What does it mean to be spiritual? This question is similar to the one that asks, "What is good art?
As open ended as such questions are, it doesn't mean there's no answer that is helpful.
When speaking about atheists, agnostics, or stoics, we can say that being spiritual (for them) is having good "spirit".... being compassionate, kind, loving, having high ideals, personal integrity, energetic and creative, cooperative, and so on.
But neither can we deny the ordinary meaning of the term ("spiritual") nor especially its true and deeper meanings. For, virtue alone is not enough. It has been well said that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Good deeds create good karma, but good karma accrues to the ego which is ever unreliable because its most basic instincts are self-protection and self-assertion in the face of life's inevitable tests and trials. Eventually good karma simply gets used up and you either succumb in the other direction or at least start all over again. Ultimately, no matter how successful or happy in human terms a person becomes (and how few do), it will never be enough. "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee," St. Augustine warns us.
Divine consciousness is not simply earned by will power alone, but is won by devotional and conscious self-offering. Why is this? Because superconsciousness is MORE aware than the conscious or subconscious mind; it is by definition transcendent of ego consciousness. One doesn't slide into higher consciousness by actions initiated solely by the will of ego alone. At some point, influenced by the higher spiritual vibrations of saintly souls, high spiritual teachings and true and sincere spiritual teachers, our soul is touched and inspired to seek "the pearl of great price: God alone!"
Reality is infinite: whether in time or space or in consciousness itself. Thus, the ultimate spirituality is to seek attunement and immersion into Infinity itself. This requires recognition of the inadequacy of ego and, ultimately (at least), a supreme act of what appears, to the ego, to be self-annihilation but which in fact is Self-expansion towards bliss. The ego rebels and is frightened and wary; but the soul thrills at the prospect. In God who is Infinite, how can anything be lost? What else is infinity if not every-thing, material, immaterial, or conscious. Described millennia ago, this state, which is called many things and no-thing, including God, is "Satchidanandam," ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss.
Love of God is paramount and is therefore both the alpha and omega (beginning and end) of true spirituality. This simply cannot be denied. The steps toward perfecting this love is what Jesus meant, and he pulled "no punches," when he "be thou perfect, even as your Father, who is in heaven, is perfect!" (Why? Because in our souls we are already perfect but haven't realized this fully.)
Most ordinary, Sunday-going religionists obey the rules; go to church; try to be good and honest and all the things which in the yoga teachings comprise the most outward aspects of the first stages of spirituality called yama and niyama (do's and don'ts). I don't mock these for all of us must learn these lessons. They are the foundation stones, the house, of spirituality. Paramhansa Yogananda called the church the "hive" and the living experience of God's presence the "honey." He said BOTH are needed.
"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" Jesus chided his critics. The Jews of his time, like so many at all times, need to work from the outside in and can, at first, only see the outer trappings, the husk but not the kernel of religion. Obedience to rules is a good start but is secondary. Performance of rites and rituals or attendance at church, similarly, is also secondary but woe to he who thinks he is above this. Time proves all. If self-sacrifice and devotional self-offering is the ultimate price, you'd better start right now and if for you, child of Spirit that you still are, need to demonstrate that by going to church on Sunday to show that you are willing to give your all to the quest for Self-realization, then so be it! Do it, however, with Joy or you will gain nothing!
Study of and knowledge of scripture, though helpful, is also not the essence of spirituality. Yogananda's guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, said of such (pundits and theologians), "They smell unduly of the lamp (kerosene)." A finely honed definition is not a substitute for superconsciousness. On the other hand, quoting Yogananda, "Stupid people will never find God (until their brains mature)." In my book, this includes dogmatic people. Study of spiritual teachings should bring one to a universal view of all life and all sincere striving. Love and kind acceptance are the fruit of true wisdom inclining as it must toward superconsciousness.
Selfless service is perhaps the most important because high thoughts and devotional feelings must be purified in the white-hot crucible of direct but selfless, ego-transcendent action. Even prayer and meditation are but (refined) action. Both true devotion and true contemplation find fulfillment in silent, inner communion. Action without personal desire, serving God with devotion and true understanding within and without in the fulfillment of one's rightful duties in life, are the surest path to God.
One could therefore say that spirituality is directional. Here, below, I offer a more or less random description of typical stages of spiritual growth. Such are necessarily suggestive of the precept of reincarnation:
1. Virtuous behavior, moral integrity, and right living are the foundation
2. Belief or, better, intuitive awareness of God or a higher power.
3. Study and practice of religion and religious attitudes.
4. Adherence to religious discipline.
5. Increasing holiness, self-sacrifice, calmness, joy, and peace.
6. Prayer and meditation with increasingly deeper inner experiences of superconsciousness
7. Appearance of tangible evidence of sanctity recognized by others.
8. From here, the stages are internal to one's consciousness, the supreme goal of which is Oneness with God (using whatever terminology is appropriate to one's tradition).
It would be absurd to insist that spirituality must take these stages literally in its unfoldment. Yet, there is a recognizable direction and logic to the steps described above. I do not intend that these steps be rigid or tightly defined. They are merely suggestive of the general idea.
Maybe some day I'll write about "good art," though this isn't my "field." Art as a Hidden Message is a book by my teacher (and founder of Ananda worldwide), Swami Kriyananda, brings clarity to the messy and subjective field of art and art appreciation. Art for art's sake is revealed for the fallacy it is, for art communicates.
Blessings to all, from Camano Island Hermitage,
Swami Hrimananda
Showing posts with label Swami Kriyananda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swami Kriyananda. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Bhagavad Gita : "A New Scripture Has Been Born!"
These were the words exclaimed by Paramhansa Yogananda in 1950 (PY) to his disciple whom he called "Walter" (later, Swami Kriyananda "SK") when he, PY, completed his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita. PY declared "a new scripture has been born. Millions will find God through this book. Not just thousands. Millions. I know. I have seen it." ("The New Path," Chapter 31, the Bhagavad Gita).
At Ananda in Bothell, WA, we just completed an eight week course on PY's commentaries. The text we used is that written by SK in 2004. PY's commentaries, though he announced they would be published later in 1952 (he died in March, 1952), were not, in fact, published for fifty years. When they were published, they bore little relationship to the powerful and inspired commentaries he dictated decades ago.
Consequently, at age 78, SK felt the inspiration to share his memory of that great scripture by writing his own version. The result (out of nearly 150 books he wrote in one lifetime) is clearly his magnum opus. For exhaustive esoteric details, replete with ample scholarly footnotes, you can later turn to the two-volume version put out by his organization but for inspiration, practical personal guidance, and depth combined, SK's work, Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, is unsurpassed.
In our 8-week course we only covered the first 7 chapters of "the Gita" but these are more than sufficient to convey the breadth and depth of that great work and PY's commentaries as given to us by SK. Anyone inspired by the highest aspirations of meditation and resonant with the teachings of India will find a lifelong guide in this "new scripture" for a new age.
Among the themes expressed in the Gita and the insights of PY for our times, we find:
At Ananda in Bothell, WA, we just completed an eight week course on PY's commentaries. The text we used is that written by SK in 2004. PY's commentaries, though he announced they would be published later in 1952 (he died in March, 1952), were not, in fact, published for fifty years. When they were published, they bore little relationship to the powerful and inspired commentaries he dictated decades ago.
Consequently, at age 78, SK felt the inspiration to share his memory of that great scripture by writing his own version. The result (out of nearly 150 books he wrote in one lifetime) is clearly his magnum opus. For exhaustive esoteric details, replete with ample scholarly footnotes, you can later turn to the two-volume version put out by his organization but for inspiration, practical personal guidance, and depth combined, SK's work, Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, is unsurpassed.
In our 8-week course we only covered the first 7 chapters of "the Gita" but these are more than sufficient to convey the breadth and depth of that great work and PY's commentaries as given to us by SK. Anyone inspired by the highest aspirations of meditation and resonant with the teachings of India will find a lifelong guide in this "new scripture" for a new age.
Among the themes expressed in the Gita and the insights of PY for our times, we find:
- Why is life a struggle?
- With what intentions and attitudes should we work towards spiritual awakening and freedom?
- Have we lived before?
- If this world is a "dream," is it best simply to "drop out" of this world?
