Yukteswar Teachings 4

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Yukteswar Rigmarole

Yukteswar Rigmarole

Travelling a path of illumination, one sees too little at times.

Great Lack of References

You can approach the main ideas of samkhya and other Indian philosophies through textbooks [e.g. Wo].

The Holy Science furnishes no exact references to the Sanskrit texts or quotations the work draws on: neither author nor work(s) are shown. Hence, assessments suffer. It is not according to the common standards of scholars, scientists, and other inquisitive individuals to omit the pertinent source references. The lack of them engenders frustrations when there is a desire to penetrate the mere surface of book assertions.
For the lack of this necessary information, parts of the text are put aside (put in suspense) and go uncommented by me so far. That should be a proper scholarly approach under the conditions.

Method

The author was given his basic ideas to evolve. If he had been given freedom (a hoary yoga aim!) to reject some faulty or dubious notions among those first (or basic) premises of writing, his layout could have become better. Among those "first, defective ideas" we find that "Hinduism" and some of its orthodox philosophies, especially sankhya, seems to hold one unified view, while there are many and very conflicting views in Hinduism - and also divergent sankhya opinions to be found. Hinduism is not unified, no matter what is imagined among "dreamers".
Is it clever to assemble quotes in order to show that a said similarity between Hindu and Christian basic views exists? By selecting serving passages that conform to a fixated purpose, confusing ideas may come next. It is better to sample typical views from Christianity and deal with them as squarely as one can in the first place. If that is done right, it shows up that ancient Christianity does not consider the features of Samkhya or any Hindu system:

[The resurrected] Jesus came to them [his disciples] and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. [Matthew 28:18-20]

Strange Tidings

Yukteswar's approach consists of seeking to show that Hindu and Christian scriptures agree in showing a way out, and how it runs as a rigmarole. He trained his disciple Paramahansa Yogananda for a mission in the West. Some results of Yogananda's work need to be shown, as Yukteswar's teachings and life are embedded in Yogananda's "hive", that is, the church he set up at its publications. The three first aims and ideals of Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) and its California-registered church are:

To disseminate among the nations a knowledge of definite scientific techniques for attaining direct personal experience of God.
To teach that the purpose of life is the evolution, through self-effort of man's limited mortal consciousness into God Consciousness; and to this end to establish Self-Realization Fellowship temples for God-communion throughout the world, and to encourage the establishment of individual temples of God in the homes and in the hearts of men.
To reveal the complete harmony and basic oneness of original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and original Yoga as taught by Bhagavan Krishna; and to show that these principles of truth are the common scientific foundation of all true religions.

You will find that 'God' here means 'Self', Atman. The aims and ideals of SRF are presented on-site. They are also on-line by SRF and at the back of most copies of Autobiography of a Yogi.

Yogananda-changed Tidings

A Confusion Reign

Not just "divide and rule" but just as much "confuse and rule" forms a basis for very much handed-over religiousness that makes one crank. - Tormod Kinnes

What should be noted is that Yogananda first taught that his handed-over methods were scientific, but later modified that outlook somehow when the approach did not work as intended. For example, someone came to Yogananda one day, referring to Yogananda's teachings that doing a million kriya pantings would cause enlightenment and freedom, and said, "I have done a million kriyas, and still I am not enlightened!"
Yogananda replied, "But your attitude was not right!"
As if one's attitude has anything to do with the approach as long as it is done correctly. Now in the chapter called "The Science of Kriya Yoga" in Yogananda's Autobiography we find this outlook:

The ancient rishis [seers] discovered that man's earthly and heavenly environment . . . push him forward on his natural path. The scriptures aver that man requires a million years of normal, diseaseless evolution to perfect his human brain and attain cosmic consciousness.
One thousand Kriyas practiced in 8 1/2 hours gives the yogi in one day, the equivalent of one thousand years of natural evolution: 365,000 years of evolution in one year. In three years, a Kriya Yogi can thus accomplish by intelligent self-effort the same result that Nature brings to pass in a million years . . . withstand the power generated by intensive practice. [LINK]

