My SRF experience

My SRF experience

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Tuesday

Why a Blog?



Why a blog?

Well, to begin with I was playing with the idea to start a blog and before I knew what I was doing, here I was. Blogging.

My story:

In 1982 I joined a group. What I allege to be a cult. A mild cult, but still, a cult. It made sense at the time. There came a time (about 25 years later) when I left the cult. What happened in between and what I have learned about the cult since is the basis of this blog. I have moved on in my life (and I have a great life) but I want to share some of the stuff. Someone might find it interesting or helpful. I am not a writer or an intellectual so this blog is going to be something along the lines of a brain dump.
Thanks for stopping by. I'll try to keep it light and fun.

KD

GRANOLA: fruits, flakes, nuts and culties


I have an invisible stat counter on this blog.

It has been there from the beginning (about six months).

Between 70 and 140 people visit this blog on a daily basis.

 If you send an abusive message one day and then a complimentary  message the next day, I know it was you. The volume of mail I receive of this nature has been quite high. I also get quite a few comments from Yogananda devotees who write an abusive comment on one day and when that doesn't get published, they move on to pretending they are fundamental Christians who are against the Satanic SRF the next day. Why they do this I don't know but it seems kind of immature to me.

Maybe I would understand if I were highly spiritually advanced like them.

I also get a lot of dumb comments.

For instance, I had been getting comments from a Yoganandite in Florida (you know who you are) that are just plain silly, like "What do you have against virgins?" Uh, well, lets see, I don't know, I mean gee, it IS a requirement for sacrifice to the volcano Gods isn't it? 
And the SRF guy in Encinitas with the blog. Look, I know its you because your location and source of entry always appears on the stat summary. Really, don't you have some Guru worshiping to do? 

Seriously, shouldn't some of you folks be groveling in front of pictures of Babaji and Yogananda instead of filling my comment box with idiotic comments and then stopping by 2 or 3 times a day to see if I have posted the comment... You are wasting your precious Kriya time!

SRF stops by fairly regularly. SRF found this blog by googling  'Self Realization Fellowship cult'.  How many churches look for themselves online by googling cult?

(In the following example I removed their IP address and other personal identifying data)




United States

Location:
IP Address:
Entry Page:
Exit Page:
Referring URL:

Los Angeles, California, United States
Self Realization Church
Visit Length:
Browser
OS
Resolution
Multiple visits spread over more than one day
IE 6.0
WinXP
800x600




Search Engine Phrase
self-realization fellowship cult
Search Engine Name
Google
Search Engine Host
www.google.com
Host Name


Country
United States
Region
California
City
Los Angeles
ISP
Self Realization Church

Ananda comes by a little less frequently but enough to give them a big shout out:
 HI GUYS! 




United States
Location:
IP Address:
Entry Page:
Exit Page:
Referring URL:

Nevada City, California, United States
Church Of Self Realization (xxxxxx)
srfcultmystory.blogspot.com/
srfcultmystory.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

I am ok with the fact that both Self Realization inc. and Ananda incorporated are 'enjoying' reading my blog. I am ok with the fact that their members are 'enjoying' reading my blog. I just want you to know that even when you stop by to read or send a comment anonymously, it isn't REALLY anonymous on this end.

 Katienanda knows all, sees all. (kind of, more or less....)


Thanks for reading. Unfortunately, I have turned off the comments for a while so I can go back to enjoying the gift of life instead of being harassed by woowoo's.

Peace and best wishes,
Katie









Monday

The Background scoop

The world can be a confusing place. We want to make sense of the chaos. This is how I came to be in the Self Realization cult.

It usually begins with the reading of the Autobiography of a Yogi. It is a "Spiritual Classic".  Full of much magic and mysticism. Levitating saints, perfume saints, Magic amulets, Astral worlds of fairies and mermaids all blended with real world big names like Gandhi, Luther Burbank and even a U.S. President. You take the lessons for at least a year. All to build you up to the flagship meditation technique, Kriya Yoga! Kriya Yoga is the airplane path to God! Faster than a missile! More powerful than a speeding locomotive!



So this is my starting point. I am a card carrying Kriyaban. By writing this blog I have destined my soul to wander endlessly through thousands of painful reincarnations until my Karma again brings me to the doorstep of SRF. I pledged my eternal loyalty to SRF and it's Gurus in a secret ceremony. Without a "True Guru" my meditation efforts are virtually useless. Without the intervention of Paramahansa Yogananda, God can't hear my prayers or give my heart solace. I should be terrified but I'm not.

