Among the gods, he who awakened to the knowledge of the Self became Brahman; and the same was true among the seers

Since we are really parts of Brahman (humanly speaking, for Brahman is One [Unitary] and has no parts), Self-knowledge is itself the knowing: “I am THAT” or “I am Brahman [Aham Brahmasmi],” but in a correct perspective. Many golden ornaments are all gold, not one of them is all the gold that exists. The upanishads use the simile of the ocean and a cup of ocean water. The cup of water is absolutely “ocean,” but it is in no way the ocean in its totality. That is why we say that there is no difference between us and Brahman, but there is a distinction between us and Brahman. This is a crucial point for the questing yogi. Those who think they are the Infinite are as insane as those lunatics that claim to be great figures of history. And some even claim to be God!

There is an old joke about a visitor to a mental institution that was accosted by an inmate who announced: “I am Napoleon!” “Oh, really, smiled the visitor, “How do you know you are Napoleon?” “Because God told me,” came the quick reply. A man nearby spoke up and said: “You liar! I never told you any such thing!”

Some “enlightened” “Masters” and “Avatars” need a strait jacket, not an ashram and adoring disciples.

• Meditation: Training for Living

A useful article about the benefits of meditation. “Meditation is not an end in itself, but rather the means to an end–to the daily living out of the illumined consciousness produced by meditation. We go into meditation so we can come out of meditation more conscious and better equipped to live our life.”

• 19 Exceptional Web Resources for Spiritually Minded People

This is one of the most popular articles on the Blog, as the wide range of web resources in it are exceptionally useful.

• How to Misuse Your Power of Thought

A practical analysis of the negative habits which can lead to a spiritual downfall and a miserable life.

• The Sure Way To Realize God

An important article about remembering God at the moment of death. “The moment of death is perhaps the most important moment in our life, equalled only by the moment of birth.”

• Reincarnation: Choosing Our Costumes in the Drama of Life

How our choices in this world determine our future births.

• Creating Your Happiness – Paramhansa Yogananda

The first of a series of articles by Yogananda on happiness, written during his early years in America in East-West and Inner Culture magazines.

• What Is the Mind?: A Meditator’s Guide

An understanding of the mind is essential in dealing with the mind in meditation. A very helpful article.

• New Bhagavad Gita Commentary Completed and Available as Free PDF Download

Swami Nirmalananda’s commentary on the Gita is a unique combination of exhaustive study and scholarship, and insight and wisdom gleaned from personal experience. It offers new gems that will enrich all true seekers.

• Humans: Are We Carnivores or Vegetarians by Nature?

This is a reprint of a remarkable article exploring the anatomical differences  in ­ teeth, jaws, and digestive systems between herbivores and meat-eaters. How do humans fit in the scheme of things? Read and find out!

• A Yogi’s Recommended Reading List

This posting is actually from 2007, but is a valuable resource for students of meditation and spiritual life.

For a fuller list of some of the best articles on the Atma Jyoti Blog, visit Top Articles on the Atma Jyoti Blog.

Read new spiritual articles as they are published. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.

Nothing is more natural than the supernatural! God is the only “natural” thing there is.

Just as there are many strata in the earth and in the sea, so there are many levels of existence with their own laws. The higher supercede the lower. Until humans discovered the laws of aerodynamics they could not fly–it seemed impossible, even miraculous.

Once a spirit has attained to Supreme Consciousness the rules are completely different. Remember, our bodies are in exact correspondence to our level of consciousness. A human body is for human consciousness.

How, then, can Divine Consciousness manifest through a human body?

It cannot. So a kind of “hybrid” body, human-yet-divine, is needed. Otherwise the body will be electrocuted or blown apart by the incredible force that is normal for an avatar (divine incarnation). It seems that such a great one can have a mother, but not a father. The elements of a body can be drawn from a human mother, but that which is usually “supplied” by the father must be created or manifested in a special form. These women experience a great light entering into them and pervading them, and so the conception occurs.

So it was with the mothers of Buddha and Jesus. This was seen by several people in the case of Sri Ramakrishna’s mother. All the ins and outs are incomprehensibe to us. What matters is the teaching of such sacred persons, for by following their words we also come into spiritual alignment with them and receive great blessings and upliftment. They really are “saviors,” but not in the lazy way supposed by Christians.

