motivation,successfull,great leader.

The Divine personality PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA (1893-1952) Early Life and Spiritual Search .

was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur, India, into a devout and well-to-do Bengali family. From his earliest years, it was evident to those around him that the depth of his awareness and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary.

Both his parents were disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya, the renowned master who was instrumental in reintroducing Kriya Yoga in modern India. When Yogananda was an infant in his mother’s arms, Lahiri Mahasaya blessed him and foretold: “Little mother, thy son will be a yogi. As a spiritual engine, he will carry many souls to God’s kingdom.”

Swami SriYukteswar — Guru of Yogananda.

In his youth Mukunda sought out many of India’s sages and saints, hoping to find an illumined teacher to guide him in his spiritual quest. It was in 1910, at the age of seventeen, that he met and became a disciple of the revered Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri (right). In the hermitage of this great master of yoga he spent the better part of the next ten years, receiving Sri Yukteswar’s strict but loving spiritual discipline.

At their very first meeting, and on many occasions thereafter, Sri Yukteswar told the young disciple that he had been chosen as the one to disseminate the ancient science of Kriya Yoga in America and worldwide.

Young age photo of Paramahansa Yogananda (Spiritual Guru). Long before Yogananda was born, a saint named Babaji lived in the Himalayas. One day, Jesus appeared to him, and told him that although Jesus' followers still do good works, they have forgotten how to commune with him inwardly in meditation.

He told Babaji to send someone to the West to remind his people that the goal of life is to become one with God through inner communion. That person was to be Yogananda. Kriya Yoga is a meditation technique that quickly accelerates one’s spiritual growth — though ancient, it was first made widely known by Yogananda in his autobiography.

“Kriya,” he wrote, “is the easiest, most effective, and most scientific avenue of approach to the Infinite. In contrast to the slow, uncertain ‘bullock cart’ theological path to God, Kriya may justly be called the ‘airplane’ route.”

Kriya is more than a simple technique. It can be learned from Ananda Sangha and other groups and in fact represents an entire way of life.

With Kriya Yoga, Paramhansa Yogananda taught three other techniques of yoga and meditation. Many people share theories on reincarnation, or karma, or what happens at death. Paramhansa Yogananda, a master of yoga, writes from his own true knowledge and experience.

Coming through Yogananda’s words, above all, is the deepest encouragement to every reader: the reassurance that God loves us, and that all of life is designed to help us move toward our own highest fulfillment.

Included in the book are such subjects as:

Why do we see a world of suffering and inequality?

How should we handle the challenges in our lives?

What happens at death, and after death? Is there a heaven?

What is the origin and purpose of reincarnation?

This book offers fascinating answers for life’s great mysteries, but, more importantly, it tells you how to make the most of every day of the life you’ve been given.

As Yogananda explains the operation of karma, death, and reincarnation, he also shares the deeper purpose of existence for every soul. Understanding these truths can bring clarity, confidence, and inspiration into your life.

This is the second volume in The Wisdom of Yogananda series. The Wisdom of Yogananda series features writings of Paramhansa Yogananda not available elsewhere. These books capture the Master’s expansive and compassionate wisdom, his sense of fun, and his practical spiritual guidance. The books include writings from his earliest years in America, in an approachable, easy-to-read format. The words of the Master are presented with minimal editing, to capture the fresh and original voice of one of the most highly regarded spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. He took formal vows into the monastic Swami Order in 1915 and became Swami Yogananda Giri. A couple of years later, in 1917 he founded a school for boys in West Bengal that had a combined curriculum of modern education and yoga training. This school would later become Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.

He went to the U.S. in 1920 as India’s delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals, which was convened in Boston. He founded the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) the very same year to disseminate to the world his teachings on India’s ancient practices.

He spent several years lecturing and teaching on the East coast before embarking on a cross-continental speaking tour (1924-35). His lectures attracted a number of celebrities including Amelita Galli-Curci, Vladimir Rosing and Clara Clemens.

He taught his serious students the technique of Kriya Yoga which formed the foundation of his teachings. The Kriya Yoga had been passed down through Yogananda’s own guru lineage.

He spent a major portion of his life in America—becoming the first Hindu teacher of yoga to do so.

He went on a two-month trip to Mexico in 1929 where he was warmly welcomed by the president of Mexico, Dr. Emilio Portes Gil who became his lifelong devotee and follower of his teachings.

