Extend all the boundaries of the glowing kingdom of your love, gradually including within them your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, all countries; in short, all living sentient creatures.

Paramahansa Yogananda

The Glowing Kingdom of Your Love

Topic: Love, Compassion, & Kindness

True friendship is broad and inclusive. Selfish attachment to a single individual, excluding all others, inhibits the development of Divine Friendship. Extend all the boundaries of the glowing kingdom of your love, gradually including within them your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, all countries; in short, all living sentient creatures.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur, India, is considered one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the 20th century. From a young age, he showed a deep interest in spirituality, seeking guidance from saints and sages in India. In 1915, after completing his education, he became a monk of the Swami order, taking the name Yogananda, meaning "bliss through divine union." His early work focused on teaching and promoting Kriya Yoga, an ancient meditation practice aimed at self-realization.

In 1920, Yogananda traveled to the United States and established the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in Los Angeles. Through SRF, he shared the philosophy and practices of Kriya Yoga, bridging Eastern spirituality with Western culture. His Autobiography of a Yogi, published in 1946, remains one of the most widely read spiritual texts, offering a personal account of his spiritual journey and inspiring readers across the globe.

Yogananda passed away on March 7, 1952, in Los Angeles, after a lifetime devoted to promoting unity among all religions and the transformative power of meditation. The organizations he founded, including SRF and the Yogoda Satsanga Society in India, continue to share his teachings today. His legacy endures through these institutions, and his message of spiritual unity and inner peace continues to inspire millions worldwide.

(1893-1952) Hinduism
The Art of Gaining Friends

Yogananda, Paramahansa. The Art of Gaining Friends, Including: Why Love Your Enemies? Inner Culture, 1936.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Theme: Love

About This Paramahansa Yogananda Quotation [Commentary]

In this quote, Paramahansa Yogananda encourages us to expand our love beyond personal relationships to embrace all living beings. By extending “the glowing kingdom of your love,” he suggests we gradually widen our compassion, starting with family and moving outward to neighbors, communities, and eventually all countries and sentient creatures. This reflects Yogananda’s belief in the transformative power of love that crosses boundaries and is inclusive.

Yogananda contrasts this boundless love with the limited affection often seen in personal relationships, which he believes can restrict the heart’s capacity for universal love. He challenges the idea that attachment to one individual should limit our ability to love others. His message calls for love that includes all humanity, fostering unity and a broader sense of connection.

At its core, Yogananda’s teaching sees love as an active force that can be expanded with intention. By working to extend our love outward, we engage in a journey that moves beyond personal attachments. This inclusive love, he teaches, leads to spiritual growth and a deeper connection to all beings and the divine.

A Paramahansa Yogananda, Friendship—Grandest Relationship of Human Loves [Excerpt]

“The relationship that exists between friends is the grandest of human loves. Friendly love is pure, because it is without compulsion. One freely chooses to love his friends; he is not bound by instinct. The love that manifests in friendship can exist between man and woman, woman and woman, man and man… Such pure friendship has existed between saints and between others who truly love God. If you once know divine love, you will never part with it, for there is nothing else like it in the whole universe.”

—Yogananda, Paramahansa. Friendship—Grandest Relationship of Human Loves. Self-Realization Fellowship, www.yogananda.org/blog/friendship-grandest-relationship-of-human-loves. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.

Additional Yogananda Quotes

“The saviors of the world do not come to foster inimical doctrinal divisions; their teachings should not be used toward that end. It is something of a misnomer even to refer to the New Testament as the “Christian” Bible, for it does not belong exclusively to any one sect. Truth is meant for the blessing and upliftment of the entire human race. As the Christ Consciousness is universal, so does Jesus Christ belong to all…

It is an erroneous assumption of limited minds that great ones such as Jesus, Krishna, and other divine incarnations are gone from the earth when they are no longer visible to human sight. This is not so… Jesus Christ is very much alive and active today. In Spirit and occasionally taking on a flesh-and-blood form, he is working unseen by the masses for the regeneration of the world. With his all-embracing love, Jesus is not content merely to enjoy his blissful consciousness in Heaven. He is deeply concerned for mankind and wishes to give his followers the means to attain the divine freedom of entry into God’s Infinite Kingdom…”

—Yogananda [The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You, (2004)].

“These teachings have been sent to explain the truth as Jesus intended it to be known in the world—not to give a new Christianity, but to give the real Christ-teaching: how to become like Christ, how to resurrect the Eternal Christ within one’s Self…”

—Yogananda [The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You, (2004)].

The Glowing Kingdom of Your Love

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