Paramahansa Yogananda: How to talk to God

how you can talk with God extracts from lectures by paramahansa Yogananda on March 19th and March 26 1944. talking with God is a definite fact in India I have been in the presence of saints while they were talking with the heavenly father and all of you also May communicate with him not a one-sided conversation but a real talk wherein you speak to God and he responds everyone can talk to the Lord of course but I am discussing today how we may persuade him to reply to us why should we doubt the scriptures of the world

abound in descriptions of talks between God and man one of the most beautiful of these incidents is recorded in First Kings 3 verses 5 to 13 in the Bible the Lord appeared to Solomon in a Dream by night and God said ask what I shall give thee and Solomon said give therefore thy servant and understanding heart and God said unto him because thou Hast asked this thing and Hast not asked for thyself-long Life neither Hast asked riches for thyself nor Hast ask the life of thine enemies but has to ask for thy self-understanding to discern

judgment behold I have done according to thy words lo I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart and I have also given thee that which thou Hast not asked both riches and honor David 2 held Converse many times with the Lord and discussed even mundane matters with him and David inquired of God saying shall I go up against the Philistines and wilt thou deliver them into mine hand and the Lord said unto him go up for I will deliver them into thine hand God is moved only by love the average man prays to

God with his mind only not with all the forever of his heart such prayers are too weak to bring any response we should speak to the Divine spirit with confidence and with the feeling of closeness as to a father or a mother our relationship with God should be one of unconditional love more than in any other relationship we may rightfully and naturally demand a reply from Spirit in its aspect as the Divine mother God is constrained to answer such an appeal for the essence of a mother is love and forgiveness of a child no matter

how great a sinner he may be the relationship between mother and child is the most beautiful form of human love that the Lord has given us a definite conception of God such as that of the Divine mother is necessary otherwise one does not receive a clear response and the demand for the Lord's reply should be strong a half-believing prayer is not sufficient if you make up your mind he is going to talk with me if you refuse to believe differently regardless of how many years he has not answered you if you go on trusting him

one day he will respond I have written an autobiography of a yogi about some of the numerous occasions on which I have talked with God my first experience in hearing the Divine voice came when I was a little child sitting on my bed one morning I fell into a deep reverie what is behind the darkness of closed eyes this probing thought came powerfully into my mind an immense flash of light at once manifested to my inner gaze Divine shapes of saints sitting in meditation in Mountain caves formed like miniature Cinema pictures on the large screen

of Radiance within my forehead who are you I spoke aloud we are the Himalayan yogis the celestial response is difficult to describe my heart was thrilled the vision vanished but the Silvery beams expanded in ever widening circles to Infinity I said what is this wondrous glow I am ishwara the Lord I am light the voice was as murmuring clouds my mother and eldest sister Roma were nearby when I had this early experience and they too heard the Divine voice I received such happiness from God's response that I determined then and there to search for him

until I would become Holy One with him most people think there is only Darkness behind closed eyes but as you develop spiritually and concentrate on the single eye and the forehead you will find that your inner sight is opened you will behold another world one of many lights in great Beauty visions of saints such as those I saw of Himalayan yogis will appear before you if your concentration goes still deeper you too will hear the voice of God again and again the scriptures tell us of the Lord's promise that he will communicate with us and

ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart Jeremiah 29 verse 13. the Lord is with you while ye be with him and if ye seek Him He will be found of you but if ye forsake Him He will forsake you second chronicles 15 verse 2. behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me Revelation 3 verse 20. if you can just once break bread with

the Lord break his silence he will talk often with you but in the beginning it is very difficult it is not easy to become acquainted with God because he wants to be sure that you really desire to know him he gives tests to see if the devotee wants him or something else he will not talk with you until you have convinced him that no other desire is hiding in your heart why should he reveal himself to you if your heart is filled only with longings for his gifts man's love is his sole gift to God

the whole creation was designed as a test for man by our conduct in this world we disclose whether we want the Lord or his gifts 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 who created us yearns for our love 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 so long as we are wayward children pygmies crawling on this ball of Earth and crying for his gifts while we ignore him The Giver we fall into many pits of misery as God is the essence of our own being we cannot truly express ourselves until we learn to manifest his presence within us this is the truth it is because we are Divine a part of him that we are unable to find lasting satisfaction in anything material not shelters thee

