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Gurus, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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"Getting what you go after is called success, but liking it while you are getting it is happiness [American proverb: Ap 570]."Letting grow and raising are different." [American proverb: Ap 499].
Contents
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Q: What is Self-Realization Fellowship?
A: It is a yoga church headquartered in Los Angeles, with centres and meditation groups in over 50 countries (2005). The Fellowship was founded in 1920 in or around Boston, by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952). Allegedly the fellowship and church unites teachings of Hinduism with teachings of Jesus. In reality - well, that's another matter.
In 1920 a second Hindu missionary effort was launched in America when a comparably charismatic ''neo-Vedanta'' swami, Paramahansa Yogananda, was invited to speak at the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, sponsored by the Unitarian Church. After the Congress, Yogananda lectured across the country, spellbinding audiences with his immense charm and powerful presence. In 1925 he established the headquarters for his Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in Los Angeles on the site of a former hotel atop Mount Washington. He was the first Eastern guru to take up permanent residence in the United States after creating a following here. - Elliott Miller"What they basically are is sort of an offshoot of Eastern Mysticism . . . it is a religion . . . a form of Eastern Mysticism." - John MacArthur Jr..
Q: Who was Paramahansa Yogananda?
A:
The guru who founded SRF (Self-Realization fellowship, was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh, before he
became a Hindu swami (monk) Yogananda. His title was later changed into Paramhansa or
Paramahansa. You may find both ways of spelling it.
Yogananda writes that he was born in Gorakhpur in India on January
5, 1893. To fill in: Yogananda was born on a Thursday at 8:38 p.m. according to information
we have got.
At the behest of a very secretive and old yogi called Babaji, Yogananda went to the United States in 1920, where he taught and initiated people in secret yoga teachings (kriya yoga) for 30 years. The teachings include the gentle Hong Saw (Hamsa) contemplation method, which is not
secret any more. In 1925, aided by disciples with enough money, he succeeded in buying a
hotel in Los Angeles. It was made into his headquarters. The guru remained in the U.S.A.
till his mahasamadhi (death) in 1952, except for the times he was travelling outside of
the States.
Q: What is kriya yoga?
A:
Kriya yoga is essentially a breathing method. The basic kriya is virtually the same as the publicly known ujjayi pranayama as taught on this site.
Kriya (from 'do') is the name given a set of contemplation (meditation) methods. The basic
kriya method is a pranayama ("vitality-control" method). The kriya system was made known
to many from 1861 by Lahiri Mahasaya (Shyama Charan Lahiri), a householder yogi living in
Banaras (Varanasi).
The kriya yoga set that SRF teaches, derives from Lahiri Mahasaya's system, but is in
part simplified, in part changed. SRF teaches a selection of kriya methods. The kriya
system uses a mixture of Hatha yoga, Bhakti (dispensable), Karma (in part doubtful), Mantra
(indispensable), and Jnana Yoga (so-called).
Kriya yoga is a set of advanced techniques that are said to be popularized in the
West by Paramahansa Yogananda. Slow and gentle breathing (of some ujjayi kind) goes into the "soul" (core methods) of it. The
teachings are that some who practice it, are made more spiritually advanced. The focus is
ambivalent, though. One the one hand you may read Yogananda saying that kriya is scientific,
it works like mathematics. On the other hand he says devotion is needed too, when that "song" suits him. An old devotee once came up to him and said, "I have done kriya a
million times, and am not enlightened anyhow." Yogananda, "But your attitude wasn't right!"
AS if attitudes are into mathematics -
'Scientific' and of 'mathematics' are good-looking word (catch-words), but they should have a proper content and not be misused, after all. Yogananda also said "Kriya and devotion" are needed. But in the genuine kriya teachings one object is to drop extraneousness and expectations.
Devotion is not needed for progress in yoga. Afer all, the God Yogananda speaks of, is your Self. That is his pristine teaching. Hence, Yogananda could bring conflicting kriya teachings to others.
Third, initiation is needed. But there are different sorts of initiations. A deep problem with the SRF
current practices is that they bind those who would learn kriya there, hand and foot by a
severe pledge that Yogananda says may last into very many future lives:
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.As a help, here are two tips: Don't leave foolishly, but bring to the fore that Yogananda and his SRF teach that the material universe is illusory. Therefore the SRF kriya yoga pledge is as unreal as the universe. That is his teaching and one of its necessary deductions. Good luck with that.
At Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship and other places they continue to initiate into kriya yoga people who seem to want to become more spiritual. The carrot is self-knowledge in bliss, the stick is the alarming message of many lives "down the drain" at worst, and also that you are made to pledge things outside your reach or what you have control of (a too severe pledge). Forth, as mentioned, there are inconsistencies in Yogananda's (and SRF's teachings), and they may complicate living considerably unless you learn to "win the trick": "when in doubt, win the trick (Edmund Hoyle)."
Thus, when we speak of kriya, if you submit to a top-dog hierarchy to get it, you may not profit as much as if you did not do that. Consider well to make your choice, as there are many other kriya teachers around today.
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Adjoined
Ak: Yogananda, Pa.: Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1975.Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main editor), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Pa: Yogananda, Pa.: Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971. – ONLINE 1st edition
Say: Yogananda, Pa.: Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
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