# The Divine Romance  ## Metadata - Author: [[Paramahansa Yogananda]] - Full Title: The Divine Romance - Category: #books ## Highlights - “The greatest love you can experience is in communion with God,” he states, in the opening lecture of The Divine Romance. “The love between the soul and Spirit is the perfect love, the love you are all seeking.” ([Location 488](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=488)) - Tags: [[favorite]] [[pink]] - God is Sat-Chit-Ananda, ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss. We, as soul, are individualized Sat-Chit-Ananda. “From Joy we have come, in Joy we live and have our being, and in that sacred Joy we will one day melt again.”1 All the divine emotions—love, compassion, courage, self-sacrifice, humility—would be meaningless without joy. Joy means exhilaration, an expression of the ultimate Bliss. ([Location 588](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=588)) - Tags: [[favorite]] [[pink]] - In the universal sense, love is the divine power of attraction in creation that harmonizes, unites, binds together. It is opposed by the force of repulsion, which is the outgoing cosmic energy that materializes creation from the cosmic consciousness of God. ([Location 608](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=608)) - Tags: [[pink]] - From that moment, the husband realized that the beloved form he had known as his wife was in reality an individualized manifestation of the consciousness of God—as is every human being. The true meaning of divine love, which is behind and responsible for every ideal human relationship, was revealed to him. ([Location 678](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=678)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The abuse of sex is comparable to running a car without oil; the body cannot stand it. Each drop of vital essence lost is equivalent to the loss of eight drops of blood. ([Location 688](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=688)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Such pure friendship has existed between saints and between others who truly love God. If you once know divine love, you will never part with it, for there is nothing else like it in the whole universe. ([Location 735](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=735)) - Tags: [[pink]] - So why spend all your time pursuing temporary human love? Conjugal, familial, fraternal—all forms of human love have blind alleys. Divine love is the only perfect love. It is God who is playing hide-and-seek in the corridors of hearts, that perchance behind lesser human loves you may find His all-satisfying love. ([Location 809](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=809)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The first differentiation of Spirit was the manifestation of pure thought. Then, projected out of the thought seed of His consciousness, came light, cosmic light. Consciousness and light are the same, except that light is of greater density. ([Location 885](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=885)) - Tags: [[pink]] - So death is the means by which dream matter changes back into the consciousness of God, releasing the soul within it for the next step in its progressive return journey to God. Thus death is a part of the process of salvation. ([Location 912](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=912)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Thus reincarnation is a series of dreams within a dream: man’s individual dreams within the greater dream of God. ([Location 933](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=933)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Think how much time and effort you spend catering to the body. And what does it get you? Do you know that the more solicitous you are of your body, the more suffering you will have? If you are too much identified with this dream form, you become hopelessly immersed in delusion. ([Location 967](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=967)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The purpose is not to torture the body, but to save the disciple from all the troubles that will beset him if he believes that comfort comes from material things. Comfort comes from the mind. Change your mental attitude and you will not feel discomfort. ([Location 980](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=980)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Whenever you are attached to something, that possessiveness deepens your delusion. You will be rudely awakened one day to find that nothing belongs to you. Isn’t it silly, therefore, to be attached to things that were never yours in the first place? Your attitude should be that you are looking after these things only for the time being, like a housekeeper who lives in her employer’s home and devotedly, loyally, faithfully looks after it, but knows that her own home is elsewhere. ([Location 991](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=991)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Therefore meditation is a dying to the world without dying. This is a new explanation the Lord has given me. In meditation you do consciously what you do unconsciously every night in sleep. ([Location 1022](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1022)) - Tags: [[favorite]] [[pink]] - This is why Lord Krishna stressed that if you want freedom in Spirit, you must be of even mind under all circumstances: “He who cannot be ruffled by these (contacts of the senses with their objects), who is calm and evenminded during pain and pleasure, he alone is fit to attain everlastingness!” ([Location 1033](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1033)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Whenever you worry, remember, you are deepening the cosmic delusion within you. ([Location 1047](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1047)) - Tags: [[pink]] - There are three dreams that God made strongest in man: the pleasures of sex, gold, and wine. ([Location 1050](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1050)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Meditate deeply and faithfully, and one day you will wake up in ecstasy with God and see how foolish it is that people think they are suffering. ([Location 1082](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1082)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Note: Goal of all is cosmic c - So religion must be experimented with, to prove it and make it practical. Many churches do great social good, but they do not show you how you can actually prove God to yourself, and how you can be in tune with Him. ([Location 1211](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1211)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The first experiment with religion must begin with silence. Most people never take time to be silent or to sit quietly in meditation. Hours and hours I remain in inner silence. When I am with people, I enjoy them immensely; I am with them fully and wholeheartedly. But when I am away from people, I am entirely alone in that supreme joy of life—the bliss of God. No matter where I am, that joy of God is always with me. Why don’t you experiment with silence, so that you can live in this same way? Most of you can’t sit still for even ten minutes without your thoughts running away in all directions. You have not learned to be at peace in your home within, because you are always restlessly chasing about in your mind. My master, Sri Yukteswar, used to say: “Locking the door of the storehouse of happiness, man runs everywhere else, begging for that happiness. How foolish, when he has the whole store of joy lying within himself!” From my childhood I sought God, and communion with Him has given me happiness that no fulfilled material desires could ever give. You have nothing if you have not God. You have everything if you have God; for He is the Master of the universe. ([Location 1214](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1214)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Truth is exact correspondence with Reality; hence its end result is always good. ([Location 1232](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1232)) - Tags: [[pink]] - one should not speak unpleasant facts unnecessarily, even though they be true. ([Location 1239](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1239)) - Tags: [[pink]] - When you say, “I won’t give in to this wrong habit,” and you don’t, that is self-mastery. “Won’t power” develops strength of mind. ([Location 1278](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1278)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Every morning when I get up, I make certain resolutions, and then throughout the day I mentally whip myself to be sure that I fulfill them. This develops great will power; and when I see all my resolutions carried out, I feel I am a conqueror. So practice self-control. ([Location 1280](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1280)) - Tags: [[pink]] - This is a science, a divine law. There is always a way out of your trouble; and if you take the time to think clearly, to think how to get rid of the cause of your anxiety instead of just worrying about it, you become a master. ([Location 1298](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1298)) - Tags: [[pink]] - The great ones who have discovered Him never live in doubt; they experience the truth. