Where There Is Light ~ Paramahansa Yogananda

To coax God to give Himself takes steady, unceasing zeal. Nobody can teach you that zeal. You have to develop that yourself. "You can take a horse to water but you cannot make him drink." Yet when the horse is thirsty it seeks out water with zeal. So, when you have an immense thirst for the Divine, when you will not give undue importance to anything else – the tests of the world or the tests of the body – then He will come.

The greatest factor for success with God is to have that resolute desire.

Though God hears all our prayers He doesn’t always respond. Our situation is like that of a child who calls for his mother, but the mother doesn’t think it necessary to come. She sends him a plaything to keep him quiet. But when the child refuses to be comforted by anything except the mother’s presence, she comes. If you want to know God, you must be like a the naughty baby who cries till the mother comes.

Do not jump up after only one or two mental broadcasts, but with continuous personal zeal keep on consciously (affirming) with the ever increasing hunger of your heart, incessantly … until you feel the ever increasing thrill of joy bursting in your whole body.

When you feel a bursting thrill of joy expanding in your heart and your whole body, and it continues to increase even after meditation, you have received the one sure proof that God has answered through the devotion-tuned radio of your heart.

In Him you will find all the love of all hearts. You will find completeness. Everything that the world gives you and then takes away, leaving you in pain or disillusionment, you will find in God in a much greater way, and with no aftermath of sorrow.

He is the nearest of the near, the dearest of the dear. Love Him as a miser loves money, as an ardent man loves his sweetheart, as a drowning person loves breath. When you yearn for God with intensity, He will come to you.

The Searcher of Hearts wants only your sincere love. He is like a little child: someone may offer Him his whole wealth and He doesn’t want it; and another cries to Him, “O Lord, I love you!” and into that devotee’s heart He comes running.

God will not tell you that you should desire Him above all else, because He wants your love to be freely given, without “prompting.” That is the whole secret in the game of this universe. He wants us to give it spontaneously, without His asking. Our love is the one thing God does not possess, unless we choose to bestow it. So, you see, even the Lord has something to attain: our love. And we shall never be happy until we give it.
The greatest love you can experience is in communion with God in meditation. The love between the soul and Spirit is the perfect love, the love you are all seeking. When you meditate, love grows. Millions of thrills pass through your heart … If you meditate deeply, a love will come over you such as no human tongue can describe; you will know His divine love, and you will be able to give that pur love to others.

If you could feel even a particle of divine love, so great would be your joy – so overpowering – you could not contain it.

If we are attuned to God, our perception is limitless, pervading everywhere in the oceanic flow of the Divine Presence. When the Spirit is know, and when we know ourselves as Spirit, there is no land or sea, no earth or sky – all is He. The melding of everything in Spirit is a state no one can describe. A great bliss is felt – eternal fullness of joy and knowledge and love.

The love of God, the love of the Spirit, is an all consuming love. Once you have experienced it, it shall lead you on and on in the eternal realms. That love will never be taken away from your heart. It shall burn there, and in its fire you shall find the great magnetism of Spirit that draws others unto you, and attracts whatsoever you truly need or desire.

I tell you truthfully that all my questions have been answered, not through man but through God. He is. He is. It is His spirit that talks to you through me. It is His love that I speak of. Thrill after thrill! Like gentle zephyrs His love comes over the soul. Day and night, week after week, year after year, it goes on increasing – you don’t know where the end is. And that is what you are seeking, every one of you. You think you want human love and prosperity, but behind these is your Father who is calling you. If you realize He is greater than all His gifts, you will find Him.

Man has come on earth solely to learn to know God; he is here for no other reason. This is the true message of the Lord. To all those who seek and love Him, He tells of that great life where there is no pain, no old age, no war, no death – only eternal assurance. In that Life nothing is destroyed. There is only ineffable happiness that will never grow stale – a happiness always new.

So that is why it is worthwhile to seek God. All those who sincerely seek Him will surely find Him. Those who want to love the Lord and yearn to enter His kingdom, and who sincerely wish in their hearts to know Him, will find Him. You must have an ever increasing desire for Him, day and night. He will acknowledge your love by fulfilling His promise to you throughout eternity, and you shall know joy and happiness unending. All is light, all is joy, all is peace, all is love. He is all.

Prayers and Affirmations

Teach me to find Thy presence on the altar of my constant peace and in the joy that springs from deep meditation.

Bless me, that I may find Thee in the temple of each thought and activity. Finding Thee within, I will find Thee without, in all people, and in all conditions.