Humanity Of Paramhansa Yogananda, by Mahendra Mathur
Power of Thoughts
We are what we think
we are. The habitual inclination of our thoughts determines our talents and
abilities, and our personality. Thus, some think they are writers
or artists, industrious or lazy, and so on. What if you want to be something
other than what you presently think you are? You may argue that others have been
born with the special talent you lack but desire to have. This is true. But they
had to cultivate the habit of that ability some time — if not in this life, then
in a previous one. So whatever you want to be, start to develop that pattern
now. You can instill any trend in your consciousness right now, provided
you inject a strong thought in your mind; then your actions and whole being will
obey that thought. So wrote Paramhansa
Yogananda.
Life of Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh was a yogi who introduced many westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a Yogi.
He met his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, in 1910, at the age of 17. He describes his first meeting with Yukteswar as a rekindling of a relationship that had lasted for many lifetimes: “We entered oneness of silence; words seemed the rankest superfluities. Eloquence flowed in soundless chant from heart of master to disciple. With an antenna of irrefragable insight I sensed that my guru knew God, and would lead me to Him. The obscuration of this life disappeared in a fragile dawn of prenatal memories. Dramatic time! Past, present, and future are its cycling scenes. This was not the first sun to find me at these holy feet!”
In 1915, he took formal vows into the monastic Swami Order and became ‘Swami Yogananda Giri.’ In 1917, Yogananda founded a school for boys in Dihika, West Bengal that combined modern educational techniques with yoga training and spiritual ideals. A year later, the school relocated to Ranchi. This school would later become Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, the Indian branch of Yogananda’s American organization.
In 1920, he went to the United States as India’s delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals convening in Boston. That same year he founded the Self-Realization Fellowship to disseminate worldwide his teachings on India’s ancient practices and philosophy of Yoga and its tradition of meditation. For the next several years, he lectured and taught on the east coast and in 1924 embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour. Thousands came to his lectures. The following year, he established in Los Angeles, California, an international headquarters for Self-Realization Fellowship, which became the spiritual and administrative heart of his growing work. Yogananda was the first Hindu teacher of yoga to make his permanent home in America, living there from 1920-1952.
On March 7, 1952, he attended a dinner for the visiting Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Binay Ranjan Sen and his wife at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. At the conclusion of the banquet Yogananda spoke of India and America, their contributions to world peace and human progress, and their future cooperation, expressing his hope for a “United World” that would combine the best qualities of “efficient America” and “spiritual India.” As he ended his speech, he read from his poem My India, concluding with the words “Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God—I am hallowed; my body touched that sod.” At the very last words, he slid to the floor, dead from a heart attack. Kriyananda wrote that Yogananda had once stated in a lecture, “A heart attack is the easiest way to die. That is how I choose to die.
His Teachings
One must never give up hope of becoming better. A person is old only when he refuses to make the effort to change. That stagnant state is the only “old age” I recognize. When a person says again and again, “I can’t change; this is the way I am,” then I have to say, “All right, stay that way, since you have made up your mind to be like that.”
No matter what his present state, man can change for the better through self-control, discipline, and following proper diet and health laws. Why do you think you cannot change? Mental laziness is the secret cause of all weakness.
Everyone has self-limiting idiosyncrasies. These were not put into your nature by God, but were created by you. These are what you must change — by remembering that these habits, peculiar to your nature, are nothing but manifestations of your own thoughts.
The spiritual man conquers wrath by calmness, stops quarrels by keeping silence, dispels inharmonic by being sweet of speech and shames discourtesy by being thoughtful of others. There is no more liberating action than sincerely to give people kindness in return for unkindness.
At death, you forget all the limitations of the physical body and realize how free you are. For the first few seconds there is a sense of fear — fear of the unknown, of something unfamiliar to the consciousness. But after that comes a great realization: the soul feels a joyous sense of relief and freedom. You know that you exist apart from the mortal body.
