Divine Harmony
~ by Swami Paramahansa Yogananda

“Harmony is the secret principle of life.”
~ Swami Paramahansa Yogananda

“You are walking on the earth as in a dream.
Our world is a dream within a dream; you must realize
that to find God is the only goal, the only purpose, for which you are here.
For Him alone you exist. Him you must find.”
~ Swami Paramahansa Yogananda

Swami Paramahansa Yogananda January 5, 1893 – March 7, 1952

Dear Friends,

To honor Swami Paramahansa Yogananda on the anniversary of his 1952 mahasamadhi, it is my grateful privilege to share with you Swami Yogananda’s enlightened aphorisms titled “Divine Harmony” as excerpted verbatim from his “Journey To Self-Realization: Collected Talks And Essays On Realizing God In Daily Life, Volume III”.

Swami Yogananda’s profound wisdom words about “Divine Harmony” are shared to help heal the world, by awakening Humankind to our spiritual Oneness and Harmony with Nature and Universal Awareness, as LOVE.

May Paramahansa Yogananda’s Divine message inspire us to BE harmonious with ourselves, with each other, and with all of Nature of which we are part.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner


“Divine Harmony” ~ by Paramahansa Yogananda

Excerpted from Journey To Self-Realization: Collected Talks And Essays On Realizing God In Daily Life, Volume III.
 

·         Disharmony is misery and death; harmony is the joy of life.

·         We Live in Two Worlds

·         The outside world is the one in which your life engages in action and interaction.  The world inside of you determines your happiness or unhappiness, and also your fitness or unfitness, expressed in the world outside.  The hand of the One who made these worlds tuned them to harmonize with each other.  Harmony is their inherent nature.  If they seem discordant, that is the fault of those who misuse and abuse the potentials of these divine creations.

·         People are convinced that their own personal perceptions are “fact” until contrary evidence eventually proves otherwise.  Who can persuade biased individuals that the whole universe moves in an eternal cosmic rhythm, and that all irregularities are misconceptions due to limited or distorted vision?  Those who can hear, hear; those who can see, see; those who have a perceptive heart perceive the divine harmony that runs through all creation.

·         To penetrate into the soul of creation, yoga insight is required.

·         There Is Harmony at the Core of Disharmony

·         Things are not what they seem.

·         Consider everything that happens as a note in the symphony of the Cosmic Conductor.

·         Only those who partake of the harmony within their souls know the harmony that runs through nature. Whosoever lacks this inner harmony feels also a lack of it in the world.  The mind in chaos finds chaos all around.

·         How can one know what peace is like if he has never tasted it?

·         But he who has inner peace can abide in this state even in the midst of outer discord.

·         Harmony is born of love and wisdom.  These, in turn, are offspring of a heart that is pure and outreaching.  A pure heart is the result of pure thoughts.

·         Mental purity comes from a selective process by which the mind sorts good thoughts from bad, rejecting the latter and dwelling always on the former.

·         By repetition, and by reinforcement through application to action, discrimination becomes a virtuous habit.  When the mental conflict of divergent thoughts ceases, owing to the elimination of wrong thinking, there arises in one’s life an outward as well as an inward harmony.  Therefore, whenever your thoughts engage in a family quarrel among themselves, mediate their differences with wisdom and behold! Distressing conflicts will disturb you no more.

·         The mind is nature’s incinerator wherein you can burn to ashes all mental dross that is not worthy to be saved:  your waste thoughts and desires, your misconceptions and grievances, and your discords in human relationships.  There is not a single relationship, however estranged, you cannot reconcile, provided you do so first in your own mind.  There is not a single problem in life you cannot resolve, provided you first solve it in your inner world, its place of origin.  Be not intimidated by consequences, even though they be drastic.  Before you act, if you first harmonize the situation with the discriminative wisdom in your mind, the outcome will take care of itself.  A harmonized mind produces harmony in this world of seeming discord.

·         Inner harmony is a prolific source of power; it breeds strength.  Things that you think you are unable to bear, you can not only bear but change and improve.  To you is given the power that can move the world and alter the face of fate despite inharmonious outer circumstances.

·         Harmony conserves mental energy; disharmony dissipates it.

·         Harmony manifests itself as a natural goodness.  A man who cannot get along with others is one who does not get along with himself, he is always at war inwardly, ill at ease with his own nature.

·         Those who cannot find peace in their own hearts will not find it elsewhere either.

·         Harmony is the Secret Principle of Life

·         Good judgment is a natural expression of wisdom; but it is directly dependent on harmony within, which is poise of mind.  When the mind lacks harmony, it has no peace; and without peace it lacks both judgment and wisdom.  Life is full of bumps and knocks.  In the hours of trials, which demand your keenest judgment, if you preserve your mental equilibrium you will attain victory.

·         This is equally true in any type of organization – any structure that has interacting parts, from nature as a whole to human relationships to corporate businesses and spiritual societies.  Harmony is the soul of organization; disharmony is death.

·         Harmony is the fruit of common understanding.

·         Efforts to establish harmony among human beings or nations solely on the basis of economic equality of equivalence of military preparedness are sure to fail.

·         What is necessary is an understanding of the common higher necessities for the preservation and true happiness of the bodies, minds, and souls of all beings.

·         Love and forbearance are essential to the growth of harmony. Love nurtures all things that grow; it harmonizes and unites.  Hatred agitates and separates; and indifference destroys what could have been made good and beneficial.  Love is harmony and harmony is love.

·         “People have time to worry and to suffer, but feel they have no time to meditate and work toward being truly happy.”  Throw off difference and cultivate love, forbearance, and wisdom. Build your joys on the sure foundation of inner harmony. Cherish no thought that does not harmonize with the love and lawful ideals of God.  Thus will your whole life be flooded with the light and bliss of the Divine Harmony.

Invocation

May Swami Paramahansa Yogananda’s Divine message inspire us to BE
harmonious with ourselves, with each other, and with all of Nature of which we are part.

May we thereby cooperatively coexist, peacefully, harmoniously and happily, with each other and with all other life on our precious planet,
for the welfare of the World and all life.

Until ultimately we realize our common Divine Self-identity
As the Eternal light of timeless LOVE.

And so may it be!

Ron Rattner