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Strange Yogi Teachings

In an old Self-Realization Magazine Yogananda recounts he was told by Divine Mother herself to seek him in some valley in the USA. He took it to mean that he should go for getting an SRF site in a valley. But when he was given a newly built SRF house and a temple and his own swimming-pool on the bluff over the Encinitas beach, he felt satisfied and dropped the valley beckoning.
Not many years later the pool was destroyed and the temple slid into the sea. Down it went. If he had been persistent and found his valley, his Golden Lotus temple would not have been built on a risky spot, a bluff. It might have been devastated by the escalated wildfires in California though.
Today SRF has a 100-acre ashram, Hidden Valley Ashram in Escondido. I think it was or was part of the Hidden Valley Health of Dr Bernard Jensen (1908-2001), an old acquaintance of mine who had served over 350,000 patients. An SRF member donated the renowned health ranch to SRF. In 2007

Large and great

"The next generation will not give us a thought," said Yogananda. [Ak 344]. Compare "Of the best the people hardly ever know they exist; The next best they flock to and praise. [Tao Te Ching, ch 17] Many Americans praise Yogananda, even in flocks. They are thoughtless people, then, going only for the next best at best, if you agree with Tao Te Ching
He also said, "In God's eye nothing is large" [Pa 85]. Accordingly there is no largeness to his teachings and organisation, and avatars are not really great ones, even though he also calls them that - great ones. "Realisation teaches you that self-mastery." [Ak 345] Oh, does it?
However, against marring self-contradictions and great bluffs the Chandogya Upanishad teaches: "This Self of mine within the heart, is smaller than paddy or barley or mustard or a Shyamaka seed, or the kernel of Shyamaka seed. This Self of mine within the heart is greater than the earth, greater than the interminable space, greater than the heaven, greater than the worlds" (III. 14. 3)." I think there is reason to stick to that, and not - all according to Yogananda - that the universe is not large. How great can such a teaching be?
That the words uttered by a truthful fellow comes true, is also his teaching. The evidence is that the generation after Yogananda did give him a thought, so how could he have been a trutful guru? Not all that Yukteswar and Yogananda said, came true. In the case of Yogananda, his organisation, spewing forth books by him and canonising many wrong utterances, counteracts that saying. How the guru must wail and gnash his teeth over this: that his work continues to grow and shine, drawing people, alas.

An old tale

The seer Yajnavalkya studied the Yajurveda collection under the tutelage of his maternal uncle. Yajnavalkya was a really fast learner. He and his uncle came to have serious differences in interpretation. On one occasion, his uncle was so enraged that he demanded the return of all the knowledge he had imparted to Yajnavalkya. Yajnavalkya returned in indignation or (literally vomitted) all the knowledge he had learnt. After having regurgitated the knowledge had from his teacher, Yajnavalkya worshipped the Sun God and got new knowledge directly from the Great One (original man, Narayan) who taught him the Shukla (White) Yajurveda.
And Yajnavalkya is now esteemed as one of the founders of Indian civilisation, an eminent sage - things like that.
Now the subject-matter of the two collections - the Black and the White Yajur - is almost the same. But the white is more systematic and contains some added texts. [Yaj, inside cover; also: Link]
What Yajnavakya taught one of his two wives is the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

Are devas wonderful?

One day you may have to investigate into things yourself, in part by forming quality questions. And it might help to form tentative, private conclusions when the data is not ample. Be based on hard facts more than religious hearsay. First diagnose, next seek a cure. Here is a good task in the matter:
Deva means something bad to some, believe it or not. During the Vedic period the gods were divided into two classes, the devas and the asuras (in Iranian, daevas and ahuras). In India the devas came to be more powerful than the asuras, and the latter word eventually took on the meaning of demon. In Iran the daevas were denounced as demons by Zoroaster. [Ebu, sv. "daeva"]
Deva - good or bad because: . . . ? And the real-life evidence of that conclusion is . . .?

Check if you can

Being cloister-martyred instead of developing sound abilities looks like a bad joke.
Living means group living for most individuals. A cloister is not a good place.
Who admires the odious guys, is not good enough.
Kings too have to check a lot.
Even secret executioners are executioners.
The guru's teaching "Get rid of the good and normal egohood (with me as you boss)" may not suit the souls.
There are strange things happening all over the planet.
Love is love is love. Compare Gertrude Stein's "A rose is a rose is a rose." Smart it is!

Literature
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1982.
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2008.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1971.
Yaj: Chand, Devi, tr. The Yajurveda. Rev. ed. New Delhi: Banarsidass, 1980.

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