Ananda Sangha of Portland--Success and Happiness by Paramhansa Yogananda

Weekly Readings
Articles
Online Books & More!
Donate to Ananda

Feature Articles and Excerpts

Success and Happiness
by Paramhansa Yogananda
from Inner Culture Magazine, January 1936

All prosperity is measured out to man according to the law of cause and effect, which governs not only this life but all past lives. That is why intelligent people are often born poor or unhealthy, whereas an idiot may be born healthy and wealthy. Men were originally sons of God and made in His image, having free choice and equal power of accomplishment; but, by misuse of his God-given reason and will power, man became controlled by the natural law of cause and effect and law of action (Karma) and thus limited his life. A man’s success depends not only upon his intelligence and efficiency but upon the nature of his past actions. However, there is a way to overcome the unfavorable results of past actions. They must be destroyed and a new cause set in motion.

God the Real Source of Prosperity

God is the secret of all mental power, peace, and prosperity. Then why use the limited, impossible human method of gaining prosperity? By visualizing abundance, or by affirmation, you may strengthen your subconscious mind, which may in turn encourage your conscious mind, but that is all that visualization alone can do. The conscious mind still has to achieve the success just the same and is hindered by the working of the law of cause and effect. The conscious mind cannot initiate a new cause which will bring positive success in any direction, but when the human mind can contact God, then the superconscious mind can be sure of success due to the unlimited power of God and due to creating a new cause of success.

Efficiency through Concentration

After establishing that the goal of life is maximum efficiency, peace, health, and success, let us consider the surest way to prosperity. Prosperity does not consist just in the making of money; it also consists in acquiring the mental efficiency by which man can uniformly acquire health, wealth, wisdom, and peace at will.

Great wealth does not necessarily bring health, peace, or efficiency, but the acquirement of efficiency and peace are bound to bring a properly balanced material success. Most people develop efficiency as the by-product of their efforts for material success, but very few people know that money is made for happiness, but happiness cannot be found just by developing an insatiable Soul-corroding desire for money.

Man often forgets to concentrate on his little physical needs and on his great need of developing mental efficiency in everything and of acquiring Divine contentment. Man is so busy multiplying his conditions of physical comfort that he considers very many unnecessary things as a necessary part of his existence.

Mental efficiency depends upon the art of concentration. Man must know the scientific method of concentration, by which he can disengage his attention from objects of distraction and focus it on one thing at a time. By the power of concentration, man can use the untold power of mind to accomplish that which he desires, and he can guard all doors through which failure may enter. All men of success have been men of great concentration, men who could dive deeply into their problems and come out with the pearls of right solutions. Most people are suffocated by distraction and are unable to fish out the pearls of success.

The man of powerful concentration must ask God to direct his focused mind on the right place for right success. Passive people want God to do all the work, and egotists ascribe all their success to themselves. Passive people do not use the power of God in intelligence, and egotists, though using God-given intelligence, forget to receive God’s direction as to how the intelligence should be used. I can blame inertia as the cause of failure, but it hurts me to see intelligent egotists fail after making real intelligent effort.

The surest way to prosperity lies not in begging through wrong prayer, but in establishing first your Oneness with God and afterward demanding the Divine Son’s share. That is why Jesus said that men of the world wrongly and unsuccessfully seek bread first, but that they should seek the Kingdom of God first, then all things, all prosperity, unasked, would be added unto them. This is easier said than done. You have heard this before, but you must learn to demonstrate this truth in you life. You must remember that Jesus actually knew and felt it when he said, “I and my Father are One.” That is why He could command the storms to stop, turn water into wine, wake Lazarus from sleep, and heal the physical and mental sufferers, and could feed the multitude. He was spiritually efficient, and hence He knew the art of mental and physical efficiency.

God’s Will and Your Will

Broadcast your message, “My Father and I are One” until you feel this over-powering, all-solacing Bliss of God. When this happens, you have made contact. Then demand your celestial right by affirming, “Father, I am Thy child; guide me to my right prosperity,” or, “Father, I will reason, I will will, I will act, but lead Thou my reason, will, and activity to the right thing which I should do in order to acquire health, wealth, peace, and wisdom.”

Do not will and act first, but contact God first and thus harness your will and activity to the right goal. As you cannot broadcast through a broken microphone, so must you remember that you cannot broadcast your prayer through the mental microphone which is disordered by restlessness. By deep calmness, repair your mind microphone. Then again, as you cannot get an answer by just calling someone through a microphone and then running away, so, also, you must not pray once and then run away, but you must continuously broadcast your prayer to God through your calm mental microphone UNTIL you hear His voice. Most people pray in restlessness and do not pray with the determination to receive a response.

Repeat This Prayer Daily

Heavenly Father, teach me how to dive in Thy Ocean of Plenty again and again if I do not find the pearls of Thy Perception by one or two divings. I will not say that Thy Ocean of Everything is empty, for Thou wilt show me that the fault is with my diving. I will put on the diving apparel of faith, power, and fortitude, and Thou wilt direct my mind to dive in the right place, where Thy bounty is hidden.