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Paramahansa Yogananda Didn’T Christ Anyone who has practiced yoga for to an extent, how much he is es- God assailed me. I felt powerfully a while probably has heard the name teemed by his followers. drawn to the Himalayas.’’13 More than ‘‘Yogananda.’’ Paramahansa Yoga- once, Mukunda tried to follow his Yogananda was born Mukunda Lal nanda (1893-1952),1 a 20th-century dream of fleeing to the Himalayas.14 Ghosh on Jan. 5, 1893. His autobiogra- Hindu yogi, was a devotee of yoga phy says: Biographical material and photos of and yogic meditation. Indeed, he ap- Yogananda accompany his books. pears to have viewed yogic medita- ‘‘My name was changed to Yoga- One says: tion as the key to everything. nanda in 1915 when I entered the ancient monastic Swami Order. ‘‘It was in 1910, at the age of He brought his practice from India seventeen, that he met and be- to America in 1920, where he lived for In 1935 my guru bestowed on me came a disciple of the revered most of the rest of his life before the further religious title of Para- 6 Swami Sri Yukteswar. In the dying in 1952 at age 59. He may be mahansa.’’ hermitage of this great master of best known for his book, Autobiogra- Later, he explains that the name Yoga he spent the better part of phy of a Yogi.2 He has been called ‘‘the ‘‘Yogananda ... means ‘bliss (ananda) the next ten years receiving Sri Father of Yoga in the West,’’3 and he 7 through divine union (yoga)’’’ and Yukteswar’s strict but loving dis- founded the organization Self-Realiza- also mentions that ‘‘Yogananda is a cipline. After graduating from tion Fellowship to promote his teach- fairly common name among swa- Calcutta University in 1915, he 8 ings. Self-Realization Fellowship mis.’’ As for the title ‘‘Paramahansa,’’ took formal vows as a monk of (SRF) continues to publish his re- he explains that when it was given to India’s venerable monastic source materials. him by his guru, Yukteswar, in 1935, Swami Order, at which time he The particular ‘‘brand’’ of yoga that ‘‘‘It now formally supersedes your received the name Yogananda.’’15 Yogananda is known for is called former title of Swami,’ he said as I knelt before him.’’9 And he further In 1917, Yogananda founded a boys’ kriya yoga, which is ‘‘an advanced school at Dihika in Bengal with seven 4 explains the meaning of the name: Raja [‘‘royal’’] Yoga technique.’’ boys.16 But his big break came three ‘‘Lit., parama, highest; hansa, years later when he: HIS LIFE swan. The white swan is mytho- Although one might suppose that logically represented as the ve- ’’...received an invitation to serve the best account of Yogananda’s life is hicle or mount of [the Hindu as the delegate from India to an his Autobiography of a Yogi, such may god] Brahma the Creator.’’10 International Congress of Reli- gious Liberals in America. It was not be the case. There is another book, Mukunda’s birthplace was ‘‘Gora- also published by Self-Realization Fel- to convene that year [1920] in khpur in northeastern India near the lowship, called Paramahansa Yoga- Boston, under the auspices of the Himalaya Mountains.’’11 American Unitarian Associa- nanda In Memoriam: Personal Accounts 17 of the Master’s Final Days.5 It contains Yogananda says in his autobiogra- tion.’’ much information about Yogananda’s phy that he was healed by a photo- On Oct. 6, 1920,18 he spoke before life, work, and teachings, as well as graph of his parents’ guru.12 After his the assemblage on ‘‘The Science of personal recollections of others about mother’s death when he was 11, he Religion.’’ That same year, he him and his final days. It also shows, wrote, ‘‘Intense pangs of longing for founded the Self-Realization Fellow- 4 · The Quarterly Journal October-December 2009 ship in the United States.19 This was body exhibited no physical signs of Kodak camera), poet Edwin the American counterpart to the Yo- decay, a fact attested to in a written Markham, and symphony con- goda Satsanga Society of India, which statement (which was also notarized) ductor Leopold Stokowski. In he had founded in 1917. given by Harry T. Rowe, the Mortu- 1927, he was officially received at ary Director of the Forest Lawn Me- the White House by President ‘‘For the next several years, he morial-Park Association, who stated: Calvin Coolidge, who had be- lectured and taught on the East come interested in the newspaper coast and in 1924 embarked on a ‘‘The absence of any visual signs reports of his activities.’’32 cross-continental speaking tour. of decay in the dead body of In Los Angeles, he began a two- Paramhansa Yogananda offers Another source states: month series of lectures and the most extraordinary case in ‘‘The most popular lay minister classes in January of 