Autobiography of a Yogi : Includes Bonus CD

5 Responses to “Autobiography of a Yogi : Includes Bonus CD”

1. Richard Day says:

   September 25, 2010 at 5:18 am

   I first read Autobiography of a Yogi when I was in college in the 70s. I was young and frankly uninformed and vulnerable. None-the-less, the Holy Spirit allowed me to journey and broaden intellectually. And He also wanted me to come Home. I reached the inevitable dead-end with Yogananda and his Autobiography of a Yogi (and all his additional books which I read; including the Bhagavad-Gita and commentary). Jesus met me in the emptiness of this blind alley. I fell into His arms, crying with gratitude for His mercy, patience and guidance. Now to help others who are mislaid, I have re-read Autobiography of a Yogi. I return as an adult with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and with a levelheaded grounding in the Bible and orthodox commentary such as: C.S. Lewis, John Stott, Meredith Kline and Oswald Chambers to name a few. Agreed such maturity, I note significant problems with Autobiography of a Yogi. The tale of Yogananda’s life is ostensibly to bring the East to the West and both together. In practice, Yogananda attempts to merge Hinduism/yoga with Judeo/Christianity and form a nonsectarian/universalistic way (religion-in-kind). He rumor has it that had the blessing of a credible Hindu-yogic order and even recognition by the Indian government. None-the-less, several difficulties arise. First, Yogananda is compelled to include Jesus but as “Christ consciousness” an absolute of sorts not the living, personal, incarnate triune God, God Almighty, Creator, Son of God, the Holy Spirit as orthodox Christians judge. At the same time, Yogananda introduces life-force (prana “lifetrons”), the fantastic mother, Krishna and yogis. By such melding he impersonalises Christianity and continues scrambling its Truth by pairing Jesus with yogis (fantastic and “realized” teachers): all of whom are mutually “cosmically conscious” (absolute of sort). (As one follower of “Master” (Yogananda) informed me: “the goal of all religion is cosmic consciousness, and Jesus doesn’t own it.”) The confusion continues as somehow karma, reincarnation, chakras and even Buddha (who professed no god, creator, cosmic consciousness, life force or chakra) are also incorporated. Yogis and Buddha are all coequal to Jesus. Still further, Yogananda does abstractedly refer to god personally, typically as the atman (“Self”)(transcendent absolute?) and as a/the “realized,” yogi-personal guru and even as the fantastic mother and or Krishna. I judge at some point even Islam is tossed into the ring. In all, but, when moving from East to West, vital questions are never addressed by Yogananda such as: the problem of sin, fallenness; excellent and evil; and the past fact of Christ’s life, death on the cross, resurrection and nonstop work through the Holy Spirit; and Jesus’ proclamation that “I am the Way, the Truth and the Light” (and) “No one comes to the Father except by me” (and) “The Father and I are one.” Likewise, the Last Supper and Jesus’ mandate to receive Him in the bread and wine (the Body and Blood in Holy Communion)-not to mention His extreme suffering, submission and substitutionary sacrifice on the cross – are never acknowledged by Yogananda. Demoting Jesus to garden variety, cosmically conscious yogi does not align with this Truth or speak to the human condition of sin and past fact of Jesus’ life. Putting blasphemy aside, more importantly, neither Jesus, nor any Biblical scripture for that matter, ever spoke/speaks of cosmic consciousness or any Hindu/yogic tenet what-so-ever such as: atman, cosmic consciousness, reincarnation, chakra or pan-deity. (In fact, reasonably the opposite, the greatest of all sins in the Ancient Tribute is idolatry (See Exodus 20:3,4) (the worship of foreign gods and fake beliefs.) When Yogananda does refer to the Bible, the associations are contorted if not bizarre: Christ as a reincarnated Elijah; men as the absolute and John the Baptist as Jesus’ guru. Such Biblical interpretations are blatantly incorrect and thinly veiled as subordinating Judeo-Christianity into the assumed superior context of Hinduism/yoga. The result of all this merging, melding, misinterpreting and omitting is a befuddling, theological “mish-mash,” which disallows any right theological discussion or clarity. The reader, therefore, is left with a feel-excellent (blissful) “way” (religion), promising an eternal and infinitely spaced-out consciousness at no cost and assuming no submission to and personal relationship with God’s son, Jesus Christ. Eternity (the absolute) is achieved (or “realized”) by simply using mechanistic techniques (kriya yoga-”Self realization”) at the convenience of self. (At one point in one of his books, Yogananda states that if you perform x amount of “Kriyas,” then you will achieve cosmic consciousness.)In addition, there is no moral or ethical code or guidance at all. Overall, one can detect in Autobiography of a Yogi and his additional works that once Yogananda was introduced to the Truth of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, Yogananda realized that the individual, in fact, could no longer become the absolute as Hinduism/yoga postulates. Deep down Yogananda recognizable that the Absolute had in stark reality come in the flesh as Jesus Christ and spoke/speaks nothing about: kriya yoga, life force, chakras, reincarnation, multiple god-manifestations, yogic masters, atman or cosmic consciousness. Hinduism/yoga, therefore, collapsed under the bulk of its own Satanic falsity. Rather than choosing the Truth, acceptance of and submission unto Christ, Yogananda defensively chose the opposite: to torture Jesus into Hinduism/yoga and to expand himself and his theological background into stunningly proud and fanciful proportions. Such “cosmic narcissism” clarifies the pathological grandiosity of Autobiography of a Yogi, especially toward the end where yogic masters materialize and dematerialize at will in Christ-like resurrections; perform incarnations (inserting themselves into human wombs) and are alleged to be in unison with Jesus to bring Kriya yoga to the whole world (a one world (New Age?) religion)(Keep in mind that Autobiography of a Yogi was written in the 30’s and not the 60’s(!). To conclude, if as C.S. Lewis postulates in The Screw Tape Letters,the devious work of the Devil is to keep human beings from Christ’s deep and personal Like and intimate relationship with each of us, then Yogananda has succeeded in colluding with evil as such. For surely with Autobiography of a Yogi, one is lead far astray from a right and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Therefore, this work may very well be an intricate dance of the Devil. How many lost souls have wandered down Yogananda’s labyrinth of confusion only to find a dead end? For persons of you who are lost and confused and not deluded by evil into believing this misleading treatise, do no despair: abandon this flawed work of sin; repent and pray earnestly to Jesus Christ, and read His Word, the Bible. Jesus is close. He will find and bring you home, personally and intimately to Himself. Amen.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
2. Anonymous says:

   September 25, 2010 at 6:45 am

   The leader asserts that he is equal or even superior to Jesus Christ. To me, but, he seems to be more in a spiritual tradition of Simon Magus, the witch of Endor, the Egyptian priests who fought Moses, the priests who fought Elia, the Greek Pythagoras, the Iranian Zoroaster, the German D. Faustus, etc. The difference between these magi and Yogananda is that they never asserted to be equal to Jesus Christ. On the contrary, the three magi from the Orient who came to Jesus birth acknowledged His superiority and prayed to Him as the Son of God. Yogananda, on the additional hand, tries to make Jesus a name of his lot and belittle him by this. Through this it seems that we have come to a new level of magicians’ tricks of deception targeted at humble followers of Jesus Christ. Yogananda seems to be one of the leaders of this new school of magic. It is astonishing, but, that people like Yogananda cannot do lacking Christ.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
3. Anonymous says:

   September 25, 2010 at 9:10 am

   If Jesus would have been a mere Gnostic, Kabbalist, hellenized Jew, Bhuddist, Sufi, Magus or Yogi, his life, crucification, and resurrection would not have resulted in a new extraordinarily powerful world religion. As a replacement for, he, like Yogananda, would have merely been another appealing follower and maybe renewer of an already existing tradition. There is nothing really revolutionary or new about Yogananda – nothing we do not already know since very ancient times. As history shows, nothing really revolutionary happened after Yogananda’s death. But, as René Girard has shown, there is something very new and revolutionary about Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. For the first time in history the unconscious workings of violence, sacrifice and the scapegoat mechanism were revealed and redeemed. As history shows, a lot of revolutionary things happened after Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Of course, from the 2nd century onwards, original Christianity became [garbled]. But it became [garbled] under the influence of paganism and Gnosticism. But, the orthodox biblical texts have proved again and again in history to be really treacherous for customary one-sided and enslaving power and gender structures. This is why historians like Tacitus despised orthodox Jews and Christians, because he saw that prophetic Judaism and unperverted Christianity were a serious danger for the ruling classes and their hypocritic behaviour. This is why many people of Ghandi’s liberation movement carried an – orthodox – New Tribute with them, although they were Hindus (see E. Stanley Jones, Christ of the Indian Road). This is why Martin Luther King Jr. had to die. People who surpress others never have viewed esoteric teachings à la Yogananda as endangering for their exploitative practices. On the contrary, as the intellectual history of the Greek and Roman landed gentry and many additional high society circles throughout all ages shows these circles supported such practices as more or less harmless things that rather supported their ways as a replacement for of revealing and threatening them.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
4. Anonymous says:

   September 25, 2010 at 9:56 am

   What Mr. Yogananda basicly says is that he is God, and that through the powers of yoga he is almighty. Well, he better is, otherwise he is not more than a mere psychopath.

   Also, what he tells us about yoga is reasonably one-sided. For instance, he seems to be rather asexual. He doesn’t say anything about tantra or Shiva yoga, a form of yoga the legendary orientalist and hindu Alain Daniélou preferred (“Yoga. Method of Reintegration” or “Shiva and Dionysus”). What is arresting is that the demonic aspects of yoga are completly left out. But you do open yourself up to demons if you practise yoga, as the brahman R.R. Maharaj (“Escape into the Light”) has shown. Yoganandas approach seems to be specifically tailored for an scientifically oriented western audience. The spiritual dangers of yoga are really surpessed.

   During my research on Indian culture I came across the classic “Christ of the Indian Road” by E. Stanley Jones. This is the book I liked best. I establish it extremly sound.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
5. Anonymous says:

   September 25, 2010 at 9:58 am

   “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34) This is what Jesus said about the Self: deny it. He did not say “realize your Self.” I am to some extent irritated where Yogananda got the thought from that he taught the same as Jesus. Jesus offer is that you give yourself to Him and He will shower you with His first-rate gifts and free you from the frustrations, the second best offers, the foul compromises and the lies of the world. Yogananda, on the additional hand, offers that you will be able to utilize the powers of the world more effectivly. He offers you a promotion within the hirarchies of the world. With Yogananda you might be better of than before. But, you are even more bound to the rules of the world. You are not free. Whereas with Jesus you are free in the world.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5