- If we must act, how must we act?
- How did the Infinite Spirit create this great drama? And, why?
- What is the best path? Is knowledge enough?
- Is God personal, or impersonal? How can one best worship or "find" God?
- What is yoga? Is it physical, mental or spiritual (only)?
- What are the stages of creation?
- What qualities reflect higher awareness? Which are delusive?
- Where does one focus in meditation?
- What is kundalini and how is kundalini awakened?
- What are the chakras, the energy centers in the body?
- What is the significance of the mantra, AUM?
- Can one hear AUM in meditation? How?
- What is kriya yoga and why does PY say it is the "airplane route?"
- What are the stages of awakening?
- Guidance regarding preparing for death
- Do we ascend by self-effort alone? Grace? Or?
- Is satan real?
- The stages of creation from idea, to energy, to form.
- What are the qualities of consciousness and matter? How do they manifest?
- Does heaven exist? Is hell real? Is it eternal?
- Are there really angels? Demons? "Ghosts"?
- Does possession really occur?
These are just some of themes. The book, Essence of Self-Realization, can be purchased in softbound form and even "on tape" (read by SK). Visit the publisher's website: https://www.crystalclarity.com/product.php?code=BEBPB ; for the "on tape" CD visit
For a YouTube series of short videos by Swami Kriyananda on the Bhagavad Gita go to:
The videos and audio recordings of our 8-week class will be released in the near future. Contact friends@anandaseattle.org or call our office and center at 425 806 3700.
Blessings to all in sharing this "new" scripture for a new age,
Nayaswami Hriman
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Ananda Leadership, Succession & Membership: Male and Female
Many years ago Swami Kriyananda had the perspicacity to appoint couples as the leaders of the core Ananda communities. I don't have a global perspective on just how unusual this might be in today's world, but from my own experience I can't think of any other organizations that have such a structure (except "mom and pop" businesses). About the only explanation I recall Swami Kriyananda (SK) offering was the obvious one: citing the benefit of balancing male and female energies.
SK frequently praised and acknowledged the rising visibility and influence of women as both an antidote and a solution to the dangers of too strongly a masculine one. Warfare is no longer a viable response to conflict for reasons that I don't need to dwell upon. Having a couple in a leadership position represented his recognition of the need for a feminine influence. Recently in a talk given by Swami Kriyananda's hand picked successor, Nayaswami Jyotish Novak (who, with his wife, Devi Novak, are Ananda's spiritual directors worldwide), Jyotish commented on how this leadership model is well suited to the need of our age.
Recently, a female student asked me, "Why are there mostly women in this class?" I was nonplussed because I don't really have a factual answer. There's no doubt in my mind (absent actual statistical facts), that the majority of students in Ananda classes and amongst our members are women. Nor is this unusual in "New Thought" organizations or in yoga and meditation organizations (or so I would assume).
My own experience over 39 years as a member of Ananda is overwhelmingly that women jump to accept and successfully carry out responsibilities 2:1 over men. Men, and I include myself, will more likely do so if it's their idea and if they can run it. (Mind you, once in charge, most people, women included, take complete control: for better or less.) I add my experience to that expressed all too commonly by both men and women that women are more energetic, articulate, and perceptive. There are some skills and talents that men, by tradition, or women, by upbringing, excel. Whether due to nature or nurture is of no interest to my thoughts today. I am just saying that in group dynamics, especially perhaps in volunteer or nonprofit type organizations, women leap to the top naturally. More naturally cooperative and harmonious (or so it seems to me), women fit the need of today's culture.
But is this unilaterally positive? No, it isn't! Men and women, and now I wish to move towards the terms, male and female ENERGIES (which inhabit BOTH male and female "bodies"), are simply two sides of the same coin. One simply CANNOT debase the other without debasing him/her self. We need BOTH! Let me explain this in terms that our founder, Swami Kriyananda, did: both by direct experience (that changed his life, and mine, and that of thousands) and in principle.
From time to time, you see, he would comment on the differences in male and female leadership qualities and styles. He rued the fact that Paramhansa Yogananda's organization, Self-Realization Fellowship Inc (Los Angeles, CA) fell into the hands of an all (or mostly)-female Board of Directors not long after Yogananda's passing and continuing, more or less, to the present time. He described how in that organization men were treated as second-class citizens towards whom it was assumed any personal initiative was rooted in the "evil-ego" that men seemed endowed with since birth. Though the women leaders couldn't change the fact that their guru, Yogananda, appointed men to the positions as public teachers, the women were ever watchful and suspicious that if any of them excelled at teaching that it would inflate their ego and a schism was sure to follow. Hence when not teaching, the men were assigned to physical labor tasks such as landscaping or construction; their living quarters were second rate compared to the women. The decades-long leader of that organization was quoted as saying matter of factly, "Women are more spiritual than men."
In addition to jealously guarding their authority from every conceivable, real or imagined threat, the board of directors controlled and ruled upon every minute detail of ashram and organizational life. Little scope was given to anyone else. The unspoken view of public service was, "Let them come to us. We'll decide what we give them (in spiritual teachings), though few are as ready as we who have given our lives to this work." It took fifty years to edit and publish Yogananda's second greatest work (his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita) when he, himself, in the last year of his life announced that it would be published that very same year! In instituting a twelve year lawsuit to "destroy" Ananda (as the judge viewed it), they considered Ananda an interloper who dared to "use" Yogananda's teachings for its own purposes! Admittedly, in the meantime, they developed their lands and properties to an exquisite level of beauty: something we and thousands, as visitors and pilgrims, enjoy to this day.
In SK's years there (the 1950's) as a monk, and indeed, even as one of the leaders (being for a time both Vice-President and a board member), but always being outnumbered by the older women leaders, he found that his expansive ideas and energies were consistently thwarted and worse, viewed with suspicion by them. Indeed, it was no small measure the key factor to his being summarily dismissed from that organization in 1961. We are grateful for that because although his greatest test, his labor gave birth to Ananda.
Consider it from their power of view: the power and magnetism of Paramhansa Yogananda. Those female disciples who served his ministry all those many years were understandably no match, in their role as successors, for Yogananda's dynamic energies. No doubt they were, in fact, somewhat exhausted by Yogananda's ceaseless projects and tireless campaigns. This is not a criticism but an explanation for why, after Yogananda's passing, they "closed the gate" and turned the "place" into a museum. (Admittedly an exaggeration, here, but only somewhat; nonetheless, their devotion to him cannot be questioned.)
Jump forward to Ananda present day: Swami Kriyananda, tireless campaigner, lecturer, writer, and inspiration to thousands, is now gone. Working as we, the first generation, did during his lifetime to support his ministry, we are no match for Kriyananda's dynamic and creative will power and attunement to Yogananda.
Preservation of his works and memory is, in fact, an appropriate priority for us at this time. We have an obligation to preserve the traditions, music, customs, and policies established by our founder. The vast reservoir of music, books, lectures, and other writings left to us by him could keep us busy for a lifetime extracting and adapting their inspirational and practical value in our service to others.
Fortunately, we have a distinct advantage over the pattern that befell SRF because Swami Kriyananda trained and encouraged us to be creative and expansive. He appointed couples as the primary leaders of Ananda. Since his passing in 2013 there's been a veritable explosion of growth and creative endeavors throughout Ananda worldwide.
Nonetheless, it is a distinct possibility that the gender imbalance either simply reflects the new phase of preservation that follows Kriyananda's passing or will influence Ananda's directions towards consolidation and preservation of what has been established. Either way, it seems to me that it will be a long time before anyone has the energy and magnetism to make any substantive contributions or initiate new directions to Swamiji's legacy. This is not necessarily a problem; at least not yet.
A balance of energies is necessary even if minor fluctuations naturally occur. When Kriyananda would speak of the gender differences in terms of leadership he would say things like the male influence tends to be expansive and impersonal; the female, personal and nurturing. And, he would add: we need both. To use an outdated archetypal image: someone has to go out and hunt to support the home, and someone has to stay home to protect it and its offspring.
With our modern awareness and sensibilities we can now distinguish between the biology of a person and their "energy." "Male" and "female" in this discussion refers not to bodies but to the dominant direction of interest of a person's energy. At the same time, we are asking for trouble if we pretend that biology doesn't influence consciousness! (Consider the world of entertainment and advertising to see the emphasis placed upon gender distinctions and traits in attracting success and sales.)
