• Accommodation Forms
  • Adaptations
  • Yoga Gold
• A Basic Intent
• The Underlying Profile

Accommodation Forms

Broad hints that help the beginners, should be more welcomed.

Adaptations

The road to the divine is not a circus, Yogananda said. The "road" turns inwards and beyond matter (sense-experiences and linked concepts). and leads to the Awakening (Illumination).

Adaptations are of many kinds and degrees. A newcomer in yoga circles may respond in some unhealthy ways, once he is "bitten" by body postures and mind-diving methods that work:

1. He strives fervently to adapt himself to whatever yoga he has come across. He may seek to enroll a group too.

2. He tries to adapt yoga to himself, his background and basic cultural premises, and favourable sides of his family history too. The second main way is recommended here at The Gold Scales. Here are two main ways to do it:

1. Goldsmith ways are in part like that of Indiana Jones. He plucks the finest specimen he may lay hands on from alien cultures, and later he may remake them. The British queen and many others have jewels from other places. They were hardly found in the UK terrain. To make the best use of insights and methods from afar, live with them for some time, polish and cut them as expertly as you can master after learning the trade, and assemble and reassemble. The results could be astounding, shining, much coveted.

2. Gardener ways are much more favourable, frankly, for they are linked to living and growing. A gardener judges various imported seeds and learns to consider if the seedlings can have a future in the new homeland. Does the climate and other general conditions agree? Will a hot-house be needed? And so on. Thus, learn to consider "the soil" that methods and tenets are rooted in. Do we have near-identical conditions here? Will it be worthwhile to invest time and energy in plants that may be awfully hard to produce.

   The principal advantage of "gardener yoga" is that you may enrich your life by clever appropriations of good ideas and methods from other parts of the world. Maybe some cultivation helps too. In fact, very much good food in Scandinavia is imported. Potatoes, tomatoes, and on, on.

   You have to know how to handle the new items too. For example, if you expose potatoes to much light, they become green and hence poisonous. If you do not, you may eat them and be happy. Apply gardener thinking to ideas and ways you come across, and much may become different.

Relevant yoga practice may be more of a both-and and an either-or: You try to adapt yoga teachings and methods to yourself, your conditions and so on. If not, you may be in for big troubles. Many are "washed up" like that. You try to adapt yoga to yourself, mainly, but you are told and exhorted to comply to urges and wishes of gurus or guru vicars, and as a result may lose favourable assertiveness. Guard against it, and refrain from dropping your elementary human rights in order to please gurus that have whims.

❖ Elementary and sanity-helping yoga knowledge is not barred from a beginner.

Yogananda's Church Deed, Somewhat like a Finger-print

IT CAN be good to ask for "a second opinion" at times. Yogananda has described himself as a devotional type of guru, and is quoted by his society: ""We don't really know what is right or real . . . we are often incorrect in our judgements. [Ak 414]." Many of his instructions and favoured subjects show it as well.

Devotionalism can become quite a trap, and bring about "cultish fever" and a cult. A large cult tends to become termed a religion. And Yogananda started a religious church in 1935. On the first page of the church deed spells out that the church is for acquiring "real or personal property of any kind or nature whatsoever." (see article 2a, b, and c.

Only in article 2d comes "to teach a religion or preach a religion." However, note in passing how physical pleasure is branded as improper in it (2d,15), and the undefined "physical pleasure" must include healthy carnal pleasure too, and not only having pleasurable sex, joys of eating, enjoyment, creature comforts, to point at a few things. Consider if you can how this Yogananda church is set up to go against enjoyments and the luxurious, voluptuous, sensual, comfortable, cosy, snug, amply comfortable, pleasant, and agreeable.

Church members who are rather denied a lot, while the church grabs property and some leaders revel in luxury and some have mistresses and the like: have you heard of such things in earlier times when lots of people lived like serfs? I have.

Sides to yoga

• Bhakti (love) yoga is intended to fit persons of a more or less devotional nature. You are instructed to turn your dear attention to the divine and "love as best you can". Various devotional stances are pinpointed in the yoga literature. You may love God as a miser - in short, you make use of normal human attitudes and strive on from there. The path of devotion looks suspect, and the reason is very simple. Good yoga is aimed at rising above human emotions of relating: In the saga of yoga two examples may suffice:

  (1) Ramakrishna has described how he was told by his chosen aspect of God Mom herself to rise above her, transcend her. For that reason a naked man, Totapuri, came and told him how to do it.

  (2) In kriya yoga, some make love-attempts and others not. But love is not the most important, and even Yogananda himself tells so:

  The satisfaction of love is not in the feeling itself, but in the joy that feeling brings. Love gives joy. We love love because it gives us such intoxicating happiness. So love is not the ultimate; the ultimate is bliss. - Yogananda [Jse 3]

  Lahiri Baba (Mahasaya), who introduced kriya yoga to very many, makes it clear that the aim is to enter a profound peace and hold on to it - and let it expand inside as well. One is not to desire results of the practice. You let go of desires, including base desires for God Mom or whatever. A little practice helps. That is the teaching.

