Road Rage, landslides and Spills: Saints of SRF

Book Review: Part Four

A Paramahansa Yogananda Trilogy of Divine Love

by: Durga Mata

While staying at the Encinitas hermitage, Rajasi would occasionally like to go for a drive. Rajasi preferred Oldsmobiles.

The car that has everything 

His chauffeur in Kansas City kept Rajasi's car clean and in immaculate order at all times. "Rajasi expected the same from us and became rather impatient if the car was not just right." (page 113).

ROAD RAGE

He liked a good rate of speed, traffic permitting. He was rather impatient on the road with other drivers who would not move over if he wanted to pass. He would lean on the horn until they did." (page 112)

Highly Advanced Yogi Practicing Tantrum Yoga

LANDSLIDE

In 1937 The "Golden Lotus Temple" in Encinitas was built on the bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, just 10 to 15 feet from the edge. Apparently even though Yogananda could see everything down to the tiniest atoms while in Samadhi, Divine Mother mischievously did not reveal to him the reality of groundwater and erosion.

Divine Mother sticking out her tongue

 In 1942 the temple slid down to the ocean. When it slid down the hill, the other Disciples ran down to tell Rajasi. Perhaps reasoning (correctly) that he couldn't push it back up the hill, he did not get upset and finished his swim before coming to take a look.

Karma or an act of God?

I don't know what the building permit process was back then.

Speaking of permits in 1981 in an "apparently misguided effort" (whose guidance?) SRF toppled the bluff while grading without a permit:

Workers suspended a bulldozer from a crane at the blufftop and ended up causing 3,500 square feet of bluff between J and K streets to topple under the weight of the heavy equipment, a San Diego Coast Regional Commission report stated.
The fellowship was fined $15,000, an unprecedented amount at the time, and ordered to plant vegetation on the bluff face. 

http://www.theleucadiablog.com/2007_04_01_archive.html 

On the positive side the vegetation was a great success and a model project for the area, so Hip Hip Hooray!

UGLINESS

"Rajasi did not like Ugliness in any form. For instance if he dropped something and it spilled it's contents, he disgustingly walked out of the room as fast as he could so he would not have to see it."

I guess someone less Spiritually Advanced would then have to clean it up?

"Master would not allow us to talk in a negative vein to Rajasi; the conversation or reports or talking to Rajasi had to be on a  constructive basis. I can well understand the reason as Rajasi was not able to take negativeness of any type. If the slightest negative element entered into the reports, he thereafter would not have anything to do with the project or person" (page 113)

If he saw anyone "step out of Character" he would then shun the person. If the person was someone he HAD to deal with he would then give that person no favors or special attention. Durga says though, that he could be merciful and forgive most of the time.

"Rajasi was especially naive towards anyone on the spiritual path" he felt they must all be saints and angels. If he ever saw them make a "Faulty move" he was very "critical". Durga states that over time he became a little more forgiving and accepting of others. Yogananda said that was why Rajasi had been matched with an invalid wife. To help teach him tolerance. (page 114)

Durga says Rajasi was very childlike. He had loved his Mother dearly and responded well to mothering. "Motherly praises for his good deeds toward the organization and to Master would give him the incentive to continue to do more."

(to be continued)

Katie

Leslie Van Houten, SRF Devotee

This was sent to me by an Alert Reader.

Leslie Van Houten of Manson Family murder fame

February 19, 1971

I really don't have anything to add to this post...

Guru Worship picture

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.

Ghost Writer in the sky, Sunrise Jim

This is something I don't personally know anything about and so the information came as something new to me. If anyone has information to add to this (to verify or disprove) I would be interested in hearing from you. 

I received a tip from someone who had some ancient information concerning someone who was in SRF in the 1930's and 40's. I know, it sounds very cryptic but this is all anonymous and confidential and so forth, so I can only say I got the scuttlebutt. The names were known and recognizable and so I looked into the tip. (I Know, I Know, it sounds like something from a Nancy Drew novel,

 but bear with me). 

