Sonntag, 28. Februar 2021
Samstag, 27. Februar 2021
Thoughts
I have little time in the week to watch all the videos I post but use days off like today to look at them. The state of knowledge or opinion in various disciplines is interesting to hear. I keep learning from my own experiences as well. Nobody can be expert in everything so specialization is necessary for optimal benefit. Many seem to me to scratch at the surface. Westerners in general have so much intensity but scatterbrained approach to reality. Building on the shoulders of giants is more a multimillenial matter whereas we assume the last several hundred years of discovery and the last decades to century of science are the peak of experience. Knowing facts is ok but experiencing transformation quite another. Skepticism vs blind faith, drug self experiments or memtal meditation, scientific research on biological processes are all paths our culture takes. Eastern schools have direct initiatory routes but we reject plunging in as modern intelligent skeptics, scientists, even athletes who try everything. Discoveries are constantly made but who can remember or catalogue every remedy, food, herb, posture, practice. Even in Asian practices one is limited by time and knowledge. Eventually in all advanced schools one reaches certain states by various routes, say of high enlightenment, old age at high vigour, perhaps in some schools of study incredible powers of martial skills or yogic powers or meditative brain states which Western science, medicine, athletic prowess consider unfathomable. Even watching all the videos regarding our struggle with creating a new balance between our evolving technological civilization and nature reveals a race of our minds to understand and control processes that we ourselves trigger, control in an endless feedback loop based on civilizational cycles. Getting too emotionally involved in current arguments about our current state of existence as a human society probably is an error. News junky, doomer porn addict, end times theorist were various parts of me in the past, looking for the future. Before that I was into health and yoga. I have come back to personal life intensification. It seems to be cyclical seesaw between interests. The deeper one goes in one area the deeper it seems one understands other areas. Less surprises one over time after having attained general experience and maturity and greater knowledge. Age and boredom, cynicism should not be the cause of lack of interest. Seeing younger people reinvent the wheel should not make one inattentive to possible unique new strategies available. Nobody has ever finished learning. Subjective experience however can be just as important, living from inside to a deeper level. I dreamt an episode apparently connected by memory to a previous dream. It seems to me as I think of it that all dreams are just as present in memory as our waking memories but we must be in the dream brain wave state to remember our dreamscapes. So we have a real alternate self just as real to explore. This self helps us deal with the waking reality, process it. Somewhere in our brain a databank of dream memories is there, whether we recalled those memories shortly after waking or not. I suppose our cells all have memories. How to really experience esoteric experiences like past lives, out of body states, etc is a discipline just as worthy of consideration as sports, arts, sciences. Mental and physical and energetic controls help acheive this knowledge. We even can make intuitive discoveries of universal scientific, medicinal, musical, artistic or physiological discoveries from dream or meditative states. Whether we have godly visions, dreams or intuitive impulses the principle is similar. Subjectivity should be taught in combination with objectivity at equal depths. If I study my inner self and have a subject of professional specialization in any area then personal enlightenment will likely lead to betterment of humanity through new discoveries which will help society or our evolution. Enlightenment as a goal in and of itself might seem like a religious dead end to the materialist. Maybe the East got into a dead end of sorts. Our interest in external reality can help balance that but this works both ways. My horoscope transits also recently show themselves in daily experience. When I experience deep emotions and then notice personal planets strongly effected it shows we are just like electrical circuits. Trying to ride these waves of feelings with some sort of control and awareness is hard. Getting into deeper layers is important for that. But then inner peace is not the inevitable result. I just feel that much more violently, from the core of my being. So no, nonreactive total inner peace is not there all the time although meditation brings techniques, habits to carry this over when needed, I mostly engage myself. My brain gets heated, peaceful and I bring this into my other chakras. I guess yogis lived in caves to remove that stress while practising. I sit on a daily volcano of feelings like anybody else. Ups and downs of emotions like female cycles have to be managed by nutrition, sports, meditation and experience and as experience and energy, states of feeling or consciousness deepen we keep pushing the envelope a bit, always bored, never accepting old trot of just last week' s normal. IOW keep growing.
Freitag, 26. Februar 2021
Donnerstag, 25. Februar 2021
Mittwoch, 24. Februar 2021
Dienstag, 23. Februar 2021
Montag, 22. Februar 2021
Sonntag, 21. Februar 2021
THE HISTORY OF ENTRIES OF NEPTUNE IN PISCES
I personally see Neptune in Pisces as spiritually transformative as I am a Pisces. However this has had major societal conflicts as a result. People take their belief systems to irrational ends. As a pisces I have a unique stand as this energy all goes into me in a positive transformation. General society however goes mad. While in Aquarius internet became an irrational craze. Nowadays human rights and globalism are taken to their logical extremes in countries based on those ideals. Once the phase is past, in 2026, people will wake up as from a dream. However Neptune will be in Aries and perhaps, despite nuclear warheads, most sane people will suddenly believe a global war is neccessary and winnable. I can only think of Germany and Japan, both famous for their particular characteristics of Virgo type perfectionism leading a world war as Neptune went through Virgo 80 years ago. Astrology is like weather prediction. People think they are rational actors with free will but this appears highly unlikely in hindsight.
Neptune is in Pisces now (since April 4, 2011 at 13:37 UT) and we are in the middle of a revolutionary time. I wondered if this corresponded with earlier positions of Neptune in Pisces, or in other words: what happened when Neptune entered Pisces in history?
