"Master, my father has been anxious for me to accept
an executive position with the Bengal-Nagpur Railway. But I have
definitely refused it." I added hopefully, "Sir, will you not make me a
monk of the Swami Order?" I looked pleadingly at my guru. During
preceding years, in order to test the depth of my determination, he had
refused this same request. Today, however, he smiled graciously.
"Very well; tomorrow I will initiate you into swamiship." He went on
quietly, "I am happy that you have persisted in your desire to be a
monk. Lahiri Mahasaya often said: 'If you don't invite God to be your
summer Guest, He won't come in the winter of your life.'"
"Dear master, I could never falter in my goal to belong to the Swami
Order like your revered self." I smiled at him with measureless
affection.
"He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong
to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth
for the things of the world, how he may please his wife."1
I had analyzed the lives of many of my friends who, after undergoing
certain spiritual discipline, had then married. Launched on the sea of
worldly responsibilities, they had forgotten their resolutions to
meditate deeply.
To allot God a secondary place in life was, to me, inconceivable.
Though He is the sole Owner of the cosmos, silently showering us with
gifts from life to life, one thing yet remains which He does not own,
and which each human heart is empowered to withhold or bestowman's love.
The Creator, in taking infinite pains to shroud with mystery His
presence in every atom of creation, could have had but one motivea
sensitive desire that men seek Him only through free will. With what
velvet glove of every humility has He not covered the iron hand of
omnipotence!
The following day was one of the most memorable in my life. It was a
sunny Thursday, I remember, in July, 1914, a few weeks after my
graduation from college. On the inner balcony of his Serampore
hermitage, Master dipped a new piece of white silk into a dye of ocher,
the traditional color of the Swami Order. After the cloth had dried, my
guru draped it around me as a renunciate's robe.
"Someday you will go to the West, where silk is preferred," he said.
"As a symbol, I have chosen for you this silk material instead of the
customary cotton."
In India, where monks embrace the ideal of poverty, a silk-clad swami
is an unusual sight. Many yogis, however, wear garments of silk, which
preserves certain subtle bodily currents better than cotton.
"I am averse to ceremonies," Sri Yukteswar remarked. "I
will make you a swami in the bidwat (non-ceremonious) manner."
The bibidisa or elaborate initiation into
swamiship includes a fire ceremony, during which symbolical funeral
rites are performed. The physical body of the disciple is represented as
dead, cremated in the flame of wisdom. The newly-made swami is then
given a chant, such as: "This atma is Brahma"2
or "Thou art That" or "I am He." Sri Yukteswar, however, with his love
of simplicity, dispensed with all formal rites and merely asked me to
select a new name.
"I will give you the privilege of choosing it yourself," he said,
smiling.
"Yogananda," I replied, after a moment's thought. The
name literally means "Bliss (ananda) through divine union (yoga)."
"Be it so. Forsaking your family name of Mukunda Lal Ghosh,
henceforth you shall be called Yogananda of the Giri branch of the Swami
Order."
As I knelt before Sri Yukteswar, and for the first time heard him
pronounce my new name, my heart overflowed with gratitude. How lovingly
and tirelessly had he labored, that the boy Mukunda be someday
transformed into the monk Yogananda! I joyfully sang a few verses from
the long Sanskrit chant of Lord Shankara:
"Mind, nor intellect, nor ego, feeling;
Sky nor earth nor metals am I.
I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He!
No birth, no death, no caste have I;
Father, mother, have I none.
I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He!
Beyond the flights of fancy, formless am I,
Permeating the limbs of all life;
Bondage I do not fear; I am free, ever free,
I am He, I am He, Blessed Spirit, I am He!"
Every swami belongs to the ancient monastic order which
was organized in its present form by Shankara.3
Because it is a formal order, with an unbroken line of saintly
representatives serving as active leaders, no man can give himself the
title of swami. He rightfully receives it only from another swami; all
monks thus trace their spiritual lineage to one common guru, Lord
Shankara. By vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the spiritual
teacher, many Catholic Christian monastic orders resemble the Order of
Swamis.
In addition to his new name, usually ending in
ananda, the swami takes a title which indicates his formal
connection with one of the ten subdivisions of the Swami Order. These
dasanamis or ten agnomens include the Giri (mountain), to
which Sri Yukteswar, and hence myself, belong. Among the other branches
are the Sagar (sea), Bharati (land), Aranya
(forest), Puri (tract), Tirtha (place of pilgrimage), and
Saraswati (wisdom of nature).
The new name received by a swami thus has a twofold
significance, and represents the attainment of supreme bliss ( ananda)
through some divine quality or statelove, wisdom, devotion, service,
yogaand through a harmony with nature, as expressed in her infinite
vastness of oceans, mountains, skies.
