The Secret of Vitality” by Paramahansa Yogananda

[Steve Hutchinson]

The Secret of Vitality” by Paramahansa Yogananda

Dear Friend,  Do you want to experience more vitality? We all do. To do so, we may make adjustments to what we eat, how much relaxation we get, or how we perform various activities and pursue our dreams with increased enthusiasm and determination. And we can see the benefit of these in our energy and outlook.   But Paramahansa Yogananda’s teachings place the highest emphasis on how tremendously more full of life and energy our days would become if we consciously connected with the source of vitality hiding behind the scenes of the drama of life.   “Whether man acknowledges God or not,” Sri Daya Mata, third president of SRF, once said, “the truth is that our very existence from moment to moment depends on the life and vitality and intelligence that constantly flows from the unseen Divine Source.”   And she has pointed out (see link to SRF blog below) that youthfulness, which is so often considered an evanescent and outward state, “is a vitality of mind and spirit that radiates from within — a joy born of feeling our deep inner connection with God’s eternal power and bliss.”   So we hope you can put this newsletter to use to experience greater and greater vitality — absorbing wisdom and practicing simple yet powerful techniques from Paramahansaji to connect with the Source of all life.

From the talks and writings of Paramahansa Yogananda: When you see from a hilltop how beautiful are the twinkling lights of a city, you forget that it is the dynamo that is providing the electricity to illumine the bulbs. So when you see the sparkling vitality of human beings, but you do not know what is enlivening them, then you are spiritually blind. That Power, even though unseen, is very evident. It is all the time playing hide-and-seek behind our thoughts.

[The body] is kept dancing with life by forces derived from external sources (food, oxygen, and sunshine); and by vitality (prana) derived from the internal source — Cosmic Consciousness. Without the life forces and consciousness from the inner soul source, the external sources of bodily energy are of no avail in maintaining life in the body.

God made us angels of energy, encased in solids — currents of life dazzling through a material bulb of flesh. But through concentration on the frailties and fragility of the body bulb, we have forgotten how to feel the immortal, indestructible properties of the eternal life energy within the mutable flesh.

The system of Energization Exercises, which I discovered and developed in 1916, is a most beneficial, simple, and nonstrenuous method for recharging the body consciously with life-giving prana. This stimulation and electrification of the tissues, cells, and blood helps to immunize them against disease.

Proper breathing is so important to keep your blood charged with vitality….Learn and practice this method: First, throw out the breath with a strong double exhalation (one short and one long breath). Then, inhale in a double inhalation (one short and one long breath), filling the lungs as full as is comfortable. Hold the air in the lungs for a few seconds, allowing the oxygen to be fully absorbed and converted into prana. Then repeat the double exhalation, followed by the double inhalation. Practice this method in the fresh air 30 times in the morning and 30 times at night. It is very simple. You will be healthier than ever if you follow this. This exercise brings in a great deal of extra life force; and also decarbonizes your blood, promoting calmness.

Learn to perform all your duties with deepest happiness, with courageous cheerfulness welling up within you. Then you will feel a flood of vitality surge through your entire body as you go about your daily activities.

This great law some know, but few put into practice: Continuously think that your body is full of vitality, especially at times when it seems weak, and you will feel strength percolating into your body from the mind. You will start to open a new, secret, invisible source of self-vitalization apart from the external material sources of food, air, and sunlight.

If you are conscious of the Source of this life, you will know how to draw continuously on its sustaining power.…This Essence of life is unknown to millions, and yet they are always using that power of God. Why not be conscious of that Power?

Feel that you are charged with the creative, life-sustaining energy of God. Feel that the everlasting consciousness of God is manifesting in your body, erasing the mortal consciousness of past failures, fear, disease, old age. Repeat this thought with deep attention: “Father, Thou art present in my body, in my mind, in my soul. I am made in Thine image. Bless my body, mind, and soul, that they shine with Thine everlasting youth, power, immortality, and joy.”

