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The Possible Benefits

Philip Zimbardo, a specialist on cults, has gone so far as to say that the large society might be easier if it were more caring, and in SOME ways more cultlike. However, there are more possible benefits in being cult-free than cult-ridden. It is also a matter of personality and cult profile - how far they match, and how many benefits the cult holds. But when a cult says one thing but does not live up to it, the table seems to be set for elementary conflicts.


Kriya Yoga Issues

WELL. . .
Yogananda often floated in the lake at Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades for an our at the time, sometimes with is back up and other times otherwise. They say in SRF that one of the Sisters there used to check if he was OK then. Well, he did not die from drowning, but claimed to soak the lake and spot with holy vibrations.
      He classifies kriya yoga under Raja Yoga. Kriya yoga is a set of methods, and the basic level method is a form of pranayama (control of the life energy, also called vitality, or prana).
      In the yoga system of Patanjali the third step is asana, or posture for meditation, often used in hatha-yoga. Asanas can help steady the mind and promote health. Mudras and some yoga postures form part of kriya yoga.
      The fourth step is pranayama, breath control for fixing the mind in deep concentration. Kriya yoga contains a pranayama technique with many variants.
      The fifth step is pratyahara, interiorization of the mind. Many guru followers may have problems with attaining this "switching".
      The sixth step is dharana, handy focusing through upliftment of mind.
      The seventh step is dhyana, deep meditation, Zen, when the mind is deep-going or undisturbed.
      The eighth and final step is samadhi, unification. This is the result of reaching.

Steps of Patanjali can be quite misleading: One should learn to dive inside by a good method, get interiorised by it, and go on to the pleasant stages of meditation. Yes, methods of the "sixth stage" tend to the interiorisation ("fifth stage"), and go further. Many do not learn this, and hence "put the cart before the horse" somewhat, and flounder for years too.
Shankaracharya Brahmananda Saraswati, aka Guru Dev
Shankaracharya Brahmananda Saraswati, Guru Dev
      To practice yoga through desires, for example to merge with God, does not lead to the highest level of self-realization, says gurus like Shyama Lahiri. Hence, one should focus on methodical, accurate practice first and foremost, as in other forms of training. Then progress may shine through.
      There is mantrayana, the mantra way, where you mentally repeat a chosen sound that works well for you. Milarepa recommends it. "Devote yourself to Mantrayanic study and practice," sums up the message. [Milarepa, cf. Tm 234]
      Guru Dev, Shankaracharya Brahmananda, tells things about how to choose the sounds to meditate on. The TM [Transcendental Meditation] movement has incorporated his thoughts in the practices. Mantra-yoga is one of the oldest forms of yoga and mind enlightenment. By repeating one's well-chosen mantra the mind can be purified and start developing, is the teaching.

Other Techniques

Q: How about the other SRF techniques of contemplation, the Hong Sau and Om techniques?

A: Nissen: "There are differences of opinions. Read about the methods and try to peel off marketing tricks before you start practising.
      "On one mantra way one mentally recites a mantra - one set of sounds for all - along with the inflowing and outflowing breath. In TM [Transcendental Meditation] one also repeats a mantra (sound) mentally, but not aligned to the breath, and the mantra is given from among several more or less congenital ones.
      Those are notable differences. Also, there is much research on TM.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi spread TM throughout the world and thereby:

  • offered many who experimented with drugs an alternative. A US Congress report shows a dramatic decline of drug abuse for TM practitioners, and not only that: the use of stimulants decrease too.
  • assisted planetary evolution by getting the masses involved in healthy spiritual exercise.
  • became indirectly and directly responsible for the enormous amount of data that now gives scientific support to claims of Yoga's many healthy benefits.
Today there are more than 600 scientific studies of the various benefits of Transcendental Meditation, independently conducted at 200 universities and institutions in 33 countries. These studies, published in over 100 scientific magazines, report of improvements such as increases in memory and concentration, stabilization of the autonomic nervous system, reduction of drug abuse, and a decrease in prison violence and health problems.


Tips

Make use of the best methods. They take the mind inwards quite effortlessly.
      Of course there are already books by plenty of people.
      Best way to find an interested historian would be to look up works in a University library on histories of recent modern religious movements or cults. Especially about SRF.
      When they say "God did it", expect ulterior motives.
      SRF has repeatedly sued Church of Ananda over the last ten years or so.
      Confusing the organization with the teachings and techniques of kriya proper is not fit.
      Sanatan Dharma is such as "eternal righteousness", another word for Hinduism.
      Thinking constructively can be awfully difficult in circles where they lie.
      Hard work is not all due to lasagne and spaghetti.
      The Internet is a wonderful publication medium.

