Self-Realization Fellowship's Kriya Yoga Teachings
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Yogananda's Kriya Yoga Teachings
Overview
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| "One needs only to look within oneself to find Truth [Primordial Essence of Eternity]" - Guru Rinpoche (Padma-Sambhava) [Lik 197]. [MORE] |
The following issues are not always easy to find in SRF publications today.
- The guru founder of SRF changed main Kriya yoga techniques. He simplified parts, and removed vital parts of the original kriya too. In his marketing of kriya, its said efficacy was boosted 144 times too. But how? That is an open question.
- The emphasis of Yogananda's teachings took another turn over the years as he adapted to Westerners. In the beginning he wanted to activate men and women to do kriya yoga through what he said was purely scientific as a kingly way to realize the Self (atmajnana, knowledge of Atman), and he talked much of the Self in such veins. Later, through adaptations to his public, his talks drifted "Godward" - from Self to God, from active and scientific self-efforts with one's kriya yoga to the additional need for grace of God and devotion as necessary ingredients. It is symptomatic of his drifting teachings that first he talked for divine selfishness, that is, expanded self-concern, and a few years later stood up for unselfishness. He voiced two different views of egohood: one was to develop it, and most often he talked for killing it, which is bad. He also taught the basic yoga moral of ahimsa, non-injury, but sent followers to the World War 2.
Talking against one's former, fronted dictums implies an undeveloped moral, and may be maddening or confusing. Many of his various sayings from different periods are mixed in the SRF Lessons, a lesson course required for learning kriya yoga in SRF.
Another recurrent problem with the guru's and fellowship's teachings is a stable, recurrent misuse of scriptural passages to "bolster up" kriya yoga. [MORE] - He transgressed much that goes with kriya teachings elsewhere, and established fervour for Divine Mother, that She should appear. The half-ritualised crying for Divine Mother may be Gamy (a TA term). For basic kriya yoga aims at taking the mind inward, and drop extraneous concepts of Divine Mother and gurus - in higher states of consciousness. Good meditation steers in that direction during a fit sitting too.
- SRF publishes much guru talk from between 1920 and 1952, and parts are fooling, and therefore dangerous or alarming. For example, the guru tells repeatedly the world we live in is illusory, ignoring that he too would be so, if that were the case, and his teachings, and so on. When such inconsistencies abound, one's mental health could suffer setbacks.
- A fronted SRF notion is that Yogananda's words and injunctions cannot be changed, yet the SRF publisher has edited some of his works so heavily that it surprises outsiders. Note that the SRF that says it cannot change his words edits them - note the inconsistencies between different editions of some Yogananda books, for example. A former vice-president of SRF explains much of it somewhere else.
- SRF teaches with inconsistency, in part because some of the things Yogananda went for, were dropped by the SRF management. This apparently happened to the guru's cherished ideals of self-supporting communities. He writes of in his autobiography, and there are recorded talks for such communities too. The current SRF management has not forefronted them so far. To the contrary. Idealists may suffer set-backs from Yogananda till this is made plain.
- Learning the modified, simplified kriya of SRF can bind you head and foot in quite unwelcome and maybe surprising ways. Some aspects of them appear to fit some dictatorship that he explicitly wrote for in his magazine when he was forty - and wrote well of an unspecified brand of socialism too. By the way, the early church had ideals in common with Communists.
- Yogananda and SRF downplay a traditional, Christian heritage with baptism, sacraments, tongue-talking, rituals, one Shepherd, and ancient rules for the services that were laid down early in letters of Paul. God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are defined differently, by using some Hindu concepts for it.
- The state of affairs deep in SRF led about one third of the monks and nuns there to leave in 2000-2001. Those who left the premises told saddening, grief-struck stories of how things were among close disciples.
Many wander in Delusion
Yogananda followers may find pages like these to be hard reading. However, "Prevention is better than cure", and the same goes for solid and preventive information. It should be a good thing to know of severe errors and transgressions so that one can avoid them. And such "what is what" may be so hard to estimate in such waters. As for guru followers who have got gravely disappointed and more or less disillusioned with SRF recently and try get on with their lives, some may feel worse from reading on, and should be warned. Consider it done.
These persons are likened to farm animals, even heart-broken animals. Do they have what it takes to get free from the gurus and get happy without them? That is the question. We leave it to you to decide.
SRF members seem to grope for comfort in each others' arms rather than seeking professional help. Besides, some who break out of SRF may not dare to go all the way and speak up against what is wrong with the fellowship and many guru's guidelines as found in SRF. They could fear repercussions the guru talks of, for example:
If you turn away from the emissary of God, He [decides] "Now you shall have to wait long . . . Several incarnations [of dire fears and colossal sufferings] at least must pass before he will have another such opportunity. [Source: SRF Magazine, spring 1974, p 6.]
