Part 2 – Paramhansa
Yogananda comes to America
So, let's roll back the film of our vision to the early days of
Yogananda's life in America. When I look at old photographs of Yogananda
("PY") taken during the 20's and 30's I observe among the many faces that
surrounded him people who seem clueless as to the true nature and consciousness
of the “Swami” (and avatar) standing beside or in front of them. Not only
clueless but many seem positively worldly, even skeptical.
It must have been difficult for him in America. What a "great
work" PY had to do to overcome prejudice and to dig deep to find fertile,
intuitive souls from the midst of the frenetic and materialistic American
culture. There's an oft repeated story that at one lecture, attended by
thousands (as most of his lectures were during his "barnstorming"
days touring the cities of America), PY was congratulated by a student on the
size of the crowd. PY replied, perhaps wryly, "Yes, but........only a
handful will take up this teaching."
And, sure enough it was true. PY had to struggle against great
odds and crushing indifference and ignorance, to share his message of
Self-realization to Americans. Only a small handful became disciples committed
to serving his work with him. This small band included those who lived with him
at Mt. Washington during those first two decades and a half. During the Depression
of the 30’s, he said they grew tomatoes and other vegetables there simply to have
enough to eat.
But even during Paramhansa Yogananda’s final years and after his
acclaimed autobiography had been published, Swami Kriyananda described Mt.
Washington headquarters as a “hotel,” with students checking in and out, as if
the guru there didn’t meet their standards! Swamiji quotes Master describing
the final days (or years) as including a housecleaning, “many heads will roll,”
he stated. And indeed, as Swamiji recounts in his own autobiography (“The New
Path”), many monks left. In his lectures, Swamiji would sometimes make the
comparison to Jesus’ life when, near the end of his ministry, the Bible says “and
many walked with him no more.”
In the book, “American Veda,” by Phillip Goldberg, he describes
Paramhansa Yogananda’s innovation to send out mail-order lessons in meditation
and philosophy as revolutionary in his generation as was the Sears Roebuck
catalog in a prior generation. It made accessible to people at great distances Paramhansa
Yogananda’s high spiritual teachings, even kriya yoga – people who would never, otherwise, have had
access to them.
But, it also created a gulf of time and distance between the
Master’s close disciples (who printed and sent them out) and the faceless students
they served. The very format of the printed lessons, impersonal by necessity,
only contributed to the gulf between them.
Thus, it seems to me that from the very beginning of Paramhansa
Yogananda’s ministry, there was a chasm between the public and the close
disciples. Jesus, too spoke to large crowds, but few, perhaps only the 12, shared
his life and served his ministry full-time. While this was presumably no surprise
to Paramhansa Yogananda, it could have only engendered confusion, insecurity,
fear and doubt, even, perchance, resentment among the close disciples.
Swami Kriyananda, in both writings and lectures, would sometimes
explain the many hardships, and, yes, even lawsuits, PY had to endure during
his life. Those hardships and betrayals were experienced therefore also by the
close-knit spiritual family of the monastic disciples who surrounded and served
him, and, who would naturally want to protect him, feeling also the hurts of
betrayal and apparently failed ventures.
This gap, then is what I perceived visiting these shrines. The
worldly consciousness of those thousands of visitors (at least suggested by
their perfect tans and figures and their up-to-date, chic fashions) contrasted
with the ego transcendent aspirations of the monastics create a climate not
unlike a zoo where each species observes the other with curiosity or
indifference (but certainly not understanding or warmth). The monastics who live
at these places serve as ushers and docents, greeters and hosts, to the curious
general public who appear, day after day, wanting to take from these shrines
their beauty but who do not stay, who make no commitment, offer no (or little) support
and who may never come back again. The monastics are not unlike museum guards
and might easily inclined to be mute and withdrawn.
And, what I know from visiting temples and shrines elsewhere in
the world, curiosity seekers (and even lesser devotees) will sometimes pinch
items to take home for their collections or private devotions. Relics and
furniture must thus be protected in such places. (There were security guards at
the Encinitas grounds.)
Next article is Part 3 – Our Respective
Narratives
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