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divine gypsy
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(6/6/05 7:03 pm)
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ezSupporter
early East-West
Maybe this topic has already been discussed, but I'd be curious how others see PY's published views on politics.

Christmas message, 1933:
Quote:
Hitler is to be admired for leaving the League of Nations because peace can never be attained by the victor and vanquished attitude, but on a basis of equality and brotherhood. Instead of preventing Hitler from having equal armament with other nations, the other nations should reduce the armaments to the level of Germany, then the millions of dollars that are thrown away on idle battleships could be used for national or international prosperity. America, France, and Great Britain should reduce their armaments first, and thereby destroy the desire of Japan, Russia, and Germany to become equally armed.

An insulted, snubbed Germany, if it gets away from the uplifting guidance of Hitler, may join Russia and make her a more powerful enemy of France and so on.

The Allies must reduce their own armaments first, and then they will find out that the example speaks louder than words.


I wonder how SRF rationalizes Master's opinion of the uplifting guidance of Hitler on Germany???

Edited by: divine gypsy at: 6/6/05 7:08 pm
divine gypsy
Registered User
(6/6/05 7:20 pm)
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ezSupporter
Re: early East-West
East-West, Volume 6
Quote:

An Interview
By Swami Yogananda

-----------------------------------------------------------
Question: What message has Hindu philosophy to offer toward solving present-day problems of peace between nations and averting international disasters?

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi is the walking philosopher of India. He has demonstrated the philosophy of non-violence and non-co-operation with evil systems and of resistance by a spiritual force only, in the face of machine guns, and has thus won more self-governing privileges for India within a few years than Ireland accomplished in 750 years of armed resistance.

Since man’s destructive power has become greater than his power of construction, the nations of the earth must scrap the engines of war and try to settle their international disputes in the Gandhi way. As Bishop Fisher, who lived in India several years, said: "Mahatma Gandhi is showing the nations of the earth a new way to combat war." I have said: "The Western brothers, by guns, have conquered my land, but India is out with love to conquer their Souls."

In America, prohibition could not be enforced by machine guns, yet, by love, Gandhi has made over 60 per cent of the people of India stop drinking. By his spinning wheel, philosophy of plain living and high thinking, and the doctrine of all for each and each for all, Gandhi is not only founding India’s freedom on solid Spiritual laws, but is showing the nations how they can build an United States of the World with Truth as their President, and nations existing as States
considering international prosperity, international hygiene, international material, mental, and Spiritual well-being. Gandhi is making the Christ-doctrine of "charity and loving your enemies," practical weapons with which to conquer powerful England with love.

------------------------------------------------------------
Question: Will the economic, political, social, religious, and educational revolutions and transitions now experienced by most major nations probably result in cultural retrogression, or in intellectual and Spiritual expansion and greater international understanding and harmony?

Answer: We may stumble on the way, we may slip backward a little, but being endowed with Divine Intelligence, mentally we shall be moving constantly toward the goal of Truth and understanding. Every educational revolution at least shakes up the dormant Souls and quickens the receptive Souls, and awakens in them the desire to follow the path of Truth.

Transportation, destruction, war, disease, universal depression, world war—all these are making nations realize more and more that national safety, security, prosperity, health, and wisdom are dependent upon and are included in the qualitative international development. Individual national selfishness must be sacrificed for the greater patriotism of international common well-being. Then it will be found that real international upliftment includes the national upliftment.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Question: Individualism and socialism are conflicting philosophies in the modern world. Which is more likely to prevail in the future?

Answer: Individual perfection and social upliftment are interdependent. A master brain like that of Mussolini does more good than millions of social organizations of group intelligence. Yet, if many persons in a group should develop the brain power of a Mussolini, they would be greater than the individual Mussolini. Great individuals are sent on earth as a pattern after which ordinary members of society must model themselves.

Socialism, consisting of evolved individuals, will prevail in the end, but as long as people are not highly evolved, individualism will keep coming to the surface. Individualism exists only for the ushering in of Spiritual socialism, in which evolved Souls will live only for the greatest good of the greatest number.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Question: Does the rise, in recent years, of dictatorships as forms of government indicate the failure and ultimate doom of Democracy?

