Paramahansa Yogananda's Teachings

Sane Teachings of Yogananda

Be greatly selective when it comes to Yogananda

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was trained by Yukteswar (1855-1936) (picture). In his autobiography, Yogananda cites the guru called Babaji (revered father) of his line:

For the faults of the many, judge not the whole. Everything on earth is of mixed character, like a mingling of sand and sugar. Be like the wise ant which seizes only the sugar, and leaves the sand untouched. [Chapter 36]

The swami monk Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) to the right was trained by Yukteswar (1855-1936) to the left.

Select what is best, is Babaji's message. So develop your discrimination, as Yogananda says repeately. "With the power of discrimination, study and apply truth until it becomes your own intuitive realization [Jse 62]." The approach is fit for dealing with Yogananda's outpourings too, as will be explained shortly.

Being selective, or eclective, as Babaji calls for, has many sides to it. The Greek eklektikos means choosing the best. In philosophy we are eclective if we select statements that seem most reasonable, or what seem best, simply. We may combine selections from a wide range of sources if we think it fit. It is also good to integrate our titbits into a unified system somehow, or towards such an end.

How most of Yogananda's teachings came about

After Yogananda came to the United States in 1920, he stayed there for about thirty years, lecturing and gathering disciples into his Self-Realization Fellowship, SRF, which was established in 1920 in Boston, where Yogananda stayed the first few years. In 1925 he established his headquarters on a hill in Los Angeles, and in 1935 he registered his fellowship as a church. Among the monastics he personally trained were a few Europeans, such as Andandamoy and Turyiananda, both from Switzerland. Most of his trainees were Americans, though.

When Yogananda died, the leadership was shouldered by Raja(r)si Janakananda, who was born born James Jesse Lynn (1892-1955). He was a self-made millionaire when he met Yogananda in 1932. Yogananda gave Lynn the spiritual title Rajasi Janakananda, from raja, royal, and rishi, seer, sage. Janaka was a king in ancient India,, and ananada means joy or bliss. And SRF later meddled with that name too, adding an 'r' as the third last letter in it. They also decided that Paramhansa did not know how to best write his own monk's title, and even forged his signature to Paramahansa. "By their deeds your shall nown them," is at least partially suitable, and "Forewarned is forearmed" too. [More]

When Janakananda passed on, Daya Mata (Faye Wright, 1914-) became the president of the fellowship, SRF. Wright was born in a Mormon family. As a monastic disciple she recorded stenographically his public lectures and classes, and guidance he gave informally too, as well as personal counsel. The fellowship publishes these words in such as Yogananda's collected talks and essays - a trilogy so far - and other books. Best known among them is Yogananda's autobiography. SRF has also published Yogananda's translation and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, and his commentary to the Rubaiyat by Fitzgerald (not so much Omar Khayyam, really), and several other works, including recordings.

Things Yogananda's SRF teaches - and others

The fellowship teaches meditation methods along with the "Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons". They present various yoga and meditation methods as taught by Yogananda, in part incorporated in the kriya yoga he made known. After a preliminary period where one may learn the Hamsa variant of ajapa japa (thinking a mantra along with the ingoing and outgoing breath), one may apply for kriya yoga. If the application is granted, one becomes bound to the guru for a lifetime and longer, is the teaching. There are severe downsides to such a deal, as there was a downside to Ty's putting his arm into the mouth of the big bad wolf Fenrir of Norse mythology, hoping the wolf would not bite off the arm.

The methods are interspersed in lesson mishmash - concoctions based on various Yogananda outputs at different times, in different settings - without clarifying all of it. Most of the content, apart from the methods, are available in books by Yogananda today. And the methods may be learnt from other sources, where you are not getting bound for lifetimes and may preserve more freedom. As Yogananda too says:

No one can free you unless you make the effort to free yourself. Yogananda [Jse 237]

It is a sin and a source of suffering not to use wisely our relative free will. Working our way through relative freedom, we come to the Absolute Freedom. - Yogananda [Dr 309]

Go for the best methods, and stay clear of binding agreements too.

