A Great Teacher of Yoga

Paramahansa Yogananda is often credited with being the person who introduced yoga to the West. The great sage came to this country from India in 1920 as a young man and remained, except for a year-long visit back to India, until his death here in 1952. After years of traveling the country, drawing huge crowds to his lectures on meditation and on living so as to find true happiness, Yogananda concentrated on spiritually deepening and enriching the lives of his followers. He founded Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF), calling it a “church of all religions”; today it is a worldwide organization numbering tens of thousands.

To Westerners accustomed to thinking of religion as a set of beliefs, Yogananda was the first to define it as scientific practice. With Christianity he easily harmonized the ancient Hindu concepts of maya or cosmic delusion, the Mother aspect of God, and the dream nature of the world (foreshadowing current discoveries of particle science). Going beyond the definition of yoga as the practice of certain postures, he called yoga “the science of personal communion with the Divine”. Through written Lessons he introduced specific techniques of meditation for producing direct personal experience of God. By comparing human life to an ocean wave which rises from the sea and travels for a while, to sink again and become one with its source, Yogananda provided a simple and compelling version of death as a returning to our true nature as Spirit. (My book Little Wave and Old Swell is based on the Master's metaphor.) He also spoke often of the need to develop the intuition, describing it as the bridge between mind and soul.

Yogananda wrote many books, of which the best known is the spiritual classic, Autobiography of A Yogi. His recently published two-volume set entitled The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You, is swiftly gaining readers who seek a broader understanding of the teachings of Jesus. The SRF Lessons, mailed to all who request them (www.yogananda-srf.org), cover not only how to meditate but how to live so as to achieve success and supreme fulfillment in any endeavor.

I have never found anyone whose writings so accurately and movingly capture the truth of my own being. No dreamy idealist, Yogananda taught practical methods of melding the spiritual with the everyday challenges of living. His poetry and affirmations possess an amazing power to awaken and revitalize one’s experience of joy. One example from his Scientific Healing Affirmations is useful for repeating amidst the stresses of every day:

I relax and cast aside all mental burdens,
allowing God to express through me
His perfect love, peace, and wisdom.

Another, for use in healing the body:

My body cells are made of Light;
My fleshly cells are made of Thee.
They are perfect for Thou art perfect;
They are Spirit, for I am He.

---

For coaching in how to live as Yogananda said, "with head in the clouds and feet on the ground," visit www.myjimballard.com

Please feel free to respond to this entry
by clicking on the comment link below.