An Odd Lot

Learn to consider, and then learn to consider, and rise to Human Rights if you can.

In Miami in 1928 the police stopped Yogananda from giving addresses there. [Documentation] Yogananda told he wanted Americans to improve, but he also said: "All realities seem unreal . . . the material universe is not real. — The body is unreal. - Yogananda (1982, 182, 421]".

Six years after the Miami police stopped him from lecturing in town, he delighted in Mussolini and wrote for dictatorship, socialism, and that "Hitler is to be admired". The guru also told of "the uplifting guidance of Hitler". He wrote it at a time when the Jewish community in Germany was severely persecuted. The guru could have reconsidered fast, but did he? [More, with evidence]

The guru also held: "Our best friends are those who criticise us the most . . . who never condone our faults." Self-Realization Fellowship, headquartered in Los Angeles, has stated (in 1979) that they find Yogananda's wisdom to be without flaw. They are not any Vatican Concil yet when it comes to influence, but . . .

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), the founding guru of Self-Realization Fellowship, also wrote:

"There is only one guru uniquely the devotee's own. But if you turn away from the emissary of God, He silently asks: 'What is wrong with you, that you foolishly leave the one I have sent to help you learn the divine science of the soul? Now you shall have to wait long, and prove yourself, before I shall respond again.' He who cannot learn through the wisdom and love of his God-ordained guru will not find God in this life. Several incarnations at least must pass before he will have another such opportunity."

- Paramahansa Yogananda, Spring 1974 SRF magazine, p 6. From a talk at Mother Centre, 8/17/39

This was said five years after Yogananda hailed dictatorship and Mussolini and wrote well of Hitler in his own magazine. It is no joke.

Merely to psychoanalyse all who say they are crazy may not be good enough help

A dogmatic tone may be a mark of a cult. Psychoanalysis or psychotherapy might help someone get better if it is done when he or she is young - and perhaps cognitive psychotherapy too, and perhaps other ones. A tenet in psychoanalysis is that conflicts between conscious and unconscious material can result in mental disturbances such as neurosis, neurotic traits, anxiety and depression. (WP, "Psychoanalysis")

A guru that is afraid of ghosts, is he anxious or neurotic or none of it? Yogananda's biographer shows he found it fit to let a student sleep in the same room as him, for he himself was afraid of a ghost. "He said that a cot penetrated through his closed door and a horrific being was seated upon that cot." (Dasgupta 2006, 112)

The guru-swami he got, Yukteswar, was a disciplinarian. That is how Yogananda describes him, adding to a disciple that Yukteswar was not a real guru to him, but a proxy guru. A comment: "A proxy guru has just a proxy disciple for it" makes sense in many ways. [Yogananda, a proxy disciple]

Yogananda said later he was crazy, whatever that may be worth.

I often say that we are all a little bit crazy and we don't know it, because people of the same craziness mix with their own kind. [Yogananda, 2002, 270]

"All of us, as Paramahansaji used to say, are a little bit crazy, and we do not know it. [Daya Mata, SRF president for decades, 1976, "Qualities of a Devotee".]

"How sure is it that these two front figures of the Self-Realization Church knew they were crazy without knowing it?" Some seem to tell things they have no knowledge of. . . . Are they the right ones to tell?

Neophyte, beware of cruelty

Things are not always as they seem to be. Much of the above indicates what may be thrown your way in the ranks of SRF and upwards there. As SRF's Anandamoy said during SRF's 1971 convocation in Los Angeles: It is not good enough just to climb a ladder; it also has to be set up against the right wall and building - something like that. The organisation that the founder one day regretted he had started and a long-time leader in his wake also said and secretly stole away from the SRF headquarters to live in a villa with a view - might not do you much good. Or not nearly enough good, perhaps severe harm also.

After the leader absence from the other monastics at the headquarters was publicly known, one third of the SRF monastics left the premises. Some wrote of their experiences on an online discussion forum. Lola Williamson sums up central happenings in her book Transcendent in America (2010).

Based on self-reports from several layers in SRF, founder, another leader, ex monastics and lay members, some might mean something looks "at least neurotic, depending on the severity of the symptoms".

On occasion, mental disorders and cruel behaviour might be pressed onto lay members of a group through leader guidelines of little worth or much worse, but allegedly "without flaw," for "the show must go on". [More on neuroticism]

There is a depressing study of how good people turn bad, The Lucifer Effect. In it, Dr Philip Zimbardo "details how easy it is for ordinary people to begin to engage in evil deeds." (Zimbardo 2008:viii; cf. 413 ff) This is not to say in any way that SRF monastics treat lower-ranked monastics as badly as the US Army did in Abu Graibh and other prisons. However, there may be a warning in the glide and its organisation of topdogs and underlings. At times, institutionalised faults come by small steps, or by degrees.

