The SRF Letter
| 4 › 1 › 2 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The SRF Letter
It breaks my heart when I see blind dogmatism. - Yogananda [Ak 48]
"You have stated that the flaws of this path are "creating depressions, frustrations and the like" in our members. In our contact with Self-Realization Fellowship students from all over the world, we have found the opposite to be true -- they feel they are greatly benefiting from our Guru's teachings in every aspect of their lives. . . "Although you are no longer recognizing Paramahansa Yogananda as your guru, no doubt you will understand why we, as his disciples, cannot change his words or the injunctions he gave in order to adjust them . . . .
"The first step toward greater attunement is the humble recognition of the fact that, as imperfect human beings, we do not always "know it all'. ". . . sooner or later, every Truth-seeker will unfailingly find his way back to his God-given guru and, having learned to surrender himself to the guru's guidance, will make swift progress toward the Divine Goal. . . .
In divine friendship, |
ALERT
To avoid doubt is to choose not to think. - Yogananda [Jse 301] IT IS well to be able to detect sectlike streaks. One of the best clues is "The Boss Is Always Right (and we are mice, not men)". The whole text of one such letter from SRF Headquarters is liberally shared here, for the first time. How it breaks Yogananda's heart - Letter copies are here: Page 1, Page 2. Personal data are removed from them as shown by yellow fields. Nothing is added. A Notarius Publicus certifies that the letter is authentic (August 2005.) |
Needed Comment
The SRF letter from spring 1979 was to a top kriya initiate (kriya yogi). It is notarized for authenticity.
Background: After a few years with Yogananda in the saddle in my life and affairs - in a plotted against SRF member's role - I stated in several letters to SRF that their kriya pledge was not right for several reasons. You pledge things way over your head and do not know the ones you pledge yourself to, and get bound "for ages", according to Yogananda, who is credited with the Kriya Pledge. Based on the guru's words, it seems the SRF Kriya Pledge violates Human Rights Laws.
I candidly offered a partial solution by suggesting they add something like "Keeping the pledge depends on God" (ie, "God willing") to the SRF kriya pledge. But they did not want it. Their goals were different from mine. In so doing they turned down a suggestion in line with teachings of three of the SRF gurus, that "God (the Lord) is the Sole Doer", and so on. SRF still uses a pledge that binds people for the rest of their lives. I realised that keeping the pledge became out of my everyday reach. So I dropped the stinking pledge, SRF, and Yogananda too, as a matter of being consistent.
The SRF management seems to have left out the "unconditional love" part of the Kriya Pledge later, no matter what they wrote me off with in the late 1970s. I waited for sixteen years before I took action in public, warning against the SRF pledge and SRF membership. As for my kriya pledge page, it has been visited by about 200 000 people so far, as a rough estimate.
I do not know what effects my expositions have had on SRF, though. Their little oath changes were "too late and not enough." I quit the fellowship and its four kriya gurus altogether. As for their "cannot change his words or the injunctions he gave in order to adjust them" - they actually do it a lot, no matter what is said in the letter: Documentation of many and tough changes abounds.
Further
Yogananda says dogmatism makes his heart break, "And is not God suffering also? [Dr 257]" Despite that, the fellowship he started, canonises him as someone with flawless wisdom and guidelines they do not find faults with. Such clowning is a fine mark of a sect. And the fact is that Yogananda says many marring things, for example he speaks for Mussolini and dictatorship in his own magazine East West.
The call for humility serves top-dogs in what is really a top-down structure, which is a common hallmark of a cult or sect, and also a monastic structure (definitions vary). However, fit government is advocated by Yogananda:
Abraham Lincoln expressed the highest ideal of government when he said it should be "of the people, by the people, and for the people." - Yogananda [Ak 257]
I was "the people", and did not have anything to say. Dogmatic faith in Yogananda's guidlines is not looked on as something offensive by his servile monastics, or as an outcome of servile stupidity (doubt-avoidance) and authoritarian goals.
Against the "idyl stand" in the letter, it is best to face the facts: About one third of
the SRF monastics left the monasteries around 2001. - To that: During the high
tide of good feelings and shared joy in a bay (cult) one may have a nice time and enjoy a
bit of shallow diving. But during ebb tide one notices that the bay (cult) does not rest on
rock. There is just a nasty sand bottom. And a detrimental current for those who venture a
bit out from the beach. Be warned of undercurrents.
Beware of Monky Business: Yogananda Quotations
The Americanised guru Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) set up the Self-Realization Fellowship in Boston in 1920, and in 1925 got a headquarters in Los Angeles. Some of his many-faceted teachings are quoted below.
"I was never born, I never died—" - Yogananda in East West Vol. 17, No. 1, 1945.
All the same he was eager to get his autobiography published. It happened next year (1946).
"There is no material universe; its warp and woof is . . . illusion." - Yogananda, in Autobiography of a Yogi, Ch. 30.
