I will be updating this thread gradually with the entire interview because I don't feel like typing the whole thing at once. It's very good and I hope some of you will find something useful in it. Namaste This is from Journey to Self-Realization - Collected Talks and Essays on Realizing God in Daily Life, Volume III The following questions were put before Paramahansa Yogananda in 1951 by Professor Bhagwat S. Upadhyaya of Rajputana University in Rajasthan State, distinguished author and historian of Indian culture. The professor met with Paramahansaji at Self-Realization International Headquarters in Los Angeles. Paramahansaji, do you belong to a particular spiritual order? Yes, to the ancient Swami Order of India reorganized centuries ago into its present form by Swami Shankara, Adi Shankaracharya. I belong to the Giri ("mountain") branch, one of the ten subdivisions of the Order, as did my guru Swami Sri Yukteswar from whom I received initiation. You are a man of religion; but don't you think that religion has been a cause of division, bloodshed, and evil in the world? The existence of imitation gold does not decrease the value of pure gold. Similarly, spurious religion does not diminish the value of true religion. Those who abuse the power of religion or who only pretend to follow religious practices for their own self-promotion become hypocrites and are sometimes perpetrators of evil; they are the wrongdoers, not religion. Those who exemplify true religion, or dharma, are a source of upliftment to the world; and they themselves become forever free from sorrow. True religion consists of those principles by which body, mind, and soul can be united to God. It is ultimately the only savior that can rescue man from all the evils of the earth. Is religion per se really necessary for the upliftment of man? When he joins a particular faith or order, does he not rather circumscribe himself and thus create barriers between himself and those of other creeds? Dogmatic religions are bypaths, sometimes blind alleys leading nowhere; but even so, a fairly good dogmatic religion can lead the sincere seeker to the highway of true religion, which in turn leads to God. That highway is yoga, the scientific process by which every soul reunites with Spirit. In the Bhagavad Gita, yoga is proclaimed greater than all other paths - greater than those of devotion, wisdom, and righteous action. Yoga is the science of how man descended from Spirit into flesh and became identified with the body and its senses and possessions; and how he can reascend to God. The experience, or realization, of truth that comes from yoga practice provides proof of the underlying unity of all religions found in the perception of their one common denominator - God.
Good interview it looks like...can you post the link so I can read it all...? Thanks. "Dogmatic religions are bypaths, sometimes blind alleys leading nowhere; but even so, a fairly good dogmatic religion can lead the sincere seeker to the highway of true religion, which in turn leads to God..." I liked this reasoning..
You may have to buy the book [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Self-Realization-Collected-Talks-Essays/dp/087612256X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315741736&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Journey to Self-Realization - Collected Talks and Essays. Volume 3[/ame]
lol..thanks...just saw his first sentence about typing it....I had skipped to interview...and I might just get the book....need a good read
Yes, at the very least it is interesting. @TesseLated You won't regret getting the book. Volumes 1 and 3 are the best out of the 3 imo, but all 3 volumes are good.
Interview continued Should religion take the form of an organized entity, such as Buddhism or Christianity, or should it rather be one of individual intuitive faith? Organized religion is the hive; realization is the honey. Both are necessary. But it often happens that when organized religion concentrates on the outward tenets and ceremonial aspects it becomes a dogmatic empty hive. At the opposite extreme, some yogis in the Himalayas gather the honey of God-realization in their hearts without providing hives of organized religion though which others might share that divine nectar. That is selfish. If organized religion is backed by great savants, it does much good in the world. If it is promoted only by egotistical, bigoted, or commercial people, it does little good and often much harm to people in general. If faith be intuitive, will it even then need a guru? God does not talk openly to novitiate spiritual seekers; their intuition is not yet developed, and so inner guidance is not infallible. God therefore guides though the instructions of a guru who communes with Him. The preceptor must have divine attunement or we have "the blind leading the blind." Does not religion take the form of a dogma after it is organized and defined by symbols and conventions? Just as the nut is hidden within the shell, so is true religion hidden in the distorting dogmatic formalities of religion. But as a nutshell can be opened by a nutcracker and the meat found inside, so deep spiritual seekers, by the nutcracker of intuitive meditation on religious ideals, can break the dogmatic shell and get at the inner hidden truth. A crow may peek vainly at a hard walnut shell and never get at the meat; similarly, shallow spiritual seekers bite unsuccessfully at the dogmatic shell of religion without ever getting at the kernel of truth.