In Ananda's current phase of consolidation and preservation, appropriate though it is, an invisible, magnetic shield silently says, "This is what Ananda is." Implied in this is the even less conscious thought: "don't think to change it." It is as though we could be saying: "Ananda has come of age and is maturing in our self-identity and confidence around who we are. We have arrived for we now possess the spiritual wealth of our founder: his attunement with Paramhansa Yogananda!"
In contradistinction to the statistics of the gender makeup of Ananda membership, it is worth noting that our rapidly changing culture surrounding gender awareness makes it possible for women to confidently and openly express male energies, and, for men to express feminine energies. (I am not referring to sexual orientation.) To some degree, this potentially undermines the observable statistical imbalance and may, in fact, suggest that there's very little imbalance. But I have no way to measure that and my own experience of people is that most of us are distinctly influenced by biology.
Nonetheless, since we have no equivalent "Swami Kriyananda" to embody the expansive public service energies that are part and parcel of our "work," we, left to our own tendencies, might too easily prefer to shepherd our existing flocks with the care and compassion such duties require (and thus, unaware of the consequences of our actions, perhaps "closing the gate" behind us to protect them).
During his lifetime and in the building of Ananda, Swami Kriyananda instinctively established a dynamic, yet fruitful, "tension" between caring for our "home" (the various residential communities and the needs of our members) and engaging in public service; between nurturing our membership and serving the public. His books tended, generally, to reach out to the broadest segment of the public with interesting and varied topics that could show the underlying message of unity and spirituality beneficial to all through meditation, philosophy, parenting, marriage and much more. By contrast, those to whom he appointed to lead the communities that he had established were given the role to tend and nurture the needs and spiritual welfare of individual members. Outreach, though important, was and generally still is limited to a local service area and directed towards students and members.
Not long after Swami's death, Ananda's worldwide leadership affirmed our commitment to outreach and public service. Recently this was reaffirmed and focused towards SK's successors: Jyotish and Devi Novak. But that's easier said than done because our generation of leaders does not have the public recognition or karmic role of SK. Not surprisingly, the resources committed to outreach lag behind the resources committed to what we are used to making as our priority: the maintenance and growth of the communities, and the training and support of our members. Perhaps this is as it needs to be for now. We can coast for a while on the lifelong public service of our founder. But just how long?
In all fairness (returning now to the gender identity of Ananda members), yoga and meditation probably does attract more women than men. Perhaps our statistics are in line with the reality everywhere at the present time. Nonetheless, the frequency and clarity with which Swami Kriyananda commented upon the need for male energy should be a warning to us. A true leader is compassionate and understanding and good with people. But we cannot expect all future leaders to express all aspects of the ideal leader, and certainly not in their younger years as they are learning and growing. A potential leader might prove, at first, to be a gadfly of new ideas (just as SK was long ago) or even critique. (Just as some of the brightest students in school are not those who are the teacher's pet.)
It is true, as he, himself wrote, that the devotee (male and female) must begin the spiritual search with qualities of humility, devotion and receptivity, but strength and will power, too, are essential to spiritual growth. Given the dynamics of cultural conditioning in modern times, and as Swami Kriyananda found himself a victim of, it is all too easy to assume that softer qualities are spiritual and outward flowing energies are egotistical. Easy, in part, because so often true: but not always!
For, in fact, the emergent form of spirituality rejects the historic tradition that expansiveness is born of ego. The time for rejecting the world in the name of spirituality is rapidly vanishing. The time for "bringing Spirit to "work" in the world" is gaining acceptance by virtue of the need in our times. Men and women of greater awareness express this instinctively. But the old habits cling and resist as well.
In the last two weeks or so, and taking place at the Ananda Community and Center near Assisi, Italy, was a gathering of younger members, many of whom have leadership potential for the future. Ananda IS making an effort to nurture and recognize leadership qualities. SK taught us that in group dynamics and organizational activities, leadership, while not better or more important than other roles, is, nonetheless, a necessary talent, role and skill. Given the positive changes in culture and consciousness away from hierarchy, leadership energies tend to be mistrusted even if the role remains essential to any successful venture. We must avoid that inviting view, born of an extreme affirmation of egalitarian principles. "All men are created equal" is a pleasing affirmation (applicable, truly, to our potential) but quite obviously is untrue in actual fact.
It is my hope and prayer, and expectation, that the present leadership of Ananda, wherever situated, will have the wisdom (and the remembrance of the example of our founder, Swami Kriyananda) to recognize and nurture leadership qualities in those men and women inspired to serve the public work of Yogananda in the world today and in the years to come.
In thoughtful recollection,
Nayaswami Hriman
SK frequently praised and acknowledged the rising visibility and influence of women as both an antidote and a solution to the dangers of too strongly a masculine one. Warfare is no longer a viable response to conflict for reasons that I don't need to dwell upon. Having a couple in a leadership position represented his recognition of the need for a feminine influence. Recently in a talk given by Swami Kriyananda's hand picked successor, Nayaswami Jyotish Novak (who, with his wife, Devi Novak, are Ananda's spiritual directors worldwide), Jyotish commented on how this leadership model is well suited to the need of our age.
Recently, a female student asked me, "Why are there mostly women in this class?" I was nonplussed because I don't really have a factual answer. There's no doubt in my mind (absent actual statistical facts), that the majority of students in Ananda classes and amongst our members are women. Nor is this unusual in "New Thought" organizations or in yoga and meditation organizations (or so I would assume).
My own experience over 39 years as a member of Ananda is overwhelmingly that women jump to accept and successfully carry out responsibilities 2:1 over men. Men, and I include myself, will more likely do so if it's their idea and if they can run it. (Mind you, once in charge, most people, women included, take complete control: for better or less.) I add my experience to that expressed all too commonly by both men and women that women are more energetic, articulate, and perceptive. There are some skills and talents that men, by tradition, or women, by upbringing, excel. Whether due to nature or nurture is of no interest to my thoughts today. I am just saying that in group dynamics, especially perhaps in volunteer or nonprofit type organizations, women leap to the top naturally. More naturally cooperative and harmonious (or so it seems to me), women fit the need of today's culture.
But is this unilaterally positive? No, it isn't! Men and women, and now I wish to move towards the terms, male and female ENERGIES (which inhabit BOTH male and female "bodies"), are simply two sides of the same coin. One simply CANNOT debase the other without debasing him/her self. We need BOTH! Let me explain this in terms that our founder, Swami Kriyananda, did: both by direct experience (that changed his life, and mine, and that of thousands) and in principle.
From time to time, you see, he would comment on the differences in male and female leadership qualities and styles. He rued the fact that Paramhansa Yogananda's organization, Self-Realization Fellowship Inc (Los Angeles, CA) fell into the hands of an all (or mostly)-female Board of Directors not long after Yogananda's passing and continuing, more or less, to the present time. He described how in that organization men were treated as second-class citizens towards whom it was assumed any personal initiative was rooted in the "evil-ego" that men seemed endowed with since birth. Though the women leaders couldn't change the fact that their guru, Yogananda, appointed men to the positions as public teachers, the women were ever watchful and suspicious that if any of them excelled at teaching that it would inflate their ego and a schism was sure to follow. Hence when not teaching, the men were assigned to physical labor tasks such as landscaping or construction; their living quarters were second rate compared to the women. The decades-long leader of that organization was quoted as saying matter of factly, "Women are more spiritual than men."
In addition to jealously guarding their authority from every conceivable, real or imagined threat, the board of directors controlled and ruled upon every minute detail of ashram and organizational life. Little scope was given to anyone else. The unspoken view of public service was, "Let them come to us. We'll decide what we give them (in spiritual teachings), though few are as ready as we who have given our lives to this work." It took fifty years to edit and publish Yogananda's second greatest work (his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita) when he, himself, in the last year of his life announced that it would be published that very same year! In instituting a twelve year lawsuit to "destroy" Ananda (as the judge viewed it), they considered Ananda an interloper who dared to "use" Yogananda's teachings for its own purposes! Admittedly, in the meantime, they developed their lands and properties to an exquisite level of beauty: something we and thousands, as visitors and pilgrims, enjoy to this day.