You should ask where Yogananda got his figures from. Yukteswar writes it takes twelve million years in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita [Bhg] - The man who approached Yogananda with a million kriyas, probably referred to his teachings, without calculating with that Yogananda changed parts of them as he adapted to Americans. It seems that in his early years in American Yogananda taught that about half a minute's kriya (a round) equalled a month's natural development. Later he taught it equalled a year's natural, diseaseless development. In so doing he greatly speeded up the doctrine from "one kriya equals one month's development" to "one kriya equals one year's development". Further, Marshall Govindam explains that after five years in America, Yogananda began to modify and adapt his teachings to the West in order to overcome the resistance of Christians. [MORE]
In this connection, a Catholic professor, father "Matheo", has surfed a part of the SRF literature and concludes that Yogananda "seems to teach the Pelagian heresy of salvation by human effort alone" [LINK].
And yes, Yukteswar's disciple does teach self-help by kriya yoga - that too. But in other places he says devotion is needed along with the kriya techniques (which he simplifed and changed along the adaptation way also). Thus, you not only get the teaching that kriya yoga is scientific and enough for a yogic liberation, or cosmic consciousness; you also hear that it is not enough, and there are further modifications along with that too. The table is set for getting into a thich fog:
The ancient Chinese philosopher Chuang-tzu (Zhuangzi) says, ""He who knows he is confused is not in the worst confusion."

Hindu-administered Christianity?

Yukteswar was asked by the secretive guru Babaji to show a unity between Hindu and Christian scriptures. To this: Disciples of Jesus can have only one Master, himself, Jesus says. And what does that shepherd teach?
First consider that obeying someone who says "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off . . . If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off . . . if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out [Mark 9:46, 47]", requires metaphor-making rather than hypocrisy or stunding fits of madnessover and over. But as it is, neither hand, foot nor eye causes sins, luckily. The outlook of Jesus is all wrong; not just grossly primitive and misleading. Besides, no one should follow self-maiming injunctions. The sane person can seek no unity with that.
Jesus also says that "No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined [Mark 2:22]." Is that so sure? Consider that some do pour new wine into old skins and bottles, and that neither wine nor skins have to be ruined by it. One unsettled question is how old 'old skins' are. Good quality of skins and otherwise helps in ensuring long and good use.
Just don't be bugged by Bible teachings, for Jesus talks vehemently against himself too, as we so often see:

Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." [Mark 4:9]
When he was alone, the Twelve [apostles] and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, "they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!" " [Mark 4:10-12]

First, he says "Let those with ears, hear. Next he says they will not understand anyway. What a waste of "ear-power", time and effort! What a sordid communication pattern he uses. Gautama Buddha, on the other hand, teaches parables to further his message, to help where possible.To study Jesus more here, at the Sanhedrin Jesus says, according to John, "I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. [John 18:20, emphasis added]."
Is that so? In the gospel of Mark he says his disciples were given the secret of the kingdom. In John it is 'secrets', by the way, as if it matters: "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them [Matthew 13:11]."
He explained parables to disciples, but not to outsiders. He did say things in secret, then.
In the fifteenth chapter of Acts the apostles and the Holy Spirit put aside almost any command of Jesus in order to favour Gentile Christians. You have to ask why, for if his commands were right far and wide, and he wanted all peoples to follow them, they would matter more than that.

The Healty Sinner Finds Unresolved Christianity Issues

Jesus never tired of claiming he wanted to save God's people, and often used Old Testament prophets to "legitimise his business". However, he did not refer to all of them, and not to Amos and Hosea, where it says Israel is destroyed, never to rise again. According to such prophet sayings, Jesus was on a wild goose chase most of his life: there were no God's people around at that time.
A saint is a sinner who never gave up, said Yukteswar. At any rate, don't give up. Stand firm, rather. That is the gospel teaching. The yogi book strives to present a harmony and unity with Hinduism that many a Christian pastor and rational human feels it wise to reject. And dogmatic Christianity, just as Yukteswar does in his bood, skips many recurrent, conflicting outlooks and issues of very early Christianity. You have just been given one such issue, that of finding God's people when they were dead, according to such as:

"I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel." [Hosea 1:4] "I will crush you". [Amos 2:13] "Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again". [Amos 5:2] "You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against me, against your helper." [From Hosea 13:9,11]" "Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again". [Amos 5:2].