You can file this under rumors, as I cannot give any first hand information, it is just a tip from an undercover informant. I do not have the authority to release the source who wants to remain anonymous. I can say that the source was someone close to the information. (Yikes! this sounds like a spy novel!)

"Bond, James Bond..."

Anyway..

The tip I received (which appears to be pretty authentic) said that Yogananda had a ghost writer writing for him named Warnack. Warnack was a professional writer who worshipped Yogananda (Literally). There is a claim of an eye witness report that this ghost writer wrote the Autobiography (which was later edited and embellished on by Laurie Pratt) and other materials. 

There were actually teams of people involved in editing and writing, but the notes were organized and the text written by this man Warnack (according to the informant who contacted me using the Bat-signal).

The name Warnack, didn't ring any bells for me but I did find that there was a religion writer for the Los Angeles times until 1938 named James Warnack. In a google search, his name came up on an Ananda site.

http://www.yoganandarediscovered.org/jaitruth/CWreviews.html 

Using this information I looked in the EAST WEST magazine and I found many poems and articles by him. This of course doesn't prove anything, but it is an interesting coincidence to be sure.

Articles in Los Angeles Times 1938

His Own Book :

SOUL SYMPHONIES by James Warnack

 published in 1928 by James Warnack

The introduction is by Swami Dhirananda

Book of Spiritual poems

EAST WEST:

Excerpts from articles written for East West:

GOD’S GRANDEST POEM

—By James Warnack

... Peak piled on peak, tier after tier, stretching out and away forever, a cosmic theater in which the gods may sit to watch the human drama; baby foothills smiling in their sleep; tiny stars flung by the glacier gods from a towering precipice; lofty redwoods everlastingly young, and barren trees on brown hills dreaming of the days when they were green; footprints of giants in the boulders; sweet azaleas whispering fragrant secrets to the streams; mariposa lilies, embraced by ardent love-vines, peeping from crevices in the rocks, and breathing, singing bits of blue sky flitting among the trees at dawn—that is Yosemite.

East West

Reflection

—By James Warnack

I SAW a wild rose bending over to kiss the stream that sang its love to her, and I asked: "Why do you charm me, sweet rose?"
And the rose replied: "You love me because I am the symbol of the beauty and fragrance of your soul."
I saw a lily leaning over to admire the reflection of her face in a limpid lake, and I said: "Why do I love you, fair flower?"
And the lily said: "I represent the purity of your inner self."
I heard a lark caroling in the meadow, and I said: "Why do you thrill me, beautiful bird?"...
EAST WEST 

A DREAM OF THE EVERLASTING

—BY JAMES M. WARNACK

In majesty, walking the fields of Forever, in darkness and silence and space never-ending, the Infinite One grew weary and lonely, and paused for a moment to rest and to dream. For the Spirit of Life, including all things, comprehends even dreams and illusions.
And the dream flew straight from the Dreamer’s heart, like a bird from its home in the heart of the hills. And strange was the dream of the Infinite One, for He thought that He, Who had ever been lonely, was espoused to a Goddess, divine as Himself—and He called her the Holy One. Trembling with joy, the Spirit drew near Her, till His breath was on Her lips, and She nestled close to His mighty heart. And in the silence She conceived and gave Her Lord a Son. Gentle and fair and innocent was he, and yet he had a wisdom above worlds. His thoughts were like the lilies of the valley, and his face was radiant as a new-born dawn....
EAST WEST 

And his review of Whispers..

