Your Guru and Religious Group Cannot Give You Enlightenment
Paramahansa Yogananda: "Every religious group I've encountered in this country tells its members they don't have to work for their salvation—'lest any man should boast,' they explain, quoting St. Paul. Their doctrine of salvation is based entirely on belief: Believe as they do, and you'll be saved by God's grace. Many make church membership a further condition for salvation, the implication being that, if anything more needs doing, the church will do it for you.
"However, didn't Jesus tell his followers, 'Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?'
"Suppose you want riches. Will you sit in a room and wait for God to give them to you simply because you believe in Him? Hardly! You'll work very hard to earn them. Why, then, expect salvation to come to you effortlessly, just because you believe?
"And what of that further condition for salvation: joining the right church? Salvation is a personal matter between each soul and God. You have to individually make love to God. Church membership may be helpful, if it fosters an inward relationship with Him, but outward membership is no guarantee of this inward relationship, and it is certainly no substitute for it.
"If anybody tells you that church membership will give you God, ask him if his church can eat for you vicariously as well. If it can't fill your body without effort on your own part to eat the food, why should you accept that it will fill your soul without spiritual effort on your part?
"Salvation means freedom from ego-limitation, which is imposed on the soul through attachment to body-consciousness. Salvation can come only by great personal effort.
"It is true that others can help you in your effort. It is true also that God's grace alone can save you; St. Paul was perfectly correct in what he said. Nevertheless, your sincere effort must be there also. Without great effort on your part, you will never attain salvation.
Source: pgs. 99-100, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramahansa Yogananda (recorded and complied bu his disciple Swami Kriyananda
"Suppose you want riches. Will you sit in a room and wait for God to give them to you simply because you believe in Him? Hardly! You'll work very hard to earn them. Why, then, expect salvation to come to you effortlessly, just because you believe?
"And what of that further condition for salvation: joining the right church? Salvation is a personal matter between each soul and God. You have to individually make love to God. Church membership may be helpful, if it fosters an inward relationship with Him, but outward membership is no guarantee of this inward relationship, and it is certainly no substitute for it.
"If anybody tells you that church membership will give you God, ask him if his church can eat for you vicariously as well. If it can't fill your body without effort on your own part to eat the food, why should you accept that it will fill your soul without spiritual effort on your part?
"Salvation means freedom from ego-limitation, which is imposed on the soul through attachment to body-consciousness. Salvation can come only by great personal effort.
"It is true that others can help you in your effort. It is true also that God's grace alone can save you; St. Paul was perfectly correct in what he said. Nevertheless, your sincere effort must be there also. Without great effort on your part, you will never attain salvation.
Source: pgs. 99-100, The Essence of Self-Realization: The Wisdom of Paramahansa Yogananda (recorded and complied bu his disciple Swami Kriyananda
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