Yogananda on the value of not believing things stupidly

An erroneous belief, if held to without scrutiny, develops into tenacious dogmatism. A belief that is disproved changes from dogmatism to unbelief. On the other hand, if one believes in a true doctrine and follows it persistently, that belief gradually crystallizes into conviction and faith. So we see that a belief, whether false or true, is provisional. It can only be temporary, for it is subsequently metamorphosed either into dogmatism or unbelief, or into faith . . .

What is needed is investigative belief with sincerity and reverence, followed up with persistence in true beliefs, or at least in those beliefs that constantly manifest convincing results. - Yogananda [Jse 305-06]

Buddha also says that one is allowed to doubt his teachings fairly. Faith in Buddha's teaching is not forbidden, though, but it can serve as a pivot point of an evolving process, a waking-up process. As it is pointed out by Narada: "A Buddhist [does not] sacrifice his freedom of thought by becoming a follower of the Buddha. He is at full liberty to exercise his own free-will and develop his knowledge even to the extent of attaining Buddhahood himself." [Bht 283]

Implied in Yogananda's words above, the same would apply to his own teachings - all of them. And the teachings of his guru, Yukteswar. That is what they teach.

I wanted never to be so dogmatic that I would stop using my reason and common sense. When I met my guru ... he said: "Many teachers will tell you to believe; then they put out your eyes of reason and instruct you to follow only their logic. But I want you to keep your eyes of reason open; in addition, I will open in you ... wisdom." . . .
       I had steadfastly refused to join any society because I didn't find in them demonstrable truth. But when I found my guru and this path, and saw through my own experience that it worked [Paramahansa Yogananda, in Man's Eternal Quest [Ak 114].

Science and religion should go hand in hand. All the results of scientific investigation are definite and are connected by reason, whereas religion is often dogmatic. When Jesus urged his disciples to have faith, he didn't mean blind belief. It breaks my heart when I see blind dogmatism. - Yogananda [Ak 48]

You do well not to believe Yogananda totally on that one either: "All the results"? Heh.

Develop yourself rather than succumbing to religious chatter

You should try not to believe Yukteswar and Yogananda blindly, but reflect calmly on things he seeks to persuade you into, or convince you to. In that way you live up to the great German proverb, "Lass dich nicht verblüffen - Do not get bluffed." For, as Yogananda says, "Injudicious beliefs achieve little more than bitter experiences [Jse 305]."

Yogananda taught both valuable yoga teachings and less valuable teachings impromptu. At times his sayings conflict and contradict one another. There are many examples of it, also in vital matters. For example, will you develop yourself (egohood) or attempt to kill it? Yogananda and SRF teaches both, but you cannot have it both ways. You should not kill the ego instance, but seek to develop it. Rational handling depends on it, according to psychoanalytics. I tell you this against possible grave disillusionments later. For Yogananda's fellowship has claimed they find his guidelines to be without flaw. It is a cultish attitude, and it dominates in the fellowship too. You should see better than that, for your own good.

Go for merely the valuable parts of Yogananda's teachings, then

1. Select the most promising methods first. Select and focus on the adequate methods to stay sane, to do them skilfully and not overreach, and stay carefully away from his grossly divergent words and self-contradicitions.
2. Focus on the highest and best sayings, also when sayings contradict one another. Whenever there are self-contradictions in the guru's teachings, focus on the higher ones to you: those that you find to be most valuable in your set of circumstances.
3. Refrain from overreaching on the basis of sluggard pep talks and boasts. Do not overreach - it happens to be a danger in the cult of an exhorting Yogananda.

By such priorities and in these way you may succeed to get the best out of Yogananda and the medley that is published by his society. Yogananda himself allows for it. And how much of his teachings may be put aside as less valuble for those individuals who prefer to focus on the best methods and teachings from him? Maybe nine tenths, give or take. You may come across SRF members who present just that estimate on the word of Yogananda.

So be like the wise ant: select and practice just the very best, and go for incorporating that stuff into your daily habits too - a valuable Yogananda [see Ak 416].

