12/09/2025
Be a Channel for Inspiration and Inner Strength
- by Swami Kriyananda
Living with a master, I have seen with my own eyes that miracles are but little things to a master. Yogananda performed many miracles without even letting them be known. They were normal for him for the simple fact that we are all part of a cosmic energy. With this energy, you can put yourself in tune with any ray of truth you wish and understand many things.
How can we know these things? We are all part of the same reality. By meditation and by the techniques that put you in tune with this vast truth, you begin to understand how others think and how to succeed in whatever you feel guided to do, in any field.
Channelling does not mean calling with an empty mind and demanding, “Please give me something!” That which you wish to channel comes from within you, not from others or from information you have gathered.
Saint Teresa of Avila said, “I don’t want to hear any of my nuns say, ‘I am not a saint,’ because you have come here to become saints.” Indeed, you haven’t yet arrived at this goal, but that isn’t the important thing. Don’t hypnotise yourself with the mistakes you have made. You are as much a child of God as any master who has ever lived. You have the capacity for infinite love.
I saw that Yogananda was always very serious about this. He saw in each of us the ability to become what he was. We’re hypnotized by the thought that we are weak, we are too human, we are full of jealousy, and we are full of pettiness – but this is not the truth. As a youth I had the desire to become a poet and playwright. I sat down and wrote, “Page One, Chapter One…” and then…nothing. Finally, I said to myself, “Why flood the world with my ignorance?” and I left this ambition and decided to seek God and truth. When I meditated a little, I saw that inspirations come so quickly that it is difficult even to hold onto them all, because they do not come from me but from another source.
Yogananda taught us that we live surrounded by an ocean of energy. How do we attune ourselves to this energy, and how do we attract this energy? The great composers understand that they receive inspiration from a much greater source, while the not-so-great think that they create music with the mind. You can be original in creativity if you act from your center, from your heart. When a lover says, “I love you,” it is ever new, because it comes from the heart. Whatever you speak from your point of origin is original, even if the words have been used thousands of times before.
Seek inside yourself the fountain of inspiration, and you will see that God expresses Himself in a new way through each person, each flower, and each cloud. There are two steps to follow:First, be aware of this fountain of inspiration, and then use willpower to put it into action. Yogananda taught us exercises for recharging the body with energy, using willpower. I have seen many times that this energy is always available to be drawn upon.
The path of life is narrow. There is room for either the ego or for God to walk it; there is not room for both. Why not let God act through you? Afterward you will feel a great joy and freedom. The thought will come, “How beautiful – I didn’t do it, God did it!” When you pray with sincerity to be a channel for God, He will give you many inspirations and will help you when someone comes to you with a problem.
In my life, I have had to give personal advice for the last fifty years. Sometimes I will be asked a question to which I don’t know the answer. I then let the question go and respond, “I don’t know.” But in very act of saying I don’t know, I do know, as my mind is then relaxed and the inspiration comes to me. Likewise, I never prepare a public talk, because I have seen that God knows better than I what to say. This has never failed: The inspiration has always come to me.
When you launch yourself with faith and trust, He gives you wings. Gradually trying to fly, you will fly; and the more you do so, the more inspiration will come to you. What you do should be rewarding; you should feel, “This is what I want to do with my life.” You will see that there is joy even in the little things. God is found in every grain of sand. God is shining in you, and God can shine even more, the more you try to attune yourself to Him in inner silence.
