Toothlore

The devotee keeps his Beloved clasped tightly to his heart. The fools perform devotional worship by showing off; they dance and dance and jump all around, but they only suffer in terrible pain. - Guru Granth Sahib

Devotees can be a mixed crew - but some may be indoctrinated more often than not. "Where everybody thinks alike, none thinks much," is a Scandiavian proverb and an observation to consider.

Devotees of Yogananda belong to a group where the guru-founder teaches among other things that the world is illusory, a dream, and God is the Doer. He, his teachings, and his followers, do they exist if the world does not? Do they matter? Consider the guru's most encompassing teaching: The world is not real. Nor is he, his teachings and you. And then pinch a leg or something. Or consider that Yogananda once broke a tooth.

Yogananda's Tooth

The guru Paramahansa Yogananda once said, without thinking twice: "If I had a thousand mouths, I would speak through them all to convince you. (Yogananda 1982, 111].

Comment: Well, a hundred nasty tooth-aches at the same time could make self-molesting desires dwindle and go away.

Yogananda also told devoted followers that God could supply a third set of teeth. He also said, in another place, "We have a first and then a second set of teeth; why not a third?" (Yogananda 1982, 255].

Comment: But see how very rarely it happens. It has been reported to happen to very elderly humans and in even more rare cases of younger people who have had their permanent teeth removed. [WP, "Permanent teeth"]

As for Yogananda, on his return trip to India in 1935-36, in Gorakhpur

he bit into a sugar-cane and accidentally cracked a tooth from the lower mandible. Everyone became flustered by this and Swamiji was eventually taken to the finest dentist in the city, who pulled the broken tooth out and replaced it with a gold one. No news was sent to Calcutta about this. After Swamiji returned to Calcutta, the gold tooth caught the writer's eye, and when he asked about it, Swamiji put his right index finger on his lips and said, "No negative talk!" (Dasgupta 2006, 83)

A clown is not always polite. Yogananda did not welcome any frank inquiry.

God did not even give him one third tooth, but told Yogananda, "Just like this, one day I'll snatch your life away from you." Yogananda clenched his fist and showed how his life would be taken away. (Ibid)

A realistic appraisal is far from negative, although it may be embarrassing to those of big talk. So much for trust in oratory in general. Nonetheless the guru taught others to put faith in God who could give a third set of teeth. Add, "But will She? What are the odds as judged by the evidence? The answer is "The odds don't look good."

"Don't like it"

"Those who like to dwell on the faults of others are human vultures. . . . Be like a rose. (Yogananda 1982:79)

Does Yogananda mean his own aged guru was a vulture? Not exactly, but a disciple once read to him an article by Yogananda. A section of it article was about "events that often took place in the deep night in a certain part of New York City". After the disciple had read that section to him twice, Yukteswar stared at him with a strange and questioning look and asked: "You're saying that Yogananda wrote all this?" Again: "You're saying that Yogananda wrote all this? Shame! Shame!" And then he listlessly sank back into his easy chair. (Dasgupta 2006, 71)

He did not like it.

Yukteswar realised angrily late in life that his disciple Yogananda was one of unlawful conduct (ibid. p. 85), even with a ghoul on his back: "He has a disease, where a ghoul comes and sits on his back." (ibid. p. 83), as the old guru said of Yogananda. A ghoul is a fiendish monster or evil spirit in Arabic mythology, associated with graveyards and consuming human flesh. A shape-shifter, it preys on children. (WP, "Ghoul")

Even though Yukteswar dwelled on faults of Yogananda, he did not like it.

Go to noted scholars for gospel interpretations

Simply put, on the one hand Yogananda hails Jesus as a hallowed example, and on the other hand Yogananda teaches all his sworn-in followers, "but do as I say as it suits me, not as he did".

You might realise with the noted bible scholar Geza Vermes (2012) that the teachings of Jesus are for Jews only. There are two gospel passages to prove it, later-added passages with "missionary commands" that are termed forgeries, and a part of Acts that shows the fake missionary commands do not fit in, because there are aleint terms in them. [More]

With some lips, Yogananda praises Jesus and his teachings, but with other lips he seems unware that Jesus of the New Testament warned against false christs and hungry wolves, and other christs than himself. Yogananda might have benefitted from reading the gospels in an unbiased way.

For example, what is a Jew to do with a wrong-doing brother who refuses to mend his ways, according to Jesus? He is to mobilise stepwise:

If he refuses to listen to the [witnesses], tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. (Cf. Matthew 18:15-17)

A problem: If it is a Jewish church that sins and refuses to make amends, there is no need to let the church listen to the church, but to go on and treat it as a money collector that goes for lands, lots of lands and property (The SRF Charter shows the same thing). "Escalate criticism stepwise," is the core of a gospel advice that is at least attributed to a whipper in the temple. The whipping may not have been calculated too well, as it caused him to be executed, Geza Vermes says. Executed for Jews, and not for non-Jews.

Did the ways Jesus denounced Pharisees and hypocrites make Jesus a human vulture? Better think twice. There are no indications that he liked to talk of evil either.

Discrepancies abound

Jesus says the soul can perish (Matthew 10:28; cf. Luke 12:4-5), whereas Yogananda tells it cannot. "Sweet rose" does mischief when misleading many innocents through horseplay.

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