He visited India in 1935 to meet Yukteswar and to help in establishing his Yogoda Satsanga work. During this visit he also met Mahatma Gandhi, the saint Anandamoyi Ma, and the famous physicist C. V. Raman. He was given the monastic title ‘Paramahansa’ by Yukteswar. Paramhansa Yogananda’s mission was to help usher the whole world, with greater understanding and spiritual insight, into Dwapara Yuga, the new Age of Energy in which we live. “Someday,” Swami Kriyananda wrote, “I believe he will be seen as the avatar of Dwapara Yuga.”

It was a world-changing mission, and therefore his teachings needed to be revolutionary. In some cases what he taught was well known in India but created a revolution in the West. Others of his teachings were completely new to this age. Let’s look at some of both.

1. Only God exists. God is both beyond and within all manifestation. He dreams this world into existence, and every atom and star is created from His consciousness. The goal of life is to awaken from the dream and realize our unity with Him. Why revolutionary? This ancient Vedic teaching is new to the West, which views creation as wholly separate from the Creator.

2. Daily meditation, stilling the mind, is the way to see behind the dream. Meditation consists of withdrawing outwardly directed prana (subtle energy or life-force) and focusing it at the spiritual eye, concentrating on God or on one of His qualities: light, sound, joy, peace, calmness, love, wisdom, or power. Why revolutionary? When Yogananda came to America in 1920 almost no one meditated. Now millions do so daily.

3. Prana keeps us alive, keeps us healthy, makes us magnetic, and allows us to succeed. All aspects of life are improved when we learn to control it, for to control energy is to gain control also over all things material. Yogananda taught the techniques of Kriya Yoga and the Energization Exercises to help us gain this control. He often said that the true altar is not in any church, but in our central nervous system. Why revolutionary? The importance of life-force is only now entering the fringes of science and the healing arts. . Karma and reincarnation. Every thought, feeling, and action creates a wave of energy that is destined to return to us: As we give, so shall we receive. The results of our own past actions create the circumstances and events of life. The way to free ourselves from this karmic cycle is to accept life, control our reactive processes, be even-minded and cheerful, and dissolve the ego. Why revolutionary? Appreciation of the importance of karma is beginning to sweep the world and change behavior.

5. We don’t need to leave the world. Yogananda’s mission was, in part, to help us see God in every person and activity. Why revolutionary? In the past, sincere seekers avoided worldly activity and withdrew to caves or monasteries.

6. The desire to be happy and to avoid pain is the universal motivation behind every action. Over lifetimes our definition of what makes us happy evolves. At first happiness is sought in laziness and sensuality, then in ego-centered accumulation of possessions or power. Gradually this evolves into an altruistic desire to help others and, finally, the yearning for Self-realization, which alone brings the joy we have always sought. Why revolutionary? People everywhere seek things, imagining that happiness lies outside themselves.

7. Spiritual communities provide the optimal environment for the pursuit of happiness and God. Why revolutionary? The spiritual community movement is only now starting with the Ananda communities as forerunners.

Paramhansa Yogananda’s revolutionary teachings need to be applied both culturally and personally. While these seven points only scratch the surface of what he taught, each is worth a meditation or two to see how they might apply to your life. The millions who are encumbered by family ties and heavy worldly duties will take new heart from you, a householder like themselves. You should guide them to understand that the highest yogic attainments are not barred to the family man."

Lahiri instructed students in Kriya Yoga and taught that the life of the wandering ascetic was no longer appropriate. Instead, the Yogis of the New Age should earn their own living, not be dependent on society for their support. Naturally this commandment was quickly ignored.

YoganandaThat disciple, no surprise, was Yogananda (1893-1952). In October 1920 Yogananda was invited to address the International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, Massachusetts. He spent the 1920s proselytising in the USA and founded the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in Los Angeles. SRF does not publicise it's membership but it was unable to use the astonishing sales of the Autobiography in the 1960s and later to grow into a large organisation. It's annual Convocation attracts no more then 6,000 participants despite the incredible claims made for it's methods. "Kriya yoga is an instrument through which human evolution can be quickened", explained Yukteswar. "A half-minute of kriya equals one year of natural spiritual unfoldment."

One thousand Kriya practiced in eight hours gives the yogi, in one day, the equivalent of one thousand years of natural evolution: 365,000 years of evolution in one year. In three years, a Kriya Yogi can thus accomplish by intelligent self-effort the same result which nature brings to pass in a million years.

Yogananda emphasized his idiosyncratic interpretation of the underlying unity of the world's great religions, and taught meditation methods he said would allow direct personal experience of God. He was the epitome of an Anericanised Indian yogi. He had a very un-Hindu optimism and the American can-do spirit. He turned the guru-disciple relationship into a weekly, mail-order religion. To initiates he taught secret techniques of "Kriya Yoga", which he claimed were ancient mystical techniques that had been lost in the Dark Ages (they weren't) but reintroduced by his "Masters."