The consciousness of the dying man finds itself suddenly relieved of the weight of the body, of the necessity to breathe, and of any physical pain. A sense of soaring through a tunnel of very peaceful, hazy, dim light is experienced by the soul. Then the soul drifts into a state of oblivious sleep, a million times deeper and more enjoyable than the deepest sleep experienced in the physical body…. The after-death state is variously experienced by different people in accordance with their modes of living while on earth. Just as different people vary in the duration and depth of their sleep, so do they vary in their experiences after death.
Yoga is the art of doing everything with the consciousness of God. Not only when you are meditating, but also when you are working, your thoughts should be constantly anchored in Him. If you work with the consciousness that you are doing it to please God, that activity unites you with Him. Therefore do not imagine that you can find God only in meditation. Both meditation and right activity are essential, as the Bhagavad-Gita teaches. If you think of God while you perform your duties in this world, you will be mentally united with Him.
The Hindu masters taught that to gain the deepest knowledge one should focus his gaze through the omniscient spiritual eye (at the point between the eyebrows). Those who go deep enough in their concentration will penetrate that “third” eye and see God.
During deep meditation, the single or spiritual eye becomes visible as a bright star surrounded by a sphere of blue light that, in turn, is encircled by a brilliant halo of golden light. This omniscient eye is variously referred to in scriptures as the third eye, the star of the East, the inner eye, the dove descending from heaven, the eye of Shiva, and the eye of intuition.
If you contact God within yourself, you will know that He is in everyone, that He has become the children of all races. Then you cannot be an enemy to anyone. If the whole world could love with that universal love, there would be no need for men to arm themselves against one another. By our own Christ-like example we must bring unity among all religions, all nations, and all races.
So long as God’s children differentiate, “We are Indians and you are Americans; we are Germans, you are English,” so long will they be bound by delusion and the world divided. Much war and suffering and destruction will be prevented if we cease to emphasize differences and learn to love all without distinction or prejudice. Be more proud that you are made in the image of God than that you are of a certain nationality; for “American” and “Indian” and all the other nationalities are just outer coats, which in time will be discarded. But you are a child of God throughout eternity. Isn’t it better to teach that ideal to your children? It is the only way to peace: Establish the true ideals of peace in the schools, and live peace in your own life
I believe that if every citizen in the world is taught to commune with God (not merely to know Him intellectually), then peace can reign; not before. When by persistence in meditation you realize God through communion with Him, your heart is prepared to embrace all humanity.
I am neither a Hindu nor an American. Humanity is my race, and no one on earth can make me feel otherwise. Prejudice and exclusiveness are so childish. We are here for just a little while and then whisked away. We must remember only that we are children of God. I love all countries as I love my India. And my prayer to you is that you love all nations as you love America. God created a diverse world to teach you to forget your physical differences with other races; and, from the debris of misunderstanding and prejudice, to salvage your understanding and use it to make an effort to know Him as our one Father.
Therefore, my friends resolve that you will love the world as your own nation, and that you will love your nation as you love your family. Through this understanding you will help to establish a world family on the indestructible foundation of wisdom.
Follow the ways of God. Set a time apart each day to meditate on Him. When you commune with God, you shall feel toward everyone as toward your own. No one can ever make me feel he is not mine. All human beings are God’s children, and He is my Father.
Thomas Trahene
Not very different are the thoughts of the Sixteenth Century spiritual writer, Thomas Trahene, which follow.
Your enjoyment of the world is never right till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father’s place; and look upon the skies, the earth and the air as celestial joys; having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were among the Angels. The bride of a monarch in her husband’s chamber hath no such causes of delight as you.
You never enjoy the world alright till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars; and perceive yourself to be sole heir of the whole world, and more than so because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and king in specters you can never enjoy the world.
