Solving the Mystery of Life- Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life, Volume- IV

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The following was written by Sri Sri Daya Mata (1914-2010), third president and spiritual head of Yogoda Satsanga Society of India/Self-Realization Fellowship, to introduce the first published volume of lectures and informal talks by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest.

The first time I beheld Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, he was speaking before a vast, enraptured audience in Salt Lake City. The year was 1931. As I stood at the back of the crowded auditorium, I became transfixed, unaware of anything around me except the speaker and his words. My whole being was absorbed in the wisdom and divine love that were pouring into my soul and flooding my heart and mind. I could only think, "This man loves God as I have always longed to love Him. He knows God. Him I shall follow." And from that moment, I did.

As I felt the transfiguring power of his words on my own life during those early days with Paramahansaji, there arose within me a feeling of the urgent need to preserve his words for all the world, for all time. It became my sacred and joyous privilege, during the many years I was with Paramahansa Yogananda, to record his lectures and classes, and also many informal talks and words of personal counsel-truly a vast treasure-house of wondrous wisdom and God-love. As Gurudeva spoke, the rush of his inspiration was often reflected in the swiftness of his speech; he might speak without pause for minutes at a time, and continue for an hour. While his hearers sat enthralled, my pen was flying! As I took down his words in shorthand, it was as though a special grace had descended, instantly translating the Guru's voice into the shorthand characters on the page. Their transcription has been a blessed task that continues to this day. Even after such a long time-some of my notes are more than forty years old-when I start to transcribe them, they are miraculously fresh in my mind, as though they had been recorded yesterday. I can even hear inwardly the inflections of Gurudeva's voice in each particular phrase.

The Master seldom made even the slightest preparation for his lectures, if he prepared anything at all, it might consist of a factual note or two, hastily jotted down. Very often, while riding in the car on the way to the temple, he would casually ask one of us: "What is my subject today?" He would put his mind on it, and then give the lecture extemporaneously from an inner reservoir of divine inspiration.

The subjects for Gurudeva's sermons at the temples were set and announced in advance. But sometimes his mind was working in an entirely different vein when he began to speak.

Regardless of the "subject for today," the Master would voice the truths engrossing his consciousness at that moment, pouring forth priceless wisdom in a steady stream from the abundance of his own spiritual experience and intuitive perception. Nearly always, at the close of such a service, a number of people would come forward to thank him for having enlightened them on a problem that had been troubling them, or perhaps for having explained some philosophical concept in which they were particularly interested.

Sometimes, while he was lecturing, the Guru's conscious-ness would be so uplifted that he would momentarily forget the audience and converse directly with God; his whole being would be overflowing with divine joy and intoxicating love. In these high states of consciousness, his mind completely at one with the Divine Consciousness, he inwardly perceived Truth, and described what he saw. On occasion, God appeared to him as the Divine Mother, or in some other aspect, or one of our great Gurus, or other saints, would manifest in vision before him. At such times, even the audience would feel deeply the special blessing bestowed on all present. During such a visitation of Saint Francis of Assisi, whom Gurudeva deeply loved, the Master was inspired to compose the beautiful poem, "God! God! God!"

Ask yourself what is the purpose of your life. You have been made in the image of God, that is your real Self. Realizing the image of God within you is the ultimate success-infinite joy, fulfilment of every desire, victory over all difficulties of the body and incursions of the world.

-Paramahansa Yogananda

This is the fourth anthology of talks and essays by Paramahansa Yogananda-a sequel to Man's Eternal Quest (1975), The Divine Romance (1986), and Journey to Self-realization (1997). The wisdom in these volumes is not the studied learning of a scholar; it is the empirical testimony of a dynamic spiritual personage whose life was filled with inner joy and outer accomplishment, a world teacher who lived what he taught, a Premavatar whose sole desire was to share God's wisdom and love with all.

Meditation has entered the mainstream in the years since the publication of Journey to Self-realization, the previous volume in this series of Paramahansa Yogananda's Collected Talks and Essays. According to the National Institutes for Health (the primary federal agency for medical research in the United States), the percentage of U.S. adults who practise meditation has more than doubled since the beginning of the 21st century; and in 2024 the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution to declare December 21 as World Meditation Day. Many of course come to meditation for its health benefits, but Paramahansa Yogananda points out that meditation can do much more for us than help to alleviate anxiety and stress. More importantly, he says, it can reveal to us our true nature as immortal souls, made in the image of God. And he explains why experiencing this for ourselves in reality, not as a merely inspiring thought-is the ultimate purpose of life. This great purpose of life does not minimize the importance of and the joy that can be found in our everyday lives. Indeed, in this volume Paramahansaji shows how all our daily activities whether relating to family, career, personal growth, or relationships with others can be infused with a greater meaningfulness and sense of achievement when we understand our lives in the context of this overarching purpose.

Even as meditation has become more popular, the perception lingers among some that meditation is a way to avoid or escape one's responsibilities to society. On the contrary, Sri Yogananda explains that to seek God within is to simultaneously come to the understanding that God is within everyone everyone all those we encounter in our daily life friend and "enemy" alike. And with that we realize what we can do to help build a better world, one based on the true source of our common humanity. It is this combination of ideals-to seek God inwardly in meditation, and outwardly in our daily life and in our fellow world citizens that inspired Paramahansa Yogananda to name his organization Self-Realization Fellowship.

"We are all part of the One Spirit," Paramahansaji said. "When you experience the true meaning of religion, which is to know God, you will realize that He is your Self, and that He exists equally and impartially in all beings....Do not settle for intellectual satisfaction about truth. Convert truth into experience, and you will know God through your own Self-realization."

A Unifying Spirituality for the Global Family.

Today the world is in a pivotal place. People are faced with countless outer challenges related to rapidly proliferating change and complexity in the fabric of daily life. There is also a rise in the inner challenges related to loneliness, mental illness, and family instability. Many are seeking new ways to amplify healing and find direction through meditation, yoga, positive psychology for personal growth, spirituality that unites rather than divides and through a more purposeful life of compassion, empathy, and service to causes that contribute to a better world.

In countless awakening souls, there is growing recognition of the need for a more balanced way of living, both individually and as a world civilization. Increasing world interdependencies are revealing the critical need to learn to live as one global family.