The ideal of selfless service to all mankind, and of
renunciation of personal ties and ambitions, leads the majority of
swamis to engage actively in humanitarian and educational work in India,
or occasionally in foreign lands. Ignoring all prejudices of caste,
creed, class, color, sex, or race, a swami follows the precepts of human
brotherhood. His goal is absolute unity with Spirit. Imbuing his waking
and sleeping consciousness with the thought, "I am He," he roams
contentedly, in the world but not of it. Thus only may he justify his
title of swamione who seeks to achieve union with the Swa or
Self. It is needless to add that not all formally titled swamis are
equally successful in reaching their high goal.
Sri Yukteswar was both a swami and a yogi. A swami, formally a monk
by virtue of his connection with the ancient order, is not always a
yogi. Anyone who practices a scientific technique of God-contact is a
yogi; he may be either married or unmarried, either a worldly man or one
of formal religious ties. A swami may conceivably follow only the path
of dry reasoning, of cold renunciation; but a yogi engages himself in a
definite, step-by-step procedure by which the body and mind are
disciplined, and the soul liberated. Taking nothing for granted on
emotional grounds, or by faith, a yogi practices a thoroughly tested
series of exercises which were first mapped out by the early rishis.
Yoga has produced, in every age of India, men who became truly free,
truly Yogi-Christs.
Like any other science, yoga is applicable to people of every clime
and time. The theory advanced by certain ignorant writers that yoga is
"unsuitable for Westerners" is wholly false, and has lamentably
prevented many sincere students from seeking its manifold blessings.
Yoga is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts,
which otherwise impartially prevent all men, of all lands, from
glimpsing their true nature of Spirit. Yoga cannot know a barrier of
East and West any more than does the healing and equitable light of the
sun. So long as man possesses a mind with its restless thoughts, so long
will there be a universal need for yoga or control.
The ancient rishi Patanjali defines "yoga" as "control
of the fluctuations of the mind-stuff."
4 His very short and masterly expositions, the
Yoga Sutras, form one of the six systems of Hindu philosophy.5
In contradistinction to Western philosophies, all six Hindu systems
embody not only theoretical but practical teachings. In addition to
every conceivable ontological inquiry, the six systems formulate six
definite disciplines aimed at the permanent removal of suffering and the
attainment of timeless bliss.
The common thread linking all six systems is the
declaration that no true freedom for man is possible without knowledge
of the ultimate Reality. The later Upanishads uphold the Yoga
Sutras, among the six systems, as containing the most efficacious
methods for achieving direct perception of truth. Through the practical
techniques of yoga, man leaves behind forever the barren realms of
speculation and cognizes in experience the veritable Essence.
The Yoga system as outlined by Patanjali is known
as the Eightfold Path. The first steps, (1) yama and (2)
niyama, require observance of ten negative and positive
moralitiesavoidance of injury to others, of untruthfulness, of stealing,
of incontinence, of gift-receiving (which brings obligations); and
purity of body and mind, contentment, self-discipline, study, and
devotion to God.
The next steps are (3) asana (right posture); the
spinal column must be held straight, and the body firm in a comfortable
position for meditation; (4) pranayama (control of prana,
subtle life currents); and (5) pratyahara (withdrawal of the
senses from external objects).
The last steps are forms of yoga proper: (6) dharana
(concentration); holding the mind to one thought; (7) dhyana
(meditation), and (8) samadhi (superconscious perception). This
is the Eightfold Path of Yoga6
which leads one to the final goal of Kaivalya (Absoluteness), a
term which might be more comprehensibly put as "realization of the Truth
beyond all intellectual apprehension."
"Which is greater," one may ask, "a swami or a yogi?" If
and when final oneness with God is achieved, the distinctions of the
various paths disappear. The Bhagavad Gita, however, points out
that the methods of yoga are all-embracive. Its techniques are not meant
only for certain types and temperaments, such as those few who incline
toward the monastic life; yoga requires no formal allegiance. Because
the yogic science satisfies a universal need, it has a natural universal
applicability.
A true yogi may remain dutifully in the world; there he is like
butter on water, and not like the easily-diluted milk of unchurned and
undisciplined humanity. To fulfill one's earthly responsibilities is
indeed the higher path, provided the yogi, maintaining a mental
uninvolvement with egotistical desires, plays his part as a willing
instrument of God.
There are a number of great souls, living in American or
European or other non-Hindu bodies today who, though they may never have
heard the words yogi and swami, are yet true exemplars of
those terms. Through their disinterested service to mankind, or through
their mastery over passions and thoughts, or through their single
hearted love of God, or through their great powers of concentration,
they are, in a sense, yogis; they have set themselves the goal of
yogaself-control. These men could rise to even greater heights if they
were taught the definite science of yoga, which makes possible a more
conscious direction of one's mind and life.
Yoga has been superficially misunderstood by certain Western writers,
but its critics have never been its practitioners. Among many thoughtful
tributes to yoga may be mentioned one by Dr. C. G. Jung, the famous
Swiss psychologist.
