Paramhansa Yogananda
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Biography
Brij Mohan Sharma , Remembering "Daily Excelsior" 7//2018
To read books on spirituality or spiritual personalities is always rewarding. It is an unfailing source of inspiration and strength.
Hence, I consider myself very fortunate that some forty years ago, one of the world acclaimed spiritual classics, the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, dramatically, found its way into my hands. The portrait of Yoganandaji on the front cover of the book was so fascinating that I was instantly drawn to it. It evoked in me a feeling of delight and exuberance. He looked innocent but fresh and charming. The lustrous magnetism of his eyes was rare and pure. The glow of his face literally radiated joy and divine love. I was instantaneously convinced that the man whose portrait I was holding in my hands was not an ordinary person.
My curiosity to know more and more about him and his life made me rush through the pages of the book. But this hasty exercise was of no avail. I should have read the book more thoughtfully. And, when I did so, it paid dividends. It was perhaps the third reading that made me a little wise about Yoganandaji’s mind and heart.
The predominant feature of Yoganandaji’s life was his unconditional commitment to God. He was totally devoted to Him. He loved God infinitely, more than the loved any one else. His complete surrender to and whole hearted adoration for God had earned him unbelieveable nearness and intimacy with the Divine.
It was also gathered from his Autobiography that the main purpose of his life was not awaken the hearts sleeping in forgetfulness of their Creator. And, to achieve this end, he introduced yoga on a worldwide scale and gave humanity the means of actually experiencing the love Divine.
Born on January 5, 1893 in India, Paramahansa Yoganandaji, after completing his academic studies and spiritual training under the tutelage of his revered Guru Swami Sri Yuketwar Giriji, donned the robes of a monk of Swami order at a fairly young age of 22.
In 1920, just like Swami Vivekanandaji, he began his mission of disseminating the message of yoga and universal brotherhood as a delegate to the International Congress of Religious Liberals held in Boston, USA. He was specially selected for this challenging mission by his Param Guru Mahavatar Babaji, the deathless saint still living the Himalayas.
Paramahansaji made America his second home, and stayed there till his passing on March 7, 1952. He worked ceaselessly, day and night, for almost three decades, unmindful of his health, and furthered the cause of ‘Yoga for the West’. He, indeed, came up to the expectations of his revered Guru, and builtup a bridge of rapport and spiritual understanding between East and West. It goes without saying that Paramahansa Yoganandaji was the first son of soil who took the teachings of yoga out of the Ashrama and Himalayan caves to the doors of common man both in East and West. He made yoga and yogic techniques of meditation globally popular.
Paramahansaji found a very receptive audience in America and his lectures draw large crowds in every major city. Thousands learned his teachings and techniques of yoga and yogic meditation. His followers included householders, scientists and citizens of high standing. Many of his disciples had the deepest experience of God realization. It is they and their successors who have been looking after the two organizations founded by Paramahansa Yoganandaji- Self Realization Fellowship in America and Yogoda Satsangha Society in India. One can find centres of these organizations spread over almost in every city of the globe.
What is yoga ? Yoga is self-realization or oneness with Truth, which is the basis of all valid religions. Any one who applies this science of yoga in his life experiences an expansion of his consciousness. He no longer looks outward for God but turns the attention inward. This makes possible for him to discover a sweeter and more living relationship with the Divine whose children we all are.
This relationship, however, cannot be achieved unless one gets rid of the egoity ingrained within the physical self. The desires springing from the ego and its environments are mainly responsible for our separateness from Spirit. However, the moment man achieves reunion with the Divine through ecstatic yoga meditation, he detaches himself from all such human frailties and dissolves the forces that perpetuate the delusive dichotomy of the self and spirit. Yoga teachings guide the seeker to right action- physical, mental and spiritual- and facilitate uniting human consciousness with God’s cosmic consciousness.
Lord Krishna says : “He who has not controlled his mind and senses can have no determinate reason; nor can such an undisciplined man have belief (in God). The unbelieving man can have no peace; and how can there be happiness for one lacking peace of mind. ” (BG II-66).
Paramahansa Yoganandaji was an apotheosis of yoga in the sense that he had complete control over his body. He used to take only three hours sleep at night, and, at times, could go without sleep for nights together without any fatigue. Such yogis require less food, less sleep and less material sustenance.