However, some things are considered valuable when we get them, but the creative fellow can find good use of an empty whisky bottle also. In other words, some things are what you make of them. For example water freezing into ice. In the north of Sweden there is a hotel made of ice, advertised at IKEA, for example [see Dr 379].
To recap and enlarge on the sound advice - and mind the helping do's and don'ts tend to mean "avoid" and "refrain from" as a rule:

1. Choose methods above guru words; they are often unnecessary. Choose from among the methods the most effective ones generally. Be alert to that you do not have to learn anything from Yogananda. Key methods he teaches, may be learnt in freedom other places. Binding yourself to be freed is a Yogananda deal for you in the extremes. So do not be duped by guru words about exclusive, great methods and great boons. And try to accommodate to this: Deep meditation increases health reserves, helps gladness of heart, and good focus and direction in life. It should be wise to adjust to guru teachings accordingly, or drop them altogether.
2. Drop Yogananda practices and values that may maim and stultify and grieve you as time goes by. Drop the Yogananda practices that could maim you, for there is no need for getting maimed. Overdoing things is potentially harmful. Not doing things on your own terms is not handy either. Obeying insistent rap-outs is not as good as being inner-directed and use calm reasoning, considering pros and cons and going for maximising advantages that can be had.
3. Chatter is no gate to becoming a developed guy. Try not to get involved in the religious chatter and "rap-outs" that the guru spawned. Try to remain silent too: Yogananda tells about its value [Jse 400].
4. Gross Yogananda concepts are fairly often misleading. Be alert to that the Hindu monk's "chameleon Christianity" is a flop that hardly stands inspection, after all. Key concepts are grossly different when it comes to the guru's key teachings and those of the gospels. How that is, is exposed at length here too. [MORE]
5. Bombastic statements of folly may indeed hurt you - if you put faith in them. Some bombastic utterances of Yogananda do not hold water, such as "Hard work has never hurt anyone." How untrue the guru's commonplace is at large. You should see through untrue teachings and not become a victim of the guru's bombastic flair. Think for yourself and update your knowledge on important matters.
6. True friends have their characteristcs that it helps to know about.. Gautama Buddha explains. You can use his criteria to your advantage. Go for true friends. "True friends bring mutual progress to one another," says Yogananda [Jse 260-61]. That is one aspect of it. Another is: "A marriage should . . . be a happy and mutually beneficial union [Jse 261-62]." Does the guru tell you how to, in much difficult times? Or does he deliver oratorial generalities few are able to make very practical use of? Hurry to find out -
7. Pick, choose, and filter to increase life's good sides, boons and blessings. But how? As you go ahead and do your best, certain skills may develop. Fit study helps too. There are other ways also. One is going deep in meditation for the inspirations. Some favour that approach.

   Anyway, to pick and choose wisely from among his series of blunderbuss sayings, have your priorities right too. What is essential is to do meditation and yoga on your own terms, on your own turf, and try to increase good things in your life. Since not all of Yogananda's advice is healthy, stick to the following priorities: (a) Centre yourself first of all. Meditation is good for that. (b) Do not spread yourself thin by going for humbug teachings. "Great, cosmic and other fine-sounding religious words like "Great Christ and 'ji" reflect a mentality that is hardly ideal for meditation, and which it may be proper to stay away from. (c) Fervour may do nothing good for you in the long term. It could be one of the marks of unfulfilled lusts that are channeled poorly, or has got out of focus. "Cry for Divine Mother" is a hallmark example.

8. Have fit priorities and don't gulp down every guru word - some of them are too wrong for that. Refrain from thwarted id outlets as an obedient fool. Try to stay sound instead. You have an inborn "right" to your own sex life, presumably.
9. Meditation is good, wheras private and public chanting and massing tend to be on a ceremonial and low rung of the ladder, generally speaking. Drop chanting and massing for the sake of going deep in meditation. For once you do it, songs and guru phrases fall off. Try to be attuned to the highest outlets you manage, then, by keeping your priorities straighter than he once did. Do not bargain like a fool - getting bound by an oath and so on to get liberated, looks like risky business indeed.
10. Yogananda advice on dieting reflects other times, ideas, and customs. Yogananda dieting: Contrary to several recent findings, Yogananda and SRF imposes on followers to fast on juices and water regularly to "cleanse the system" once and week and also three consecutive days each month. "Every week you should fast one day on orange juice to rest the internal organs . . . When you fast on orange juice it scrubs every cell [Not so, really.] At least once every month you should give a thorough house-cleaning to your body by fasting. Do not let poison accumulate in your system . . . The greatest way to maintain health, and the simplest, is to fast on orange juice one day every week and for two or three days consecutively once a month." [Jse 335; cf. Dr 212; Jse 13].