Answer: A society of morons and unthinking people will never establish a real Democracy. The average man cannot think clearly, but is ruled by explosions of his emotions. He needs the master mind of a Dictator in order to think right and do right. When the mass of the people in a nation are qualitatively and uniformly educated, they will form the Democracy of universal wisdom and agreement, and will then be able to govern themselves spontaneously by the universal laws of Truth. Then Dictators will be unnecessary.

One real wise Dictator, like President Roosevelt, is much better than too many cooks of small Dictators and politicians, who spoil the broth. Much is discussed and nothing accomplished with many. A whole-hearted co-operation with the NRA, and with active, wise President Roosevelt, will bring prosperity and international balance. Democracy will never fail; it is the growing life of nations, which will mature through the trials of republicanism, dictatorships, capitalism, and any other "isms" which are necessary for its growth.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Question: What effect would independence for India probably have on that nation’s diplomatic and commercial relations with other countries?

Answer: America does 300 million dollars worth of business a year in India. Japan used to do more than that. Germany and England did a great deal of business with India, but India’s non-violence war with England has caused a boycott of most European goods. President Wilson’s 14 points still are in the minds of the people of India in spite of the fact that those 14 points were spirited away in connection with the mandatory nations.

Unless England gives complete independence, or self-government, to India, India will boycott all European goods. Miss Mayo, alleged to be subsidized by Western nations to write against India, hurt the business of America with India, although not as much as with England.

A free India will enrich the world with her agricultural and mining resources, and will become prosperous herself when she uses the hoarded gold of the idle princes to buy agricultural and scientific machinery. Her diplomatic relations with international equality and freedom will prevent the greatest potential war between the insulted dependent nations of Asia (a combined China, Japan, India, and Egypt) and some nations of Europe—Germany, Russia, and America excepted.

Edited by: divine gypsy at: 6/7/05 8:48 am
divine gypsy
Registered User
(6/6/05 7:23 pm)
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ezSupporter
Re: early East-West
Quote:
Feb 1933 East West
Yogananda's editorial
INTERNATIONAL NEWS


Mussolini has released thousands of prisoners from jail. This certainly is an adoption of Christ principles in politics, inaugurated by a great man.

Is America approaching toward capitalism, socialism, or equality of all men and women, with free education, free board and lodging, and free transportation by spiritual law of brotherhood and mutual agreement? The last-named seems to be the goal toward which all nations are moving, led by the example of Gandhi in India.

Edited by: divine gypsy at: 6/6/05 7:24 pm
divine gypsy
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(6/6/05 7:27 pm)
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ezSupporter
Re: early East-West
Quote:
East West, Volume 2

Science and Religion—By Benito Mussolini

There is no doubt that Science yearns to arrive at the final reason of all things. After having examined phenomena, it seeks to explain their reason.

It is my modest opinion that Science will never arrive at explaining the wherefore of phenomena, which will always remain a zone of mystery, a closed wall.

Upon this closed wall the human spirit must write the one word "God."

Therefore, to my belief, there is no question of any conflict between Science and Faith. These matters belong to the polemics of twenty or thirty years ago, but I think that we of this generation have gone beyond this point. Science has its own field; that of experience; Religion has another field, that of Spirit.

It has been said: What is the use of all the Philosophy of this world if it cannot teach us to bear a trouble with equanimity? There is an intermediate zone set apart for meditation on, rather than for examination of, the supreme ends of existence.

Philosophy alone can illumine Science and bring it within the realm of the Universal Idea.

—From a public speech, February, 1927.

Edited by: divine gypsy at: 6/6/05 7:41 pm
divine gypsy
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(6/6/05 7:30 pm)
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ezSupporter
Re: early East-West
Quote:
East West 1935
News From India


SINCE his arrival in India, the Swami has been so busy with lectures, interviews, and friends that we have received almost no news except that printed in the newspapers there.

The Swami visited Mahatma Gandhi at Wardha and his own school at Ranchi, and has since been in Calcutta, where the new Self-Realization Center is to be established. After that, he plans to open health and spiritual Centers all over Bengal and the principal provinces of India. His Brother, Bishnu Charan, is to have charge of the physical and health
branch of the work, and Swamiji will care for the spiritual training.

The Swami will soon start on his tour of India. On his way back to this country (some time next year) he plans to lecture and hold classes in London, and to visit both Mussolini and Hitler.

