25. Brother Ananta and Sister Nalini – 236
26. The Science of Kriya Yoga – 242
27. Founding of a Yoga School at Ranchi – 253
28. Kashi, Reborn and Rediscovered – 262
29. Rabindranath Tagore and I Compare Schools – 267

25 - Brother Ananta and Sister Nalini

ᴥ If a sister says: "Train me, I want to get fatter!" she is hardly ideally happy. A sister may feel all right and live happily within harmonious, well established limits. Yogananda's oldest brother Ananta died soon after he had asked here-is-how-to-die" Yogananda to be his guru, while Yogananda's sister put on weight, as she wanted. So: It could work well in the long run to train for happy, allround living too, not only how to die. ⚴

The bamboo piece

Yogananda: "Amidst uncomprehending criticism from my relatives, I left India on . . . boat. It cruised along Burma and the China Sea to Japan. I disembarked at Kobe, where I spent only a few days. . . . On the return trip to India, the boat touched at Shanghai. There Dr. Misra, the ship's physician, guided me to several curio shops, where I selected various presents for Sri Yukteswar and my family and friends. For [brother] Ananta I purchased a large carved bamboo piece. No sooner had the Chinese salesman handed me the bamboo souvenir than I dropped it on the floor."

The souvenir was sharply and symbolically cracked. Yogananda wrote on the bamboo surface: ". . . now gone."

My companion, the doctor, was observing.

"Save your tears," he remarked.

What Yogananda told the bridegroom on the wedding-night, and how he fell in love

When they returned home, his thin sister Nalini, who was betrothed to a young Calcutta physician, and then married. Yogananda had told her bridegroom on the wedding night that she was a skeleton for his observation.

Later she asked him to help her get plump, since Yogananda had been thin earlier, and now plump. "Train me." She gathered together an armful of medicines and poured them down the roof drain.

As a test, he told her to adhere to a vegetarian diet in spite of numerous difficulties.

After some months he asked: "How plump do you want to be – as fat as our aunt who has not seen her feet in years?"

"No! But I long to be as stout as you are."

He said that in one month she should weigh as much as he. (He was just a bit above 5 feet tall).

The new roundness made her husband fell in love with her. Their marriage turned out to be happy, due to much and good fat.

❋ "Not too little, not too much, that could suit a loving touch."

Further complications set in. Yukteswar says things

Yet, one day a plump Yogananda, learnt that she had got typhoid fever and found her reduced to a mere skeleton again. This time she was in a coma. Blood dysentery has set in. And then the blood dysentery disappeared.

"She will recover," the brother said. "In seven days her fever will be gone."

From a week later she recovered swiftly. But her legs were paralysed. The brother-monk went to Yukteswar for help.

"Your sister's legs will be normal at the end of one month." He added, "Let her wear, next to her skin, a band with an unperforated two-carat pearl, held on by a clasp. . . . Yes, do that."

"Is this an astrological analysis?"

Yukteswar smiled. "There . . . Each man is a part of cosmic man; the inward eye penetrates even to the universal pattern of which each man is an integral and individual part."

A month later, Nalini's paralysed legs were completely healed. She asked her brother to thank Yukteswar, and at that time he said.

"Your sister has been told by many doctors that she can never bear children. Assure her that in a few years she will give birth to two daughters."

She got them, too.

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26 - The science of kriya yoga

The basic technique of kriya yoga is the very easy breathing method ujjayi, which is explained in detail on this page: [Link]

ᴥ There is many a science that does not work full well, particularly not at the start. We could allow for that. There are so-called sciences too. Kriya yoga is not very scientific in a strict sense of 'science' and 'scientific' as the words are used today. We are confronted with conspicious yoga teachings that place certain gurus over all things and say that they have caught up with the expanding universe . . . "Who knows these things? Who can here declare?" [Passage from a Rikvedic hymn, "The Song of Creation"] The tortoise swims at sea and lives in water - we could take that into account too, not only how fast it breathes. Some tend to get culture-abused by swaggering - So: A conspicious science helps against many overt and covert abuses from marring, giant claims without a shred of good evidence.  ⚴

'Science' and science

Some use 'science' and 'scientific' as words with naggingly meagre content. If so, suspect demagogy the sooner the better.

