The Divine Romance - Collected Talks and Essays. Volume 2 (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The world as a whole has forgotten the real meaning of the word love..." (more)
Key Phrases: psychological furniture, nirbikalpa samadhi, mass karma, Self-Realization Fellowship, Bhagavad Gita, Lahiri Mahasaya (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Divine Romance includes over fifty talks and essays by Paramahansa Yogananda. Readers will find these talks alive with the unique blend of all-embracing wisdom, encouragement, and love for humanity that have made the author one of our era's most trusted guides to the spiritual life. The second book in a trilogy, which includes, Man's Eternal Quest and Journey to Self-realization - each of which are packed with information covering a vast range of spiritual topics - The Divine Romance speaks to the deepest needs of the human soul. The great master reveals how we can meet the daily challenges to our physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual well-being - by awakening our divine nature, the neglected reality at the core of our being.

Yogananda said, "The greatest romance you can have is the romance with God....He is the Lover and our souls are the beloved, and when the soul meets the greatest Lover of the universe, then the eternal romance begins. The love that you have been seeking for incarnations through all human loves is at last yours."
Topics include:
How to Work Without Fatigue
Where are our Departed Loved Ones?
Controlling Your Destiny
Why Evil is a Part of God's Creation
How to cultivate Divine Love.

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, 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: 507 pages
• Publisher: Self-Realization Fellowship (September 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876122403
• ISBN-13: 978-0876122402
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #199,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And the greatest of these is Love..., November 27, 2002

By	richardpinneau.com (Colorado) - See all my reviews

If it contained only his opening essay from 1943, "How to Cultivate Divine Love", this volume would more than warrant the cover price: it is persuasive, revelatory, show-stopping. Everyone talks about love. Everyone is moved by an unconscious yearning for this intangible indispensible. After lifetimes of pursuing and then achieving the Source of Love, in this seventeen-page essay Yogananda offers a timeless explanation of this elusive be-all and end-all of our existence. For those that confuse Love with sex or who cannot imagine that any love can surpass their feelings for their child or their beloved, these words are probably wasted. But for those who have been graced by even a whiff of the Creator's love or have intuitively felt that behind the temporary world of human ecstasies must lie a Divine Source and Experience, these words will ring as truth: this author has tasted The Whole Loaf, not just enjoyed wafting aromas. No matter how often it is distorted and dimmed in its human expressions, the irresistable pull of Divine Love keep working on us, because, as Yogananda explains...

"If you could feel even a particle of divine love, so great would be your joy -- so overpowering -- you could not contain it." It is from connection with that Divine that the faces of long-silent, meditating yogis of India beam with unrepentant Joy, that the whirling Sufi dervish tirelessly dances without apparent partner. With unblinking insight and full compassion, Yogananda reflects on the varied places and degrees of human success in finding lasting love, because "...by investigating human love, we can learn something of divine love, for in human love we have glimpses of that love of God's."

As devotional as he is, Yogananda goes far beyond gushing. He provides useful anaysis of the ways human beings are "clever in their ignorance" and avoid achieving the very End they so desperately crave. Near the end of "How to Cultivate..." he brings us back on track to the systematic, selfless practices of ecumenical meditation upon the Source of our being, the Source of all love:

... "If you meditate deeply, a love will come over you such as no human tongue can describe; you will know (Divine Love), and you will be able to give that pure love to others." Yogananda's pronouncements ring with the unmistakable authority of someone who KNOWS, who has been there, who has practiced and seen the results. Throughout this volume's forty-seven chapters we learn about the universality of spirituality across all religions and all ages, and we hear from someone with a cosmic, ages-long perspective about the path we have been climbing (often unconsciously) and about means for speeding our ascent. As he both explains and exemplifies, Yogananda insists that even though the path requires periods of dedicated solitude, it is not solitary: single-pointed love for God also means serving children of the Divine.

When you read "Divine Romance" you will probably identify some chapters as 'the best.' My own experience suggests this is just a function of what the reader needs at the time. They are all jewels, sparkling with special appeal when they are shedding light on areas of particular darkness of particular days. That being said, I'll still highlight some special essays:

"The Mind: Repository of Infinite Power" - Wisdom from the ancient-and-modern science of yoga on how to harness that wildest of human organs, the mind. This chapter includes a blessed reminder for anyone who has studied the full three years of Yogananda's "SRF Lessons" on meditation and spiritual development. So luxurious with methods and skills to practice are his teachings that students with perfectionist leanings sometimes feel close to giving up because of the impossibility of mastering ALL the practices described. Reassuringly, the yoga master promises, "If you practice one millionth of the things that I tell you (in these teachings) you will reach God."

"Personal and Impersonal God" - This powerful talk resolves the apparent contradiction of God being able to be both personal and impersonal. Yogananda explains the important value in taking either perspective in our pursuit of The Divine. He also explains the role of Christ and other personal manifestations of divinity in varied religious paths to The Transcendent.

"How to Find a Way to Victory" - A brilliant essay that puts to shame all the shallow get-rich-quick books on 'success.' He always keeps us conscious of how multi-faceted our striving must be -- even when it concerns particularly worldly outcomes. As one who achieved these ends before attempting to teach others how to do so, Yogananda explains that outer victories always require inner victories first: "He who becomes master of himself is a real conqueror." ... "And in this inner victory, I find the whole world at my command. ...all things are made clear in the great light of God."

Throughout the talks and essays of Divine Romance, Yogananda keeps returning us to our search for the Ultimate Kingdom of love and wisdom: "To gain this wisdom of God is the only purpose for which you were sent here; and if you seek anything else intead, you are going to punish yourself." Gospel-like, n'est-ce pas? Always ringing with Truth because here is someone who has walked the walk. Enjoy! --rp

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is filled with pearls of great wisdom ., April 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Divine Romance - Collected Talks and Essays. Volume 2 (Paperback)

I think this book is absolutely sensational. It is filled with pearls of great wisdom that are practical and quite relevant to our everyday living. A person with whom I shared this book whlist travelling on the train,remarked that you can open the book at any point and find something of great value and I have found that to be true.It is interesting that I had this book more than three years now but just thumbed through it.Now it seems so pertinent that I eagerly look forward to reading it everyday and practicing its insights. It is an answered prayer to my recent bout of despair and fustration . I now feel more empowered and postive about myself and life in general.This review may not do it justice but if it prompts one person to read it and makes a difference in their life as it has mine I would be delighted.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The road to God directed by a Realised Master., November 7, 2001

By	Arni Sigurdsson "iamthatiam" (Reykjavik Iceland) - See all my reviews

This book changed the way I look at life, and my way of thinking.
It is a must for people on the Spiritual path.
Thank you for this book Yogananda!