Till your spirit filleth the whole world, and the stars are your jewels; till you are as familiar with the ways of God in all ages as with your walk and table; till you are intimately acquainted with that shady nothing out of which the world was made; till you love men as to desire their happiness with a thirst equal to the zeal of your own; till you delight in God for being good to all; you never enjoy the world. Till you more feel it than your private estate, and are more present in the hemisphere, considering glories and beauties there, than in your house; till you remember how lately you were made, and how wonderful it was when you came into it; and more rejoice in the palace of your glory than if it had been made today morning.
Yet, further, you did not enjoy the world alright, till you so love the beauty of enjoying it, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it. And so perfectly hate the abominable corruption of men in despising it that you had rather suffer the flames of hell than willingly be guilty of their error.
The world is a mirror of Infinite Beauty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God.
Quite different is the teaching in Surah 5.51: O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Auliyâ, they are but Auliyâ’ to one another. And if any amongst you takes them as Auliyâ, then surely he is one of them. Verily, Allâh guides not those people who are the Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrongdoers and unjust).
No wonder the conflicts between Muslims and the rest are unending. If the whole humanity imbibed the teachings of Yogananda on humanity the world could still become a Temple of Majesty as visualized by Trahene. Yogananda emphasized the underlying unity of the world’s great religions, and taught universally applicable methods for attaining direct personal experience of God.
Colonel Mahendra Mathur prematurely retired from the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army in 1975 to build a highway in Tobago. Subsequently he was appointed Director of National Emergency Management Agency of Trinidad and Tobago before retiring in 1998. You can contact him at mmathur@tstt.net.tt>
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May 1st, 2009 17:11
Interesting! I was in the thought of writing an article about him but I guess you also had the same idea! Good Work!
May 1st, 2009 18:47
Sorry to have stolen your thought! From now onwards I shall end my article by giving an indication of the subject of my next article. For June 09 issue of Tattva I intend writing on renunciation of fruits of action as taught by Mahatma Gandhi.
May 2nd, 2009 05:22
An excellent article, which should be read by all human beings.
We salute Sri Mathur and Tatva for publishing such a thought-provoking article.
May 11th, 2009 07:31
Dear Col Mathur.
Thanks for writing such an excellent article putting across to millions of devotees of Paramhansa Yogananda His teachings in a brief but impressive manner.
May God and our Guru Bless you.
Subhash Bakshi
May 11th, 2009 12:27
Respected Sir,
Both the articles respect to Adishankara and Yoganada were quite soothing to the soul.Thanks a lot for the same
V Ram Kumar
May 19th, 2010 04:31
Thanks for such a soul stirring revelation of the teachings og Parmahansa yaogananda in brief yet impressive manner .No doubt, even if one go by the teachings and rigorously follow it in one’s daily life, one is bound to become a better and worthwhile individual. We often run after others in pursuit of seeking happiness instead of sincerely devoting time on ourselves ever looking deep inside us to get what we crave outside.Needless to say, for a seeker this life is too short.
Thanks a lot!
Sapna Malik
May 19th, 2010 16:22
You are so right Sapna.
Love is the easiest way to begin one’s spiritual journey as taught by the Paramhansa Yoganand. Each morning, when you have cast off the fog of sleep, take several deep, grounding breaths and reaffirm the love you have for yourself. Speaking a loving, self-directed blessing aloud enables you to access and awaken the reservoir of tenderness in your soul. Before you leave the comfortable warmth of your bed, be sure to tell the universe that you are eager and ready to receive the blessings it has set aside for you. Then as you prepare to meet the day, visualize yourself first saturated by and then surrounded with a warm and soft loving light.
Sending love ahead to everyone you will meet and everything you will do can ensure that your day is suffused with grace.
May Lord Shiva bless you in your spiritual journey.
Gandhi’s Renunciation of Fruits of Action, by Mahendra Mathur
In 1915 Gandhi returned to India. Within 15 years he became a leader of the Indian nationalist movement. Using the tenets of Satyagraha he led the campaign for Indian independence from Britain. Gandhi was arrested many times by the British for his activities in South Africa and India. Altogether he spent seven years in prison for his political activities. More than once Gandhi used fasting to impress upon others the need to be nonviolent.
