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Paramahansa Yogananda (Bengali: পরমহংস যোগানন্দ Pôromohôngsho
Joganondo, Sanskrit: परमहंस योगानंद Paramahaṃsa Yogānaṃda;
January 5, 1893–March 7, 1952), born Mukunda Lal Ghosh (Bengali:
মুকুন্দ লাল ঘোষ Mukundo Lal Ghosh), was an Indian yogi and guru
who introduced many westerners to the teachings of meditation
and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a Yogi.[1]
Contents
Biography
Youth
Yogananda at age six
Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India into a
devout Bengali family.[2] According to his younger brother,
Sananda,[3] from his earliest years young Mukunda's awareness
and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary. In
his youth he sought out many of India's Hindu sages and saints,
hoping to find an illuminated teacher to guide him in his
spiritual quest.[4]
Yogananda's seeking after various saints mostly ended when he
met his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, in 1910, at the age of
17. He describes his first meeting with Yukteswar as a
rekindling of a relationship that had lasted for many lifetimes:
We entered a oneness of silence; words seemed the rankest
superfluities. Eloquence flowed in soundless chant from heart of
master to disciple. With an antenna of irrefragable insight I
sensed that my guru knew God, and would lead me to Him. The
obscuration of this life disappeared in a fragile dawn of
prenatal memories. Dramatic time! Past, present, and future are
its cycling scenes. This was not the first sun to find me at
these holy feet![5][6]
Later on Sri Yukteswar informed Yogananda that he had been sent
to him by Mahavatar Babaji for a special purpose.[7]
After passing his Intermediate Examination in Arts from the
Scottish Church College, Calcutta, in June 1915, he graduated
with a degree similar to a current day "Bachelor of Arts" or
B.A. (which at the time was referred to as an A.B.), from the
Serampore College, a constituent college of the University of
Calcutta. This allowed him to spend time at Yukteswar's ashram
in Serampore. In 1915, he took formal vows into the monastic
Swami Order and became 'Swami Yogananda Giri'.[8] In 1917,
Yogananda founded a school for boys in Dihika, West Bengal that
combined modern educational techniques with yoga training and
spiritual ideals. A year later, the school relocated to Ranchi.[9]
This school would later become Yogoda Satsanga Society of India,
the Indian branch of Yogananda's American organization.
Move to America
In 1920, he went to the United States aboard the ship City of
Sparta, as India's delegate to an International Congress of
Religious Liberals convening in Boston. That same year he
founded the Self-Realization Fellowship to disseminate worldwide
his teachings on India's ancient practices and philosophy of
Yoga and its tradition of meditation. For the next several
years, he lectured and taught on the East coast and in 1924
embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour. Thousands came to
his lectures.[10] The following year, he established in Los
Angeles, California, an international headquarters for
Self-Realization Fellowship, which became the spiritual and
administrative heart of his growing work. Yogananda was the
first Hindu teacher of yoga to make his permanent home in
America, living there from 1920-1952.[citation needed]
Visit to India, 1935-6
In 1935, he returned to India to visit Yukteswar and to help
establish his Yogoda Satsanga work in India. During this visit,
as told in his autobiography, he met with Mahatma Gandhi, the
Bengali saint Anandamoyi Ma, Nobel winning physicist
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, and several disciples of
Yukteswar's Guru Lahiri Mahasaya.[11] While in India, Yukteswar
gave Yogananda the monastic title of Paramhansa (the spelling
was later changed to 'Paramahansa').[12] Paramahansa means
"supreme swan" and is a title indicating the highest spiritual
attainment.[13][14] In 1936, while Yogananda was visiting
Kolkata, Yukteswar died in the town of Puri.
Death
After returning to America, he continued to lecture, write, and
establish churches in Southern California. In the days leading
up to his death, he began hinting that it was time for him to
leave the world.[15] On March 7, 1952, he attended a dinner for
the visiting Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Binay Ranjan Sen and
his wife at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. At the conclusion
of the banquet Yogananda spoke of India and America, their
contributions to world peace and human progress, and their
future cooperation,[16] expressing his hope for a "United World"
that would combine the best qualities of "efficient America" and
"spiritual India."[17] According to two eyewitnesses — long-time
disciples Swami Kriyananda and Daya Mata — as Yogananda ended
his speech, he read from his poem My India, concluding with the
words "Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God—I
am hallowed; my body touched that sod".[16][18] At the very last
words, he slid to the floor,[16] dead from a heart attack.[19]
Kriyananda wrote that Yogananda had once stated in a lecture, "A
heart attack is the easiest way to die. That is how I choose to
die."[16]
Teachings
Yogananda taught his students the need for direct experience of
truth, as opposed to blind belief. He said that “The true basis
of religion is not belief, but intuitive experience. Intuition
is the soul’s power of knowing God. To know what religion is
really all about, one must know God.”[20]
Echoing traditional Hindu teachings, he taught that the entire
universe is God's cosmic motion picture, and that individuals
are merely actors in the divine play who change roles through
reincarnation. He taught that mankind's deep suffering is rooted
in identifying too closely with one's current role, rather than
with the movie's director, or God.
