Spiritual Forums

Home


Donate!


Articles


CHAT!


Shop


 
Welcome to Spiritual Forums!.

We created this community for people from all backgrounds to discuss Spiritual, Paranormal, Metaphysical, Philosophical, Supernatural, and Esoteric subjects. From Astral Projection to Zen, all topics are welcome. We hope you enjoy your visits.

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest, which gives you limited access to most discussions and articles. By joining our free community you will be able to post messages, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload your own photos, and gain access to our Chat Rooms, Registration is fast, simple, and free, so please, join our community today! !

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, check our FAQs before contacting support. Please read our forum rules, since they are enforced by our volunteer staff. This will help you avoid any infractions and issues.

Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Spirituality & Beliefs > General Beliefs

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #21  
Old 18-01-2019, 01:57 AM
running running is offline
Deactivated Account
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: in my truck. anywhere usa
Posts: 8,524
  running's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amilius777
Here is the excerpt from Yogananda's death- it questions the health, diet, and Kriya Yoga that Yogananda spread through the SRF. It is not that Kriya Yoga is proven to be something bad, or other practicioners are liars and I am not claiming Yogananda to be a fraud. But I am showing how we don't need the guru. We have ourselves! We are already free souls in God! Follow your inner self and you will find God/Christ/Holy Spirit/Buddha or whatever you call it-

Yogananda's Incorruptibility After Death SRF Myth

In an article which appeared in the Rational Enquirer, The Skeptics'
Newsletter for Western Canada, Leonard Angel, a professor of
philosophy at the University of Columbia, recounts how he
investigated the miracle which is reported in almost every Yogananda
publication put out by the Self Realization Fellowship (SRF), the
society founded and organised by Yogananda to propagate his
teachings:

" After Death the Body of Paramahansa Yogananda Manifested a
Phenomenal State of Immutability. " The story in Self-Realization
Magazine (Los Angeles) May 1952 issue; and in the national news
weekly Time, August 4, 1952 reported that:

" The great world teacher demonstrated the value of yoga (scientific
techniques for God-realization) not only in life but in death. Weeks
after his departure his unchanged face shone with the divine light
luster of incorruptibility. Mr. Harry Rowe, Los Angeles Mortuary
Director, Forest Lawn Memorial-Park (in which the great master is
temporarily placed) sent Self-Realization Fellowship a notarized
letter from which the following extracts are taken:

The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of
Paramahansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our
experience...No physical disintegration was visible even twenty days
after death...No indication of mould was visible on his skin, and no
visible desiccation (drying up) took place in the bodily tissues.
This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know
from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one...At the time of receiving
Yogananda`s body, the mortuary personnel expected to observe,
through the glass lid of the casket, the usual progressive signs of
bodily decay. Our astonishment increased day after day without
bringing any visible change in the body under observation.
Yogananda's body was apparently in a phenomenal state of
immutability...No odour of decay emanated from his body at any
time...The physical appearance of Yogananda on March 27th, just
before the bronze cover of the casket was put into position, was the
same as it had been on March 7th. "

Professor Angel was impressed, but not convinced. He obtained a copy
of Yogananda's death certificate from the Los Angeles Department of
Vital Statistics which confirmed that Yogananda had died on March
7th, the certificate of death being received by the registrar on
March 11 1952. However, the certificate also bore the
signature " Kenneth I. Johnson " , and the number 2641. It was
contained in box #21, above which were the words " Signature of
embalmer. "

Confirmation that Yogananda had in fact been embalmed was found in
the full text of Harry Rowe's letter in a little booklet entitled
Paramahansa Yogananda, In Memoriam, put out by the Self-Realization
Fellowship. It reads,

" Paramahansa Yogananda's body was embalmed an the night of March
8th, with that quantity of fluid which is customarily used in any
body of similar size. "

So what was the miracle?

According to the full text of Harry Rowe's letter the astonishment
was only due to the fact that the funeral home staff had not used
any creams in addition to the embalming fluid - a creamy pore-
sealing emulsion that temporarily prevents the outward appearance of
mould.

