You desire GOD or his worldly gifts?

I sat hours and hours in meditation seeking God—and then at last I found Him. Sometimes, even when I sought with the most urgent effort and expectation, still I didn’t find Him. But when the heart was filled with great devotion and was drunk with His love, then He was there. Yet when I would try tangibly to hold on to Him, He would slip away. He wants to make sure whether we want Him or His gifts. That is the drama of life—to choose God or the offerings of the world.



—Paramahansa Yogananda, in “Living the Divine Existence God Planned for You,” from Self-Realization Magazine, fall 2005.