Supreme Swindle
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Christian Swindle Teachings. One Searches for a Cure
Self-Realization Fellowship, SRF in short, claims they stand for original Christian teachings. The evidence is they do not. They do not keep the Canaanite slave forever - alarming things like that, for example . . . They don't teach you to pluck out your eye either, or do they?
Face the facts; the facade Christianity of Paramahansa Yogananda is a plot which blindness veils, and the plot affects the future lives of those Christians who are taken in and made the guru's so-called serfs (read: disciples). A danger with misleading teachings is that of being led astray. Another is of being misused and badly handled. But don't lose all heart as you devote your life to cultivating it through meditation.
A sage teaches,
"Reality . . . is that which is.
Everything . . . illusion or Divine . . . must be within the Self.
Illusion itself is illusory.
- Ramana Maharsi [Tb 16, 19, 17]
This teaching is good. But Yogananda's teaching below, that there is no material universe, is bad. And why is it bad for obvious and other reasons? Because he fools innocents into not adjusting to that the Heart is the font of Reality, the seat of Consciousness and and Consciousness itself. Focus on the heart-centre - that's where the soul is - helps it to shine forth. [Tb 34]
In many lectures and sermons Yogananda says the world is merely an illusion, a dream - and such fragmented insight is not adequate. Those who go deep and experience "the fourth" state, turiya, may lose sensed awareness of the world for the spell. But on getting back to being normally conscious, the outer world is there, once again. And the fact that the meditator loses awareness of the outer world for some time in good and deep meditation, does not have to mean that world has stopped to exist. To the contrary.
There are many miserable teachings around that ignore such facts.
Ill-conceived Yogananda's Teachings
There is no material universe; its warp and woof is . . . illusion. [Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 30 [LINK]
Is it now? Focused attention fosters one's finest potential. But focused attention on the guru-given idea that the world is merely illusory, has unwelcome effects, and may stunt keener sense.
The SRF guru Yogananda (1893-1952) teaches repeatedly that the universe is a swindle (an illusion). If so, his teachings, which are in the universe as parts of the universe, are scam (deceptive, fraudulent). And he himself was such a swindle, and the claimed, beneficial effects of kriya yoga, and so on. If everything is illusory, as SRF gurus hold in some ways, "that is how the great melody goes". This stands out by very simple deduction.
Yogananda thus teaches that his teachings are swindles, that is, not real at all, impossible to find in reality - since all Yogananda's teachings appear in the universe, which is fraud according to him. And sawing off your legs to stand safer seems like teaching in the way he does: Let us face it: That the universe is not real, is even the basic teaching of his - yet is is a fraud. We hope you can see it.
Now I hope you see that you cannot see that Yogananda's teaching is anything but an illusion he shares - seemingly - since it's all false play or something like that . . . That is a lot to think of, but the wise think only seemingly (Oops! One more secret left out).
You want more seemingly notorious evidence? Look into this:
When he [man] awakens in cosmic consciousness, he will effortlessly dematerialise the illusions of the cosmic dream. [Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 34, LINK]
Babaji observed. "The divine realm extends to the earthly, but the latter [is] illusory". [Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 34, LINK] [Cf. Pa 319].
However, if the earthly realm is illusory, the divine realm would not extend into it.
So the guru and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship at times tells us that the universe is lila (Skr: play, sport). He also uses words like "illusion" and "dream" in some of his books. And all this may remind us somehow of words by the fabled Chuang-tzu of ancient China, when he spoke of the world:
This is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they . . . understand things . . . When I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Words like these will be labelled the Supreme Swindle. [Co 47-48]
Back to Yogananda and his Supreme Swindle teachings: To the degree that what Yogananda and some of his gurus maintain in the matter is correct, and hence false, a little "Gulp!" could fit in.
The Supreme Swindle teaching yogi set up Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). It is a hybrid society that preaches overarching Hindu teachings and keeps Jesus as one of its gurus. You decide how fit that be. There is much evidence to build your conclusions on in this Gold Scales archive.
The yoga society that the Hindu emissary founded in or around Boston in 1920 has an international headquarters in Los Angeles, and there are perhaps the most members in southern California.
