05-07-2017, 12:31 PM
I just finished Autobiography of a Yogi. It's my first real re-read since I was a young man, probably when I was 20, when I first encountered that very trademark orange spined thick little book. So pretty much on two decades ago. A lot has happened since then!
When I read it originally (and even as a I read it now), I am struck by how much it speaks to a mythology. One rooted in Indian Traditions and Culture; the notions of family, devotion, and tutelege. All informed by the British Influence of course! That is ubiquitous. The language of the writer is thoroughly infused by decorum, and the cultured means of articulation.
But when I say it is a mythology, I mean that not only does it come from a different culture, with different traditions, specialised lingo, and religious practices, but it also comes from a different period in History: that of the first half of the 20th century, although the tail end of Yogananda's life passed World War 2 as well.
But in truth, as modern beings, the world took on a new 'face' after that worldwide conflict. Ra themselves said that the first real concrete expressions ("first harbingers") of the increasing 4d photon started appearing in 1936 or so. Times of change indeed!
But post world war 2, it was a different reality. Monarchies finally tumbled in many many countries; the power base shifted from Britain and the Crown to the Americas ("capitalists") vs the Russians ("communists"). China became as we know of it today, India gained it's independence, at the same time as Pakistan splitting off as it's own sovereign nation, whereas Muslims and Hindus had co-existed throughout the lands for so long previous.
It's a different world indeed; and Yogananda lived in that time before television became popularised (he died in 1952).
And yet - I can still appreciate this book of his as a spiritual classic. The man definitely met a gazillion people during his travels, and spread the roots of awakening in America. His book can be found on bookshelves in a vast number of places. Along with such keystone landmarks in popularisation as Linda Goodman's Sun Signs, Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and mind-benders like Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. This was a period when 'bestsellers' really were 'bestsellers': it became part of the cultural lexicon, because so many millions of people had saturated themselves in a common narrative and experience.
/ /
And so it is with this book. 70 years after it's first publication, it is still impressing minds, and challenging what is 'possible'.
And that's very much how I've regarded this book: a challenge to the notions of how one conceives of one's reality. Where the boundaries are, what are the limits of consciousness and energy.
And it should very much be taken as a challenge, and not a doctrine. The autobiography is exactly that: a claimed earnest narrative. But it cannot in any way be accepted as proof; either for oneself, or for another. All that the book is is a collection of concepts spun out as a narrative of intersecting lives. It becomes 're-enlivened' through each individual's reading. And shapes (ie challenges) their existing conceptual structures.
How much of this is really possible, in other words?
I've done this re-read over about 3-4 weeks; quite leisurely at my pace. Maybe ten pages, a good twenty while waiting for an evening meal. Enjoyed the pacing and the development.
/ /
And then we have the mysterious 'Kriya Yoga' which informs Yogananda's training and mission. He taught it to many many people that he met. He even initiated Gandhi. He spread it to the lay folk, after having it passed down from Lahiri Mayasaya, to his student, Sri Yukeswar, who in turn was the teacher of Yogananda.
But Kriya Yoga spread in many ways: both in the east, and the west.
It's not something that I practice myself, or have been initiated into.
I don't really have a clear sense of what it is; despite it running like a thread throughout this Book; having informed his life and purpose (his message to the world).
But I'm truly overjoyed if it works, and is efficacious on a deep level. I'm a big believer in some sort of applied discipline to help direct and sharpen the mind/body, so that the work of the spirit may more easily inform one's conscious experience.
/ /
So all in all, I have to say that this book holds up as a spiritual catalyst. It goes to so many places (geographically, as well as the inner emotional landscape), it has a crisp transparent style that doesn't get bogged down, yet offers a lot of bang-for-the-buck in each sentence and paragraph. The chapters are easily assimilated, and it covers the whole gamut of spiritual endeavour: from training, through youthful pigheadedness, through the meeting of one's teachers.
Yogananda, it seems, never worked a day in his life; not in the way that we consider work as drudgery, being in a set place for a fixed number of hours for a wage. He spent (it seems), a lifetime meeting the most interesting people on this planet, teaching, lecturing, and personally initiating folks into Kriya Yoga, founded schools and other endeavours.
It's just such a wondrous lifestyle - almost unimaginably foreign to someone like myself who lives in a world where we don't even need to speak face-to-face (like we are here), but can conduct our interactions almost like strangers.
That said: that world in which he lived was a most limited one; and one in which the precious few who had opportunities, had them magnified a gazillion fold. I tend to hold the view that things are so much more egalitarian now; even though, of course, there are many counter-instances of ongoing abuse and disrespect in this world: many, many such counter-examples.