I like the way he teaches... I would say however that I believe the Spirit DOES speak to people's hearts....The ones that are not Awake do not hear....because they have discounted Its existence.... I believe It speaks everywhere....showing signs and guiding the ones that arent blind and deaf to It.
It needs to stay alive, because there will always be some that benefit from it, but it need not rule the atmosphere. Spiritual growth regardless of the person is informed by influences stemming from all religions of old. And so it would seem that what we are is well established as is, due to some if not all religions. That does not mean we could be alive and well without. Living is one things _Living_ is another. Many understand, the problem is communication. So many think they understand each other...and don't...
He never said otherwise. He said God doesn't speak openly. That is not the same as God doesn't speak at all.
Well, thats the point...Im saying I believe It does speak openly....only people cannot 'intuit' it because they do not acknowledge Its existence. I see that his point is that that can be misinterpreted if you are not on a certain level of understanding. I just happen to think It gives freely to all, no matter what their understanding might be.
I agree Tesse. It's fair to assume that the enlightened would have a clearer connection than the unenlightened, so from that perspective, it could be said that god doesn't speak openly, not because there isn't openness to be seen, but it just isn't possible to see it that way. There would still be something to feel, but it might not be recognised for what it is due to ignorance.
Interview continued You believe there is a fundamental unity of all religions. If that be so, why is there jealousy and conflict between the followers of one creed and those of other persuasions? We read of such conflicts even in the ancient scriptures. The disciples of the great god Shiva extol him as supreme; the Vaishnavites consider Vishnu and his incarnations as Rama or Krishna to be the highest. Worshipers within the divisions of religion have not the full realization of those whose lives have inspired true paths. I have often said that if Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, and other true emissaries of God came together, they would not quarrel, but would drink from the same one cup of God-communion. The varying views of religionists are akin to the story told in India about six blind brothers who were washing an elephant. The first brother proclaimed that the elephant is like a huge wall; he had been washing the sides of the pachyderm. Hearing this, the second brother disagreed, asserting that the elephant is like a flexible bamboo pole; he had been washing the trunk. The third, thinking those two brothers were fools, insisted that the elephant is like two banana leaves; he had been washing the ears. Hearing these absurd pronouncements, the fourth brother corrected them wish his definition that the elephant is like a large fleshy roof supported by four pillars; he had been washing the legs. The fifth brother laughed derisively, for to him the elephant was just two pieces of bone; he had been washing the tusks. Now the sixth brother knew they were all crazy and declared definitely that the elephant was only a piece of rope hanging from heaven; he had washed the tail and, being the youngest and smallest, he couldn't reach the top of the tail and so assumed it descended from the celestial regions of the gods. At the height of the quarrel, their sighted father arrived and explained, "You are all right, and you are all wrong. Right, because you correctly described what you experienced, but wrong because each of you experienced only a part of the whole. The elephant is an aggregate of all of these parts." Man's consciousness evolves through incarnations and gradually experiences more and more of the nectar-ocean of truth. Each person can absorb only to the degree of his individual experience. These differences in perception are the cause of arguments and controversies, each seeing only a part of the whole truth. An exchange of differing views is constructive if done with openness and respect; but destructive, ending in quarrels, if there is bigotry and fanaticism.
