Living the Autobiography Of A Yogi In Our Daily Life
Travelling successfully on the upward path of Self-realization requires specific yogic attitudes, which we find described in the Autobiography of a Yogi. Here 31 of them have been chosen, which we can apply during our daily life, one day at a time, for a month. Of course, many other quotes can be found, as the book is an endless spiritual treasure trove. The basic motto, however, is the same throughout: Self-realization and God-realization.
******
Daily receive these messages on telegram
You may daily receive these sayings on your cell phone or computer through telegram. Each day a message will be sent to you. You can choose the time of day. It is free. Go here: https://t.me/daily_practices_bot If you don’t have telegram, your device will ask you to download the app. Enjoy!
******
Day 1
GOD-REMEMBRANCE
If you don’t invite God to be your summer Guest, He won’t come in the winter of your life…. A true man is he who dwells in righteousness among his fellow men, who buys and sells, yet is never for a single instant forgetful of God!
Today’s practice:
Let’s keep the presence of God with us as long as we can.
~~~
Day 2
GURU-GUIDANCE
A short time later the incomparable guru gave up his body in Benares. No longer need I seek him out in his little parlor; I find every day of my life blessed by his omnipresent guidance.
Today’s practice:
Let’s keep in inner contact with the Guru, feeling that he is blessing and guiding us.
~~~
Day 3
NON-ATTACHMENT
Attachment is blinding; it lends an imaginary halo of attractiveness to the object of desire…. Always remember that you belong to no one, and no one belongs to you. Reflect that some day you will suddenly have to leave everything in this world–so make the acquaintanceship of God now.
Today’s practice:
Let’s practice non-attachment to everything and everyone, instead nourishing a deep attachment to God.
~~~
Day 4
SELF-ANALYSIS
I have long exercised an honest introspection, the exquisitely painful approach to wisdom. Self-scrutiny, relentless observance of one’s thoughts, is a stark and shattering experience. It pulverizes the stoutest ego. But true self-analysis mathematically operates to produce seers.
Today’s practice:
Let’s observe ourselves consciously: our habits, thoughts, reactions, nervousness vs. calmness, upcoming desires, our level of happiness and energy.
~~~
Day 5
BEING AN INSTRUMENT
It was evident in all miracles performed by Lahiri Mahasaya that he never allowed the ego-principle to consider itself a causative force. By perfection of resistless surrender, the master enabled the Prime Healing Power to flow freely through him…. Babaji laughed softly. ‘My son, why do you doubt?’ he said reassuringly. ‘Indeed, Whose work is all this, and Who is the Doer of all actions?’
Today’s practice:
Let’s try acting as an instrument of God as we do our various chores and mingle with people.
~~~
Day 6
DEALING POSITIVELY WITH PAIN
It appears that misery, starvation and disease are whips of our karma which ultimately drive us to seek the true meaning of life.
Today’s practice:
Let’s look at our momentary or recent suffering and ask what this “misery” is good for, what it is trying to teach us, how it helps us in our inner evolution.
~~~
Day 7
SEXUAL SELF-CONTROL
The forceful activating impulse of wrong desire is the greatest enemy to the happiness of man. Roam in the world as a lion of self-control; see that the frogs of weakness don’t kick you around…. Conserve your powers. Be like the capacious ocean, absorbing within all the tributary rivers of the senses. Small yearnings are openings in the reservoir of your inner peace, permitting healing waters to be wasted in the desert soil of materialism.
Today’s practice:
Let’s try to feel that we are a happy lion of self-control, everywhere we go: self-possessed, with the senses under our dominance.
~~~
Day 8
STRENGTHENING WILL
As the power of a radio depends on the amount of electrical current it can utilize, so the human radio is energized according to the power of will possessed by each individual.
Today’s practice:
Let’s do something difficult to strengthen our will. It will increase our energy, which increases our magnetism: the thought power and aura we project onto the world.