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”4 You have everything when you have found God. ([Location 1331](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1331)) - Tags: [[pink]] - “Unattracted to the sensory world, the yogi experiences the ever new joy inherent in the Self. Engaged in divine union of the soul with Spirit, he attains bliss indestructible.”1 ([Location 1387](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1387)) - Tags: [[pink]] - First, he put himself—his life and divine power—in the body of Lazarus. Thus he could work out Lazarus’ karma: he took that karma on himself. Then, having freed the body of the cause of death, he renewed the bodily cells so that they would live again.4 ([Location 1455](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1455)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Babaji said he could not accept him in his present state of development. The distraught devotee hurled himself over the cliff, while the other disciples looked on in horror. Babaji then told them to retrieve the body. The disciples obeyed, and laid the lifeless form at the Mahavatar’s feet. He touched the broken body, healed it, and brought the devotee back to life. By his act of total faith and devotion, the disciple had worked out the last vestiges of bad karma that had made him theretofore unready to join Babaji’s exalted company of devotees. The great Guru then accepted him as a disciple. ([Location 1467](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1467)) - Tags: [[pink]] - They reason that when you start to break the laws of right behavior, there must be two causes: the influence of bad company or environment that affects you adversely; and lack of self-control. This is true. ([Location 1485](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1485)) - Tags: [[pink]] ## New highlights added April 23, 2022 at 5:18 PM - Depending on how set those patterns are, to that degree you are a puppet. But you can neutralize the dictates of those bad habits. How? By creating brain patterns of opposite good habits. And you can completely erase the grooves of bad habits by meditation. There is no other way. However, you can’t cultivate good habits without good company and good environment. And you can’t free yourself from bad habits without good company and meditation. ([Location 1508](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1508)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Angels Are Made on Earth, Not in Heaven ([Location 1538](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1538)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Escape from every jail cell of bad habits, attachment, emotion, desires, life, and death. The bars of this jail in which your soul is imprisoned can be severed with the saw of wisdom. The more you will saw at them in meditation, the freer you will become through the power of God. In Him you will know that this life is like a dream; it is just a drama. ([Location 1592](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1592)) - Tags: [[pink]] - “Over and above performing faithfully all one’s duties, taking shelter in Me, it is by My pleasure a devotee obtains the eternal, unchangeable state.”11 ([Location 1600](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1600)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Don’t worry that by freeing yourself of desires you will become petrified, like a stone. Desirelessness is a most marvelous state of consciousness. I enjoy everything, but I have no desire for anything, so there is never any pain or disappointment from unfulfillment. Whatever I do, wherever I go, I enjoy myself. So the way to true happiness is to do your best in the role in which God has placed you, without creating further desires. Then you can be a king within, no matter what your outer conditions. ([Location 1811](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1811)) - Tags: [[pink]] - perhaps during war in this electrical age, or in the mental age, or in the truth age, you will come like a Christ to give peace on earth and to say to mankind: “I learned the lessons God wanted me to learn. Troubles, diseases, and death mean nothing to me. I am one with the Eternal Light. The world has ended for me. Come, my brothers and sisters who are still suffering from the nightmare of this world of life and death and endless rounds of incarnations—come with me! I will show you that the end of the world means the end of your dream delusions of this earth. Learn this lesson so that your soul may shine forever—an eternal star—in the bosom of the great Lord.” ([Location 1846](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1846)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Of the six principal systems of Hindu philosophy,2 Sankhya expounds the why of religion, Vedanta describes the end to be attained, and Yoga provides the method for that attainment. ([Location 1878](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1878)) - Tags: [[pink]] - You don’t want to be merely peaceful. A person who has had too much of peace, without positive happiness, is willing to accept even sorrow in order to have a little change in his life. Beyond peace is the state of divine consciousness, ever new bliss that will never grow stale. ([Location 1895](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1895)) - Tags: [[pink]] - So Yoga shows you the way and gives the method. And Vedanta describes the end—that after freeing yourself from suffering by finding God, you will have eternal happiness, eternal joy, eternal wisdom, eternal existence. That state is so desirable! You will be conscious of your blissful existence, and you will know that you are immortal. This experience is indescribable. ([Location 1908](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=1908)) - Tags: [[pink]] - To be supremely happy and free, you must be a man of renunciation—one who is master of the senses and is nonattached to possessions. True renunciation means to renounce material consciousness for spiritual consciousness. ([Location 2238](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=2238)) - Tags: [[favorite]] [[pink]] - If you haven’t exercised your will power to accomplish something difficult in life, you haven’t lived up to the standard of a child of God. You have insulted the image of God within. You must exercise your divine gift of creativity in some way. It is never too late. Do you know what old age is? It is when your mind becomes “hardboiled”—accepting the limitations imposed by body-consciousness and closing its doors to creative thinking. I have had people of all ages, some of them ready to step into the grave, telling me all the things they intend to accomplish, and how much money they are going to make! ([Location 2325](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=2325)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Complete surrender to God is the only goal in life I could conceive of. ([Location 2349](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B072M3Q35Y&location=2349)) - Tags: [[favorite]] [[pink]]