'Science' has an archaic meaning of knowledge of any kind. And if Babaji and others in his lines of kriya yoga uses the term 'science' like that, the archaic use had better be explained, so as to avoid misunderstanding. For in our times (e.g. 2018) the meaning of 'science' is different, and it could pay very well to discern between the outmoded meanings and updated meanings, for starters. If not, there is a risk of being taken in by Yogananda's claim that "kriya yoga is scientific" , and by steps become a propaganda-ridden cult-member. So it may pay to get wise about 'science', in time.

In our days, 'science' means more than just "a body of knowledge of any kind". Today, a science involves systematic study of what characterises the subject of study - in this case it is breathing in and out in one or more regulated ways. Add stringent observations and experiments to that, and voila! kriya yoga may be told of as a science in one of the basic meanings of the term 'science': It could be a branch of knowledge or a body of knowledge in a field (an area) - where the main focus area is a certain way of breathing (with or without additions). Such a science goes for gathering, sorting and organising a special body of information or facts. A coming science may get or develop its own special terms, or jargon - which may be added.

So, kriya yoga as a science in the common sense of the word 'science' today, could well boil down to "breathe in and out; add thoughts that matter to it; apply fit measurements; and then statistics to it; and see if many are willing to accept it as a science in its own right." We are hardly there yet -

There will also be a need to demarcate, that is, to set the boundaries or limits of a kriya science, or separate or distinguish from other areas. Ask to such ends, "What distinguishes the science of kriya from the science of yoga(s) and the science of breath(s)?" For there are many yogas around, and many ways of breathing, and several of them are overlapping. Georg Feuerstein enumerates forty types of often overlapping yogas in chapter 12 of his Deeper Dimensions of Yoga (2011), for example.

Needs to be solved:

1. "The science of yoga(s)" needs to be specified and narrowed down. A complication: the basic feature of kriya yoga is the gentle breathing method of ujjayi, which is a common hatha-yoga way of breathing. Kriya yoga is understood to be kundalini-yoga by some, and thereby tantra-yoga, while Yogananda and other tell it is a form of raja-yoga. In such ways, kriya yoga is also part of other yogas, and this calls for better demarcations. We have to get relevant answers to such as, "What are its distinctive features?" One has been given: Kriya yoga is at bottom ujjayi, a simple way of breathing. But different features are added to it in different kriya yoga systems: body contortions, hand placements, and much else.
2. "The science of breath(s) consists of many breathing methods. Several are described in James Hewitt's book Yoga (1990), and ujjayi is one of them. So there are many breathing methods (read: pranayama methods) in yoga too.
3. As for "the science of kriya yoga(s)", kriya yoga is not one unified system, but rather a medley of parts put together, and put together differently among the different lines of transmission. Yogananda formed his own kriya yoga system by removing some parts and adding others, tells his biographer Dasgupta (2006), and gives details also.

Being free with claims

Yogananda's "the science of kriya yoga" is in part a slightly hidden claim that kriya is a science. The ones that claim, are the ones to deliver proofs of their claims. For the lack of good evidence, keep the claims at bey. This suggests "Neither believe nor disbelieve blindly to your loss". Or "Neither accept nor discard a claim without fit evidence."

To study alternative claims (alternative hypotheses, alternative proposals) is fit for basic research as well - for example: "Kriya yoga is an art too."

Alternatively, "the art of kriya yoga"

Most often, there is something disctinctive about an art. "The art of breath" is within "the life-long art of living" as well. Book titles that start with "The art of . . . " or end with ". . . Art" are many. "The Art of Seeing", "The Art of Pencil Drawing," "The Art of Drawing People", and "The Story of Art", "Egyptian Art" and so on, far and wide.

There are also books about what characterises art in itself, its history in various ways, art by regions, art in special areas, like "Medieval Art" and how to teach art.

Although there are hundreds and thousands of books related to art, there is something more interesting than reading about it, just as it may be far more interesting to sing or play music yourself than just to read about music. Ernst F. Schumacher is quoted in a roundabout way that "An ounce of practice is generally worth more than a ton of theory." It is much the same with gardening, in that a practical touch crowns the reading, if any. "An ounce of tasted orange rides above "fruit in theory". The proportions are rarely "an ounce to a ton". They could be better; they could be worse. There is the problem of wrong practice. In such a case to stop on the theory level and not go further into harmful practice is good.

So far, so good? Where it is not fit to investigate a claim, discarding it bluntly is an error. Yet the scientific mind refrains from believing in claims that are free from evidence. Yukteswar and Yogananda both say that stand for science. Well, fit ways of dealing with claims are part of it.