~~~
Day 9
HUMILITY
By serving wise and ignorant sadhus, I am learning the greatest of virtues, pleasing to God above all others–humility.
Today’s practice:
Let’s work on a feeling of happy and sincere humility, to please God, congratulating ourselves for our lack of importance.
~~~
Day 10
CALM INNER ENDURANCE
Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, while trying at the same time to remove their hold.
Today’s practice:
Let’s try to be even-minded and cheerful, accepting whatever comes of itself with calmness, enduring even pain with an attitude of inner freedom.
~~~
Day 11
SERVICE
“So long as you breathe the free air of earth, you are under obligation to render grateful service.”… I fetched a broom; Master, I knew, was teaching me the secret of balanced living. The soul must stretch over the cosmogonic abysses, while the body performs its daily duties.
Today’s practice:
Let’s see our work as a glad service, performing it conscientiously while being calmly active and actively calm.
~~~
Day 12
HAPPINESS
To seek the Lord, one need not disfigure his face. Remember that finding God will mean the funeral of all sorrows.
Today’s practice:
Let’s practice the happiness of our soul, under all circumstances.
~~~
Day 13
SEEING AND CHOOSING GOOD
Everything on earth is of mixed character, like a mingling of sand and sugar. Be like the wise ant which seizes only the sugar, and leaves the sand untouched.
Today’s practice:
Let’s concentrate on the positive side of people, situations, circumstances, and also of ourselves.
~~~
Day 14
REGULAR SADHANA
Be faithful in your [Kriya] practice; you will approach the Guru of all gurus…. Meditate unceasingly, that you may quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. Cease being a prisoner of the body; using the secret key of Kriya, learn to escape into Spirit.
Today’s practice:
Let’s maintain the calm and happy after-effect of meditation as long as we can.
~~~
Day 15
FOLLOWING OUR DHARMA
“Do not do what you want, and then you may do what you like.”
Today’s practice:
Let’s discriminate clearly if a desire comes from the ego, or from our soul.
~~~
Day 16
BEING IN, BUT NOT OF, THIS WORLD
Not of this world, you must yet be in it.
Today’s practice:
As we act, let’s try to feel that we are only playing a role in a cinema movie, while a part of us remains a detached observer, knowing that we are only dreaming: this is not our home, nor is it reality.
~~~
Day 17
BEING CHILDLIKE
[Mahatma Gandhi] is childlike in his divine quest, revealing that pure receptivity which Jesus praised in children, “. . . of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Today’s practice:
Let’s nourish our childlike side, simple, pure, spontaneous, playful, receptive to the Father.
~~~
Day 18
DEVELOPING DIVINE LOVE
Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfactions. Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change.
Today’s practice:
Let’s practice divine changeless love for everyone, without desire or personal likes and dislikes.
~~~
Day 19
LISTENING TO TRUTH EVERYWHERE
[Sri Yukteswar] would listen respectfully to words of truth from a child, and openly ignore a conceited pundit.
Today’s practice:
Let’s watch out for all ways through which God wants to tell us something: maybe through a child, through a fool, through a person who has completely different views, through our spouse, through an animal, through an event, through something you read.
~~~
Day 20
AVOIDING A WORLDLY VIEW
Sri Yukteswar showed no special consideration to those who happened to be powerful or accomplished; neither did he slight others for their poverty or illiteracy.
Today’s practice:
Let’s look at souls in people, not at social roles.
~~~
Day 21
FINDING WISDOM IN OUR SELF, NOT IN BOOKS
But what original commentary can you supply, from the uniqueness of your particular life? What holy text have you absorbed and made your own? In what ways have these timeless truths renovated your nature? Are you content to be a hollow victrola, mechanically repeating the words of other men?… Wisdom is not assimilated with the eyes, but with the atoms. When your conviction of a truth is not merely in your brain but in your being, you may diffidently vouch for its meaning.