Why is "dire fears and colossal sufferings" added to the quotation? Because in the SRF cult the teaching is also as said in Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, where the Grand Master Babaji is reported to say:
Repeat to each of your disciples this majestic promise from the Bhagavad Gita [2:40]: . . . "Even a little bit of the practice of this religion will save you from dire fears and colossal sufferings."
That is how the Sanskrit Swalpam apyasya dharmasya traayate mahato bhayaat is translated by Yogananda and understood in his fellowship. Sivananda's translation is "Even a little of this knowledge (even a little practice of this Yoga) protects one from great fear," which is different. The translation that is used in the Hare Krishna movement is "In this endeavour there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear."
Translations differ, understandings differ. The crucial element is "dire fears and colossal sufferings", or "great fear", or "the most dangerous type of fear". Also worth noting is that where Yogananda has "save from it" the other two have "protect from it", which could be different. Fear of leaving Yogananda may be a staggering element in SRF circles.
Freedom to think for oneself is a boon. Being allied with soundness-helping wisdom from many quarters is another. Developing fair and fit skills for good living is a third boon. All these things can be evolved.
"Many sadhus . . . wander in delusion," says Mahavatar Babaji in Yogananda's autobiography, and Yogananda himself was no exception, as revealed when toward the end of his life implored in samadhi (yogic absorption) something like "No more delusion! I won't have it!" Other, dissimilar Yogananda utterances are spoken well of in SRF, however: "We do not find fault with Paramahansa Yogananda's guidelines. Since we believe that he had attained complete union with God and therefore his wisdom is flawless". Such attitudes along with outré and bombastic claims by Yogananda may limit one's urge to investigate. Do you dare to think that gurus that are ritually invocated as all-knowing, almighty Christs can be wrong? Hope you will not fall short, and insert a slice of healthy scepticism before they make a fool of you.
Yogananda's guru, Yukteswar, endorses sceptical investiations. Both he and Yogananda talk against blind belief in some places. Accordingly there should be some space for doubting Thomases - he was not denied heaven and personal investigations, the New Testament reveals. Opposed to fair scepticism and investigations is the tragedy of living an insignificant or mess-making teaching. There are other crosses to carry as well. Here is one:
THE GERMAN COMPOSER and musical theorist Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) was once conducting a rehearsal of one of his more dissonant orchestral compositions. At one point, he rapped his baton and said,
"No, no, gentlemen; even though it sounds wrong, it's still not right!"
Comment
If you say that the universe is illusory, as Yogananda and at least two more SRF gurus do, it follows that Yogananda and they all are unreal, and their writings and guidelines and the pledge are asked to sign. What will it be? All these gurus went for and set up, is found in and of the universe, unreal to them. If you can believe that, it follows there are no blessed or blessing gurus in Self-Realization Fellowship.
Given this, maybe oinks of hogs and sour talk of rotten potatoes is just as valuable as what sounds wrong "in a right way" -
"Say, is there a blithering idiot at the end of this tube?"
"Not at this end, sir." [From Of]
- Sensible ones do not have to be foolish either. In some way it seems up to oneself.
Some Famous Gurus
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| There is no harm in giving things to straight ones, assumedly. |
Yogananda went from India to Boston in 1920 and set up an idealistic organisation, Self-Realization Fellowship. It was designed to be foundational. It was changed into a registered church in California after fifteen years. [Ebu, "yoga", "monasticism", and "Self-Realization Fellowship"]
Yogananda became one of the first Indian spiritual teachers to reside permanently in the West (1920-35, 1936-52). There are now Fellowship groups and centres in over fifty countries, and independent groups that in part keep advocating (some of) his teachings. His Autobiography of a Yogi (1st edition, 1946) and other works have become popular and quite influential.
Pranayama Focus
SRF (Self-Realization Fellowship) is adapted to Hindu heritage with much stress on guru-faith. The fellowship teaches kriya yoga, which is a system of yoga methods with a deep focus on breathing methods, also called pranayama. For learning kriya yoga, initiation is required. The cult's demands in that matter are so stiff that they work as a fish trap (funnel-shaped basket). The bait: the said efficacy of kriya. The fish trap: you cannot get out once you enter to learn kriya. Yogananda's warnings against ever leaving him after initiation may be among the severest to be found. He talks of many lives of sufferings for that alone.