A check with two independent licensed embalmers elicited the
following comments,

" I'm sure we've had bodies for two or three months with good
preservation. This is not unusual. Creams are not necessary " ,
and " ...that preservation for 20 days through embalming is not
unusual. We can keep a body a month or two without interral…an
embalming fluid with a lanolin base will have humecant which
prevents dehydration, which is the major concern...a heavy glass lid
as is described by Mr Rowe as being present on the casket, would
prevent a great amount of air circulation, and that in itself would
prevent most desiccation, so that would account for it. "

Far from being " a demonstration of yogic powers " , " a phenomenal
state of immutability " or " a miracle through the grace of the
Heavenly Father " , it seems that any perception that a miracle had
occurred was simply the result of misleading selections taken from a
misleading letter.

-- excerpt from " Incorruptibility: Miracle or Myth? " , Harry Edwards,
November 1995

www.adam.com.au/bstett/Pa...bility.htm


The statement of the director of Forest Lawn, Harry T. Rowe, is
accurate, but incomplete. Mr. Rowe also mentioned that he observed a
brown spot on Yogananda's nose after 20 days, as sign that the body
was not " perfectly " preserved. In any case, the SRF's claim that
lack of physical disintegration is " an extraordinary phenomenon " is
misleading. (One wonders how much digging into the mortuary annals
they did. Very little, I imagine.) The state of the yogi's body is
not unparalleled, but common. A typical embalmed body will show no
notable desiccation for one to five months after burial without the
use of refrigeration or creams to mask odors. According to Jesus
Preciado, who has been in the mortuary business for thirty
years, " in general, the less pronounced the pathology [at the time
of death], the less notable are the symptoms of necrosis. " Some
bodies are well-preserved for years after burial (personal
correspondence, Mike Drake). Some, under extraordinary conditions,
are well-preserved for hundreds, even thousands, of years.

-- excerpt from " Incorruptible Bodies " , Robert Todd Carroll

skepdic.com/incorrupt.html


Yogananda (1893-1952) died at age 59 of a heart attack (which was
the official cause of death) after giving a speech at the Biltmore
Hotel to welcome India's visiting ambassador. Yogananda's health was
deteriorating rapidly at the time, and he was in a particularly
weakened state, so it's not much of a surprise that he would
collapse after straining himself in such a way. Nevertheless, the
faithful view his " collapsing on the ground as his heart gave out
from more strain than it could handle " as Mahasamadhi -- a magical,
conscious floating away to some sort of heaven.

An interesting note here is that the average male life expectancy
for someone living in the United States circa 1950 was 66 years.
Evidently Yogananda's ideas on diet and health weren't exactly
sound, since he couldn't even manage to live as long as the average
beer drinking, cigar smoking, red meat eating American male during
the 50's. A little more solid protein in his diet probably would
have helped.

More importantly, his meditations claimed to rejuvenate the cells of
the body with magical pranic energy channeled in from the medulla
oblongata. His 'Hong Sau' meditation in particular, ironically
claimed to have the ability to rest the heart. Well, I think it's
clear that his heart didn't actually benefit in such ways.

Nevertheless, people continue to do the robot dance (aka
Energization Exercises), Hong Sau, Aum, and the hissing throat
ritual called Kriya. No one ever benefits, no one ever gains health
benefits, no one finds Enlightenment (which is the Eastern version
of Heaven or Disneyland). And no one connects the dots and actually
stops and thinks.

The show must go on I suppose.

" Mundus vult decipi. " (The world wants to be deceived.)