The object of the Self-Realization Fellowship, which Swami Yogananda organized in this country and which he is now establishing in India, is to bring peoples of all religious beliefs together in fellowship, and to teach all men, no matter what their creed or nationality, the universal principles of truth underlying all religion, and the scientific method of self-realization of these divine principles.

divine gypsy
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(6/6/05 7:40 pm)
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ezSupporter
Re: early East-West
East West
What is the Best Polity?
— By S.Y.
(Continued from November Issue)


India’s success in ancient times was for the most part due to the following reasons:

1. India was a fertile country inundated by wonderful rivers which helped irrigation and growth of vegetable life. She was rich in mineral resources.

2. India was not governed by any foreign rule. Her troubles started when Alexander, Darius, Moguls, Pathans, and so forth, began to exploit her finances and to take money and materials from her land.

America’s modern depression is due to the exploitation by industrial kings who, by organized graft, have taken the money away from the poor and needy. In this case the money, though it has changed hands from the poor Americans to the rich Americans, still is held by Americans in America.

When King Darius invaded India, in the Sixth Century B.C., he made India annually poorer by five crores of rupees. Somebody has said that about six billion pounds of India’s money has been taken away from her by foreigners. This has changed India from the richest to the poorest country in the world.

Political independence is one of the absolutely necessary conditions underlying national prosperity because a foreign nation, occupying another country, can never take a real unselfish interest in spending that country’s money exclusively for the benefit of the people of that country.

3. India was successful in bye-gone times because the good of the people, the greatest good of the greatest number was the principal motivation of its governors. In early times, the king was the servant of the Sate and he was deposed when he was wicked. Even revolution was sanctioned if it was necessary for the good of the State. Whether a king, or a group of people governed India, it did not matter so long as she was governed exclusively for the good of the people.

When Rome ruled most of the known world, Britons were sold as slaves. Rome governed Great Britain very badly and so Rome had to get out, and then the federal system brought misery to the English people when the Lords, a few exceptional, self-elected aristocrats, ruthlessly ruled for their own benefit, and that system also had to be abolished later, due to the beginning of modern industrial development and the awakening of the masses. There have been good kings and bad kings who have brought happiness or misery, respectively, in England.

The despotic kings, by their misrule and its attendant human miseries, automatically caused the political power to shift from a single ruler to the Parliamentary System. The present King of England is the nominal head of the government, but in reality, a group of people, embodying the houses of Lords and Commons, really rule England. Even when the aristocratic groups controlled England, they did not fully look after the people’s interest and so the labor, socialist, and communist parties were born, and Ramsay McDonald, of the labor party, became the Premier.

France suffered particularly under the extravagance of Louis the 16th. As a result of the French Revolution, the heads of the sovereign and the aristocrats rolled in the dust and the Republican form of government was born. It consisted of a group of people governed by a President. The king used to be chosen by virtue of his birth and royal ancestors. On the other hand, modern gubernatorial and political candidates are elected by the supposed free-will of the voters, which is continuously influenced by the self-laudatory propaganda of the candidates themselves.

Most people vote for a particular candidate because of the influence of an extravagant political campaign, and such campaigns rouse the unthinking majority of the people to vote blindly for a certain candidate.

In the time of monarchies, a bad king was a permanent pest let loose on the people and held there by the abuse of the good will of the people. He could be gotten rid of only by natural death or the guillotine. When the President of a Republic and his colleagues, become corrupt, they are gotten rid of by revolutionary shots, or by impeachment, or by elimination during re-election.

It is said that some of the Presidents of Mexico, in spite of a comparatively small salary, have displayed the use of many millions. In Mexico, a bad President fortunately is not allowed to be bad long, for his career is ended by a bullet of some well-intentioned bad man. The internal character of the majority of the Mexican people is not yet guided by the highest Spiritual laws, even though there are many Spiritual people in Mexico.

Spain has deposed its king and revolution continues during the readjustment period, while the government is changing from the Monarchical form to the Republican form. Inner and outer anarchy reigns there.

Italy is nominally governed by a king, but is really ruled by the great Dictator, Mussolini. The country, under his dictatorship, is much unified in spirit, and is more prosperous, but the nation still has a tremendous national debt. Armaments and national improvements have caused this. Crime is just as manifest as formerly.

