Avatar Animals and Misfits

Avatar means about "someone divine descended into a human form (or lower), wholly, partly or by some qualities". An avatar animal is said to be better than most animals, then. In this article the fabled Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) tells of an avatar squirrel – and a lion that stopped being a vegetarian after being sheepish.

To develop much and far beyond your group's conform ways and perhaps "Nature's dog-eats-dog design", could make us seem like misfits. That is a danger for deviating guys, both plus deviants and minus deviants, as Abraham Maslow understands these things (1987, Chap. 11). See for yourself. May editorial "freaking" be OK? It depends. If there is fit and well measured self-assertiveness, it had better stem from your depths. People who are happy to learn ◦Transcendental Meditation tend to get more self-assured.

On the other hand, assertiveness had by pep talks and self-help books offer, contains a drawback in it: being other-directed, such as by a coach. Pure self-awareness and self-assertiveness from within may still be within reach, but other-directed assertiveness tastes of otherness. That is to say, prefer the source within if you can find it and make it flow on your behalf.

Figurative expressions may loom a lot

Little good comes from living as a cat if you are not that.

One may learn much from a cat while being in a human body, such as relaxing and stretching, but not using nails like claws, lifting one's tail and eating uncooked mice.

As for affirming suggestive phrases like "I'm a lion," someone who is not a lion might be far better off without faking it, or lying.

Example: There is a newspaper article (or more) from Miami about the swami Yogananda's lion affirmations. On the front page of Miami Daily News of Feb. 8, 1928, it says that two woman followers went insane "as a result of the Hindu's cult teachings," according to relatives. One woman was hospitalised and described as "violently insane". A superintendent of a hospital for nervous and mental diseases testified in court that

a woman patient had entered his hospital on January 31 1928 and refused to eat "unless assured that her food had come in contact with the swami". [She] imagines she's a lion, and attempts to roar and conduct herself as a lion does. She said, [this] witness testified, that the swami told her he was a lion and held Miami in his grasp.

The swami, Yogananda, said her husband had asked that she be cured of sleepwalking. The swami was in the end ordered out of town. [More, with newspaper articles]

Summing up parts of it: He was not a lion. Nor was she. It is wise to be moderate about what you teach and to whom. Also consider that lions are gang killers.

Squirrels are nest-building rodents.

What follows is a Yogananda story that looks basically like the fable The Plover who Fought the Ocean. The main difference is that while the fable is a fable, Yogananda claimed his tale was true. Many innocents may be taken in and misled.

Master Squirrel

Once an old hermit lived on a brink by the sea at a place where a mother squirrel fostered her young. The hermit was so fond of this company that he was reborn as a female squirrel to look after youngs, he too (this has gone too far already).

Great waves took the holy squirrel's nests and cubs one day she was away looking for eggs and other food for them. She saw that the big sea had taken them, and started to threaten the sea. "Bring me back my children, or I will dry you up with my bushy tail," she said.

The sea gave no particular reply. So the squirrel mother started to dry the ocean by soaking her tail in the sea and letting the water drip off on dry land – again and again. Little did she consider that the water would seep and run down into the sea again. But the sea got so alarmed by the squrrel's determination that it swelled up a huge wave where the cubs were floating, and put them all beside her on the brink – and lo, they were all alive and well again, after being drowned and gone for many days. (#1.1)

[The story is in Swami Yogananda's Praecepta Lessons, 1934, and also in Crystal Clarity ◦Magazine, December 15, 2010]

⍽⍽⍽⍽

In ordinary cases the one who is bereaved has to learn to face the facts. Several stages of recovery has to be passed through, usually step by step. Master Squirrel in the tale appears to be in denial. At any rate he does not come to terms with being bereaved.

Yogananda claims that the squirrel was holy and an incarnation of an unnamed, liberated sage. This Yogananda-claimed sage did not mind becoming a squirrel either, according to Yogananda. Do you have to believe him? Not according to:

Don't take my word for anything . . . please remember. - Yogananda, (in Dietz 1998, "Master's Teachings")

As simple as that . . . And do not stoop below what you are by romantic drivel that hardly holds water.