In SK's years there (the 1950's) as a monk, and indeed, even as one of the leaders (being for a time both Vice-President and a board member), but always being outnumbered by the older women leaders, he found that his expansive ideas and energies were consistently thwarted and worse, viewed with suspicion by them. Indeed, it was no small measure the key factor to his being summarily dismissed from that organization in 1961. We are grateful for that because although his greatest test, his labor gave birth to Ananda.
Consider it from their power of view: the power and magnetism of Paramhansa Yogananda. Those female disciples who served his ministry all those many years were understandably no match, in their role as successors, for Yogananda's dynamic energies. No doubt they were, in fact, somewhat exhausted by Yogananda's ceaseless projects and tireless campaigns. This is not a criticism but an explanation for why, after Yogananda's passing, they "closed the gate" and turned the "place" into a museum. (Admittedly an exaggeration, here, but only somewhat; nonetheless, their devotion to him cannot be questioned.)
Jump forward to Ananda present day: Swami Kriyananda, tireless campaigner, lecturer, writer, and inspiration to thousands, is now gone. Working as we, the first generation, did during his lifetime to support his ministry, we are no match for Kriyananda's dynamic and creative will power and attunement to Yogananda.
Preservation of his works and memory is, in fact, an appropriate priority for us at this time. We have an obligation to preserve the traditions, music, customs, and policies established by our founder. The vast reservoir of music, books, lectures, and other writings left to us by him could keep us busy for a lifetime extracting and adapting their inspirational and practical value in our service to others.
Fortunately, we have a distinct advantage over the pattern that befell SRF because Swami Kriyananda trained and encouraged us to be creative and expansive. He appointed couples as the primary leaders of Ananda. Since his passing in 2013 there's been a veritable explosion of growth and creative endeavors throughout Ananda worldwide.
Nonetheless, it is a distinct possibility that the gender imbalance either simply reflects the new phase of preservation that follows Kriyananda's passing or will influence Ananda's directions towards consolidation and preservation of what has been established. Either way, it seems to me that it will be a long time before anyone has the energy and magnetism to make any substantive contributions or initiate new directions to Swamiji's legacy. This is not necessarily a problem; at least not yet.
A balance of energies is necessary even if minor fluctuations naturally occur. When Kriyananda would speak of the gender differences in terms of leadership he would say things like the male influence tends to be expansive and impersonal; the female, personal and nurturing. And, he would add: we need both. To use an outdated archetypal image: someone has to go out and hunt to support the home, and someone has to stay home to protect it and its offspring.
With our modern awareness and sensibilities we can now distinguish between the biology of a person and their "energy." "Male" and "female" in this discussion refers not to bodies but to the dominant direction of interest of a person's energy. At the same time, we are asking for trouble if we pretend that biology doesn't influence consciousness! (Consider the world of entertainment and advertising to see the emphasis placed upon gender distinctions and traits in attracting success and sales.)
In Ananda's current phase of consolidation and preservation, appropriate though it is, an invisible, magnetic shield silently says, "This is what Ananda is." Implied in this is the even less conscious thought: "don't think to change it." It is as though we could be saying: "Ananda has come of age and is maturing in our self-identity and confidence around who we are. We have arrived for we now possess the spiritual wealth of our founder: his attunement with Paramhansa Yogananda!"
In contradistinction to the statistics of the gender makeup of Ananda membership, it is worth noting that our rapidly changing culture surrounding gender awareness makes it possible for women to confidently and openly express male energies, and, for men to express feminine energies. (I am not referring to sexual orientation.) To some degree, this potentially undermines the observable statistical imbalance and may, in fact, suggest that there's very little imbalance. But I have no way to measure that and my own experience of people is that most of us are distinctly influenced by biology.
Nonetheless, since we have no equivalent "Swami Kriyananda" to embody the expansive public service energies that are part and parcel of our "work," we, left to our own tendencies, might too easily prefer to shepherd our existing flocks with the care and compassion such duties require (and thus, unaware of the consequences of our actions, perhaps "closing the gate" behind us to protect them).
During his lifetime and in the building of Ananda, Swami Kriyananda instinctively established a dynamic, yet fruitful, "tension" between caring for our "home" (the various residential communities and the needs of our members) and engaging in public service; between nurturing our membership and serving the public. His books tended, generally, to reach out to the broadest segment of the public with interesting and varied topics that could show the underlying message of unity and spirituality beneficial to all through meditation, philosophy, parenting, marriage and much more. By contrast, those to whom he appointed to lead the communities that he had established were given the role to tend and nurture the needs and spiritual welfare of individual members. Outreach, though important, was and generally still is limited to a local service area and directed towards students and members.
Not long after Swami's death, Ananda's worldwide leadership affirmed our commitment to outreach and public service. Recently this was reaffirmed and focused towards SK's successors: Jyotish and Devi Novak. But that's easier said than done because our generation of leaders does not have the public recognition or karmic role of SK. Not surprisingly, the resources committed to outreach lag behind the resources committed to what we are used to making as our priority: the maintenance and growth of the communities, and the training and support of our members. Perhaps this is as it needs to be for now. We can coast for a while on the lifelong public service of our founder. But just how long?
In all fairness (returning now to the gender identity of Ananda members), yoga and meditation probably does attract more women than men. Perhaps our statistics are in line with the reality everywhere at the present time. Nonetheless, the frequency and clarity with which Swami Kriyananda commented upon the need for male energy should be a warning to us. A true leader is compassionate and understanding and good with people. But we cannot expect all future leaders to express all aspects of the ideal leader, and certainly not in their younger years as they are learning and growing. A potential leader might prove, at first, to be a gadfly of new ideas (just as SK was long ago) or even critique. (Just as some of the brightest students in school are not those who are the teacher's pet.)
It is true, as he, himself wrote, that the devotee (male and female) must begin the spiritual search with qualities of humility, devotion and receptivity, but strength and will power, too, are essential to spiritual growth. Given the dynamics of cultural conditioning in modern times, and as Swami Kriyananda found himself a victim of, it is all too easy to assume that softer qualities are spiritual and outward flowing energies are egotistical. Easy, in part, because so often true: but not always!
For, in fact, the emergent form of spirituality rejects the historic tradition that expansiveness is born of ego. The time for rejecting the world in the name of spirituality is rapidly vanishing. The time for "bringing Spirit to "work" in the world" is gaining acceptance by virtue of the need in our times. Men and women of greater awareness express this instinctively. But the old habits cling and resist as well.
In the last two weeks or so, and taking place at the Ananda Community and Center near Assisi, Italy, was a gathering of younger members, many of whom have leadership potential for the future. Ananda IS making an effort to nurture and recognize leadership qualities. SK taught us that in group dynamics and organizational activities, leadership, while not better or more important than other roles, is, nonetheless, a necessary talent, role and skill. Given the positive changes in culture and consciousness away from hierarchy, leadership energies tend to be mistrusted even if the role remains essential to any successful venture. We must avoid that inviting view, born of an extreme affirmation of egalitarian principles. "All men are created equal" is a pleasing affirmation (applicable, truly, to our potential) but quite obviously is untrue in actual fact.
It is my hope and prayer, and expectation, that the present leadership of Ananda, wherever situated, will have the wisdom (and the remembrance of the example of our founder, Swami Kriyananda) to recognize and nurture leadership qualities in those men and women inspired to serve the public work of Yogananda in the world today and in the years to come.
In thoughtful recollection,
Nayaswami Hriman
Monday, July 4, 2016
July 4th Reflections
This note was first given as a note to residents of Ananda Community in Lynnwood. It has been adapted for the larger audience of members and friends of Ananda Sangha in the greater Seattle area and is reproduced in its entirety here in this blog.
Dear Friends,
Students, Members and Ananda Supporters:
Padma and I are at
Ananda Village: Ananda’s very first and largest community founded nearly fifty
years ago: 1969. On July 4th
each the community here celebrates its anniversary for it was July 4th
that the first parcel(s) of land in Nevada County (northeast of Sacramento, in
the Sierra Nevada foothills, just under 3,000 feet elevation).