So-called science could well be a subterfuge

Judged from the lack of evidence and severe inconsistencies in the basic premises that Yogananda and Yukteswar state, stating a preliminary verdict is simple: "So-called kriya science is not scientific. It might be called 'the art of subterfuge' just as well, or instead.

Why so?

First, Yukteswar claims that a certain amount of kriya breaths equal 12 million years of natural development, crowned by the Acme of human life, which to him is termed Kaivalya, or Aloneness (Yukteswar 1972). You should wonder where he gets all that from, as evidence is absent. Also worth noting: humans are not known to have lived on Earth for 12 million years, so how can Yukteswar prove his natural-development claim? The bet is he cannot.

Second, Yogananda goes to America and changes the claim: He says the same amount of kriya breaths as Yukteswar speaks of, equal "only" one million years of natural development, crowned by "cosmic consciousness". This claim, too, seems too far-fetched to be of any substantial value. [Lots of soapy scams]

The reasons for not accepting Yogananda's claim are many: One: it is not attested in even a moderate way. Two, both Yukteswar and Yogananda and their two gurus state in different places that the world is illusory. Those four guru claims contain the same illogic as is shown in a story about twelve men of Gotham,, where each forgot to count in himself. So when for example Yogananda goes on and on to tell the world is an illusion, a dream only, and so on, repetitions are no good proof that it is so. Further ask, "Where is he, his gurus and their illusion teachings as parts of the world, if the world is unreal?" Again, leave it to those who launch an outright stupid claim to prove it, even a good bet is they cannot. Note as well: In an illusory world, development has to be illusory too. Also mind there is no proper evidence and no valid proof of anything in an illusion.

Third, Yogananda's claims of development in a world illusion spell illusory development. Neither the twelve million postulated years of development for Fulfilment (Yukteswar) nor the one million years of postulated development for reaching "cosmic consciousness" (Yogananda) add up. Such an inconsistency is also marred by the four SRF gurus' message that the cosmos is illusory (but neither they nor messages in the world are unreal.

We need to investigate the surfaces too. Bother false and insane teachings may do harm to many who succumb to them. Yogananda nonsense can serve as a trap to catch gullible guys and so on.

Suggestion: Don't claim a lot without good evidence, and refrain from using terms that do not (yet) comply with what marks adequate scientific handling - all of that could be wise. Also worth nothing: The door is open for research on kriya yoga as a subject shared by several other disciplines. EEG studies show in part some interesting things about it. There are other ways to study the kriya yoga of Yukteswar too, and some such ways may well be combined (cf. Kasamatsu and Hirai. 1969)

Fit research failed Yogananda too

Yogananda might have instigated effective investigations into kriya yoga. He could have focused on and ardently encouraged research on it and its effects. But the sad fact is that he did not follow up many of his repeated of "science" and "scientific" with proper scientific activity by and large. As a result, information about his simplified kriya may be all lacking. SRF says letters from members back up their claims that it is good, but there are fallacies with that approach. It is fit for a scientific mind to doubt whether their anecdotal evidence (letters from members) is of much value unless statistically sorted, maybe grouped into several layers and sorts, and evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. In such ways, letters may be used if there is a will and a way.

Now, a little research on kriya yoga has been done, but it seems it is not the simplified kriya yoga of Yogananda and SRF. Das and Gastaut's kriya study]. [◦ Dr Erik Hoffmann's findings].

Such findings are interesting.

Simple breathing and several claims without backup

Among other things, kriya is Sanskrit for such as act, work, do, act, react; undertaking, practice, religious rite or ceremony, activity, doing, means and the sign Aries, and the word has many other meanings (Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit). In ancient Sanskrit texts the word 'kriya' supposedly does not refer to kriya yoga. A good sign it is so, is that most translations of old Sanskrit texts where the word 'kriya' appears, translates it into something else than 'kriya yoga', which perhaps was unknown to many then. Judged from chapter 34, the term 'kriya yoga' and the use of 'kriya' for 'kriya yoga' went public with Shyama Lahiri as late as from the autumn of 1861.

Now, the writers in the kriya yoga line of Lahiri may read 'kriya yoga' into the term 'kriya', (do, act etc.) in several old Sanskrit texts. They are thereby "skating on thin ice or ice that may not be there". It is because it suits them to give the term 'kriya' a meaning that seems not to have been there in the first place. If so, it reflects a need to give kriya yoga scriptural prestige. [From ancient works]

Mystique around an old word aside and plain facts to the fore: The core kriya yoga method is the simple pranayama method called ujjayi. It is one of the public, common pranayama methods of hatha yoga.