If this whole thing sounds ridiculous to you, you are not alone. It sounds ridiculous to me also. Now. But not 25 years ago.

So this is what this blog is about. My journey back to sanity and reason and the stuff I learned along the way.

Peace and Best Wishes,

KD

Sunday

My Guru

Paramahansa Yogananda was , by all accounts, an intelligent, charismatic and charming man. He came to America as a sort of hindu missionary in the 1920's. He taught what he had been taught in his family home and his Guru's ashram. He was something of a Hindi Jimmy Swaggart. Going forth and spreading the word. Developing a following, writing books and a small empire.

There is nothing really wrong with this. Ministers of many religions do this sort of thing all of the time. What makes this story different is that he came to call himself a "Christ". Sent by God to spread Gods "True" message to America. He considered himself to be a peer of Jesus. An Avatar.



Now I don't know if he really believed this stuff or if the whole thing had just gone to his head or if he was a con man, but I think it was a bit of all of the above.

Figuring that American Christians didn't understand their own religion, he commenced interpreting their Bible for them. Never mind that he couldn't understand it himself, he had a league of fresh young Mormon girls to help him with that task (more on that later).

He was a bit of a celebrity personality in America in the 1920's and 30's. Living in a mansion in LA. Groups of young people serving his every need. A number of rich benefactors. Rubbing elbows with the hollywood elite. It was a good gig.

So for me this is where the story begins. I believed he was a Christ. I pledged my allegiance to him. I am a Kriyaban.

KD






Saturday

God and perfection



Personally, I like meditation and centering contemplation. I have been a vegetarian most of my life and I believe my soul will move on to a better place when I leave this body. If you hate to meditate, never met a beer or a pork chop you didn't love and you fear hell and damnation, fine. You are not less  Spiritually "Advanced " than me. We are all pretty much ok just the way we are. Everything I listed above is people stuff not God stuff.
SRF teaches that we are "diamonds covered with mud" and we have to follow a bunch of hoopey doopey laid out by the Organization before God will stamp us with the seal of approval. This is hard to explain unless you have actually been involved in  SRF,  but this whole idea of people walking around without any affect and a pasted on Sunday school smile is not a sign of Spiritual advancement.


Be the best person you can be. Live a healthy life.  All good stuff. The thing is, I have seen really good people who have terrible self esteem after taking and applying these SRF lessons. Here is the deal, the idea is you have to reach "perfection" or "sainthood". This level of "perfection" is defined by the organization. Didn't make it? Well that will be another round of endless reincarnation for you. We are taught that the Guru and the top SRF monastics are "perfect". He wasn't and they aren't.

Since the droids that make up the  membership of the organization don't want anyone to know that THEY aren't "perfect" there is a lot of what my Grandma used to call "Putting on airs". I think you get the picture.

There is also this idea that keeping the Guru on the front burner of your consciousness at all times is pleasing to God and Guru so this alone may get you the coveted "Sainthood" if you can successfully stick with it. Salvation after all comes from the grace of the Guru. People literally apply everything that happens around them to the Guru. Everything. I once was in a room with a group of devotees and the lights (which were on an automatic timer) came on. Everyone suddenly started gushing "Thank you Master!" it was ludicrous.
Thats the other thing. To be a bliss zombie you have to call Yogananda "Master". Pretty creepy stuff, really, but I did it, so I understand the mindset necessary to devalue yourself in this way.
Its kind of like what happens in the mind of victims of domestic violence. It doesn't happen all at once, they slowly work you into submission over time. In SRF you start off with 'just take the lessons. Try it and see what you think'. By the time you get to Kriya (which is the grand prize) you are pledging your loyalty to them for eternity. In between there are indoctrinating lessons, mind numbing chanting, sensory deprivation techniques and groveling before pictures of the Guru.
They also keep members on the hook and boost their egos at the same time by telling them "You must be very Spiritually advanced or you wouldn't be here. You are almost there just keep it up"

If you believe that God made the world then God made you. You are a-ok. Relax and enjoy life. It is a gift.

Peace and Best Wishes,

KD

God, Yoga, love and me


Before I get any further in this story, I want to add a little information about what I believe. I believe in God. I can feel Gods presence in my life. I feel connected to a Universal God. I sing to God. I pray to God. I feel peace in prayer and meditation.  I do not belong to a church or religion.