Invincible Lion of the Self

A cub of the Divine Lion, . . .
I bound through the jungle . . .
devouring the little creatures . . .

[Excerpted from Yogananda's Whispers from Eternity, 8th ed. 1959: 226-27]

There are some intricate problems:

1. The source is a fable. The post mortem edited Yogananda outpouring looks a lot like the Indian fable about a lion cub that was raised among sheep and thus became docile until another lion smelt it.

2. Yogananda faultily edited post mortem. It may or may not be a genuine Yogananda poem, for the book Whispers from Eternity, which the fragments are taken from, was much edited after his death. [Much more]

3. The Lion Woman in Miami came under the influence of Yogananda, and was hospitalised as "violently insane". An article appeared in the Miami news in February 1928.

When the "cure" is not better than the disease, beware - Yogananda told he wanted Americans to improve. Then he could have told the woman that he himself was not an animal and that she was a woman - not born of a lion either. Not to lose one's sense of proportions may help proper assertiveness too. [More]

The Value of Sane Authenticy

The idea of individuation is held by notable psychologists like Carl G. Jung, who in turn inspired Abraham Maslow. Carl R. Rogers keeps a similar goal for good development, and refers to the fully functioning person.

"A burning bush" said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM [or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE]. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: "I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14)". "I am" and the sense of "I" are twins of a sort, in that you cannot feel your "I" without being that I. However, Yogananda teaches differently, saying individuality is something everything has only seemingly. He advises against believing him blindly too.

Don't take my word for anything. . . . please remember. - Yogananda (in Dietz 1998, "Master's Teachings")

Everything in creation has individuality. - Yogananda (in SRF 1957, 5; cf. 85)

In the ultimate experience, one does not lose his Soul or individuality. - - Yogananda "The Second Coming of Christ", East-West, September, 1933 Vol. 5-11.

To bring into being a diversified creation, the Lord had to bestow on everything the appearance of individuality. - Yogananda (in SRF 1957, 8)

However, being is not seeming. Being genuine counts a lot.

Dilemmas

Buddhism advices against killing. Some have the choice. It is a part of this "song" about animal avatars and such things that the ancient text Manu Samhita preaches that ill-behaved persons may degenerate into specific animals for specific sins.

Lions are gang killers marked by ambush and slaughter. Beasts and birds of prey in the wild may not have it. Wild animals who swerve very much from the over-all plan for their species may get a whole lot of trouble, looked on as oddballs until they come to a glorious end - if they are lucky or avatars.

On the other hand, pet animals may profit from the help they get from humans, and may not have to kill their food themselves.

Swerving from all-natural - pros and cons

Swerving from common behaviour patters might bring progress, boons, blessings, but is risky in a conform setting, and animal settings are marked by brutal ranking business and pecking-based order. Group animals – lions are – hardly have much leeway today, and the same goes for conform humans. Lions kill in gangs, as if by nature compelled. How can a lion evolve away from that while on earth? And by not doing what is deemed natural?

Here is one answer: The move upwards from being in an animal form comes with dying and getting born again. That is a very old teaching. However, just be aware that old may not mean true, or true in all cases, or in many cases. Transmigration into different forms, lives after lives, could still happen although hard facts seem absent. We do well not to dismiss teachings we have no hard facts (such evidence) about, or only meagre outer evidence about. The Tibetan Book of the Dead seeks to instruct dead persons how to avoid being reborn as animals and not be silly in the beyond in other ways too.

A little deviation may pass - socially . . . Good ones could try to live out what is handy and a little unnatural in certain basic, regulated ways without doing themselves harm. In the long run it could help inner development. If so, even if it is not totally in accord with natural living, it allows for having houses and homes, utensils and other goods, and fine food too. Even cows, sheep, goats, buffalos and so on may be milked . . . Just because it is very common does not mean it doesn not go against "raw" natural designs somehow, in some way or other.

