Poems & Prayers of Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramhansa Yogananda left behind a wealth of divinely inspired poetry and prayers written to the Divine Mother. His Whispers from Eternity is perhaps the best way to tune in to his way of divine worship. Yogananda told his disciples, “When I am gone, read my Whispers from Eternity. Eternally through it, I will talk to you…”

If one tunes in to the consciousness of a spiritual master, that master has the power to help one  feel and experience their spiritual state. Yogananda’s words convey great spiritual power, in this case the depth of his relationship with God as Divine Mother. The following poems and prayers are just a selection from the writings of Paramhansa Yogananda:

Mother’s Eyes, by Paramhansa Yogananda

I sought those two black eyes everywhere.
When my teacher or my brother rebuked me or were unkind,
I sought help every day in the sweetness of those two black eyes.
In the harbor of those two black eyes, I sought refuge.
She died. I cried, and I sought in the stars,
In the darkness of the night for those two black eyes,
But I found them not.

Many other black eyes shone upon my childhood.
But they were not those two black eyes which I had loved.
In the stillness of the forest and the darkness of the night
I used to watch under the stars,
Watching in the darkness,
Looking for those two angelic,
Unapproachable black eyes,
But I found them not.

Now that my mind is awakened, I see
Those two black eyes everywhere.
In the eyes of the Divine Mother
I have found my own mother.
In the love of the Divine Mother
I have found my mother’s love.

My Devotion, by Paramhana Yogananda

from Whispers from Eternity
by Paramhansa Yogananda

O Thou Mother of all conscious things,
Be Thou consciously receptive to my prayers.
Through Thee I know all that I know;
And Thou knowest all I know,
So Thou knowest my prayers.
And knowing and feeling Thee constantly thus,
I know Thou art I, I am Thou.
My little wavelet has vanished in Thee.
I know Thou alone existed;
And Thou alone dost exist now and ever shall.
Thou art impersonal, invisible,
Unseen, formless, omnipresent,
But forever I want to worship Thee
As both personal and impersonal.
By my devotion
I beheld Thee
Sometimes as Krishna,
Sometimes as Christ,
Personal, visible and imprisoned
In the little space
Hidden within the temple of my love.
O Invisible, just as Thou didst freeze
Thine unseen Infinitude
Into the sea of cosmic finitude,
So do Thou appear unto me,
Visible and living—
That I may serve Thee.
I want to see Thee as the ocean of life
With and without the ripples of finite creation.
O Creator of all things,
I want to worship Thee both as personal and impersonal.

Sinking in a Dream, by Paramhana Yogananda

The Cosmic dream bubble broke, and I sank in the sea-heart. The little bubble of my perception sank in the Infinite. I bounded over creation’s dream waves; my bosom heaved in the sea; I breathed in the wind; I moved with the star motions; I watched the dream elements of multi-million glimmerings, multi-trillion light specks. I saw the atom rivers flow past me through the pores of the blue, and through the pores of my body, and of my life.

I dreamt within a dream. I dreamt many dreams of life within this God-made dream. I dreamt sorrow; I dreamt joy; I dreamt health; I dreamt sickness I dreamt birth and death; I dreamt matter and spirit; I dreamt larkspurs and robins; I dreamt light and gloom; I dreamt myself and I dreamt God and Soul. I dreamt the divisions of time; I dreamt of past, present, and future. I dreamt space and dimension. I dreamt ignorance and knowledge. I dreamt good and evil. I dreamt relativity and unit.

I dreamt long and sighed at my nightmares, when the gentle touch of the omnipresent fingers of Divine Mother love awakened me.

The Cosmic dream bubble broke; the body bubble, the mind bubble, the soul bubble, all broke.

My boat of dream bubble raced over the sea of boisterous change, blown by the storms of Wisdom. My boat of life was made of iron sheets of delusive experience, riveted together by nails of attachment, self-love, life-love, and matter-love.

The Mother-sent wisdom storm grew furious. The lashings of Mother wisdom fell fiercely on the rivets of selfishness and attachment. The iron sheets of my delusion creaked and fell apart. My dream boat of ignorance was shattered piece by piece, and I plunged like a plummet into the depth of Divine Mother’s Sea-heart. My dream bubble, bubble waves of creation vanished. I sank into the heart of Oneness.

My throat of dream life choked; my dream breath vanished. My dream life died with the Cosmic dream. Then, when I touched the deepest depth of my Divine Mother’s heart, I awoke, and my Mother said in her sweet, solacing, chanting voice, “I asked you to play with beautiful dreams; you played with charming dreams for a time, but soon I found you playing with naughty dreams. Soon I found you broken and bleeding, bruised by your dream experiences; so, my child, I called you away from the playground of naughty dreams and woke you in the Smiles of my everlasting life.”