Yogananda taught a handed-over set of methods called kriya yoga. Less known to adherents today, he changed and simplified the methods too, by leaving out formerly essential elements,
Yogananda's kriya is still designed to make certain "life energies", prana forms, turn inwards as tersely said in the ancient yoga
classic Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Successful training hopefully
brings the attention more inwards, and then one may become a deeply "successful one", a
siddha [an adept]. Such persons may be few and far between, though, in part depending on what methods they use, how congenital their methods are, how well composed, and so on. A beginner may find way to tell which kriya teachers are accomplished, and how well accomplished. There is much secrecy to deal with.
And then there is the added problem of severely disappointed kriya practitioners who disclaim kriya yoga in itself because they have not perceived any breakthrough or special progress from it. Here is a way: If you
consider kriya as an art, it needs practice. There are many types of kriya schools nowadays,
many different kriya "artists" as well. As for their art (kriya yoga), much is similar, some
elements differ among the schools of kriya, some artists have different flairs and appeal to
different sorts of people. The marketing differs too. You do not have to be religious to practice kriya; it is enough to be oneself - and piousness is not to be forsaken either.
The fellowship Yogananda formed into a church of tax benefits, teaches classes in
kriya yoga and also offers "Churches of All Religions" that give out meditation counsel, lectures on living, and guru-loved music. Have your own taste also. Their services
allegedly combine elements of Hinduism and Christianity. Thereby elements of handed-over Christianity play the second fiddle, as if that is all right. They
worship Hare Krishna and may likewise pray and weep half-ritually to the Cosmic and Divine
Mother as directed by Yogananda. It reminds of peekaboo.
From the SRF World of Huge Cries
Was "Divine Peekaboo" Good for California?
The "Yogi-Christian" Self-Realization Fellowship was founded in Boston in 1920 by Swami
Yogananda (1893-1952), and today has its international headquarters on Mt. Washington, a hill in Los Angeles. There are meditation groups and centres in over 50 countries. TIME Magazine of August 30, 1963 informs there were about 125,000
members at the time, and one-third of them in California. In the late 1970s I was informed in writing from the SRF headquarters that there were hundreds of thousands "all over the world". It is difficult to get information about members from the fellowship, so this little will do for now.
SRF charges only modestly for all their "lessons", including the Kriya Yoga lessons. The California-based society has been headed by nuns over the last 30 years, and appears to be well off. But one third of its monastics left the fellowship's premises around 2001-2002.
You may wonder what went wrong. It pays to seek reliable witness information beforehand to avoid committing to cultish teachings. Such information may be hard to find and assess. Some former insiders may tell things fairly, others are not fair in what they set forth, for various reasons. Basically, it is good not to have studied Yogananda's teachings, far better than having been a victim of them. What some cultist appear to need is trusting themselves. Cult makers often play on insecurity in young and inexperienced ones; that is why.
In the American cult Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) you will find awkward "family" deals that could endanger higher or better forms of living and meditation. It is silly to endanger your future living by getting enamoured by garbage and verbiage.
Genuine and advanced humility may aid sympathetic responsiveness, not unlike sincerity and a strain of good-natured humour. Some modesty is good as well.
Some Inquiry
"In the past year, 40 monks and nuns left QUAG. Why? I called [the fellowship] to find out if this was true, and they said it was, but their reason was: "We live in hard times." So if [the fellowship] is on the up and up, why did that many monks and nuns leave, some who had been there for 20 to 30 years? This is approximately one-third of all the monks and nuns. And why, when I have asked some about their reasons for leaving, are they afraid to talk about it?" - [From an SRF Discussion Board, of May 2004]
Here are some hints: they are Yogananda serves others have to play to catch - and never think that is a good thing to do for one's mental health.
Say to Her, "Divine Mother, I am your child, your naughty child . . .
If you appeal to God as the Divine Mother, She quickly gives in . . .
When you worship God as the Mother . . . you must say, "You are my Divine Mother. You have to forgive me . . ."
You must prove to Her that you want Her alone. You must cry urgently and unceasingly . . .
[Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest [Ak 370, 374-75, 450]]
Yogananda advocates a similar approach toward God the Father too:
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| ""We cannot please all (Proverb)". |
If you fill each moment with desperate inward cries, there is something wrong with you, however. Or if not at the start, then there will be as time goes on. You need to recognise your part in being taken in by foolish practises. Although, if you fill every moment with prayers to the Father and hence find no time for such poor child Mother worship and the like, the solution is not all right. Decide what to do in your spare time yourself. Don't listen to a fool-maker. Even though the guru recognises both an Anthropomorphic Father and Mother God, make it your business to abstain from what is not vital. It is soaring (gliding) inwards in dhyana (contemplation) that is vital, not desperate cries. As you ignore these gentle suggestions, great disappointments may be in store; great and unneeded disappointments. Such "yogic" training is not good for you, or is it?