In this article I am going back in time to Neptune in Pisces in 376, 702, 866, 1029, 1193, 1357, 1522, 1684 and 1848 to see what to expect this time. Neptune will leave Pisces in 2025. In the meantime transit Neptune will make aspects with your sunsing, Ascendant, MC and planets. Often these transits will be confusing and confronting you with your ideals, dreams and beliefs. This confrontation is resonating in the history of Neptune in Pisces. It takes written history and civilizations to see in what way the change of sign of Neptune, moving from Aquarius to Pisces, reflected real events on the long term. The effect of the media (from singers/troubadours to papers and Twitter) in those periods is evident. There were little or none of such ways to spread news and gather people when you back in time. That is why I first stopped at 702. The examples below will show you that Neptune’s entrance in Pisces influenced religions and ideologies in many ways, often accompanied by revolts.
Neptune in Pisces in 376
In 376 the Migration Period (see Wikipedia) began that ended the Roman Empire and was the start of the Early Middle Ages. From February 375 till March 379 Neptune was in the first degrees of Pisces. Neptune in Pisces mirrored a period of ideological wars and revolutionary changes. The Migration Period lasted for ages, but started then, with Neptune in early Pisces.
Neptune in Pisces in 1848
When Neptune entered Pisces in 1848 it was the Year of the Revolts and the Communist Manifesto, the beginning of Communism. Writers were Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. All over Europe things changed in a dramatic way. Constitutions were altered and this is what happened in 1848:
– France (February 24, abdication of the King),
– Austria and Hungary (March 3 and revolt in Vienna on March 12),
– Berlin (March 19),
– Stockholm (March 18 and 19, 30 persons died) and
– even in the still very rural Netherlands there was a new constitution on November 3, 1848, against the wishes of the King.
– Switzerland is also on the list (Federal Constitution of November 1848). In 1846 the uprising in Galacia had been suppressed, but in 1848 the authorities gave in, more and more.
Neptune in Pisces in 1684 zu
Then there is 1684, the year of the Holy League. Members were Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, Tuscany, Russia and Malta. They fought the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire had been beaten on 11/12 September 1683. This was followed by the Holy League, . Members were Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, Tuscany, Russia and Malta. They fought the Ottoman Empire and wanted to drive them out of Europe. Quoting Wikipedia:
“Holy League of 1684 was initiated by Pope Innocent XI (…)This alliance opposed the Ottoman Empire in the Great Turkish War and lasted until the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699”
“Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, or simply Holy Name of Mary is a feast day in the Roman Catholic Church celebrated on 12 September to honour the name of Mary the mother of Jesus. It has been a universal Roman Rite feast since 1684, when Pope Innocent XI included it in the General Roman Calendar to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, won by the Polish King Jan III, who had placed his troops under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (PS On January 26, 1699 the Treaty (Peace) of Karlowitz (Karlovci) was signed, with Neptune in 1 degree 4 minutes Aries)”
Neptune in Pisces in 1521In 1521 whistleblower Martin Luther was banned on January 3, 1521 (and his books were burnt), 10 days before Neptune in Pisces. Then he started translating the Bible from Latin. That was the beginning of Protestantism. And the religious conflict started a lot of revolts in order to gain independence from Catholic Kings. Also, in 1521 Belgrade was captured by the Ottoman Army.
Neptune in Pisces in 1357
In 1357 the Paris Revolt ended feudal society. . In Paris there was a revolt lead by Etienne Marcel.This revolt should be seen in the context of feudal society in crisis. The economy of Europe changed (more centered on trades and cities than on land and property).
Neptune in Pisces in 1193
In 1193 the Aztek civilization (and their cruel religion) started and Saladin, leader of the troops against the Crusaders died. He was respected by his enemies, too.
Neptune in Pisces in 1029
In 1029 Romanus III invaded Syria and that was all. Was it of importance? In 866 the Saracens were beated by Louis II and Norwegian Pagans fought their Christian King in the years of Pope Nicholas. In those days Western Europe was beset by Muslim and Norse incursions.
Neptune in Pisces in 702
In 702 the Armenians rebelled against the Muslim laws.
MEDIA
When sunsigns change, lifestyles change. Pisces is not Aquarius: there is difference between those signs. Now why is Neptune’s transfer from Aquarius to the first degrees of Pisces resonated by revolts, revolutions and changes in constitutions? I think that part of the explanation is that Pisces is the sign of the ‘media‘ and mediums, transporting messages that concern us all.
Mass media bring us the news and influence our state of mind. Just before Neptune went to Pisces the media had become more and more of influence. I read that after 1830 there was a sort of an explosive growth of newspapers, suddenly available for the people. And 1848 was the year of the foundation of Associated Press. When Neptune changed sign, ideologies and beliefs and ideas changed, starting with chaos and the news was distributed faster than ever in history.
Today, you see that the new media (Facebook, Twitter) were used to gather the people…The media were the vehicle for ideas today and then.
This completes my search for the events in the year of Neptune entering Pisces. A lot of the events in those years are related to battles between religions and ideologies. Perhaps history is all battle about ideologies, but in some of those years the events started a new period in convictions (like Protestantism and Communism). Other years show the continuing rivalry between Christianity and Islam.