Not everybody appreciates that a guru enterprise - a modern decoction-religious society - is likened to a farm with its pigs and cattle and other animals to be herded and made use of in time, but see how far it fits!
We may bear in mind something Jesus said about sheep and shepherds. He also held that proper investigations are fit, and false judgements - well, sent him to the cross.
❖ If the world is not real, to be crucified is no big terror.
Self-Realization Fellowship: A Supreme Hoax
To the shallow, all tends to seem shallow. To the deep and mysterious, the Self-Realization Fellowship tends to seem deep and mysterious like a hybrid, perhaps.
Can some Hindu teachings and the teachings of Jesus be well aligned unless as part of Supreme Swindle teachings? In your dreams - but do remember the over-arching guru teaching is that the universe is a swindle, an illusion, a dream, and those who form part of it - your brother and old folks, perhaps - are in dreamland - sort of.
Then, if the world is unreal, an illusion, which Yogananda teaches - and his teachings are in the world and found to be part of the world outside too - you cannot say a lot if you mean something. Does it matter to know that Yogananda went on and on as a lecturer anyway? That he also preached of a Way of awakening? It should! But lots of persons may suspect this teaching forms part of the universe, the Large Container, and thereby the teachings are notoriously false teachings (found in the world).
To put it with Chuang-tzu, adjusting to Supreme Swindle teachings is done by swindles. Id (zest) is for that too in this thought up Supreme Swindle teaching. So swindle and feigning gives the Way and kriya yoga, the favoured method system of Yogananda.
There are obvious dangers in saying "(It is true that) there is no difference between truth and untruth". You may see that tenet in a postmodern book by a certain Ericson, by the way.
Mere bleating could be better than insisting on telling the truth by teaching there is no difference between it and untruth, you see. This could eventually bring us back to the guru dilemmas revolving around deep and penetrating scams rooted in the universe, you may think. But no, if the world is an illusion, so are guru teachings. They won't be found anywhere else, then, as far as I am aware of. There you have it: "Sharpen your axe (thinking)."
Only in a Supreme Hoax (universe) can Supreme Swindle teachings liberate. Only in a Supreme Hoax or Scam can the teachings of early Christianity be fully aligned with or called in harmony with general Hinduism, wide and vast and diversified as it is. In a swindle or Supreme Hoax the teachings may be said to express the same divine truths. Note too that terms like "divine" and "God" in the relative plane may fully err, as they are parts of the Big Hoax, or Supreme Swindle. Many people appear to be tricked into believing or accepting scam teachings as genuine instead of something false and often preposterous - Just don't be taken in by guru hoaxes and insider jokes among them any longer.
Further note that Hinduism "can be anything" and often comes close to the soap opera: Gurus tend to interpret sayings of Jesus as they want, to accommodate Christianity to their brands of Hinduism, mainly, and not the other way round. It may not be fair and fit, and that needs to be pointed out, to see to that bluffers don't get a straight path to beginners' hearts. There are other, far better ways to bring about agreements than faking and bluffing.
❖ Truth and untruth are not only matters of surface agreements.
"Double Tact" of Paramahansa Yogananda
In the first edition it is "Never admit that you live" - [Check]
"Never believe that you live" calls for the dumb fare, the next, "Never admit that you live", calls for goofy denials. That's how it most often is.
"Don't deny facts," functions.
The double quote could make sense in a wider context or setting . . . Paramahansa Yogananda was also fond of saying that life is just a dream, unreal, an illusion, you see. Thus you may come across:
Such sayings may contain meanings that mar. Statements are fine if they help practice, if a practical application is feasible. And inherent reality is something to rise into. A saying is that the world has no reality apart from Brahman [the Divine Ground, God], and that phenomena are real when experienced as the Self, as manifested Self. "Everything must be within the Self," teaches Ramana Maharsi. He is not the only one. [cf. Tb 12-16, 19, passim].
Yogananda words on dreams and illusions are commented on at this place too: [Link].
One should also note that one of the Hindu guru's stands was:
I had steadfastly refused to join any society because I didn't find in them demonstrable truth. But when I found my guru and this path, and saw through my own experience that it worked [Paramahansa Yogananda, in Man's Eternal Quest].