Accordingly you find no Yogananda (1893-1952), no Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), no yoga, no SRF kriya pledge, no SRF books, no way of living, etc. in the universe. A non-existent guru overrules himself, yourself and his teachings and overrulings completely - But till followers see it, many suffer from great confusion and worse.
"The next generation will not give us a thought." - Yogananda (1893-1952) [Ak 344]. - Ah, but it did!
"We don't really know what is right or real . . . we are often incorrect in our judgements." - Yogananda. [Ak 414]
"My sole desire is to give you the truth". - Yogananda [Cf. Ak 398].
"Silently heal yourself of the desire to criticize." - Yogananda. "Creating Your Happiness". East West, Vol. 4-12, October 1932.]
From this, the "best friends" of the guru could have another yardstick to behave on top of: Don't desire to criticise him, but do it because help is wanted and asked for.
"Our best friends are those who criticise us the most . . . who never condone our faults." - Yogananda
"Rebuke me a million times . . . scold med now!" - Yogananda [Pa 432]
How close it seems to "Nag, nag, nag!" and "Yak yak yak"! Good friends seem hard to find where the harder they criticise, the better they get -
"We do not find fault with Yogananda's guidelines. Since we believe that . . . his wisdom is flawless." - Self-Realization Fellowship, as notarised.
Compare, if you will, "Those who flatter thy faults are thy worst enemies," by Yogananda [Dr 254]
"When a true guru performs an action, it is like writing on water. Then no marks remain. - Yogananda [cf. Say 14].
Many guru marks remain!
"It is good to laugh . . . employ that power". "Your smile must spread over . . . the whole universe." - Yogananda [see Ak 353, 326]
"Those that you love, give them spiritual books and spiritual gifts." - Yogananda, East West, December 1926
In a non-existing universe, spiritual books must be a different sort of cross to carry.
"Drinks and drugs are sins against the soul because they paralyze the will". - Yogananda. [Ak 423]
"Running the world is His responsibility. He is the Doer, not you or I." - Yogananda. [Say 102]
"God as the sole Doer (is) the Director of the Cosmic Drama -- this life is a dream". - Yogananda [Ak 240; cf. Pa 344].
Conform herds may find dreamt guidelines infallible.
"No more blind believing." [Yogananda, Ak 456]
Yogananda worked hard to make others believe in him and do as he told . . .No more blind believing that running the world is His responsibility alone, then.
A cult of quack teaching and servile dogmatism has failed
Much of the above verbiage of Yogananda shows what you are called to find no fault with in Self-Realization Fellowship. The dogma that his guildelines are infallible are not canonised in the cult yet, nor should it ever be, but it exists. An insider, Geoffrey Falk, tells of it among other debasing things and experiences in the middle of the cult. Another long-time SRF member, tells of her disappointments as well:
"I studied, mediated and followed a very famous Indian guru during most of my life . . . One need not travel to India to have this deprived experience. I knew hundreds of yogis for up to 30 years, but not one of them had ever attained much . . . happiness. There were drugs, alcohol, affairs, divorces, physical abuses . . . They seemed a bunch of shame driven antisocial beings. [Some gurus] offer much to the unpopular, the antisocial and the broken people who never quite fit into anything.When I left my guru, I did so for reasons that had nothing to do with his deceptions—those I learned about them many years later . . . [and] I was completely unaware that I'd been slowly brainwashed."
Leaving the guru's religion "was extremely difficult" to her. But the night her mother died, SRF leaders told her that her "mother deserved to die a horrible cancer death, and that she really didn't mind dying in this way". However, her mother's last word to her was "shit", and then she lapsed into the final coma. Seeing is believing (Proverb): [Link].
Bossy, messy, and wrong Yogananda teachings are perpetuated by his society - by nuns and monks without any official doubts and not too free from "blind dogmatism". How to deal with it?
- Stay out of the cult in the first place. Just be strong enough for it if you feel a sect call or lordly-bossy Yogananda call.
- If sniffing at SRF anyway, despite sound reasons to the contrary, never ever submit to Yogananda by becoming one of his herd as a church member. A drastic SRF Kriya Pledge is the formal token of becoming a member of the cult SRF. But the good news is that it is possible to learn kriya yoga from another and far better kriya source, with integrity intact, and without demonising yourself. Compare: [LINK]
- If you have entered SRF as one of the herd, and discover many things that displease you as you wake up a bit, you may seek to clarify how to get the best of Yogananda without being all too harmed for a life-time. The article Paramahansa Yogananda's Teachings is part of a collection of articles that offers help along such lines, seeking to make the experiences of a blind alley less marring for those who fell beneath Leader drivel as guru "slaves" or SRF serfs of a sort. Reactions from guru friends and devotees against "traitors and quitters" (Yogananda's expression) may not be all warm and inclusive - just be aware of it: [LINK]
- Russian roulette is bad too. Not every participant has a good time.
