The Yogananda question-------Phony?
K1...@my-dejanews.com
interesting post concerning Sri Paramahansa Yogananda Giri. It was written in
the same very intelligent manner as your previous post concerning the Babaji
Maharaj. I can tell you from association with disciples and spiritual
descendants of Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri and also Paramahansa Swami
Pranabanada Giri (both illumined disciples of the Yogiraj Lahiri Mahashaya)
that most Kriya practitioners of these lines have nothing but worshipful
respect for Paramahansa Yogananda. My own Master was highly advanced Kriya
disciple of Swami Sri Yukteswar. He had known Yogananda on a personal level.
Many times he slept in the same room with Yoganadaji during Yoganada’s return
trip to India. Once when someone asked Master to tell them about the advanced
disciples of Sri Yukteswar I heard him say (and he said this to me many
times) “There is no doubt that the most spiritually advanced disciple was
Yogananda. There is ABSOLUTELY NO QUESTION of this! Whereas other students
were disciples, Yogananda was more----he was actually the spiritual son of
Sri Yukteswar.” He would say “nowadays there is much jealousy and it is
fashionable for lesser devotees to question the actions of Yogananda but I
can tell you , I WAS THERE!---- Yogananda was by FAR the most illumined. He
was VERY special to Sriyukteswar----he was indeed the spiritual son, whereas
the others were disciples!”. I can tell you that especially right after the
death of Sri Yukteswar there was much jealosy and “lesser” disciples came to
resent Yogananda. SriYukteswar’s other major renunciate disciple was Swami
Satyananda giri. Satyanada was always highly worshipful of Yogananda (and had
been Yogananda’s boyhood friend). Shortly before Yogananda’s return trip to
India and before anyone knew the trip was to take place, Satyananda called my
Master to him and said “HE is coming!” My Master said “Who is coming?”.
Satyananda very worshipfully said with his hands in a praying position “HE---
Sri Yoganandaji! He is coming!”. My Master said---“How do you know?”
Satyananda took my Master over to a large picture of Yoganadaji which was
hanging on the wall and said “This evening while I looked at the picture I
had a vision of Yogananda stepping out of the picture!”. My Master (ever a
rational skeptic) questioned this and Satyananda very worshipfully said “ I
have seen enough growing up with Him to know this is possible! I tell
you-----HE is coming!”. After the death of SriYukteswarji there was a
resentment and jealousy from some of the lesser “wordly”disciples because
such favoritism seemed to be shown to Yogananda (for example, Swami Sri
Yukteswar’s wish was for Yoganandaji to have his armlet which consisted of
nine jewels (an astrological armlet). It was highly coveted and it was Sri
Yukteswars wish that his spiritual son have this. After Sri Yuteswar’s
passing someone stole it before it could be given to Yoganandaji.) Also some
resentment grew from the actions of the organisation known as SRF which was
founded by Paramahansaji. After Yogananda’s passing they began to claim
things like they (SRF) are the only ones from the line that are authorised to
teach Kriya. THIS IS IN TOTAL CONTRADICTION TO THE WISHES OF SWAMI SRI
YUKTESWAR GIRI! Sri Yukteswarji had authorised MANY to teach Kriya. The
actions of the SRF organization caused great anger and people became angry
with Yogananda (even though this happened after his death. Yogananda would
NEVER contradict SriYukteswar in this way!). My own Master
himself-----although highly worshipful of Yoganandaji-----had several more
gentle criticisms. My Master was very much a traditionalist in regards to the
practice of the Kriya Yoga of Lahiri Mahashaya and was VERY strict with it’s
purity. When Yogananda came to the west he “tempered” or modified the
techniques. (remember, this was the 20’s!). Traditional Kriya as was taught
by my beloved Master, as passed to him from Swami SriYukteswar Giri and
coming from the beloved Yogiraj Lahiri Mahashaya is centered around a central
techinique known as “kechari mudra”. It is the ability to take ones tongue
and push it up the hole on the top of the palate in the mouth. The tongue is
made to go up until it reaches a high point in conjuction with the point
between the eyebrows. Perhaps this was felt to be too much of a challenge for
the average 1920’s westerner and so Yogananda removed it. Also, the advanced
Kriya techniques (2nd, 3rd and 4th Kriyas) were changed to be much simpler in
practice. Also, Kriya was allowed to be practiced in a chair rather than
seated in lotus posture. My own Master, although understanding of why these
changes were made, did not approve of them. However, he did say that even in
India many people claim to have accomplished kechari mudra and are even
teaching kriya but yet in reality are not really able to perform the mudra
fully. Perhaps Yogananda felt this hurdle was too great an obstacle? You
know, I must tell you the state of Kriya is not so good these days. Nowadays
there are many who even claim to be teachers who are not authentic. Be
careful who you believe in these matters. Nowadays the world is full of what
my Gurudev used to call “big gurus----all puffed up with their own self
importance. All claiming to be authentic and all claiming to be illumined”.