Hitler is a King, Dictator, and President combined. Germany is unified in spirit. There is less unemployment, but crime, murder, and immorality have been only partially checked.

America, the richest, most practical and most successful machine-using nation in the world, is suffering from a depression. She is the most prosperous starving nation on the face of the globe.

The American people are very much disposed to progress. Politically and religiously, and scientifically, they are most progressive, yet, because a perfect standard of national government has not been achieved, political graft, gangster and bootleg rule, divorces, juvenile crimes, and immorality are stalking wildly in this land in spite of her being a nation ruled to death.

America threw off England’s yoke and established the Republican form of government. If it were satisfactory and perfect, then the communists, socialists, silver-shirts (Hitler imitators,) liberty party, and
Utopians could not crop up.

American has been ruled, not by one king, but by many industrial kings and bankers, who, with the precedence of the possession of financial wealth and power, have for years controlled the financial destiny of the people. Depressions come when the financiers swallow too much. The small financial cats swallowed the fishes of individual financial powers. Small financial tigers ate the small financial cats, then big industrial tigers gave way to cannibalistic propensities and devoured the little financial tigers. Then the big financial tigers ruined one another by dumping prices until they could not keep up the living expenses of themselves and their industrial dens. This brought on the depression.

Theologically, America is religious. Some Americans are very Spiritual, but the majority are drowned in theological ignorance, extreme love of money, speculation, fast living, living beyond their means, and inflated prosperity.

American civilization and progress is due to the wealth of natural resources and to the initiative of the persecuted Pilgrim fathers.

At the time of the Russian revolution, Russia was groaning under the tyranny of the Czars. Their heads were cut off, and the power of the proverbial tyrants shifted from the strong Czars to a few weak, oppressed men headed by Lenin. The people of Russia, under Czars and under State control of religion, suffered untold miseries, physical, mental, and financial. When the Czars forgot that they could not be rulers without the consent of the people, the people woke up after allowing themselves to be tyrannized over by a few kings, and cut off their heads.

Now Stalin, Kremlin, and the Russian Soviet Government are carrying on a great experiment, called a communistic or Bolshevik form of government. It remains to be seen whether or not it is successful. A gentleman from India, Mr. Guha, who recently came from Russia after working there for two years as a chemist, told his idea of the condition in Russia. He said that:

1. There is practically no unemployment. There are huge factories, and workers work seven hours a day for five days. The sixth day is a holiday. There is no Monday, Tuesday, and so forth, but the work consists of six days and the first day is called "First Day," the
second, the "Second Day," and so on.

Stalin earns only 350 rubles and lives in a two-room house. His wife (now dead) worked under a professor for her living. Engineers get from 350 to 2,000 rubles. The workers get tickets for lodging and food, which are sold to them very reasonably. Sick laborers get full pay. Sick laborers are sent to government-run sanitariums and get full pay while there. The Russian children are given stipends and free education. They are very excellently handled.

All factories, land, tools and natural resources are owned by the Government. There is no competitive business run for individual profit and all money is used for the good of the people. Discharged employees in a factory can appeal to the factory committee or even to the President for redressing grievances.

According to Mr. Guha, the land is owned by the Government, by groups, and by a few private individuals. Farms owned by private individuals are heavily taxed.

Housing conditions are very congested and food is scarce, though no one starves. Butter is prohibitive in price. Russians have one motto: "Everybody must Work." Butter, factory products, and jewels are sold in order to get more machinery for starting more factories. The laborers are honored just as capitalists were honored before. Nobody boasts of aristocratic heredity any more, for only laborite heredity is honored. On Russian ships the parlors are reserved principally for engineers and workers of the ship who work hard while the passengers scarcely work at all.

In modern Russia, it is said that marriages are born of love and no woman marries for money because no one has any money. There are no check-writing systems, no bonds, no stocks, and no interest paid on money deposited in banks. Banks receive deposits from people merely to accommodate them. There is very little theft, murder, robbery or other crime because no one has money. There are no aristocrats to make the poor jealous. The greatest problem of eradicating crime from a nation seems to be no problem in Russia because money, the cause of most crime, is taken by the Government to be distributed to the people and is not accumulated for the benefit of one man or concern.

Edited by: divine gypsy at: 6/7/05 9:01 am
divine gypsy
Registered User
(6/6/05 7:49 pm)
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ezSupporter
Re: early East-West
I guess, at a minimum, this makes me seriously doubt any overarching claim of divine omniscience for PY.

