Is Self Realization Fellowship SRF a Cult? Was Paramahansa Yogananda a Christ? I was in SRF for many years. Here is my take on these questions. It is not the purpose of this blog to convince anyone of anything. I created this blog to help others who may be looking for this type of information.
"If all the Gods are pleased but the Guru is displeased, his displeasure counts, and if all the Gods are displeased, but the Guru is pleased, his pleasure will be the raft to the infinite shores.
"Paramahansa Yogananda
Driving
According to Durga, Yogananda could not drive a car. He did try once but he "Went on the sidewalk, ZigZagging all over the road."
So his Swanky Packard was driven by a Chauffeur devotee and not by himself.
Driving a car doesn't seem like it would be that hard to learn...
WORK: A four letter word
Yogananda did not do physical labor. He would occasionally do a little sweeping to set an example for the others. "He never lifted heavy burdens, for he had enough carrying our heavy karmic bundles without adding to the weight."
Heavy Karmic bundles made his jacket buttons pop
Event Planner after the fact "Master never told us his plans ahead of time, even if we had to work with him on the plans, for he said that Satan would step in to put a stop to it or change it somehow. After the idea had Materialized, then he would tell us what the plan had been."(Page 176)
Sounds like a great way to take credit for the good stuff that happens while skirting responsibility for the bad stuff that happens, or claiming to be all knowing AFTER the fact.
I worked with a person like this once. Maybe he was actually an Avatar and I just thought he was acting like a dweeb....I don't know...
anyway...
Beautician magician
Once a boy saw Yogananda primping in front of a mirror before going on stage. He was fixing his hair just so (many thought he "Marcelled" his hair).Yogananda saw the boy looking disgusted at the coiffering. He parted it in the center and pulled the back hair more to the front on each shoulder.The boy was mentally thinking how vain Master was. Master often demonstrated in his lectures what he did to give this boy a lesson. He said he stood for the longest time in front of the mirror deliberately taking more pains to affix each hair in the right places; petting his hair here and there, combing and re-combing; all the while watching the boys expression change in the mirror. Finally Master turned and said to him" So you think I am vain, because I comb my hair before going to face an audience. I saw you you in the mirror and received your thoughts. That is why I deliberately acted vain".
The boy apologized and was never critical of Yogananda for working his Doo again. According to Durga, Yogananda rarely washed his hair as he thought it would dry it out. He kept it clean by brushing it frequently and over and over, apparently applying the '100 strokes' rule for long hair.
If Jesus were preaching today to an American audience, his message would not be, "Sell all ye have and give to the poor;" "take no heed for the morrow, what ye shall eat, what ye shall put on." These and other beautiful sayings of Jesus could not be strictly applied in the West today.
If Jesus were preaching today in America, he would employ all the methods of the successful businessman, and use newspapers as a means of drawing to him today's multitudes. *He would have to erect churches to house the religious multitudes, which would bring with it a need to concentrate on finances and raise money.
Paramahansa Yogananda
YOGANANDA
SELF PROCLAIMED SPOKESMAN FOR JESUS
Yogananda once prayed to Jesus Christ for reassurance that he was interpreting his words in the Gospels correctly. Jesus appeared to him in a vision; the holy Grail passed from his lips to Yogananda's. Jesus then, so Yogananda later told us, spoke these words of heavenly assurance: "The cup from which I dost drink, thou dost drink."
From: Original Christianity
Yogananda was also the God ordained spokesman for Krishna, who I believe was a Hindu, as he doesn't look Jewish.
My Commentary:
"Original Christianity" was Judaism. Jesus (Yeshu) was Jewish and taught from the Torah. He did not teach from the Vedas or Gita. I do not know if Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, a Prophet, a Rabbi or just a rebel against hypocrisy and the brutal Roman empire, but I do know he was solidly Jewish and not Hindu.