who will not shelter me until you attain contentment in God you will not win contentment from anything else is God personal or impersonal is God personal or impersonal a little discussion of this point will help you in your attempts to communicate with him many people don't like to think of the Lord as personal they feel that an anthropomorphic conception is limiting they consider him to be impersonal spirit all power the intelligent force that is responsible for the universe but if our creator is impersonal how is it that he has created human beings we are personal

we have individuality we think feel will and God has given us not only the power to appreciate the thoughts and feelings of others but to respond to them the Lord is surely not devoid of the spirit of reciprocity that animates his own creatures when we permit it our heavenly father can and will establish a personal relationship with each one of us considering the impersonal aspect of God we get the impression of a remote being one who merely receives the prayer thoughts we offer without responding to them one who knows everything yet maintains a heartless silence

but this is a philosophical error because God is everything personal as well as impersonal he created persons human beings their originator could not be wholly impersonal it satisfies a deep need in our hearts to think that God may take a human form and come to us and talk with us why doesn't he do it for everyone many Saints have heard the voice of God why can't you thou O Lord art invisible impersonal unknown and unknowable yet I believe that by my devotions Frost thou can't be frozen into a form God can be persuaded to take

a personal form by your intense devotion you like Saint Francis of Assisi and other great ones may see the living body of Christ if you pray deeply enough Jesus was a personal manifestation of God he who knows Brahma God is Brahma himself did not Christ say I and my father are one Swami shankara also declared I am spirit and thou art that we have the word of many great prophets that all men are made in the image of divinity I receive much of my knowledge from God rather than from books I sell them red I

tell you what I have perceived directly that is why I speak with authority the authority of my direct perception of Truth the opinion of the whole world may stand against it but the authority of direct perception will always be accepted eventually meaning of the image of God in the Bible we read for in the image of God made He Man no one has ever fully explained in what ways man is the image of God is spirit and man in his essential nature is also spirit that is the primary meaning of the biblical passage but there

are many other true interpretations as well the whole human body and the Consciousness and motion in it are a microcosmic representation of God in Consciousness is omniscience and omnipresence you can immediately think you are at the North Star or on Mars in thought there is no Gulf between you and anything else by virtue of the Consciousness within man therefore he may be said to be made in the image of God Consciousness is aware of itself it intuitively feels itself God through his Cosmic Consciousness is aware of himself in every atom of creation are not Two

Sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without the awareness of your father man also has the innate power of cosmic Consciousness though few develop it man also has will whereby he like the Creator can create worlds instantaneously but few develop that power which is within them the animals cannot reason but man can all the attributes that God has Consciousness reason will feeling love man has too in these qualities man may be said to be made in the image of God God talks through vibration God does appear to

us in physical form he is more personal than you can imagine he is as real and actual As You Are this is what I want to tell you today the Lord is ever responding to us the vibration of his thought is constantly being sent forth this requires energy the energy manifests as sound there is a very strong point here God is consciousness God is energy talking means vibrating in the vibration of his cosmic energy he is talking all the time he has become the mother of creation that materializes herself as solids liquids fire air and

ether the invisible mother is continuously expressing herself in terms of visible forms in flowers mountains seas and stars what is matter nothing but a particular rate of vibration of God's cosmic energy no form in the universe is really solid that which appears so is merely a compact or gross vibration of his energy the Lord is talking to us through vibrations but the question is how to communicate directly with him that is the most difficult accomplishment of all to talk with God if you speak to a mountain it doesn't answer talk to the flowers as Luther