Modern science has also discovered the extraordinary curative and rejuvenating effects of yogic mediation on man’s body and mind. It not only rests the lungs and cures the heart but also reins in the ‘restless’ and ‘naughty’ mind, which is mainly responsible for our mental and physical weaknesses.
Paramahansa Yoganandaji virtually brought about a spiritual revolution in the world.He is gratefully remembered for his selfless service to humanity and for the universal truths he taught to the world. His followers regarded him as Premavatar, incarnation of God’s divine love. “By a touch, a word, or even a glance, he could awaken others to a greater awareness of God’s presence, or bestow the experience of superconscious ecstasy on disciples who were in tune”, says one of his closest self -realised foreign disciple.
While concluding, I leave the readers with the following sayings of Paramahansa Yoganandaji :-
“During every little period of leisure, plunge your mind into the infinite thought of Him. Talk to Him intimately. He is the nearest of near, the dearest of the dear. Love Him as a miser loves money, as an ardent man loves his sweetheart, as a drowning person loves breath. When you yearn for God with intensity, He will come to you.”
“The Lord cannot be bribed by the size of the congregation in a church or by its wealth or by well planned sermons. God visits only the altars of hearts that are cleansed by tears of devotion and lighted with candles of love.”
(The author is a former Additional Secretary to Govt.)
Cosmic vision of unity
Paramhansa Yogananda’s Cosmic Vision Of Unity
Swami Kriyananda The Times of India Mar 04 2015
There are new understandings welling up in society , based on the scientific discovery that matter is not solid but is actually a vibration of energy . This is such a revolutionary way of looking at things that we've come to a critical juncture in our thinking. A tension exists between old perspectives, which saw matter only as solid form and new views, which see the world as waves of energy .
One expression of the old view is the thought that we are all separate from each other. In our age, disunity is becoming stronger and stronger.People all over the world are thinking in terms of divisions countries are breaking off from other countries or attacking them; races are affirming their differences; there is opposition among religions, with many saying “mine is the only way“.
There's less thought of what we can do for our neighbour and more thought of what we can get for ourselves. Increasingly , we see people in confrontation.
Yet there's a new worldview coming to the fore, which Paramhansa Yogananda came to help bring a view of the underlying unity of all people, and all things, based on the inner realisation that we are all one with God.
Yogananda's vision of the unity of all things didn't come from putting two unlike things together. It came from recognising that underneath each wave which seems so different, there is the one great ocean of consciousness.
From that inner realisation, Yogananda brought a new understanding of the underlying unity between the different-seeming religions, between science and religion and between cultures that seemed so diverse as to be forever incompatible with one another.
In that spirit, he urged people to build `world brotherhood colonies'.He envisioned these as places where people would come together to help each other, and to work in cooperation not competition. By God's will and grace, I've been able to do that particular work, building seven such communities.
This spirit of universal friendship is something that Yogananda manifested throughout his life. He would show tenderness towards a complete stranger because he lived in the consciousness of seeing God in all beings.
On at least two occasions, hold-up men accosted him with guns. By looking at these men with God's love, and seeing them as his own, he completely changed their lives.
There was also a time when a hungry tiger confronted him in the jungles. Yogananda saw God in the tiger and looked at it with divine love. Rather than springing on him, the tiger rolled on the ground and Yogananda scratched its belly as though it were a pussycat.
In our limited view, we look at things from the outside, which is like looking at the spokes of a wheel from the rim. All the spokes appear to be separate, but when you look at them from the centre, you see that they all radiate outward from the hub and are integral parts of it. That hub is God and the spokes are everyone and everything in His vast creation.
The more we can learn to see life as a flow of unity , the more we'll be able to find what we're all looking for: happiness, love and inner peace. Yogananda came to bring this vision of unity to everyone a vision that he manifested in his words, in his teachings and in the example that he set for all of us.
Teachings
On spirituality
Swami Vivekananda addressed the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago on September 11, thereby inspiring interest worldwide in Indic spirituality . His opening words, “Sisters and brothers of America!“ received a two-minute standing ovation from seven thousand people. The same year on January 5, Paramhansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh.
Because of the groundwork laid by Vivekananda, Yogananda found a receptive audience when he moved to America in 1920. His lecture tours drew large crowds in every major city of America. Thousands learnt his Kriya Yoga meditation technique. The global popularity of meditation and yoga today is perhaps largely due to the groundbreaking efforts of those two great Indian yogi ambassadors.