To learn more about how to suffuse your life with greater energy and about the system of Energization Exercises that Paramahansaji mentions above, we invite you to read “The Secret of Vitality,” excerpts from the book The Divine Romance. Video Link: Drawing Divine Energy From Our Oneness With God https://youtu.be/c1NEU9XFFj0?si=9k5Zo1aJfGtYue48 ... The Secret of Vitality” by Paramahansa Yogananda April 01, 2024 Share this on In his books and Lessons, Paramahansaji shows how each of us can learn to maintain tremendous vitality in our bodies and minds — through wise use of both external physical sources of energy (proper diet, right breathing, sufficient sunshine) as well as internal sources (the divine life forces and consciousness flowing from the soul and Spirit). He speaks of these principles in the following excerpts from “How to Work Without Fatigue,” a talk in the second volume of Collected Talks and Essays by Paramahansa Yogananda, The Divine Romance. Food is only a secondary source of energy supply. The greatest flow of energy into the body comes from the intelligent cosmic energy that is all around the body and omnipresent in the universe…. It takes hours for the body to convert [solid] food into energy, but anything that stimulates your will generates energy instantly. *** The system of Energization Exercises that Self-Realization Fellowship teaches is based on the principle of using will to draw energy from the cosmic source, and to distribute that energy by will to the trillions of cells in the body. *** Energy is continually wasted in useless activities, unrestrained emotions, and improper living habits. When you are at peace you use little energy, but when you are angry or hateful or otherwise emotional, you use a great deal of energy. Proper care is necessary in operating a delicate machine; the same consideration ought to apply in using the body-machine…. The secret of vitality, therefore, is to conserve the energy you have and to bring new energy into the body by will power. How? First, you must act willingly. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing willingly. When you work willingly, you have more energy because you not only draw upon the reserves in the brain, but also attract a greater flow of cosmic energy into the body…. We draw most of the current for our actions from the physical supply of the body battery — energy distilled from food, oxygen, and sunshine. We don’t draw enough energy from the invisible cosmic source, through the conscious use of will. Will and Energy Go Hand-in-Hand There is a difference between consciously applied will and imagination. Imagination is a conception of something that one desires to manifest. By imagining day and night that you are feeling more vitality, you will gain some strength, because imagination requires at least a small degree of will. By contrast, when one wills vitality, the energy is actually there at once. Suppose you are angered and strike at someone violently; the will, stimulated by emotion, draws energy for that action; but immediately afterwards the energy is cut off, and your vitality is depleted. But if in a positive way you continuously will energy into your body and apply the principle of the Self-Realization Energization Exercises, conscious life-force control, you can draw, by the use of will power, unlimited energy from the cosmic source. Since the body is simply a cluster of cells, if it lacks energy and you thus energize the whole body with will, those cells are recharged instantly and continuously. Will is the switch that lets more energy into the body from the divine source. Will is thus a potent factor in maintaining youth and vigor. If you convince yourself you are old, the will becomes paralyzed and you do become old. Never say you are tired; it paralyzes the will and then you are tired. Say, “My body needs rest.” The body must not be allowed to dictate its limitations to your soul. The soul must rule the body, because the soul is neither caused by nor dependent on the body. In the soul’s will lies all power. God willed, and there was light — the cosmic creative energy that condensed into the heavens, into our bodies, and all other forms. Will is light, for light was the first manifestation of God’s will. And He saw that this light, or electrical energy, was a satisfactory unit out of which life forms could be created. The scientist ponders whether matter is light or whether light is matter. Light came first, and constitutes the essential structure of matter. Therefore, we must realize that energy and will go together. It is a very simple formula. We have been so conditioned to the idea that energy comes only from material sources, that we fail to believe in and draw upon the cosmic source, which responds instantly to will. If you learn the Self-Realization method by which you use your will to draw energy directly from the boundless cosmic source, you will not suffer from fatigue anymore. To learn Paramahansa Yogananda’s SRF Energization Exercises and the complete science of meditation taught as part of the Kriya Yoga path, we invite you to read about and consider applying for the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons — a comprehensive home-study course from Paramahansaji that shares his in-depth “how-to-live” teachings for creating vitality and maximum well-being of body, mind, and soul. “Through gradual and regular increase of the simple and foolproof methods of Kriya Yoga,” he wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi, “man’s body becomes astrally transformed day by day, and is finally fitted to express the infinite potentials of cosmic energy.” https://yogananda.org/blog/secret-of-vitality Video Link: A Beginner's Meditation https://youtu.be/9_TxV8hZddg?si=poZzP3QRZ3FEMcgd ...