Related Articles:

• The Path of Return to God
• Who and What Were (and Are) the Wise Men from the East?

Do you ever think seriously of salvaging your treasure of happiness which is sunk beneath the sea of your tumultuous life? Can you make your half-dead rose plant of life bloom again?

We are usually born rich with smiles, youth, strength, beauty, health, mystic aspirations, and swelling, thrilling hopes. As we live and grow, we begin to lose those riches, and the roses in us begin to fade. Why is this? Are we to grow warm with riches and then suddenly be frozen by the chill of poverty? The rose blooms only to die. Does our happiness come only in order to vanish?

No, the rose usually dies on the bed of beauty, yet some roses, worm eaten encounter a premature ugly death. We want to bloom with good actions, fragrant with happiness, and to rest forever with the memories of those who appreciate us. We do not have to die devoured by poverty, sickness, or sorrow.

To guard our rose plant, we must attend to it properly with much digging, watering, feeding, and guarding it from pests and chill. The rose plant of our happiness can grow only on the abundant fertile soil of our peace. It can never grow on hard, stony, unfeeling soil of human mentality. We have to constantly dig into peace with the spade of our good actions. We have to keep our happiness plant well watered with our spirit of love and service. We can only be happy by making others happy.

The real food for the happiness tree can be supplied only through meditation and actual contact with God in daily life. Without our contact with the Infinite source, from which all our human faculties and inspirations spring, we can never grow perfectly and completely.

The worst pests which attack our plant of happiness are lack of the desire to progress, self-satisfaction, and skepticism. The chill of inertia, or lack of definite, constant effort to know the Truth, is the greater ill from which our happiness plant suffers.

We can never be happy until we keep progressing and seeking satisfaction in doing so, and guarding that happiness from all the influences which destroy it.

More from Paramhansa’s writing on happiness:

• Important Conditions for Happiness
• Discover Your Soul as Happiness Itself
• Happiness Is in the Mind
• Creating Your Happiness – Paramhansa Yogananda

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“When the mind runs after the wandering senses, then it carries away one’s understanding, as the wind carries away a ship on the waters. Therefore the wisdom of him whose senses are withdrawn from the objects of the senses stands firm.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:67,68)

The theme of peace is being continued in these two verses of the Gita, and its imagery brings to mind the following: “When the even was come, he [Jesus] saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.…And they said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:35-41)

Rather than being some special, unique person that we can only admire, Jesus was exactly what each one of must become. We, too, must bring peace into our stormy minds.

The storm

It is the wind and rain of the senses that “carries away one’s understanding, as the wind carries away a ship on the waters.” However much the “captain” of the buddhi grasps the wheel and tries to hold the ship steady on its course, the struggle is hopeless. This is because, as the verse literally says, the mind wanders after the senses and becomes guided by them, losing its intelligent awareness (prajnam). Caught then in the heaving waters of samsara, of constant birth and death, with their attendant anguish, each of us is carried away by the waves, lost and disoriented completely.

Swami Prabhavananda renders this verse: “The wind turns a ship from its course upon the waters: the wandering winds of the senses cast man’s mind adrift and turn his better judgment from its course.” “Better judgment” is the translation Swami Prabhavananda uses for prajnam. Prajnam means both consciousness and awareness, and includes the knowledge gained by the evolving atman. Just as Krishna has described before that we lose “memory,” the lesson of experience. It is prajnam that we lose.

The statement that we are turned from our course points out a basic truth: by nature we are all “on course,” and our drifting is unnatural. Therefore when we set our wills to recover our course, there is no doubt that we will succeed. It is inevitable. In the sixth chapter of the Gita, Arjuna will say that the wind is no harder to subdue than the mind, and Krishna will agree. But the mind must be subdued, nevertheless. That is easy to say, but how? “The wisdom of him whose senses are withdrawn from the objects of the senses stands firm.” And how do we effectively say, “Peace, be still” to the senses?