Don't believe everything you are told

Learn how to avoid lots of fallacies and you may doubt to your future benefit.

Yogananda says kriya yoga is simple. The basic breathing method of it, ujjayi, is easy. But what is added to it by some transmission lines may be strenuous and time-consuming.

"Elijah, Jesus, Kabir and other prophets were past masters in the use of kriya or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to dematerialise at will."

There is no accurate, Biblical evidence of it all.

"The kriya yoga which I am giving to the world through you in this nineteenth century," Babaji told Lahiri Mahasaya, "is a revival of the same science which Krishna gave, millenniums ago, to Arjuna, and which was later known to Patanjali, and to Christ, St. John, St. Paul, and other disciples."

Is it? There is no Biblical evidence of the claim. For the lack of good proof, don't resort to believing a lot, for believing as others tell, could be to your long-time harm, for example as a sectarian.

"Forgotten" but used continually in many traditions . . .

Kriya yoga is referred to by Krishna, India's greatest prophet, in a stanza of the Bhagavad Gita: "Offering inhaling breath into the outgoing breath, and offering the outgoing breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralises both these breaths . . ."

That Gita verse needs a biased interpretation to be understood as speaking of kriya yoga, or kriya yoga only. Besides, a description of how core kriya yoga is done, shows that what is described in the Gita verse hardly applies to it at all.

Yogananda holds that "due to priestly secrecy and man's indifference, the sacred knowledge gradually became inaccessible," but where is the evidence? To claim a lot without good evidence is risky business. It appears that Yogananda repeatedly seeks to impress on a rather loose foundation. [Agree?]

In the book Transcendent in America Lola Williamson (2012) points out:

According to SRF tradition, these techniques, other than the energization exercises, were known in ancient India but were forgotten. In actuality, the techniques have been used continually in many yoga and tantra traditions throughout India . . . (Williamson 2010:58, emphasis added)."

As the Yogananda biographer Dasgupta writes,

"Behind every effort by Yogananda was the root purpose of attracting men and women to kriya yoga, no matter what the means." (2006, 101, emphasis added) .

Dasgupta could quite easily be taken to mean that Yogananda was an unprincipled guy. And yes, Yogananda was found to make false and untrue charges in a law-case. That is documented. [More] He fought for money but without good evidence - to the contrary, simply put.

Here Yogananda goes again. A deflated balloon is hidden -

"St. Paul knew kriya yoga or a technique very similar to it, by which he could switch life currents to and from the senses. He was therefore able to say . . ." writes Yogananda.

What did he say? The updated NIV translation has: "I face death every day – yes, just as surely as I boast . . ." (1 Corinthians 15:30-34, passim).

"Face death and boast" every day are not good pastimes. "Trust a guru of false and untrue money charges in court if you must, but seek to make sure," might help some.