It also makes me wonder when SRF's policy was introduced to take no stance on political issues. Perhaps that was introduced after PY, and for good reason!

Thanks to srflongago for the above information.

metheuse
Registered User
(6/6/05 9:46 pm)
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Yogananda: "...the UPLIFTING GUIDANCE OF HITLER"??
Thanks Divine Gypsy, for those posts on Yogananda's politics. Folks, check out that first one: Yogananda says Hitler provides uplifting guidance to Germany??? How could an avatar make such a colossal blunder? How is this possible? Remember, this was published for the Christmas issue of East-West in 1933. Adolf Piece of Garbage Hitler became chancellor in February of that year, and one month later, in March of 1933, the first concentration camp (Dachau) opened its doors to accept inmates. The opening of Dachau was not a secret. Himmler announced it (you can read the press reports on the web). Yogananda would not even have had to use his avatar-powers to know about it. And STILL he referred to Hitler's "uplifing guidance." To all you blasted brain-dead bliss bunnies in SRF: how can you possibly think that everything Yogananda says is correct, that, as an avatar, he can't make mistakes? Actually, in a back-handed sort of way, it's almost comforting----if "He" can make mistakes, then we shouldn't beat ourselves up so bad when we make mistakes. Because make NO mistake about it, Hitler did NOT provide "uplifting guidance" to Germany.

Paramadas
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(6/6/05 9:51 pm)
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how many other mistakes?

From a philosophical point of view, one should ask, "If Yogananda made this one blazingly obvious mistake ("uplifting guidance of Hitler"---yeah right!), then how many other mistakes did he make? Obviously, the "Guru" isn't infallible. He said and wrote alot of stuff in his life. How much else is bunk? Scary, isn't it?

metheuse
Registered User
(6/6/05 10:04 pm)
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Re: Yogananda: "...the UPLIFTING GUIDANCE OF HITLER&quo
There are two serious mistakes that Yogananda made in that Christmas message, 1933:
1) he praised Hitler. God help SRF if any mainstream Christian or Jewish organizations find out about this. They'll rake SRF over the coals.
2) he suggested that the Western powers reduce their armamaents to the low levels imposed on Germany by the Versaille treaty after World War I. Ordinarily, I'd agree with PY's general idea that arms reductions are a good idea, but that naive, idealistic idea would not have worked on a madman like Hitler, hell-bent on world domination. If the allied nations had followed Yogananda's advice, we'd be eating sauerkraut and speaking German right now, every last one of us. So, Yogananda's advice was about as bad as it could have been. Thank GOD the allies didn't listen to him!!!

Paramadas
Registered User
(6/6/05 10:12 pm)
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double your pleasure double your fun
OK, two mistakes, have it your way. This just reinforces my point, that an avatar can and does make mistakes, sometimes very serious ones (and you're right, metheuse, if the allies had taken the advice of this "holy man from India" we would be living under the thumb of a worldwide Nazi dictatorship. Yup, I'd say that was a serious mistake alright).

divine gypsy
Registered User
(6/7/05 8:40 am)
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ezSupporter
what can you believe?
I asked Srflongago what he made of all of this. Here's his take:
Quote:
Don't take what he [PY] wrote about politics seriously. Yogananda was a shallow reader of the news. He knew little about foreign affairs. He liked to have an opinion an everything, however ill-informed. He also liked to fill up East-West...As you can see, Yogananda had absolutely no idea that Hitler was a menace, in a period when Churchill was carried in many papers here and in England, and was warning pretty precisely what was to come. Unlike Churchill, Yogananda had no prescience of any kind about the future. He was about as prescient as Neville Chamberlain.

ranger20
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(6/7/05 8:53 am)
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Re: early East-West
I wonder how SRF rationalizes Master's opinion of the uplifting guidance of Hitler on Germany???

Here's one way they deal with it. Shortly before I stopped attending the local meditation group, I saw a letter from the SRF Center Department, dealing with what inspirational materials service readers may read from at services. The "allowed texts" were the current version of the AY and other books, and "SRF magazines dated 1974 and later."