The early years of
Ananda World Brotherhood Village (its formal name) were in the height of the
back-to-land movement at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius (so-called). Oh, how
the movement of Ananda has grown: 9 communities including India and Italy! Yoga
and meditation students by the thousands!
Padma and I are here
on “leave” to help our daughter Gita with her two young children. Gita (and her
brother, Kashi) were born and raised here at Ananda Village. She now directs
the Development Office for Ananda nationwide. Her husband, Badri Matlock, is at
our community in Italy (outside the medieval and sacred town of Assisi) at the
first conference of future leaders of Ananda. He is involved with the
management of the Expanding Light Retreat at Ananda Village and is the
understudy lead trainer for Yoga Teacher Training. So Gita asked if we might
come and give her a hand. Two little ones are a handful! “Early to bed, early
to rise, run around until your demise!”
On Saturday, a panel
of speakers from the early “pioneers” of Ananda (which includes: Jyotish and
Devi Novak who were recently visiting us in Seattle, and others) spoke of the challenges
and joys of the early days of Ananda. It was quite fun and inspiring. Our
Ananda "story" is a story of faith, will power and attunement
accomplishing the impossible: "banat, banat, ban jai" (doing, doing,
soon done)
The “good ‘ol days”
are recreated with each generation. In Seattle, in the last few years we’ve
started the Camano Farm, finished the temple, constructed the Yoga Hall, moved
East West Bookshop, started the Thrift Store, and are now in the process of
moving the Living Wisdom School. We already have lots of stories.
The committed members
of Ananda worldwide have access, by attunement, to the power and grace of one
of the spiritual giants of the new age: Paramhansa Yogananda. Ananda is blessed
to have been given birth by one of Yogananda’s most prolific and committed
disciples who, at the Beverly Hills garden party, July 30, 1949, was the only
one (of 800 present) so stirred to his depths at Yogananda’s powerful message of the need for
intentional communities to have actually manifested not just one, but nine (so
far).
Our biggest challenge
hasn’t, then, been the energy and courage to do what we are asked (internally
or externally) in our service of Yogananda, it's more likely to remember that
God is the Doer. Our frustration, self-doubt, and stress arises only to the
degree of our own self-involvement.
Surveying the
craziness around us in America and in the world, we either also become crazy with
frustration, worry, or despondency, or we affirm and feel that this is God's
world; we agree to do our part, such as it is, but that we have to let the
drama unfold in its own mysterious, and sometimes cuckoo, way.
It's difficult to
hurrah much about July 4th this year. Yogananda says our country has
good karma, despite our not so good karma. The craziness we see in the body
politic can only help wake up snoozing souls of goodwill, the silent majority
of good hearts, to resurrect our nation's ideals. We must do our part, too.
Skepticism and giving up will not help. This is a time, more than ever, for
each one of us to make our “ideals practical:” these are Yogananda’s words when
training the young monk whom he called “Walter” (aka Swami Kriyananda).
Ananda represents and
symbolizes both in our communities and in the ancient but timely precepts of “Sanaatan
Dharma” (the ancient name for the Vedantic ideals) the unifying principles so
needed in the world today: cooperation, respect for all, and the intuitive
understanding (especially based on regular meditation) that we are One:
children of our One, Father-Mother, Beloved Friend, God! While far from alone
in today’s world among the millions of individuals and other organizations
espousing peace and freedom, each of us should feel the inspiration and
obligation to align ourselves with others of like mind. Believing is not
enough!
Krishna in the “Bhagavad
Gita” reminds us that doing nothing will not free us, nor bring us happiness.
We are compelled by our very bodies and very nature to act. Only by action can
we become free from the compulsions to act; only by action (which includes the
act of meditation) can we achieve the transcendent state of the soul. One saint
in “Samadhi” pours more peace and enlightenment into thirsty hearts and souls than
all the books and lectures combined. (Of course, BOTH are needed in this
relatively unenlightened world.)
Let us celebrate the
ideals of our nation’s founders. It is our nation's destiny to spread of the higher
aspects of a new age of freedom: liberty balanced by enlightened self-interest
(cooperation), respect for the rights of all, and a sincere interest in the
greater good of all.
Not a year goes by
when I don't appreciate ever more deeply the significance of these intentional,
spiritual communities as models of integration of all races and nations in
harmony and cooperation. If you visit Ananda Village in California or Ananda in
Italy, you will find every imaginable race, religion, and culture represented
there. The significance isn’t that all people should live in such communities
but, rather, it is the example that it is possible (indeed, necessary for our
survival as a race).
America was founded in
the name of freedom. There is no greater spiritual principle and destiny than
this. It does not matter that freedom has been defined primarily in terms of
personal self-interest because ours is an ascending age of greater awareness. Spiritual
growth and human evolution towards maturity is always directional, never
absolute.
So let us celebrate
the ideals of freedom for all souls; equality of all souls as children of the
One, Father-Mother, Beloved Friend, God.
Hriman and Padma
…
Friday, June 17, 2016
Why We Need Community
Note to friends: Ananda Community
Open House: Tomorrow! http://www.anandawashington.org/event/solstice-open-house/?instance_id=132275. Stay tuned for a follow up article with some reflections about American society. "Just sayin' "
Our nation
mourns for the latest victims of violence in our country even as calls go forth
for finding preventative solutions for the future. Could this Saturday’s annual
Open House and Solstice Celebration held by Ananda Community in Lynnwood be relevant to the serious challenges in our
time?
We certainly
think so. The modern trend of globalism is neither all “good” nor all “bad.” It
is complex and besides being an historical fact and a cultural fait accompli,
it is, among other things, a trend that is bringing people of every race and
nation in contact with one another.
What we see
in decline, however, is a sense of community. Our urban and suburban neighborhoods
tend to be a transient admixture of people and families with little in common,
and their paths rarely cross.
On July 30,
1949, at a speech given in Beverly Hills, Paramhansa Yogananda proclaimed that
“I am sowing into the ether” the seeds of the community ideal for the future.
He predicted that a new pattern of conscious, intentional and sustainable
living would “spread like wildfire.” The “wildfire” part still awaits a future
ignition but the increasing violence in the world will unquestionably be one of
the sparks. Economic challenges, no doubt, will be another.
The stage is
being set and Ananda’s founder, Swami Kriyananda, who was present in the
audience that fateful day, vowed to do his part. Before his passing in 2013,
Swami Kriyananda had founded nine such communities throughout the world, including
the Ananda Community in nearby Lynnwood.
The concept
of intentional communities is not limited to its residential forms. Virtual
communities or associations of those inspired and committed to serve their own
local area or the world at large, all count as “communities.”
Our
invitation to you, therefore, for this Saturday’s Solstice Celebration and Open
House is an opportunity for all of us to register “our answer” to mindless
violence by coming together to affirm our kinship with one another and all life.
The power of harmony and friendship will always win, but it takes conscious
efforts on our part.
Since time immemorial, the Summer Solstice has drawn
people together, recognizing intuitively that the powerful rays of the sun at
its diurnal zenith symbolize the healing and energizing rays of the Divine
Light within and without.
Blessings to
all,
Nayaswamis
Hriman and Padma McGilloway
Note details
of the Open House:
Come
rain, sun, thunderstorms! It will be fun and memorable no matter what!
Saturday,
June 18, 3 to 7 p.m. 20715 Larch Way, Lynnwood 98036
3
p.m. Grounds are open; parking in the back. Tours, refreshments, childrens
activities, music, summer fun faire booths with food, organic produce,
clothing, gifts, books and healing services!
5
p.m. Solstice Celebration : a theme of family featuring music & ceremony
6
p.m. Vegetarian dinner (free)
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Beam Me Up! How We Rise Spiritually!
I am Underwater:
A fish doesn't necessarily know that it is in water. The medium of water becomes the "given" and is assumed. "If there was a sound, continuous since birth and omnipresent until death, what would you call it?" "Silence." If there is a YOU, consistent since birth, identified with the same, if slowly changing body, a family, an environment, culture and customs, what do you call it? ME.
You are Other:
If I am ME, then you must be YOU, and you are NOT ME! When, therefore, we contemplate God, we contemplate that which is not ME. As I cannot BE YOU, then I cannot BE God. Or so says logic.
