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Yogananda, Paramahansa, 1893-1952

"Autobiography of a Yogi"

"
Kumar's departure brought me no elation; sadly I wondered how one
with power to win a master's love could ever respond to cheaper
allures. Enjoyment of wine and sex are rooted in the natural man,
and require no delicacies of perception for their appreciation.
Sense wiles are comparable to the evergreen oleander, fragrant with
its multicolored flowers: every part of the plant is poisonous. The
land of healing lies within, radiant with that happiness blindly
sought in a thousand misdirections. {FN12-19}
"Keen intelligence is two-edged," Master once remarked in reference
to Kumar's brilliant mind. "It may be used constructively or
destructively like a knife, either to cut the boil of ignorance,
or to decapitate one's self. Intelligence is rightly guided only
after the mind has acknowledged the inescapability of spiritual
law."
My guru mixed freely with men and women disciples, treating
all as his children. Perceiving their soul equality, he showed no
distinction or partiality.
"In sleep, you do not know whether you are a man or a woman," he
said. "Just as a man, impersonating a woman, does not become one,
so the soul, impersonating both man and woman, has no sex. The soul
is the pure, changeless image of God."
Sri Yukteswar never avoided or blamed women as objects of seduction.
Men, he said, were also a temptation to women. I once inquired of
my guru why a great ancient saint had called women "the door to
hell.


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