Paramahansa Yogananda wrote:
"If you tune in with the thought of God and hit the nail of delusion with the hammer of right thoughts of Truth, you can overcome delusion.
"Destroy all mortal thoughts by substituting a thought of immortality."
The following compilation from Paramahansaji's talks and writings are affirmations and soul perceptions − "thoughts of immortality" − that you can use for a greater awareness of the eternal Blissful Reality within yourself and pervading all creation.
Day and Night, Affirm What You Really Are
Unceasingly repeat to yourself this truth:
"I am the Changeless, I am the Infinite. I am not a little mortal being with bones to break, a body that will perish. I am the deathless, changeless Infinite." If a drunken prince goes into the slums and, forgetting entirely his true identity, begins lamenting, "How poor I am," his friends will laugh at him and say, "Wake up, and remember that you are a prince." You have been likewise in a state of hallucination, thinking you are a helpless mortal, struggling and miserable. Every day you should sit quietly and affirm, with deep conviction:
"No birth, no death, no caste have I; father, mother, have I none. Blessed Spirit, I am He. I am the Infinite Happiness."
If you again and again repeat these thoughts, day and night, you will eventually realize what you really are: an immortal soul.
Isn't it strange that you do not know who you are? that you do not know your own Self? You define yourself by so many different titles applicable to your body and mortal roles....You must peel off these titles from the soul.
"I think, but I am not the thought. I feel, but I am not the feeling. I will, but I am not the will."
What is left? The you that knows you exist; the you that feels you exist − through the proof given by intuition, the soul's unconditioned knowing of its own existence.
Self-Realization Fellowship's 2015 World Convocation took place August 16-22 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
