Paramahansa Yogananda
(1893-1952)
Paramahansa was born on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur, India. He was named Mukunda Lal Ghosh by his parents, who were devout Hindus with middle-class standing. When he was very young, he showed a great affinity for the spiritual life. At an early age he began to seek out the teachings of Saints and sages, looking for a teacher to help guide him in quenching his spiritual thirst. At the age of 17, he found his teacher in Swami Sri Yukteswar. He became a disciple, and spent the next 10 years in retreat with this Great Master.
After graduating from Calcutta University, in 1959, he took vows as a monk in the monastic Swami Order of India, and received the name Yogananda, which means Bliss (ananda), through divine union (Yoga). He gave himself mind, body, and spirit in loving service to God.
He founded a school for boys in 1917. Modern educational methods were combined with Yogic training and instruction in living with spiritual integrity. In 1920, he founded the Self-Realization Fellowship in order to expand understanding and knowledge of India’s ancient teachings on the science and philosophy of Yoga. He began lecturing and teaching on the East Coast of the United States, and eventually extended his tour in 1924 to include the entire country, even Mexico. In 1925 he established an international headquarters for the Self-Realization Fellowship, which became the spiritual nexus of his fast growing work. He was widely received, speaking to audiences in the largest auditoriums in the country, including New York's Carnegie Hall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Los Angeles Times reported, “The Philharmonic Auditorium presents the extraordinary spectacle of thousands… being turned away an hour before the advertised opening of a lecture with the 3000-seat hall filled to capacity.”
In 1935, Yogananda returned to India for a year, and spoke to the people of his homeland. He initiated Mahatma Gandhi in Kriya Yoga, and sat with many other spiritual masters of India, including Sri. Ramana Maharishi. At this time his Guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, gave him India's highest spiritual title, that of Paramahansa, which means “Supreme Swan,” and signifies, “One who manifests the supreme state of unbroken communion with God.”
Yogananda taught about the inherent oneness at the root of the world's great religions. He taught methods for all people to attain direct personal experience of God. To his disciples he taught Kriya Yoga, the sacred spiritual science originating millenniums ago in India. In his book, Autobiography Of A Yogi (1946), he explains in simple terms the basics of Kriya Yoga: “Kriya Yoga [means]… union… with the Infinite through a certain action or rite… he describes this method as, “a simple psycho-physiological method by which human blood is decarbonated and recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transmuted into life current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centers. By stopping the accumulation of venous blood, one is able to lessen or prevent decay of tissues. The advanced Yogi transmutes his cells into energy. Elijah, Jesus, Kabir, and other prophets were past masters in the use of Kriya, or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will.”
Yogananda tells us that Kriya Yoga is the teaching that Krishna gave to Arjuna. It is mentioned in the Bhagavad-Gita, one of the stanzas reads, “Offering the inhaling breath into the exhaling breath and offering the exhaling breath into the inhaling breath, the Yogi neutralizes both breaths; thus he releases prana from the heart and brings life force under his control.” Yogananda interprets this as, “The yogi arrests decay in the body by securing an additional supply of prana (life force) through quieting the action of the lungs and heart; he also arrests mutations of growth in the body by control of apana (eliminating current). Thus neutralizing decay and growth, the yogi learns life-force control.”
Yogananda tells of his moment of enlightenment. His guru, Sri Yukteswar, struck him on the chest lightly, with his finger. Yogananda repeats, “My body became immovably rooted; breath was drawn out of my lungs as if by some huge magnet. Soul and mind instantly lost their physical bondage, and streamed out like a fluid, piercing light from my every pore. The flesh was as though dead; yet in my intense awareness I knew that never before had I been fully alive. My sense of identity was no longer narrowly confined to a body but embraced the circumambient atoms. People on distant streets seemed to be moving gently over my own remote periphery. The roots of plants and trees appeared through a dim transparency of the soil; I discerned the inward flow of their sap.
“The whole vicinity lay bare before me. My ordinary frontal vision was now changed to a vast spherical sight, simultaneously all perceptive. Through the back of my head I saw men strolling far down Rai Gat Lane, and noticed also a white cow that was leisurely approaching. When she reached the open ashram gate, I observed her as though with my two physical eyes. After she had passed behind the brick wall of the courtyard, I saw her clearly still.
“All objects within my panoramic gaze trembled and vibrated like quick motion pictures. My body, Master’s, the pillar courtyard, the furniture and floor, the trees and sunshine, occasionally became violently agitated, until all melted into a luminescent sea; even as sugar crystals, thrown into a glass of water, dissolve after being shaken. The unifying light alternated with materializations of form, metamorphoses revealing the law of cause and effect in creation.”
Paramahansa Yogananda founded the self realization fellowship for the expansion of self realization in yoga meditation guided by his own moral philosophy. Yoga philosophy extends to the use of many yoga technique s including guided meditation and transcendental meditation as a part of this philosophy. There are moral teachings within the transcendental meditation technique.