Some who criticize Yoganandaji are not even authentic or were not even alive
when Yogananda was alive. (Again, my Master’s comment always was “I was
there! I know!”) Many things changed after the death of the main disciples
of Sriyukteswar. Many began claiming to be disciples of Sri Yukteswar who
WERE NOT! MANY BEGAN TO CLAIM THIS! Some lesser devotees even began claiming
to be students of the Babaji Maharaj. I do notice that at the end of
Yogananda’s book is a letter from a cemetary official documenting that
Yogananda’s body did not decay in the normal way after death. This is very
traditional according to yoga --- that the bodies of the highest saints
behave in this way. I wonder how many of the criticizers of Yogananda can
make such a claim about their own bodies? Master always referred to
Yoganadaji as a “god man. Half divine but half very human”. Several times I
questioned Master about some things Yogananda had written. For example, my
Master had taught me that performance of one Kriya produced the equivalent to
one month’s natural evolution. Yogananda writes in his book that the
performance of one Kriya equals one YEARs evolution.This is a major
difference---one month to one year. Master replied by telling me “Sri
Yoganandaji was lost in Bliss all the time. He was not a scholar”. Master
often said this, that Yogananda’s spiritual state was so high that he was
just lost in Bliss. Because of this he was always ready to see the miracles
in things. My Master acted as Yoganandaj’s secretary for awhile during the
India trip and accompanied Yogananda on trips to visit saint disciples of Sri
Sri Lahiri Mahashaya and other saints to gather information for the writing
of the book “Autobiography of a Yogi”. Master told me (respectfully) that
Yoganadaji’s state was so Blissful that he was often innocent and childlike.
Once they went to see some prominent teacher (who my Master---ever calm and
discriminating in nature (like a scientist) felt was an egotistic fraud and a
liar. Master said that in Yogananda’s childlike Blissful spiritual state that
he just believed everything the man said as though it were gospel truth.
Perhaps Yoganandaji with his high spiritual vision was ever the witness to
the constant miracles of God and so was perfectly willing to believe anything
anyone told him when it came to such things? Who can claim to understand such
lofty spiritual beings? All glory to them! Sir (Ms.), I cannot type well. I
am not a scholar and I could never pay attention very well in school. Please
forgive any poor grammar or misspellings. I am worried that this computer
will begin distracting me from my sadhana. Sir (Ms.), I am very curious about
you. Your questioning attitude is perfect! You are definitely suited for the
practice of the highest forms of sadhana. Are you a high sadhaka of some
tradition of yoga? This attitude of yours is very rare and is to be highly
valued. Please do not let others dissuade you from this mental attitude. This
attitude angers the “true believers” but it will eventually take you to the
highest realizations. Please forgive such long writings which take me away
from my sadhana.
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Ali Hassan
K1...@my-dejanews.com wrote in message <708m1b$5p1$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
Wonderful post-very enjoyable.
Ali
John Pat Patton
my sentiments exactly
johnpat
BobC1955 wrote:
>
> thank you so much for taking the time to type out so much information about
> Yogananda. I am a devotee and wish there was so much more written about him
> and the great MAsters of India.
Florence Halstead
BobC1955
Jaybird X
available?
Thank you,
Jay D.
Jack Nickelson
Jaybird X wrote in message <362A9C43...@ivic.net>...
>While on the subject, are there any SRF, Yogananda groups or mailing lists
>available?
> Thank you,
>Jay D.
Yes, you can e-mail sch...@madison.tec.wi.us to receive the SRF Internet
Devotee Friends Newsletter.
Also, check out the message boards:
http://venus.beseen.com/boardroom/j/17164
http://www.yogananda.net/srf-devotee/
http://pluto.beseen.com/boardroom/g/18052/
Jack
Elladan
Elladan
sto...@acsu.buffalo.edu
K1...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> I can tell you that especially right after the
> death of Sri Yukteswar there was much jealosy and “lesser” disciples came to
> resent Yogananda.
Jealousy between members in an organizational setting is something that is
difficult to avoid. The problem is that individual differences *do* exist
between members, and often times, those with limited understanding either are
not willing or not capable of making the *effort* to recognize, encourage,
and respect these kinds of differences in others. While it is true on one
hand that the success of any organization depends to a certain extent upon
uniformity in the adherence to a set of common organizational aims and ideals
- on the other hand, since spiritual ideals by their very nature are supposed
to lead individuals to experiences of the boundless infinite - problems can
arise if flexibility doesn't exist.
SRF, being founded by Yogananda - a Master void of ego, was set up in such a
way as to circumvent many of these problems. I believe that the most
important aspect of SRF that gives it the flexibility that it needs is that
decisions are made by a centralized group of monastics who are established
in a lifestyle that revolves primarily around meditation.
> After the death of SriYukteswarji there was a
> resentment and jealousy from some of the lesser “wordly”disciples because
> such favoritism seemed to be shown to Yogananda (for example, Swami Sri
> Yukteswar’s wish was for Yoganandaji to have his armlet which consisted of
> nine jewels (an astrological armlet). It was highly coveted and it was Sri
> Yukteswars wish that his spiritual son have this. After Sri Yuteswar’s
> passing someone stole it before it could be given to Yoganandaji.)
I disagree with your use of favoritism. I have found, for example, that the
more I meditate - the luckier I get, i.e. that success is due to self effort,
or lack therof. If Yogananda was favored, I believe it was solely because
he earned it through his own determination. Sri Yukteswar could have graced
anyone that had the same determination as Yogananda - it was simply that
few such individuals existed.
>Also some
> resentment grew from the actions of the organisation known as SRF which was
> founded by Paramahansaji. After Yogananda’s passing they began to claim
> things like they (SRF) are the only ones from the line that are authorised to
> teach Kriya. THIS IS IN TOTAL CONTRADICTION TO THE WISHES OF SWAMI SRI
> YUKTESWAR GIRI! Sri Yukteswarji had authorised MANY to teach Kriya.
I'm not sure of this claim. SRF *DOES* claim that they are the only
organization established by Yogananda to pass Kriya. However, SRF does
recognize the tradition established by Lahiri Mahasaya (and
Sri Yukteswar) for passing Kriya directly through verbatim contact through
other Masters in Sri Lahiri Mahasaya's spiritual lineage. Further, I
believe they also recognize that Mahavatar Babaji - the highest Master
of Kriya yoga - can establish other rules for passing Kriya as he deems
necessary. Nonetheless, it is not SRF's specific mission to comment
about the validity of these spiritual paths ....
Steve