    SRF hastens to add that "Persons in good health should experience no difficulty in fasting for two or three days . . . Anyone suffering from a chronic ailment or an organic defect should apply the dietary and health recommendations offered in this article only upon the advice of a physician [Js3 335n]. But a point SRF does not address to its gullible ones, is that Yogananda's recommendations are vain. For Yogananda's regimen is hardly effective, as judged from recent findings. In one British study two groups were compared. The one who had fasted on vegetable juices and so on to "cleanse" their bodies, were not better for it than the control group, who had eaten and drunk what they pleased. The reason there was no measured differences between the groups is that bodily cleansing is handled by the kidneys and the liver mainly, and anyhow. Conclusion: don't trust Yogananda so blindly as they do who are fond of calling his guidelines infallible, also where there is no evidence they are. [Compare] [More]

    "Detox" diets usually include fruits and vegetables as the main part of one's food intake. Professor Alan Boobis, a toxicologist at Imperial College London states: "It is remarkable that people are prepared to risk seriously disrupting [their sophisticated and versatile body] systems with unproven "detox" diets, which could well do more harm than good." Dr John Emsley, "Many of the detox diets and supplements really aren't that good for you, nor have they been properly tested." Professor Martin Wiseman adds about the popular idea "that in some way the body accumulates noxious chemicals during everyday life, and that they need to be expunged by . . . detoxification" that detox fads are examples "of the capacity of people to believe in (and pay for) magic despite the lack of any sound evidence. This is a trend that should worry us all." Finally, Dr Paul Illing says, "Detox diets and products may not do harm, except, perhaps, to your wallet, but neither do they do you much good. Your natural bodily functions are effective at clearing out harmful substances and there is little you can do to enhance these. Patience and a proper diet are more valuable than detox products and supplements." Dieticians advocate drinking (pure) water, however, but not above what you are comfortable with. "Drinking many litres of water a day, and drinking even when not thirsty, could cause problems if taken to extremes"]. [Link] [BBC Link]

    Conclusion: studies have proved Yogananda wrong. To rub it in: A woman was awarded more than £800,000 after she suffered permanent brain damage while on a detox diet. [BBC Link] On the happier side of this, Yogananda's counsel to eat colourful foods, is substantiated as healthy. The peeling and outer parts of fruits and vegetables contain antioxydants, for one thing. And if you don't select your fruits and vegetables with skill, those outer parts may contain farming poisons too.

To sum up the summary: To live well and try to get the "best" out of your life with the least pain and efforts, keep attuned to the highest there is, and select what are the very best attunements to it, and stay accurate too. Remain alert to the danger of non-healthful conformism too. It is in part brought on by duping. Instead, go for your identity:

Think constantly of your connection with Eternal Life, and you shall know your identity with the Supreme Eternal One. - Yogananda [Dr 310]

What is first-class should not be given up. Some Yogananda dictums are of that sort, but then there is a whole lot of other dictums of varying value. Attunement is far more than just thinking about it, though: The ideal is to establish a way of living that incorporates delicate elements in a balanced way for you, and advance. You do well to refrain from less valuable elements, among other reasons because it is not full well to spend lots of time and energy on what is less than optimal. What are they? Mean and insistent demands, freak religiousness, non-effective chanting, fervour, freaking out and folly. It is not words that will save you, but nearing the Source, and staying attuned to it by such hints as I have given above and here and there in other places.

There is no need for unreliable Yogananda teachings - the vital parts can be learnt from far freer sources that seek to help you, not maim you into durable sect conformism - or falling down while thanking for it.

Do not succumb to religious goading either; it is inferior

As further help: Goading is always inferior, and so is spreading yourself thin. When Yogananda says that love is not the highest, happiness is, and later goes on exhorting, "Love God" for many years. "Love God", "love all nations", and so on, the latter part - of exhorting, imploring and bothering people - seem to be inferior goadings as long as he does not teach you effective ways to do it. He might have focused more on his teachings of "know yourself" by going deep in meditation towards the source of happiness instead, as that would have been a first-class teaching, in accord with the methods he was sent to the West to teach scientifically minded persons. That was his basic mission, after all.