ᴥ You do not have to buy Yogananda's exegesis. He reads 'kriya yoga' into ancient Sanskrit texts where the word 'kriya', work, is used. But it does not end there. He reads 'kriya yoga or similar' into 1 Corinthians too, and big claims go hand in hand with that again. Infiltration into scriptures and famous men of the past is a form of demagogy. Kriya (action, practice) in Sanskrit texts hardly ever mean kriya yoga. Why so? The common Sanskrit word 'kriya' means 'act, work, do, act, react, practice, doing, means' and/or even more, depending on the old contexts. Some Sanskrit texts do use the word 'kriya' in different contexts. Most likely not with the meanings that Yogananda puts into them "in retrospect", for Yogananda tells in chapter 34 that the term 'kriya yoga' became known only in or after the autumn of 1861, through Shyama Lahiri. [More] Yogananda and other fervent ones in the Lahiri lines of kriya yoga may read 'kriya yoga' into old passages where the term 'kriya' is found, ignoring that the kriya yoga system was largely unknown "in the dark ages" The core technique of kriya yoga is no secret. The Satyananda line has made many kriya techniques public (Satyananda 1981; 2001; Niranjanananda 2009). The core of the kriya system is the gentle breathing method called ujjayi, which is explained in detail: [Link] To simplify things: Ask ardent adherers of the Yogananda read-into faith for good evidence that it is kriya yoga that is meant by 'kriya', do, act (etc.) in ancient texts. Proof of this or that the moon is made of green cheese may be wholly wanting. To claim and impress without evidence is not fit for scientist-minded guys - it is not even near quality handling of old texts. We should all learn to deal with scriptures better than that. The main thing is to show clearly what is translation and what is interpretation. It helps against opinionated views and bias. A further given: Yogananda simplified the handed-over kriya yoga system he was sent to the West to teach. He simplified and removed much for Westerners. Yogananda's biographer, Sailendra Dasgupta, tells that at first Yogananda had written "Precepta Lessons" to propagate the teachings of kriya yoga to the masses. But there is reason to doubt whether kriya can be given or taught properly by letters and circulars, Dasgupta considers as well. After Yogananda's passing, changes were also made to the original lessons. (Dasgupta 2006, 54) But, as already told, Yogananda already had made changes in the handed-over methods. Sitting cross-legged was dispensed with. Lifting one's tongue to the soft part of the roof of the mouth (kechari mudra), was dispensed with. Yogananda adopted a few different methods, but "it is not possible through these new methods to fully attain that which is spoken of in the scriptures in terms of kriya yoga," claims Dasgupta, wherever he has that notion from. Yogananda said that sitting on an armless chair, with the legs hanging and the back straight, might also do. The traditionalist Dasgupta: "From the second kriya onward, all of the higher kriyas must be performed with Khechari Mudra. Without Khechari, neither "Thokar" kriya nor "Omkar" kriya can be performed; if anyone says otherwise, then he is not speaking about kriya yoga." Yogananda did. The two methods of Thokar and Omkar, are left out in Yogananda's kriya, even if they are said to be essential in the kriya system of Shyama Lahiri. Yogananda has mixed some easy method with the original and pure methods and techniques, and left out essential parts of Lahiri's kriya system, to the end that his methods show little resemblance to the methods taught by Lahiri, says Dasgupta, adding that there is a great lack of high-level teachers or gurus in India. (Dasgupta 2006, 109-11, passim) Big claims are seldom absent there, unlike good evidence But there is more. A close study reveals that the kriya prospects of Yogananda's simplified methods are purported to be 144 times better than those of his guru, Yukteswar: First, the time to "get there" takes 12 million years according to Yukteswar, and "only" one million year according to Yogananda. And the effectiveness of Yogananda's simplified methods - with essentials of his kriya line left out - is 12 times better than Yukteswar's. Claims that are free from proof may be followed by a little bit of shame and shared outlooks as the case may be. Have you considered well enough that Yogananda does not tell which scriptures and where in those scriptures there is fit support for his grandiose claims, and that ? [More] [Still more] As for alleged Bible correspondences, Bible scholars tend to be more reliable within limits.

Watch out for spiritual boasters of no known limits

"Kriya yoga is an instrument through which human evolution can be quickened," Sri Yukteswar explained to his students. Quickened to what? To see all that live are of a golden, shining egg, maybe?

He who can be perceived, who is subtile, indiscernible, and eternal, shone forth, desiring to produce beings of many kinds from his own body.

He placed his seed in the waters. That (seed) became a golden egg, in brilliancy equal to the sun; in that (egg) he himself was born, the progenitor of the whole world - indiscernible, eternal, and . . . Brahman.

- Abstracts from Manu Samhita 1.7-11.

A fine point from the following verses is that humans are created. The Self-existent Lord has become males and females. Human beings live in a succession of ages, yugas. Duties of people differ.

Also, The Manu Samhita goes on to tell tha the most excellent beings are animated, intelligent humans. The learned intelligent ones are even better, those who recognise and keep this knowledge and act on it and know the Spirit of all. (96-97, contracted)

ᴥ It is wise to ask for pertinent evidence of what is claimed and proclaimed, to save yourself from being trapped in tomfoolery and making a dupe of yourself. "Spinal centres" are termed chakras (wheels, vortexes) and padmas (lotuses) in kundalini yoga. Aim to get valid answers to pertinent questions put to allegedly all-knowing ones. Are you going to let them get away with grandiose claims without evidence? Don't believe anything you are told. Note in passing that a big lie (German: große Lüge) is a propaganda technique. Grand claims without evidence might be called relatives.