India was granted independence in 1947, and partitioned into India and Pakistan. Gandhi had been an advocate for a united India where Hindus and Muslims lived together in peace but gave in to the demand of Muslims for a land of their own. On January 13, 1948, at the age of 78, he began a fast with the purpose of stopping bloodshed in India – he was helpless in stopping the massacre of Hindus in Pakistan. After 5 days the opposing leaders pledged to stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Twelve days later he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.
Gandhi tried to lead a life as suggested by the Gita. What follows is his interpretation of that book.
The Object of the Gita
The object of the Gita was to show the most excellent way to attain self-realization. That matchless remedy is renunciation of fruits of action. This renunciation is the central sun around which devotion, knowledge and the rest revolve like planets.
The body has been likened to a prison. There must be action where there is body. No embodied being is exempted from labor. And yet all religions proclaim that it is possible for man, by treating the body as the temple of God, to attain freedom. Every action is tainted, be it ever so trivial. How can the body be made the temple of God? In other words how can one be free from action that is from the taint of sin? The Gita has answered the question decisively. “By desireless action; by renouncing fruits of action; by dedicating all activities to God, that is by surrendering oneself to Him body and soul.”
But desirelessness or renunciation does not come from talking. It is attainable only by a constant heart churn. Right knowledge is necessary for attaining renunciation. Learned men may recite the Vedas from memory, yet they may be steeped in self-indulgence. So that that knowledge may not run riot, the Gita insists on devotion accompanying it and has given it the first place. Knowledge without devotion will be like misfire. Therefore, says Gita, “Have devotion and knowledge will follow.”
The devotion required by the Gita is no soft-hearted effusiveness. It certainly is not blind faith. The devotion of Gita has least to do with externals. A devotee may use, if he likes, rosaries, forehead marks, make offerings, but these things are no test of his devotion. He is the devotee who is jealous of none, who is a fount of mercy, who is without egotism, who is selfless. Who treats alike cold and heat, happiness and misery, who is ever forgiving, who is contended, whose resolutions are firm, who has dedicated mind and soul to God, who causes no dread, who is not afraid of others, who is free from exultations, sorrow and fear, who is pure, who is versed in action, and yet remains unaffected by it, who renounces all fruit, good or bad, who treats friend and foe alike, who is untouched by respect or disrespect, who is not puffed up by praise, who does not go under when people speak ill of him, who loves silence and solitude, who has a disciplined reason. Such devotion is inconsistent with existence at the same time of strong attachments.
No one has attained his goal without action, says Gita. While on one hand it is beyond any dispute that all actions bind, on the other hand it is equally true that all living beings have to do some work whether they will or not. Here all activity, whether mental or physical, is to be included in the term action. Then how is one to be free from bondage of action, even though he may be acting? The manner in which the Gita has solved the problem is unique. “Do your allotted work but renounce its fruit – be detached and work – have no desire for reward and work.”
He who gives up action, falls. He who gives up the reward, rises. All acts that are incapable of being performed without attachment are taboo. Thus murder, lying, dissoluteness and like must be regarded as sinful and, therefore, taboo. Man’s life then becomes simple, and from that simplicity springs peace. When there is no desire for fruit, there is also no temptation for untruth and himsa.
The verse that follows from Surah 5 of the Quran should then be made taboo, if Gandhi’s teachings are to be followed, for avoiding murder and sin.
88. Then what is the matter with you that you are divided into two parties about the hypocrites? Allâh has cast them back (to disbelief) because of what they have earned. Do you want to guide him whom Allâh has made to go astray? And he whom Allâh has made to go astray, you will never find for him any way (of guidance). 89. They wish that you reject Faith, as they have rejected (Faith), and thus that you all become equal (like one another). So take not Auliyâ’ (protectors or friends) from them, till they emigrate in the Way of Allâh. But if they turn back (from Islâm), take (hold) of them and kill them wherever you find them, and take neither Auliyâ’ nor helpers from them.