It says "fallen, destroyed, never to rise again". Jesus had no God's chosen people to sacrifice himself for, then, and it did show up he was unwanted, executed as a blasphemer. Now we are onto that early Christianity never was completely cogent, and there are different versions in different gospels about happenings too - and many inconsistencies. And some who seek unity with it, are in for a mess - in addition comes Yogananda's messy verbiage - often on top of gruesome bible inconsistencies.
For example, Jesus at first claimed that salvation came from the Jews [John 4:22; cf. Acts 4:12], and that his mission was for the lost sheep of Israel, and his words were for the chosen people, Jews. (You remember God's people was long gone, according to prophets?). [Matthew 15:24]. Later he wanted to to make disciples of all nations. [Matthew, final verses]. That was after leading Jews had rejected him and had him killed. Jesus changed his Game (Lila) after getting up from the grave, so to speak. But the apostles and the Holy Spirit teach all Gentile Believers to stick to four principles and by that luckily tone down things Jesus insists on in Matthew 5:17-20 etc. One of the four essentials for Gentile Believers is not to eat blood food. (Acts 15; 21:25). Blood food includes black pudding and so on. How few rightly principled Christians there are around, how many eaters of black pudding there are who condemn adultery - one more of the four essentials to refrain from!
This is to say that not just early Christianity has many unresolved issues. Anyway, early Christianity was never very cogent and smoothly functioning, but a growth for centuries, also with conflicting parties. At that time some old texts were discarded, and others were put to use. This happened in part as a result of Gnosticism threatening a dogmatic kind of Christianity. [Dg]
Also, it seems overlooked by many today that Jesus says he came only for ill ones, that the healthy ones did not need him. Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick . . . "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." "For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." [Matthew 9:12-13].
Being fair and true to facts is important, and can be taken to mean righteous in some way too [cf John 4:23]. Jesus here openly says that the people who had fostered him, was a people of sinners, and called it God's people. Here too Jesus disregards that God had crushed his people long ago, according to prophet sayings. Hm. One side of righteousness is that innocent ones are not to pay for misdeeds of culprits. Criminal minds have it differently, and the Law of Moses - it institutes such vicarious sacrifices over and over, and details them. Greatly inconsistent Jesus who said nothing should be changed in that Law, also disclaimed parts of it, allowing Sabbath work also at times.
When he himself is said to be sacrificed to atone for the sins of others, it gets still more debatable, and we meet with vicarious sacrifice again, instead of the less drastic, Law-detailed method of yearly chasing a religiously "sin-loaded" scapegoat into the desert. "Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites". [Leviticus 16:5-10; 20-22; 26 (quotation)]. In the Old Testament Jehovah also lets innocent ones - birds and animals - suffer and die - butchered in religious ways - for the sins of Jews. There was no detailed need for extra harm done. However, in the New Testament he has Jesus treated as a human scapegoat and sacrificed as if by whim, instead of letting a couple of scapegoats "do the needed atonement" as Jahve had instituted in hardness against animals. But the confused, said mission of Jesus failed; the Jews stuck to their handed-over Law much as one might suspect, and saw to it that Jesus was executed. Then he appears to have changed his mind - Anyway, it was really the Father's will to have Jesus killed, Jesus said in the Garden to very sleepy disciples there. [Matthew 26:42]

Jesus says in one place (above) that it is mercy he and God wants, and not sacrifice . . . In psychiatry scapegoating is held to be a neurotic defence. Vicarious sacrifices seem to be for ill individuals. That followers of a sacrificed lamb are sick, is more than suggested by him (above). He also intones, "The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out [John 10:2-4]. Here he presents himself as a good shepherd, and his followers as sheep. Thus "sickly sheep", to cut it short.
One should not overlook that the fate of a sickly sheep may get cruel after some time. Or that Jesus also says in one place that it is best not to be a human sheep by "How much more valuable is a man than a sheep [Matthew 12:12]!" Be that as it may, later millions of Christian "sheep" were slaughtered as martyrs, as part of public entertainment. Find better and humane outlets.
This has been to illustrate that there are unresolved issues in Christianity, and that Gentile followers must err if they put faith in words Jesus said for Jews only before he changed his mind, and before the Holy Spirit and all the apostles disgraced many of his teachings, in Acts 15. The essence of that Gentile deal:

It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. [Acts 15:28-29, emphasis added]

Also consider that much which Jesus said, did not come to pass. For example, his "for Jews only" words were dropped later. His telling of the end of the world did not come when the early Christians and Peter expected it either, it seems safe to say. A simple way to avoid the catastrophe is to let some volunteering nations never hear the-end-is-near-focused gospel. "This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come [Matthew 24:14]." To avert such a Great Disaster is help that other religions give! "The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded [1 Peter 4:7]."
A certain clear-minded take is to put a stick in the cogwheels that bring about the disaster. Also consider in detail, "You may bring salvation to the ends of the earth [Acts 13:47]." The earth is round; there are no ends, hence no end. Hurrah, since that biblical salvation implies destruction of the whole planet.
"The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded [1 Peter 4:7]". That is what they thought, guided by the Holy Ghost? Many early church Christians who became martyrs of public entertainment and so on, were expecting that the end was near, the big end, for they were so taught. Yukteswar does not go into this part of Christianity. He teaches help from yoga. And in essential Buddhism, one Great Treasure is getting clear minded, but on other premises than Peter talked of. Definitely.