ᴥ Yogananda offers no sources for his many tendentious claims by using "the rishis", "the scriptures". Which scriptures aver a million years? And if one such scripture should be found at last, are things like that anyway, in the actual world? Be reminded that Yogananda and the other three gurus in his line say the world is an illusion . . . Further, a closer look at what Yogananda's guru writes about the time required for evolution in this respect, shows 12 million years, not 1 million - much longer than the known history of mankind. Further, in his early years in America - by 1925 - Yogananda had sped up by twelve the said efficacy of kriya too - unnoticed by a lot of later disciples [More]. So, what evidence does the big claimant give in the name of science, Christianity and yoga? Is it lazy to trust without good evidence again and again?

Yogananda claims get tiresome for lack of evidence that they matter. A suggestion is within reach: Stop reading proofless, grandiose claims; do it to your own benefit as soon as you can and stick to it. This is no detriment in yoga, for higher yoga is for rising beyond claims. It is called transcending.

Before venturing further: Statements are either true or not true, and statements are either verified or not verified. Among claims that go unverified, some might be true anyway. In cases where we cannot say if a claim or conjecture is biased, unfair, untrue and so on, we are dealing with "insufficient evidence" for concluding well. If so, we reserve our judgement, keep conclusions at bey (in suspensio) as best we can. It is all in the art of dealing with claims and assertions. It helps a scientist.

Then, for the lack of clear evidence, we have a right to judge probabilities. We may ask, "How likely is this and that? Under which circumstances, possibly?" Statistics is amply used in this area of activity. Findings are often uncertain, but within reasonable margins a tentative conclusion may be forthcoming, even where the evidence is "inconclusive".

For the lack of certain evidence and probably evidence, it may help being reserved. The Confucian Analecs say: "In matters which he does not understand, the wise man will always reserve his judgement." (Analects, chap. 1)

ᴥ Assertions and claims that are not solidly documented, do not belong to the facts of rigorous science, but to hearsay and speculation. "Man's got to know his limitations." [Clint Eastwood in a Dirty Harry film] Great claims that are neither substantiated (verified, fit or documented) or sanity-helping, may in time serve "bossism" (authoritarian-minded followers) and cults.

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27 - Founding a yoga school at Ranchi

Yogananda: "Before I had joined the monastic order, Sri Yukteswar had made a most unexpected remark.

"How you will miss the companionship of a wife in your old age!" he had said.

ᴥ Because someone has much expanded perception, it is not necessarily all-knowing. Contrary to what the orator Yogananda teaches, he could not always accomplish what he set his mind on, be it a publishing deal in Philadelphia or a certain school at his American headquarters - or stopping his heart to raise funds among wealthy Indians. The biography contains an instructive episode: When Yogananda visited India, his youngest brother Bishnu Charan wanted Yogananda to stop his heart at a gathering of millionaires and thus clear the way for financial donations. Quite a few wealthy ones came together, wanting to see Yogananda demonstrate this. But later, Bishnu Charan disappointedly said, "Mejda [Yogananda] ruined everything. He was not able to stop his heart from beating" - at that meeting. Yukteswar commented, "He (Yogananda) has a disease -- where a ghoul comes and sits on his back. First there was Basu-ghoul, and now Bishtu [Bishnu]-ghoul is sitting on his back." (Dasgupta 2006, 83, retold) [A Yogananda-ghoul discussion] How unlimited is unlimited? Having a heart and no rosary bead is far better than having a rosary bead and being heartless, not genuine.

ᴥ Yogananda's biographer Dasgupta tells how Yogananda, in 1918, got the Maharaja of Kasimbazar pleased enough to let him use one of his buildings in Ranchi for a school. The Maharaja said that he would like to see the ashram-school that had already been begun. Yogananda was preparing for just such an event, but had only one student. He called in some others to present themselves as brahmachari-students, at least for that day in front of the maharaja. Yogananda gave them some quick training in reciting verses and clothed each of them in yellow garments. Thus, the youths were dressed up as little, chaste monks. To the sound of conch shells the maharaja was welcomed. After the children recited Sanskrit verses with palms in prayerful gesture, there was devotional singing and chanting. The maharajaa was so pleased to see the garbed youths and hear their recitation of verses and devotional songs that he promised to take up the financial responsibility for establishing and running a brahmacharya vidyalaya [school]. (Dasgupta 2006, 30)

Lice!

Yogananda: "The boys responded wonderfully." We still ask for good evidence that they did. Grades may help in determining such things.

ᴥ The Ranchi pupils kept their hair long and usually were unable to take proper care of it, so many of them suffered from lice in the scalp. A Bengali lady who had gathered information about the school, spoke of her son: "If I enroll him in Ranchi, he will come back with a head full of lice!" (Dasgupta 2006, 44)

Yogananda: "In the [school] I had to play father-mother."