I had never delved into the political references you cite, but I've found other things in the early issues that would certainly cause a stir among the rank and file. Example, the earliest references to kriya speak of one kriya advancing development by one month, not by one year!
Quote:
Quickening Human Evolution by Swami Yogananda,
East-West, Jan-Feb, 1929, Vol4-1

So there is a method which the master minds of India have taught of revolving certain kinds of vital currents around the spine and brain. By twelve times of practicing this method you can gain the result of one year’s ordinary physical evolution. That is how many saints quickly get their spiritual knowledge, far beyond that of theoretical theologians.
www.geocities.com/Athens/...index.html

divine gypsy
Registered User
(6/7/05 8:59 am)
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ezSupporter
Re: what can you believe?
I'd have to say that describing Stalin's "great experiment" must count as a third major political mistake. Anyone know offhand how many millions were starved to death as a result of Russia's forced agricultural collectivization?

FDR is also described as a "wise Dictator" (albeit not nearly as glowingly as Mussolini). It's not used perjoratively, but still, give me a break.

And, yes, Ranger, I had seen your mention of the kriya shift earlier and it just contributed to my growing skepticism.

Edited by: divine gypsy at: 6/7/05 9:35 am
metheuse
Registered User
(6/7/05 11:34 am)
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the crux of the matter
Here's the crux of the matter, at least for me:
Once, long ago, when I was discussing these issues with Bro. Anandamoy, he advised me to forget such controversies and focus on the techniques. That actually turned out to be good advice, because when all is said and done, the techniques DO work, so long as you apply yourself to them. However, SRF stresses that the techniques by themselves are not enough. It is also important, they say, to be "in tune with the Guru." Well, my problem is, I don't feel so good about trying to be in tune with someone who praised Hitler, or someone who clearly demonstrated that an avatar can still be a political dunce. Kind of takes the wind out of my sails, so to speak, to realize that this supposedly omniscient Guru made such staggeringly obvious blunders. What sort of person are you praying to, in that case, when you pray to Yogananda? Clearly someone who is capable of some egregious errors. Do you want to pray to someone like that? Personally, I have a hard time understanding who this Guru is, if he can make such errors. The idea that he is God incarnate kind of falls flat on its face when you realize this guy praised Hitler. The Walrus board is composed of a conglomerate of SRF folks, some of you have just given up long ago, some of us like me are still struggling, and some (few) are still true believers. So, I want to address the latter two groups---in light of these disturbing revelations about Yogananda, how do you visualize Yogananda when you pray to him as Guru and Master?

divine gypsy
Registered User
(6/7/05 12:38 pm)
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ezSupporter
Re: the crux of the matter
Hey, Meth. I think you're right, this is the crux of the matter. It's undeniable to me now that Master made mistakes, and big ones, and yet I still consider him my guru.

A while ago on this board, I think, I suggested that maybe a guru is someone who's motives have been wholly given over to God rather than someone who's every pronouncement is beyond doubt. God, after all, sets these dramas in motion or at least allows them to happen. I still tend to resent SRF for presenting what now seems clearly a seriously distorted picture of PY. However, I think Master himself said that people can have very high realization and still fall until they are irrevocably established in spirit (i.e., nirbikalpa samadhi, I assume). Maybe that goes for a guru, too, who has to take on some karma when he incarnates.

Srflongago would say that the original kriya mission was derailed by PY becoming more interested in self-promotion and in attracting a large following and income and properties. I still find devotees like Rajasi and Gyanamata and Durga Ma persuasive, however, and I think there are others who never became monastics and who maybe never even affiliated themselves with SRF who attained high realization through the techniques and devotion to Master.

Also, the writings I posted were from 1930-35, or so. I don't know what followed, or if Master corrected himself or what. They are only a snapshot of a particular time (even though the timing did coincide with Stalin's purges and other atrocities and with the establishment of Dachau, as you point out which I didn't realize).

But I appreciate a chance to explore these issues. SRF certainly doesn't condone it. Probably the cultbuster cult will try to use this discussion for their own purposes eventually, but I still think it's worthwhile to struggle for a full and honest understanding of this movement.

By the way, someone might want to back this thread up in case it offends someone (hacker or otherwise) who might want it removed.

Used Yogi
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(6/7/05 6:55 pm)
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Re: the crux of the matter
The only time I have personally heard SRF make a comment on politics was when Daya Mata criticized Saddam Hussein when the first Gulf War broke out, saying it was wrong for one country to try to take over another country. The letter was read at the services in the temples.