Since Yogananda has taught many different things, make the wisest choices: Prefer the highest or better teachings of Yogananda at any point, and many troubles might dissolve as by themselves, thanks to rational handling. It may be developed.

Such an approach is related to his teaching about worshipping the mightiest god. He tells a story to illustrate how a man stepwise discarded worshipping things and other beings, including his wife, finally to go for himself -

Yogananda Props up Some Norms Above

From "Practicing Religion Scientifically" and "Doubt, Belief and Faith" by Yogananda

An erroneous belief, if held to without scrutiny, develops into tenacious dogmatism [Yogananda, Dr 305]

Doubt is dynamic energy that should be properly harnessed to move us to progressive actions. If by constructive doubt we destroy some of our cherished theories, even that is better than just blindly and dumbly following others - "the blind leading the blind." Constructive doubt in regard to divine matters will move us toward truth more quickly than will dogmatic belief. The latter makes us lack the clarity of mind necessary to perceive correctly the truth already given to us . . . The great masters ask us to believe, but they do not say we should not use constructive doubt to question [Yogananda, Dr 302]

Investigative belief . . . always keeps its eyes and ears open, ever ready to inquire about anything to which it has been attracted by persuasion or interest [Yogananda, Dr 306]

If you can apply the truths I have told you, there is nothing you cannot accomplish in life [Yogananda, Dr 43, abr].

Calm impartial reason can . . . lead to intuition. Use common sense [Yogananda, Dr 310] ◊

Belief in a deceitful person, a failing business, or a false doctrine seems to be a sheer wastage of man's good energy [Yogananda, Dr 304]

Yogananda asks us to believe that beliefs waste precious reason. (3)

True scientists reason and uncover.

Injudicious beliefs achieve little more than bitter experiences [Yogananda, Dr 305] ◊

A belief, whether false or true, is provisional. It can only be temporary, for it is subsequently metamorphosed either into dogmatism or unbelief, or into faith [Yogananda, Dr 305]

The true scientist is openminded. Working from a little data, he experiments until he uncovers verifiable principles [Yogananda, Dr 33].

Reject the destructive element in doubt and belief, and apply the constructive element. . . . This is the way of development [Yogananda, Dr 310] (5)

Contempt for anything, without investigation, is the sign of a deluded man who will come to grief. [Jse 176]

Doubt decides a hypothesis. Scientists take such a theorem and investigate it along with their ever present examiner, Mr. Doubt. Nothing is taken for granted. The proposition is carried to a conclusion to see whether it works or not. If it doesn't, it is set aside or restructured. If scientists remained satisfied with the status quo of knowledge, there would be no furtherance of civilization. There is a great lesson therein. In regard to religion, scientists should employ the same openness of the constructive element of doubt [Yogananda, Dr 301-02]. (7)

Without willingness one cannot believe [Yogananda, Dr 304]

It is . . . right to apply the laws of reason [Yogananda, Dr 301].

What is needed is investigative belief with sincerity and reverence, followed up with persistence in true beliefs, or at least in those beliefs that constantly manifest convincing results [Yogananda, Dr 306].

You can experience Self-realization by practicing scientific techniques [of yoga and meditation] [Yogananda, Dr 35]. (8)

Truth is exact correspondence with Reality. Truth is always wholesome; fact can sometimes be harmful [Yogananda, Dr 37, 38].

[NOTE: Truths and facts are much the same in that facts are truths and truths surely are founded on facts. Truth can be harmful too, if it cannot be handled adequately, is a message of Rollo May. Whether a truth helps health or not, depends in part on the receiver(s). Now what happened to Jesus who claimed to bring truths and be the truth? Some of his statements had him executed.] [T+]

Literature  

Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. New ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1986.

Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]

Dr: Yogananda, Paramahansa. The Divine Romance. New ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1993.

Jse: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Journey to Self-realization: Discovering the Gift of the Soul. New ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 2000.



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