REVIEW OF SWAMI YOGANANDA’S BOOK OF GLORIOUS PRAYERS

—BY JAMES W. WARNACK

....
..The Western mind, which considers such ways of approaching the Supreme Being to be not in keeping with the spirit of reverence, should strive to remember that, to the Hindu, "Brahma" is everywhere, at all times, imminent and pre-eminent,—and that He is called "Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Friend," all in a breath, and—to the Hindu—not inconsistently.
When the Hindu sings, "I am the bubble, make me the Sea" (one of Yogananda’s favorite original songs), he is praying not for absorption in the sense of self-destruction (as is erroneously imagined by many critics of Hindu thought), but rather, he is seeking the expansion of the personal self into the greater Self, his own true Selfhood., "Nirvana," instead of meaning a state of nothingness, means, instead, a consciousness of the All-ness of life—a difference so vast as to be incalculable by finite mind.
One soul, out of many thousands, reaches in this phase of existence what the Hindus call the state of "Samadhi." When that height of development is at last the reward of many centuries of God-craving, the man becomes a "Master." Swami Yogananda is a Master of Masters, a Swami of Swamis. He cannot be compared with lesser teachers. Every line in "Whispers From Eternity" tells a story of greatness. One has only to read these prayer-demands, in order to feel a definite spiritual growth within himself. The book cannot be recommended too highly.
EAST WEST 

Peace and Best wishes,
Katie

UPDATE:


This information came from a reader. I do not have personal knowledge of it's validity. I am adding it for anyone who may want to do their own research into the matter. 
According to this reader:


James Warnack died in 1974 at age 95 in Escondito California. Escondito is near Encinitas where The Autobiography of a Yogi was completed. 

Update:


I received an email saying that the Autobiography notes were sent off to a Ghostwriting firm in the midwest. The person writing the E-mail referred to it as a rumor and did not know the name of the company. We may never know what happened here, but I suspect that Warnack wrote the notes (This has an eye witness report) and the notes may have been sent off for rewrite and editing by someone else.  

Good Cop. Bad Cop. Same Cop.

Book Review:

includes excerpts from the book:
My Life and Service to my Guru
 by Durga Mata


Channeling Divine Mother. Taking names and kicking buttocks.

Divine Mother as KALI

"Kali is writing her name in flames on your foreheads"

Paramahansa Yogananda (as quoted by Durga, page 30)

In this part of the book Durga Mata tells of an interesting event involving the Master and Divine Mother. 

In 1948 a group of five disciples went to Yogananda's room. He said "Sit a little distance away, Divine Mother doesn't want anyone to touch me." He had them call the Lewis' to come. It was the first time they "had seen him in such a different ecstasy."


"He talked aloud to Divine Mother, and she would use his voice to answer him back aloud, so we could hear it all. Divine Mother took each one by our names and would tell us what each one's faults were and Master's tender heart would come to our defense. Daya took some notes. Divine Mother laid us low and many others who were not present, according to each ones' just deserve. I remember my scolding very well."

Durga received a severe scolding by Divine Mother because a little while back she made a fuss about giving up her room to a guest. Apparently she had given up her room many times before but this one time she made an issue of it and boy did that upset the Divine Mother! She doesn't say what the others did to receive such a scolding from Divine Mother but I envision such Earth shaking revelations as 'Fred leaves the toilet seat up' or 'Mary chews with her mouth open' and other issues of great importance to Divine Mother. 
Divine Mother was taking me on the carpet for that saying,  " Duj (Yogananda's nick name for Durga) was selfish and wouldn't give up her room." Master answered "Please Divine Mother, don't punish her. she has always been unselfish and is my pal, and you know she takes on the sins of others, don't punish her mother." 
Each one without exception got a lesson we would never forget.
(page 37)
They all commenced crying hysterically like an ol' timey revival meetin' and they became listless and remorseful. This went on for three days. Yogananda going back and forth between Divine Mother criticizing them, to Yogananda defending them. Eventually Divine Mother had to get back to minding the universe. Yogananda was relieved from the terrible duty of defending them against her wrath for such offenses as leaving the top off the toothpaste or whatever.

There are more interesting stories in this book which I will review later.

Peace and Best Wishes,
Katie

Divine Mother as DURGA 

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