Out of the Labyrinth:
If we encounter the Vedantic and metaphysical teaching that we are children of God and that our destiny is to reclaim our divinity and soul freedom by becoming ONE with God just as a wave is in separable from the great ocean, how then do we find our way out of the labyrinth of ME vs YOU?
My Help Cometh from the Lord:
There has been no time in known history where nations, tribes and peoples were not guided by spiritual teachers, prophets, or guides. In all walks of human life, there are leaders among whom there are, however rarely, great and inspired geniuses. In any successful group dynamic and enterprise, leadership emerges and proves essential. "Help" as if "from above" enters the picture at every crucial juncture of human history. As our intellect and intuition are centered in the heart and the brain (and not the stomach), and as ideas appear as ideas in our mind or heart, so too is all life guided silently and invisibly from a higher realm which we cannot see.
While you may justly claim that "I had an idea," you cannot say from "Whence cometh" the idea. We do not know where our inspiration and good ideas come from. We only know they simply appear, full blown (sometimes) whether in dreams or in our waking hours. It is true that we usually attract ideas by putting out the effort to think things through, to put our mind to the task of solving problems, and otherwise by intense mental or physical effort in a given direction, but the solution itself, we cannot otherwise account for its timing or substance. At the same time, only Einstein received E=mc2. I didn't. No poet did. Neither did a composer or a housewife. We get inspirations (usually) that are personal and pertinent to my life. [Habitual dreamers, those who live in make believe worlds of their own imaginings, may receive all sorts of ideas but they never bear fruit.]
From Whence Cometh the Lord?
Just as you cannot account for the appearance of an idea in your mind, neither can you account for your own existence. You, too, simply appeared: to yourself as an infant, toddler, child and an adult. If however, "you" are a soul and not a body, then we are like prodigal children caught in a foreign land, seeking our way home. We need a spiritual "Einstein," an alchemist, to show us how to convert flesh into spirit. We need a guide. Only one with the proven power to go between the two worlds of Spirit and Matter can teach you how to do it. Do you need to eat? To breathe? Can you stop your heart and breath at will and leave your physical form behind, and then return at will? Why then imagine you do not need an enlightened teacher to show you the way?
Letting Go
We cannot fall asleep consciously for the simple fact that the subconscious state is not the conscious state. To enter the state of sleep we must "let go" of the conscious mind and "fall into" sleep. Sleep is a lower state of awareness. In sleep we are either unaware or our dreams are an incoherent jumble (most of the time).
Superconsciousness lies at the opposite end of the consciousness spectrum. Unlike sleep, we are, in superconsciousness, vibrantly alive and awake. But like sleep, superconsciousness is not under the control of the conscious mind. And, therefore, like sleep, it also entails a kind of letting go. Swami Kriyananda, in his landmark book on consciousness, "Awaken to Superconsciousness," describes this process as "upward relaxation [back] into superconsciousness." The conscious and subconscious states are but derivatives of the superconscious mind.
The experience of superconsciousness is not the product of an intellectual assent or mere affirmation of will. It is a state of being which is very subtle relative to the vibration or frequency of ordinary thoughts and emotions. Superconsciousness lies as a horizon line between the lower state of sleep and the conscious state of wakefulness. To use another image: think of superconsciousness as the top point of a pyramid: the two lower and opposite corners are the states of the conscious and subconscious mind. To ascend to superconsciousness we must strip away the heavy baggage of passing thoughts, heaving emotions and body awareness that the very light balloon of pure awareness might rise.
The Movie
Our conscious mind and subconscious mind are more like the appearance of reality on a movie screen: the hero and the villain, as it were; day and night. Both emerge from the singular beam of superconsciousness from the projection booth of Spirit. The images are caused by the darkening imprinted dots on the film. These are our restless, body-bound thoughts and emotions. The beam of light is otherwise unaffected by the film crossing over it. The images on the screen continue until the film is over or the operator removes the film to reveal just the pure beam of light on the screen.
The Transmission
To switch metaphors, but like a transmission of radio signals, superconsciousness requires a sender and a receiver. The sender has to have a sending "unit," which is to say, must be already in superconsciousness, while you, the receiver, have to be turning your dial to the frequency of the sender. Bit by bit you refine, clarify, and purify the frequency of your receiver, thus showing your readiness and attunement to the sender's wavelength and frequency. This is the guru-disciple relationship. As St. John in Chapter One of his gospel writes of Jesus Christ: "To as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God."
In meditation we learn to focus calmly but deeply and intently, at the point of singularity (this horizon line) in the forehead. There, awaiting the transmission "signal" given to us by the guru's invisible presence, our breath can be snatched away (temporarily, at first) as we enter into this sacred land of the soul. [It is not necessary that the guru be in a human body at that time or physically present for us to receive his transmission, for we are speaking of higher states of consciousness which are independent, indeed the very source of, material and physical realities.]
Being
Superconsciousness is not born of ego. It is a state unto itself: universal and omnipresent, stripped of the characteristics of ego (memory, desires, senses, personality, and bodily identification). The ego therefore does not possess the right frequency to tap into superconsciousness alone. The ego frequency is, as stated earlier, derived FROM superconsciousness and is a lower vibration, rate of frequency and so on.
No mere book or course or ordinary (if brilliant, witty, and even wise) teacher can take us to this "land beyond our dreams" (as Paramhansa Yogananda called it). A true teacher is one who already is awake and living in superconsciousness and who can transmit it at (the command of divine) will.
"Beam me up, Scotty!"
Joy to you!
Swami Hrimananda
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Bhagavad Gita : The Voice of the Ancients “Calls to Us to Awaken in Him”
Once again, the following article is taken from an email to Ananda members in the Seattle-area Sangha:
Each Sunday
at the weekly Service we read a stanza from the Bhagavad Gita. What is this text, this “The Song of God,” quoted by
so many great people of influence?
Ralph Waldo
Emerson said of the Bhagavad Gita: "It was as
if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large, serene,
consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age and climate
had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which exercise us.”
Henry David Thoreau wrote, "In the morning I bathe my intellect in the
stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita in comparison with which our modern
world and its literature seem puny and trivial.”
Mahatma Gandhi confessed that "When doubts haunt me, when
disappointments stare me in the face, and I see not one ray of hope on the
horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-Gita and find a verse to comfort me; and I
immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. Those who
meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new meanings from it every
day".
And finally, J. Robert Oppenheimer,
American physicist and director of the Manhattan Project (that created the
world’s first atom bomb), learned Sanskrit in 1933 and read the Bhagavad Gita in the original, citing it
as one of the most influential books in his life. Upon witnessing the first
nuclear test in 1945, he quoted the Gita: “Now
I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
What is this extraordinary work of
literature, allegory and divine inspiration? The “Gita” is the most beloved of
the great scriptures of India. It is one chapter in the midst of the world’s
longest epic, the Mahabharata (over
100,000 couplets). The Gita itself has about 700 verses arranged in 18 chapters:
not very long in itself. The Mahabharata makes
an allegory of an actual historic and apocalyptic battle that took place not far
from what is now New Delhi sometime after the first millennia B.C. It’s a “good guys” vs the “bad guys” story,
with the good guys winning, but just barely.
The Gita itself consists of a dialogue
between Lord Krishna, the charioteer and guru for Prince Arjuna (a good guy),
one of the fiercest warriors of the two opposing clans. Their conversation
takes place on the eve of battle.
Arrayed against his own cousins (who
usurped his and his brothers’ rule of the kingdom), Arjuna asks his guru, “What
virtue, what victory is there to be found in killing my own family? They are
far from perfect, but I don’t seek riches or power? Why must I fight?”
And thus begins the greatest story ever
told: your story, and mine. This is the story of the challenges we face, the
victories and defeats we experience, and our quest for the Holy Grail of
Happiness.
The greatest work ever written by Swami
Kriyananda, “Essence of the Bhagavad Gita,” was inspired by the commentary on
the Gita dictated by Paramhansa Yogananda in the early months of 1950 at his
desert retreat in 29 Palms, CA. This book will change your life. At the
completion of his dictation efforts, Paramhansa Yogananda declared to Swamiji
“Millions will find God through this work. Not just thousands: millions! I have
seen it. I know!”
Joy to you,
Nayaswamis Hriman and Padma
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Ananda : Who Are We?
