Paramahansa Yogananda

“ Fill your mind with devotion and with will, feeling the former in the heart and the latter in its physiological center of generation in between the eyebrows. Cast away anxiety, distrust, worry. Realize calmly that the Divine Law works and is All-Powerful only when you do not shut it out by doubt or disbelief. Faith and concentration allow it to operate unhampered. Hold the thought that all bodily states are changeable and curable and that the consciousness of anything being chronic is a delusion. ”

“ Ignorance of the laws of mental hygiene, and of the spiritual art of living are responsible for all human bodily and material suffering. If the mind is free from the mental bacteria of anger, worry, fear, etc., and the Soul is free from ignorance, no material disease or lack can follow. We do not want sickness in body, mind or soul. We do not need medicine, or mental or spiritual healing if we are well. By ignorance we break the laws of harmony by which the body was created perfectly by the Spirit, and then we seek methods of cure. ”

“ The mind must sink itself into the deepest conscious state, NOT UNCONSCIOUSNESS, or absent-mindedness, or sleep, but such a focused concentrated state of absolute consciousness that all thoughts are sunk and merged into the one state, like particles drawn to an irresistible magnet. ”

“ For those who have not attained to this Cosmic Consciousness, it is useless to emphasize the importance of medical aid, or to totally ignore it; or to emphasize the importance of mental aid, or to totally ignore it. While the superiority of mental aid and the healing power of the mind over the healing power of drugs is undeniable, still the limited healing or death-dealing power of herbs and drugs can also not be denied. In employing mental aid, there is no necessity for scorn at all physical methods of cure, for they are the outcome of investigation into God's material laws. ”

“ Think that as you are the child of God you have access to all things that belong to your Father. Doubt not; when you want anything, cast away the connsciousness of failure, realize that all things are your own. Subconscious habits of ignorance and disbelief in this law have deprived us of our Divine heritage. Those who crave to utilize the resources of Divine Supply must destroy this wrong mentality by steady effort saturated with infinite confidence. Thus when the conscious, sub-conscious and super-conscious methods of success are combined, success will surely come. ”

“ Words that are saturated with sincerity, conviction, faith and intuition are just like highly explosive vibration bombs, which when let out, are sure to explode the rocks of difficulties and create the change desired. Avoid speaking unpleasant words, even though they are true. Words must be intoned according to the convictions within. Sincere words or affirmations repeated understandingly, feelingly and willingly are sure to move the Omnipresent Cosmic Vibratory Force and render you aid in your difficulty. ”

“ The God-Given Power of Man It should be remembered that there is nothing greater in power than the Cosmic Consciousness or God. The Power of Cosmic Consciousness is greater than the power of your mind or the mind of others. Thus you should seek Its aid alone. But this does not mean that you should make yourself passive, inert or credulous, or that you should minimize the power of your mind. Remember God helps those that help themselves. He gave you will power, concentration, faith, reason and common sense to help yourself in your bodily or mental afflictions. ”

“ My body cells are made of light My fleshly cells are made of Thee They are perfect, for Thou art perfect They are healthy, 25 for Thou art health They are spirit, for Thou art so They are immortal, for Thou art living. ”

“ Spiritual Power of Man's Word Man's word is Spirit in man. Words are sounds occasioned by the vibrations of thoughts. Thoughts are vibrations sent forth by the Ego or Soul. Every word that leaves your mouth ought to be potent with your genuine soul vibration. Words in most people are lifeless because they are automatically put forth into the ether, without being impregnated with soul force. Too much talking, exaggeration or falsehood used in connection with words is just like shooting bullets out of a toy gun, without the gun-powder. ”

“ As long as one eats, why should he deny that medicines or other material aids are without effect on the body? They are useful as long as only the material consciousness is present. They have their limitations, however, because they are applied from outside. The best methods are those which help the internal Life Energy to resume its healing activities.
Medicine chemically helps the blood and tissues. Use of electrical devices is also of benefit. But neither medicine nor electricity can cure disease; they can only stimulate or coax the Life Energy back to the neglected diseased body part. ”

“ Auto-suggestion and will-affirmations are unconscious methods of stimulating the Life Energy, but because purely mental healing methods do not consciously work with the Life Energy and use willing without establishing a physiological connection, therefore they are not efficacious in all cases of disease. If conscious will and co-operation with Life Energy be added, results are much more successful. But cure is certain if psycho-physical methods, together with will, faith and reason are blended together to direct the Life Energy and to reach the super-consciousness. ”

“ The attention of most people is fixed solely on the cure of bodily diseases, because the latter are so tangible and obvious. They do not realize that their mental troubles of fear, despair, bereavement, worry, violent anger, lack of self-control, and their spiritual suffering through ignorance of the clue to the mystery and meaning of human life are still more important and overpowering, and that all physical diseases originate in mental and spiritual inharmony. ”

“ But remember in using your own will power or common sense to get rid of a difficulty or disease, you must not rely wholly on, or harness yourself solely to, your Ego and thus disconnect yourself from the Divine Force. Always during affirmations or prayer vibrations feel that you are using your own but God - given power to heal yourself or others. Always believe that it is not God only but yourself also who, as His beloved child, tries to employ His given will, reason, etc., to react on the difficult problems of life. ”

“ The divinity in man warns him against over-indulgence and immoderation in the use of any of these sense-fruits, but especially against the wrong use of the apple of sex-force, situated in the center of this bodily Garden of Eden. By allowing the serpent of evil curiosity and the Eve or weak feminine nature in him to tempt him to transgress the law of regulated and non-identified sense experience, man is driven from his perfect garden of Bliss Consciousness and loses the joy of self-control. ”