My conclusion could be that throughout history the move of Neptune from Aquarius to Pisces moved ideologies and religions, often as a result of revolts, and that those ideologies or ideas changed (Western) history. And that would be no surprising conclusion in the light of the meaning of Neptune and Pisces in astrology. Neptune is the symbol of ideology. Aquarius is the symbol of change. And Pisces, in the end, spreads the concept. We now entered the first year of Neptune in Pisces. In 2025 Neptune will be in Aries and we will know what the impact of this period will have been for our concepts and for the world religions and ideologies. Until then Neptune in Pisces is like a ship at sea in the mist. We will have to wait for a clear sky to see where we are at.
Meditation and Consciousness States Developments Practical Ideas
Through meditation I have been gradually feeling my crown chakra more and outside of meditation time too and this brings a more concentrated peace, like a feeling that you might relate to this being the contact with God. Watching the video below on 5 ideas to deepen meditation he mentions see ing a light, feelings and kechari( tongue to palate). I put my tongue up usually but today tried harder further back. This increases energy, focus. Also I can notice a small blue or white point in the visual focus. I focused more and upwards today and near end of meditation, last ten minutes perhaps the entire visual field got rather bright, light, not dark( eyes are closed). So feelings of God contact to bring peace is step one. Step two visual cortex control. As I go about my daily routine I might visualize things from past or possibilities, wishes. If I learn to focus my visual cortex on this constant peaceful light from meditation I will be more in control, not randomly distracted. Next I suppose are other senses of sound( concentrate on Om perhaps) and tactile, smell, and then internal chatter. So stepwise calming mind/ body/ sensory complex to focus on basics of peace( om, white light, peace). I read about deep sleep consciousness being step beyond dream lucidity. If life is a dream(senses awareness in wake or sleep as similar) then getting to the peaceful state allows to get past dream awareness as if you are aware during waking time as in a dream, then dreams will be unneccesary and you will go to deep sleep and see light and hear om, feel peace. I speculate but it is a roadmap to work on.
Samstag, 20. Februar 2021
Freitag, 19. Februar 2021
Donnerstag, 18. Februar 2021
Mittwoch, 17. Februar 2021
Meet the Scientists Trying to Reverse Aging
Dienstag, 16. Februar 2021
Understanding Tapas - Georg Feuerstein
Watching the video below on sauna related to longevity I thought of the heat produced by yoga practice mght have similar effects on the cells of rejuvenating, discarding old ones and could go a long way to explaining health of old practitioners through internal heat ( tapas) production.
https://yogainternational.com/article/view/heating-up-your-yoga-practice-understanding-tapas
Westerners often think of Patanjali as the Father of Yoga, but this title rightly belongs to the solar spirit. Reiterating ancient Vedic teachings, the Bhagavad Gita (4.1) refers to the solar spirit, called Vivasvat, as the primordial teacher of ancient yoga. And since tapas is at the heart of all yogic disciplines, the solar spirit (not to be confused with the physical star we call the sun) was the first teacher of tapas.
Indeed, before the word yoga was used to mean spiritual discipline, the term tapas was used to express that same idea. Over time, however, tapas has acquired the connotation of asceticism or austerity. But its literal meaning, significantly, is heat or glow. Through tapas, the solar spirit shines brightly through its physical body, which is our sun. Also through tapas, spiritual practitioners radiate the energy of wisdom and kindness.
Before the word yoga was used to mean spiritual discipline, the term tapas was used to express that same idea.
Tapas is any practice that pushes the mind against its own limits; the key ingredient of tapas is endurance. Thus in the ancient Rig Veda (10.136), “the long-haired ascetic (keshin) is said to endure the world, to endure fire, and to endure poison.” The keshin is a type of renouncer, a forerunner of the later yogin. He is a “wind-girt (naked) companion of the wild God Rudra (Howler),” said to ascend the wind in a God-intoxicated state and to fly through space, gazing down upon all things. But the name keshin harbors an even deeper meaning as well, for it can also refer to the sun, whose “long hair is made up of the countless rays that emanate from the solar orb, reach far into the cosmos, and bestow life on Earth.” This is a reminder that the archaic yoga of the Vedas revolved around the solar spirit, who selflessly feeds all beings with his/her/its compassionate warmth.
The early name for the yogin is tapasvin, the practitioner of tapas, or voluntary self-challenge as a means to spiritual growth. Tapasvins always deliberately challenge body and mind, applying formidable willpower to whatever practice they vow to undertake. They may choose to stand stock-still under India’s hot sun for hours on end, surrounded by a wall of heat from four fires lit close by. Or they may resolve to sit naked in solitary meditation on a wind-swept mountain peak in below-zero temperatures. Or they might opt to reduce their food intake to a bare minimum, or to fast for long periods of time. Or they may opt to incessantly chant a divine name, forfeiting sleep for a specified number of days. The possibilities for tapas are endless.
Tapas begins with temporarily or permanently denying ourselves a particular desire—having a satisfying cup of coffee, a piece of chocolate, or casual sex. Instead of instant gratification, we choose postponement. Then, gradually, postponement can be stepped up to become complete renunciation. This kind of challenge to our habit patterns causes a certain degree of frustration in us. We begin to “stew in our own juices,” and this generates psychic energy that can be used to power the process of self-transformation.
