Yukteswar Summary

"incredible reading dude" - C

Perfect Master-Knowledge?

Helping yourself you help the world. - Ramana Maharsi, Mal 99

On the one hand Yukteswar's famous disciple Yogananda claimed a lot on behalf of his guru, maybe too similar to "my father pees longer than yours". On the other hand - it should be good to have a way out for safety reasons - Yogananda also purports such as:

All those that are fully liberated are equal in wisdom . . . They understand everything, but seldom reveal that knowledge. To please God they play the role He has assigned them. If they seem to blunder, it is because such conduct is part of their human role. Inwardly they are unaffected . . ." [Spa 24-25; Tms 24]

This is giving a guru carte blanche to fool others too.

Yukteswar

Yukteswar (1855-1936) became a swami (monk) after his wife died. He also became the guru (teacher) of the renowned Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), who stayed in the United States for thirty years. Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi devotes many chapters to Sri Yukteswar, starting on chapter 10. The book is romantic and panegyric.

The church Yogananda started, Self-Realization Fellowship, SRF, publicly announces in the footsteps of Yogananda that Yukteswar is a Jnanavatar, that is, "Divine Wisdom (jnana) in a body (avatar, from Sanskrit 'step down'). [Pa 499-501]. Self-Realization Fellowship says Yogananda's guidelines are "infallible" - the mark of a cult. [More]

So, first they accept Yukteswar as one of unerring spiritual insight and as a perfected master and so on, as Yogananda told - without having met him. Next the guru's cult teaches that Yogananda's guidelines are infallible and his wisdom flawless. Ample evidence is here: [More].

More recently, Geoffrey Falk writes on top of an alarming stay at an SRF ashram in California where one strong lesson is "If you don't like the heat, stay out of the kitchen" somehow:

Each one of the SRF line of leaders/gurus - their "popes" - from Daya Mata back to Krishna, are regarded by obedient SRF devotees as being infallible, and simply "working in mysterious ways" when it comes to any seemingly questionable actions on their parts. I, too, once foolishly viewed them thusly. [▾Link]

Noted

Main lessons of the Sri Yukteswar study include:

Grand-looking appointments that go against reason, are hallmarks of cults or sects, and need to be understood as such.

Counsel reflects underlying attutudes. Cults or sects tend to represent authoritarian attitudes, because the sect leaders benefit thus. Look behind the masks and under the facades to your ability so as not to be taken in, then.

Differences of opinion among Hindus should not surprise you. They can be as great as differences between Hindus and Buddhists or Christians [Ith 5].

Guru teachings of old differ substantially. Gurus spread different nets - or different teachings on yoga, and the philosophies they teach, differ too. Some say sages speak differently about one and the same thing. But that ancient, Vedic teaching does not reconcile everything: Gurus that teach the world is unreal - some do, like Yogananda - do not seem to be lovely aligned with those that teach the world is real, for example Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita: "Those who are demoniac . . . say that this world is unreal." (16:7-8). So here are conflicting teachings in Hinduism too. In passing, it stands out that Yogananda and other SRF gurus cho claim the world is unreal, are demons according to the Gita, which a follower is encouraged to read thoroughly, but so very few tell of such simple findings . . .

The Encyclopaedia Britannica [s.v. "Hinduism"] and Wikipedia [s.v.. "Hindu philosophies"] show that there are many and divergent philosophies and many separate schools of thinking in Hinduism. For example, most gurus nowadays seem to advocate Vedanta. But apart from Vedanta there are five more orthodox Hindu philosophies with their differences. Even though Vedanta now is the most influential of the many schools of Vedanta, it is but one of many Vedanta schools. They differ most of all by how they conceive of the relationship and the degree of identity between the individual Self (Atman) and the absolute (Brahma). These concenptions range from nondualism to theism and dualism (Dvaita).

The best known Vedanta form nowadays is Advaita (nondualism) Vedanta. Historicaly, it started with the thinker Gaudapada of the 600s AD. He built on Mahayana Buddhist philosophy to argue that there is no duality. The Indian guru and thinker Shankara buildt further on Gaudapada's foundation in his Advaita Vedanta teachings . . . Fundamental for Shankara is the tenet that Brahman [Being that is beyond time, space, and causality] is real and the known world is unreal.

Advaita's influence is still felt in modern Hindu thought. [Source: Ebu "Advaita" and "Vedanta"]

Evidence Is Given

Yukteswar's Era teachings do not match dominant views of scientists today. The Garden of Eden ideas of Sri Yukteswar consist of transposing guru views of yoga etc. onto the old myth. All the same, Yukteswar is reportedly not fond of blind believing:

"Many teachers will tell you to believe; then they put out your eyes of reason and instruct you to follow only their logic. But I want you to keep your eyes of reason open; in addition, I will open in you ... wisdom." [Ak 114].

"The allotted authoritativeness of a decree is one thing, how substantial it is is another". Also, our understanding of terse, gnomic sayings depends on how we interpret them too. There is reason to ask calmly, "Everything? Really? But If so, how much will everything improve?" "Will the great wrath of God improve too - Does improvement means increase?"

In The Holy Science from 1894 we have evidence that Sri Yukteswar was told what to end up with though his expositon. In science the way is different. Also, in the book it is told that all religions basically agree. They do not. Not even Hinduism agrees too much "among itself". And where is there room for other Christs in the teachings of Jesus? He goes for slavery, whether you believe it or not, but does not allow other Christs than himself. [Matthew 24:24-25]. Here is what Jesus said yes to through Matthew 5:18-19 - and hence Yogananda, who claims to be one hundred percent aligned to the "original Christianity of Jesus Christ" (SRF Aims and Ideals). What Jesus says yes to, includes:

Not to give occasion to the simple-minded to stumble on the road (Leviticus 19:14) (this includes doing anything that will cause another to sin)

Keep the Canaanite slave forever (Leviticus 25:46)

Accordingly, Yogananda and SRF stand for slavery, and also for slaying "the inhabitants of a city that has become idolatrous and burn that city," (Deut 13:16-17), if it matters -

"Towers are measured by their shadows" - Note these guru shadows for what they are worth, and value crawl-endearing words for what they are worth too. I think you should refrain from crooked talk at least.

Yukteswar teaches correctly that humans have much in common with pigs. Those considerations serve to advocate vegetarianism.

Finally, on this site you find "well-well" thinking advocated, that is, sound reservations against being taken in all too often. The reservations link is atop the pages. "A word to the wise will suffice -"

Literature  

Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. New ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1986.

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]

Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009.

Hos: Sri Yukteswar, swami. The Holy Science. 7th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), 1972.

Ith: Flood, Gavin: An introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 1996.

Mal: Osborne, Arthur ed. Ramana Maharsi and the Path of Self-Knowledge. New ed. London: Rider, 1970.

Spa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda. 4th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1980.

Tms: Self-Realization Fellowship. The Master Said: Sayings and Counsel to Disciples by Paramhansa Yogananda. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1957.



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