When I was in SRF they told me I would lose my connection to God if I left SRF. If I abandoned the Guru, God would abandon me. It didn't happen. My meditations are the same now as they were then except now I have stopped obsessing about asana and technique. The party line is that the Guru is a "gift" from God. To abandon the guru and his teachings were like throwing a gift back in Gods face.

 Unbelievably, I bought this.

Scare tactics are a very effective way to keep bliss zombies loyal.

In SRF they think Yogananda is a Christ or Avatar. You can only come to God by way of a "God Realized" Guru. This is a good way to keep butts in the seats. It is my experience that we are all tied to God naturally, we do not need to go through another person to be with God.
There are lots of celebrity names dropped in SRF circles. What do Elvis, Dennis Weaver, James Arnes, George Harrison and Robin Williams have in common? SRF. These people get the red carpet treatment at SRF but they can't keep the organization going all by themselves. Multi million dollar properties and publishing companies don't run themselves. They need elves.

Yoga and Eastern philosophy are great! Meditation is great!...But there is no wondrous meditation technique that is the airplane ride to the divine. In reality there are hundreds if not thousands of meditation techniques. Even the Kriya of Lahiri is available from a multitude of vendors. Some techniques work better for some people than others. Find something you like to do that fits comfortably into your life.

 Contrary to what SRF told us, Yogananda was NOT a special ambassador from God to America, the Johnny Appleseed of Kriya yoga. He was a yoga teacher. A minister of Eastern philosophy. Period. Nothing wrong with that. A teacher is a fine thing to be, but he was JUST a person. You don't need to crawl on your belly in front of his picture.

Now when I was in SRF, people were actually afraid to have children. Afraid to enjoy their extended families. In the time I was there I saw endless domestic dysfunction. When everyone was together, people were afraid to let their warts show. Afraid to be themselves for fear they wouldn't be viewed as "Spiritual" or "advanced". Everyone HAD to be "advanced". Life was viewed not as a beautiful gift but as a thing to overcome. I personally find this very oppressive and restrictive.

So this is what I want to say right now:

Life is gift. Every minute is a wonderful gift. It is meant to be enjoyed.

Love, live, enjoy. Drench yourself in life.

I don't know what happens when we die. I don't know if we reincarnate or go to valhalla with Oden. Maybe we ride unicorns on Hiranyloka with the fairies and gnomes or sit quietly in our graves waiting for the tribulation. Maybe we become ghosts and sneak around scaring the pudding out of little kids. I don't know and neither does anyone else, including "Avatars" like Yoganada. I do think our best evidence comes from the people who come back to life after clinical death. They have been closer than the rest of us and they say it was pretty good, so I'm going with that, mostly because I like it. It gives me comfort. That is the purpose of religion and spiritual beliefs. To give us comfort. Go with the thing that gives YOU comfort.

Peace and best wishes,
KD


Friday

Yogananda and company






Early in his career as a 'Yogi Christ', Yogananda had several business associates.


At one point he did magic and spiritualist shows with Hamid Bey. These types of vaudeville shows were popular at this time.
 Hamid Bey did fakir tricks of the Mystic East such as piercing himself with needles ( this is done by piercing the body in specific areas) and 'buried alive' tricks like Houdini. Yogananda did some traditional Yogi fakir tricks such as stopping the pulse. This is accomplished by putting a ball in the armpit to stop bloodflow. He also did a trick of pushing a group of men off stage by himself. This is a street magician trick performed by pushing up on the first mans arm as he pushes on the magicians shoulders. No matter how many men line up behind the first man they can't get any push. If you want to see how it is done youtube has some great examples. Try googling Chris Angel superhuman. James Randi also shows how these tricks are done on his website. I don't know if Yogananda learned these tricks in India or while working the  Vaudeville circuit.


Eventually Yoganada and Bey parted ways. Apparently Religion pays better than Vaudeville. Bey started the Coptic Fellowship. which continues today.