"One day my father arrived . . . I had hurt him.

"Son," he said, "I can feel for you!"

Yogananda's pet died

Yogananda: "We had many pets, including a young deer. I allowed it to sleep in my room. One day I fed the pet earlier than usual. Later one of the boys gave the baby deer much milk."

"In tears, I prayed piteously to God, and later the deer stood up and walked a little. But that night the deer came to him in a dream, saying:

""You are holding me back. Please let me go; let me go!"

"All right," Yogananda answered in the dream.

He awoke at once, and cried out.

The well fed deer dropped at his feet, dead.

Yogananda: "The deer's life was over. All sorrow left me."

(Abridged)

The baby deer showed it was too disgusting to go on as Yogananda's pet; have you thought of that? Other beings, however, sought his company:

ᴥ While Yogananda was living at the Ranchi Brahmacharya Vidyalaya, one night he screamed out from his room. He said that a cot penetrated through his closed door and a horrific being was seated upon that cot. From that time on, a student would sleep in a separate cot in his room. Yogananda said that if he slept alone, he saw many different beings, and some of the times he woke up in fear. (Dasgupta 2006, 112)

The Ranchi school grew. Branch schools were established at Midnapore, Lakshmanpur, and Puri.

Pranabananda "with two bodies" came visiting in one body. A young lad sitting beside Yogananda side asked him.

"Sir," he said, "shall I be a monk?"

Pranabananda answered, "When you grow up, there is a beautiful bride waiting for you."

The boy did eventually marry.

The body of Pranabananda showed definite ageing.

"I have left Varanasi permanently," he said, "and am now on my way . . ."

Months later Yogananda met one of Pranabananda's close disciples. He told that Pranabananda had established a hermitage near Rishikesh. One day he helped with the cooking of great amounts of food. The hermitage fed about 2000 guests. After the feast, he said in a whisper "I shall be reborn shortly."

While the bewildered crowd thought he was meditating, the disciples touched him, but the body was no longer warm.

ᴥ Talking of combatting stress, "Prevention is better than cure". Over 50% of common medical diseases are stress-related (Smith et al, 2003, 505).

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28 - Kashi, reborn and rediscovered

ᴥ To guide the living may work for long. As for guiding the dead, it depends on how responsive they are. The souls of departed ones are (hopefully) luminous after the lemon is squeezed (the body is used). The old soul in the womb "dances" like a sack of potatoes (figurative saying). So: To guide departed ones a good book is often resorted to among lamas in Tibet [The Tibetan Book of the Dead]. ⚴

To be born is a fate that many share, and some marry

During a picnic lunch under a tree, one youth asked Yogananda if he would become a monk.

"You will be forcibly taken away to your home, and later you will marry."

His parents arrived to take him away, and some years later he married.

The boy Kashi was about twelve years old. He asked Yogananda: "What will be my fate?"

"You shall soon be dead."

"Will you find me when I am reborn?" He sobbed. For weeks afterward he pressed Yogananda doggedly.

"Yes,"Yogananda promised. "I will try."

Kashi's father arrived in Ranchi. He wanted him to see his mother and then return. Kashi saw no choice but to go.

During the few days the boy had been away, he got contaminated food, contracted cholera, and passed on.

Yogananda: "How was I to tune in with him, among so many vibrating lights of other souls? . . . The slightest impulse sent by Kashi would be felt in my fingers, hands, arms, spine, and nerves."

Walking with a few friends one morning in the crowded Bowbazar section of Calcutta there was response. "I am Kashi; I am Kashi; come to me!"

The thought became almost audible.

"It looks as though I have located Kashi!"

I began to turn round and round.

"Ah," I exclaimed, "Kashi's soul must be living in the womb of some mother whose home is in this lane."

It was Serpentine Lane he spoke of. At a certain house there he knocked at the door. The door was opened by a servant. Her master came down the stairway from the second floor.

"Please tell me, sir, if you and your wife have been expecting a child for about six months?"

"Yes, it is so."

The astonished man believed Yogananda's story.

Later, the parents had named their child Kashi. Yogananda in time directed him to a Himalayan master.

