By a curious coincidence, within 10-15 days of my having read a book on Swami Kriyananda (and having heard of him for the first time), I had a chance to attend his live lecture.
Though I didn’t particularly leave with very good vibes (nor very bad vibes either!!!) from his lecture, I did get a chance to hone up on my reading about Paramahansa Yogananda through the book ‘Conversations with Yogananda’ by Swami Kriyananda (J.Donald Walters)
Paramahansa is of course very well known worldwide via his bestseller ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’. Some thoughts of his from the book are as per below
- If a lower duty conflicts with a higher duty, it ceases to be a duty
- People who think to merge into the Infinite by committing suicide only break their outer shell temporarily. They are still locked in the ego, which is implanted in the astral body and is the source of all their troubles. They must return, ego-bound, to the material plane, burdened additionally with their karmic sin. Self-murder is a greater sin even than murder, for it springs from a desire to destroy not only another persons right to live, but life itself. One can never succeed in this attempt. Life is God. And God is Life
- In meditation you must go beyond thought. As long as you are busy thinking, you are in the rational mind, on the conscious plane. When you sleep and dream, you are on the subconscious plane and in your astral body. And when your mind is fully withdrawn in superconsciousness, it becomes centered in the bliss of the spine. You are then in your ideational, or causal body. That is the level of the soul
- ……..Kali Yuga lasted 1200 years, ending in the year 500 AD. It was succeeded by an ascending dark age – the same yuga in reverse – lasting another 1200 years. This ended in the year 1700 AD. ……..Dwapara Yuga began with a 200 year ‘dawn’, or interval of adjustment to the new cosmic rays. …….It became fully expressed in the year 1900 and will last 2200 yrs
- …….there are many populated planets in the universe. When a soul returns from the astral world to the material plane, there are many planets available for it. Where it reincarnates depends on its own level of spiritual development
- I once enquired of him, “Do many Christian monks and nuns attain high spiritual levels?”
“Very few,” he replied. “Of those who do, moreover, almost none reach the heights achieved by the great yogis of
“Monks and nuns generally find inner peace as a consequence of their renunciation. Christian monastics however, are not encouraged by their orders to seek spiritual realization. Few reach it……..”
“The problem is, the approach in those monasteries is negative……..plodding along with earnest petitions for redemption, but without any understanding of how one can assist in the process. Kriya Yoga, by contrast is the ‘airplane route,’ for it teaches the seeker how to withdraw his energy into the spine, and then to direct it up the spine to the brain. By following this inner route one cooperates with the way divine grace actually works. In this way, one can achieve realization much more quickly” - Western monastic discipline approaches the question of perfection by suppressing ones natural inclinations. This may sometimes be correct, if the inclinations are harmful, but only if it is balanced by directing ones aspirations also positively, towards bliss
Bliss on the other hand, is no mere mental concept. It is God’s very nature. We must cooperate with bliss and not merely pray that it be given to us. We must not hope to be its merely passive recipients. Indeed we should pray with bliss. Suppression, even of wrong desires, can easily result in blocked energy. - You can practice yoga better in
- Sleep is the semiconscious way of knowing that we are Spirit. We would not have been able to bear life without it. Even though subconsciousness can be pleasant, however it also sort of drunkenness. Much, much more enjoyable is superconsciousness……..Sleep is counterfeit ecstasy
- It is possible even during one deep meditation to be freed, through visions, of the karmas of many lifetimes
- “Why cant a master simply dissolve all his karma,” I asked, “the moment he realizes his oneness with God?”
“Well, in that state you don’t really care. You see all this as a dream. You may even go on for incarnations that way, returning to earth to help free your disciples. Masters, at that level of development may even keep a little bit of karma deliberately, as a means of holding them down to this plane for that higher purpose for a while. Once you’ve attained the highest state, nirbikalpa samadhi, there is no ego-consciousness left. You are essentially free anyway“ - In his correspondence course lessons, he explains the difference between the rebirth of a fully liberated soul and that of a maste who has a little karma of his own remaining to be worked out. The latter, after he attains full liberation, becomes an “ascended master.” If, as rarely happens, he returns to earth, it is as a full manifestation of God – an avatar – with divine power to shower blessings, generally, on all mankind. Those who still have some past karma of their own to work out, return primarily to help their own disciples. These saints, called jivan muktas (“freed while living”) are able to uplift a few, but cannot carry innumerable disciples to God. Those on the other hand who return without any karma of their own, having become param muktas (“fully liberated”) in a former life, come as avatars. Whoever comes to them for help can be saved, though his salvation is not necessarily immediate.
- “Sir,” I asked, “what stage must one have reached to be called a master?”
“He must have attained Christ Consciousness. The stages of enlightenment,” he continued, “are, first to be conscious of the AUM vibration throughout the body. Next, ones consciousness becomes identified with that AUM vibration beyond his body and gradually throughout the universe. One then becomes conscious of the Christ Consciousness within the AUM vibration – first in the physical body, then gradually in the whole universe. When you achieve oneness with that vibrationless consciousness everywhere, you have attained Christ Consciousness.”
