How You Can Talk With God [Hardcover]

Paramahansa Yogananda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 1957

In this classic guide, a renowned spiritual teacher answers the question: Is it really possible to talk with God and receive definite responses to our prayers? How You Can Talk with God explains how we can all experience God s presence directly in our lives. A favorite of spiritual seekers around the world, it shows the reader how to pray with greater intimacy to create a deep and fulfilling personal relationship with the Divine. This is a book to keep by the bedside, discovering with each reading new gems of inspiration and wisdom.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in India on January 5, 1893, Paramahansa Yogananda devoted his life to helping people of all races and creeds to realize and express more fully in their lives the true beauty, nobility, and divinity of the human spirit. After graduating from Calcutta University in 1915, Sri Yogananda took formal vows as a monk of India's venerable monastic Swami Order. Two years later, he began his life's work with the founding of a how-to-live school since grown to twenty-one educational institutions throughout India where traditional academic subjects were offered together with yoga training and instruction in spiritual ideals. In 1920, he was invited to serve as India's delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston. His address to the Congress and subsequent lectures on the East Coast were enthusiastically received, and in 1924 he embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour. Over the next three decades, Paramahansa Yogananda contributed in far-reaching ways to a greater awareness and appreciation in the West of the spiritual wisdom of the East. In Los Angeles, he established an international headquarters for Self-Realization Fellowship, the nonsectarian religious society he had founded in 1920. Through his writings, extensive lecture tours, and the creation of Self-Realization Fellowship temples and meditation centers, he introduced hundreds of thousands of truth-seekers to the ancient science and philosophy of Yoga and its universally applicable methods of meditation. Today, the spiritual and humanitarian work begun by Paramahansa Yogananda continues under the direction of Sri Daya Mata, one of his earliest and closest disciples and president of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India since 1955. In addition to publishing his writings, lectures and informal talks (including a comprehensive series of Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons for home study), the society also oversees temples, retreats, and centers around the world.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 46 pages
• Publisher: Self-Realization Fellowship; 2nd edition (August 5, 1957)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876121687
• ISBN-13: 978-0876121689
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,083,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Self-Help

More About the Author

Hailed as "the father of Yoga in the West," Paramahansa Yogananda - author of the bestselling classic "Autobiography of a Yogi" - is regarded as one of the great spiritual figures of our time. Born in northern India on January 5, 1893, he devoted his life to helping people of all races and creeds to realize and express more fully in their lives the true beauty, nobility, and divinity of the human spirit. After graduating from Calcutta University in 1915, Yogananda took formal vows as a monk of India's venerable monastic Swami Order. Two years later, he began his life's work with the founding of a how-to-live school since grown to twenty-one educational institutions throughout India where traditional academic subjects were offered together with yoga training and instruction in spiritual ideals. In 1920, he was invited to serve as India's delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston. His address to the Congress and subsequent lectures on the East Coast were enthusiastically received, and in 1924 he embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour. Over the next three decades, Paramahansa Yogananda contributed in far-reaching ways to a greater awareness and appreciation in the West of the spiritual wisdom of the East. In Los Angeles, he established an international headquarters for Self-Realization Fellowship, the nonsectarian religious society he had founded in 1920. Through his writings, extensive lecture tours, and the creation of Self-Realization Fellowship temples and meditation centers, he introduced hundreds of thousands of truth-seekers to the ancient science and philosophy of Yoga and its universally applicable methods of meditation. Today, the spiritual and humanitarian work begun by Paramahansa Yogananda continues under the direction of Sri Daya Mata, one of his earliest and closest disciples and president of Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India since 1955. In addition to publishing his writings, lectures and informal talks (including a comprehensive series of Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons for home study), the society also oversees temples, retreats, and centers around the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Makes you confident to Talk to God, June 18, 2000

By 

Anuj Grover - See all my reviews

This review is from: How You Can Talk With God (Hardcover)

How you can talk with GOD shows a direct path to getting to know God and gives one the confidence that knowing God and being his favourite is not that difficult a deal. A must read for those who believe in Him and want to be in His good books.

The scientific way in which Sri Sri Paramhansa Yogananda explains the integrities of being able to talk to God, makes it easy for every one of us to feel that confidence of being so close to Him if we desire to. It makes you feel that you are actually in a position to talk to Him. And believe me, you can surely talk to Him the way Sri Sri Paramhansa Yoganandaji has explained. It has to work that way.

Respose from the Divine, is the only outcome of the way taught in this small book.

A must read for all those who actually want to talk to GOD and to be with him always.

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond simple talking... to COMMUNING !, November 10, 2002

By 

richardpinneau.com (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: How You Can Talk With God (Paperback)

If you are new to Yogananda's writing, you may think that How You Can Talk with God is a presumptuous title. But if you have read his Autobiography of a Yogi, you know full well that this is no ordinary theoretical or inspirational author. He prayed almost unceasingly from infancy - meditated almost as early - and received RESPONSES from The Divine. Throughout his writings and in his SRF Meditation Lessons for his students Yogananda demonstrates the greatest faith in the truths he presents: he discourages students from accepting his words blindly and urges them instead TO TEST their validity in the laboratories of their own lives, meditations, prayers. This brief, to-the-point, power-packed book is no exception and is an excellent place to begin your exploration of Yogananda's brilliant writing and genuine love.

The fundamental thesis of How You Can Talk with God (HYCTWG) is displayed in its title: "...WITH God" not just "...to God." Like Saint Francis, Yogananda discerns prayer as TALKING to God and meditation as LISTENING to God; this book Yogananda explains how we need to develop BOTH these parts of our soul-Spirit relationship. The unique contribution of Yogananda's essay is to explain the power of classic yoga methods of meditation for clearing the mental static from our minds - and to introduce the power of the advanced Kriya Yoga methods that he continues to disseminate through Self-Realization Fellowship. Not everyone is ready for the discipline required by the advanced Kriya methods (described more fully in Yogananda's Autobiography), but everyone can benefit from the simple beginning-level instruction offered in HYCTWG.

If you will carry this small gem in your pocket or pocket-book with you and dip into it during moments of stress, confusion, or just apathy, I think you will find yourself increasingly drawn to practice its principles of scientific meditation and personal prayer. Hopefully, the reality of the promised benefits of even deeper communion will gradually tug at your soul's deepest needs and spur you to the next level of study. Then it's time to turn to the Autobiography or the instructions in HYCTWG for advanced Lessons.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A small book with a big message, May 1, 2003

By 

Gerald Collier (Columbus Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How You Can Talk With God (Paperback)

This is a great book to own if you are already familar with Yoganada's works. I keep this in my bookbag so I have it wherever I go. A great read when you have some spare time at work or waiting in line. It's very small, but the message is HUGE. Yogananda has a great way of explaining how God, the metaphysical, and all life are interconnected and how YOU can achieve God-Realization.

I recommend first reading Autobiography of a Yogi. After reading that book, don't be suprized if you start picking up this jewel and others that he left us.