He taught Kriya Yoga and other meditation practices to help
people achieve that understanding, which he called
self-realization:
Self-realization is the knowing in all parts of body, mind, and
soul that you are now in possession of the kingdom of God; that
you do not have to pray that it come to you; that God’s
omnipresence is your omnipresence; and that all that you need to
do is improve your knowing.[22]
Kriya Yoga
Kriya Yoga is a set of yoga techniques that are the main
discipline of Yogananda's meditation teachings. Kriya Yoga was
passed down through Yogananda's guru lineage — Mahavatar Babaji
taught Kriya Yoga to Lahiri Mahasaya, who taught it to his
disciple Yukteswar, Yogananda's Guru. Because of ancient yogic
injunctions, "the actual technique must be learned from a
Kriyaban or Kriya Yogi", according to Yogananda.[23] He gave a
general description of Kriya Yoga in his Autobiography:
The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve,
upward and downward, around the six spinal centers (medullary,
cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexuses) which
correspond to the twelve astral signs of the zodiac, the
symbolic Cosmic Man. One-half minute of revolution of energy
around the sensitive spinal cord of man effects subtle progress
in his evolution; that half-minute of Kriya equals one year of
natural spiritual unfoldment.[24]
Autobiography of a Yogi
In 1946, Yogananda published his life story, Autobiography of a
Yogi. It has since been translated into twenty-five languages.
In 1999, it was designated one of the "100 Most Important
Spiritual Books of the 20th Century" by a panel of spiritual
authors convened by Philip Zaleski and HarperCollins
publishers.[25]
Autobiography of a Yogi describes Yogananda's spiritual search
for enlightenment, in addition to encounters with notable
spiritual figures such as Therese Neumann, Anandamoyi Ma,
Mohandas Gandhi, Nobel laureate in literature Rabindranath
Tagore, noted plant scientist Luther Burbank (the book is
'Dedicated to the Memory of Luther Burbank, An American Saint'),
famous Indian scientist Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose and Nobel
Prize winning physicist Sir C. V. Raman.[26]
Bodily incorruptibility
As reported in Time Magazine on August 4, 1952, Harry T. Rowe,
Los Angeles Mortuary Director of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Cemetery in Glendale, California where Yogananda's body was
embalmed,[27][28] stated in a notarized letter:
The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of
Paramahansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our
experience.... No physical disintegration was visible in his
body even twenty days after death.... No indication of mold was
visible on his skin, and no visible drying up took place in the
bodily tissues. This state of perfect preservation of a body is,
so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one....
No odor of decay emanated from his body at any time....
An article in the Skeptic's dictionary states that Rowe's
statement, was accurate but incomplete. Rowe also mentioned that
"he observed a brown spot on Yogananda's nose after 20 days, a
sign that the body was not 'perfectly' preserved". The article
states that the claim of a lack of physical disintegration being
"an extraordinary phenomenon" is misleading as a "typical
embalmed body will show no notable desiccation for one to five
months after burial without the use of refrigeration or creams
to mask odors."[29]
Organizational legacy
Yogananda's work is continued by several of his disciples and
organizations. Self-Realization Fellowship, which he founded, is
headquartered in Los Angeles and has meditation centers and
temples across the world. The current head is Daya Mata, a
direct disciple of Yogananda. [30]
Ananda, near Nevada City, California, was founded by Swami
Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Yogananda. Ananda expresses an
aspect of Yogananda's vision for World Brotherhood Colonies, an
idea for spiritual intentional communities that Yogananda often
recommended to his students. At Ananda's Expanding Light Yoga &
Meditation Retreat[31], Ananda yoga is offered as a style of
hatha yoga, which is based on the teachings of Paramhansa
Yogananda and was developed by Swami Kriyananda. Ananda Village
is located near Nevada City, California, with six other Ananda
World Brotherhood Colonies worldwide. Ananda also has centers
and meditation groups throughout the world. Swami Kriyananda
often speaks at Ananda Center in Palo Alto, California.[32]
Song of the Morning Retreat Center, near Vanderbilt, Michigan,
was founded by Yogacharya Oliver Black, a direct disciple of
Yogananda. The retreat center offers classes on yoga and
meditation and hosts programs featuring visiting spiritual
teachers.[33]
The Center for Spiritual Awareness, located in Lakemont,
Georgia, was founded by Roy Eugene Davis, a direct disciple of
Yogananda. The CSA publishes books and audio cassettes, and
offers meditation seminars at its retreat center headquarters on
a voluntary donation basis.[34]
See also: Yogoda Satsanga Society of India
Noted disciples
The members of this list were drawn from Yogananda's Journey to
Self-Realization, unless otherwise noted.[35]
* Dr. Lewis, 1920 Boston
* Sister Gyanamata, 1924 Seattle
* Tara Mata, 1924 San Francisco
* Kamala Silva, 1925[36]
* Hamid Bey, 1927[37]
* Swami Premananda 1928[38]
* Durga Mata, 1929 Detroit
* Yogacharya Oliver Black,1930 Detroit[39]
* Daya Mata, 1931 Salt Lake City
* Rajarsi Janakananda, 1932 Kansas
* Rev. John Lawrence, 1933 Washington DC[40]
* Yogi Babacar Khane, 1935 [41]
* Daniel Boone, 1945[42]
* Norman Paulsen, 1947 Los Angeles, [43]
* Swami Kriyananda, 1948 Los Angeles[44]
* Roy Eugene Davis, 1949 Los Angeles [45]
* Bob Raymer, 1951[46]
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