Kriya Yoga Articles
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On this page you find the priceless, firmly gospel-rooted counsel "Go for sanity; not Christianity." And once you see why, find out how. Good luck.
Harassment and Enigmas
When the state of After-effect-poise of Kriya is consolidated, the seeker is established in the eternal Tranquillity of the ultimate Self. [Lahiri Mahasaya]By this . . . Kriya, when you become one with the supreme Person, you are eternal Being. In other words, You become the supreme Being. - [Lahiri Mahasaya's text and comment on the Omkar Gita, v 16.]
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| Sensible balance should assist you. |
In Rinsai Zen there is a harassing method of focusing one's awareness on koans. In part they rely on metaphors, in part on something deeper. The novice is supposed to focus on the enigma (koan), and reach a state of perplexity in the end. If or when that is resolved by delicate insight, relief is had. Banging your head over and over against a brick wall and then stopping harming yourself, is not quite as beneficial in the long run, although relief can be had in both ways. (Joke).
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| By yogi words you may be taken by surprise . . . |
In the yoga tradition such strains blend, and best instructions may not be had from books either. In the light of this you can stick to your grounding as long as convenient, and learn to be careful if out of your waters (tradition, etc). In the long run you may come to less harm in such ways.
Be alerted to look behind scenes and words. Some koans and yoga puzzles may be divulged, and yet be hard to inform well about. Kriya yoga is gentle breathing in essence. However, it is also called a fire rite by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952). But there is no visible fire there. Consider what the guru means by calling it a way to die and rest the organs, a rite and sacrifice resulting in a metaphorical skeleton and cleanness [Ay ch 26; Ha 244]
To be true to fact rises above obscure passages and haphazard interpretations of them to suit oneself. I have not met anyone who has told he died from doing kriya, for one thing. And I have not seen any mature documentation from Yogananda's fellowship SRF that it works as the guru "bellows" either - but much hype that goes largely unverified, I regret to say.
Suggestions
The best-dressed woman usually arrives with the least [American proverb].
Appropriate tact is not second-hand, and it helps all-round solvency.
You should not be misled to reduce your hard-won solid doings and presentations of yourself.
The ousted member of the family may be in for a hard time.
It is a further step in the training program to get proficient in samyama. Samyama is well applied focus, delicately attuned. [Coco; Yolt; Via etc.]
Let words you spend attention on, be of worth, and not overly silly.
"In the matter of likes and dislikes we are all crazy," says Yogananda [Ak 425]. This supposedly means that what that guru liked was (all) crazy, among other things. At any rate, let the man speak for himself.
"The trouble is that all of us, as Paramahansaji used to say, are a little bit crazy, and we do not know it," says the fellowship's president today, Daya Mata [On, "Qualities of a Devotee"]. Let the SRF president speak for herself and the SRF "crew", then.
"Woman is the destroyer of man. Do not look at her, at any cost." - Lahiri Mahasaya, married, with children. - (Saying 77). "At any cost" . . . Instead, find a better norm. Why not "Use your eyes wisely"?
In the SRF cult they also want you to believe that they believe that Yogananda had attained complete union with God and therefore his wisdom is flawless." But are they not all "a little bit crazy and do not know it", as Yogananda teaches, purportedly flawlessly?
Yogananda claims to be in harmony with the Bhagavad Gita teachings, but how can he really be if the universe is unreal, as he and his fellowship teach? And how can he be relied on for anything real? Now the Gita teaches that those who preach that the world is illusory - Yogananda does - are demoniac [Bhagavad Gita 16:7-10]. More and more interestingly; those gurus who teach the world is unreal may not be real either, not genuine either, and that goes for their teachings too, all of them. For SRF gurus and their teachings are parts of a world they claim is illusory. Yes, folly takes many forms.
For example, if you etch out your ego, as Yogananda repeatedly goes for, how can you develop? The bit is you cannot then.
To take care - young ones do not find that easy.
Just one significant bad feature of a teaching may spoil much through some domino effect or other: One card falls over its neighbour, and so on.
Sailendra Bejoy DasGupta has written on the gurus of kriya yoga. He affirms:
More emphasis should be laid on the intellectual and theoretical aspect instead of cherishing a loving and devoted memory of the illustrious one to be able to comprehend the inner depths and wider perspectives. [Kriya Yoga, ch 5]
Yogananda writes that his kriya guru Yukteswar said he would give him his houses and huts. But Yukteswar's blood relatives got them through a law-suit. What does that fact tell you?
Yogananda also quotes, "The guest is God. [Pa 144]." However, not all guests are decent and kind. And do yourself a favour and refrain from taking every bum's word to be true to fact either. The orator guru Yogananda talked big and took to great-sounding words as parts of propaganda efforts in the name of Hinduism, Christianity, many Christs, and gurus. Such marketing efforts has downsides to fooled and cult-trapped individuals.
Inspect. If you cannot trust yourself, strive to asses the deeds of others before you put faith in all their words. If you cannot trust yourself, can you date well? To inspect; do it yourself - Then maybe the best fruits of your labours will not get wasted. You can hardly be too circumspect. And maybe the wise saying holds water: "Where all think alike, none thinks well (Saying against morbid conformity). There are occasions where it does not fit, though.
The book Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and other books too may seem to give a lot, but do they? How far is it verified by controlled experiments and things like that? To be on the safe side, seek facts above great-looking, endearing sayings by possibly phoney authorities.