- -
anyway --- those are just some thoughts that surfaced after having had this Experience!
When I read it originally (and even as a I read it now), I am struck by how much it speaks to a mythology. One rooted in Indian Traditions and Culture; the notions of family, devotion, and tutelege. All informed by the British Influence of course! That is ubiquitous. The language of the writer is thoroughly infused by decorum, and the cultured means of articulation.
But when I say it is a mythology, I mean that not only does it come from a different culture, with different traditions, specialised lingo, and religious practices, but it also comes from a different period in History: that of the first half of the 20th century, although the tail end of Yogananda's life passed World War 2 as well.
But in truth, as modern beings, the world took on a new 'face' after that worldwide conflict. Ra themselves said that the first real concrete expressions ("first harbingers") of the increasing 4d photon started appearing in 1936 or so. Times of change indeed!
But post world war 2, it was a different reality. Monarchies finally tumbled in many many countries; the power base shifted from Britain and the Crown to the Americas ("capitalists") vs the Russians ("communists"). China became as we know of it today, India gained it's independence, at the same time as Pakistan splitting off as it's own sovereign nation, whereas Muslims and Hindus had co-existed throughout the lands for so long previous.
It's a different world indeed; and Yogananda lived in that time before television became popularised (he died in 1952).
And yet - I can still appreciate this book of his as a spiritual classic. The man definitely met a gazillion people during his travels, and spread the roots of awakening in America. His book can be found on bookshelves in a vast number of places. Along with such keystone landmarks in popularisation as Linda Goodman's Sun Signs, Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and mind-benders like Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. This was a period when 'bestsellers' really were 'bestsellers': it became part of the cultural lexicon, because so many millions of people had saturated themselves in a common narrative and experience.
/ /
And so it is with this book. 70 years after it's first publication, it is still impressing minds, and challenging what is 'possible'.
And that's very much how I've regarded this book: a challenge to the notions of how one conceives of one's reality. Where the boundaries are, what are the limits of consciousness and energy.
And it should very much be taken as a challenge, and not a doctrine. The autobiography is exactly that: a claimed earnest narrative. But it cannot in any way be accepted as proof; either for oneself, or for another. All that the book is is a collection of concepts spun out as a narrative of intersecting lives. It becomes 're-enlivened' through each individual's reading. And shapes (ie challenges) their existing conceptual structures.
How much of this is really possible, in other words?
I've done this re-read over about 3-4 weeks; quite leisurely at my pace. Maybe ten pages, a good twenty while waiting for an evening meal. Enjoyed the pacing and the development.
/ /
And then we have the mysterious 'Kriya Yoga' which informs Yogananda's training and mission. He taught it to many many people that he met. He even initiated Gandhi. He spread it to the lay folk, after having it passed down from Lahiri Mayasaya, to his student, Sri Yukeswar, who in turn was the teacher of Yogananda.
But Kriya Yoga spread in many ways: both in the east, and the west.
It's not something that I practice myself, or have been initiated into.
I don't really have a clear sense of what it is; despite it running like a thread throughout this Book; having informed his life and purpose (his message to the world).
But I'm truly overjoyed if it works, and is efficacious on a deep level. I'm a big believer in some sort of applied discipline to help direct and sharpen the mind/body, so that the work of the spirit may more easily inform one's conscious experience.
/ /
So all in all, I have to say that this book holds up as a spiritual catalyst. It goes to so many places (geographically, as well as the inner emotional landscape), it has a crisp transparent style that doesn't get bogged down, yet offers a lot of bang-for-the-buck in each sentence and paragraph. The chapters are easily assimilated, and it covers the whole gamut of spiritual endeavour: from training, through youthful pigheadedness, through the meeting of one's teachers.
Yogananda, it seems, never worked a day in his life; not in the way that we consider work as drudgery, being in a set place for a fixed number of hours for a wage. He spent (it seems), a lifetime meeting the most interesting people on this planet, teaching, lecturing, and personally initiating folks into Kriya Yoga, founded schools and other endeavours.
It's just such a wondrous lifestyle - almost unimaginably foreign to someone like myself who lives in a world where we don't even need to speak face-to-face (like we are here), but can conduct our interactions almost like strangers.
That said: that world in which he lived was a most limited one; and one in which the precious few who had opportunities, had them magnified a gazillion fold. I tend to hold the view that things are so much more egalitarian now; even though, of course, there are many counter-instances of ongoing abuse and disrespect in this world: many, many such counter-examples.
- -
anyway --- those are just some thoughts that surfaced after having had this Experience!
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