Yogananda took the inner teachings of yoga out of ashrams and Himalayan caves, and into the homes of people. His close disciples included householders and parents, musicians and actors, scientists and businessmen including his foremost disciple, who was a self-made millionaire.
Many of his disciples had the deepest experiences of God-realisation in meditation, traditionally available only to a small handful who were able to leave behind all outward responsibilities. In this, Yogananda was following the urging of Mahavatar Babaji, who he said is “well aware of the trend of modern times, especially of the influence and complexities of Western civilisation, and realises the necessity of spreading the self-liberations of yoga equally in the West and in the East.“ With life becoming more complicated and confusing, thousands are coming forward to learn his Kriya Yoga teachings, not in the Himalayan jungles but in the modern concrete “jungles“ of Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, and more.
Yogananda taught that the principles and practices of meditation are for everyone, and can be integrated into busy modern lifestyles. Meditation brings success and creativity into everything that the yogi does.
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, said that he read Yogananda's `Autobiography of a Yogi' every year, and Jobs had requested that hundreds of copies of the book be given out at his funeral. Other modern successes who have been inspired by Yogananda include George Harrison of The Beatles, the creator of Star Trek TV and movie series and the inventor of the Swype texting app that is on millions of phones, besides many others.
More important than success in one's outward role in life, Kriya meditation practices make true God-communion and saintliness a realistic goal. Swami Kriyananda, direct disciple of Yogananda and founder of Ananda Sangha, was told by Yogananda that, “I can take a few young men of the most restless sort, and let them practice Kriya for two hours every day in the way I tell them, and, without question, in four or five years I can make saints out of them.“
Practised properly , Kriya increases one's concentration, energy and control over life force, and the heart-opening receptivity of grace in the form of divine light and love, inner joy , expanding calmness, the vibration of Aum, and more. Other benefits include better health, development of intuition, ever-growing compassion, selflessness and inner freedom.
Transforming ourselves like the hunter
Nayaswami Devarshi, One Kind Act A Day Could Work Wonders, January 5, 2018: The Times of India
Many people today feel hopeless that their lives will improve, either their personal life or the world around them. The news every day shows widespread religious, cultural, and racial strife; economic challenges for many; and mass migrations of refugees.
Paramhansa Yogananda lived through two world wars and a worldwide economic depression.
The meditation and yoga teachings he shared were tailored for people going through challenges very similar to ours. Yogananda’s life was dedicated not only to helping individuals change themselves, but also to help change the overall consciousness of the planet. These two are closely related. As Gandhiji said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
What can we do? How can we change ourselves? Sometimes it seems impossible. But it’s really very simple. As Yogananda taught, when we act in ways that positively affect others, we also begin to change ourselves. Even when we don’t have a particular quality or tendency, simply acting in that way will begin to change us. People may feel like hypocrites when they act in a manner they haven’t yet developed inside – but right action, by itself, changes the person.
There was once a skilful hunter. He was so efficient at killing birds that he ran out of birds to hunt. When he spied the rare bird, he was so well known in the bird kingdom that they would quickly fly away in terror.
Running out of local prey, our hunter travelled far, eventually arriving at a thick jungle. Hoping to find victims that would not recognise him, he went deep into the jungle. Finally he reached a pond where all varieties of birds were enjoying the water and food. They were especially numerous around a sadhu who was bathing in the pond, lovingly feeding them. The birds were landing on the sadhu’s arms, hands and head, enjoying both the food and the love that he shared with them.
Our hunter, being very clever, hid until the sadhu left. Then disguising himself as the sadhu, he waded into the water, hiding his gun under his fake sadhu robes. As the birds began landing on him, happily chirping and looking trustingly into his eyes, the hunter prepared to spring his trap.
But as he looked back into the soft eyes of the birds, something in him began to change. His previously cold heart was being changed by the loving trust he saw. He discovered that it was far more enjoyable to return love and affection to these creatures, rather than killing them.
The hunter became transformed into a kind, loving friend to all creatures – far from the ruthless killer he had been.
Similarly, our generous actions, first springing from selfish motives or from the desire to change, can develop within us the very traits we are expressing outwardly.
Swami Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, advised his students to “… daily perform at least one specific, conscious, personally selected act of service to our fellow beings.”
Begin that very simple practice now. You don’t have to look far for people who need help. You’ll see how it can change yourself and those around you. Many small ripples of good actions can become a wave of change. It begins with each one of us.
