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Date Posted: 06:25:47 10/23/05 Sun
Author: H - 29 Aug 2005
Subject: Re: Babaji Truth or Myth?
In reply to: mahavir - 28 Aug 2005 's message, "Re: Babaji Truth or Myth?" on 06:20:40 10/23/05 Sun

I find it hard to believe Yogananda would ever lie or distort truth or that he could do so unconsciously.

To find out the truth about these incidents requires specialized knowledge, not fundamental knowledge of life, existence, yoga or the like. Moreover they all took place in the past.

If Yogananda had been omniscient why would he have had all those interviews with disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya and even study the old Kriya books in order to write his biography? Would he have built a temple that later slipped into the ocean?

It is a strange paradox that with few exceptions people with a scientific understanding do not advance far in yoga. It seems as if an overly developed mind is an insurmountable obstacle to yoga. The great yogis of the past were making use of symbols rather than abstractions. There were schools of fierce logicians in ancient India, but they were no yogis - those were different schools. Ramakrishna and many others had an intense dislike of mathematics, and Aurobindo could not even understand mental philosophy before his mind got developed as a result of sadhana - nevertheless he claimed that it was just this capability of abstraction that proved to be an obstacle for further progress.

Indian yogis went to see temples and holy places no matter whether those places were in any way authentic. Traditions says so, and for them that's it! People violently fight over Ayodha temple, but I understand that Lord Rama was not a historical figure, so the question of authenticity does not even arise.

Yogananda went to Palestine in 1935 and wrote to Rajarsi that all the places and artefacts he was shown are authentic and that he felt Jesus' presence there. I guess most historians would be surprised if ANY of those places and things were authentic. But Yogananda simply did not care. This is not fraud or deception but perhaps simply the way that yogis of the past used to think about sacred places and items. "Fabrication?! - oh, who cares, Ram resides in every object!"

Today people are mostly materialists. But what do they understand about matters outside of ordinary life, or transcendental knowledge? What concerns me are not the various misjudgements of those masters about tiny details of material life, but our own fundamental ignorance in spite of all our knowledge, science and material skills. Ramakrishna said that you first have to get rid of ajnana (ignorance and intellectual knowledge) by attaining jnana (spiritual realization), and afterwards throw away both in order to arrive at a purely spiritual existence. Then all things fall into place and are seen as they are.

H

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