1925. As our experience.’’25 elsewhere, his talks were greeted at the Los Angeles headquarters with interest and acclaim.’’20 The document further stated: [of Self-Realization Fellowship] is television star Dennis ‘McCloud’ ‘‘The physical appearance of Also in 1925, the International Weaver, an SRF disciple for some Paramhansa Yogananda on Headquarters of SRF was established 40 years.’’33 in Los Angeles, Calif.21 It is still in March 27th, just before the Los Angeles on top of Mount Wash- bronze cover of the casket was Dennis Weaver died in 2006. ington. put into position, was the same as it had been on March 7th. He HIS WORK A volume containing some of his looked on March 27th as fresh Yogananda was a Hindu despite his speeches says that on Jan. 28, 1925: and as unravaged by decay as he apparent respect for Jesus and the ‘‘The Los Angeles Times reported: had looked on the night of his Bible. Christian apologists John ‘The Philharmonic Auditorium death. On March 27th there was Ankerberg and John Weldon observe: presents the extraordinary spec- no reason to say that his body had suffered any visible physical ‘‘SRF claims religious tolerance tacle of thousands being turned and pluralism, and even to be away an hour before the adver- disintegration at all. For these reasons we state again that the Christian. However the essen- tised opening. ... Swami Yoga- tially Hindu outlook of SRF is nanda is the attraction. A Hindu case of Paramhansa Yogananda is unique in our experience.’’26 illustrated in Yogananda’s defini- invading the United States to tion of ‘self-realization’ as the bring God in the midst of a Then, ‘‘In 1977, on the twenty-fifth recognition of our own divinity. Christian community, preaching anniversary of the [death] of Parama- It is ‘The knowing — in body, the essence of Christian doc- hansa Yogananda, the Government of mind, and soul — that we are 22 trine.’’’ India issued [a] commemorative one with the omnipresence of 27 This same volume states: stamp in his honor.’’ God; that we do not have to pray that it comes to us, that we are ‘‘In the early 1930’s Paramahan- The most recent edition and print- 28 not merely near it at all times, saji began to withdraw gradually ing of Autobiography of a Yogi embel- lishes the cover photograph of Yoga- but that God’s omnipresence is from nationwide public lectur- our omnipresence. ...’ The essen- ing. ‘I am not interested in nanda by placing a nimbus (a halo of light) around his head. tial beliefs of SRF parallel Vedan- crowds,’ he said, ‘but in souls tic Hinduism in the monistic, or who are in earnest to know God.’ FAMOUS PEOPLE non-dualist (advaita) tradition.’’34 Thereafter, he concentrated his efforts on classes for serious stu- By the time of his death, ‘‘Yoga- Another example is found in a dents, and spoke mostly at his nanda [had] personally initiated over volume of Yogananda’s speeches own Self-Realization Fellowship 100,000 students into kriya yoga.’’29 where it states: Among those he initiated was temples and the international ‘‘His Holiness the Shankara- headquarters.’’23 Mahatma Gandhi30 and horticultural- charya of Kanchipuram, revered ist Luther Burbank,31 to whom he spiritual leader of millions in Yogananda embarked on ‘‘an eigh- dedicated Autobiography of a Yogi. teen-month tour of Europe and India South India, wrote of Paramah- in 1935-36,’’24 after which he returned The Self-Realization Fellowship ansaji: ’... We are grateful to to the United States. In 1946, he Website reports: Yogananda for spreading Hindu published his now-famous Autobiogra- philosophy in such a wonderful ‘‘Among those who became his phy of a Yogi. He died of a heart attack way in America and the West.’’’35 students were many prominent on March 7, 1952, while giving a figures in science, business, and Autobiography of a Yogi was first speech. He had turned 59 two months the arts, including horticulturist published in 1946 and was expanded earlier. Luther Burbank, operatic so- by him before his death.36 It is a After he died — for the 20 days that prano Amelita Galli-Curci, dangerous book because it is an his body remained unentombed — his George Eastman (inventor of the attractively packaged presentation of October-December 2009 The Quarterly Journal · 5 Hinduism and it promotes anti-Chris- Another book by Yogananda, The Yogananda says this about the pas- tian doctrines of astrology, idolatry, Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrec- sage: reincarnation, contacting the dead, 40 tion of the Christ Within You, is a set ‘‘‘God so loved the world, that and so forth. of teachings by Yogananda on the He gave His only begotten Son’ The late Beatle, George Harrison, a four New Testament Gospels.
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