“Man remains engaged in an unceasing quest for that ‘something else’ he hopes will bring him complete and unending happiness. For those individual souls who have sought and found God, the search is over: He is that something Else.” This gem of wisdom was perhaps the essence of Paramahansa Yogananda’s teaching of Raja Yoga/Kriya Yoga – the scientific path for attaining all-fulfilling personal communion with God.
Yoganandaji proved himself a Yogi in life as well as in death. On March 7th, 1952 he breathed his last at a banquet held in honour of the first Indian ambassador to the United States. He entered mahasamadhi while paying loving tribute to his beloved God and India. Weeks after his departure, his unchanged face shone with the divine lustre of incorruptibility, to the amazement of the mortuary staff in Los Angeles, U.S.A., who placed this phenomenal event on record. This great saint’s love for God and service to humanity lives on through his work in India and all over the world, with ever-increasing number of souls seeking solace of divine, daily communion through simple, regular practice of Kriya Yoga – an ideally suited spiritual discipline for the busy, modern-day householder.
Before he passed on, Yoganandaji spent over thirty years in America, spreading the ancient science of Kriya Yoga as taught and practiced by Sri Bhagavan Krishna, Patanjali and other illumined sages of India over the centuries. He advocated the brotherhood of Man under the fatherhood of God. A century after the birth of Paramahansa Yogananda, he has come to be recognized as one of the preeminent spiritual figures of our time. The influence of his life and work continues to grow. Many of the religious and philosophical concepts and methods he introduced decades ago through his prolific writings are now finding expression in science, education, psychology, medicine, business and other spheres of endeavour-contributing in far-reaching ways to a more integrated, humane and spiritual vision of human life.
His magnum opus, Autobiography of a Yogi is acclaimed as a spiritual classic & masterpiece, read all over the world by people of all creeds and paths. Those who read the book claim they are transformed and their spiritual understanding of life greatly clarified. Selected as one of the 100 best spiritual books of the last 100 years in the year 2000, it was published in 1946 and expanded in subsequent editions. Written for a modern audience and translated into 42 worldwide languages including 13 Indian languages, it is widely regarded today as a spiritual masterpiece, one of the most important, relevant and readable works on Yoga and ancient Indian philosophy. In one of the chapters on Cosmic Consciousness, Yoganandaji says: “After the mind has been cleared by Kriya Yoga of sensory obstacles, meditation furnishes a twofold proof of God. Ever-new joy is evidence of His existence, convincing to our very atoms. Also in meditation, one finds His instant guidance, His adequate response to every difficulty.”
Born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh, on January 5, 1893 at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh into a well-to-do, devout Hindu family, Yoganandaji showed early signs of being a realized soul. To those around him, it was evident from his earliest years that the depth of his awareness and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary. As a youth, he sought out many of India’s great saints and philosophers and ultimately met the revered sage Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri of Serampore in West Bengal, in whose ashram he received training for over 10 years.
Post his training with Swami Sri Yukteswarji, Yoganandaji founded Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS) in Ranchi in 1917. In 1920, he was invited to serve as India’s delegate to an International Congress of Liberals in Boston. His address on The Science of Religion was enthusiastically received. Over the next decade, he travelled and lectured widely, speaking to capacity audiences in many of the largest auditoriums in that country – from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Los Angeles’ Philharmonic Auditorium. He established Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in Los Angeles, California, USA in 1920 to disseminate worldwide his teachings on India’s ancient science of Kriya Yoga and its time-honoured tradition of meditation. From these spiritual institutions, his work continues to grow in 175 countries. The Society has more than 500 centres around the world and disciples spread over six continents. In India, Yoganadaji’s main ashrams are located at Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Dakshineswar (Kolkata), Noida, and Dwarahat (near Ranikhet). There are also around 200 meditation centres that hold group meditations and satsangas in all major cities in India.
The great yogi and spiritual teacher returned to India in 1935 and stayed for over one year holding classes for seekers in India. While in India, he visited Mahatma Gandhiji at his Wardha ashram. On Gandhiji’s request, he initiated him and some of his followers into the spiritual technique of Kriya Yoga. Dr. Camile Honig, Literary Editor of The California Jewish Voice wrote: “I remember the Mahatma once talked to me about Yogananda with great admiration. It is spiritual men like Yogananda, (he explained), who brought a message of real hope for a deeper understanding between India and West more than all politicians put together.”
During November 1935 the heir to the Maharaja of Mysore, H.H. the Yuvaraja, Sir Sri Krishna Narasingharaj Wadiyar, had invited Sri Yoganandaji to visit his enlightened and progressive realm. For over two weeks Sri Yoganandaji addressed thousands of Mysore citizens and stu-dents, at the Town Hall, the Maharajah’s College, the University Medical School; and three mass meetings in Bangalore, at the National High School, the Intermediate College, and the Chetty Town Hall where over three thousand persons had assembled. Sri Yoganandaji said: “Whether the eager listeners had been able to credit the glowing picture I drew of America, I know not; but the applause had always been loudest when I spoke of the mutual benefits that could flow from exchange of the best features in East and West.”
“In the course of world travel, I have sadly observed much suffering,” Paramahansaji commented. “In the Orient, suffering chiefly on the material plane; in the Occident, misery chiefly on the mental or the spiritual plane. All nations feel the painful effects of unbalanced civilizations. India and many other eastern lands can greatly benefit from emulation of the practical grasp of affairs, the material efficiency of Western nations like America. The Occidental people, on the other hand, require a deeper understanding of the spiritual basis of life, and particularly of scientific techniques that India anciently developed for man’s conscious communion with God.”
On the 25th anniversary of Paramahansa Yogananda’s passing, the Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in his honour.
Paramahansa Yogananda reminded the busy modern man thus: “Everything else can wait but your search for God cannot wait.”
(Issued by Yogoda Satsanga Dhyana Kendra, Jammu)
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