The mind

We must understand that the senses are simply instruments (indriyas) of the mind, that although they “cast man’s mind adrift” this is the reversal of the natural order, that it is the mind that is meant to “drive” the senses, the way a charioteer drives the horses that pull the chariot. Krishna surely had in mind these two passages from the upanishads:

“Know that the Self is the rider, and the body the chariot; that the intellect is the charioteer, and the mind the reins. The senses, say the wise, are the horses; the roads they travel are the mazes of desire. The wise call the Self the enjoyer when he is united with the body, the senses, and the mind. When a man lacks discrimination and his mind is uncontrolled, his senses are unmanageable, like the restive horses of a charioteer. But when a man has discrimination and his mind is controlled, his senses, like the well-broken horses of a charioteer, lightly obey the rein. He who lacks discrimination, whose mind is unsteady and whose heart is impure, never reaches the goal, but is born again and again. But he who has discrimination, whose mind is steady and whose heart is pure, reaches the goal, and having reached it is born no more. The man who has a sound understanding for charioteer, a controlled mind for reins–he it is that reaches the end of the journey, the supreme abode of Vishnu, the all pervading.” (Katha Upanishad 1:3:3-9)

The Way

“Sit upright, holding the chest, throat, and head erect. Turn the senses and the mind inward to the lotus of the heart. Meditate on Brahman with the help of the syllable OM. Cross the fearful currents of the ocean of worldliness by means of the raft of Brahman–the sacred syllable OM. With earnest effort hold the senses in check. Controlling the breath, regulate the vital activities. As a charioteer holds back his restive horses, so does a persevering aspirant hold back his mind.” (Svetashvatara Upanishad 2:8, 9)

Read more about meditation:

• Meditation: Training for Living
• Three Useful Meditation Tips
• Your Place for Meditation
• Tip for Meditation: Relaxation

For more in depth reading on meditation, we suggest the following:

• Introduction to Om Yoga
• Om Yoga: Its Theory and Practice

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“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him” (Matthew 2:1,2).

The wise men came, not from Persia as is mistakenly thought, but from India, and they represent the wisdom of India, the place where the sun of divine illumination first shone out from within the liberated sons of God, and it is from there that all spiritual knowledge arose and spread throughout the world.

Wherever the light of spiritual consciousness–and even civilization–is found, its roots are in India. Pythagoras, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus were all messengers of the Light of India to what was then the Western world. Apollonius and Jesus became martyrs of that Light, and Pythagoras was greatly persecuted, as well, having to live on a island to escape being killed. Mahendranath Gupta, the author of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, said that undoubtedly there are good people in all countries of the world, but they have their faces turned toward India–for India draws the awakening soul.

When the Christ is born, wisdom arises from the depths of the spirit to reveal and manifest that Christ, “the dayspring from on high [which] hath visited us” (Luke 1:78). In other versions the word used is Orient rather than dayspring. “The east” symbolizes the “east” of the spirit as opposed to the “west” of the outer layers in which our spirit is covered, and also the intuitional right brain as opposed to the “thinking” left brain. The inner light shines upon us from the core of our being and is interpreted to us through our intuition. It is those that dwell in the “east” of spirit-consciousness that seek and find the Christ.

This being so, we must consciously cultivate the “eastern” awareness through meditation. Actually, being right-brained and spiritually oriented is what being “oriental” means. It is not geographic. After all, to the Japanese and Chinese the United States is the East. For them Paris would be the Far East. So to be Eastern is to be intuitional and spiritual. To be Western is to be just the opposite. It is a matter of the polarization of consciousness. We must all become “oriental” in the spiritual sense, for the sun only rises from the east, never from the west.

It is true that all human beings have the Christ (or Buddha) Nature, but only the “eastern” wisdom of the spirit can perceive it. Even though it is equally present to the “western” part of us, it still remains in darkness, turned away from the inner “sun-rising.” Herod and his cohorts never found Jesus. They could not: it was antithetical to their nature which was to kill the Christ, not to worship Him. In the same way, our Herod ego and his henchmen, our mind, emotions, body, and all that is “outer,” have only one capability: the destruction of Christ Consciousness. They are all the enemies of Christ, “many antichrists” of whom Saint John the Apostle wrote (I John 2:18). As wise men of the east we must outwit them as did those first wise men from the east.

Inner to outer

The journeying of the wise men from the east to the west has a profound significance: There must be a transfer of the inner spiritual consciousness into the outer part of our being and life. The west must become the east in a unification of consciousness. Until then we are spiritual schizophrenics, “a house divided against itself [that] shall not stand” (Matthew 12:25).

Meditation is the only way this transformation can take place. And when it does take place there will be a great change in us. Meditation that only produces pleasant or egoically-satisfying experiences but has no effect on our outer, ordinary life is false and should be discarded. When sugar is dissolved in water all the water tastes sweet; likewise, Right Meditation causes the perception and manifestation of spirit to be present in every atom of our life.