"When a religious method recommends itself as
'scientific,' it can be certain of its public in the West. Yoga fulfills
this expectation," Dr. Jung writes.7
"Quite apart from the charm of the new, and the fascination of the
half-understood, there is good cause for Yoga to have many adherents. It
offers the possibility of controllable experience, and thus satisfies
the scientific need of 'facts,' and besides this, by reason of its
breadth and depth, its venerable age, its doctrine and method, which
include every phase of life, it promises undreamed-of possibilities.
"Every religious or philosophical practice means a
psychological discipline, that is, a method of mental hygiene. The
manifold, purely bodily procedures of Yoga8
also mean a physiological hygiene which is superior to ordinary
gymnastics and breathing exercises, inasmuch as it is not merely
mechanistic and scientific, but also philosophical; in its training of
the parts of the body, it unites them with the whole of the spirit, as
is quite clear, for instance, in the Pranayama exercises where
Prana is both the breath and the universal dynamics of the cosmos.
"When the thing which the individual is doing is also a cosmic event,
the effect experienced in the body (the innervation), unites with the
emotion of the spirit (the universal idea), and out of this there
develops a lively unity which no technique, however scientific, can
produce. Yoga practice is unthinkable, and would also be ineffectual,
without the concepts on which Yoga is based. It combines the bodily and
the spiritual with each other in an extraordinarily complete way.
"In the East, where these ideas and practices have developed, and
where for several thousand years an unbroken tradition has created the
necessary spiritual foundations, Yoga is, as I can readily believe, the
perfect and appropriate method of fusing body and mind together so that
they form a unity which is scarcely to be questioned. This unity creates
a psychological disposition which makes possible intuitions that
transcend consciousness."
The Western day is indeed nearing when the inner science
of self-control will be found as necessary as the outer conquest of
nature. This new Atomic Age will see men's minds sobered and broadened
by the now scientifically indisputable truth that matter is in reality a
concentrate of energy. Finer forces of the human mind can and must
liberate energies greater than those within stones and metals, lest the
material atomic giant, newly unleashed, turn on the world in mindless
destruction.9
1 I Corinthians 7:32-33.
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2 Literally, "This soul is Spirit." The Supreme Spirit,
the Uncreated, is wholly unconditioned (neti, neti, not this, not that)
but is often referred to in Vedanta as Sat-Chit-Ananda, that is,
Being-Intelligence-Bliss.
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3 Sometimes called Shankaracharya. Acharya means
"religious teacher." Shankara's date is a center of the usual scholastic
dispute. A few records indicate that the peerless monist lived from 510
to 478 B.C.; Western historians assign him to the late eighth century
A.D. Readers who are interested in Shankara's famous exposition of the
Brahma Sutras will find a careful English translation in Dr. Paul
Deussen's System of the Vedanta (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company,
1912). Short extracts from his writings will be found in Selected Works
of Sri Shankaracharya (Natesan & Co., Madras).
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4 "Chitta vritti nirodha"-Yoga Sutra I:2. Patanjali's
date is unknown, though a number of scholars place him in the second
century B.C. The rishis gave forth treatises on all subjects with such
insight that ages have been powerless to outmode them; yet, to the
subsequent consternation of historians, the sages made no effort to
attach their own dates and personalities to their literary works. They
knew their lives were only temporarily important as flashes of the great
infinite Life; and that truth is timeless, impossible to trademark, and
no private possession of their own.
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5 The six orthodox systems (saddarsana) are Sankhya,
Yoga, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya, and Vaisesika. Readers of a scholarly
bent will delight in the subtleties and broad scope of these ancient
formulations as summarized, in English, in History of Indian Philosophy,
Vol. I, by Prof. Surendranath DasGupta (Cambridge University Press,
1922).
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6 Not to be confused with the "Noble Eightfold Path" of
Buddhism, a guide to man's conduct of life, as follows (1) Right Ideals,
(2) Right Motive, (3) Right Speech, (4) Right Action, (5) Right Means of
Livelihood, (6) Right Effort, (7) Right Remembrance (of the Self), (8)
Right Realization (samadhi).
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7 Dr. Jung attended the Indian Science Congress in 1937
and received an honorary degree from the University of Calcutta.
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8 Dr. Jung is here referring to Hatha Yoga, a
specialized branch of bodily postures and techniques for health and
longevity. Hatha is useful, and produces spectacular physical results,
but this branch of yoga is little used by yogis bent on spiritual
liberation.
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9 In Plato's Timaeus story of Atlantis, he tells of the
inhabitants' advanced state of scientific knowledge. The lost continent
is believed to have vanished about 9500 B.C. through a cataclysm of
nature; certain metaphysical writers, however, state that the Atlanteans
were destroyed as a result of their misuse of atomic power. Two French
writers have recently compiled a Bibliography of Atlantis, listing over
1700 historical and other references.
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