Later Yogananda partnered with a yogic peer of his named Dhirananda. (He reportedly was the other penniless boy of the Autobiography). Together they wrote the 'Praecepta book' (an early version of the SRF lessons) and Dhirananda allegedly wrote the 'Science of Religion' though SRF has since scrubbed Dhirananda's name from his work. In 1933 they split and Dhirananda sued Yogananda for $8,000 dollars. At the time Dhirananda claimed Yogananda was sexually involved with the young women in the order. It is widely rumored that Dhirananda found Yogananda in a romantic relationship with Tara Mata (Laurie Pratt). 


Dhirananda renounced his Swami title and became a professor of encephlamology at the University of Michigan.  He was a pioneer of cerebral research. Later he married and had two children.  His son, Vanu Bagchi, reportedly said "That's what repulsed him about his dear friend Yogananda. The impression he left with us was that Yogananda was screwing everything in sight."


Later Yogananda partnered with another yoga master Sri Nerode. Nerode and his wife lived at Mount Washington and he ran the operations there. He wrote many articles for the East-West magazine and also contributed heavily to the books and SRF lessons. His son Anil Nerode is the well known Math professor at Cornell University. Eventually scandal again reared its ugly head. The two men parted under ugly allegations that Yogananda was sexually involved with the young women at the ashram. 


Nerode sued Yogananda for $500,000 dollars based on a claim that they had a verbal business agreement. At the time Yogananda did not cooperate with authorities and they had difficulty serving the subpoena. Nerode had no papers to prove he was a partner so the courts found for Yogananda in the financial case.


Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, October 25, 1939:

SWAMI SOUGHT IN DAMAGE SUIT
Determined that he shall not become a vanishing Hindu, process servers were conducting a far-flung search yesterday for Swami Yogananda, Indian cultist accused in a sensational $500,000 damage suit, of amazing goings on with feminine followers.

Aiding in the search was the plaintiff, Nirad Ranjan Chowdbury, also known as Sir Nerode, former associate of Yogananda, who maintains a palatial abode on Mount Washington and also boasts a high class hideaway at Encinitas.

Chowdbury's charges took on a spice not generally associated with the spiritual repose of Yogism as the swami was sought by minions of the plaintiffs attorneys, Harold E. Krowech and Theodorn E. Bowen.


PEACHES HE IS GOD
After pointing out that Yogananda teaches that he is God, or Paramahansa, Chowdbury, Calcutta-born, Harvard educated student of East Indian religious philosophy, alleged that the swami has been for the past year trying to break up the marriage between the plaintiff and his wife, and that Yogananda prevented the plaintiff's wife from having proper care during the pregnancy of her child.
Moreover, Chowdbury alleges that the swami teaches that:

The members of the congregation must not get married because their first love must be to God through Swami Yogananda and that if they should be married that their first loyalties are to Swami Yogananda and not to their spouse.

IRREGULAR PRACTICES

Picturing highly irregular practices in the cult quarters on Mount Washington, the plaintiff declared that the swami has young girls in the immediate vicinity of his room going in and out all hours of the night.

The younger girls are kept segregated from older women, Chowdbury charges, adding:

Young girls have free access to the rooms of said Swami Yognanda and that said Swami Yogananda forbids said young girls who attend him from going out with other men and forbids them to go out at all except with him.

At his Encinitas palace, Chowdbury charges, Yogananda maintains caves and rooms for meditation that are not in keeping with the standard of religious meditation... and that the places of mediation are too secretive and ornate of construction to be used for the purpose of spiritual mediation, all of which is contrary to spiritual practices, contrary to Hindu philosophy and contrary to the purposes and objectives of the partnership.

ROMANTIC TO MERCENARY
Changing from the romantic to the mercenary tack, Chowdbury declared that the swami has used contributions from his cultists to foster his ambitious and private ends.
The plaintiff accused the swami of using the teachings of Yogoda and Hindu Philosophy for the sole purpose of creating a personalized interpretation of defendant Swami Yogananda as a divinity...so as to force upon the members of the congregation and others the interpretations that God talks only through Swami Yogananda.
Chowdbury said yesterday that while a graduate student at Harvard he met Yogananda, who then was lecturing in the East, became interested in the swami's teachings, and was made a partner with the swami in the cult only to be frozen out last January, after the long-haired cult leader had transferred his interests from the East to Los Angeles, where he is said to have attracted as followers scores of Los Angeles women and girls.
PURELY COMMERCIAL
After the freeze out, Chowdbury said he became convinced that Swami Yogananda was engaged at all times in a purely commercial venture for the purpose of his own personal gain, and that his activities had no connection with the true Hindu Self-realization philosophy.
At the cult headquarters, a crisp young woman attache reported that the swami is due back today. He lectured in San Diego Monday night, she said.