“ Effort and attention are absolutely necessary to arouse faith or will or imagination, which, when stimulated, automatically impels the Life Energy to effect a cure. Desire or expectation for results weakens the force of attention. Without will or faith, Life Energy remains asleep, and cure cannot take place.
It takes time to reawaken a weakened will, faith or imagination in a patient suffering from chronic disease, because his brain cells are grooved with the consciousness of disease habits.. ”

“ It is better to die (if death has to come) with the conviction of being cured than with the consciousness of a mental or bodily ailment being incurable. Another fact should always be remembered--though death may be the necessary end of the body according to present human knowledge, still it has no fixed time, rather, even if it has, it car be modified or changed by the superr-conscious power of the Soul. As such, all affirmations, it order to reach the Super-conscious, must be free from all uncertainties, doubts and inattention. ”

“ Coue wants to cure all persons by autosuggestion only. But the diseased person of an intellectual type is not susceptible to suggestion, and can only be influenced by a metaphysical discussion of the power of consciousness over body. He needs to understand mentally the power of the mind over the body. If he can realize, for instance,, that blisters can be produced by hypnosis, as Professor James points out in his "Principles of Psychology," similarly he can understand the power of the mind to cure disease. If the mind can produce ill health it can also produce good health. ”

“ The sub-conscious habit of disease or health consciousness exerts a strong influence on the continuity of chronic diseases. Chronic mental or physical diseases have always a deep root in the subconscious mind. In a mental or physical disturbance, one ought to be able to pull out its roots in the sub-conscious mind. That is why all affirmations practised by the conscious mind ought to be impressive enough to stay as mental habits in the sub-conscious mind, which would in turn again automatically influence the conscious mind. ”

“ What is the difference between the experiences of the sleeping man under the influence of a dream,-experiences of matter as embodied in the bodies of himself and his dead friend, the garden, heat and cold, etc., and experiencees of consciousness as displayed in his recognition of himself and his friend, of his awareness of the garden, heat and cold, etc.--what, then, is the difference between these experiences of the dream state, and the experiences of his waking state? ”

“ Consciousness is the vibration of Its subjective nature, and vibration is the manifestation of Its objective nature. In one phase, the Spirit appears as the universe of objectified vibratory matter, with its billlions of units of Life Energy, atoms, molecules, gases, liquids, solids, etc. The other phase of the Spirit is its potential immanency in this objectified vibratory matter as Cosmic Consciousness, manifesting as individualized human consciousness with all its countless ramifications of thoughts, feelings, will, imagination, etc. ”

“ One never can tell when he is going to be healed, so do not expect a cure at once or at some distant day. Faith, not time, will determine when the cure will be effected. Results depend on the right awakening of life energy and the mental and sub-conscious state of the individual. Disbelief fails to awaken the Life Energy, and this Body Doctor, Body Builder and Master Mason therefore cannot work. ”

“ Banishing delusion cannot be done by imagination and fanatic belief-it can only be accomplished by the methods of psycho-phhysical concentration, which gradually and consciously disengages and liberates the Soul from its identification with the material consciousness through certain definite stages of step-by-step realization.
People with material consciousness, believing in the gross body, have first to be gradually trained out of their dependence on medicine and material aids, and taught to rely more on mental aid and the immortal nature of consciousness. ”

“ Underlying Unity of Medical and Mental Cures The point is, that most people either believe solely in medical or solely mental cure, and ignore the point of unity where both methods coincide. Medical laws cannot contradict mental laws, for material law is simply a projection of spiritual law. Similarly, the law that governs matter and therefore medical science is more limited and unfree than its source-therefore mental healing has a wider scope and efficacy than medicine, for the latter is a gross materialization of the former. ”

“ This point is illustrated by the fact that though all vibrations are qualitatively alike, yet vibrations from 16 to 60,000 are gross and are audible to the physical sense of hearing, whereas vibrations below 16 or over 60,000 cannot be registered by the tympanum. The vibration of consciousness is so subtle and so powerful that it cannot be detected by any gross instrument. Only consciousness can comprehend consciousness. Only conscious human beings can detect the conscious vibrations of other human beings. ”

“ Realize the superiority of mental healing over physical healing. Abstain from acquiring bad habits, which make life miserable.
How to Prevent Spiritual Disease Knowledge of the method of spiritualizing the body by destruction of the consciousness of mortality and change. The body is materialized vibration and ought to be cognized as such. The consciousness that decay, disease or death can affect the body must be removed by scientific understanding of the underlying unifying laws of matter and spirit, and the delusive manifestation of Spirit as matter, as explained in the foregoing. ”

“ The subtlety of the vibration of consciousness and the grossness of the vibration of matter are 12 only superficially different. They differ in degree only, but they are so distinctly and specifically differentiated by the vibratory force of the Spirit that they appear different in kind as well as degree, to the human consciousness. Consciousness is cognized as a finer force existing within a coating of grosser vibratory force called matter; or it may be said that consciousness is the first vibration of Spirit and that matter is in turn the result of the grosser vibration of consciousness. ”

“ Then if you continue with your mental affirmation, and go still deeper, you will feel a great sense of increasing joy and peace come over you. During deep concentration, your affirmation will merge into the sub-conscious stream, only to come back later reinforced with power too influence your conscious mind through the law of habit. ”

“ There exists much misunderstanding in man's mind about the oneness that exists between matter and consciousness. The appearance of a living body and a dead body side by side in life produces in man the consciousness of the delusive difference between body and consciousness. ”