This is an email sent to members of Ananda in Seattle, WA (USA) (today, May 20,2016)
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We understand that Ananda is seen in various ways, some of which seem at opposites: to some, we are a specific spiritual path (kriya yoga) following the inspiration of a modern spiritual teacher (Paramhansa Yogananda). In this view we are not unlike churches or temples everywhere and in most faith traditions. Indeed, our legal name is Ananda Church of Self-Realization of Seattle! We are, in fact, recognized as a “church” by the I.R.S.
This message was sent to hrimananda@gmail.com from:
Hriman & Padma | friends@anandaseattle.org | Ananda Seattle | 23305 Bothell-Everett Highway | Bothell, WA 98021
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Kriya Yoga & Discipleship in the 21st Century
[My apologies in advance for the length of this article. These opinions are not those of any organization but are solely my own.]
I am a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda (PY) and the
line of preceptors who sent him. In this life, I did not know him as I
was born in 1950 in northern California and he, PY, left his mortal frame in
1952 in Los Angeles.
I was greatly blessed to become a student and friend of Swami Kriyananda (SK) who lived with and was trained by PY in the last three
and a half years of PY's life. Thus in a very real sense, I (and of course many
hundreds, indeed, thousands) were blessed to receive PY's vibrations, wisdom,
and joy through the channel of SK.
Commissioned and ordained by SK as a
minister and, in 2009, as a kriyacharya (one authorized to initiate others into
Kriya Yoga), I (and my wife, Padma) offer classes to prepare students to become
disciples of PY and to receive kriya initiation (through the Ananda Center
based in Bothell, near Seattle).
We do this twice a year and each time we
see students struggle with the hurdle of taking discipleship as a prerequisite
and a consequence of kriya initiation. In this training, we follow the pattern
established by PY during his lifetime and given to us by SK.
During his very active and full lifetime
of teaching, SK would regale us with stories of his time with PY. It was not to
separate himself from us, as in, "lucky me," it was genuinely to help
us understand what discipleship entailed and how important it is to achieving
Self-realization. In turn, we share and train students in this same manner.
After SK's passing three years ago and
during one of these classes, I was inspired to play an audio recording of SK
speaking on the subject of discipleship. (SK gave many such talks during his
lifetime.) I was shocked, however, when the students had no substantive
reaction to the talk; they were not particularly inspired or touched. Listening
to it with them in our living room (where we give these classes), I could feel
that they were not able to connect to SK nor yet, more importantly, to either
the precepts or the stories that SK shared with them.
It was then that my concerns arose and my
thoughts have been evolving ever since.
Allow me to digress: PY's life story,
"Autobiography of a Yogi," (AY) describes Lahiri Mahasaya (the saint
who brought the practice of kriya yoga back into public view) as giving kriya
to all sincere seekers: Moslems, Christians and others (not just orthodox
Hindus). Students sometimes ask us about this, especially with the hidden,
unstated question of "Why, then, must we take discipleship vows?"
Yet in the AY, Lahiri is told by Babaji
(who initiated Lahiri into kriya and commissioned him to spread kriya yoga) to
quote from the Bhagavad Gita a particular stanza to all his "disciples" to whom he gives kriya. Thus Babaji states, without reservation, that those
to whom Lahiri would give the kriya technique would be disciples.
I am not aware of PY doing this with any
regularity but he was known to give kriya spontaneously and/or to those of
other faiths. He quotes Lahiri's statements about the universality of
kriya in AY, so he obviously accepted and approved it. However, notwithstanding
his own example and teaching, I am told that in years after PY's passing, his
own organization began to require students preparing for kriya to pledge their
allegiance to that organization and to their discipleship to PY as being
exclusive of other paths, gurus, etc. (I don't have the exact facts on this
requirement but I've heard it repeatedly from others first hand.)
Returning to our subject, then, we are
faced, here and now in the 21st century, with the simple fact that PY is NOT in
the body; that kriya is being disseminated throughout the world through various
lineages and organizations, and even in published book form; and that its
worldwide spread was predicted and intended by this lineage. Yet, SK is no
longer in body to guide us; and with both PY and most other direct disciples
like SK, also gone from this earth, new potential disciples will not have the
opportunity to have the blessing of PY's human presence, nor yet that of his
direct disciples.
A variety of organizations and spiritual
teachers, each of which claims transmission from the kriya lineage of Babaji,
Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar and/or Paramhansa Yogananda, offers
training in the kriya technique. Each may have slightly different requirements
in regards to training and/or initiation.
Even in following the training we have
been given by Swami Kriyananda (the pattern follows the training PY employed),
there are nuances in respect to the expectations and requirements that we hold
out in respect to the meaning and form that discipleship should take.
Let's consider first a person of another
faith? Can they receive kriya? Are they expected to be disciples of PY? At
Ananda we've more or less considered that people of other faiths are eligible
for kriya initiation on the assumption that their participation in that faith
is for cultural, family and convenience reasons rather than as an act of deep faith.
Is that, in fact, what the masters have intended?
I, for one, have no reason to assume or believe that this assumption was intended by them. If such a one is loyal to his own faith, is he not a true disciple of PY? I think that such a person can be both loyal to his faith AND a disciple of PY (and this line of kriya masters). How can this be? "God is the guru" PY said often. If a person is sufficiently mature enough to not view his loyalty to his faith as being compromised by his discipleship to PY, and who views PY as an incarnation of God who has been sent to him for his spiritual growth, then why would PY have a conflict with that person's faith (and, if a true faith, why would he?)?
I, for one, have no reason to assume or believe that this assumption was intended by them. If such a one is loyal to his own faith, is he not a true disciple of PY? I think that such a person can be both loyal to his faith AND a disciple of PY (and this line of kriya masters). How can this be? "God is the guru" PY said often. If a person is sufficiently mature enough to not view his loyalty to his faith as being compromised by his discipleship to PY, and who views PY as an incarnation of God who has been sent to him for his spiritual growth, then why would PY have a conflict with that person's faith (and, if a true faith, why would he?)?
Imagine that this person, say, a
Christian, is given personal instruction in his faith by a wise and spiritually
mature or advanced minister, teacher or friend. Let's say this person is his
spiritual guide. Is that a conflict with his discipleship to Christ? Of course
not! The Kriya masters make it clear in their lives and teachings that they
represent "Sanaatan Dharma," the eternal religion. Not some new sect!
True, you might object, saying, "But this mentor is not the sat guru!" True, but how can any one of us know whether PY or any of the others are our sat guru? I don't think we will know until we are much closer to enlightenment. Even PY's guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, was a "proxy," he explained, for his sat guru, Babaji! We should know the teaching and the precepts but their application to our individual lives is necessarily directional and relative.
True, you might object, saying, "But this mentor is not the sat guru!" True, but how can any one of us know whether PY or any of the others are our sat guru? I don't think we will know until we are much closer to enlightenment. Even PY's guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, was a "proxy," he explained, for his sat guru, Babaji! We should know the teaching and the precepts but their application to our individual lives is necessarily directional and relative.
Would a self-professed atheist be eligible
for kriya? I don't see how. Profession of atheism is as dogmatic as any
narrow-eyed religious dogma. A sincere agnostic, on the other hand, who simply
professes not to know whether God exists but otherwise is open, could certainly
be. At first, his "discipleship" would be the commitment to practice
kriya and study the teachings; in time, the descent of divine consciousness
will baptism him in true faith and intuitive gnosis. Sri Yukteswar told his disciple, PY, that "joy is the proof of God's existence! (And His adequate response to our every need.)"
Can one who has taken a vow of discipleship
to another guru and lineage take kriya? Hmmm, that hits closer to home, doesn't
it? I'd say generally, "it depends." If that guru offers no kriya
equivalent, is in all other respects compatible in the teachings, and the disciple
mature and sincere.......Maybe? After all, the line between this circumstance
and the situation of being of another faith can become a very thin line.
Besides, PY's lineage is compatible both vibrationally and historically with a
number of other saints. So, this is too close to call, at least for me. The
issue of having only one guru has two aspects: practicality and principle.
Practicality has to do with the admixture of vibration, teachings and
techniques that potentially confuses the devotee; principle has to do both with
the importance of loyalty (which PY emphasized as "the first law of
God") and the principle of the sat (sad) guru: that instrument through
which our salvation is destined to come.
