6 Pieces of Life-Changing Advice from a Yogi

Life-Changing Advice from “The Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda

Parker Klein ✌️

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4 min readMay 30, 2024

1. Act as if we are all one

Dharma (cosmic law) aims at happiness of all creatures.

A worthy leader has the desire to serve, not to dominate.

Though the ego in most barbaric ways conspires to enslave him, man is not a body confined to a point in space but is essentially the omnipresent soul.

He who rejects the unusual worldly duties can justify himself only by assuming some kind of responsibility for a much larger family.

Remember that you belong to no one and that no one belongs to you.

“I call myself a nationalist, but my nationalism is as broad as the universe. It includes in its sweep all the nations of the earth. My nationalism includes the well being of the whole world. I do not want my India to rise in the ashes of other nations. I do not want India to exploit a single human being. I want India to be strong in order that she can infect the other nations also with her strength.” — Mahatma Gandhi

2. Prioritize your health to be free

Follow any simple diet which proves suited to ones constitution.

An imperative duty of man is to keep his body in good condition; otherwise his mind is unable to remain fixed in devotional concentration.

3. Practice being conscious of your thoughts

It is your thoughts that make you feel alternately weak and strong.

Thought is a force.

Your health follows your subconscious expectations.

Whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely instantly comes to pass.

In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle.

Thoughts are universally and not individually rooted; a truth cannot be created, but only perceived.

Yoga is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts, which otherwise impartially prevents all men, of all lands, from glimpsing their true nature of spirit.

The thoughts of most persons are restless and capricious; a manifest need exists for yoga: the science of mind control.

4. Allow all desires and pain to pass

Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, trying at the same time to remove yourself beyond their power. Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness even when you are ill; an unrecognized visitor will flee.

Inwardly humble and outwardly unbendable.

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

Wrath springs only from thwarted desires. I do not expect anything from others, so their actions cannot be in opposition to wishes of mine. I would not use you for my own ends; I am happy only in your own true happiness.

5. Free yourself from personal desire

Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfaction. Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change.

Attachment is blinding; it lends an imaginary halo of attractiveness to the object of desire.

Be comfortable with your purse. Extravagance will bring you discomfort.

A true yogi is able to pass into and maintain the super conscious state, regardless of multitudinous distractions never absent from this earth.

I want nothing from you but your own improvement. Stay only if you feel benefited.

Just as hunger, not greed, has a legitimate purpose, so the sexual instinct has been implanted by Nature solely for the propagation of the species, not for the kindling of insatiable longings.

Even when the flesh is weak, the mind should be constantly resistant. If temptation assails you with cruel force, overcome it by impersonal analysis and indomitable will. Every natural passion can be mastered.

Conserve your powers. Be like the capacious ocean, absorbing quietly all the tributary rivers of the senses. Daily renewed sense yearnings sap your inner peace; they are like openings in a reservoir that permit vital waters to be wasted in the desert soil of materialism. 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; don’t let the frogs of sense weakness kick you around.

How quickly we weary of earthly pleasures. Desire for material things is endless; man is never satisfied completely, and pursued one goal after another.

Outward longings drive us from the Eden with; they offer false pleasures that only impersonate soul happiness.

6. Lean into your fears

Man fears the unknown.

Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.

You have conquered fatigue and fear of hard work; you shall never be bothered by them in the future.

Reflect that some day you will suddenly have to leave the world.

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