Mission: Spread the Gospel of Babaji

Great Masters’ Interest in America

Babaji is in constant communion with Christ. Together they throw out vibrations for the redemption of the world. It was Babaji who predicted, to my Master, Sri Yukteswarji, that I would go to America to spread the message of India’s sages. Sri Yukteswarji was asked by Babaji to write "The Holy Science" (which shows the union of the Scientific principles underlying Yoga and the Christian Bible) and send to America the unified message of Christianity and Yoga as Self-Realization through fellowship of all religions, or Yogoda Sat-Sanga. I was financed by Bhagavati Charan, my earthly father and disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya, to spread this gospel in America. Babaji also predicted that there were many "would-be saints in America," and one wonderful soul in this great country has already been honored with that title, St. Lynn.

I am also writing the life of the great Babaji as I heard the story from my own Master, Sri Yukteswarji. It was Babaji who first honored Sri Yukteswarji with the title of "Swami" (Master). He received his formal initiation in to the Swami Order from the Mohunt of Budh-Gaya.
Paramahansa Yogananda

http://mysticalportal.net/9-5b.html

(Note: A Mohunt is a "Chief priest")

The six Gurus of SRF

The Yogi-Christs of SRF


SRF line of Gurus


I.

Guru one:

The first guru in the SRF lineage is Babaji .
He is hundreds of years old but looks forever young. He lives in a cave in India with his sister.

That there is no historical reference to Babaji need not surprise us. The great guru has never openly appeared in any century; the misinterpreting glare of publicity has no place in his millennial plans. Like the Creator, the sole but silent Power, Babaji works in a humble obscurity.
Babaji, the yogi christ of India 


So he operates a little bit like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
No one knows anything about him (where or when he was born, who his family was, where he went to school, his cell phone number etc) except that he was sent to bring the ancient teaching of Kriya Yoga to the World. He is in constant communication with Jesus. He was Krishna in a former lifetime.

II.

Guru two:

The second Guru in SRF lineage is Lahiri Mahasaya

The miraculous picture shown above is the only picture ever taken of his mortal form... except maybe this one.

Shyama Charan Lahiri 

KASIMONI LAHIRI

This lovely lady is his wife

He was chosen by Babaji to spread Kriya to the world. They met while Lahiri was out walking.

'I remember!' My voice was half-choked with joyous sobs. 'You are my guru Babaji, who has belonged to me always! Scenes of the past arise vividly in my mind; here in this cave I spent many years of my last incarnation!' As ineffable recollections overwhelmed me, I tearfully embraced my master's feet.

"'For more than three decades I have waited for you here-waited for you to return to me!' Babaji's voice rang with celestial love. 'You slipped away and vanished into the tumultuous waves of the life beyond death. The magic wand of your karma touched you, and you were gone! 

"'My guru, what can I say?' I murmured brokenly. 'Where has one ever heard of such deathless love?' I gazed long and ecstatically on my eternal treasure, my guru in life and death.

http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/chap34.html 

 Babaji made him a magic golden castle that disappeared and then he went forth to spread Kriya.


A vast palace of dazzling gold stood before us. Studded with countless jewels, and set amidst landscaped gardens, it presented a spectacle of unparalleled grandeur. Saints of angelic countenance were stationed by resplendent gates, half-reddened by the glitter of rubies. Diamonds, pearls, sapphires, and emeralds of great size and luster were imbedded in the decorative arches.
...'The magnificent palace will be the scene of your initiation tonight into Kriya Yoga. 
-From Autobiography of a yogi 1946-



 Lahiri Mahasaya devised the Kriya technique which so changes the brain-cells, spine and body that they can express Cosmic Consciousness in three, six or twelve years (in determined, advanced students) and in twenty-four to forty-eight years (in ordinary students).

From 
Inner Culture
March 1937 Volume 9-5

 inner culture

So did he "Devise Kriya" or did Babaji teach it to him as commanded by God? We may never know.... however...