So frustration need not be a negative experience. It is bound to feel that way so long as we are blindly attached to the object of whatever desire remains unfulfilled. But if we are able to understand how the mind functions and see the value in going beyond attachment, we can derive great spiritual benefit even from frustration. And as we become increasingly able to gain control over our impulses, we experience the delight that underlies creative self-frustration. We see that we are growing and that self-denial need not necessarily be unrewarding.
The Bhagavad Gita (17.14–16) speaks of three kinds of tapas: austerity of body, speech, and mind. Austerity of the body includes purity, rectitude, chastity, non-harming, and making offerings to higher beings, sages, brahmins (the custodians of Hindu India’s spiritual heritage), and honored teachers. Austerity of speech encompasses speaking kind, truthful, and beneficial words that give no offense, as well as regular recitation of the sacred lore. Austerity of the mind consists of serenity, gentleness, silence, self-restraint, and pure emotions. According to the Bhagavad Gita (17.17), a rounded or integral spiritual practice entails all three kinds of tapas, practiced with great faith and without expectation of reward.
Sattva, rajas, and tamas are the three primary constituents of nature (gunas), and all created things, including the human psyche, or mind, are a composite of them. Since tapas depends on the mind of the yoga practitioner, it is colored by these three as they manifest in a particular individual. And depending on the quality of tapas, practitioners will harvest corresponding results.
The kind of austerity that has a predominance of the quality of rajas, the principle of dynamism in nature, tends to be practiced with an ulterior motive, such as gaining respect, honor, or reverence, or for the sake of selfish display. It tends to be unstable and of short duration. When the quality of tamas, standing for the principle of inertia, characterizes the practice of austerity, it leads
to foolish self-torture or injury to others. So unless the practice of austerity has a strong ingredient of sattva, which stands for the principles of lucidity in the inner and outer worlds, the results can range from physical pain and anguish to a complete failure of the spiritual process.
For instance, those who practice tapas in order to acquire paranormal abilities (siddhis) that will impress or overpower others consolidate rather than transcend the ego and thus become diverted from the path. Again, those who confuse the balanced self-challenge of genuine tapas with merely painful penance springing from ignorance and a subconscious masochism are bound to reap only pain and suffering that will undermine their physical health and contribute to emotional instability or even mental illness.
Two and a half thousand years ago, Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, learned the important difference between genuine (i.e., self-transcending) tapas and misconceived penance. For six long years he pushed himself until his bodily frame had become emaciated and close to collapse, but still it had not yielded the longed-for spiritual freedom. Finally, Gautama’s inner wisdom led him to take the middle path (madhya-marga) instead of damaging extremes. He abandoned his severe, self-destructive tapas and began to nourish his body properly. His fellow ascetics, who had always looked to him for inspiration, thought he had returned to a worldly life and shunned him. But later, after his spiritual awakening, their paths crossed again, and Gautama’s radiance was so impressive they could not help but bow to him in respect.
Genuine tapas makes us shine like the sun. Then we can be a source of warmth, comfort, and strength for others.
This article originally appeared in the December/January 2003 issue of Yoga International.
ABOUT THE TEACHER
Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. (1947-2012), authored over forty-five books, including The Deeper Dimension of... Read more
Are Enlightenment & Transcendence Altered States?
Montag, 15. Februar 2021
Sonntag, 14. Februar 2021
Autobiography of a Yogi Critique
Now rereading this book but trying to stay balanced by finding alternate criticism just like of bible, etc. Standard Operating Procedure. All influencers, salesmen, religious or politicians are also human but are convinced of their beliefs so that they might not be critical or open to questioning and their followers could be even worse. However cynics who never try a system objectively never sees if it is true. I have been making remarkable progress and have been at Kriya yoga for 20 years. It remains hard work but with corresponding benefits. Rational objectivity is not always of use to an artist, a mystic or a lover for example. Knowing this criticism helps make Yogananda more human to me actually. Likely a bit of a salesman, holy man, adventurer under high pressure to succeed not always taking the high road. sounds like TV preachers and high profile gurus from recent past. People need often motivation and others sell them a self improvement product. We try out many of these and learn to be cautious. Church or religion browsing is a popular pastime( among pisces like myself perhaps more so). So my skepticism is good natured. We are all human. Jesus wept, got angry at money changers in temple. We always want perfection from a leader( Obama, Trump anyone?) but it isn' t possible. God helps us all along the path.
