VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4], 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 04:03:10 03/20/04 Sat
Author: Hendrik - 25 Feb 2004
Subject: Did anyone else get that yoga spam?


"Yogananda has stood in front of the light of the Self, creating a halo around himself and thereby blocking the Light to aggrandize himself. He claimed to be help from God, and if you attempt to reject this help, you would be rejecting the help of God. He set up many disturbing traps within his teachings to create a submissive and fanatical following.

Don't accept or reject what the author is saying here. Experiment with it. Try to free yourself from the tenacious, entangling grasp of his teachings that keep your mind subservient to his will. See what happens. You will notice a strong pull that subjugates yourself unto his will."

What is the matter? As a devotee of Yogananda having faith in the essential divinity of his nature that is just what I would like him to do with me.

Got this anonymous mail a few days ago and eventually got to reading it today. Apart from the book "The Death of a Guru" which a fundamentalist Christian once lent me I have never read anything as idiotic and immature. I wonder whether the author really believes in his own stuff or whether it is some sort of hidden propaganda related to some unknown quarters. But which? I also wonder about the age of the author.

This message is from yourself to yourself and therefor it is more important than you can imagine.

Well actually I can't remember to have composed this message but thanks my self for notifying me.

Hendrik

---------------------
---------------------
---------------------


From : Your Self
Sent : Monday, February 9, 2004 4:36 AM
Subject : Self-Realization Fellowship

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Greetings & Salutations to you,


This is going to sound somewhat strange, but please be patient because this message is more important than you may think. Nothing is being sold here, nor are you being asked to believe in anything whatsoever. It's imperative that you attempt to have a somewhat open mind as you read these words, otherwise the message cannot be transmitted and will surely be misunderstood. A brief introduction here and then on to the main message:


We are all the very same Self or Being. This is what Self-realization truly means. This term which means exactly what it says, has been corrupted by being filtered through the perceptions of the personality. Self-realization is the process of facing (without any filters or intermediaries) what we truly are.


This message is coming to you from this awareness, of course there is some distortion as it's filtered through our personalities. But if you pay careful attention, you will find the basic meaning of this message as it's being transmitted to you.


It's important to note that when it's said, "this message is coming to you from this awareness" that this is not a "higher" place as our religious training tends to portray. Nor is it lower or anything of that sort. There is one Self, and you are it. This message is from that place. We are irrevocably equals regardless of any belief patterns your particular personality expression holds.


------------------


The Importance of Spiritual Maturity


What does this mean exactly? We may initially want to pin our particular beliefs, which we find comfortable, upon this mantle. But this is a much deeper enterprise, a much deeper and important action than the action of convenience. The religious beliefs we find agreeable and comfortable, we aggrandize and proselytize to wrap this cozy blanket around ourselves. But lets endeavor, just for a brief while here, to wade through all this pomp and fanfare of that which rubs us the right way, and let's look at what true spiritual maturity means.


Far from the promised sea of heaven-sent bliss, true spiritual work is far from pleasant. It involves much digging within ourselves, and what we uncover can be unpleasant to see. Just like the normal process we all go through of growing up from a child to an adult, we shall surely run into painful experiences during this process.


There's a Upanishad at the end of each of the Vedas for a reason. These throw off the ritualism and blind supplication of religion and present the non-dual truth of our existence. Facing and dealing with this non-dual reality is where the true spiritual work begins. This is where we can no longer cling to the toys of blind faith and spiritual authority. Many horrific things take place in the name of religion, and this is fueled by supplication to spiritual authority.


-------

Joshua 10:40 So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the lord God of Israel commanded.

-------

1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

-------



From the very early days of religious thought to today, an endless stream of people rise up with the words "God, God, God" on their lips followed by, "I have communed with God and if you are to reach Salvation, you must follow me, and a great hell awaits you if you do not." The pages of history are painted with blood by blind, unthinking subjugation to spiritual authority. This is why spiritual maturity is so important for us. It's a painful and difficult process no doubt, but it is truly necessary.


Self-realization is not some magical experience that sweeps you into the cradling arms of the Divine Mother. It's about seeing and dealing with what you truly are. And what you are is the entire universe. Every person you meet is yourself, even the ones with qualities you dislike. It's just their particular circumstances that shapes how *your* consciousness expresses itself through them. The consciousness behind your eyes is the very same consciousness behind the eyes of the so called "other".


The concepts of time and space is just how our minds attempt to deal with reality. Our intellects work by bifurcating reality as a means of trying to deal with it. But this process is something we need to see through if we wish to truly mature spiritually.


Let me bring back the Upanishads into this dissertation. Within these texts we find that the Jiva (individual self) is the Atman (pure consciousness) and the Atman is Brahman (the entire universe). Here all dualistic concepts are dropped. The ideas of the ego as opposed to God, and the disciple as opposed to the guru are all tossed completely aside. To truly deal with this non-dual universe, which is what you are no matter how much you like to cower within the tight little boxes of dualistic concepts, we must drops these things because they quickly become destructive when held onto for too long.


