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Date Posted: 02:00:27 04/28/04 Wed
Author: Hendrik - 1 Apr 2004
Subject: Re: the 3 steps on the (kriya) path
In reply to: sundarar - 1 Apr 2004 's message, "the 3 steps on the (kriya) path" on 01:55:51 04/28/04 Wed


I tend to ponder these things myself, but at the same time I wonder whether theoretical knowledge can be an obstacle rather than a help. Because it is utterly confusing.

I just want to add that I do not believe that all yogis have the same depth and wideness of experience. And not all are honest people. Someone who is at times speaking the truth, and then again not is not a very reliable person in my opinion.

You mention Swami Rama, and elsewhere Sivananda.

Sivananda for instance was a highly respected man, known for his incredible generosity and good-will, but more than once I have heard about people who knew him, saying that he was not a spiritual person but rather a well-meaning yoga promoter and gifted writer who shrouded his own yogic experience in mystery. Many became alienated later. He was also so much addicted to writing that he said he could not live without it.

This would mean that his books were written on the basis of borrowed knowledge and his own intuition in the first place, but not necessarily corroborated by own experience. This would also implicate that his writings do not necessarily have more authority than my articles posted on this board. But I can assure that I do not have any authority at all. So what about Sivananda? -- He has written about 300 books with topics covering about everything under the sun ranging from diabetes to Mother Ganga and yogic philosophy.

This is not against Sivananda. He must have been a giant of a man. I have recently visited his Ashram and also read some of his books and found them inspiring. I like him. A number of his disciples were/are wonderful, spiritual people (some went astray though, notably the dubious Omkarananda). The question is whether Sivananda was simply repeating in writing what others have experienced, or whether he has an innate authority. There seems to be a common baseline in his books, and this is encouragement - every spiritual undertaking is praised to the heavens often to an extent surpassing the boundaries of credibility. He concentrates so much on the positive side only that his accounts run in danger of becoming unbalanced. He is promoting Indian spirituality, and this very effectively.

The Swami Rama you mention entered the headlines because of sexual transgressions, and he is known to have been lying about his biography -- how can he be drawn at length as a model for yogic processes when in the end he went astray in spite of all his knowledge about them though?

I do not know Swami Rama's goal and ideas about yoga, but is it the same as Kriya Yoga's, is his 'process' the same process? And what is the object of Kriya Yoga, is there one same to all branches?

What is the object of Yoga after all? Union with the Divine? Personal liberation? Redeeming work for others? Attainment of Bliss? Sadhana for the Divine's sake? Integral knowledge? Self-realization? A divinized life? ...? ...?

You will get different answers from different people. I do not know whether these answers are fundamentally the same or not. Frankly I doubt it. According to Shibendu for instance the purpose of Kriya Yoga is attaining the 'natural state' which he defines as body being released from the strangehold of mind. In this reading yoga simply means the body functioning automatically, ruled by glands and chakras, without mental intervention. This is a current trend sweeping the countries, mirroring the faith in physical reality and science. It also shows that the world is growing together and becoming more homogenous than in earlier times.


Furthermore, it is my own experience and observation that devotees struggle for YEARS to reconcile their childhood ideas of God ( as a tyrant, uncaring, angry, rule based, etc) with often little success and little "love" for God. Previous ideas are deep in the subconscious. It is my wish that I had no religious training at all in childhood, as it sabotages me more than not. Does anyone feel ther same?

I think it depends on the nature of the childhood impressions. Someone growing up in a fundamentalist environment with all the rule-and-guilt stuff may get into life-long problems about God and priesthood (e.g. watch the films by Ingmar Bergman). If the experience was positive and touched the inner life it may fuel one's spiritual drive and serve as a good preparation for sadhana. As you say, no religion is surely better than bad religion.

Hendrik

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