Most of the "Beautiful sayings" of Jesus were direct or paraphrased from Proverbs and Deuteronomy. Apparently Jesus told Yogananda that he would be a "businessman**" if alive today. Apparently Jesus didn't mention the Torah to Yogananda which seems odd given that it was the foundation of his teaching. Yogananda said that he had a vision of Jesus and Krishna walking hand in hand together, thus verifying that the teachings of both men were the same.
It makes me wonder...
Was Krishna wearing a yarmulke?
SO WHO WAS THE GURU OF JESUS?
It is Interesting to me that all of the Gurus seem to be eager to hitch their cart to Jesus the Jew and hang on to his shirttail in an effort to establish themselves as his peers, yet there is no record of him mentioning them....
Peace and Best Wishes,
Katie
*Jesus attended Synagogues and ministered itinerantly. He was a Jewish man under Roman rule who never started a Religion or Church.
**Jesus worked in his family business as a skilled Carpenter or Craftsman in a time before power tools and hardware stores.
This is from a picture on page 53 of this site: WesternYogi.
Rajasi (James J Lynn) A Great Western Yogi
I am posting only the relevant parts of the photo
In the above picture the Guru is bestowing his blessing on the disciple, who is kneeling in front of him. In front of the Guru's feet is a pile of flowers that his followers placed before him in worship.
Each person lays a flower at the Gurus feet while bowing down before him.
This photo is from a Kriya ceremony. During a Kriya ceremony each of the disciples makes a vow of complete undying loyalty to the Guru in exchange for learning a meditation technique. The Meditation technique is the one that the immortal, ageless Yogi-Christ Babaji gave to Lahiri.
Babaji is many hundreds of years old and BBF (best friends forever) with Jesus of Nazareth who traveled to India to learn the technique from Babaji.
On the altar behind the Great Yogi-Christ Guru, he has humbly placed a picture of himself to be worshipped by his followers as they meditate on him.
I recently received several E-mail messages concerning the spiritual presence that one can feel from gazing at the Guru's picture.
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
The pictures of Yogananda that SRF uses are mostly professional photos taken by professional photographers. Many have been "retouched". There is at least one well known "photo" that is actually a painting.
Any of the Avatars that existed before cameras were invented are, of course, all paintings.
There is nothing wrong with using these types of photos or controlling which photos the spiritual aspirants see. I mean really, who hasn't taken a bad photo from time to time. While waiting in the grocery line I frequently see paparazzi photos of starlets and celebrities on the scandal-rags that look a whole lot different than the ones taken on the red carpet. Who doesn't take a better picture when we are all spiffed up with a pro behind the camera? Who doesn't look better after a little airbrushing and photo-shopping? This is just the nature of being human and being photographed.
What I want to get to here is the idea that we can tell how spiritually advanced someone is by looking at their posed photo.
As far as feeling their vibrations goes, I am currently working on a post about my own experiences with the Halo effect which will cover most of what I have to say about that.
Does this guy look like a mass murderer in this photo?
He is the Guru of Aum Shinrikyo. A cult that blended Buddhism with Hinduism. He studied in India, practiced Kundalini yoga, translated and met with many influential religious leaders and Gurus. He also led a terror attack on Japan and was convicted of Murder and given the death sentence. Aum_Shinrikyo he began conferring on himself such titles as "Today's Christ" and "the Savior of This Century." New Messiah
Does this guy look like he would poison your Grandma's salad?
He was involved in the largest Biological terror attack in the United States. They poisoned food in The Dalles, Oregon. 750 people were sickened at ten restaurants. He plea bargained on two counts of immigration violations and he was fined and deported. He was never convicted of the poisoning though some of his followers were. 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack
Even this guy takes a good picture
A good picture doesn't mean you are good.
A bad picture doesn't mean you are bad.
A picture is just a picture.
INTENSE SPIRITUAL EYES
people always say "look at his eyes they are so intense". The question is: Can we judge the Yogi-Christness of a person based on whether or not they have Betty Davis eyes. Here is a little game. Guess who is behind these eyes: The Rest of the face here
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 isHere
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."
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.
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..."
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