Newspaper clipping from another Los Angeles newspaper.

Wednesday, October 25th, 1939
Headline: SWAMI CALLS ACCUSER 'CHISELER'
Even the benign and almost imperturbable calm of a swami has its limits. Last night as Swami Yogananda returned here to find himself facing a $500,000 damage suit filed by Rihad Ranjan Chowdhury [Sri Nerode], who claims a partnership in this Mount Washington cult of Self Realization headed by the swami, that limit was reached.


The dirty chiseler, the swami exploded.


The Hindu mystic who returned here from a lecture engagement in San Diego where he had expounded the benefits of self denial and self control, regained some of his composure and went on.

The charges made against me are scurrilous and without foundation, the result of an underhand attempt to discredit me in the eyes of my followers, he said.
Chowdhury had been driven out of the flock because he was insincere and because he violated our rules. He married a white woman, which is directly forbidden in our laws.
In his suit however, Chowdhury makes it clear he wants to dissolve the partnership because, he said, the swami isn't exactly practicing what he preaches.


He alleged that in a luxurious suite on the third floor of the Temple of Self Realization, the swami keeps himself surrounded by a bevy of likable young ladies who have free access to his boudoir at all times---but aren't allowed to go out with other men at all.


Furthermore, while his flock exists dutifully on substandard diets in line with the self denial theory---the swami dines on the most luxurious foods, he charged.

Chowdhury said sadly that he wants no more partnership with Yogananda, and wants the $500,000 as compensation for the work he has put into the movement.

A. Brigham Rose, attorney for the swami, said he would go into court today and ask to have the sensational charges stricken from the complaint.


 This account was taken from Professor Nerodes autobiography:

My father and mother were married by Yogananda in 1941 in an elaborate pseudo ceremony Wedded by Yogananda on the palatial lawns of the Center on Mount Washington. This was filmed by Fox Movietone News and played on week in all the newsreels in all the movie houses in the country. It was also news in the great papers of India. The Bombay Chronicle, April 26, 1931. There were almost no Hindu-American marriages in that period, although they are common now. I say pseudo ceremony because the Asian Exclusion Act in force in California at the time prohibited marriages between Caucasians and East Indians. The existence of such exclusion laws seems almost unknown to present day America. I have had people deny that this could have been true in the twentieth century! We were not that much ahead of South Africa at that time. The binding ceremony was a civil marriage by a judge in Gallup, New Mexico, which had no such alien exclusion law. Announcement via Associated Press LA Times Wedding Announcement. A careful reading of the news clipping above shows that Yogananda staged and blessed the marriage of my parents as a union of East and West, which he explicitly states he had approved of in advance

In January 1939 Yogananda and my father had a great falling out over a specific incident in Yoganandas unending relationships with young women in the fellowship. He always had them living in quarters directly adjacent to his and away from everybody elses. I remember these young women well, and still have group snapshots of them in the family archives, some of which I have included. But they would never remember a ubiquitous small person wandering the halls.

Yogananda liked to dress them in gauze-like material and exotic scents and nothing else, and with a recorded Indian musical accompaniment, have them strip and enter a perfumed bubble bath, after which he performed various supposedly traditional religious ceremonies. This was very Californian, but definitely not part of any Yoga tradition, and the foundation Yogis were scandalized. Yogis then were usually straitlaced Easterners, not liberal Westerners.

What is funny is the changing reaction to this story over the six decades that have passed since. In 1939 it was a scandal, in the 1960s the younger people thought that it was natural and appropriate that the spiritual and they were integrated, in the 1990s it has been perceived as an abuse of power. Peoples attitudes do change! As the senior Yogi there, my father spoke to Yogananda. He did not take to remonstrance from my father or any fellow Yogis. The impression was that he believed by this time that he was so annointed that, whatever his conduct; it had automatic approval by Divine Providence. To me, it sounded just like the Catholic Papa; indulgences, or the infallibility of the Pope in doctrinal matters.