Mother said, “In songs and dreams of my love I sent you on earth to live and dream of me. Live, dream, and feel me in all and with all, and in my songs and dreams depart from the earth-dream. You will meet everything, and everyone in my songs and dreams, whence there is no parting.”

O Divine Mother, I Am Thine, for Thou Art Eternally Mine, by Paramhana Yogananda

Divers-colored gorgeous garlands of my devotion will encircle Thy lotus feet of omnipresent love.

I beheld the dance of the feet of Thine activity in the twinkle of the starlets. I beheld the dance of Thy light in the bluebells and the larkspurs. Thy footsteps echoed over bounding billows of aurora lights. I beheld Thy fantastic dance of life in the halls of evolution. But, Divine Mother, the calm grace of Thy bliss-face has remained ever-veiled behind the clouds of appearances and the chimerical veils of my flickering thoughts.

I have waited long to behold Thy face. My impatience has burned with a million tongues of flame, with the flame of my burning craving for Thee.

I burnt the sky. I ignited the stars. I melted the binding atoms of planets. In my melting light, searching for Thee, the heavenly lamps and lights lost their balance in space and plunged headlong. The space shadows, mind shadows, ignorance shadows, all shifted before the strong burst of my life’s light.

My powerful light consumed everything; and, as the many arms of my luminous love sought to embrace and hold Thee, the heart of my loving light was broken — for voidness laughed at me from everywhere.

My light wept dewdrops of trickling stars, until all space was filled with the beam of my light. The crying flame called aloud for Thee, everywhere, and in its echo in Thine omnipresent Space, I heard Thy voice, saying without sound:

“The light of thy love, which swallowed up everything in one light, is Myself! Thou hast sought thyself as Me, and hast kept Me afar from thee. Finding thyself by Myself, seek Me no more as apart from thee and as beyond the boundaries of thy heart. I am thou and thou art I!”

The earth may be shattered to dust and thrown into cosmic space — pictures of universes may come and go on the screen of time — but I will ever be Thine, O Divine Mother, for Thou art eternally mine.

Thou Mother of Flames, Show Thy Face, Hidden Beneath the Veil of Cosmic Motion Pictures, by Paramhansa Yogananda

In Thy noon-hour of fulfillment, Thou didst equally attend the forsaken slums of misery, the halls of festive prosperity, and the shrines of peaceful wisdom.

In Thine attire of mid-day mentalities, Thou didst travel through the fiestas of centuries, beholding the dream of human life and death, of the evolution and dissolution of planets, of the birth and death of civilizations, of the drama of nebulae-molding worlds — the dream of new-born planets and earthquakes and partial dissolutions. Then the dark night approached, and Thou didst wear the grim, dark veil of mourning, to put creation through the terrible but purifying ordeal of destruction’s fire. The sun burst and belched fire; the cosmic earthquake broke the vase of the sky, dropping embers of stars; and all creation was a furnace of flames. Everything was fire: matter, sin, darkness, all things were cast into Thy crucible, there to become pure, luminous.

Creation came from fire: beneath the ashes of matter, the embers of creation slept; and, rocked by Thy hands, O Mother Divine, creation awoke with its body of pure flames.

Thine one hand of power wakes unseen creative force to take many-hued, fair, finite forms. Another hand holds the astral sword of preservation, keeping all planets swinging in the rhythm of balance. Thy third hand clutches the severed head of cosmos, representing dissolution when all creation sleeps in Thee. Thy fourth hand stills the storms of delusion, bestowing the rays of salvation upon seeking devotees.

O Kali, Thou deep Mother of creative activity, wearing a garland of human minds; the rhythm of Thy wild dance of creation ceases only when Thy feet touch the transcendent breast of Thine Invisible Consort of Infinity — Shiva, in whom all creation has rest.

O Mother-Progress, the dance of Thy life I hear in the tinkling bells of little laughing, harmonious lives. On the floor of my tender thoughts, Thine inspirations softly dance in tune with the music of the spheres.

In the hall of creation, everywhere, O Kali, I hear the rhythm of Thy footsteps, dancing forcefully in the booming thunder, and softly in the song of atoms.

The Infinite sleeps beneath the shroud of magic delusion, and then, O Goddess of Forms, Thy fantastic dances of finitude begin on His bosom. Thou hast danced nearer than the throbs of my soul, and I have heard the symphony of Thy steps on the farthest horizon of my mind. Divine Mother, Thou mayest dance everywhere: but O, I pray Thee, do Thou ever play the music of Thy magic footsteps in the sacred sanctum of my soul!

O Goddess Kali, in Thy changing robes art woven the dreams of creation, preservation and destruction. Mother Divine, on the beauteous veil of Thy mind a million cinemas of cosmic dramas play. Thus dost Thou entertain and amuse Thy good children, and frighten Thy naughty ones.

Mother Divine, draw aside Thy glittering veil of cosmic motion pictures and show me Thy delusion-dispersing face of mercy.