Even the Bible says that we are judged by our works, not by our intentions–not by what we think about it, but by what we do about it. Why? Because what is done is the real manifestation of what is going on inside. The thirty-fourth Ode of Solomon express it this way: “The likeness of that which is below is that which is above. For everything is above, and below there is nothing, but it is believed to be by those in whom there is no knowledge.” That which is going on outside is first going on inside, for the inner is the exclusive source of the outer.

This is indicated by Jesus when He says: “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19). That is, only what “takes place” in the transcendent Godhead can take place in the immanent Godhead and be manifested through the creation. The Ode goes even further and says that things only occur “above,” and that “below” is only a reflection. So in certain instances we can judge a book by its cover. Since this is the truth, we can see that meditation is only viable when it has an external effect. Furthermore, the character and duration of that effect will reveal whether the meditation is worthwhile or not.

No delays

“We have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.”

As soon as the star rose, they started on the journey. It is popularly thought that spiritual consciousness can arise in us and we can muddle around for years before acting on it. But that is very chancey; in fact it is almost a guarantee of failure.

The people who are going to attain in spiritual life are those who, the moment they learn about the path to God say: “That is for me,” and start moving. Whatever form it may take, they make a beginning and keep it up. They do not make excuses, telling themselves that later on they will start. Of course, all will start one day–that is their destiny–but it may be in another lifetime, for the cycles of spiritual growth do not last forever in the life of the individual. It is like the tides of the ocean. Jesus gave this parable about excuse-makers:

“A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things.…And the lord said unto the servant,…none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper” (Luke 14:16-21,23,24).

No, they were not eternally damned, but they had wasted an entire incarnation and set up the habit of putting off spiritual life–a habit that can persist for many lifetimes, making it very hard to break out of the pattern of neglect. For make no mistake: spiritual life and spiritual practice are the same thing.

Three areas of excuse are shown in this parable:

1. The addiction and distraction of material possession (“I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it…”).
2. The addiction and distraction of the body and the five senses (“I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them…”).
3. The addiction and distraction of “personal relationships” (“I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come…”).

Which ones do we use? They are the seal of death upon us, the stone of the tomb, that must be broken and taken away if Christ is to be revealed in us resurrected. Until then we do not merit being taken seriously in regard to spiritual life.

The wise ones, the moment the inner star rises, start the journey; and persevere.

Intuitional guidance

There is something more about the wise men coming the east. This shows that when we begin to dwell within in as a result of much turning within through meditation, the wisdom of the spirit will arise in us in the form of intuitional insights. We will begin to be guided from within rather than from without. Now this scares all phony religionists, whatever their label, and they begin doing a song-and-dance routine about how important it is to “follow authority” or “have a teacher” lest the seeker be “led astray” or “fall into delusion.”

First of all, we are already led astray and fallen into delusion–mostly as a result of following such religious authorities and teachers in previous lives. If meditation does not enable us to know the way for ourselves, what is it’s value? “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” ( John 8:36). “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

A great spiritual renaissance took place in Thailand during the twentieth century, stemming from the Thai Buddhist Master, Acharya Mun, who restored the “forest monk” tradition which was centered on the practice of meditation. The following conversation, taken from The Venerable Phra Acharn Mun Buridatta Thera, Meditation Master by The Venerable Prha Acharn Maha Boowa Nyanasampanno, took place between Acharya Mun and a Buddhist monk-scholar.

“The Elder: You have always preferred the solitude of the wilds. What do you do when questions or doubts arise? I am here in Bangkok surrounded by the Scripture and scholars and yet there are times when I am at my wit’s end. You are known to be alone most of the time, with no access to Scripture or to scholars. What do you do for help when doubts, questions or obstacles arise?

“The Venerable Acharya: May it please your eminence. I have been studying and listening to the dharma throughout my waking hours, day and night. Never during my waking hours has the mind been disassociated from dharma, by which all doubts have been cleared up and all problems dealt with, one after another. In such a way are the defilements counteracted, fought against and eradicated. It is in the mind that all problems, obstacles and defilements occur, be they external or internal, crude or subtle, far or near, great or small. It is also in the mind that all these things are conquered. There is no need to worry about turning to anyone for help when such difficulties occur. From my experience, there is no better weapon with which to fight against defilements and to solve problems, and this is also in complete accordance with the Buddha’s saying: Atta hi attano natho–one is the master of oneself–the truth of which has been all this time evident to me. It is the dharma or well-developed mindfulness-and-wisdom which always comes to my rescue, always functioning promptly and effectively.