Development-aiding deviations from nature's main designs are hardly any "either-or" ways, but more of "both-and" ways, and many of them can be gentle enough to last throughout life. Buddhas gentle Middle Way of avoiding extremes is an example of how to think, talk and act so as to foster fit development along with adaptations to nature that may work well till the end.

Tenable efforts may be had through a system

Sound ways of "going against raw nature" can be cultivated. However, "If it is not the least pleasant, drop it for now." Another: "If it is not tenable, drop it." A third: "If it jolts being peaceful and modest, drop it," and so on. Besides, Buddha's basic teachings do not take freedom away, and not self-help efforts either.

Fit schooling and many other forms of tapas (penance) are not excluded from sound means and ways that can amount to assist growth in spirit, which is by and large the big goal of ascetism. Yet if tapas makes us loose all zest in life, it is too severe.

A danger to deal with

What helps spiritual development of awareness, may not be part of what common people regard highly or venerate, for to be truly spiritual can look like "freaking out". Abraham Maslow has found a bit similar features surrounding outstanding persons, in that they are not all very much accepted by those around them, their non-conform moral may be experienced as a threat by others, and further. Maslow has written books about outstanding individuals, also called plus deviants. [More]

A good idea: "Freaking" cleverly and beneficially from what others may say is "natural" or "normal" might assist individual expression and spirituality, and neither "groupies" nor wild animals may be able to do much of it for a long time. For one thing, deviating from one's group is a danger, and not hunting for prey may be lethal to meat-eaters. It is quite ruthless in the wild, and being a member of a gang or group of people may be a hindrance too. A group member who deviates, may find the group stops communicating with him or her, tries to drive him or her out, attacks and goes even further. There is a risk of shrinking stature, which may or may not be combatted.

All this goes to show that along with deviating there could be a need for protection of some sort.

Solid skilfulness is advocated by Buddha in the Gentle Middle Path of avoiding extremes. Sound education can be fine. Good learning methods assist a fuller or better use of the mind. But as "Every little helps" but little, it is best to focus on what helps most. That would be taking up a good way of meditation, aligned to a group or sangha.

What does Yogananda say?

It is all right to doubt Yogananda, he teaches. Being skilled in doubting helps a scientist and yogi [Get the edge of doubting]

The ancient rishis discovered that man's earthly and heavenly environment, in a series of twelve-year cycles, push him forward on his natural path. The scriptures aver that man requires a million years of normal, diseaseless evolution to perfect his human brain and attain cosmic consciousness. [1998, 211]

"Hasten your evolution by proper diet, healthful living, and reverence for your body." [SRF 1957, 51]

The purpose of life is the evolution, through self-effort, of man's limited mortal consciousness into God Consciousness. [SRF's Aims and Ideals, Yogananda 1998, 432]

"Evolution is a suggestion of God in the human mind . . . Actually everything is taking place in the present . . . The Lord can turn the motion picture of creation backward or forward." [SRF 1957, 57]

Do not accept blindly everything that you read. - Paramahansa Yogananda (1982, 389)

So

1. A woolly "appeal to ancient authority" looks like a piece of demagogy: Yogananda hardly shows just what ancient seers (rishis) he refers to, and just what sources he draws on, if any.
2. Yogananda quotations about evolution mean he thinks "a million years of normal, diseaseless evolution" is unreal? That guru teaches (1) that evolution is real, but (2) only seemingly so. (3) How could Yogananda talk of a million years of evolution where his own teacher figured twelve million years? (4) How long have humans lived on earth?

   At any rate, What is real is not seemingly so, for one thing. It is a matter of definitions if not understanding.

3. We had better not accept blindly what Yogananda says - and for the sake of higher goings. If not, we risk getting Yogananda-befuddled. Many students are helped to grow critical thinking, discern fallacies and so on. [Reasoning may be trained: a book list]