The T-angle Arm Rest in the Aum technique:
Chanting the mantra Om is a common fundamental meditation practice (japa yoga) in Indian religions. It is used in many Eastern faiths. It is said to be the first sound. There is a lot about it in the Upanishads.
Now with reference to the body. Let a man meditate on the udgîtha as the breath (in the mouth), for he goes sounding Om
This entry is about the SRF version.
They do not actually chant om but instead plug their ears and listen to the sounds in their right ear.
This T-Angle armrest is a board with a handle used to rest your arms on while listening to the aum sound in your plugged ears. You are supposed to be able to hear it in your Right ear. The aum is a cosmic sound of creation. According to Yogananda it is the "Holy ghost" as in "Father, Son, Holy ghost". This claim does not seem to be supported by the Vedas (or the Bible either but more about that below). If you listen you can hear the om which is kind of like the holy ghost whispering in your ear. Since God didn't make us with a built in arm rest we were compelled to use this board when practicing this technique.
SRF did not want us to bring these boards to Sunday group meditations or use them in public places. Therefore we proudly snuck around with them, to conceal them from public view.
disassembles for easy handlingAs with every technique you first pray to the Gurus of SRF before starting. To do this technique you put your thumbs in your ears and your pinkies on your eyelids, then you hum "om" inwardly without moving your mouth or tongue.
stick your thumbs in your ears, keep your mouth still, pinkie on the eyes and be careful where you position that arm rest handle
All I ever heard was the pressure building up on my eardrum, movement of my fingers, buzzing tinnitus and the pulse in my thumb culminating in a symphony of thumping and ringing that MIGHT have been a ghost for all the popping and racket going on. If I tried harmonizing with it I could imagine it was an om sound. If I really tried and really, really, really believed....
According to the SRF lessons with the "help of your Guru" you will feel the om sound as the rotating of the Earth and all of the feet walking on it and cosmic space! So maybe that is what all the noise was about, I don't know...
Yogananda says it is "the comforter" but I never found the technique very comforting.
Yogananda sites passages from the Biblical book of Revelation as referring to the Aum sound. I'm guessing he never actually read Revelations and possibly not the Upanishads either.
Even the bad review John of Patmos gives the lukewarm Asian Laodicean Church (Revelation 3:14-22) is considered "proof" to Yogananda of the unity of East and West via the om sound.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.
John sitting on the volcanic island of Patmos writing about what is wrong with every church in the area.
7 Churches of The Revelation
Actual Ruins of the city of Laodicea
Solid Proof that you should put your thumbs in your ears
Ommm....
This is an example of Yogananda taking things out of context and repackaging them. These little 'holy snippets' he presents in the SRF lessons are out of context and his interpretations don't mean squat. There was no Holy Ghost mentioned or even implied in the Upanishads and there was no Om mentioned or even implied in the book of Revelations.
Anyone who takes a minute to read either book can see that there is zero unity between the two.
I do not have an opinion as to what the om is or isn't. Maybe some people can hear it when they stick their thumbs in their ears. I do not have an opinion of what the holy ghost is or isn't, you would have to ask a theologian. I do know that the stuff Yogananda is putting out there in the lessons as "proof" is totally nonsense.
This technique is actually a short term sensory deprivation technique.
People experiencing sensory deprivation often report perceptual disturbances such as hallucinations, especially over extended periods of time. However, there is little evidence concerning short-term sensory deprivation and whether its effects differ depending on the individual concerned, and in particular their proneness to psychosis. This study explored whether perceptual disturbances could be elicited by a brief period of complete isolation from sound and vision in both highly hallucination prone and nonhallucination prone groups. Greater psychotomimetic experiences taking the form of perceptual disturbances, paranoia, and anhedonia were found across both groups when under sensory deprivation. In addition, hallucination-prone individuals experienced more perceptual disturbances when placed in short-term sensory deprivation than nonprone individuals. This result is discussed in terms of difficulties in source monitoring as a possible mechanism involved in proneness to hallucinations.
Peace and Best Wishes,
Katie
I hope you follow my blog as well. Anyways, I think there is a link to my email addy. I'd like to know why you left SRF., also, do you feel adrift at all? It took me years to recover leaving SRF and eventually finding peace in Christ. Very curious to read your stuff.