So then I asked SRF what their position was about India taking over Sikkim and Assam (not being a smart alec, I just wanted to know their position on it). They didn't even know how to reply. I talked to Brother Anandamoy about some world events once, and he told me not to get caught up in the drama, just practice the techniques. He said that in Satya Yuga the world would be under the leadership of someone as spiritually advanced as Babaji.

As for Kriya, the original Yogoda Kriya lesson also says that twelve Kriyas is the same as one year of normal spiritual evolution. Somewhere between then and the Autobiography, that was changed to one Kriya being the same as one year of evolution. Did they think everyone would just forget?

Yogananda making mistakes and basically being human doesn't bother me at all, but exaggerating the effects of Kriya (which Dhirananda strongly objected to), inappropriate behavior with young and sometimes underaged women/girls, and other abuses of authority such as retaliatory measures against Nerode have made me wonder whether I would want anything to do with Yogananda again, if we were ever to meet.

On the flip side, the techniques do work. Someone posted something on the Kriya Yoga ezboard recently about how Lahiri Mahasaya said never to practice yoni mudra before sunset, that to do so is harmful. I don't know if that is true but if so, SRF never mentioned anything about it. Then again SRF's Kriya isn't even the same as what Yogananda practiced (according to Bro. Bhaktananda, may he rest in peace), and Yogananda's Kriya is different from Lahiri Mahasaya's.


Used Yogi

moyma
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(6/7/05 8:17 pm)
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Re: the crux of the matter
At the risk of being called a SRF bliss bunny ....I will say this about Hitler.
When he came to power, Germany loved this guy .They were a oppressed country after ww1 and Hitler alone threw off the oppressive burden that was heaped on Germany after world war one. That burden was the cause off WW two ! Thats in the history books...It is a fact.
The worlds attitude about Germany was oppressive,
If and that is a big IF , They would have done what Yogananda said when he said it , It could have prevented world war two...... Not doing it didn't work...We can all agree on that......
There is a lot of political speak in those talks but i don't think Yogananda was a fool like some of you have suggested...Hitler had a huge EGO..... Germany had been pushed into a corner and Hitler lead them out.
Things are not always black and white........
Not doing what Yogananda said.....bringing the world together in 1933 to do SOMETHING about Hitler Proved to be a disaster.......

Edited by: moyma at: 6/7/05 8:31 pm
metheuse
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(6/7/05 8:48 pm)
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the truth about Hitler
moyma and all,
The history of how Hitler came to power is the story of brutal repression by his political party and the SS thugs who killed, tortured and intimidated anyone who got in their way. The fact that Dachau was open for business a month after Hitler became chancellor ought to be a red flag. The members of Hitler's inner circle were pathological monsters, nothing less, and any attempt to whitewash their brutal rise to power cannot be left unchallenged. They considered themselves the "master race" and anyone else was "degenerate". This kind of thinking is so UTTERLY at odds with anything that Yogananda stood for, at least as far as I understand. Yes, the treaty of Versaille was repressive, and yes, the resentment that built up in Germany was used by Hitler to fuel his campaign of hate, but he had grand plans for world conquest---"Deutsche uber alles"---Germany over all. From Yogananda's glowing praise of Hitler, one would expect that the all-seeing Guru was simply unaware of the facts---Hitler was a megalomaniac and his military supporters were the worst kind of thugs imaginable.

feelbetrayed
Registered User
(6/7/05 9:51 pm)
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Re: the truth about Hitler
But I myself heard Brother Turiyananda say at Lake Shrine that Hitler got NO BAD KARMA from what he did, because Hitler was specially sent to serve as the "scourge of God!"

I think he was representing the SRF official line on things. I doubt The Mighty T was just spouting off from his own individual bias when speaking as a senior minister in a formal public satsang.

My conclusion: Hitler, supposedly a reincarnarion of Aristotle's pupil Alexander the Great, was A-O.K. with SRF because he was sent by God to perform a special role.

Personally I regard Hitler as a terrible monster, representative of hideous evil, as proven by results. So I agree Master missed that call.

Ramsses II
Registered User
(6/7/05 10:38 pm)
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Re: the truth about Hitler
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Edited by: Ramsses II at: 6/8/05 5:22 pm
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