" Homo vult decipi; decipiatur. " (Man wishes to be deceived; deceive
him.)


i have read many of his books. most importantly his autobiography. he did exactly what he intended to do. in that he connected to what he refers to as god realization. bliss and silence and whatever else he elaborated on about his experience. as i dont remember all the details. been some years since i read it.

that was the point of his practice. and because he became that. Yoganda. which his name i believe refers to what he became. again going by memory. being that he or anyone in that has a presence that helps others become the same.

what happend to his body after death is of no relevance.
__________________
celebrate co2
https://co2coalition.org/

Wherever I May Roam
https://youtu.be/Qq9PxuAsiR4
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 18-01-2019, 01:59 AM
iamthat iamthat is offline
Master
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Golden Bay, New Zealand
Posts: 3,580
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amilius777
There is an entire website and forum called THE SRF Blacklisted. It has a lot of ex-members of Yogananda's cult and Ashram. And it has postings of all the atrocious things Yogananda did behind closed doors. You should all google SRF Blacklisted. It is pretty awful.

It does not take much searching online to find all sorts of unsavoury stories about Yogananda. Are these stories true? Possibly. If they are true, particularly the stories about him taking sexual advantage of some of his female devotees, then he was not the first guru to do so and many others have done so since. It just shows that Yogananda had human flaws and weaknesses - he was only 27 when he went to America. I am only too aware of my own flaws and weaknesses so I am not going to judge him.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Amilius777
And on top of that there is a book called Mejda which pretty much contradicts Yogananda's life and Autobiography.

Mejda was written by Yogananda's younger brother. I read Mejda many years ago, and having read this post I had a quick browse through the book. I don't recall the claimed contradictions between Mejda and Yogananda's autobiography - can anyone clarify what these contradictions are?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Amilius777
Along with that his contemporary Satyananda has a book on who Yogananda really was. His master Yukteswar did not like him and found him to be an egotistical student who knew spellbinding methods and magic tricks.

Another contemporary disciple of Sri Yukteswar, Sailendra Bejoy Dasgupta, also wrote his reminiscences of Yogananda, some of which were apparently not flattering. But I have not read either book. And, to be fair, we have to ask how objective these accounts by other people are - they might have been spiritually jealous. As we all know, having whatever spiritual status is no guarantee of impartiality and discernment.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Amilius777
Everything in Autobiography of a Yogi is pretty much made up.

None of us can judge the validity of Autobiography of a Yogi. How can we say what is true and what is not true? We simply do not know. But when I first read this book as a teenager it changed my life on every level for the better.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Amilius777
Even the Vedanta Society has a lot of negativity towards Yogananda. After all the research I have done he seems like a huge False Prophet. Figures. And it disappointed me to the core.

Perhaps this is the problem. Maybe we need to let go of our ideals and expectations. We want spiritual teachers to be perfect, and then we find that they have feet of clay. This does not mean that there is no value in their spiritual teachings and practices.

Peace.

Last edited by iamthat : 18-01-2019 at 06:15 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 19-01-2019, 02:36 AM
Unseeking Seeker Unseeking Seeker is offline
Master
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: Delhi, India
Posts: 10,936
  Unseeking Seeker's Avatar
***

Plenty of Yogananda bashing! My! My! Hope all this venting creates space within to entwine with the divine

***
__________________
The Self has no attribute
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 03-02-2019, 08:57 AM
ajay00 ajay00 is offline
Master
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 1,291
 
Because of Yogananda's success in the west, there has been a lot of propaganda targeting him, and also other successful eastern masters over there, indulging in a disparagement campaign.

Swami Vivekananda was also similarly targetted, and all sorts of false accusations came up against him after his success in the Parliament of world religions in 1893, with the motive of tarnishing his skyrocketing reputation then.

There is also suspicion regarding the mysterious and untimely death of Indian christian preacher Anthony de Mello in the west at a relatively young age, whose teachings interpreting Christianity in the light of eastern mysticism was highly popular but subjected to heavy criticism by orthodox Christians.

There has been other mysterious deaths as well, such as that of Thomas Merton, who had a profound understanding of eastern faiths and worked to bring about greater inter-faith understanding and cooperation.