God is: Gandhi’s Argument
There is an indefinable mysterious Power that pervades everything. I feel it though I do not see it. It is this unseen Power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the sense.
But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules or why and how he rules. Yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules. That law which governs all life is God. I may not deny the law or the lawgiver because I know so little about It or Him.
I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever changing, ever dying there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and recreates. That power or spirit is God. And since nothing else that I see merely through senses can or will persist, He alone is.
In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists; in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, and Light. He is love. He is the supreme Good.
The realization is preceded by an immediate faith. He who would in his own person test the fact of God’s presence can do so by a living faith.
Self-Actualizing
Similar are the writings of – American 20th Century Psychologist A.H. Maslow which follow. Self-actualizing people are, without one exception, involved in a cause outside their own skin, in something outside of themselves. He described eight ways in which one self-actualizes.
First, self-actualization means experiencing fully, vividly, selflessly, with full concentration and total absorption. It means experiencing without the self-consciousness of the adolescent. At this moment of experiencing, the person is wholly and fully human. The key word for this is “selflessly,” and our youngsters suffer from too little selflessness and too much self-consciousness.
Second, let us think of life as a process of choices, one after another. At each point there is a progression choice and a regression choice. To make the growth choice instead of the fear choice a dozen times a day is to move dozen times a day toward self-actualization. Self-actualization is an ongoing process; it means making each of the many single choices about whether to lie or be honest, whether to steal or not to steal at a particular point, and means to make each of those choices as a growth choice.
Third, to talk of self-actualization implies that there is a self to be actualized. There is a self, and let the self emerge. Most of us, most of the time, listen not to ourselves but to outside voices of authority, tradition, advertisements, news reports etc.
Fourth, when in doubt, be honest rather than not. Looking within oneself for many of the answers implies taking responsibility. That is in itself a great step towards actualization. Each time one takes responsibility; this is an actualizing of self.
Fifth, A person who does each of these little things each time the choice point comes will find that they add up to better choices about what is right for him or her. One comes to know what his destiny is, who his wife or husband will be, what his mission in life will be.
Sixth, Self-actualization means using one’s intelligence. It means working to do well the thing that one wants to do. To become a second rate physician is not a good path to self-actualization. One wants to be first-rate or as good as one can be.
Seventh, peak experiences are transient moments of self-actualization. They are moments of ecstasy which cannot be bought, cannot be guaranteed, and cannot even be sought. One must be, as C.S. Lewis wrote, “Surprised by joy.” Breaking up an illusion, getting rid of a false notion, learning what one is not good at, learning what one’s potentialities are not – these are also part of discovering what one is in fact.
Eighth, finding out who one is, what he is, what he likes, what he doesn’t like, what is good for him and what bad, where he is going and what his mission is – opening oneself unto himself. Repression is not a good way of solving problems.
The distinction between the self and non-self is broken down. There is less differentiation between the world and the person. We know that it is possible for a person to get more pleasure out of food through having his child eat it than through eating it with his own mouth. Just as beloved people can be incorporated into the self so can be beloved causes and values. To identify one’s highest self with the highest values of the world means a fusion with the non-self. When you see yourself moving successfully toward truth, justice, beauty and virtue you will be loving and admiring yourself. So also may a person with great talent protect it and himself as if he were a carrier of something which is simultaneously himself and not himself. He may become his own mentor.
Conclusion
Gandhi beautifully quoted the first shloka of Isho Upanishad to teach the doctrine of equality.
Know that all this whatever moves in this moving world is enveloped by God.
Therefore find your enjoyment in renunciation, do not covet what belongs to others.
Since he pervades every fiber of my being and of all of you, I derive from it the doctrine of equality of all creatures on earth and it should satisfy the cravings of all philosophical communists.