The prospect of this aquatic initiation ceremony by the great man so terrified one eighteen year old that she asked my mother to ferry her home by car off the hill. There was no public transportation, and it was quite a hike. My mother did, and Yogananda was apoplectic. Sixty hears later my mother called on the womans family while visiting Los Angeles. They still expressed gratitude for the removal. The incident was the cause of my fathers split from Yogananda in January 1939. I am probably the only one alive under 90 who would attest by eyesight and ear to the truth of such stories about Yogananda. But who cares about the ancient memories of small children when they conflict with religious canon?

My father was a completely impractical and otherworldly Yogi. He had been told by Yogananda from the beginning that the whole Center was a partnership with him, so he sued to dissolve the partnership and recover $500,000 in assets so that he could found a new Yoga fellowship based on equality and without questionable practices. This suit made no sense whatsoever. He did not know what a partnership is a legal entity. The foundation was a non-profit corporation. There are not partners. Asking for a cash settlement made my father look venal, rather than principled, thought his conscious choice of a life as an itinerant Yogi refutes this.

Yogananda hired a famous and very expensive California criminal attorney anyway, A. Brigham Rose Rose and Allegations for the case, so he was certainly worried. My fathers lawyer put the source of the split, the allegations of sexual misconduct, into papers filed for the suit. If these papers had been held private, this would have constituted pressure to force Yogananda back onto a true path, since Yoganandsa would not want them made public in court. My fathers lawyer was so incompetent that the did not realize that court reporters routinely read all filed papers. They saw their chance for a scoop. The allegations of sexual misconduct with a bevy of very young girl disciples were front-page news in the Los Angeles papers "Dodging a Subpoena". My father confirmed the details when interviewed; having no other choice if he wanted to remain credible.

Yogananda concluded from the publicity that my father was out to destroy him, and the breach between Yogananda and my father changed the relation from brotherhood to lifelong animosity.

Yogananda now announced that it was against the rules of his order for Hindus to marry white women. So much for racial tolerance dirty chiseler. This, even though eight years earlier he said he gave prior approval and had married my parents himself in a Fox Movietone newsreel orchestrated by him and shown in all the movie theatres in the country! So much for principles.

That was the end of our connection with Yogananda. There was no one in the Center willing to corroborate for the Newspaper reporters either my fathers assertion of an oral partnership, or of the indiscretions. The young women involved did not want publicity. Many others needed to protect a comfortable life style threatened by public spectacle. The suit was summarily dismissed, and the scandal dropped out of the newspapers. Putting that stuff in papers available to the press was a lawyers mistake, not an attempt to destroy the Center. The sexual misconduct was irrelevant to the case at hand.

Sexual misconduct would have been relevant if the courts had been asked to remove Yogananda as unfit to run a non-profit religious Foundation, but my father had no intention of filing such a suit. He hoped Yogananda would straighten up. He was his former best friend. Although Yogananda and his lawyers accused my father of libel and slander for accusations of sexual misconduct in several published interviews, they never made any attempt to clear Yoganandas name by filing a suit for defamation of character against my father. This is probably because the headline-making allegations, while irrelevant to the case at hand, did have corroborating witnesses, former students of Yogananda who had eventually fled the Center, and would have been forced to testify. My father clammed up after that. Some of these women are now elderly but still alive and still angry.

My father felt that the publicity he had generated had damaged the reputation of the few East Indians in the country at the time, particularly the other Yogis he knew, and he wanted the publicity to go away."

After this Yogananda had no more partners.

SRF Meditation techniques (Part one)


PART ONE:

Before an SRF member can receive “Kriya Yoga” and get aboard that big ol’ Concorde astral plane to the divine. They need to go through a number of lessons and levels.

The quest begins at the first level: Step 1


The student has to agree not to share the super secret contents of the SRF lessons with anyone before he can get the secret Guru decoder ring (I am making up the part about the ring). Then, within a few weeks the lessons start coming in the mail.

The newbie devotee learns basic meditation techniques, asana and is given some fundamental pep talks to get started. Most of this stuff is fairly universal in the world of Yoga. On the second page of lesson one the newbie is told that he should look to the Gurus as perfect examples to follow  (The Guru worship indoctrination comes out with a one-two punch in the first round). It also says that the student is a “Potential child of God” Good to know I have potential but I thought I was born a “Child of God” oh, well….on to the next lesson…

We are told to pick the “Best” path and stick with it and of course the “Best“ path is the one they are selling. To put this whole thing in historical perspective I came of age at a time that every pop culture Icon had a Guru. Every airport had a band of tambourine thumping, crazy dancing Hare Krishnas. Every city park had a screaming, Itinerant, drug addled preacher standing on a soapbox. 
It was a strange time. The "Best" path was highly subjective.