From a terrain

Spin-offs appeared after the guru's demise. Two of them are Ananda Sangha and Sunburst (Solar Logos). Small spin off groups were formed when former helpers of Yogananda started on their own. Early, direct disciples of Yogananda were permitted by him to start such groups as well. Worth noting: "Membership in Ananda involves the progressive commitment of one's autonomy and financial resources to the church." A vow is used to that end [1].

Some of Kriyananda's works are online at Ananda, and there are books that can be bought. Moreover, the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School teaches a kind of tested kriya yoga and publishes books. The School is the name of a group of teachers who run several independent schools in Scandinavia and Germany. The School is free of any commercial, political or religious interest. The Danish yogi Swami Janakananda founded the School in Copenhagen in 1970 as a non-profit organization. A significant element in the school is a thorough-going yoga teacher education.

The Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School stems from Satyananda. His line teaches kriya yoga without guru-given bonds, and the core of kriya yoga is a form of pleasant breathing, ujjayi. It is free.

Cults and Pleasures

Sometimes membership can be bought too dearly.

A sect is a group adhering to a distinctive doctrine or to a leader. A cult is a group adhering to religious beliefs and ritual; maybe of a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious. Members are often required to show great devotion to some person, idea, object, movement, or work. A cult is usually a minor group of people characterized by such devotion. 'Cult' and 'sect' are often so similar that one has trouble in discerning between the two. [Merriam-Webster Dictionary]

There are sects in many religions, and in some cases they may complement one another. For example, in the Zen school, which has had lasting influence on the cultural life of Japan, there are different methods recommended in the various sects, such as Soto, Rinsai, and Obaku. And in modern Japan, Zen sects and subsects claim some 9,600,000 adherents. [EB, "Zen"]

In Hinduism too there are many sects. Hinduism itself consists mostly of sects, in fact. Vallabha's Vishnu-worshipping sect with its emphasis on erotic imagery, stresses absolute obedience to the guru. Many of the sect's senior monks got very rich . . . In the intensely emotional Caitanya sect, where Krishna is worshipped, legends of Krishna and his youthful beloved, Radha, are in the middle of cultish, devotional self-surrender.

Without followers there would be no cult or sect. Sect leaders and their followers form the sect web together, so not only leaders are involved in it and are to blame, believe it or not. "It takes two to tango": There are complementary roles to battle with, and that is a rich field of study.

Tense cults tend to look like sects as they "evolve" or deteriorate. Philip Zimbardo tells of some lessons to learn from cults. He informs that according to recent research by Dr. B. Carducci in Indiana and his own research team in California, more than 50 percent of college-aged adults report being chronically shy (lacking social skills, having low self-esteem, being awkward in many social encounters). That is a problem.

Many young students may suffer from insecurity - and besides, gullibility is wide-spread. Many secretly insecure and not so secretly insecure youngsters that are first duped or taken in somehow, later develop neuroses as paying members. Deep neuroses may support the deviant structures of some closed group. Some may even feel guilty and truant for leaving an abusive sect and master behind. Time and again media have disclosed that a fair amount of cultish leaders go for money (wealth), power (influence), and sex (animal fulfilments), - it is in part due to narcissism. It has shown in a lot of scandals. By such signs many charismatic fellows have been detected, maybe after many years.

Yogananda set up a church charter for SRF in March 1935. From one of the articles (2e13): "H]uman life is given to man . . . not for physical pleasure nor selfish gratifications." It may remind of "All sacrifice and no pleasure makes Jack a dull clown."

Wealth and pleasures may be good and do good. Something that matters is not to let one's various resources pass into wrong and much abusive hands that grabs money for "Job's work." In Buddhist living, wealth is fit and to be used for noble purposes. The four basic goals of life in Hinduism are getting wealth (artha) and sound pleasures (kama) with due righteousness (dharma), and try not to get entangled and increase one's degrees of freedoms too (towards moksha). There is a knack to it. It matters to avoid creating human failures and neurotics.

Shy guys under sly guys get problems

A sect may be a place where many guys find outlet for their secret and not so secret drives, in part by making a golden calf - a symbol of Mammon, or greed if you like. In short, there is a chance they hail themselves by some totemlike guy they form in their image, more or less, or hardly.