There is a lot of animosity towards eastern philosophies in the west, disregarding the fact that even christianity is of eastern origin. So it is important to study all such reports objectively, with a pinch of salt, and realise the chances for propaganda is possible.
__________________
When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation; we will automatically be meditating always. ~ Swami Satchidananda

Wholesome virtuous behavior progressively leads to the foremost.~ Buddha AN 10.1

If you do right, irrespective of what the other does, it will slow down the (turbulent) mind. ~ Rajini Menon
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 03-02-2019, 04:47 PM
Miss Hepburn Miss Hepburn is offline
Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Southwest, USA
Posts: 24,943
  Miss Hepburn's Avatar
My my, a thread from 2011-12!

Why did Yogananda's direct disciples have all good to say?
I have read some of their books.
Daniel Waters', aka Swami Kriyananda
C. Richard Wright's, brother of
Daya Mata,
The book by Roy Eugene Davis
Mrinalini Mata
Sister Parvati (Rosemary)

None have any bad to say. And they could have profited.

Ammy...you have not been around for awhile...but in your first post you say "I am not claiming Yogananda to be a fraud."
But, that is exactly what you have been doing here. No?

The method of Kriya meditation techniques...a form of Raja Yoga...still stand firm...no matter if Yogananda was imperfect.

If this is all Illusion...and people are believing the best of Yogananda...and it inspires them...is there a harm?

They also may be thinking the chair
they are sitting on is actually real! What is the harm?


My input.
__________________

.
*I'll text in Navy Blue when I'm speaking as a Mod. :)


Prepare yourself for the coming astral journey of death by daily riding in the balloon of God-perception.
Through delusion you are perceiving yourself as a bundle of flesh and bones, which at best is a nest of troubles.
Meditate unceasingly, that you may quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. ~Paramahansa's Guru's Guru
.


Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 03-02-2019, 05:00 PM
pseudonymus pseudonymus is offline
Pathfinder
Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: California
Posts: 56
  pseudonymus's Avatar
I once got the SRF teachings in the mail. I found Yogananda's poems to be a little cheesy.

I went to Fullerton High School, in Orange County California. Across the street from our school, was an SRF "temple" of some sort. Me and a friend of mine were curious once, and so, when that SRF temple was open for service, we walked inside to join them. The people at the door were all smiling and welcomed us inside the door.

As soon as we stepped inside, a man, smiling, informed us in a wisper that we each had to buy a flower, because when the service was done, we needed to place the flower for "Guruji." The flower - just one! - cost $5.

We walked into what looked like a movie theater with many seats, sans the movie screen. I figured that in the old days, the building must have been a play house [theater].

There were about 100-150 people inside in the chairs. In front of the chairs was a stage on which were a few people with instruments. Resting below the stage was a large picture frame of Yogananda.

We sat there for what felt like an hour, as the people on stage played this mind numbing droning music, and everyone was chanting songs to "Guruji."

After the mind numbing music and constant chanting, two White guys in suits who spoke with German accents walked up to each row, and gestured the people in that row to go up to the large picture of Guruji to offer their flowers.

The people clasped their hands to pay homage to Yogananda, some kneeled, others got flat on their bellies. Me and my friend looked at each other, wondering if we should make a break for it and leave, or go thru with the flower offering. We looked behind us. The doors were shut closed.

So we stayed to offer the flowers like everyone else. After everyone offered their flowers the service was over, and people began to vacate the room and building.

It was a weird experience. Me and my friend never went back. On the way home, we did the calculations. $5 times 100-200 people was about $500-$1000 they made in just one hour. Not bad.
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 03-02-2019, 06:04 PM
ajay00 ajay00 is offline
Master
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 1,291
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pseudonymus

It was a weird experience. Me and my friend never went back. On the way home, we did the calculations. $5 times 100-200 people was about $500-$1000 they made in just one hour. Not bad.

I have been to stalls selling Yogananda books and never had such an experience. I was even given a free book once.

Perhaps the money was being used for charity purposes, as Yogananda built a lot of international community centers around the world, for the sake of promoting internationalism where people from different countries could live together and bond with each other.

I was just thinking today about the trillions being wasted on nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles which can destroy the world many times over, and the greed for more such weapons, without any foresight on the worse case scenarios that can issue out of it for the respective countries.