Yogananda is one of the Highest Masters to have been incarnate within the last 100 years. What he is saying is this. Your intuition will not reveal to you meditations like the Kriya (what he brought to the West) that lead one into direct experience of God in a single lifetime. It takes a teacher to bring you to that point, and the Guru can directly commune with the Gods the way you can clearly read what I am writing, as opposed to just a sort of hint or feeling. That is why through all of time people had to be Initiated into certain meditations and rites to reach this point. Do not be fooled just because there are books revealing the lowest of techniques and occult laws, these teachings were only made public rather recently now that man is on an upward ascent again, with the Bronze Age (known as the Dvapara Yuga in Yoga) having just began in 1701 with the discovery of electricity which marked the official exit from the Dark Age/Kali Yuga. In the Dark Age there is almost a total lack of science, man is barbarous. The Bronze Age marks the discovery and mastery of electricity, and thus you see man and all of his technology, much of it being electronic and this will only become truer as we discover ways to more efficiently use this force. The Silver Age man comes to master space, and in the Gold Age man masters even time and the only people incarnate are God-men, there is no crime or malevolence, the souls such as modern day atheists and the like cannot incarnate into such high vibrations, and likewise in the Dark Ages the Masters rarely incarnate and it requires living in a cave or other means of renunciation to reach Enlightenment, whereas now one can reach it while living an outward life as well. It is however true that the intuition of a soul ready for Initiation or having reached it in other lives will cause him to have faith in these things and so be able to muster the faith and will necessary to trudge the Path to God-consciousness though.
Thanks for the info Tris....I find all that kind of material very interesting. I'm more of a free thinker type I guess than any guided instruction for communing with Spirit...lol.
Sorry guys I've been really focused on politics lately, having been around this part of the forums. Continued Do you find similarities between the Hindu and Christian faith? The Bhagavad Gita and the Christian Bible, especially the New Testament, I consider the greatest of all scriptures because they both point out the same yoga highway to God. The Bhagavad Gita teaches: "He is a man of realization who sees Spirit equally in all." And the Bible says: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" The Revelation of St. John in the Bible is an allegory of the same principles of yoga cited in the Gita. My Guru sent me to the West especially to show the underlying yoga highway to God to be found in both the Bible and Bhagavad Gita. Do you think Americans are God-fearing people? Can they indeed have faith in God, the unknown Infinite, in view of their emphasis on material living? I find the Americans, who have achieved the most in material accomplishments, are reaching out more to real spiritual ideals; whereas in some European and Asiatic countries, due to famine, disease, and lack of necessities, people are inclining more toward materialism. Do Westerners really understand the Indian philosophy you teach? How was it that you chose America, of all places, as the base of your organizational activities? Yoga is scientific, and Americans respond to that approach to God. They have had plenty of materialism and dogmatism. America and other countries in the West are ready and eager for proven methods that provide a practical experience of God. When I met my Guru in Banaras, he told me that my destiny was to show people of the West the unity of their religion with that of India. My mission in India is also progressing. Do you promote the yoga system of Patanjali or that of the Bhagavad Gita? If we had the time now I could show you how all the warriors mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita are allegorical representations of the same yogic principles mentioned in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. For example, the Pandava twins, Nakula and Sahadeva, represent yama and niyama (the proscriptive and prescriptive rules to be followed). Arjuna represents fiery self-control. Bhima represents pranayama (control of life and breath), and Yudhisthira ("he who is calm in battle") represents calmness or intuitive discrimination. The opposing Kurus, who stole the kingdom of the righteous Pandavas, represent the negative qualities and forces to be overcome by the aspiring yogi. The Gita truths, having been written earlier, were elucidated in concise suttras by Patanjali. His work is a masterful condensation of the yoga science.
Do you think that in the attainment of the Ultimate, Hatha Yoga plays an important role? Do you advocate Hatha Yoga practices? Hatha yoga postures, or asanas, are very beneficial for young people. If they start at an early age, when they grow up they can sit in one posture and go deep into meditation for a long time without the body's causing discomfort or disturbance. All the gymnastics of the postures, however, cannot be practiced by most adults, whose bodies are no longer supple. Older persons who lack discrimination in trying to practice the asanas may injure themselves; and if they try to meditate in a difficult, painful posture, the mind will be more on the pain than on God. So, as far as the asanas themselves are concerned, I advocate them for all who are young. The asanas help them to remain exceptionally youthful and healthy, as can be seen in the boys and young monks and nuns who reside in our ashrams. But they are taught, in addition, Kriya Yoga for God-communion. Kriya Yoga, introduced in this present age by Sri Shyamacharan Lahiri Mayasaya, is the highest of all techniques of Raja Yoga. You can read about Kriya Yoga, which I have explained in some detail, in my Autobiography of a Yogi.
Bumping old thread. Hopefully I can finish this thing finally, but I'll have to look around and see if I can find the book again. It's been packed away since I moved.