Yogananda on God

God can live without man's love, but as the wave cannot live without the ocean, so it is not possible for man to exist without the love of God. 

Yogananda, The Yoga of Jesus.

From Michael A. Singer's podcast this morning, I was drawn to the teachings of Yogananda on God.  "God", for most of us,  is a complicated concept we term a "belief" and something we slap on That which  we truly do not understand...cannot understand as long as we are identified with our mental garbage.

Hmm!

On Belief

Belief is an initial stage of spiritual progress necessary to receive the concept of God. But that concept has to be transposed into conviction, into experience. Belief is the precursor of conviction; one has to believe a thing in order to investigate equitably about it. But if one is satisfied only with belief, it becomes dogma—narrow-mindedness, a preclusion of truth and spiritual progress. What is necessary is to grow, in the soil of belief, the harvest of direct experience and contact of God. That indisputable realization, not mere belief, is what saves people. (The Yoga of Jesus)

On Misidentifying Who We Are with the World of Form

Essential sons of God, clear reflections of the Father untarnished by delusion, have become sons of man by identification with the flesh and forgetfulness of their origin in Spirit. Deluded man is just a beggar on the street of time. But as Jesus received and reflected through his purified consciousness the divine sonship of Christ Consciousness, so also every man, by yoga meditation, can clarify his mind and become a diamondlike mentality who will receive and reflect the light of God. (The Yoga of Jesus)

On Finding God

Never mind if at first you cannot see God or hear His knock at the gate of your heart. For a long time you have been hiding from Him and running away in the marsh of the senses. It is the noise of your own rowdy passions, and of the flight of your heavy footsteps in the material world, that has made you unable to hear His call within. Stop, be calm, pray steadfastedly, and out of the silence will loom forth the Divine Presence.  

(Inner Culture,1939 )

It is by freeing oneself from earthly desires that one gains entry into the kingdom of God.( The Yoga of Jesus)

When will you find God? When all your desires for other things are finished. When you realize that the only thing worth having is Him. When every thought, every feeling is drenched with the love of God. (Inner Culture,1939)

All is well!

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( March 3, 2024) Understanding Your Relationship with God Consciousness. https://tou.org/talks/

Paramahansa Yogananda (2007) The Yoga of Jesus, illustrated edition. Self -Realization Fellowship

Parmahansa Yogananda (1939) Inner Culture Magazine: Self-Realization Fellowship.