From a Yogananda Lecture

Selections from and comments on Yogananda's lecture "Occidental Christianity and Yogoda", which was published in his magazine East-West, Volume 1-6, September 1926 - October 1926.

Introduction

Exhortations. Yoga themes and topics of the late Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), drifted from self-development, self-knowledge, self-realization and self-effort, to God-talks and intense exhortations like "Meditate! Meditate!" - for followers and listeners. To the degree meditation is pleasant, a delight, exhortations may be awkward and far from needed. In such cases they could hinder, not help, as being pushed and being exhorted tend to create resistance.

Guru loyalty. The guru also stressed "faithfulness" to him - to God in him, with sinister overtones:

If you turn away from the emissary of God, He [decides] "Now you shall have to wait long . . . Several incarnations [of dire fears and colossal sufferings] at least must pass before he will have another such opportunity. [Source: SRF Magazine, spring 1974, p 6.] [More]

Changed kriya yoga. The guru changed some of his methods for attaining self-realization. Earlier, few came to the fore and told that his modified kriya yoga methods were talked of as twelve time as efficient as the kriya yoga handed over to him: the methods he was purported to spread among scientists and able people in the West. Yogananda dropped many parts of the original methods, parts that the other kriya yogis think are vital and not to be dispensed with. Yogananda added a few things instead. He even claimed that his modified kriya yoga was so much better - There could be other opinions about that. [More] [Also]

"Scientific devotion". Yogananda's presentation of "selfward" methods was given less prominence for talk of "godward" methods. The methods were at first referred to as scientific and capable of taking the practitioner to self-realization in time - by some strange reckoning, it is admitted. Later there appeared a need for "right attitude" and devotion too, and saving grace. Such sides to "mathematic" went unmentioned in his early teachings.

You-focus became more prominent in the guru's public speeches. Now there is as significant difference between offering help for realizing the "I" or selfhood on the one hand, to a "You-Thou"-focus (filled with id) on the other hand. Relative to that, in the 1920s the guru talked for great selfishness. Then, in or after Depression times in the 1930s, he started to talk for unselfishness instead, making a sort of U-turn. Now, the regularly expanded sense of "I" way could give neat help. Both Vivekananda and Ramana Maharsi seem to agree on that, for example. The other way - the way of dualism - smacks of up to great punishment, for it may dwarf and thwart normal id development. Yogananda chose the second way of "O Thou God" rather often toward the end of his life, whereas his presentation of going for self-knowledge, atma-jnana, was far more pronounced in his first years. See what forsaking the best to accommodate to what is in vogue at a place may do as years go by.

Ask: "Who drove away the Divine Mother from him? - not by letting the dogs out. Many speeches were digressions at length, and said to be in part responses to unspoken thoughts among listeners. In her preface in Man's Eternal Quest, the late Daya Mata tells Yogananda never or seldom prepared for lectures, that he "seldom made even the slightest preparation for his lectures." The subjects of the lectures at the SRF temples "were set and announced in advance. But sometimes his mind was working in an entirely different vein when he began to speak. Regardless of the "subject for today"." [Ak xi-xii] He was like a child too. That is a compliment [Spa 20]. And if disciples surrounding him had been kinder and more spiritual, they would perhaps not have driven away the Divine Mother from him, which they did in 1948 at the headquarters, it says in the same book. During the Christmas meditation in 1948 he suddenly cried to her: "Don't go! You say the subconscious material desires of these people [the awed disciples] are driving You away? Oh, come back! Come back!" [Spa 74].

Oddities. In Sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda he is quoted to say: "If God were to say to me today: Come home! without a backward glance I would leave all my obligations here - organization, buildings, plans, people - and hasten to obey Him. Running the world is His responsibility. He is the Doer, not you or I." [Spa 100] The guru meant: "God would hasten to obey God and leave - as the Doer". Anyway, we are told by SRF that Yogananda did not really hasten when he was called, but got more than one extension during his last years. There were things he wanted to finish, books to dictate, and so on. Besides, in 1945 the guru also affirmed: "I was never born, I never died," (Daily Deliberations, July 1, East-West (Magazine) Vol. 17-1, July-August-September, 1945), and also quoted Adi Shankara in Whispers from Eternity, writing "No death ... have I." Yogananda passed away in 1952.

Are you ready to get confused? Confused people are herded -

The Yogananda Lecture

The following, slightly edited passages is a medley of Yogananda utterances in his "Occidental Christianity and Yogoda", which was published in his magazine East-West, Volume 1-6, September 1926 - October 1926. Some of his teachings are ill founded.

Yogananda decrees:

"It lies in our power to make ourselves narrower or wider ... Some choke the channel of their lives with the mud of accumulated ignorance ...

There are others who keep on ... widening and deepening the channels of their lives by [sound measures of proficient] self-discipline and culture" [and skills].

"We must remember each channel is finite and has its limitations ... Great Souls serve to widen the channels of smaller lives and inundate their shores with their Wisdom."

"There is no use in following the life of Jesus . . ."

Ͼ A rabbi on his death-bed repented that all life he had striven to live according to Moses and not so much as he himself had wanted. There are good sides and downsides to both approaches. In unifying the best sides of both of them, good things may be had. Bhagavad Gita teaches swadharma, (from swa, self, and dharma, law, righteousness, duty, religion) what is right for oneself, the mode of life and duty that is natural to us. "Better is one's own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of another well discharged (Bhagavad Gita 3:35)."