‘In some cases it took an unusually long time before some hurdles could be crossed, but in the end it was never beyond the power of mindfulness-and-wisdom which had to be developed specially for such particular occasions. This is why I always prefer the seclusion of the wilds, where I can come to grips with all problems through self-help.…Often an aspirant feels he is groping in the dark and is always wasting time due to trial and error. It is through steadfastness of aim and dedicated effort that I have achieved what I have, crossing one hurdle after another.”

Commenting on this conversation, at which he was present, the Venerable Maha Boowa says:

“The Elder appeared to be greatly interested and impressed in the Venerable Acharya’s explanation, giving his whole-hearted appreciation that the Venerable Acharya was indeed a competent bhikkhu [monk] able to help himself in the seclusion of the wilds. He agreed with the Venerable Acharya that the dharma recorded in the Scripture and the dharma taking place in the mind were on far different levels. Even the dharma as recorded in the Scripture cannot be as absolutely reliable now as it had been in the early centuries after the Buddha’s complete passing away. With the passage of time there were bound to be deficiencies due to the defilements of the later compilers of the texts. Such being the case, the dharma in the Scriptures and the dharma in the mind are sure to be on different levels.”

Saint Paul expressed the same inner confidence, saying: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” ( II Corinthians 3:5,6).

This does not mean that we should ignore scriptures, spiritual writings, and spiritual teachers. It is only wise to learn from them and keep their precepts in mind. But none of these are legitimate if they try to bind us into dependence on them–particularly through fear.

Related articles:

• The Path of Return to God
• What God Has Prepared for Those Who Love Him

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“Someone perceives this [Self] as a wonder, another declares this as a wonder, still another hears of this as a wonder; but some, even having heard of It, yet comprehend nothing.” (2:29) Prabhavananda translates this: “There are some who have actually looked upon the Atman, and understood It, in all Its wonder. Others can only speak of It as wonderful beyond their understanding. Others know of Its wonder by hearsay. And there are others who are told about It and do not understand a word.”

It is intriguing to see how the number four has significance in many ways in the scriptures of India. We usually think of seven as the mystic number (and it is), but four also comes into the picture many times, especially in considerations of the development of consciousness.

For example, there are four castes based on the level of the individual’s consciousness. (The present-day “caste system” is an unfortunate degeneration based on just about everything but the individual’s state of evolution.) The solar system is said to pass through four ages (yugas) in which the general consciousness of humanity ranges from only one-fourth to four-fourths of its potential. This numbering is the most important of all considerations, because it deals with the unfoldment of consciousness, consciousness itself being the nature of the Self.

Even in the life of Jesus we find this fourfold categorizing of spiritual consciousness. Toward the end of his public ministry, in response to his prayer God spoke in a great voice from the heavens. In the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of John we are told that those present reacted in four ways: 1) some knew it was the voice of God, 2) some thought it was the voice of an angel, 3) some did not hear it as words or a voice, but thought it was thunder, and 4) some did not hear a thing. If we analyze these responses will we find exactly the psychology of the four castes being expressed. But let us return to Krishna.

According to Krishna there are four states of awareness in relation to the Self: 1) direct knowledge, 2) deep faith and conviction–an intuition of the Self’s reality, 3) intellectual comprehension of the “theory” of the Self, and 4) complete non-comprehension.

• Divine knowledge

“There are some who have actually looked upon the Atman, and understood It, in all Its wonder.”

In the ultimate sense, to know something is to be something. Although we are always our selves and incapable of being anything else, because we have fallen into the pit of delusion we are aware of and “know” just about everything but our selves. This is an awesomely horrible plight. But Krishna tells us that there are those who have actually regained their self-awareness, “seen” themselves in atmic vision and comprehended what they saw, coming to know the Self in the fullest sense.

• Divine intuition

“Others can only speak of It as wonderful beyond their understanding.”

