Make your house a personal spiritual haven and your heart a hermitage, as Paramhansa Yogananda continually advised.
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Watch and take care of your health, getting a medical and dental checkup at least once or twice a year. The moment a problem arises, get professional help. It is very unlikely you can cure yourself on your limited knowledge.
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Without health any form of life is difficult, including the yoga life. Do not be like a “yogi” friend of mine who decided she could cure diabetes with ginseng and other “natural cures.” She ended up in a coma, nearly dying, and spent the rest of her life an invalid on dialysis.
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Swami Sri Yukteswar told all his students to only be close friends with other yogis.
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Keep holy depictions or imagery throughout your home, especially the photographs of saints and masters.
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Follow a diet that is healthy and appetizing. No food that is repulsive or boring is good for you. (Yogananda really insisted on this, as more than one of his disciples told me.)
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Acquire an extensive Sanskrit vocabulary, but do not study Sanskrit itself unless you feel you must, for it is a years-long process in which you might have done better by reading good translations.
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Meditation will expand your consciousness, but the mind–manas and buddhi–must also be cultivated and expanded by spiritual study.
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As a yogi you will become very sensitive to the spiritual effects of sound. Especially seek out good religious music of both East and West. Unfortunately a lot of contemporary recordings of Indian music are sung in a raucous or phony style and loaded with silly sound effects and instruments–the worse being the vibraphone. Look for traditional Indian music played on traditional instruments. Avoid recordings that have heavy jungle-beat drumming–another curse of modern Indian bad taste. The recordings of Yogananda’s chants sung by the monks and nuns of Self-Realization Fellowship are very good, Brahmacharini Meera’s recordings being at the top, for she was a true saint.
Do not forget Buddhist and Taoist music.
If, however, oriental music sounds too peculiar to your ears, do not bother with it.
The Christian music of both East and West holds great potential for upliftment and calm. Whatever the style, acapella singing is almost always best. Recordings of Eastern Orthodox Greek and Russian liturgical music can be extraordinarily beautiful, as well as that of other Slavic countries. If Gregorian chant appeals, good, but if not it is just fine. (Gregorian was originally intended to be sung with a holding note or ison, and not monophonically. Also it was sung much faster and did not sound like the singers were heavily sedated all the time. Both these defects are modern aberrations stemming from the French monastery of Solesme.)
Do not disdain ordinary church hymns, some of which have a profound message when heard with a yogi’s perspective. Remember: Yogananda’s favorite hymn was In The Garden which, when looked upon as a description of meditation, is really inspiring.
Never listen to a piece of music like it is medicine–if it does not really appeal to you, listen to something else or enjoy outer silence.
Next in Living the Yoga Life: Spiritual Reading