Ways of Discourse
- and something mysterious to begin with
The essays and other information in this archive (our 4th archive) contains much
material that started as postmodern discourse. By now most of the discourse is
post-postmodern, or naturalistic. Terms abound, and some seem strange at first encounter.
Perhaps the book Naturalistic Enquiry may serve as an introduction, perhaps an
introduction is not needed at all. [Cf. Nai]
"We don't really know what is right or real ... we are often incorrect in our judgements." - Paramahansa Yogananda [Ak 414].
"We do not find fault with Paramahansa Yogananda's guidelines. Since we believe that . . . his wisdom is flawless" - Self-Realization Fellowship
On the one hand that looks postmodern, but then again, some idiots conform to crazy teachings - and it is not always easy to note a difference.
Yogananda also said the world is unreal [Cf Ak 488]. But it goes on! And how true is a statement in an unreal universe? Give it a second's thought.
We delight to bring quite recent anti-cult documentation in this archive, for both common farm animals and cult members appear to have too little freedom, too little of a say, against some basic human rights (check the UN charter on them). Something needs to be done, but running rough-shod over guru victims seems to be no brilliant or welcome way. Besides, sulking and abuse seems counterproductive, and should be out of the question, at least for my part.
About Lahiri Baba: "Even such a great being and avatar can succumb to error; they are also not beyond reprimand. It is so". - Satyananda [Ycm, ch 3]
Against overgrown claims of infallibility of Yogananda, consider that he and SRF ceremonically teaches his own guru, swami Yukteswar, was an "incarnation of divine wisdom", and that Yukteswar also said about Lahiri Mahasaya (also called Baba), "reverently vibrant": "Greater he was, as man and yogi, than any other teacher whose life came within the range of my investigations." [Ay ch 12]
Step by step the big ones "get greater" we are taught, but not really infallible in everything. So why crawl slavishly for SRF's misleading infallibility folly, when their guru says blind dogmatism breaks his heart, advocates rational inquiry and constructive doubt too? MORE
Sage Words
There are figurative terms (metaphors and more) and allegories in this section. A
figurative expression says something and refers to something else at the same time. A
carefully masked term often:
- Helps some harshly involved readers to maintain peace.
- Amplifies the range of usefulness; the seed may fit in in lots of places.
- Seems to help the good points to get a welcome and survive.
- Helps youngster through the fun value or entertainment fitness of good figures of speech.
Apart from that, beware of old cattle or other farm animals completely assisting owners that profit from them, or even make a living on their backs, so to speak. [More here]
Points
Treating humans like fish is hardly quite enough. Be alerted in this vein and refrain.
There is wisdom in bringing messages when prizes are in sight, or when they help us to fulfil some of our own missions in life.
The carrier pigeon is full of purpose and direction, but does it criticise the owner to be looked on as friendly?
Only those who are fallen need rebukes, largely for the reason of avoiding or eliminating mishaps.
Good friends, if criticising severely, seem to show a lack of compassion, much like deer hunters.
Each of us may be pressed to ascertain and judge this and that, in renovating our homes too.
Is the constantly nagging wife the best friend there is around?
To really scold in all the ways a guru treasures may seem better than religious crankness, but how sure are you?
Don't let your best friend's help deteriorate into a cock-fight, though.
No one should diminish his or her essential worth while trying to please for boons.
Judicious study can help many beginners.
That old and cultured liberals stand up for well-proved issues in favour of long life, should favour young ones.
Nice outfit can be good for contacts. Let it be the right contacts.
Observe how the starkly embarrassed ones smile.
Adhere to "No great triumphs without rewards".
To get out of the humble-brambles (SRF) can be unpleasant, very unpleasant, and not everyone who succumbed to Yogananda and SRF in the first place, makes "a dash for freedom." Some are scared. There are guru-given reasons for it.
 |
Ak: Yogananda, Pa.: 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]
Crj: Shankara. The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom and other writings of Shankaracharya. Tr. Charles Johnston. Covina: Theosophical University Press, 1946.
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.
Nai: Guba, Egon and Lincoln, Yvonne: Naturalistic Inquiry. Newbury Park: Sage Publications,1985.
On: Mata, Daya. "Only Love". Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1976.
Pa: Yogananda, Pa.: Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971
Say: Yogananda, Pa.: Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
Si: Shastri, J. ed. Siva Purana, Vols 1-4. Delhi: Banarsidass, 1969.
Ycm: Satyananda, Swami. Yogiraj Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasay. A Biography. Portland, Mn: Yoganiketan, 2004. On-line at www.yoganiketan.net
 |
 |
 |
 |
USER'S GUIDE to abbreviations, the site's bibliography, letter codes, dictionaries, site design and navigation, tips for searching the site and page referrals. [LINK]
© 1998–2009, Tormod Kinnes. All rights reserved. [E-MAIL] — Disclaimer: LINK]