  In the light of this, devotees who obey some of Yogananda's injunctions and more or less fervently "cry for Divine Mother" on and on, days, weeks, years, could be misguided and suffer for it inwardly. However, it may not be that simple. What if she comes? At any rate, it may not be a complete either-or issue, but more of a both-and "thing". You may turn on "love God" when you are not up to gliding inward - A point worth studying is: You do not have to be devotional in order to practice kriya yoga. Even Yogananda's guru was not very sentimental or devotional.

• Karma yoga is a yoga of work. The words 'karma' and 'kriya' have a common origin, kri, do, and stand for (some sort of) work, both of them. Compare with 'create, creator, creative' and note the differences. If you are instructed to work for unselfish ends, without catering to the fruits of what you have been working with, maybe you have been misguided. Maybe you should have followed up and seen projects through more and better. In Buddhism it is taught one is to create good karma, go for heavenly merits, and be patient about that.

• Hatha yoga is a yoga of body discipline, postures, pranayama (breathing methods) that are aimed at mastery of the vital force, prana. Mental techniques of concentration and meditation may be involved too, so hatha yoga may give the same benefits as raja yoga. The difference between them is a difference of focus and what methods predominate, in some cases.

• Raja yoga is called 'kingly yoga'. It incorporates hatha yoga asanas (postures), breathing training, concentration and meditation (dhyana) methods. There are many of them.

• Jnana yoga is thought of as 'wisdom's way'. The discriminative faculty of the mind is used thoroughly, adamantly, and the self-quest may come to naught if you are sloppy. We do not advocate it, thus.

• Kriya yoga is a system of methods that are classified as raja yoga, so the whole system of kriya yoga is a variant of it with a designed medley of methods. Exactly which methods are incorporated and their order of performance, may differ from one kriya school to another.

  Kriya proper (in a more limited sense) is mainly a pranayama (prana) method. After the kriya step in yoga training, come more than one further steps, just as described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, a book which Yogananda advocates. The point is that in actual practice, kriya is one means on the road inwards.

• Mantra yoga, or "sound yoga" is involved in hatha yoga, raja yoga (and kriya yoga), and is also held to be an OK, independend yoga branch alone. A good contemplation posture is much recommended along with it. The fine thing is to keep the spine steady during the meditation session, and if that cannot be for some reason or other, to move it only gently and little. These are suggestions aimed at helping the steady focusing. There are lying postures for meditation too, for those who cannot sit much and long.

I recommend gentle breathing and ujjayi and mantra yoga for general well-being, provided the methods are done with skill, without strain and over-exertions. In Patanjali Yoga, breathing methods are just forerunners for "gliding inwards" in deep meditation like TM. Thus a bit of pranayama (gentle breathing) may go before deepening focus in that systemic approach. However, mantra meditation towards transcendence may do without "warming up" pranayama.

We may simply ignore battering-dreamy love yoga attempts aside, insistent parroting of phrases as in (base) jnana yoga, or working for no benefit to yourself or your home, as in probably misguided karma yoga.

It helps to find methods that work very well independently of your temperament and inclinations and yet are well suited to you, for example your conglomeration of leanings. It helps to study good methods and yoga ways before you commit yourself to any of them, or before you make a blend of some of them. You may need expert advice too.

In actual practice, more than one of the yoga ways above is made use of. Blending them in one or more personally suitable ways is part of the "game".

❖ Good yoga methods may not save you, even though Yogananda in some places says kriya yoga will, because it "works like mathematics". In other places he talks differently, you see, and insists that divine grace or devotion or both are needed too, not just prolonged practice. Note how he screws up the mind once in a while, that guru.

A Basic Intent

This modern yoga classic by a the India-born, world-famous guru Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), is based on the First Edition of 1946, which is in the public domain. There are several editions of it on the Internet already.

The first edition was published by the Philosophical Library in New York City in 1946. I have found it all right to translate the book into British English. The content is still the same in all major respects, but with a bit updated language, comments and introductory matter that may be helpful for getting a clearer understanding of Yogananda and how to deal with his teachings. There is also a newly devised table of content that incorporates pages of chapters in a later edition (the 11th). Italics in many Sanskrit words are dropped for now. Photos of gurus and yogis in the original are as a rule not included.

Yogananda's book was quite recently selected one of the 100 best spiritual books of the 20th century by Philip Zaleski and a committee of 16 world-renowned scholars and authors, and that goes to show that some think more of it than I do, frankly.

Underlying Profiles

Christians Misguided by Guru Stuff

Do not be taken in and misled by halting ideas and ideals of Yogananda. Instead cater to what is truly good for you.

Yogananda and the fellowship he set up, claim to straddle two or three big horses: Science, Krishna-Hinduism, and "Original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ". Basically, it is Hinduism we are led into through the book, and the hyper-romantic guru lore in it. There are mentions of 'science' in Yogananda's teachings, but too little concrete. along with the religious garb or lore from this and that angle. Krishna-Hinduism is found, but no essential Jesus-Christianity, for the whole concept is a phantom - at any rate Jesus said he taught for Jews only. Also, not a thing from the mouth of Jesus was included in Acts 15:28-29 when the foundation of Christianity was laid. There are only four requirements for Gentile Christians. [Wikipedia, s.v. "The Apostolic Decree"]

Many sound, carnal pleasures are not ruled out for Christians.