http://oaks.nvg.org/ayol.html
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Autobiography of a Yogi CritiqueTHE AUTHORSHIP AND BOOK AT FIRST GLANCE "Autobiography is awfully seductive." - Maya Angelou "Complete honesty is the stuff of post-mortem, not autobiography." - Andrew Solomon. Authorship: The swami Yogananda and four Western followers together worked up the Autobiography of a Yogi. The Hindu swami was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh in 1893. Against his father's will he stubbornly refused to marry. When Mukunda became a monk he took the monk's name Yogananda - and later added the title Paramhansa to it. Some years after his death the leader of his fellowship - which by then owned the publishing rights to the book - changed his title to Paramahansa and forged his signature too, as if he did not know how to write it. Yogananda worked on the book for years. Three phases may be discerned: (a) Between 1921-35 he gathered stories that he planned to use in the book. Three miraculous tales in the book had appeared in his Praecepta Lessons. (b) In 1935, Yogananda left the States for India and thereby escaped a court case where he in time was found guilty of false and untrue money charges (!). It is in court documents. During parts of 1935 and 1936 he was celebrated in India and tried to gather stories and works related to Shyama Lahiri, his "grandguru", so to speak. However, other Lahiri disciples did not entrust him with books and commentaries their guru had written. These yogis did not trust Yogananda - but today Shyama Lahiri's works are published in English at Sanskrit Classics in San Diego. There are many such works. (c) Between 1937 and into 1946, Yogananda worked on his Autobiography, for most part in Encinitas (Spanish for "little oaks"), where a millionaire had offered him a house with a swimming-pool and temple on a bluff. A part of the pool and the whole temple some years later slid into the sea, but with no one in them at the time. [More] At the end of the 1938 version of his Cosmic Chants, he announced:
In Yogananda's magazine, at that time named Inner Culture (March, 1937 Vol. 9–5) Yogananda maintained he wanted to use the money obtained from the book to get a Golden World City where Encinitas lies today, and that he was going to make a "supreme effort" to get it built and make everybody an athlete - which was one ideal he had for his ideal city. [Yogananda plans] From the making of the book - later phases: Yogananda: "I used to write without ever reading over the manuscript - a task I always avoided. But I had to go over and over every bit of my autobiography. The Lord disciplined me." (Yogananda 1982:185). The guru of many had to go "over and over" every bit of his Autobiography and benefitted from discipline, he said. (Ibid). During New Year's week in 1945, Yogananda was still making revisions. In the last chapter he writes: "New Year's week of 1945 found me at work in my Encinitas study, revising the manuscript of this book." The book was published by the Philosophical Library in New York, in December 1946. (Yogananda Harmony Association. "Autobiography of a Yogi: History and Development" PDF, p. 10) Yogananda's disciple Durga Mata (Florina Darling) writes that most of the time Yogananda had written longhand. At other times he had dictated to Sister Daya's shorthand. Or Daya and her sister Ananda had alternated in taking dictation on the typewriter. "Yogananda liked it when they read the text back to him. The typed text, as Daya Mata recalls, was then given, piece after piece, to Tara Mata for editing." (Durga 1992/93, 151). Tara edited way too much, holds Kriyananda, and offers many examples in ◦Yogananda for the World (2012. PDF), see especally chap. 15 and 16. The women disciples who helped Yogananda with the book were SRF's editor-in-chief Laurie Pratt (Tara Mata), Rachel Faye Wright (Daya Mata), her sister Virginia (Ananda Mata); and Merna Loy Brown (Mrinalini Mata). The three last of them were Hindu nuns in Yogananda's order. Rachel later became the SRF leader from 1955 to 2010, and Mrinalini served in that position after her until 2017, when she died. These four helped with the writing. It went so far that Daya Mata after several decades, signed a declaration, under oath, that Autobiography of a Yogi had not been written by Yogananda himself, but by a committee! [and, further, that] he had written Autobiography of a Yogi as a "work for hire." The SRF publishers bought back the copyright for the book in late 1953, and took to signature forgery, changing direct quotations, and making other changes in the book too - inserting self-promoting texts in it also (Cf. WP, "Autobiography of a Yogi"). SRF has never stopped editing this book. They have made changes to the text, as well as adding, deleting, and editing photographs, captions, end pages, footnotes, and publisher's notes. These include . . . changes altering the history of events in Yogananda's life as he told them, changes to direct quotations as he gave them, and insertions of statements of institutional authority which directly contradict Yogananda's own statement of his vision for the spread of his teachings . . . and his name was given a new spelling seven years after his death." A claimed autobiography that is substantially edited by others a long time after the real author's death, isn't that a flawed autobiography, an "autobiography"? Book on Yogis, edited stepwise for decades after Yogananda's death is a more accurate title. Wider concerns: The book was meant tell of "yogi-christs of India", and a large part was written under that working-title. The title was later changed to Autobiography of a Yogi. It is not much of an autobiography after being edited by SRF to self-serving ends for decades after Yogananda died. Yogananda meant the book to attract people to his kriya yoga path "no matter what the means." In the book are scores of miraculous tales. However, Yogananda's biographer, Sailendra Dasgupta tells: "Behind every effort by Yogananda was the root purpose of attracting men and women to Kriya Yoga, no matter what the means. (2006, 101)." Other writers of such happenings have not seen the miraculous in them, he also suggests: Filled with stories of the miraculous, this book is actually a reflection of Swamiji's own . . . state of being . . . [W]hen examined with an investigative eye, many of the accounts could have