Criminals, Victims, and False Helpers
Dr Steven Karpman's drama triangle diagrams games (hanky-pankies). Three roles: Persecutor, Victim, and Rescuer. If there is no genuine rescuing in games of helping, bad feelings result. And one of the quickest ways out of the drama triangle is to be rational and ask, "What are the facts?" [Pla 80-82]
Note that the key Yogananda teaching is that the world is unreal. Any help on such a basis must be false as the universe - And main sides to the (illusion-festered) teachings of SRF gurus Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Yogananda boil down to: "A hardened criminal pops up and shoots the guru in his face, and God is the doer and the victim, and all is for show (Sanskrit: lila, play). Passers-by may not realise it, and blah-blah-blah. [Pa 344 etc.]
The same verse
"A Christian should go down on his knees several times daily, praying to God and then reading the Bible." [Pa 332] "The Saheb should at least twice a day kneel and read the Bible to Christ and pray and if this done he will be well [Gle, ltr 59]."
Comment: Allow for some prayer variation; sit on your bottom too. But you may do better by not being a Christian. This is at the centre of the teachings of Jesus - that those who are healthy do not need him at all [Mark 2:17; cf. Matthew 9:12-13] Hence, Go for sanity, not Christianity; that is well implied in those very central sayings of Jesus. Further, the sanity he speaks for, is very much like holistic health, which includes appropriate moral. How droll that gurus of SRF never tell that . . . [MORE]
Hence, just skipping the bible readings may work well, but dropping Christianity altogether should work better. Read into well over a hundred self-contradictions of the bible, and get thoroughly aware that Christianity is essentially based on the idea of vicarious sacrifice, which is brutish and another form of scapegoating - and is at any rate just for "sick sheep", says Jesus. [MORE].
The "Christian" in Yogananda's rendition appears to be "sahib" in a letter by Lahiri Mahasaya to someone. In colonial India a sahib was a European of some social or official status. Hence, "Let the official European with status at least twice a day kneel and read the Bible and pray."
"Reading the Bible" presumably means not reading the rattle of meaningless descent lists in it. In one of them the Son of God is credited with being a Son of David through Joseph - a trick that seems to disregard the bigger claim that God was his own Father. If you claim ancestry through men who did not father you, you are on the wrong track.
Problems of SRF
"Solve all your problems through meditation." [Pa 333]. - What if Yogananda-given meditation and auxiliary teachings are your problem?
"The omnipotent Paratman [explained as "Supreme Soul"] can heal anyone, doctor or no doctor!" - Lahiri Baba. [Pa 299] - Let us hope that - that he can and will.
Yogananda has been presented by his fellowship as an avatar, which is as good as a Christ there. Well, would you know.
To preserve freedom is good. Reflection may help it.
The Great Lover Krishna of SRF etc.
At its centre stands Krsna as the full manifestation of god and the continued presence of Krsna ... the great lover of the gopis [milkmaids and married such ones], the perfect partners in his love. - Klaus Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism p 240.
Dr. Klostermaier's words may deserve some added details. It is taught in Hindu scriptures that Krishna seduced milkmaids and abducted 16 or 18 000 females - what a task - and raised his own race through them. But the race of Krishna was drowned.
Still, if you admiringly want to become more like Krishna and get your own harem, find comfort in the thought that Jesus never says it is bad. However, there may be a lot to take care of, and some legal snares. Not that I recommend it - [Mahabharata, Srimad Bhagavatam 10:22:1-28; 10:69 etc.]
The great lover Krishna is one of the six SRF gurus that are regularly worshipped in Yogananda's fellowship by monks and nuns and all. What is the greatest way of following? Lip service or emulation? So is it really abducting thousands of women per male follower that SRF stands for? if it is, do not ever expect a straight answer.
You have to be firm to keep insights. And bear in mind: "Understanding is one thing, remembering is quite another." Understanding and recall work in part differently. A presentation that serves recall (memory) tends to be more fit than just rattling off. A memory-assisting presentation should be worthwhile.
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Literature
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1982.
Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Coco: Leggett, Trevor. The Complete Commentary by Sankara on the Yoga-Sutras. New York: Kegan Paul, 1990.
Gle: Lahiri, Shyama Charan. Garland of Letter. Coll Ananda Mohan Lahiri. Portland, Mn: Yoganiketan, 2004. On-line at www.yoganiketan.net
Gv: Satyeswarananda, swami, tr. Complete Works of Lahiri Mahasay Vol. I: The Gitas: The Vedic Bibles. Guru Gita. Omkar Gita. Abadhuta Gita. Kabir Gita. 2nd rev. ed. San Diego: The Sanskrit Classics, 1992.
Mmw: Ganguli, K., tr. The Mahabharata, Vols 1-12. 4th ed. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1981.
On: Mata, Daya. "Only Love". Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1976.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1971.
Pla: Morrison, James, and John O'Hearne. Practical Transactional Analysis in Manangement. Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1977.
Sba: Prabhu, Anand A., tr. Srimad Bhagavatam. Filognostic Association of The Order of Time. [bhagavata.org], 2005.
Sh: Raghunathan, N., tr. Srimad Bhagavatam, Vols 1-2. Madras: Vighneswara, 1976.
Via: Nikhilananda, swami. Vivekananda. The Yogas and Other Works. Rev. ed. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1953.
Yolt: Johnston, Charles, tr. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. London: Stuart and Watkins, 1968. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/sa1ra4.html]
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