An introduction:
Do you want to experience more vitality? We all do. To do so, we may make adjustments to what we eat, how much relaxation we get, or how we perform various activities and pursue our dreams with increased enthusiasm and determination. And we can see the benefit of these in our energy and outlook.
But Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings place the highest emphasis on how tremendously more full of life and energy our days would become if we consciously connected with the source of vitality hiding behind the scenes of the drama of life.
“Whether man acknowledges God or not,” Sri Daya Mata, sanghamata and third president of YSS/SRF, once said, “the truth is that our very existence from moment to moment depends on the life and vitality and intelligence that constantly flows from the unseen Divine Source.”
And she has pointed out that youthfulness, which is so often considered an evanescent and outward state, “is a vitality of mind and spirit that radiates from within — a joy born of feeling our deep inner connection with God’s eternal power and bliss.”
So we hope you can put this inspiration to use to experience greater and greater vitality — absorbing wisdom and practising simple yet powerful techniques from Paramahansaji to connect with the Source of all life.
From the talks and writings of Paramahansa Yogananda:
When you see from a hilltop how beautiful are the twinkling lights of a city, you forget that it is the dynamo that is providing the electricity to illumine the bulbs. So when you see the sparkling vitality of human beings, but you do not know what is enlivening them, then you are spiritually blind. That Power, even though unseen, is very evident. It is all the time playing hide-and-seek behind our thoughts.
[The body] is kept dancing with life by forces derived from external sources (food, oxygen, and sunshine); and by vitality (prana) derived from the internal source — Cosmic Consciousness. Without the life forces and consciousness from the inner soul source, the external sources of bodily energy are of no avail in maintaining life in the body.
God made us angels of energy, encased in solids — currents of life dazzling through a material bulb of flesh. But through concentration on the frailties and fragility of the body bulb, we have forgotten how to feel the immortal, indestructible properties of the eternal life energy within the mutable flesh.
The system of Energization Exercises, which I discovered and developed in 1916, is a most beneficial, simple, and nonstrenuous method for recharging the body consciously with life-giving prana. This stimulation and electrification of the tissues, cells, and blood helps to immunize them against disease.
Proper breathing is so important to keep your blood charged with vitality…. Learn and practise this method: First, throw out the breath with a strong double exhalation (one short and one long breath). Then, inhale in a double inhalation (one short and one long breath), filling the lungs as full as is comfortable. Hold the air in the lungs for a few seconds, allowing the oxygen to be fully absorbed and converted into prana. Then repeat the double exhalation, followed by the double inhalation. Practise this method in the fresh air 30 times in the morning and 30 times at night. It is very simple. You will be healthier than ever if you follow this. This exercise brings in a great deal of extra life force; and also decarbonizes your blood, promoting calmness.
Learn to perform all your duties with deepest happiness, with courageous cheerfulness welling up within you. Then you will feel a flood of vitality surge through your entire body as you go about your daily activities.
This great law some know, but few put into practice: Continuously think that your body is full of vitality, especially at times when it seems weak, and you will feel strength percolating into your body from the mind. You will start to open a new, secret, invisible source of self-vitalization apart from the external material sources of food, air, and sunlight.
If you are conscious of the Source of this life, you will know how to draw continuously on its sustaining power.…This Essence of life is unknown to millions, and yet they are always using that power of God. Why not be conscious of that Power?
Feel that you are charged with the creative, life-sustaining energy of God. Feel that the everlasting consciousness of God is manifesting in your body, erasing the mortal consciousness of past failures, fear, disease, old age. Repeat this thought with deep attention: “Father, Thou art present in my body, in my mind, in my soul. I am made in Thine image. Bless my body, mind, and soul, that they shine with Thine everlasting youth, power, immortality, and joy.”
To learn more about how to suffuse your life with greater energy and about the system of Energization Exercises that Paramahansaji mentions above, we invite you to read “The Secret of Vitality,” excerpts from the book The Divine Romance.