He freely gave Kriya initiation to those of every faith, including Hindus, Moslems, and Christians...
Article 


This sounds very important and magnanimous except the population of Benares is over 80% Hindu, less than 3% Christian and the rest Muslim and misc. I would be surprised to find that this tiny population of Muslims and Christians were beating a path to his door to pledge loyalty to him and learn Kriya. I would be willing to bet that his disciples were Hindus...with perhaps one or two folks from other persuasions thrown in. To his credit he at least OFFERED it to others who wanted to worship at his holy lotus feet and you have to admire that. He was opposed to Kriya yoga being associated with any organization and never started one himself which is also to his credit.

Some of his notable disciples included Sri Panchanon Bhattacharya, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, Swami Pranabananda, Swami Keshabananda, Sri Bhupendranath Sanyal, and the parents of Paramahansa Yogananda. Others who received initiation into Kriya Yoga from Lahiri included Swami Vhaskarananda Saraswati of Benares, Balananda Brahmachari of Deogarh, Maharaja Iswari Narayan Sinha Bahadur of Benares and his son. One biographer even speculates that Lahiri initiated Sai Baba of Shirdi into Kriya Yoga, based on a passage in Lahiri's secret diary.

(all Hindus?)

Many of his grandchildren have their own Kriya yoga initiation groups. There are other linage of people who studied Kriya from one of his other disciples. Some want your undying loyalty while others will give you the Kriya initiation on more of a hit and run basis. There are some versions posted for free on-line. With a google search you can find lots of people teaching various types of Kriya and they all claim to have the best one, so if you are interested, it can be an adventure. Google away.

III.

Guru three:

This very handsome, dignified, fully clothed (G-rated) man is the third guru, Swami Yukteswar.

Some reports say he was a Swami before meeting Lahiri and being initiated into Kriya yoga. His name was Priyanath Karar until he was initiated into the Giri Swami order. After that he met Lahiri who became his guru and initiated him into Kriya yoga. I do not know who his guru was before that if he had one. He had several disciples who learned from him. 

Another Disciple 

He studied at a Christian Bible school in India. During this time he became interested in combining the Bible with the Gita and yoga. He then met Babaji at the Kumbha mela. Speaking on behalf of God, Jesus and himself, Babaji asked him to write a book comparing the Bible and Hindu scriptures which Yukteswar did.  He was also a Hindu astrologer who worked out yuga patterns and determined that the Earth is in a different Yuga than other Hindu astrologers believe.

After his death he resurrected to Yogananda and told him about the astral world. He is currently the savior of the planet Hiranyaloka.

"My son, you may now comprehend more fully that I am resurrected by divine decree," Sri Yukteswar continued, "as a savior of astrally reincarnating souls coming back from the causal sphere, in particular, rather than of those astral beings who are coming up from the earth. Those from the earth, if they still retain vestiges of material karma, do not rise to the very high astral planets like Hiranyaloka....

"The ordinary astral universe-not the subtler astral heaven of Hiranyaloka-is peopled with millions of astral beings who have come, more or less recently, from the earth, and also with myriads of fairies, mermaids, fishes, animals, goblins, gnomes, demigods and spirits, all residing on different astral planets in accordance with karmic qualifications. 

The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar 

IV.

Guru four:

SRF catalog 

 This is the new improved Krishna picture

(I couldn't find a picture of the old Krishna)

This is not the Krishna that we had when I started SRF. The old Krishna looked like a girl with over the top eye makeup. That Krishna seems to have disappeared replaced by this new hunkier guy. In fact all of the Gurus seemed to have changed over the years.(*see bottom of page) They all have on clothes and Krishna has lost the heavy eye makeup. According to Kriyananda he was not on the original altar but he was on the one I got back it the 1980's so I do not know when he was added by SRF.

But I digress,

Krishna is the Christ of India. He later incarnated as Babaji though he is still worshipped separately. He is an avatar and the main character of The Gita. He is widely worshipped in India and is celebrated by followers throughout the world.

Bhagavad Gita 

V.

Guru five:

Born Mukunda Lal Ghosh to devout Hindu parents who were devotees of Lahiri. His family worshipped the Goddess Kali. Yogananda followed the teachings of his parents and their Guru, embracing the religion of his childhood. He was a disciple of Yukteswar who initiated him into the Swami order. He came as a missionary of Kriya yoga to America. Paramahansa Yogananda was the founder of SRF. He is the reincarnation of Arjuna from the Gita. Yogananda placed his picture on the altar with the other Gurus for his followers to admire. He considered himself an Avatar (perfect incarnation of God). He was very humble. Most of this blog is about him already so there is no need to say more. If you want more information his autobiography is Here 

VI.