“That final stage lies beyond vibration itself, in oneness with God the Father, the Creator beyond the universe. When still in that highest state of consciousness, you can return to the body without losing your inner sense of oneness with God, that is complete freedom. All true masters, even those who are not yet fully liberated live in that nirbikalpa samadhi state. That is what Jesus Christ had. It was what he meant by perfection, in saying, ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ To be a Christlike master, one must have attained that state.” - ……it isn’t only a matter of when you come onto the path. Above all, it is a question of how much energy you devote, once you actually set foot onto it. As Jesus said, ‘The last [whether coming last in time as disciples, or continuing to the last of their lives] shall be the first, and many that came first [or early] shall be the last.’”
- Inspiration……..can be called upon will. To receive it, concentrate deeply at the spiritual eye in the forehead. At that point, then, demand to be given the inspiration you seek.
- If you read one hour, then write two hours, think three hours, and meditate all the time.
- “Sir,” a student asked him, “is everyone conscious in the astral world?”
“Not everyone,” he replied. “People of worldly consciousness enter a sort of gray mist. Some of them are vaguely conscious, depending on the sensitivity of their perception, but for many of them it is like a dream. They aren’t quite sure what is going on. If your intuition is even slightly developed, however – especially if you’ve meditated and prayed some in this life, but also if you’ve served others, even as a soldier who fought heroically in battle – you will find, after you leave this world, that that other world is far more beautiful than this one, and extremely enjoyable!” - “When does the soul enter the body?” someone asked the Master.
“At the moment of conception,” he replied. “When the sperm and ovum unite, there is a flash of light in the astral world. Souls there that are ready to be reborn, if their vibration matches that of the flash of light, rush to get in. Sometimes 2 or more get in at the same time, and the woman has twins, triplets……..”
“It is important therefore to come together physically with an uplifted consciousness. That flash generated in the astral world reflects the couple’s state of consciousness, especially as they felt during the moment of physical union.” - “Sir,” I said, “were you Jesus Christ?”
“What difference would it make?” he replied indifferently. “The ocean of spirit is the Reality. If one wave, or another one, becomes aware of its oneness with the ocean, both have attained the same awareness.” - Be careful always to hold positive expectations, for you will attract to yourself anything you project into the universe
- Don’t let the karmic tendencies described in your horoscope, no matter how valid the prediction, enslave you to anything that the will rejects. The prediction made by our family astrologer was accurate according to the stellar positions, but that didn’t mean I had to accept it as a cosmic dictate
- The Master…when he first came to Sri Yukteshwar’s ashram, he would keep his mind and gaze focused at the point between the eyebrows as much as possible. “If you want to make very rapid progress on the spiritual path,” he used to tell us, “keep your mind always centered there.”
This practice must be joined to, however and supported by the heart’s devotion…..concentration at the spiritual eye, which is known as the ajna chakra, develops great will power, but it can also make one ruthless if it isn’t combined with the heart’s love. - Get devotion. Get devotion. Remember the words of Jesus, ‘Lord, Thou hast hid these things from the prudent and the wise, and hast revealed them unto babes’
- A visitor once asked the Master, “What do you consider the most spiritual place in
The Master replied, “I have always considered - In this way, one can develop intuition. After meditation, sit still for a long time, enjoying the inner peace……Whenever possible, however, sit for a long time after your practice of the techniques. That is when the deepest enjoyment comes. Intuition is developed by continuously deepening that enjoyment, and later on, by holding on to its calm aftereffect
- Don’t move a muscle while meditating. Don’t twitch a limb. Feel the life inside you, rather than your physical body, as your reality
- The actual races of man, if we choose to think of them as such, have nothing to do in any case with skin colouring. They are the 4 fundamental stages displayed by mankind in its spiritual refinement. In
At his lowest level of refinement, man thinks not only of, but with, his physical body. Tradition simplifies him as a farm labourer, though of course, that is simplistic. Such a person belongs to the sudra caste
When a person begins to use his intellect, he first does so strictly for personal gain, thinking always, ‘What’s in this for me?’ The obvious example of such a person is the greedy merchant. Again this is simplistic, for by no means all merchants are greedy; many of them are very generous. This sort of person……belongs …….the vaishya caste
When one develops further in spiritual refinement, he inclines to use his intelligence for the general good, rather than only for his own benefit. Such a person is typified as the soldier - not the marauding sort, but one who readily sacrifices his own life, if need be, for the sake of others. Such a person belongs to the kshatriya caste
Finally when the individual evolves spiritually to the point where he wants only God, he is like idealized images of the priest. Such a person belongs to the brahmin caste.
Society even in those days was not so simply stratified as to contain only peasants, merchants, soldiers and priests. These were symbolic designations of the stages of spiritual refinement. They were not intended as social categories. And they were not intended to be hereditary.
Things changed as the yugas [cycles of time] descended towards mental darkness. People in the higher castes wanted to make sure their children were accepted as members of their own caste. Thus ego-identification caused them to freeze the ancient classifications into what is called the ‘caste system’. Such as not the original intention. In obvious fact, however, the offspring of a brahmin may be a sudra by nature. And a peasant, sometimes, is a real saint.
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