been caused by ordinary means, nevertheless, in Swamiji's perception, all happened supernaturally. (Ibid.) Thus, the book contains a wealth of outré stories about happenings that that to others have seemed not out of the ordinary - tells miraculous stories in an idealising, romantic vein. Marshall Govindam tells of a drawback of it: becoming unrealistic: After five years of effort in America, beginning in 1925 . . . Yogananda began to modify and adapt his teachings to the West . . . to overcome the . . . resistance of Christians who were suspicious of the foreign teachings of a Hindu swami. As a result, Yogananda began to enjoy remarkable popularity. . . . However, . . . most readers of his "Autobiography" . . . are left with many unrealistic expectations. - Marshall Govindam. [◦Link] Through most of its editions the Autobiography is a work of propaganda for kriya yoga and getting SRF members. Who or what does it speak endearingly of and praise highly? Why does it fail to bring fit evidence of many of its stupendous claims? We may fear it is because such evidence is lacking, and also that the book was made to impress above informing well and accurately where it matters the most, as for claims around kriya yoga. Questions abound. It may be held that the autobiography is a propaganda work for kriya yoga though all its editions. Who or what does it speak well of? Word counts may offer initial help in sorting out such things. [Autobiography word counts] A further long-range problem is that ideals the book talks for, have been silently removed by Self-Realization Fellowship. Such disharmonies have disappointed many, including a former SRF vice president, Kriyananda (2010; 2012). Readers: The book has influenced the "yoga and meditation market" for long by now. Millions have read it. The book has been in print since 1946 and translated into fifty languages, and has introduced a sort of meditation to many readers and fascinanted some, like the late Steve Jobs of Apple and the Beatle George Harrison. (WP, "Autobiography of a Yogi") Some readers do not appreciate the book. Srinivas Aravamudan (1962–2016), who was a professor at Duke University, describes it as "miracle-infested territory" with "a repetitive insistence on collocating the miraculous and the quotidian [mundane] . . . The autobiography . . . might be dubbed a hitchhiker's guide to the paranormal galaxy". Aravamudan also notes the "aggressive marketing" of the Yogoda Satsang and Self-Realization Fellowship, that Yogananda himself "worked the mass media" and used a technique described as "Guru English". He notes that Yogananda was the collator of the testimonials that purport to validate the miracles described, which appear at a rate of around one per page." (Ibid). James Dudley: "Yogananda's masterly storytelling epitomizes the Indian oral tradition." (Ibid.) One may say the book is aimed at people who love fantastic stories that are purported to be true for most part, but they may not be top reliable anyway. There lies a problem. Background: Story-telling is a top effective way of influencing others and pass on a tradition, tells Jerome Bruner (1915–2016). Yogananda tells stories about some who do kriya yoga, miraculous tales also. It is easy to get influenced, and without skills in literary criticism one risks being taken in. The main persons in the book - apart from Yogananda - are yogis of his line. The line is said to stem from a "mysterious stranger" who gave a system of yoga methods to Shyama Lahiri in 1861. Shyama Lahiri was said to simplify the system further, and gave parts of it to different disciples. One of the disciples was a man who later was called Yukteswar. He is presented as Yogananda's guru. Yogananda tells stories of these and many other disciples of Shyama Lahiri, and includes tales of others as fits his "universe." Yogananda uses a kind of infiltrative demagogy to make his gurus and other kriya yogis palatable to Christians. He takes to terms from Christian theology and gives them a spin or content that is not part of the Christian tradition. The Father, the Holy Spirit and the soul have changed there. Jesus is allied with Yogananda and his line too, we are told, all against rather many Bible sayings of such a possibility. The "one proof" given of the link is Yogananda visions and tales. Yogananda's promotional jargon includes "science" and "scientific" too. The book tells it works like mathematics in bringing "cosmic consciousness" by a million kriya yoga rounds. That may not be true. Not at all. One may wonder if the author and his guru Yukteswar know what they are talking of. [Discrepancies stand out] The demagogue Yogananda also talks of "ancient scriptures that speak for kriya yoga, as does St. Paul", and so on. The scriptural "references" are just "references" had by back-dating a term that was coined or made known in the 1860s. By backdating the system by use of an old Sanskrit term in it, seems out of place. Such a backdating scheme would not have been possible if the system that Shyama Lahiri got had been termed for example Doobidoo in the 1860s. Then there would have been no Sanskrit terms in texts of old to claim as referring to the kriya yoga system. Much evidence is gathered here: [Kriya and scriptures investigation] Sanskrit scripture references appear to give a fake standing only. The book was formed with a view to impress Christian Americans mightily around the middle of the past century. Which kriya system? There are many kriya systems around. Yogananda's kriya is simplified: Parts that otherwise are held to be necessary, are removed from the kriya of Yogananda and SRF (Dasgupta 2006, 109-10). Dasgupta writes that Yogananda dispensed with yogic tongue-lifting, also known as khechari mudra, to accommodate to Westerners, even though "one is only fit to practice the higher Kriyas after one accomplishes [t]his absolutely essential technique." (Dasgupta 2006, 109). Further details: [More, Dasgupta's summary of lacking elements in SRF's kriya] As for how kriya yoga is spread in the steps of Yogananda, kriya yogis of India object to it. Dasgupta tells "there is reason to doubt whether Kriya can be given or taught properly by letters and circulars. (2006, 54). [◦Yogananda changes at Sanskrit Classics] SRF publishes later editions of the Autobiograpy, and is described as a cult by several former SRF monastics: they might know better where the shoe pinches