In case you are in a self-congratulatory mood, seeing how easily you breezed through the first two articles of this series, it is advisable that you brace yourself for a difficult journey from here on. But by way of motivating yourself, go ahead and chant that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
We concluded the previous article with the somewhat enigmatic words “I think the Yogi knew”. The context made it abundantly clear what it was precisely that the Yogi knew: it was that
Jesus is the Truth.
I know some of us sticklers for grammatical purity are struggling with tenses here: did you say “Jesus is” ? Though I believe this issue was dealt with in the previous articles, any lingering doubt must once again be confronted with this rather peculiar statement from the Bible:
John 8:48 (English Standard Version) Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
It is easy to see that why the grammarians find this quite abominable. My effervescent Tamil heritage however reminds me at this point that there is an old saying to the effect that இறைவன் இலக்கணத்திற்கு அப்பாற்பட்டவன்.
Phew!!
If there is somebody you cannot bottle up within the sacred pages of Wren & Martin, it has to be God.
Now examine this bombshell from the Bible:
John 10:30 Jesus said “I and my Father are one.”
At this point of course “the Jews took up stones again to stone him.” It wouldn’t be surprising if many of us also figuratively reach for stones as we wrestle with this out-of – the-world declaration that goes two thirds of the way to a Trinitarian God
Ah…..but it is clear by now, that not only did the Yogi know,the Yogi understood.
For he writes and I quote:
Jesus Christ is very much alive and active today.
Now compare this with what Jesus says in the context of the great commission in Matthew 28:20 “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen”
Is there a difference? Anybody eager to split hairs?
Complete consonance.
The Yogi is disappointed because that many are the churches and temples founded in the name of Jesus, which often prosperous and powerful, are woefully lacking communion – actual contact with God. He says “Jesus wants temples to be established in human souls first and foremost……..instead there are countless huge edifices with vast congregations being indoctrinated in churchianity but few souls who are really in touch with Christ through deep prayer and meditation.” (Believe me this is not a modern day Christian rationalist fulminating but the mild Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda!)
Further the Yogi claims that he was sent to the West in order to reestablish God in the temples of souls through revival of the original teachings of God-communion as propounded by Christ and Krishna. Who sent him? “Mahaavatar Babaji, the deathless Yogi-Christ of modern India“.
If this isn’t enough to raise your eye brows a notch or two skywards, listen to this:
“Babaji is ever in communion with Christ”
Wikipedia tells us that Mahāvatār Bābājī is the name given to an Indian yogi by Yogiraj Lahiri Mahasaya, and several of his disciples, who reported meeting him between 1861 and 1935.
There are very few accounts of Babaji’s childhood. One source of information is the book Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga tradition by Marshal Govindan. According to Govindan, Babaji was born to a Nambudiri Brahmin couple and was named Nagarajan (king of serpents) by them. Another apocryphal statement says that he was born in the year 203 CE in a small coastal village now known as Parangipettai, Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. ( ah….these Tamilians!!!)
According to Yogananda’s autobiography, Babaji has resided for at least hundreds of years in the remote Himalayan regions of India, seen in person by only a small number of disciples and others.
PY writes that “it was Mahaavatar 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 Maha avatar Babaji instructed my Guru Swami Shri 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. And to teach side-by-side original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and original yoga as taught by Bhagawan Krishna.
Now I realize all this is anathema to Christians brought up in canonical traditions but possibly it makes sense to Hindus bred on yogic traditions – at least it should. But what we see today is a complete rejection of the Christian faith in this country as an unwelcome Western import. So something has gone wrong somewhere.
Perhaps Paramahansa Yogananda became too much of a Western figure himself for ready acceptance by Hindus of this generation, caught up as they were in the elimination of colonialism.
Whatever be the case, Jesus has somehow become far removed to Hindus and they only look at him suspiciously as someone come to destroy their Sanatana Dharma. And so Christians in this age are also regarded as products of Western civilization with little in common with the national ethos.
This I think is where the Self-Realization Fellowship founded in 1920 has failed miserably in my opinion.
Before we conclude this major section, two other points.
One, let me hark back to the great commission of Jesus quoted above which ends with the word Amen. This is interpreted by PY to be nothing but the Holy Ghost, the sacred invisible vibratory power of God that actively sustains the universe: the word or Aum. That dear people, completes the Trinity.
More of Aum later, God willing.
The second point with which I want to close is that much of PY’s enlightenment came through the practice of Kriya Yoga. Wikipedia says “the Kriya yoga system consists of a number of levels of pranayama, mantra, and mudra based on techniques intended to rapidly accelerate spiritual development and engender a profound state of tranquility and God-communion.”
It give me hope that I do not have to submit myself to this complex regimen but can attain knowledge of Jesus Christ as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings simply through opening up of myself to the operation of the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost). S.M.Lockridge experienced that most powerfully. Listen to him:
Yes, that’s my King.
Do you know Him?
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