Re: Self-Realization Fellowship

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http://srfblacklist.yuku.com/topic/333/Things-Mother-Center-Taught-Yogananda-PY-Title?page=-1#.WIa6r_krKM8

I just remembered that I wrote a review on this book, and it is posted on thetrouserman's blog called TheSRFOnion:

[srfglassonion.blogspot.com]

Review of Paramhansa Swami Yogananda Life-Portrait and Reminiscences by Sri Sailendra Bejoy Dasgupta

This book starts out much like the book, Mejeda, beginning with the young years of Yogananda's life. Then it takes us to India where the author spends time with him and exposes some of his faults.

Some of the most disturbing things in the book, at least to me, are in relation to his playing tricks on others, and for this reason I think of him as a trickster, not a reverend guru. There are worse things than this that are mentioned in the book, and so much more that I had learned on my own, but I am sticking to the book.

One trick he used was a hand trick that I had heard about when I was in the Vedanta Society and am not sure if it was in the book, "Mejda." It disturbed me when I learned of it in Vedanta, but it is more disturbing now than how Vedanta presented it to me. This book speaks of how Yogananda would stick someone's hand on the wall and tell them that they could not move it. He called it the "power of the mind"; it is hypnosis. One time when he was in India he gave a talk and asked a young child who lived in his ashram to come forward. The boy was asked to place his hand on the wall and was told that he could not free himself. This is not the first time he has played this trick; he used it as punishment on his cook, who had threatened to tell on him. In the occasion with the boy, he couldn't move his hand, much less his body, until Yogananda came over and said, "Now the hand is free!" What was the result of this action by Yogananda? The author said that the boy became very afraid of Yogananda, and so would run away and sit in the field whenever he came to the ashram. Doesn't this seem unloving? It does to me, and there is more:

On another occasion he asked the audience to clasp their own palms tightly together and then told them that they could not pull their hands apart. When he finally told them that they were free, one man became paralyzed from the nervousness. And no matter how much Yogananda tried to free his hands, they would not open and the more he tried, the more his upper appendages became stiff and twisted. It took someone else to help him, a man who caressed his back and talked him out of it. So Yogananda had the power to do harm and actually does, but he didn't have the power to undo this harm, as revealed here and in this next incident:

Yogananda overheard a brahmachari make an unflattering comment about the physical form of Sri Lahiri Mahasaya when viewing a photo of him. Yogananda became angry and said "Your face will become twisted!" and "immediately the boy's face, head and neck turned to a crippled and twisted position, " so evenutally he had to leave the ashram. When he later asked for Yogananda's forgiveness, Yogananda could not help him. He remained crippled. Is this how a loving guru acts? Does the punishment fit the crime? Should he even have been punished?

I remember when reading "Mejda" how Yogananda's sister had a boil on her hand, and in this book he explains it, maybe in the same manner as in "Mejda." He came into the room where she was and started rubbing his own hand in the same spot as hers and said, "Look sister. Tomorrow this boil you have will grow twice its size and a boil will appear on my hand here." The next day her boil had grown twice its size, and he had a boil on his hand. His mother tried to explain to him that you don't cause people pain. It is obvious that what his own mother was trying to teach him did not take hold.

Back when I read of this incident in "Mejda," I just thought, "Well, he was a child, and his parents corrected him, so now as a man he has learned compassion." Then I read in Daya Mata's book how he made her stand in a corner on one leg because he was making fun of her in front of others, and he had asked her to come over to him so he could put a dunce hat on her head, but she wouldn't come to him. At another time, for no apparent reason, he took her and a group of others to see a movie. But instead of her seeing the movie he had her stand on the street corner and wait for him to return. I felt these things abusive back then and had a hard time explaining them away. Daya just called it "training." I only knew that had he been alive then, I would have left him. I left shortly thereafter upon learning even more about him.

All of these things are all very abusive and controlling just as a friend said to me: "Those aren't just tricks, they're abuse, and they're the supreme power trip, when you can demonstrate complete power over others."

How did Sriyukteshvarji feel about these tricks Yogqnanda played? He said, "What is this that Yogananda showed? There is nothing spiritual at all in this. These are nothing but tricks!"

Or how about his conversation with Eastman of Eastman-Kodac and how he committed suicide shortly thereafter? How about his claim at being able to stop his heart, a claim that William Broad disproves in book, "The Science of Yoga." Then there is his crooked business dealings with his friends in India, then his disobeying his own parents and master, and next Daya Mata's taking over as president and how she made serious changes to the organization, causing many to leave or to be kicked out. Then there is the statement of how the advanced Kriya techniques won't work unless you are practicing a certain technique that Yogananda did not teach his disciples because we were not able to do it.

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If you should get into discussions with SRF followers, the references may be worth gold. For example, there was one "PY is love" who made a lot of disapproving remarks about my comments on the Autobiography on Amazon, until I showed here that her love guru had talked for dictatorship in his own magazine.

And why keep your findings to yourself? Fair comments may be published on Amazon.com.

[www.amazon.com])