ReplyDeleteHi Debra,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy your blog. I love the entry about the Kriya initiation and also there was one a while back about serving at the crypt which was very funny! I encourage anyone reading here who is interested in what goes on at SRF to visit Debra's blog. She writes on a variety of subjects from a Christian perspective. There are many SRF related stories mixed in with the other subjects. She was in SRF for 30 years and has a great deal of insider knowledge.
It is a hard road back from cult life, as well you know, I am so glad to hear that you have found peace.
Peace and blessings,
Katie
Well, I am a Christian and go to Mass. I love Christ. I got to meditation on weeknights, and I feel the Holy Spirit very strongly. I simply think of Christ, and when they pray, I just pray to Christ and don't mention the other gurus. This group should not hurt anyone who loves Christ. I still believe in the atonement of Christ, salvation from Him alone, and I think SRF is helpful. It is not like Religious Science which does not have a delienation between soul and Spirit. As a Christian, SRF has helped me become a better Christian, not taken away from it.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThank you stopping in to comment.
I don't know if you are aware of this but,
SRF does not believe in salvation through Jesus Christ. They believe he is living in a cave in India with his buddy Babaji.
If you say you feel the holy spirit do you mean you hear the om because that is what SRF says it is.
As a Christian, how do you feel about the other Gurus sharing the alter as equal partners with the person who you say is your savior, son of God?
I don't know how Christians feel about this as I was an actual SRF member and Kriyaban. I took their lessons which are not based on anything that is Christian or Biblical.
If there are any other practicing Christians out there that worship before pictures of half naked hindu yogi-Christs I would be interested in hearing from you.
I am wondering how you pull the two concepts together.
Peace and best wishes,
Katie
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI was wondering for how many years did you practice Kriya? Among the very good points you mentioned another one that I have found no evidence for is The cyclical history concept by Yukteswar Giri in the Holy Science. The whole concept and years that it points to are not supported by any scientific evidence.
However I am not totally convinced like you about SRF being a cult and am still trying to find evidence. The main thing that struck you seems to be the Energization exercises. But it is possible that Paramahansa Yogananda wanted his students to be fit and used the best information available in that day and age and incorporated the intake of life force from nature into those exercises to get what he wanted and combining it with the best health system at the time. Also, both you and someone else in another post talked about finding peace with Christ. If I cannot believe in Paramahansa Yogananda, the Bible seems much harder to believe. In fact reading the Second Coming of Christ did indeed make me believe more in Jesus and helped in my understanding of the Bible like nothing else did.
Hi
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by to comment.
I just want to hit on a couple of points you made.
First, My Kriya card says 1983, so that is when I started. Kriya is an ok technique for meditation but it is not unique and it is not the fast trip to the divine SRF says it is, It is just one ancient meditation technique among hundreds perhaps thousands.
In terms of the energization exercises,
well SRF doesn't say they are just there to help keep your body in shape, do they? There is all of this mumbo-Jumbo around their practice and sanctity. Yogananda didn't give a nod to the actual creators either. I could accept the exercises if Yogananda and SRF would just tell the truth about them.
I believe time is linear, just as it appears to be.
A blogger named Debra, who has a great blog (Turtle Dove) is a former Kriyaban (30 years) and contributer to this blog. She is now a Christian. I have no religion at this time and simply have skipped the middle men and gone directly to God.
The Second coming of Christ that SRF recently published was written 50 years after his death. There is an old version published by Amrita in 1984 that is quite different. I have a copy. It is hard to know if any of it was actually written by Yogananda given the time frame and also his history of using other peoples material.
An important thing to note is that the whole idea of the second coming of Christ has nothing to do with Yoga. In order for Jesus to be the messiah, he would have to return, since he did not complete the prophecy of the messiah during his life time. This is why Jewish scholars do not believe he is messiah. Christians believe he will return to fulfill the messiah prophecy. The SRF book of the second coming attributed to Yogananda only reviews the books of the gospels and it is very inaccurate in their meaning as it does not take in to account that Jesus was Jewish. To actually understand the teachings of Jesus and his disciples you have to study Jewish scriptures (this is what Jesus actually taught from not the vedas).
Now you can say you do not believe in Jesus. You can say you do not believe in Jewish prophecy. You can say you do not believe Jesus was messiah. But you can not say he wasn't Jewish and you can not say he taught from the vedas and Gita instead of Jewish scripture. This is why it is important to actually read and investigate.
Peace and Best Wishes,
Katie