New, Indian Christs with Inconsistent Teachings
Your referrals have been very helpful. I appreciate your assistance. - CP
To be investigative of propositions or teachings handed over, is part of good yoga, and a formidable teaching of Buddha.
I became aware that Yogananda lore was at variance with Christian teachings. Today we find New Christs hailed in the United States and elsewhere. Some of them have been written about at length by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), who was a kriya yoga guru and who set up Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). Some erroneously think he established SRF in Los Angeles in 1920. But at that time he came to Boston from India, and in Boston he stayed. There is ample evidence. SRF was started in or near Boston in 1920, then.
Yogananda who at first said selfishness was fine and to be cultivated, later "forgot" significant parts of his teachings from the 1920s, got troubles with many others of his Fellowship, and turned it into a church in Los Angeles, California, 1935. A church tends to become dogmatic in the course of time; it is to be expected. [Link]
This suggests his society was formalised and not as free-flowing as in the early years, when he had but a few disciples in or around Boston. Some Yogananda students later became monks and nuns, and those who remained, took over the Fellowship after 1952, when the guru passed away. And Rousseau says in the novel Emile, "Everything deteriorates in the hands of men."
That seems like putting the blame on disciples for what has happened to SRF before and after the guru's passing, but "The Lord . . . does everything [SRM, Spring 1972, p. 20] and "God is the Sole Doer," is his teaching, and not "The Bear is a Sole Walker". The latter is true; the bear is a sole walker.
Note that God is not a Doer if everything happens to be illusory. [Ak 240; cf. Pa 344]. The Sole Doer teachings are taught by others in Yogananda's line too. Shyama Lahiri writes, "No one does anything; all is done by God [Gle, ltr 12]." Ramakrishna teaches the same thing. If that teaching be true, somehow it was God who made one third of the SRF monastics leave the SRF premises. And it was God who made SRF better known for cultish features and practices. There is one more spin to this: "The world is nothing more than a cosmic dream — this life is a dream," says Yogananda [Ak 237, 240]. To what extent was he dreaming it? And to what extent did he illusionate (again)?
❖ A cult deals in fishing people too. Manipulation and indoctrination could be part of the "game".
It may be hard to be a fished someone
Both shepherds and hunters eat sheep, and shepherds herd them in order to benefit from them in other ways too.
"Being turned into a herd animal has some dark sides." You may find ancients hints of such dark sides in the story of Circe in Ulysses by Homer, for example. Freedom for growth is not to be bah'ed by authoritarians. Instead many millions seem to imagine that being fished is good.
❖ Wolves kill sheep to feast on blood and meat. There may be saner ways.
❖ The cosmic person has two bodies: the superior body is pure consciousness and the other is the world. [Yoga Vasistha, Yv 404]
Cheerful
The highest wisdom and the highest genius have been invariably accompanied with cheerfulness. [Thomas Love Peacock, a Romantic satirist - LINK]
Good and forewarning fables, tales, and proverbs - do they meet the Peacock criterium? Try to let them by adjusting the stories and lessons to the audience, by going for a cosy and not fear-ridden atmosphere, and garner things a bit to get a welcome gyration (spin) too.
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Literature
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: SRF, 1975.
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main ed.), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Co: Watson, Burton tr: The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968.
Fu: Lund, Hjalmar, og Gunnar Lid, redr. Norges fugleliv. 3. utg. Oslo: Det Beste, 1979.
Ha: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 12th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1981.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1971.
Pusb: Maslow, Abraham: Motivation and Personality. 3rd ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1987.
Rvl: Maslow, Abraham: Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences. Columbus: Ohio State University, 1964.
Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
Tas: Ramakrishna: Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna. 5th ed. Madras: Ramakrishna Math, 1974.
Tb: Osborne, Arthur ed: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words. New ed. London: Rider, 1971.
Tm: Evans-Wentz, Walter Yeeling, ed. Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa. 2nd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1969. Partial view of the 2000 edition at Google Books.
Yv: Venkatesananda, swami, tr. The Concise Yoga Vasistha. Albany: State University of New York, 1984.
Zun: Maslow, Abraham: Toward a Psychology of Being. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1968.
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