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29 - Rabindranath Tagore and I compare schools

ᴥ The critics of "an ideal setting" might say that what is ideal varies. In many African countries it is ideal to have the main school windows facing north due to the heat, and in northern Europe it is different. An ideal setting fosters togetherness and independence. Needs vary among school childen, including the needs for rambling. Yogananda's ideal setting boils down to "a fine place for school childen", presumably. Splendid education resulting in excellent outputs may bring on a Nobel Prize. However, it has shown up that it is work in the same places (laboratories and the like) as former Nobel prizemen that may do the trick: it increases the odds of getting a prize. We should not think that getting a Nobel prize is the ultimate sign of worthwhile contributions, though: Einstein never got a Nobel prize for his work on the groundbreaking relativity theories, for example. The Tao Te Ching's chapter 17 assesses that the best of men are hardly ever noticed for what they are (cf. Roberts 2001, stanza 17). So: Ideal settings and ideal schooling methods for some or many may not be best for all, for individuals differ. Furthermore, the best students may or may not be recognised as such. It depends. One thing is potential. Another thing is what made out of it. Another thing is how welcomed or supported it is, and so on. Settings vary, skills are different, and intelligence has many facets and outlets. Also there is research that shows that adequate home schooling brings on best grades in general.  ⚴

A man unhypnotised by flattery

Yogananda rendered: "I met Rabindranath soon after he had received the Nobel Prize for literature. He mixed colloquial and classical expressions. His songs showed little regard for the accepted literary forms.

"When a trainload of pandits came to congratulate him with the Nobel Prize, he said, 'Is there possibly any connection between my award of the Nobel Prize, and your suddenly acute powers of appreciation? I am still the same poet.'"

Yogananda abstracted: "Tagore and I discovered – outdoor instruction, simplicity, ample scope for the child's creative spirit."

Tagore told, "I fled from school after the fifth grade." That is why he opened a school under the shady trees and the glories of the sky.

The following day, after lunch, Yogananda bade the poet farewell.

Tagore lines:

"Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way . . .
awake!"

Addes: A tough look

Believing greatly, you risk getting much confused. Example:

Yogananda comments in a note on this verse in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: Tapah svadhyaye svara pranidhanani kriya yogah - Yoga Sutras 2.1. Yogananda holds: "In using the words KRIYA YOGA, Patanjali was referring to either the exact technique taught by Babaji, or one very similar to it."

There are reasons to say this Yogananda interpretation goes against the same verse in Demystifying Patanjali (2012), though: "Accepting pain as purification; study of the scriptures and introspection; openness to the divine will and guidance, and acceptance of them: these constitute the practice of yoga." (p. 86, emphasis added)

In his commentary to the verse, Venkatesananda says: "Kriya means action." Translators tend to translate it similarly, as "action, work, doing, rite" and much else, depending on the context. "Kriya yogah" is, simply put, a work to do, what to do, aimed at cleansing the soul (tapah). If ascetism (tapa) is painful, it fails.

Kriyananda informs:

I approach this work after struggling hopelessly . . . I do not know Sanskrit as such . . .

Paramhansa Yogananda . . . shared with me . . .

I have worked on this book . . . I therefore know the yoga teachings of Patanjali as I received them . . . I like clarity . . . (p. 11-12, passim)

What are we faced with here? Yogananda and his close disciple Kriyananda do not see face to face in everything. Moreover, Kriyananda says, "I have worked with five different, well-known translations, several of which were based on other well-known commentaries." (p. 12). He translates the Yoga Sutras' 'kriya yogah' into 'practice of yoga', he too. There are lots of translations where 'kriya yogah' is translated into 'practice of yoga'. Perhaps none but ardent kriya yoga proselytes read 'Babaji's kriya yoga' into the Yoga Sutra verse; and it has to do with the the context.

Now, Yogananda's "retro-claims" that Patanjali's words 'kriya yogah' refer to "either the exact technique taught by Babaji, or one very similar to it." To prove it should have been his problem, and supposedly not yours or anyone else unless you are an editor. Most translators refrain from backing up kriya yoga by back-translating a term for a pranayama-grounded system (kriya yoga) that was made public from 1861, grafting it onto ancient texts. Rather, they use one of several accepted or common translations of the word, rather. ◦The Sanskrit Dictionary of Spoken Sanskrit shows them.

[The term 'kriya' in ancient texts investigated]

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Some notes

Chapter 25

"The Hindu scriptures" - but not all of them - "declare that those who habitually speak the truth will develop the power of materializing their words," writes Yogananda and all his helpers. NOTE: Some scriptures may do it.

Chapter 26

Yogananda writes of Manu. Find a translation: [Manu Samhita] (Bühler 1984)