Now the Apostolic Decree means you may do well without Jesus and still be a Christian, as that is what all the apostles and the Holy Spirit decided in Acts 15. The early Christians were Christians during the generations before the four gospel were tailored and chosen for Church use. [More]

The inconsistent Yogananda-concept of standing for original Christianity for non-Jews would also include the whole Law of Moses on Jesu's word, and therefore lots of slaves too, not just serfs of SRF. However, according to the gospels, Jesus talk against having other masters, against false Christs, and so on (see previous page). But all the apostles and the Holy Ghost decided that only four things were to be required of non-Jewish followers [Acts 15; 21:25], so it might do good to regard Jesus' snarling as irrelevant and desist from cutting off limbs, plucking out eyes, and settle on poverty while allowing bullies the best of it all. What do you think?

Standards of Living

Scientists are trained to be quite pragmatic and sceptical. The basic scientific procedure is scepticism put into system, one may say. The guru accommodated much better to that in his early years, as evidenced in his magazine (there are article titbits on-site). The guru who advocates straight, scientific thinking, says, "The best way to remove your weaknesses is not to think about them [Dr 410]." If so, the best could be not to think about them in the best possible way - and such a way is neither of suppression, repression or religious bigotry, one may add.

Besides, it helps to know that life is moving through stages too. Do not miss any of the important id-linked stages of Erik H. Erikson. We should not overestimate flaunted miracles and underestimate "the miracle of savoury, tactful, daily living" with its recurrent events. Apart from the idea that each life is a miracle, each day, nature and thoughts and so on. Most people depend on ordinary living. Sane standards of living should take such matters into account without beating about the bush.

The guru of Yogananda did not advocate belief, but rational inquiry. "Many teachers will tell you to believe; then they put out your eyes of reason and instruct you to follow only their logic. But I want you to keep your eyes of reason open; in addition, I will open in you . . . wisdom, says Yogananda's guru, Yukteswar. [Ak 114]

At times Yogananda does the same. "I wanted never to be so dogmatic that I would stop using my reason and common sense." But later in life, after he had got his own church with his own religious order, he took to religious exhortations. I mention this to offer a perspective of the guru's drift to "Goddy pep talks" too. The kriya yoga methods the guru taught, were stunted, but worked twelve times better - the hype took over. [More]

Accommodating oneself to Yogananda

As a sworn-in SRF member you are supposed to accommodate yourself to the guru's "divine teachings", and not so much the other way round, ideally. Beware of a little cosy way of life, then.

Much on this page has sought to put Yogananda's autobiography in perspective. It was written with the aid of devoted, monastic servants, and is presently published by such persons too. The first edition was not published by SRF, though. Later editions have been rather astonishingly changed after the guru's death. Year by year, new changes. Some hardly worth mentioning, others more notable, for example changes that serve to monopolise kriya yoga. See the first page on preliminaries.

If you are attracted to the "bait" of kriya yoga hype and want to learn it and help others to get happy through it too, much untoward may come in the way, pretty much sectarian and inconsistent, that is. You should be aware of that, and in advance, before being "bitten" somehow.

You could do yourself a big favour and believe next to nothing like a willy-nilly, for things may get saner that way. [Link]. Many accommodations that ensue from taking some man-fishing Hindu gurus on their word, do not further a fulfilling, rewarding living, a healthy way of life. Yogananda - and his lengthened arm SRF, holds strict views against sex, have set up weekend fasting that is, possibly, without merit, want you to donate and will to their church, and offer written guru guidance that may cause sleep deprivation as well. In short, SRF and Yogananda invade private spheres against sound carnal pleasures, make changes in Christianity's God-concepts, and ask for a suspect, oath-confirmed loyalty for many lives, if needs be.

To repeat, there is much at stake if we give up rational questioning, and it should be worthwhile to go rational. Instead of accommodating helpful yoga teachings to more or less rabid Christianity, I would prefer going for true benefits. You must dare to go against a big Führer problem in this. Maybe it helps to be made aware that Yogananda hails dictatorship too, but not in his autobiography. He has "many mouths", that one, and his sect and publishers has authoritarian sides beneath gentle phrasing.

Here is one Yogananda quote: ""Ever fed, never satisfied; never fed, ever satisfied" is a true axiom about unwholesome sense experiences [Ak 195]." He also says, in other words, that "Too much of a good thing is a bad thing". As the other evidence points out, he means "Much of a good thing is a bad thing" too, and that may be alarming. Compare his guidelines for "colonies", as he called the self-supporting communities that his fellowship has abandoned (!). He wanted followers to go hatless and in sandals - or barefooted - in the snow or burning sun. [More]

Sound mesure is not to be forgotten. Beware of a cloven foot, that is what I say.