D - The Walnut Board has been around for three years, and SRF for 83 years today

The Walnut Board is just full of individual's stories and opinions and every experience may not be the same.
The Walnut Board seems to have recurrent visits by a limited number of visitors, since many guru devotees shun the Walnut. But some portions seem to cover the experiences of many. Also, in qualitative research individual stories are treasured and not treated as irrelevant problems. Instead they are considered (possible) resources (a reservoir or data bank) to tackle and make good of by proper methods. Varied material can be looked on as a benefit, according to good methodology. Qualitiative research can be done in many ways. Many results depend on the processing of information at hand.
Academic historians publish works on subjects in which they have a lifelong interest.
A sorry strain called "might have been" may appear: Willing, able persons - insiders who do kriya yoga in the footsteps of gurus and therefore should be expected to master much - they don't seem to care enough. If they do not, who else will struggle with data to the end of making a reliable and all right book about the fellowship? There are many sources of error when we try to get to grips with these matters, and the insider view is very valuable.
      We should perhaps not expect too much of others and ourselves. That is a recurrent learning experience, at least to many idealists.

E - Have we settled down in some fail-way or other?

YOGANANDA "My body shall pass, but my work shall go on. My spirit shall live forever. Even when I am gone I will work with you all to deliver the world with the message of God. Prepare yourself for the glory of God [. . .] and the glory of God shall be born within you!" PY, [quoting Yogananda]
Much depends on individual efforts, and if no sane, developed individuals are found, one has to wait. Remember this: Yogananda once wrote he would do his utmost for a Yogoda Correspondence Course published by the Yogoda Publishing Company permanently located at the "ideal spot" 539 South Bowman Avenue, Merion Station, (suburb of Philadelphia,) Pa. Did you ever hear of that ideal publishing company? Most SRF members probably never have. Yogananda's "utmost" for a "permanently located" undertaking failed, if by "permanently" you mean anything remotely like "still". The guru launched projects that did not become anything of interest in time. We think a lesson is given here. yogananda-dif.org/HistBigPlan.htm

F - Sometimes divergent postings help us to realise the lay of the land - the overall picture

Sometimes it is different to get an over-all picture among many and divergent Walnut Board postings that serve a wide variety of aims.

A Stake Through a Book because of Much at Stake?

Having "the highest kriyas" is one issue below. Another one is 'modifications', and a third might be 'misleading people'.
Someone told Mukti Mata [of SRF] once that he had the book Kriya, the True Path by Swami Satyeswarananda, and she told him to drive a stake through it.
      Yogananda himself stated in the 1929 teachings of Kriya that twelve Kriyas were the same as a year of natural spiritual evolution. Then later in his Autobiography he said that one Kriya was the equivalent of one year of natural evolution - twelve times more than what he originally stated.
      Then Satyeshwarananda started writing books that Sri Yukteswar did not have the higher Kriyas, so Yogananda did not have them. That would need to substantiated better, for the Autobiography of a Yogi [Ay] says Yogananda had many kriya teachers, not just Sri Yukteswar. He was taught by his father, "Bhagabati Christ", and his Sanskrit tutor too, to name a few of them. And yes, Yogananda includes his railroad adminstrator of a father among the christlike men that were raised into christlike status by Shyama Lahiri,
YOGANANDA Sri Yukteswar chose the following morning to grant me his Kriya Yoga initiation. The technique I had already received from two disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya - Father and my tutor, Swami Kebalananda. But Master possessed a transforming power; at his touch a great light broke upon my being, like the glory of countless suns blazing together. - Yogananda, Ha 105; [LINK]
The Swami also holds that SRF has disobeyed the injunction of Shyama Lahiri and Babaji prohibiting anyone from forming an organization around Kriya Yoga.
      Now, modifications of kriya by SRF and others are derided on Satyeshwarananda's Sanskrit Classics site at "Kriya Modifications" there. SRF changed Kriya along with a lot of other things.


Different Depictions: Nuggets

Those that called Satyeswarananda said he was . . . worse than his own depictions of Yogananda . . . Most of the allegations Satyeswar makes are TRUE, through.
      Satyeswar and Yoganiketan are both publishing Lahiri works as well as others. SRF's day of domineering the kriya world can be over.
      Panchanan wrote most of those books dictated or guided by Lahiri.
      SRF think they are served by more and more numbers of superficial "bunnies" - is that it? [Bulshin]


In the Light of Satyeshwarananda

Ukudoto called Swami Satyeshwarananda once and he . . . doesn't seek a following, and wants to be left alone.
      He has let a fallen world know that SRF does not have the complete Kriya picture, and have been misleading people.
      Lahiri Mahasaya's writings were all in Bengali. They take off from Hindu scriptures and are in the light of kriya. Maybe anyone can get something out of Shyama Lahiri writings on this site. [Ukudoto]

Well, take a look right here: [LINK]

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Literature SECTION First Page E-MAIL

      Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. 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.
      Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Theosophical, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
      Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006.
      Op: Simpson, John, and Jennifer Speake. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
      Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971.
      Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
     
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    ANNOTATIONS: Code letters (acronyms and initial words) in square brackets in the text refer to works. Click on 'Literature' to see examples. Page references are put right after code letters. And the abbreviation cf. means "compare". [MORE].
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