Since we are the Self, we obviously know all about it on the real level of our being. Evolution consists mainly of development/elaboration of our body vehicles, including the mind, but it also entails a refining of those vehicles, a transparency in which intuition comes more and more into play. It is this which is the real transcendence of the mind (intellect) and entry into true knowing. As a prelude to the direct knowing of the Self, the intuition of the Self arises and increases, leading the sadhaka onward to that knowing.

• Divine understanding

“Others know of Its wonder by hearsay.”

Before intuition arises, the intellect is developed through evolution and becomes capable of grasping the concept of the Self–insofar as it can be intellectually grasped. No small degree of evolution is required before genuinely intelligent (buddhic) apprehension of the Self is possible. Therefore to simply have an intellectual comprehension of the incomprehension of the Self–to wonder at the truth of the Self–is itself a mark of significant spiritual development.

• Uncomprehending ignorance

“And there are others who are told about It and do not understand a word.”

This is not a matter of intelligence only, but also a matter of evolution of consciousness. I have met highly intelligent people who just could not comprehend even the simplest of the principles set forth in the upanishads or the Gita. No matter how I tried to make them clear by restating them in different ways they remained incapable of even a glimmer of understanding.

For example, one very mentally active and intelligent man was thoroughly flummoxed by my statement that as long as we see life with the two eyes of duality we will wander in confusion and delusion, but as soon as we begin to see with the one eye of spiritual intuition we begin to understand our life and our selves. Again and again he asked me to explain, but he never got it in the least. He was very frustrated, at least realizing that I was making sense and the lack was on his part, but he never managed.

On another occasion one of the sadhus of our ashram was speaking to a Fundamentalist Protestant minister. The sadhu told him that we believed everyone could become exactly what Jesus was. Over and over he asked the sadhu to explain–not that he was rejecting the idea; he just could not grasp it. And he never did. It was a matter of evolution in both cases, for non-comprehension is even lower than a mistaken understanding.

Of course sometimes incomprehension is a matter of negativity. The Tibetan Buddhists say that stupidity is “daughter of hell.” Evolution of intelligence is a requisite, but it is certainly true that without purification of the intellect, however evolved, no understanding of higher spiritual realities is possible.

The four castes

Returning to the subject of caste, we can now realize in the light of Krishna’s exposition, that Shudras are those who are servants to materiality and ignorance, Vaishyas are those who have an intellectual understanding of the possibility of their betterment, Kshatriyas are those who, being close to apprehension of the Self, are able to intuit the truth of the Self while aware of their limitation, and Brahmins are those who see and know the Self. This is the sum of the entire matter.

Related articles:

• What Makes a Person a True Brahmin?
• The Real Heaven

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Happiness depends to some extent upon external conditions, but chiefly upon conditions of the inner mind. In order to be happy, one must have good health, an efficient mind, a prosperous life, the right work and, above all, an all-round all accomplishing wisdom. A man cannot be happy just by holding the inner calm, while completely ignoring the struggle for existence and the effort for success. Even Jesus had to eat and clothe Himself.

Then again, without internal happiness, one may find oneself a prisoner of worries in a rich castle. Happiness is not dependent upon success and wealth alone, but real happiness depends upon struggling against the failure, difficulties, and problems of life with an acquired attitude of unshakable internal happiness. To be unhappy in trying to find the hard-to-acquire happiness defeats its own end. Happiness comes by being internally happy first, at all times, while struggling your utmost to uproot the causes of unhappiness.

The habit of preserving an internal happy attitude of mind should have been started when you were very young, but never mind, it is not too late to begin now. From today on, make up your mind that when you meet your trying relatives, when you come in contact with your overbearing office boss, and when you contact your enemies and the trials of life, that you will try to retain your internal calmness and happiness under all circumstances.

If you persevere in carrying out this resolution in your daily actions, and do not forget after a few days of trial, you will find that internal serenity and happiness depend upon a right mental habit and upon resolving to be happy in spite of everything, but remember, when you learn to be happy at all times do not allow this independent mental attitude of inner happiness to make you lazy, and do not ignore the material causes which stand in the way of your happiness. Strive to remove them and go through all the activities of life with this calm happy attitude of mind.

More by Paramhansa Yogananda from the series “Creating Your Happiness”:

• Creating Your Happiness – Paramhansa Yogananda
• Happiness Is in the Mind
• Discover Your Soul as Happiness Itself

Read articles by Paramhansa Yogananda as they are published. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.