Burbank did and you may feel in them a little response and of course we can talk to other people but is God less responsive than flowers and human beings that he lets us keep on talking to him and yet fails to answer us it appears that way doesn't it the trouble is not with him but with us our intuitive telephonic system is out of order God is calling us and speaking to us but we do not hear him Cosmic vibration speaks all languages but Saints hear him whenever a certain master I knew would pray God's

answering voice would seem to come from the sky God doesn't need a throat in order to speak if you pray strongly enough those prayer vibrations bring a vibratory response immediately it manifests in whatever language you are accustomed to hearing if you are praying in German you hear the reply in German if you talk in English you hear the answer in English the vibrations of different languages originate in the cosmic vibration God being the cosmic vibration knows all languages what is language it is a certain vibration what is vibration it is a certain energy and what

is energy it is a certain thought though God hears all our prayers he does not always respond our situation is like that of a child who calls for his mother but the mother does not 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 the naughty baby who cries till the mother comes if you make up your mind never to stop crying for her Divine mother will

talk with you no matter how busy she is with her housework of creation if you persist in your cries she is bound to speak the Hindu scriptures tell us that if for one night and one day without a moment's Interruption a devotee talks to God with intense devotion he will respond but how few will do it every day you have important engagements the devil that keeps you away from God the Lord will not come if you just say a little prayer and then start thinking of something else or if you pray like this heavenly father

I am calling to you but I am awfully sleepy amen Saint Paul said pray without ceasing patient job held long conversations with God said to him here I beseech thee and I will speak I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me I have heard of thee by the hearing of the year but now mine I see thee when a lover protests his devotion mechanically his beloved knows that his words are not sincere she is hearing what is really in his heart similarly when God's devotees pray to him he knows whether their hearts and

minds are dry of devotion and whether their thoughts are dashing wildly everywhere he does not respond to half-hearted calls but to those devotees who day and night with utmost intensity pray and talk to him he does appear to such devotees he comes without fail a Divine kingdom is at stake the Saints dressed non-attachments so that one strong point of material attachment may not prevent our attaining the entire kingdom of God renunciation doesn't mean giving up everything it means giving up small Pleasures for Eternal Bliss God talks to you when you are working for him and

you should speak to him constantly tell him any thought that comes into your mind and say to him Lord reveal thyself reveal thyself don't take silence for an answer he will first respond by giving you something that you have wanted showing you that you are in his attention but don't be content with his gifts let him know that you will never be satisfied until you have him finally he will give you an answer in a vision you may see a face of some saintly being or you may hear a Divine voice talking to you and

you will know that you are in communion with God to coax him to give himself take steady unceasing zeal nobody can teach you that seal 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 remember when your heart call is intense when

you accept no excuse then he will come you must remove from your mind all doubt that God will answer most people don't get any response because of their disbelief if you are absolutely determined that you are going to attain something nothing can stop you it is when you give up that you write the verdict against yourself the man of success doesn't know the word impossible faith is the Limitless power of God within you God knows through his Consciousness that he created everything so faith means knowledge and conviction that we are made in the image of

God when we are attuned to his Consciousness within us we can create worlds remember in your will lies the almighty power of God when a host of difficulties comes and you refuse to give up in spite of them when your mind becomes set then you will find God responding to you God being Cosmic vibration is the word God as the word is humming through all atoms there is a music coming out of the universe that deeply meditating devotees can hear now at this moment I am hearing his voice the cosmic sound that you hear in

meditation is the voice of God that sound forms itself into language intelligible to you when I listen to AUM and occasionally ask God to tell me something that sound of own changes into English or Bengali language and gives me precise instructions God also talks to man through his intuition if you learn how to listen 10 to the cosmic vibration it is easier to hear his voice but even if you just pray to God through the cosmic ether if your will is strong enough The Ether will respond with his voice he is ever talking to you

saying call me speak unto me from the depths of your heart from the core of your being from the very depths of your soul persistently majestically determinately with a firm resolve in your heart that you will go on seeking me no matter how many times I do not answer if you unceasingly whisper in your heart to me o my silent beloved speak to me I will come to you my devotee if once you can get that response you will never feel separated from him again the Divine experience will always remain with you but that once

is difficult because the heart and mind are not convinced doubt Creeps in because of our previous materialistic beliefs God answers the heart Whispers of true devotees God will answer every human being irrespective of caste Creed or color there is a saying in Bengali that if you give a soul call to God as the universal mother she cannot remain silent she has to speak that is beautiful isn't it think of all the things that came to me today and that I have told you you should never again doubt that God will respond to you if you

are constant and persistent in your demands and the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend excerpts from the book how you can talk to God by paramahansa Yogananda [Music]