Then comes the art of energization


I have a few things to say on this subject so get comfy.

First of all, I am a fairly fit and athletic person but I didn’t really like doing these exercises. I thought they were boring and tedious, but I did them.

Many people skipped the exercises before meditation. In fact this may be a good place to point out that in the quarter century I was in SRF, I never met one person who did the entire SRF routine of exercises, Hong sau, Aum, Kriya and the mudra every morning and evening and actually liked doing it. No one I knew ever ran home from work everyday excited to do their 2 hour meditation routine. People would SAY how great it all was, but their actions told a different story. Typically what I saw were people who would rather be doing almost anything else. I remember one lady who did the whole routine and spent her Saturdays in 6 hour meditations. She told me “those exercises are the biggest test”. It was like the Catholic priests who wear scratchy horsehair undies as an act of penance. Kind of an Opus Dei thing.


 If you were serious about making progress though, you had to do the exercises to whip your astral body into shape.  Lots (and I mean LOTS) of SRF people cut their meditations down to the minimum. This is why talking about how great the Gurus are is so important to the faithful. Just keeping the Guru in your thoughts at all times means you are loyal. This is thought to make up for your shortcomings in the meditation arena. Members put their time into activities like music, walking, reading, movies, art, computers and service. Then they tell themselves they are doing the activities for God so they justify not doing the meditation routines. 
I am totally 100% in sync with that thinking but alas it isn’t what the Guru teaches is it?

Now you might be thinking “Sure KD, but Master said ACTIVITY plus Meditation”.  Well, I say review the lessons. He wasn’t talking about replacing his program with recreation.

Anyway, in 1916 Yogananda discovered these exercises. The way SRF makes it sound you would think God delivered them to him express mail but in reality there is more to the story.

This is something that really made me angry when I first learned about it. Remember, I had been doing these tedious exercises for 25 years.

By ‘discovered’ they mean ‘ripped off’. 


Turns out Yogananda and Dhirananda had some books by Ironmen such as JP Muller, Sandow (who visited India in 1904) and Tom Inch.

J.P. Muller
1904

Ironically after I discovered (in the actual sense of the word) this information, I found out from my mom that my grandfather had been a mail order student of one of these Sandow ironmen exercise series. The revelation had been available to me all along if I had just shared the super secret exercises with my mom.

The most telling of the Ironman books were the Tom Inch series. Tom Inch was a physical culturist from the UK. His series was available in England and by association India. Apparently, Yoganadas brothers Bishnu Ghosh (teacher of Bikram Choudhury) and S. Ghosh studied the lessons of Tom Inch and other Ironmen under the direction of their Guru. There were special books available only to Tom Inch students including Nerve Force in Relation to Physical culture and the book Pyscho-Physical culture which was available only to people signed up for the Inch lessons. Reasoning (correctly) that Americans would not be knowledgeable about these exercises Yogananda lifted the material for his lessons and ‘ How to Live’ booklets.

Weightlifters

S. Ghosh and B. Ghosh
(Photos taken in 1930)


Their Guru
Guha Thakurta

Now, I am not saying that the works of Tom Inch and Sandow were not good material. I am not saying that a person couldn't benefit from their practice. 
I am saying that Yogananda was deceptive about the origins of the material. I did these exercises in good faith thinking they were some special lessons from God sent by a God realized Avatar.  Turns out, you could get the same stuff from an Ironman book and Tom Inch didn’t expect you to grovel at his feet with fruit and flowers. Plus Yogananda selected the easiest, most boring and least effective exercises.
Just get yourself a gym membership like his brothers did.

This is actually the thing that sealed the deal with me. When I saw these books, I knew I had been hoodwinked by Yogananda and SRF.

Here Are Some Pages from just one of Tom Inch's Books (Turn of Century).

Deja vu.




He also lifted material from other physical culturist of this time. Looking over the material on this site, I see alot of stuff from the lessons.


These for instance......
SRF


IRONMAN

1920




1902







TEST QUESTION FOR EXTRA CREDIT:
IS THIS A QUOTE FROM THE SRF LESSONS OR AN INTRODUCTION TO AN IRONMAN BOOK?


ANSWER BELOW

Live long and prosper,
KD

(Answer: Ironman book)