than outsiders. About one third of all the SRF monastics left the premises between 2000 and 2005, writes Jon Parsons. (2012, 170) In the light of other literature: The language is largely loquacious. It has a long way to go to reach up to Plain English. The miracle stories included in the Autobiography are Yogananda's selections. Some have been found to be biased, although they reveal much of the man who told he and his gurus were avatars (divine descents). At least he said it. [◦A source]. Autobiographies written and changed by others than "Auto" himself or herself are not all uncommon. Ghost writers exist. What is unusual is that the publisher, SRF, has continued to make changes to the book for decades after the guru was gone. Through several editions the original text has been changed. Kriyananda is one who voices many misgivings. (Yogananda for the World, chap. 15 and 16). The book was at least co-written by someone who got a large following. In 1935 Yogananda said he had given kriya yoga to 150,000 persons by letter courses, mass initiations, and that this was "very successful in America." Dasgupta thinks such a way of spreading kriya yoga is very difficult, and "has seen proof of this fact innumerable times." (2006, 90) Satyeswarananda of the Sanskrit Classics details how Yogananda has deviated. [◦Much more] Yogananda used mass initiations and initiations by a letter course as his means to spread the teachings of Kriya Yoga. He said that his American students and disciples of Kriya Yoga numbered more than 150,000 in 1935. (Ibid.) However, somewhere between 1948 and 1952 he also told: "Apart from [James J.] Lynn . . . every man has disappointed me." (Novak 2005, Chap. 6). When over 150,000 persons have disappointed you, you might have benefitted by being realistic for a long time. But Yogananda was a disappointed man, one who also had written that starting SRF, his organization, had been a great blunder [◦A Yogananda letter]. For most part of Yogananda's last four years he lived in a hut on the border of a desert, roughly 50 miles east of Los Angeles, at Twenty-Nine Palms. I have been there. Dasgupta: "A solitary and secret cottage was set up where Swamiji sat . . . for much of the last part of his life." Kriyananda tells that they had to hold him up as they walked him. Yogananda was saying, "Where am I? . . . Where am I going?" This happened regularly." (Dasgupta 2006, 102-3). But Yogananda's book does not reflect even a bit of these sides to him or his life, and hardly compares with autobiographies of other disappointed men - or so-called disappointed men. Stretch the bow too much and it may disappoint you. It also stands out that success is to measured by fit yardsticks. Was Yogananda crazy or not? He said repeatedly, "We are all crazy (1982:425; cf. 2002:270)." He could be right and he could be wrong: he said in fact, "We don't really know what is right or real . . . we are often incorrect in our judgements." (1982 414). The Yogananda theme, "We are all crazy," was repeated by his long-time follower Daya Mata (Faye R. Wright). All of us . . . are a little bit crazy, and we do not know it." (1976: "Qualities of a Devotee") There are other stories of Yogananda that are less flattering, but rather flattening. They have as a rule not been included. They show someone keen on hypnosis, spiritism, necromancy, advocating dictatorship, praising Benito Mussolini, and claiming he had used Black Arts to influence Hitler's mind to escalate World War II.
Wonder how crazy persons may know they are crazy and say they are crazy. Who can tell? Yogananda's biographer writes: Yoganandaji was a man who lived in the world of imagination and spiritual feelings. He saw some things directly and some things with the eyes of his feelings. Towards the end, he often did not perceive a difference between the two. (Dasgupta 2006, 99) "Towards the end" was when he worked up his Autobiography and revised it. There is a guru biography to compare it with, Paramhansa Swami Yogananda: Life-portrait and Reminiscences (2006). It is by someone who knew Yogananda personally and also worked as his secretary in India for some time. This biography throws sidelights on Yogananda's writings. It shows that Yogananda and his secretaries hid tense quarrels between Yognanda and his guru (2006, 85). The biographer also questions that Yogananda's guru bestowed on him the title of Paramhansa - it is a Hindu monk title. (2006, 84) With reference to an alleged meeting of Yogananda and the secretive yogi who gave kriya yoga to Shyama Lahiri, the biographer doubts that it happened at all. (2006, 99) A tale of Yogananda cursing another is also in the biography. Overcome with anger, he once said to a boy, "Your face will become twisted!" At once the boy's face, head and neck turned to a crippled and twisted position. "Neck and face twisted to one side, a handkerchief stuffed in his mouth to stop the uncontrollable drooling, [the Yogananda-cursed fellow] could barely walk without swaying and his speech was slurred, having difficulty forming words correctly with a crooked mouth." When Yogananda later met the fellow he had cursed, he did not have the power to take back the curse either. (2006, 56). Not holy. Several other sides to Yogananda are not included in the Autobiography either. He resorted to spiritism and necromancy (Williams 2010, 71), and his foretold World War III and IV did not come as told of. He hailed dictatorship and Benito Mussolini in writing in 1934 - and these sides to the guru are not told of in the book either. Nor was Yogananda's hush-hush claim to devotees that he had resorted to the Black Art to put into Adolf Hitler's mind to expand World War II eastwards. This move cost tens of millions of human lives. (Kriyananda 2011:131) Yogananda was also occupied with ghosts. His biographer, Dasgupta, informs that the adult Yogananda had been afraid of ghosts for years. (Dasgupta 2006, 112) [Yogananda ghosts] To compare with: As for "speaking well of Yogananda" on the market, a spiritist may speak well of Yogananda's spiritist activities; others hardly, if ever. Who we are may determine what we praise and endorse. Yogananda adapted to American minds or ways, without getting fully conformised. There is another angle to that: The curve of distribution (Bell curve, Gauss curve), tells that for large numbers, what most people praise is rather average. What a few persons