Why ignore something else Yogananda tells?: Already as a child the coming Yogananda seemed quite fixated on enervating others. In his Whispers from Eternity he shares an experience when he was alone on a beach and sought God in vain for a while, clingingly, as suited his temperament and tact. Then he heard the words: "By being happy, my child, you please me."
This comes close to a line in a song: "Don't worry, be happy", but to be on the safe side, let us just say, "Happy children should not cry and whine."
Humble Pie and Clinging
You yourself may naturally prefer happy, confident children to clinging and humble pie experts that cry far and wide for your attention, over and over and over, never giving you a moment's rest. Yogananda avoids that basic part of proper upbringing and makes a show of clinging emotionalism that may harm and break down some "sheep" of his when they get fixated on a completely unnecessary track of urgent bleatings and unceasing yearning for a mother sheep up beyond the skies. It is hardly practical.
There is a lot more to tell about some of the unnecessary ways of the "mad monk" (Yogananda). Try to decide yourself what to fill your spare time with and avoid transgressing. Have a say yourself. "It is your life", at least live as if it is.
Now the Hindu book Bhagavad Gita is presented as a key
element in their services, ritualistic outlooks and deeper orientations in life.
The Fellowship consists of lay members that are either uninitiated or initiated in
kriya training. The initiates have to be members of the SRF Church. Among Church members some take what is essentially Hindu-monastic vows and become brothers and sisters, that is, monks and nuns. Some old nuns become mothers, matas. The monks and nuns play the role of clergy and administer the movement. There is a whole deal of social conformism strides
within such an enterprise. Some derive a measure of well-being from conformity in a religious
way of shared thoughts and attitudes, and others hardly so.
One thing that seems to be at stake in SRF is fairness as to apostolic
Christianity with its sacrament rituals, practices, and outlooks from the early church, in part as instituted by Jesus, in part as ordained by the apostle Paul, in part as of many pagan religions of the Roman empire. Among Yogananda followers Bible sayings are often interpreted to suit a Hindu over-all outlook by and large. This says that many traditional elements of Christian are downplayed.
Reflecting on and established in this useful knowledge, the sage one may find shelter and live in this world for long, free to resort to the peace of contemplation, proceeding toward inward freedom. [Cf. Yoga Vasistha, Yv 247]
The wider SRF scenario contains staggering elements
Also, the idealist may find he has become ensnared and victim of a masquerade that grows many intrigues. Many problems may grow bigger due to being sworn in as a much obedient member, and informed of certain severe warnings of alarming repercussions if leaving afterwards - life-after-life troubles are included in that scenario.
Hence, it appears the Fellowship sluices non-initiated ones into cultish
belongingness. There are many lessons to learn from cults - perhaps as US Professor Philip Zimbardo lets us in on somewhere - but more against them,
supposedly.
Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) is classified as a cult by some US sources that seem Fundamentalist. Now, there are tense cults and not tense cults. Tense cults tend to look like sects as they "evolve". Speaking of sects, we had to deal with a monastic's statement when writing on behalf of SRF, that they found no fault with Yogananda's guidelines. But Yogananda at times backed off from former statements and changed some of his views, and regrettably, SRF mixes some such statements in the SRF Lessons, without showing the deeper inconsistencies in them. Personal integrity may gradually be at stake in such conditions.
China's ancient fable writer Chuang-tzu (Zhuangzi) once noted that you cannot talk of the ocean with a frog living in a well. The frog is too limited. Those who conform to cramped, indoctrinated conditions and support the cult, may suffer from both severely limited outlooks and much fear. The question is how far they are ridiculed by their superiors above their heads, so to speak.
Zo, (the Spirit-lord) of the Northern Sea, said,
"A frog in a well cannot be talked with about the sea — he is confined to the limits of his hole. An insect of the summer cannot be talked with about ice; — it knows nothing beyond its own season. A scholar of limited views cannot be talked with about the Tao; — he is bound . . . Now you have come forth . . . and beheld the great sea. The Chuang-tzu, 17.1.
Here we take a short look at avatars (god-men) and cult leaders. Let the invitation to show off by
more than big words, stand. [Ebu, "avatar"] [MORE]
In this world, claims of avatarhood signal that lots of respect is asked for. It may
or may not go along with intrigues and bulwarked intrigues that can make followers nervous, tense, and disappointed in time.
Some seem to have overconfidence in their
mission and are able to get disciples through fraud, and thereby create sectarians with many strongly felt problems.
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Literature
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: SRF, 1975.
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main ed.), 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: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Ha: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 12th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1981.
Lik: Evans-Wentz, Walter Yeeling, ed. The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation or the Method of Realizing Nirvana through Knowing the Mind. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1971.
Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
Yv: Venkatesananda, swami, tr. The Concise Yoga Vasistha. Albany: State University of New York, 1984.
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