Why did PY go to America?
Let us extract the answer from the introduction to his book under study.
Quote:
It was Mahavatar Babaji who in consonance with the wish of Christ devolved upon me the tremendous task of properly interpreting for the world the profound meaning of Jesus’ words. In 1894 Babaji instructed my guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar to write a comparative study of the harmony between the Christian and Hindu scriptures from the point of view of India’s Sanatana Dharma, eternal truth. Babaji further told my guru that I would be sent to him to train for my mission in the West to teach side by side original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and original yoga as taught by Bhagawan Krishna.
For unengendersaccounted millenniums, India has been the spiritual lightland of the earth. It is in India that the divine soul-science of yoga – union with God through direct personal communion with him – has been preserved. That is why Jesus went to India as a youth, and why he returned to India and conferred with Babaji for The spiritual evolution of the world.
Unquote
This passage engenders a couple of crucial points for discussion and debate.
Firstly, though the task was to “properly interpret for the world the profound meaning of Jesus’ words” , it was to be done “side by side …with the original (teaching of) yoga as taught by Bhagawan Krishna”.
Discussion:
If America were a Christian nation as widely held, why take the gospel (good news as taught by Jesus Christ) there? Isn’t it a bit like carrying coal to New Castle?
Obviously the yogis were able to see through the sham religion of traditional churchianity (please see Misc. 63) practiced there, and felt the need for America to be instructed in the need for the Second Coming of Christ within their populace (well, they don’t use the term ‘born-again’ here but it tantamounts to that)
Why America? Why not Europe for instance?
I guess even at that time America was seen as the leader of the free world, with influence around the globe.
Why Paramahansa Yoganandha (PY)?
Methinks because he was very good in English on top of his other accomplishments. Having read a little of his famous book under study, I can testify that it is no mean task to dictate 1565 pages of complex material flawlessly and cogently. The fact that Mukunda Lal Ghosh (his birth name) went to the Scottish Church College, Calcutta certainly had something to do with his proficiency in the language.
Unlike Christian missionaries from the West who came to India and other Eastern nations, PY – the missionary in reverse – served a dual purpose: “correctly interpreting Jesus’ words side by side …with the original (teaching of) yoga”
Though PY seems to have been true to his mission, the American people, then as now – already fed with Christianity up to their gills by native preachers – were more attracted to the mystique of Eastern religious practices. I guess this is a problem of sitting in the choir benches for years on end and listening to countless sermons that somehow fail to quicken your soul.
This is somewhat similar to the scene described in Acts 17:21: “Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas.”
And Kiriya Yoga was certainly a new idea! (and later, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) captured the imagination of the West)
So it was no surprise that Yogananda (quoting from Wikipedia) “was the first prominent Indian to be hosted in the White House (by President Calvin Coolidge in 1927); his early acclaim led to him being dubbed “the 20th century’s first superstar guru,” by the Los Angeles Times. Arriving in Boston in 1920, he embarked on a successful transcontinental speaking tour before settling in Los Angeles in 1925. For the next two and a half decades, he gained local fame as well as expanded his influence worldwide: he created a monastic order and trained disciples, went on teaching-tours, bought properties for his organization in various California locales, and initiated thousands into Kriya Yoga. By 1952, SRF (Self Realization Fellowship) had over 100 centers in both India and the US; today, they have groups in nearly every major American city. His “plain living and high thinking” principles attracted people from all backgrounds among his followers.”
Secondly, “India has been the spiritual lightland of the earth. It is in India that the divine soul-science of yoga – union with God through direct personal communion with him – has been preserved. That is why Jesus went to India as a youth”……
Really? This extra-biblical account needs to be investigated!
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