----------

... He who meditates on one or another of Its aspects does not know, for It is then incomplete: the Self is separated from Its totality by being associated with a single characteristic. The Self alone is to be meditated upon, for in It all these become unified. Of all these, this Self alone should be known, for one knows all these through It, just as one may find an animal which is lost through its footprints ..." -- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. I.iv.7.

----------

... The Knowledge of this Self is the means to Immortality; this underlying unity is Brahman; this Knowledge of Brahman is the means of becoming all. -- II.v.9.

---------

And verily this Self is the Ruler of all beings, the King of all beings. Just as all the spokes are fixed in the nave and the felloe of a chariot wheel, so are all beings, all gods, all worlds, all organs, and all these individual creatures fixed in this Self. -- II.v.15.

---------

... This Atman is the organs; It is ten and thousands-many and infinite. This Brahman is without antecedent or consequent, without interior or exterior. This self, the all-perceiving, is Brahman. This is the teaching of the Upanishads. -- II.v.19.

---------

... And to this day whoever in like manner knows It as, ‘I am Brahman’, becomes all this (universe). Even the gods cannot prevail against him, for he becomes their self. While he who worships another god thinking, ‘He is one, and I am another’, does not know. He is like an animal to the gods. As many animals serve a man, so does each man serve the gods. Even if one animal is taken away, it causes anguish, what should one say of many animals ? Therefore it is not liked by them that men should know this. -- I.iv.10.

---------



Now here's where things get very difficult to hear. Please try for just a short while to forgo any knee-jerk reactions to these uncomfortable statements. Do not fear words and ideas. It's imperative that you try to understand what's being said here, and we cannot do so with angry or frightened eyes. Nor can we with eyes of praise. Let the mind be still if you will, and carefully look with equanimity:


Yogananda has stood in front of the light of the Self, creating a halo around himself and thereby blocking the Light to aggrandize himself. He claimed to be help from God, and if you attempt to reject this help, you would be rejecting the help of God. He set up many disturbing traps within his teachings to create a submissive and fanatical following.


Don't accept or reject what the author is saying here. Experiment with it. Try to free yourself from the tenacious, entangling grasp of his teachings that keep your mind subservient to his will. See what happens. You will notice a strong pull that subjugates yourself unto his will.


"... As many animals serve a man, so does each man serve the gods. Even if one animal is taken away, it causes anguish, what should one say of many animals ? Therefore it is not liked by them that men should know this." -- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. I.iv.10.


You may find reading this disturbing, but it's terribly important for you to face this because the longer you remain ensnared within Yogananda's grasp, the harder it will be to free yourself.


There's many parts of SRF history that you may not be aware of. Yogananda lived quite well off the submissive flock that he created. He formed a harem, which was not too terribly well hidden during the days when he was alive. He also ate really well; some who knew his cook, even claimed that he ate meat. His followers were suppose to subsist on a strict and modest diet while he got fat living in a mansion surrounded by the concubines of his harem. Many of these girls were Mormons who were already use to the idea of living in such ways. You should think about the Mata sisters when Yogananda lured them into his fold. They were of the ages 17 and 16. He always did prefer the younger ones. His personal quarters were surrounded by the young nuns, while the older ones were quartered further off.


Here are a few newspaper clippings that provide a bit of a glimpse of the man behind the myth:


---------

From an L.A. newspaper printed on Wednesday, October 25th, 1939:


Headline: Swami Calls Accuser 'Chiseler'


Even the benign and almost imperturbable calm of a swami has its limits. Last night as Swami Yogananda returned here to find himself facing a $500,000 damage suit filed by Rihad Ranjan Chowdhury [Sri Nerode], who claims a partnership in this Mount Washington cult of Self Realization headed by the swami, that limit was reached.


"The dirty chiseler, " the swami exploded.


The Hindu mystic who returned here from a lecture engagement in San Diego where he had expounded the benefits of self denial and self control, regained some of his composure and went on.


"The charges made against me are scurrilous and without foundation, the result of an underhand attempt to discredit me in the eyes of my followers," he said.


"Chowdhury had been driven out of the flock because he was insincere and because he violated our rules. He married a white woman, which is directly forbidden in our laws."


In his suit however, Chowdhury makes it clear he wants to dissolve the partnership because, he said, the swami isn't exactly practicing what he preaches.


He alleged that in a luxurious suite on the third floor of the Temple of Self Realization, the swami keeps himself surrounded by a bevy of likable young ladies who have free access to his boudoir at all times---but aren't allowed to go out with other men at all.


Furthermore, while his flock exists dutifully on substandard diets in line with the self denial theory---the swami dines on the most luxurious foods, he charged.


Chowdhury said sadly that he wants no more partnership with Yogananda, and wants the $500,000 as compensation for the work he has put into the movement.


A. Brigham Rose, attorney for the swami, said he would go into court today and ask to have the sensational charges stricken from the complaint.

----------

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.