Today’s practice:
Let’s reflect how we personally have made the teachings of Yogananda our own, and how we express them uniquely.
~~~
Day 22
OUR THOUGHTS ARE NOT OURS
Thoughts are universally and not individually rooted; a truth cannot be created, but only perceived.
Today’s practice:
Let’s train our mind to think that no thought is really our own, that we borrow them all from the universe.
~~~
Day 23
SPEAKING TRUTH
The Hindu scriptures declare that those who habitually speak the truth will develop the power of materializing their words. What commands they utter from the heart will come true in life.
Today’s practice:
Let’s observe our level of truthfulness in our words and work on improving it, if necessary.
~~~
Day 24
DEVELOPING DEVOTION
“Lord,” I prayed, “may Thy Love shine forever on the sanctuary of my devotion, and may I be able to awaken that Love in other hearts.”
Today’s practice:
Let’s maintain a sense of devotion throughout the day, maybe with an inner chant, prayer, affirmation or japa.
~~~
Day 25
CONTROLLING THE DOUBTING MIND
Supersensual truth is deserved and discovered by those who overcome their natural materialistic scepticism.
Today’s practice:
Let’s observe the doubting Thomas in us, if he is at all sabotaging us secretly.
~~~
Day 26
REMEMBERING THE FORMLESS SELF
But if prophets down the millenniums spake with truth, man is essentially of incorporeal nature. The persistent core of human egoity is only temporarily allied with sense perception.
Today’s practice:
Let’s remember all day long that our true being is formless, that we are a soul and have a body.
~~~
Day 27
DIET, EXERCISE, SELF-RESPECT, CALMNESS, KRIYA YOGA
[Sri Yukteswar’s] public speeches emphasized the value of Kriya Yoga, and a life of self-respect, calmness, determination, simple diet, and regular exercise.
Today’s practice:
Let’s choose from the above qualities one we need to work on: self-respect, calmness, determination, diet, or exercise.
~~~
Day 28
RESPONSIBILITIES WITH NON-INVOLVEMENT
A true yogi may remain dutifully in the world; there he is like butter on water, and not like the easily-diluted milk of unchurned and undisciplined humanity. To fulfill one’s earthly responsibilities is indeed the higher path, provided the yogi, maintaining a mental uninvolvement with egotistical desires, plays his part as a willing instrument of God.
Today’s practice:
Let’s try to be a willing instrument of God, fully free from any attachment or desire.
~~~
Day 29
ENERGIZING THE BODY DAILY
The students were also taught yoga concentration and meditation, and a unique system of physical development, “Yogoda,” whose principles I had discovered in 1916. Realizing that man’s body is like an electric battery, I reasoned that it could be recharged with energy through the direct agency of the human will…. . I therefore taught the Ranchi students my simple “Yogoda” techniques by which the life force, centred in man’s medulla oblongata, can be consciously and instantly recharged from the unlimited supply of cosmic energy.
Today’s practice:
Let’s maintain the high level of energy throughout our day, which we have achieved through the vigorous Energization Exercises practiced in the morning, applying all our will. We may continue to feel that energy flows through us from the medulla oblongata.
~~~
Day 30
FEARLESSNESS
Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you..
Today’s practice:
Let’s look any fear we have right into its face: what am I really fearing? Is it truly that bad if it were to come true? Or could I in truth relax with it and live with that feared outcome?
~~~
Day 31
INTUITIVE UNDERSTANDING
What a person imagines he hears, and what the speaker has really implied, may be poles apart. Try to feel the thoughts behind the confusion of men’s verbiage.
Today’s practice:
As people speak, let’s try to intuit what is going on behind their words, their true intentions, desires, state of consciousness, their hidden message.
~~~
Every Day
GOD IS
Endless literary controversy is for sluggard minds. What more liberating thought than ‘God is’–nay, ‘God’?
Today’s practice:
Let our life revolve around this simple thought: “God is”.