Guru six:

Jesus 

Born in Bethlehem Judea approximately 2000 years ago to devout Jewish parents. He was a keen religious student and elders were amazed at his understanding and wisdom. Jesus was considered a Rabbi amongst his people. He began a ministry to his local people. He could have spent his early years as Jewish men of his time did. Studying Jewish scripture and law. praying, apprenticing in a trade such as, oh, I don't know...maybe a carpenter.

But the God of his people wasn't good enough for him.

Instead he forsakes all his upbringing and culture and traipsed off to India (through Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan) to learn Kriya Yoga from Babaji.  Babaji, Lahiri and Yukteswar were the wise men who came to visit him when he was a baby, so Jesus was destined to learn the guru business from Babaji. Then Babaji sent him back to Nazareth to gather 12 disciples to teach Kriya Yoga to. Other people took note of him when he went about healing the blind, raising the dead, walking on water and preaching a doctrine of peace, justice and love. Eventually the tide of public opinion turned against him and he was executed. Jesus was actually the reincarnation of Elisha. John the Baptist was Jesus' Guru when he was Elijah John 1:21 .

²¹They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?"
      He said, "I am not." 

Why Jews do not believe Jesus was Messiah 

After his death many of the 12 disciples wrote about his ministry but they didn't mention the yoga postures, kriya, reincarnation or any other yoga stuff. This prevented this soul evolving information to reach America. This was disappointing to Babaji who then called a meeting with Jesus in his cave in the Himalayas to create a plan for Yogananda to bring Kriya to America.

Most of Jesus 12 disciples stayed  around the hood to preach and write but two. One was Thomas (of doubting fame). He went to India to build a temple and convert Hindus to Christianity. This is confusing because Thomas apparently knew Kriya but didn't teach it to the Hindus who one would think would be ripe for it. Instead he made them into Christians.

Christianity originates in Israel. One of the Apostles (the 12 chief disciples of Jesus), St. Judas Thomas, was a carpenter. He was brought to India by a merchant to build a temple. St. Thomas arrived in Kerala, in south India in 52 AD. He succeeded in converting local Indians to Christianity. His converts were called Syrian Christians. 

Non Indian religions in India 

Saint Thomas Christians of India 

From  TIME Magazine archives 1953:

According to tradition, St. Thomas made his first conversions by a miracle. At the village of Palur, he found some Brahman priests throwing handfuls of water into the air as they performed their purification prayers. Thomas threw some water into the air himself, and it hung suspended in the form of sparkling flowers. Tradition continues that most of the Brahmans embraced Christianity on the spot, and that the rest fled. To this day, no orthodox Brahman will take a bath in Palur.....

By the sixth century there were Indian churches in contact with the Christian bishops of Syria. In 883, King Alfred the Great sent an English bishop to make an offering for him at St. Thomas' shrine in Mylapore. But contact with the West was precarious, and by the end of the Middle Ages the Indian church was practically forgotten....In their isolation, the Indians developed surprisingly few originalities of dogma.

The other Disciple that went to India was Barthalomew . 

This is written about in Ecclesiastical History of   Eusebius . Again he went to convert Hindus to Christianity not teach them Kriya yoga. 

"Christianity has been long established in South Kanara and its adherents are more numerous here, than any other district of India. It is certain that, foreign Christian merchants were visiting the coastal town of Kanara and during that period of commerce some priests also might have accompanied them for evangelical work. According to tradition Kanara had its first missionary the Apostle St. Barthelomew, who landed on the shores of river Swarna at Colombianor Colombo village an ancient maritime port adjacent to Kallianpur, stayed there to preach. He was popularly called Bethel and so the origin of the place Barkur..."

Bartholomew Christian mission 

For more information:

Christians in India 

Bartholomew 

These are the six Gurus of Self realization Fellowship.