In the late 1960's possession of a copy of 'Autobiography of a Yogi' was de rigeur amongs "hippies" or those in the "counter-culture" (though there were a lot less of them then than their media presence now suggests) the Self Realisation Fellowship's membership did not increase to reflect the interest in the book. It's hierarchy had lived too long and it appeared old-fashioned. It has a pseudo-oriental centre at the aptly named "Swamis" surfing beach in Encinitas, Southern California and temples and meditation centres throughout the West.

Autobiography of A YogiYogananda could and did believe anything as a selection of Autobiography chapter headings shows. Yogananda, himself, could produce no miracles in the West. He certainly couldn't emulate the yogi who never eats and his premature death was caused by his obesity.

The Saint with Two Bodies (Swami Pranabananda)

A "Perfume Saint" Performs his Wonders

The Sleepless Saint (Ram Gopal Muzumdar)

Materializing a Palace in the Himalayas

The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar

The Woman Yogi who Never Eats (Giri Bala)

F. WrightYogananda's teachings and life as related in his books are a combination of bodlerised Hinduism, a lowbrow "perennial philosophy" and many tales of magic, divine miracles and sadhus who live without eating, Catholic stigmatists, levitation, "deathless" gurus, tiger fighting swamis, saints who can manifest more than one body and so on that may either inspire with awe or derision. His own life appears to be singularly free of scandal though he was terribly obese for a man epitomising the Essence of Self-Realization and it's no surprise he died at the relatively early age of 59. organisation and purchase real estate, until his death from pneumonia in 1955. He was succeeded by Ms Faye Wright (Daya Mata pictured above left in 1980) who had become a follower at 17 and whose brother was Yogananda's secretary.

Once Yogananda died dissension and disagreement and dissatisfaction arose amongst his close disciples. Its part of the American way that if you know something that others might want to know then you immediately begin to think about selling it. Not content to be cogs in the very straight-laced and boring SRF wheel other disciples of Yogananda began to set up shop on their own. Shelly Trimmer's parents were "students of Western mystery teachings." He became a student of Yogananda's and claimed Yogananda transmitted "the deeper, more esoteric, aspects of the teachings to" him and empowered him "to carry on the lineage, to teach - but in a more hidden and less 'institutional' manner." Trimmer moved to the north woods of Minnesota, where he lived with his wife and children. One of his students became the self-titled Goswami Kriyananda. He began teaching kriya yoga, and by 1983 his Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago was offering instruction for students outside his inner circle. Roy Eugene Davis, ordained by Yogananda in 1951 and a kriya teacher since 1954, founded the Center for Spiritual Awareness in Lakemont, Georgia. Davis has written or published some 20 books and is still very active leading retreats and seminars in the 1990s. Ananda Church of God-Realization and the Self Realization Fellowship were involved in litigation for years. According to Ananda, $1,000,000 was spent by them on this lawsuit and $4,000,000 by SRF. SRF countered that their expenses had been a "fraction" of that amount. But the stakes in this lawsuit were indisputably high. At issue was the use of the term "Self-Realization", plus the rights to the entire collection of life writings by Paramahansa Yogananda. Presently these are mostly held by SRF, though the copyrights are gradually expiring, allowing, for example, Ananda to publish its own edition of Autobiography of a Yogi. As of 1995 the courts had ruled in favor of Ananda. SRF's third appeal was then under review in Fresno, California. The suit was sparked, said SRF, by Ananda's changing its corporate name to "Church of Self-Realization." SRF sued, saying this was too close to their full legal name, "Self-Realization Fellowship Church," and that the public would confuse the two organizations.

