people he divinely helped and healed, many nonunderstanding persons said he did those works in league with the devil. Yet today millions follow him, because he lived by his ideals, unafraid of popular opinion. He was conscious only of having the certificate of God’s approval.

This is God’s world. Dedicate yourself to Him. I no longer do anything of my own will. I have dedicated my body, mind, and soul to Him; and as He leads me, I follow. I stand against the world if the Lord so commands me. Life is simple when God’s will, not our own desires, becomes the criterion by which we choose our actions.

As human beings endowed with free will we have some independence; but it is when we use our free will to attune ourselves with His will that we feel our divine nature as His children. Then we become like Him. Otherwise we are just puppets of maya-delusion and past karma. Worldly persons forget that. Instead, they are like little Napoleons! They behave as though their ego were the supreme authority in life. They assert their little power for their own wishes, not God’s, and sooner or later the karmic hammer falls on their head to wake them from that delusion.

Even a Moment of Yearning for God Will Ultimately Save You
Do not be afraid of God because of what you have done in the past. The past is gone; it is beyond your control. What is done, is done; you cannot go back and change it, so why continue to berate yourself? You can atone only by becoming better now. Live the life shown by the Great Ones. And remember: All those who are wandering in the valley of dark delusion, whoever among them has given even a little thought to God—even a momentary yearning for Him—that desire shall ultimately save them.

There are millions today who do not want God. They could not use their brains for one instant without the power of God that invisibly sustains them; yet they shudder at His name. God does not punish them, but they punish themselves; for, being made in the image of God, if we do not live a pure life we will suffer. Our souls are divine; and unless we reflect that godly image in our thoughts and actions, we can never be lastingly happy. Marriage, wealth, health—nothing will satisfy. If you are not trying to achieve the purpose of life—realization of your innate divinity—happiness will elude you. There will always be some canker, some void of unfulfilment.

Suffering, created by your wrong living, is the call of God. When you suffer, it is a reminder not to stray from the heavenly consciousness of your true divine nature. But you should not need painful reminders. God prefers that you instead heed the call of wisdom. Realize that even though today you are so filled with life, enjoying the world around you, sooner or later you will suddenly be snatched away by death. Nothing in the world will be able to bring you back. Why wait until it is too late to reflect on the purpose for which you are here? You are not an animal; you have the power to think and reason and plan; and that power you must use to find God.

Finding God in Your Busy Life
India shows the way. Of all the nations in the world, India has for millenniums been the most sincere in seeking God. Some of her saints have sat fifty years in secluded caves, seeking Him day and night in meditation. They found the answer—the practices that scientifically bring communion with Him—and that answer tells us how to find God in this busy life.

Those who will meditate and love God shall see Him. You make excuses, saying: “O God, if I had a little more money, or if I had a little better health, or if this or that were different in my life, then I would seek You.” In this way you are always missing the goal—never finding happiness, never understanding the purpose of life. But why beg to have small favours or material conveniences? Have Him who is the source of all things. Have Him!
The Lord says: “To men who meditate on Me as their Very Own, ever united to Me by incessant worship, I supply their deficiencies and make permanent their gains.”* This has been demonstrated in my life. Five or six times I have parted with everything I had; but I received everything again direct from His hands. When God gives, He gives from His heart. He gives in abundance.

Heed the Wisdom-Call of Divine Awakening
In India we seek spiritual guidance from those souls who know God. We don’t follow just anybody. “The blind cannot lead the blind.” Would you make an important purchase from a salesman who misrepresents a product because he does not understand what he sells? A teacher without some God-realization is merely a spiritual victrola that may grind out a sermon, but doesn’t know what it is all about. It is the greatest farce to pose as a spiritual representative unless you are making a sincere effort to commune with God and realize the truths you preach. I received that exhortation from my Master, and I live in that communion with God and truth day and night. That is all I live for. Now I know it was God who loved me through my parents and relatives and friends. Having His love, I have everything.

So, find Him. You will never be happy until you do. That is the keynote of life. He is calling you. Each one of you who is sympathetic with that thought has responded to the wisdom-call of God within you; and that is why you are here in this temple today.

Some persons sleep very deeply, and others are easily awakened. Some awaken for a little while and then go back to sleep. And there are those who awaken in the morning and get up, but as soon as they are left alone they go back to bed. Finally, there are those who wake up at dawn and jump out of the bed, ready to take on the day, with no inclination to go back to sleep again. In the same way, there are those who are totally asleep in delusion and never respond to Truth; and those whose interest is aroused for a little while when coaxed (by a spiritual teacher or by suffering); and those who take up the path for a longer time, but lack the will to persevere and eventually drift away. But blessed are those who respond at once to the call of God, and taking up the search for Him in earnest, never waste time anymore.

God Will Guide You in Everything
I am speaking the philosophy that will save you. And I want to give you the techniques that will teach you scientifically how to commune with God now. If you follow this path and meditate in the right way, you can know Him. The scientist does not get his inventions or discoveries merely by praying for them. He has to apply the laws pertinent to his area of research. So must you apply the spiritual laws that will enable you to progress scientifically and surely toward God. Sermons alone will not suffice. They are given only to whet your appetite for God. Practise of the scientific techniques of meditation, and love for God, will take you to Him. Again and again meditate and pray at night with all your heart, forgetting everything but Him. That is how you will find Him.

When by consistent practise your meditation begins to deepen, you may see a little light or hear the astral sounds or see a vision of some saint. At first you tend to discount it as only hallucination; but as you go on with yearning and devotion, applying the law, you see that wonderful things begin to happen in your life in mysterious ways. Five years before this place [the Encinitas Ashram Centre] was given to us, I saw in vision the large central hall of the Hermitage, and I told someone it would one day be ours. In the same way, God is responsive to you; He will sustain and guide you in everything—in the selection of your friends or business partners or in everyday decisions—when you will be in tune with Him.

Why should you look for Him in some distant heaven beyond the skies? Our hearts would not beat without the indwelling life of God. We could not speak without borrowing His power and intelligence. The yogi realizes: “O Father, Thou art just behind my vision with which I see Thy beauty without.”

When you really feel divine love, you are nearer to God than at any other time. He is so near, and yet so far away—farthest of the far to those that are constantly rambling and wandering in the wilderness of delusion, and nearest of the near in the heart of the yogi who loves Him and who sees Him within.

So follow this path of Self-Realization [Yogoda Satsanga], whose techniques give you that personal realization of His presence. Let us give thanks to the Heavenly Father with all our hearts for giving us Christ and the Great Ones as our examples to follow. May all God’s children follow their example, that a united states of the world may be established with His guidance leading us to His kingdom. His divine emissaries have told us to live as brothers. Christ wanted us to feel “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.”* May that peace reign among men, and the havoc created by wars of nonunderstanding and selfishness be smoothed out by divine love.

Meditate. Feel the great love of God in your heart, and extend that love to all nations of the earth, that it contribute toward removing the cause of wars.
Now affirm with me: “Father, Mother, Friend, Beloved God, I feel Thy divine love within me. I extend that love to all the nations of the earth, that they may stop fighting and be merged and soothed and saved in the infinite peace and divine love of Thine Omnipresent Consciousness. May Thy peace and love reign on earth forever and forever.”