*New Guru pictures

ALTAR PICTURES 

Peace and Best Wishes,

Katie

Wheres Waldo,Luther, Gandhiji, Adolph and Babaji

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A  'HEAVY SET'  50 YEAR OLD VIRGIN  (at least he doesn’t live in his parents basement)

Guru the one and only preceptor sent by God

Yoganandas autobiography has a lot of magic and mysticism. It also has a lot of real historical figures making up a pretty impressive resume.  We do not know if they approve of Yoganandas version of events or not. I thought I would explore some of these characters as well as one that Yogananda does not mention in the autobiography.

 LUTHER BURBANK (1849-1927)

This segment starts with Luther Burbank. The “saint amid the roses”. I have visited his gardens in Santa Rosa. They are quite remarkable.

What sent me down this path of inquiry was the letter in the Autobiography of a Yogi. In it Mr. Burbank endorses Yoganandas views because, and I quote “they are free of all mysticism”. 

http://www.ananda.org/autobiography/#chap38

I found it difficult to believe that Luther Burbank, a man who considered himself an Infidel, a man of scientific reason would have thought disappearing magic amulets, 800-year-old avatars,  levitating saints and magic golden castles were not “mysticism”. I decided to explore the issue a bit.

In 1924 Burbank wrote his letter to Yogananda that was later published in the Autobiography in 1945. In 1926 he gave his famous infidel interview. Mr. Burbank died in 1927.  He was a life long member of the Freethinks society (atheists and agnostics).  He was also a member of American Breeders association. Burbank was a Darwinist and he was heavily influenced by Francis Galton who was a social Darwinist (also known as eugenics). He shared these beliefs with many of the great minds of his day, Margaret Sanger, Henry Ford, H.G. Wells and Adolph Hitler (Think holocaust).

Burbank’s work was based on the theories of Darwin. Burbank forced evolution by purposely bringing species together and creating hybrids. Without his potatoes your happy meal wouldn’t be the same. An act of genius for sure.


 He also is responsible for the invasive species of blackberries that invade the Pacific Northwest. He got the seeds from Germany, reportedly from the early Nazis and they traveled by way of bird droppings to my backyard. I have to fight them off my property every spring. They are VERY tenacious! Sometimes I think the Nazis are winning.

 In the Autobiography Yogananda says that the spineless cactus was a miracle but the actual words of Burbank tell another story. Burbank used basic genetic principles over many years  (about 20) to produce his spineless cactus. His idea was to use it for cattle food in the desert. Sadly the plan failed because the new spineless cactus could not thrive in the desert, having been genetically engineered in Santa Rosa. This was a problem of many of Burbank’s hybrids. They could not grow outside of California or the seed would not stay true without continuous human intervention.

bigger

 http://www.archive.org/stream/lutherburbankssp00luthrich#page/2/mode/2up 

On the question at hand:

Burbank was a rationalist. He didn’t endorse mysticism (it says so in the letter). On the other hand we do have this report from TIME magazine archives when he was 76 years old.  So apparently at 76 he was letting stage magicians hypnotism him.


Besides experimenting with plants, Mr. Burbank has been investigating "will transference." He has a "strong psychic personality," according to Konradi Leitner, Swiss psychologist, who conducted some psychic experiments in Santa Rosa last week with the naturalist, his wife and his eight-year-old niece, Betty Jane Waters. Mr. Burbank believes that, through his sheer will power and at least in one case by laying on of hands, he has forced three dying persons to live. "I don't attempt to explain it," he declared.


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,721613,00.html 

Here is Konradi Leitners book on how to be a stage hypnotist

HYPNOTISM FOR PROFESSIONALS

Look here

http://www.archive.org/stream/hypnotismforprof00leitrich#page/82/mode/2up

So my question is this: If Burbank DID practice Kriya yoga (and I have no idea if he did or didn’t) It is unlikely he was bowing at the feet of the Saints or believing in fairies, ageless Avatars and such, so what does this tell us?

IF Burbank was a saint then the path to God is NOT bowing before Gurus but puttering in your garden. Sounds good to me!