They are not attempting to claim, according to an SRF spokesperson, what is called "service mark" rights to the term "Self-Realization", which would restrict other's use of the term in advertising (and other situations). "The injunction we seek in this litigation in federal court," SRF told Hinduism Today, "is specifically to disallow Ananda - and Ananda only - from using Self-Realization in their new corporate name. Our concern, is only with the use of the term by individuals or organizations in a way that is likely to mislead the public, creating the false impression that they represent, or are in some way connected with, our Guru's society." Up until 1995 the courts hadn't agreed with them. Yogananda was unusual amongst gurus in claiming that at least one of his followers had attained "samadhi". SRF claims that it's members retain their religious beliefs but the "Christianity" of SRF would be classified by virtually any Christian denomination as heretical. It's difficult to see how SRF members would have time to remain involve in Christian church. Indian gurus are typically worshipped by their followers and SRF is no exception. The initial conclusion to this page that I wrote stated that here at least was a guru and his followers untouched by major scandal apart from the expensive litigation that they had fought for control of Yogananda's name and this may still be true for SRF, however … Unfortunately this power often leads to abuse, especially when leaders abuse their power over their followers for their own s****l and financial gain. Even worse, members who have joined hoping to transcend their human desires and "failings" can be abused or become party to the abuse as their loyalty to the organisation and their position and it's rewards transcend their initial idealistic dream of self transcendence. However, these abuses now come up against the fruits of the feminist movement and litigatiousness of modern society.

This is exactly what has happened with Swami Kriyananda and the Ananda church. Details of the case are available at The Ananda Info Network. The details are as sordid as they usuallly are but among the less salacious are:

Walters and Ananda tried to blame SRF for the court case saying it was further harassment by them.

Walters blamed the women who accused him of s****l abuse, saying they 'thrust their company' on him and interrupted his meditations by taking advantage of his s****l 'weaknesses.' Court depositions came from many different women from different areas over a twenty year period whose only point of contact had been the Ananda church.

Walters had formulated a spiritual doctrine, either deliberately or to excuse himself that the swallowing of his sperm conferred a spiritual blessing on his s****l partners. From court depositions it seems he was usually m*********d or fellatioed. Indian and Chinese religion has always attached an extraordinary, if not bizaare, benefit on the retention of sperm in men but it has been considered necessary not to ejaculate.

Walters and the Ananda organisation attempted to use all their wealth and their lawyers' chicanery to defend the law suits and attempted to destroy the plaintiffs by malicious prosecution for defamation rather than freely admitting their mistakes and crimes as they would have if truth and ethical norms (the ethical system preached by Yogananda was much higher than societal norms) were being adhered to.

The inability of many of his followers to accept that Walters has committed any impropriety. Walters's influence on them had always been positive and uplifting and they could not accept the cognitive dissonance of realising he lied and cheated like everybody else.

Evidence from former members suggest that the "world brotherhood village" became essentially a cult of personality. The church hierarchy became more formal, members began taking formal pledges of "cooperative obedience and loyalty" to Walters, and the reverence of Walters became more unconditional. This is the usualy pattern in cults formed by charismatic leaders.

In 1981, Walters returned from a trip with a 26-year-old woman named Kimberly Moore. As Walters described it in an article that appeared in "Yoga Journal," he met her in Hawaii. He announced plans to marry the young woman, proclaiming his love for her in the article. "In the magnetic influence of her presence, I soon found a vibrant joy rising from my heart chakra to the Christ Center (the seat of spiritual vision between the eyebrows)," he wrote. Most older men infatuated by young women feel these influences a little lower. This farcical affair did not last long but this about face in his public teachings caused a minor exodus of believers.

Walters formally dissolved his lifetime nonmarriage and celibacy vows in 1985 to marry a woman named Rosanna Golia. The marriage did not endure.

A guilty verdict against Walters and Ananda was declared in February, 1998 at which time Walters resigned from the organisation. Legal manouveurs to protect Ananda church property from the damages claims against Walters and it continued.

Celibacy is very difficult, if not impossible, for the great majority of humans. Yogananda claimed that the sincere practice of Kriya Yoga was enough to eradicate s****l urges in his followers. Walters's autobiography shows a very unhappy and disturbed young man who immediately travelled across the US by bus to become a follower of Yogananda on reading 'Autobiography of a Yogi' in 1948, was immediately accepted as a monk, and followed his "Master's" teachings for decades. In Walters's case, at least, his master's teachings failed. If he had weaker s****l urges that he could keep under control, would that have validated the practice of 'Kriya Yoga'?

Walters used his credibility as 'Swami Kriyananda', a direct disciple of Yogananda to gather followers and implement his vision of co-operative spiritual communities. However, it was not necessary, especially after his organisation had reached a certain level of success, to claim that he was celibate or attempt to live a celibate life. This unnecessary deception has been the cause of his life's work ending in scandal and shame. Only an open and honest explanation from Walters could explain the motives that caused him to destroy his aspirations.

After graduating from Calcutta University in 1915, Mukunda took formal vows as a monk of India’s venerable monastic Swami Order, at which time he received the name Yogananda (signifying bliss, ananda, through divine union, yoga). His ardent desire to consecrate his life to the love a and service of God thus found fulfillment