Try to become a healthy, fitly evolving human being, not a sickly sheep of conform rudity without end. That is how it should be according to messages of Jesus, who taught against himself too.

Buddhism Teaches Compassion and Other Virtues Also

In Hinduism the scriptures are variegated and outlooks differ widely too; some of them may not be reconciled with each other. Some teach sacrifice, and their yogas may serve as sacrifices, like overdooing the good thing, or not having decent, good methods for diving. Some scriptures speak for sacrifice, others don't. Buddhism has a long tradition for mercy and non-sacrifices, and aims at development too. it is spoken of as "setting the wheel of Dharma in motion", among other things. Dharma means righteousness, but also refers to Buddha's over-all teachings. But since they may have been modified in the hands of disciples before they were put down in writing, a pinch of salt is required for tackling them and the much variegated Buddhist tradition. Aim straight at the source and see what it brings, is the message. Extracts from some of the very best text sources are presented on-site. [BUDDHIST TEACHINGS]
There are many gems in Hinduism too. The powerful appeal of Transcendental Meditation (TM) lies in part in its stand that one is not to deprive oneself of valuable contacts, assets, abilities, and further.
A sheep's approach is at odds with being enabled to inspect and not believe blindly.
The sort of samkhya (Hindu philosophy) Yukteswar delves into in the work, is not found in many regular sankhya sources. So what Yukteswar presents as samkhya thinking, does not conform wholly to common sankhya.

Lack of Source References

A deep work may suffer from lack of good texts to compare with. However, in this text it is possible, and there has been a need to point out dubious calculations and missing, vital information. The publishers should set to work and find the passages the author has assembled and present all needed references so that the work conforms to common scholarschip standards of today. That might do good.

Literature

SECTION

First Page

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Links

Sailendra Das Gupta: Kriya Yoga and Sri Yukteswar

Literature

Ak: Yogananda, Pa.: Man's Eternal Quest. SRF. Los Angeles, 1975.
   Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Bhg: Sriyukteshvar, Swami. Srimad Bhagavad Gita: Spiritual Commentary. Portland, Mn: Yoganiketan, 2002. On-line at www.yoganiketan.net
Dg: Pagels, Elaine. De gnostiske evangelier: Evangeliene kirken ikke ville bruke (The Gnostic Gospels: The Gospels the Church Would not Use). Oslo: Cappelen, 1980.
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2006.
Ha: Yogananda, Pa.: Autobiography of a Yogi. 12th ed. Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). Los Angeles, 1981.
   Him: Zaehner, R. C.: Hinduism. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. London, 1966.
Hos: Yukteswar, sw: The Holy Science. 7th ed. Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), Los Angeles, 1972.
   Ins: Prabhavananda, sw: The Spiritual Heritage of India. 2nd ed. Vedanta. Hollywood, 1969.
Ith: Flood, Gavin: An introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 1996.
Mux: Bühler, G. tr: The Laws of Manu. Banarsidass (Reprint from Oxford University's 1886-edition). Delhi, 1984.
   Pa: Yogananda, Pa.: Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). Los Angeles, 1971.
Say: Yogananda, Pa.: Sayings of Yogananda. Self-Realization Fellowship. Los Angeles, 1958.
   Scf: Yogananda, Pa.: Scientific Healing Affirmations. Self-Realization Fellowship. Los Angeles, 1958.
   Scp: Yogananda, Pa.: The Science of Religion. Self-Realization Fellowship. Los Angeles, 1953.
   Sf: Klaus K. Klostermaier: A Survey of Hinduism. State University of New York Press. Albany, N.Y, 1989.
Sob: Self-Realization Fellowship: Paramahansa Yogananda in Memoriam. SRF. Los Angeles, 1958.
   Viom: Jolly, Julius tr: The Institutes of Vishnu. Banarsidass. Delhi, 1965.
   Wo: Chatterjee, Satischandra and Datta, Dhirendramohan: An Introduction to Indian Philosophy. 7th ed. University of Calcutta. Calcutta, 1968.
Xm: Radhakrishnan, S. ed: The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. 3. Rev. ed. Ramakrishna Institute. Calcutta, 1953.

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