Since The Autobiography was written 20 years after Mr. Burbank’s death we do not know what his reaction to its mystical references and SRF would be, but his “ Why I am an infidel” gives us clues. (See Excerpts below*)

*The theory of reincarnation comes, like all other religious theories, from the best qualities in human nature, even if in this as in the others its adherents sometimes fail to carry out the tenets in their lives.
-- Luther Burbank, quoted from Edgar Waite, "Luther Burbank, Infidel"

 As a scientist I cannot help feeling that all religions are on a tottering foundation. None is perfect or inspired. As for their prophets, there are as many today as ever before, only now science refuses to let them overstep the bounds of common sense.
-- Luther Burbank, quoted from Edgar Waite, "Luther Burbank, Infidel"


(so if he believed Yogananda was a prophet then what the heck is Luther talking about here? Not perfect? Not common sense?)

The universe is not big enough to contain perpetually all the human souls and the other living beings that have been here for their short spans. A theory of personal resurrection or reincarnation of the individual is untenable when we but pause to consider the magnitude of the idea. On the contrary, I must believe that rather than the survival of all, we must look for survival only in the spirit of the good we have done in passing through. This is as feasible and credible as Henry Ford's own practice of discarding the old models of his automobile. When obsolete, an automobile is thrown in the scrap heap. Once here and gone, the human life has likewise served Its purpose. If it has been a good life, it has been sufficient. There is no need for another.
-- Luther Burbank, quoted from Edgar Waite, "Luther Burbank, Infidel"

(If he didn't believe in resurrection and reincarnation then what about Yukteswar resurrecting or Yoganandas teachings of reincarnation?)

Religion grows with the intelligence of man, but all religions of the past and probably all of the future will sooner or later become petrified forms instead of living helps to mankind. Until that time comes, however, if religion of any name or nature makes man more happy, comfortable, and able to live peaceably with his brothers, it is good.
-- Luther Burbank, quoted from Edgar Waite, "Luther Burbank, Infidel"

I do not believe what has been served to me to believe. I am a doubter, a questioner, a skeptic. However, when it can be proved to me that there is immortality, that there is resurrection beyond the gates of death, then will I believe. Until then, no.
-- Luther Burbank, quoted from Edgar Waite, "Luther Burbank, Infidel"

Most people's religion is what they would like to believe, not what they do believe. And very few of them stop to examine its foundations.
-- Luther Burbank, quoted by Edgar Waite in "Luther Burbank, Infidel"

Gandhiji (1869- 1948)

So then I wondered about Gandhi. When I was in SRF I was told that Yogananda was Gandhi’s Guru because he had taught him Kriya. I thought this odd at the time since Gandhi had his own Ashram and followers. I couldn’t picture him thinking of Yoganandas “lotus feet” or doing energization exercises. 


http://www.gandhiserve.org/ 

When I went to the Gandhi archives I only found one visit (among literally hundreds of thousands of visitors) and 2 letters concerning Yogananda out of tens of thousands of letter. (*They were not personal in nature).

One thing that intrigued me was why his ashes were at Lake Shrine in a fancy sarcophagus. I couldn’t understand why a man who lived a life of poverty would want that and also it was against his religion to have his ashes preserved in a box. It didn’t make sense. How did Yogananda come to possess the ashes?

All of Gandhi's possessions at the time of his death

--- ASHES

According to SRF, an old friend, Dr. V.M. Nawle, a publisher and journalist from India with the following letter, had sent the ashes to Yogananda:

"Regarding Gandhi ashes, I may say that they are scattered and thrown in almost all the important rivers and seas, and nothing is given outside India except the remains which I have sent to you after a great ordeal.... You are the only one in the whole world who received Gandhi ashes outside India." 


 I wondered what the “great ordeal” might be. 

Well, it turns out that people Stole Gandhi’s ashes. His family spokesperson Tushar Gandhi, asked everyone including SRF to return them in 2008, as it was a sacrilege to keep them. To my knowledge they have not responded and the ashes are still there. At the time in 2008, the son of the ex-governor of Gujarat, who had gotten the ashes in 1948, had returned an Urn of Gandhi’s ashes to the family. At the time the Mahatma was cremated some unscrupulous admirers desecrated his remains and took his ashes. By Hindu Religious law they are supposed to be immersed in water. 