If such token are seen or strongly suspected, a convent could mean a place to find problems, in part according to "We pray to the divine in a pucker." The more darkness inside, the more striving for light, at least for a while, or ritually.

Shy people could benefit from lax training to get the nerve to stand up for themselves, and do it well. Perhaps no one else do it for them. Fit self-assertiveness is a good aim. It can be helped on and up. There are books about it (e.g. Butler 2007; Branch and Willson 2009).

Those who entered the convent trap and want to get out, might at least try to make efforts to take over the management of their own dear lives for the better (cf. Rothstein and Burke 2010). Along with psychotherapy some could benefit for assertiveness training, self-esteem, and insights. It may not be a pleasant undertaking. Better do it in a group and under a well qualified therapists.

Getting out of jail or a convent means trying to get your priorities right - or as right as can be by not being all too fearsome:

One's first priorities:

• Time well spent in sound meditation (solid inner work) and
• Good and helpful company. A true teacher's help includes answering fit questions as well.
• Own study (fit for edification) might be wise. Adi Shankara established Sringeri Sharada Peetham. This Advaita centre is regarded as a seat of learning, and supports education in its sourroundings considerably, and the Jagadgurus heading the centre are in an unbroken succession, and each one a scholar of repute and a philosopher of spiritual attainment. The math (mutt) provides scholarly and traditional input (WP, "Sringeri Sharada Peetham"; "Sringeri".) [◦More]
• Service also. There are many forms and influences, and some rise above the physical level, or direct social interactions. "By helping yourself you help the world," is an idea, for you are part of the world, and the centre of your world too.

Some of the points are interchangeable. For example, helpful encounters may lead us to take up Transcendental Meditation. It is well researched also.

At the bottom of fit, ancient priorites is the view: If you first reach high enough and are healthy enough, you may better help or serve others. Put another way: By growing and blooming, a flower gladdens the world around it. If the flower had sacrificed its full growth or been mowed down by Yogananda demands for "serve me, my cause!", it might miss its own terms and delight and the phases of bringing flowers and producing its own seeds. That could be a lesson for hopeful, budding Self-realisers.

By helping yourself to grow, you help the world too. Fully grown trees may be thanked heartily for growing and being what they are. There is a need for them. They are for the good of many others. The stand is akin to "Charity beings at home, but it has not have to end there." The Catholic Church teaches likewise about charity spreading out in concentric circles. It is good to bear in mind the perceiving, feeling centre in your world must be yourself to the degree that you have a say, too, and go further from there.

Hindu Swami Ways of Living

The Swami Order of Shankara keeps alive a traditional framework for better swami accomplishments, and the teaching, literature, life and influence of the shankaracaryas, the leaders in Shankara's anciently reorganised swami order. William Cenkner writes about the Shankara tradition up to 1983. His treatise starts with the vedic and upanishadic roots, then treats Shankara itself, then shows the post Shankara development. The second part of the book deals much with the twentieth century vidyapithas, the learning sites and religous centres of the organisation. Cenkner's treatise does not cover all about the swami order in Indian history, or in our times, but it can be a good start. (Cenkner 1983)

Among swamis, some roam about in the sadhu tradition, some gather in many kinds of communities, settled or more temporary ones, and some live in the large centres of learning, mathas. It is possible for swamis to change between these modes of living.

The SRF founding-swami wanted disciples to pool their resources much and long and hard into "work for God" - and by that he might have come to the erroneous idea it was to prioritise the organisation he once regretted he had started - ◦It is in a letter he wrote. Right there lies a skunk of losing the more rewarding perspective.

Let yoga-meditation help good work, and the other way round

The ideal is to incorporate all four goals in a way of life, even though some forgo lust and wealth for better to devote their time to advances inwardly, to spiritual development in yoga-meditation and so on. That is a way to go! Minding the company and framework is not very discomforting, disharmonious or stultifying. Note in passing that one third of the Self-Realization Fellowship's monastics backed off and got out of there in a period between 2000 and 2005 (Parsons 2012, 170). There are good ways of going for moksha (freedom), and so many other ways -

Now, Zimbardo holds that the large society may need to be made nicer and fit for thriving. Appreciating oneself seems to be a main priority to anybody who says Atman or Self, or the Divine is in himself or herself, and that realising one's inward Self is something worth meditating for. It is wise to discern between healthy self-love and unhealthy self-love. Narcissistic "self-love" is more of a parody. [Narcissism]

Set ways of thinking and handling may be revealed and fight back in the sciences when new basic ways of perceiving and thinking appear and challenge the status quo - many things stiffen with time, but not all of them. (Zukav 1979, 211).