The Soul, Made in God’s Image, Is Ever Calm, Eternal, Undisturbed

Every individual has a soul and a body. Through delusion, he finds his soul identified with the body and thus all the conditions of the body.

The body can be injured, changed, and destroyed; it is limited and short lasting. So the individual identified with the body thinks himself vulnerable.

But the soul cannot in any way be injured, changed, or destroyed. The soul, made in the image of Spirit is ever calm, eternal, ever undisturbed.

Everlasting Freedom Lies in the Soul

By worldly desires, an individual becomes more and more identified with the weakness of the body, always fearing death and limitations.

If the soul directs its attention away from the misery-making bodily limitations, and meditates until his delusion vanishes, he finds himself as the everlasting soul, living in the fortress of omnipresence: impregnable, invulnerable to any effects of delusive vibratory change.

Every individual must remember that he is immortal, not open to any invasion of change or death, even when his body appears to be affected by disease, accident, or death.

By concentrating on the soul, the individual can do away with mortal desires, and find everlasting freedom.

No matter how long you have been meditating, if you still fear bodily diseases or death, and have not realized the immortality of the soul, you have advanced little and have realized little.

You must meditate more and more deeply until you have ecstatic communion with God and forget the limitations of the body. During meditation you must realize that you are far above all bodily changes—formless, omnipresent, omniscient.

God is the Fountain of All Our Joys

You are all gods, if you only knew it. Behind the wave of your consciousness is the sea of God’s presence. You must look within. Don’t look at the little wave of the body with its weaknesses, but look beneath it.

Close your eyes and see only the vast omnipresence before you, everywhere you look. You are in the center of that vast sphere, and you will find it is filled with the great bliss that lights the stars, and gives power to the winds and storms.

God is the fountain of all our joys and of all manifestations in nature.

Excerpted from How to Have Courage, Calmness, and Confidence by Paramhansa Yogananda