It is unfortunate.
__________________
When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation; we will automatically be meditating always. ~ Swami Satchidananda

Wholesome virtuous behavior progressively leads to the foremost.~ Buddha AN 10.1

If you do right, irrespective of what the other does, it will slow down the (turbulent) mind. ~ Rajini Menon
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 03-02-2019, 07:14 PM
iamthat iamthat is offline
Master
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: Golden Bay, New Zealand
Posts: 3,580
 
As this conversation has come back to life, a further two cents worth.

I did the SRF lessons in the 1990s and decided to get the Kriya initiation. I didn't want to go to Los Angeles so instead in 1992 I went to the Ananda community in Italy. Ananda was founded by Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters), a direct disciple of Yogananda. Kriyananda had been on the board of SRF but he questioned the way that kriya yoga was taught and eventually was expelled.

There are undoubtedly problems with SRF and how it is run. Many of these problems are due to the leadership of Daya Mata who was president from 1955-2010. These problems include:

1. Claims that SRF offer the only true teachings of Kriya Yoga, and the only valid initiation into Kriya Yoga is given by SRF. In fact, Kriya Yoga consists of a wide range of practices. SRF teach some of these practices, but other lineages teach different practices. There are also differences in how these various lineages teach the core practice of kriya kundalini pranayama.

2. SRF has a fondness for lawsuits to further their own aims. They pursued more than one lawsuit against Ananda, for example trying to claim ownership of the term Self-realisation, until even the judge commented that it looked like SRF were just trying to bankrupt Ananda.

3. Yogananda's guru was Sri Yukteswar, and SRF claimed that Sri Yukteswar had bequeathed his ashram in Puri and other property to Yogananda. Swami Hariharananda, a disciple of Sri Yukteswar, was then running the ashram at Puri. In 1987 SRF filed a lawsuit against Hariharananda claiming ownership of the ashram. The whole saga is confusing and messy but I understand that SRF won.

4. Yogananda originally had the copyright to Autobiography of a Yogi in his own name, and any changes to the first three editions published in his lifetime came from Yogananda himself. SRF apparently purchased the copyright in 1953, and the eighth edition in 1957 included hundreds of changes to the original text. In the 1990s it was discovered that the copyright purchase was flawed, and Ananda issued a reprint of the original 1946 book.

Yogananda himself remarked to Daya Mata, shortly before his passing, “How you all will change my teachings after I am gone! I doubt, if I were to return in a hundred years, if I would even recognize them.

Peace.
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old 03-02-2019, 08:38 PM
Miss Hepburn Miss Hepburn is offline
Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Southwest, USA
Posts: 24,943
  Miss Hepburn's Avatar
Oh right, Donald Waters...ha

I love Swami Hariharananda....his is the BEST translation and commentary of any Bhagavad Gita, btw.

Did you know part of the Ananda Org's win, ( I call it a win), in the lawsuit..was, "OK, you can spell Parmahansa....Paramhansa.."
Funny, huh?
__________________

.
*I'll text in Navy Blue when I'm speaking as a Mod. :)


Prepare yourself for the coming astral journey of death by daily riding in the balloon of God-perception.
Through delusion you are perceiving yourself as a bundle of flesh and bones, which at best is a nest of troubles.
Meditate unceasingly, that you may quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. ~Paramahansa's Guru's Guru
.


Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old 03-02-2019, 08:48 PM
running running is offline
Deactivated Account
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: in my truck. anywhere usa
Posts: 8,524
  running's Avatar
if i was to read only one spiritual book ever it would be his autobiography. it explains what it is all really about. a story of somebody with great passion for it, and discovering it. The thing to disguard but one should do this with any book of the topic is the culture. everyones got one. and nothing wrong with adapting another. but confusing the divine for having a preferred culture can be a stumbling block or create great confusion when somebody outside of it attains the same.
__________________
celebrate co2
https://co2coalition.org/

Wherever I May Roam
https://youtu.be/Qq9PxuAsiR4
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 04:14 PM.


Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
(c) Spiritual Forums