I know numerous devotees whose personal
altar contains many true saints. What is the significance of this and the person's inner attunement and
relationship to each saint? I generally have no idea. Why should I be
the judge? Sincerity and maturity linked with intensity of effort, common sense
and intelligence, are the magnets that attract the power of grace.
Not everyone can integrate this
bifurcation of loyalty and commitment so readily. In fact, and in general, our
planetary human consciousness is not very evolved this way. We tend toward "either-or," rather than "both-and." One sees more
genuine examples of this universality and integration in a culture like India
than in the West.
The downside can, however, be a lack of discernment and an eclectic approach for which no deep roots are nurtured. Nonetheless, we are not here to judge others even if, we must, by the requirements of our role, fulfill some degree of our own discernment of a person's readiness to take kriya and to accept discipleship.
The downside can, however, be a lack of discernment and an eclectic approach for which no deep roots are nurtured. Nonetheless, we are not here to judge others even if, we must, by the requirements of our role, fulfill some degree of our own discernment of a person's readiness to take kriya and to accept discipleship.
As one trained and commissioned by Swami
Kriyananda, I am committed to following the instructions and training he has
given to us. My priority is to serve and build the work of Ananda rather than to be a vending machine for kriya. We could not offer kriya if there were not a committed group of disciples operating through genuine attunement to the guru(s) to support this work of kriya.
Yet, as I encounter students seeking kriya for whom very little personal connection, if any, exists in respect to PY (owing at least in part to the passage of time and the disappearance of direct disciples), I must wonder whether our description and training in discipleship which is wholly based on the example of PY and his own direct disciples, is unnecessarily too high a bar; too irrelevant to the daily lives of sincerely seeking men and women living in this conflicted world of ours; people for whom kriya was intended to uplift. How can kriya spread if every potential disciple is expected to accept and have the kind of relationship that direct disciples had with PY, or even what some of us had with PY through SK as our teacher (and who was a direct disciple)?
Yet, as I encounter students seeking kriya for whom very little personal connection, if any, exists in respect to PY (owing at least in part to the passage of time and the disappearance of direct disciples), I must wonder whether our description and training in discipleship which is wholly based on the example of PY and his own direct disciples, is unnecessarily too high a bar; too irrelevant to the daily lives of sincerely seeking men and women living in this conflicted world of ours; people for whom kriya was intended to uplift. How can kriya spread if every potential disciple is expected to accept and have the kind of relationship that direct disciples had with PY, or even what some of us had with PY through SK as our teacher (and who was a direct disciple)?
Is it, then, possible to reconcile these
aspects of discipleship in regards to kriya initiation?
I believe it is. I believe we must
consider the reality of discipleship for an ever widening circle of sincere
souls. Few of these will become members of organizations founded to serve
Yogananda's work; fewer still will live in a monastic life, or in Ananda
Communities, or become ministers, acharyas, or reunciates or in any other way
adopt the outer forms of discipleship and renunciation. Indeed, PY's teachings
and Lahiri's own commission from Babaji clearly anticipate kriya for the common
(but sincere) "man."
I believe that the simplest resolution of
these questions lies in viewing the practice of kriya itself as the primary
instrument of discipleship. Kriya, in effect, becomes the guru. Kriya (and its
attendant practices like Energization, Aum, and Hong Sau) become the channels
through which, by the disciple's sincere effort based on his or her training,
inspiration and guidance from the guru comes. Yes the touch (and guidance) of the
disciples is the primary vehicle of transmission but by and of itself it is,
like the kriya initiation ceremony itself, it is only a beginning. So PY has
taught us.
Sincere students should of course study
the lives of direct disciples; they should learn the value of serving the
guru's work; the importance of devotion; right attitude; the concepts of the
teachings of the guru; and so much else. Sharing these essential elements of
the spiritual path is important; but, as these students are fresh and new to
this, and as the training we and others offer is generally less than one year, we cannot expect them to manifest these qualities overnight! Attunement takes time and practice. Nor,
in fact, have we done otherwise, all these years.
What we've done to-date, however, is to describe discipleship in such a way as hold aloft a high bar of expectations which lies beyond the current reach of understanding and experience of an increasing tide of otherwise sincere and potentially qualified kriyaban-disciples. As discipleship is unfamiliar to westerners and triggers doubt, fear, and confusion, I think we need a broader brush to meet them where they are.
What we've done to-date, however, is to describe discipleship in such a way as hold aloft a high bar of expectations which lies beyond the current reach of understanding and experience of an increasing tide of otherwise sincere and potentially qualified kriyaban-disciples. As discipleship is unfamiliar to westerners and triggers doubt, fear, and confusion, I think we need a broader brush to meet them where they are.
I think, therefore, we should add to our
training an emphasis that with right attitude and devotion, kriya itself can be
an instrument through which attunement to the guru can grow naturally. It's not
the only way, obviously, but as kriya spreads and as more and more come seeking
kriya for whom service and satsang may not be accessible or of immediate and
obvious appeal, this can be their legitimate starting point and as a starting
point, it can be their guide.
I'd like to share some quotes from an
unpublished course in discipleship that SK created for training the monks at
Mt. Washington back in the 1950's:
In the West, the importance of the guru-disciple
relationship is over-looked; one great reason being that it is not understood.
Even the more familiar word disciple is not understood. Who
were the disciples of Jesus, for instance? Those who followed the
discipline of Jesus. There are several references in the Christian
Bible to this relationship as a necessity for communion with God. Paramhansaji
frequently explained that a disciple is one that follows discipline. Whose
discipline? Certainly the blind cannot lead the blind. Neither can a human
being steeped in delusion go on alone,as many think to be able to
do. One cannot become a surgeon without studying under experts in surgery; no
one can become a pianist without studying under a pianist. The same principle
is involved in one’s quest for God. Without the discipline of following a true
guru one may not find God.
...... Note: In all cases, in the ultimate sense, it is God who is the Guru: First,through His Law; second through books and teachers; third, through the most direct channel possible, a guru. Lesser teachers turn one to themselves. A guru’s wish is only to turn devotees to God; to lift them up to his own stature of spiritual realization.....
...... The practice of the techniques is essential. Many times I have heard our beloved Master say to a disciple, “Practice your techniques. It is through the techniques that I can help you.” He has given us these great techniques, but it is up to us to use them for our own salvation."
When you read the AY and its frequent references to kriya, and the writings and lectures and lessons written by PY, it is abundantly clear that the principal, and most visible and objective legacy he has given the world is KRIYA YOGA. It seems inescapable to me that PY intended kriya to be the instrument of attunement for future generations and centuries, when little else other than books and a relatively few number of dedicated and attuned disciples exist to carry on the work.
The only other choice, apart from just printing the technique (as has been done) in a book, is to require commitment to an organization to receive the requisite training and support in satsang and service. This is precisely what PY's own organization apparently has done.
It is understandable. I, too, find sometimes frustrating the mercenary and ignorant impulse in some seekers to come for our training, take the kriya, and "run." They do not understand the importance of satsang (fellowship), devotion, and seva (service) to the guru's work. Yet, SK has made it clear that we do not require membership or service to Ananda as a requirement of kriya initiation.
Nonetheless, when I survey some Ananda members who outwardly fulfill all of these things I don't always see true devotees, either. It takes time to grow our attunement to the truth. We who might be privileged to train and initiate others and therefore act somewhat as gatekeepers, must be careful not to create hurdles that are inappropriate or skewed by our loyalty to the organization we serve in our guru's name.
Today's seekers have little exposure and sometimes a great deal of ignorance, misunderstanding or wariness regarding the meaning of discipleship. We can share what we've been taught; share what we have learned. But we must not impose either the ideals or our own experience on souls whose karmic pattern of unfoldment is uniquely their own.
So long as they are sincere and are open to learning about the precepts of discipleship, I believe it is up each to approach and express their discipleship uniquely (so long as other requirements, namely, learning and practicing the other techniques that are part of the kriya path are fulfilled). One who goes to the altar of matrimony may be confident or have secret reservations but so long as they are sincere, the outcome must await the unfoldment of the resuls of their efforts and their karma.
Let us make kriya yoga available for all who are sincere!
Swami Hrimananda
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