To Be Victorious in Life: Is to Engage in the Ultimate Battle (Heroic +1 #1,516)

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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. Not too long ago, we took a tour through Darren Donnelly's sports fable, Victory Favors the Fearless, as we explored the seven fears that hold us back and what we can do about them. Now, I always love connecting parallel wisdom across very different traditions. So today we're going to dust off our notes on Yogananda's great little spiritual success manifesto called To Be Victorious in Life, as we explore what he has to say about how to be victorious. As we've discussed many times, Yogananda was a 20th century spiritual teacher who came to the United States from India as a young man in 1920. Now, Nietzsche was said to deliver his philosophy with a hammer, and I think the same could be said of Yogananda. But before we talk about how to be victorious in life, let's define what Yogananda considers success. He tells us, and I quote, success is when you have so expanded your consciousness that your life is a glory and happiness to yourself and to others. Can I get an amen to that now? How do we attain that success? Well, first we need to be on fire with purpose. Check out that plus one. Then we need to know that as the wise yogi tells us, and I quote, without battle, you cannot achieve anything. In other words, as per rule number one of a good, noble, heroic life, it's supposed to be challenging. Yogananda tells us, and I quote, it is inevitable in this world of relativity, light and darkness, good and evil, that whenever you try to expand, you will meet enemies. This holds true in all endeavor. The minute you try to accomplish anything, there is resistance. He continues by saying, as soon as a plant tries to emerge from its seed, first there is resistance from the earth, and then the bugs go after it, and then it has to struggle against the weeds that compete for its food and water. The plants need help from the gardener, and the same is true for human beings. And he says, if because of adverse circumstances or inner weaknesses, you haven't the strength to put forth branches of success on the tree of your life, you need the assistance of a teacher or a guru who can help you cultivate the power of your mind. The guru teaches you the art of meditation, of cauterizing the weeds, of limiting habits and bad karma that are trying to choke your ground. You must resist these enemies. You must go on trying. Without battle, you cannot achieve anything. I repeat, resistance is part of the process. Resistance will always show up within our own minds and in the world outside of us. What do we do? We say good. We say, roger that. We say perfect. Check out those plus ones. We thank the heroic gods for giving us the opportunity to practice our philosophy. We show up. We struggle. We battle. We go on trying all day, every day. Especially as always today.

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