praise, on the other hand, may be very bad or very good. A word to the wise . . . Abraham Maslow has gone into such matters, looking for fit yardsticks for humans - and finds that the plus deviants - those who deviate from the average in good ways - are good standards for health and the human good somehow - each in somewhat differing ways. From this: "If it is widely popular, try for something or someone better." (Maslow 1989, chap. 11 etc.) Tao Te Ching's gives vent to a similar view in lines such as: With the highest, those below simply know they exist. ". . . Love and praise"- or "one step down". There are many books about Yogananda by his devoted follower Kriyananda (1926-2013). He was in considerable contact with Yogananda during the three and one half last years of Yogananda's life. Kriyananda took extensive notes of his many conversations with the guru. Parts of this material has later been published in some books, and in 2011 came Paramahansa Yogananda: With Personal Reflections and Reminiscences: A Biography. It may not be so much of a biography as collected stories, with repetitions in them too. Moreover, a certain bias may be suspected, if not expected. "Speak well of Yogananda," sums up that. There are also other books about Yogananda today. Some are written by people who knew him before he went to America in 1920. One such writer was Sananda, one of his brothers. A story by one more writer on the early spiritist Yogananda - by Devi Mukherjee - is here: [Ghosts of Yogananda] In later years, others have tried to shed light on a love-symbol and glamorous Yogananda. Philip Goldberg is one. Interestingly, a devoted SRF-swami, Anandamoy, said during a talk to the 1971 SRF convocation at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles that a neighbour of Yogananda's in Encinitas said to him: "He's a bit off, isn't he?" And if we should happen to trust the words of Yogananda (quoted above), a suspicion could linger. But it depends on how we understand him, as Yogananda said to another direct follower:
Fallen or not, many points that Yogananda made could have been true anyway, or a few of them. However, the fact is the Book of a yogi and several disciples, made to impress a lot contains tall but unsupported claims, and is responded to by faith in some readers, evoking unrealistic expectations in some. Cult marks of old: A book of fantastic stories calls for wiser handling than most credulous, good folks are capable of without some training. It may be pointed out that devotional submission to a leader is a cardinal mark of a cult. It stands to reason to suspect that a cult publishes cult-serving literature. The reading is not all pitch-black. Yogananda introduced central yoga concepts to many in the West, and also ideas of retributions ("fate"), being born again and again, other beings in heaven than angels - such as mermaids and gnomes in special quarters there. Heaven is peopled with . . . myriads of fairies, mermaids, fishes . . . goblins, gnomes, demigods and spirits. - Yukteswar after his death, in chap. 43. Yogananda writes he got this information from a resurrected Yukteswar (his guru) that Yogananda held in an octupus grip in a hotel room in Bombay at the time (Chap. 43). "Seeing is believing" comes to mind. Or maybe something else. |
YOGI-CHRISTS OF INDIA. The product of twenty years of metaphysical research. Stranger than fiction, and yet a record of authentic happenings, and personal experiences of the author. Many amazing stories of the miraculous lives of the great masters and saints of India. True, illuminating and entertaining from beginning to end. Contains an extraordinary description of the Astral World, the true Hereafter to which all mortals repair between incarnations. Will be published in Feb. 1944. (Yogananda Harmony Association. "Autobiography of a Yogi: History and Development", p. 9 [
Bhattacharya, Jogesh Chandra. 1964. Yogiraj Shri Shri Lahiri Mahashay. Kadamtala, Howrah: Shrigurudham (Ghosh). Dasgupta, Sailendra. 2006. Paramhansa Swami Yogananda: Life-portrait and Reminiscences. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. Daya Mata. 1976. "Only Love". Los Angeles, CA: Self-Realization Fellowship. Dietz, Margaret Bowen Dietz. Thank You, Master. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity, 1998. Durga Mata. 1992/93. A Paramhansa Yogananda Trilogy of Divine Love. Beverly Hills, CA: Joan Wight Publications. Henricks Robert G. 1993. Tao Te Ching. New York: Random House Modern Library. Kriyananda, Swami. 2001. A Place called Ananda. Rev. 2nd ed. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity. ⸻. 2010. Rescuing Yogananda. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity. ⸻. 2011. Paramhansa Yogananda: A Biography with Personal Reflections and Reminiscences. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity. ⸻. 2012. Yogananda for the World. Rev. ed. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity. Maslow, Abraham. 1987. Motivation and Personality. 3rd ed. New York, HarperCollins. Novak, Devi. 2005. Faith is My Armor: The Life of Swami Kriyananda. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity. Parsons, Jon R. 2012. A Fight For Religious Freedom: A Lawyer's Personal Account of Copyrights, Karma and Dharmic Litigation. Nevada City, CA: Crystal Clarity. Shriyukteshwar, Swami. 2002. Srimad Bhagavad Gita: Spiritual Commentary. Portland, MN: Yoganiketan. Vermes, Geza. 2005. The Authentic Gospel of Jesus. London: Penguin, 2005. ⸻. 2010. The Real Jesus: Then and Now. Minneapolis, MI: Fortress Press. ⸻. 2012. From Jewish to Gentile: How the Jesus Movement Became Christianity. Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) 38:06, Nov/Dec. Williamson, Lola. 2010. Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion. London: New York University Press. Yogananda, Paramahansa. 1946. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library. ⸻. 1980. Sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda. 4th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship. ⸻. 1982. Man's Eternal Quest.2nd ed. Los Angeles: SRF. ⸻. 1998. Autobiography of a Yogi. 13th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship. ⸻. 2002. The Divine Romance. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship. Notes
Symbols, brackets, signs and text icons explained: (1) Text markers — (2) Digesting. |
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