Still some laws and regulation are for all, says Buddha, Yoga morality of five do's and five don'ts, ancient Egyptians, and some Judaic Commandments - if we drop leaving the huge sacrificial output and parts of slavery and its trade and regulations, including the command to keep the Canaanite a slave forever (Lev 25:46). To avoid killing, stealing, and bearing false witness are among them.

"God cannot be accused of partiality and still be Divine."

Ͼ What Yogananda means to say, looks like, "Divine Partiality is an impossible idea." Thereby he discards the biblical outlook about chosen people, showing grace to liked ones, and so on.

"We must choose the ever-widening interpretations until man-made interpretations no longer limit us."

Ͼ The most fit interpretations help on and up and are at last plausible. Still, for mature development, concepts and interpretations had better be transcended in deep meditation, preferably as part of the daily schedule.

The human idea of 'Infinity' tends to suggest "failure to comprehend". The goal of yoga is not to "expand the mind into Infinity", contrary to repeated Yogananda statements, but to transcend (get beyond) the thoughts and notions. Lahiri Mahasaya teaches the same - yogis had better puncture a tiny star within a golden ring that can be seen between the eyebrows as a result of prolonged kriya practice, or better: "When that star bursts, a door reveals . . . the door of the heart [Ut 57]." Misleading concepts lead astray, away from your heart and Self. You cannot reach "Infinity," actually, but you are free to be yourself and even better, your Self. So stay with your heart, and drop misleading yogi teachings for your own good. That should be fair.

Yogananda coaxes eloquently, and if "the tongue goes where the tooth hurts [French]", it suggests it is wise to inspect his ideas just to check if there is some "unfinished business" in you that makes you fall for a well coated Yogananda submission. For example, is your relationship with your mother good? If so, you may not fall for his "Cry for the Divine Mother and She will come." Quite unnecessary practices run counter to time well spent in deep meditation, and can be called uncalled for. Also, they might endanger health.

A good point is that vicarious relationships and intimate, basic relationships you are told to cultivate, suggest transfer of needs through mental constructs using "the Divine", and contemplation may help you away from that sort of tangle and mess.

Do not let any "them" coax you and later exhort and put conformism-pressure on you to do as serves them, on behalf of your personal development.

"This is the message that will again fill the empty churches."

Ͼ During the last fifty years it has failed to do so, at least in Scandinavia, where just about two percent attend church services, according to a recent European Social Survey (ESS). [1]

"Churches have become form-bound, lacking in the spirit of meditation and real God-communion. Today, most of the congregation are somewhere else at the time of prayer."

Ͼ Congregations of first Christians did not gather in such buildings that Yogananda later went for, but in private homes. Yogananda's church, SRF, say they represent "original "pluck out your offending eye"-Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ", by the way. [More]

"Westerners need not give up their banks and business, and go to the jungle." Occidentals cannot always follow literally the precepts given by Jesus, yet they can avoid luxury, and satisfy only their real needs. It is necessary to accept the Western spirit of progress and development.

A balance must be struck."

Ͼ Balancing rest and work is fit. There are other balances to cater to also. Also, both rest and work aspects can be refined, and in more than just one way. Colossal help is had by such as deep rest in transcendental meditation combined with effective work assisted by good steering (management) on top of good schooling and decent equipment - all in a workable life rhythm, which tends to be individual. Let us hope associates are fit and fine too.

"The church-goer has never been taught the art of directing his mind and of withdrawing the mind.

The only worth-while change, the only permanent advance, is the inner evolution of the man toward spiritual perfection."

Ͼ "Soul growth" may be rare, then, but it may not be all that permanent. Some have fallen from attainments and parts of their accrued merits and good karma, others have been wronged, tortured and killed, for example. There are sound reasons for bulwarking for inner attainments and enjoy the happy calm of one's home life.

"Direct proof can satisfy the heart of man."

Ͼ Proof of what? There is gospel "proof" that a Christian is a "sickly sheep", and that healthy people do not need Jesus. [Matthew 9:12; John 10:27, etc.] Even if these are hard "gospel truths", do they satisfy the sick, some of whom may infest a whole flock?

"Show the scientific methods by which the utility and truth of the church and creed may be proven and demonstrated."

Ͼ First, you don't need a church to meditate and benefit from regular meditation. Second, Yogananda's banal PR-looking stress on "science" later gave way to exhortations stressing meditation and devotion. Subsequent inconsequences talk with two tongue: In one passage he tells his yoga method is scientific and works like maths, in other passages he discards that view and says devotion too is needed - and so on. [More]

"Truth that can be tested and experienced individually, can satisfy the soul."

Ͼ It depends on what truth that is. The guru may mean this: "To deep and sound meditation and its peace, and through such peace: great Bliss."

"Show each man that the most interesting thing in the world is the Bliss-God within, and give him the key to enter into this realm of unparalleled joys.

In finding God we have found deep Bliss - The Universe is but a part of Him.!

Ͼ It sounds good. There is no denying of that.

FINALLY. If you take the editor's comments to heart, maybe these Yogananda statements will not uproot you or drive you insane.