When you notice how small our modern world has become, how comparatively close we all are now, do you wonder how we are all meant to get along? Paramahansa Yogananda said that the Divine has given each country’s people “some special aptitude, some unique genius, with which they may make a distinctive contribution to the world civilization.”
India, in the persons of Paramahansa Yogananda and other enlightened souls, has given with open hands something precious of itself to the world family: the priceless gift of yoga.
SRF’s president and spiritual head, Brother Chidananda, said while speaking in India in 2017: “India for millennia has been the steward of highest spiritual truth for all humanity. And it was the special dispensation of Paramahansaji to bring the best of India first to the West and then to the world, including back to his beloved India.
“He reached back to the higher ages, the golden age of India’s high civilization, and brought the essence of India’s universal spirituality in its pure form. That is yoga. It is a science, not a denomination or a sect of religion; and because of that, this spiritual dispensation — the light of yoga — can be a truly worldwide spiritual blessing on humanity as a whole.”
No matter where you live, you can put the universal science of India into practice daily — to illuminate more of the hope and peace and joy that is always within you. If you are ready to receive that gift, read on!
From the talks and writings of Paramahansa Yogananda:
In ages past, the rishis and masters of India, secluded in their hermitages, unraveled the mysteries that hide the Omnipresent Spirit. Their research has given us the valuable techniques and methods that tune the body and mind to the Illimitable Source of life and intelligence residing in every human being. By concentrating within on the Infinite, you can receive this boundless power.
Religion should be treated as a science; it is right that it be subjected to the test of experience.
Since ancient times, religious experiments have given India’s yogis knowledge of truths only now being “discovered” in the West by pragmatic scientific research. There is a definite need today for scientific religious experimentation applying the yogic methods of India.
What is most important is to have a way to prove truth by our own Self-realization. We should not believe a thing just because somebody has said it….All truth must be tested and experienced by scientific application of material, mental, and spiritual laws.
Scientists experiment in their laboratories with patient perseverance to find the truth. They don’t assert their theories unless they have positive proof. Likewise, India’s masters concentrated for years and years to solve the problem of how to live life properly. I am bringing to you the knowledge of mind and matter from the spiritual laboratories of India, as well as from my own experience.
As you march along the twisting and branching pathways of life, seek foremost to discover the path that leads to God. In the time-tested methods of India’s illumined rishis, the universal way has been shown how to conquer uncertainty and ignorance by following the trail of light divine they have blazed, straight to the Supreme Goal.
You can also read and listen to an excerpt from a talk by Paramahansa Yogananda entitled “The Universality of Yoga” — to learn more about what a renaissance in spirituality yoga will provide our evolving world civilization.
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