Ananda Sangha of Portland--The Art of Living by Paramhansa Yogananda

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The Art of Living
by Paramhansa Yogananda
from East West Magazine, May 1933

Every man builds his aspirations and his desires according to his pre-natal and post-natal influences. Heredity and national, social, and family characteristics, tastes, and habits mold the life of a child. Children, in the beginning of their lives, are about the same everywhere. That is why Jesus said: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Divinity is the one nationality of all children the world over, but, as they grow older and the family and social characteristics begin to exercise their influence, it is then that individuals begin to reveal the Hindu or American or any other national and racial traits.

It seems as if God is trying to evolve the art of right living by expressing His Truth through a combination of particular civilizations, mentalities, and nationalities. No nation is complete in itself. An absorption and collection of the best in Hindus, English, Americans, Chinese, French, German, and other nationalities may offer us the best information on the art of living. It is important to note that certain individuals like Jesus, or the master minds of India, not only attained the best in all civilizations since the earliest era to the present time, but they manifested the highest ideals embodied in all religions.

Great men and saints always live several hundred years ahead of their time and exemplify the universal Truth of all times. Therefore, the art of right living can be found in the study of the best in all nationalities, plus the study of the individual lives of great saints. Of all nationalities at present, the Hindu and the American represent, respectively, the acme of spiritually and materially efficient civilizations. The Hindus and other Orientals have produced the highest types of spiritual people, like Jesus and Ghandi. Whereas, Americans have produced the greatest types of business men, like Henry Ford, and also practical scientists like Thomas Edison. A .combination of the spiritually-efficient with the scientific materially-efficient qualities as represented in the above examples of the lives of great men can offer us an art of living which will produce physically, mentally, morally, materially, socially, and spiritually the highest type of all-round men in all nationalities.

The next thing is to select, not the particular one-sided national characteristics, but the all-round universal principles of living from all nations and from all great men. Do not take only those principles which develop the physical at the cost of the spiritual phase of man’s life, or vice versa, but also take those which equally and harmoniously develop the superman with his balanced physical, mental, moral, and spiritual qualities.

I will now enumerate a few, practical methods of uniformly developing body, mind, and soul.

(a) Eat more raw food and fresh fruits, drink fresh milk and plenty of orange juice with ground nuts mixed in. (Read and follow a good modern book on dietetics.)

(b) Fast one day a week on orange juice and use a suitable cleansing mineral oil as prescribed by your physician.

(c) Walk, run, or take some form of vigorous exercise with deep attention until you perspire, every morning and evening.

(d) Read and meditate upon a passage from the Christian Bible and a passage from the Hindu Bible, (Bhagavad Gita) obtainable at any large book store.

(e) Read Shakespeare and other classics, some portions from some physical books on chemistry, physics, physiology, history of Oriental and Western philosophy, comparative religion, ethics, and psychology. Don’t waste your time on cheap novels. Read a good health and spiritual magazine. Read the editorial and health articles in the newspapers, and not only the comics and scandals.

(f) Go to a different church each Sunday. One Sunday go to the Protestant church, another Sunday go to the Catholic Church, another Sunday go to the Jewish temple, and another Sunday go to the Hindu temple, and so on. Keep on doing this in rotation to show not only your toleration, but to develop your appreciation and understanding. Call all temples, whether Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, or any other religion, by the common name—"The Temple of Our God."

(g) While honoring God in all man-made temples, learn to worship and contact Him in the temple of deepest silence. Practice meditation for one hour in the morning and one hour at night. Learn the highest methods of scientific concentration and meditation as taught by great Hindu masters. Do not be side-tracked to dogmatic un-tested religious beliefs, but try to find the one highway of Self-Realization which leads quickly to God through the forests of belief and theology. Do not be a slave to the senses. Learn to make them serve you with lasting spiritual pleasures.

(h) Only occasionally go to see the best moral and spiritual plays or moving pictures.

(i) Obey the good laws of your family, country, and all nations.

(j) Speak kindly and follow fearlessly the Truth wherever you perceive it.

(k) Love your family and country deeply so that you may learn to love and serve people of all nations more, and learn to find God in all men of whatever race or religion.

(1) Earn more, and spend less by destroying luxurious habits. Save enough so that you can live on the interest of your savings. Divide your life into four parts, putting the main emphasis on developing particular efficiency in one line during each of the four periods of life.

(1) From 5 to 25 years, take up the study of efficiency, general education. and particular training: (2) from 25 to 40 years, earn money; (3) from 40 to 50 years, live quietly, study, and meditate; (4) from 50 years on, spend life in preaching and meditating deeply.

In short, remember, if you think of making money for half an hour, exercise one hour, and if you exercise one hour, read two hours, and if you read two hours, meditate three hours and love God and act peacefully at all times. Learn to be calmly active and actively calm.

Say this prayer: "Heavenly Father, teach us to create an United States of the World with Thy Truth as our leader and president, which will guide us to live in loving brotherhood, and urge us to develop our bodies, minds, and souls perfectly, in order that Thy Kingdom of Heavenly Peace which is within us may be manifest in the actions of our daily life."

Pray also: "Heavenly Father, may Thy love shine forever on the sanctuary of my devotion, and may I be able to awaken Thy love in all hearts. Make me efficient, healthy, perfect in .everything, so that I may inspire all my earthly brothers to be Thy noble children."

Above all, contact God first in the Temple of Silence, and then health, prosperity, and wisdom will be added unto you.

"The aeons one by one are flying;
The arrows one by one are gone.
Dimly, slowly, life is fading;
But still my soul is marching on."