“In Hinduism, ashes from the funeral pyre must be immersed in water. It is sacrilege to keep them,” Arun Gandhi

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/xpress/hindu-press-international/2008/01/31/us-organization-hesitant-to-part-with-gandhis-ashes/ 

In 2008 the Gandhi family immersed the last of India’s stolen Gandhi ashes in the Ganges. Video of this event is available on youtube. My question is this, why doesn’t SRF return the ashes to the family? I also wonder if the whole thing was just a hoax. That the ashes Yogananda put in the Big Lake Shrine show were not real. That this was put forward in order to ride the shirt tails of Gandhi’s legacy. Being a Hindu himself he must have known it was a sacrilege. I don’t know the answer but the whole thing definitely is NOT cool. Why keep the ashes of a dead man against his families Religious wishes?


Meeting:
http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/chronology_1935/chronology_1935.html 

http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL067.PDF 

*Click on page to make larger. These are from page 392 of VOL067. Letters exchanged with Yogananda on Gandhi day of silence.

Also this letter from Nawle: It is page 209 #304 Volume066 (there are 2 other letters concerning Nawle in the Gandhi archive but they do not mention Yogananda.


http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL066.PDF 

The other two read like this:
Editor of Marathi Journal "Dinbandhoo" solicits message for the special issue of his journal advocating co-operative societes among agricultural classes. 11/10/1928
http://www.gandhiserve.org/correspondence/1928.html 

Let me know in as few words as possible what the new and unique path to temple entry is.
http://www.gandhiserve.org/correspondence/1933.html 

Adolph Hitler( 1889-1945)

Yogananda was supposed to be an all-knowing “Yogi- Christ” yet he praised Hitler  as“ Uplifting”.  I think that is about all I need to say on that point.
Hitler is to be admired for leaving the League of Nations because peace can never be attained by the victor and vanquished attitude, but on a basis of equality and brotherhood. Instead of preventing Hitler from having equal armament with other nations, the other nations should reduce the armaments to the level of Germany, and then the millions of dollars that are thrown away on idle battleships could be used for national or international prosperity. America, France, and Great Britain should reduce their armaments first, and thereby destroy the desire of Japan, Russia, and Germany to become equally armed.
"An insulted, snubbed Germany, if it gets away from the uplifting guidance of Hitler, may join Russia and make her a more powerful enemy of France and so on.
"The Allies must reduce their own armaments first, and then they will find out that the example speaks louder than words.

 Yogananda. "Christmas message". East-West Magazine, 1933


Also:
"The Swami will soon start on his tour of India. On his way back to this country (some time next year) he plans to lecture and hold classes in London, and to visit both Mussolini and Hitler."
Inner Culture NewsInner Culture, December 1935
In 1935 Hitler had been the Fuhrer for just one year.

SRF does not let Service readers read from the old East West magazines. We were not allowed to read anything published prior to a certain date.  (I seem to recall the date was sometime in the seventies about 20 to 25 years AFTER the Guru died). We were not allowed to read aloud any magazines published while the Guru was actually alive. After reading this I now understand the "spin".
Interestingly, Yogananda is still writing books even though he has been dead for half a century. I am left wondering, who is actually writing the books?

http://mysticalportal.net/EastWestVol4to8.htm 

BABAJI ( some unknown , unrecorded time to the present day)

An ageless 800?-year-old guy who looks like he is 20. He wanders around the Himalayas  and lives in a cave with his sister. He is a Mahavatar which means he is an avatar's avatar (top brass). He wears a loincloth. He is in league with Jesus and Krishna (kind of like the league of superheroes).
.

JESUS

  

KRISHNA 

He appeared to and initiated Lahiri Mahasaya in Kriya so he could go forth and spread Kriya to the world. At this time Babaji created a Golden castle for Lahiri so he could see what one looked like. After that the castle disappeared (like Joseph Smiths golden tablets. What is it with these magic gold things anyway?).
His picture (drawing) is on the SRF alter. "He veils himself from gross public gaze and can become invisible at will" (kind of like Predator when he is fighting Arnold Schwarzenegger).  He sometimes goes by the handle "Supreme Ecstatic Master". SRF worships him. 

Supreme Ecstatic Master being very ecstatic

Well, that’s about all I have to say on that subject. I leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.


Peace and Best Wishes,
KD