Yogananda for The World

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Ain general, but-perhaps even especially, spiritual organizations. certain cynicism has taken root in the public mind about organiza- So many of them have proved corrupt. But if organizations can be bad, it is equally possible for them to be good. Ego-whether institutional or individual-can go one of two directions: toward either self-interest or self- transcendence. Each direction has its consequences. To study the successes and failures of others is one important way of learning how to be better.

Two organizations that claim guidance from the same spiritual master have developed so differently from one another that now they hardly seem to represent the same teaching. Self-Realization Fellowship has followed the well-trodden path of spiritual authority: power in the hands of a few, obedi- ence from all the rest; governance by rules, the first of which is, "In every situation, ask yourself first. 'What is best for the organization?""

Ananda has chosen "the road less traveled": cooperation; decentralization; not taking oneself too seriously; and following two principles of which the first is, "People are more important than things," and the second, "Where there is adherence to truth, there lie victory, happiness, and success of every kind (Yata dharma, sthata jaya in the Sanskrit original)."

This book serves two purposes: one, to restore to people a true and much-needed understanding of the real life and mission of Paramhansa Yogananda; and two, to give hope to people everywhere that they need not compromise even one high ideal to accomplish all their objectives-even the most worldly.

Swami Kriyananda, founder of Ananda, has been a close, direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda for more than 60 years. His life has been one of prodigious creativity-author, composer, photographer, screenwriter, dramatist, worldwide lecturer, counselor and teacher, and founder of eight (plus) spiritual communities wherein all together about a thousand peo- ple live. These things he has accomplished by the power he received from Yogananda, received by his complete dedication to his guru's service.

Swami Kriyananda A prolific author, accomplished composer, and a world- renowned spiritual teacher, Swami Kriyananda refers to himself simply as "a humble disciple" of the great God- realized master, Paramhansa Yogananda. He met his guru at the young age of twenty-two, served him during the last four years of the Master's life-and he has done so continuously ever since.

Philosophically inclined from youth, Kriyananda soon came to question life's meaning and society's values. During a period of intense inward reflection, he discovered Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, and immediately traveled 3,000 miles from New York to California to meet the Master, who accepted him as a monastic disciple. Yogananda appointed him as the head of the mon- astery, authorized him to teach in his name and to give initiation into Kriya Yoga, and entrusted him with the missions of writing and developing what he called "world brotherhood colonies." Recognized as the "father of the spiritu- al communities movement in the United States, Swami Kriyananda founded Ananda World Brotherhood Community in 1968. It has served as a model for a number of communities founded subsequently in the United States, Europe, and India.

In 2003 Swami Kriyananda, then in his seventy-eighth year, moved to In- dia with a small international group of disciples, to dedicate his remaining years to making his guru's teachings better known in the land where Yogananda was born. Kriyananda has established Ananda Sangha, which publishes many of his more than one hundred literary works and spreads the teachings of Kriya Yoga throughout India. His vision for the next years includes founding cooperative spiritual communities in India, a temple of all religions dedicated to Param- hansa Yogananda, a retreat center, a school system, a university-level Yoga Institute of Living Wisdom. and a monastery, as well as.

In 2009 Kriyananda founded the Nayaswami Order, which offers a means for people from all walks of life to dedicate themselves formally to God. And he has recently drafted screenplays for several movies about the life of his guru, Paramhansa Yogananda.

This book is about the misguided (because too narrow) actions of the leaders of a spiritual organization, Self Realization Fellowship (SRF), and the serious consequences of their actions to the legacy of Paramhansa Yogananda, a spiritual master and SRF's guiding guru. It discusses the attitudes, actions, and organizational culture that caused SRF to substitute a completely different spiritual legacy for the one left by Yogananda, and the importance of restoring Yogananda's true legacy.

My direct experience of the facts presented in this book came primar- ily through the twelve years of litigation between SRF and Ananda, the spiritual organization founded by Swami Kriyananda, also devoted to the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda. Though trained as a lawyer, I left the practice of law when I moved to Ananda Village in Nevada City, California in 1980. After SRF filed its lawsuit against Ananda in 1990, I became involved in law once again, working with Jon Parsons, Ananda's attorney, on the SRF case and subsequently on the related Bertolucci lawsuit. I also worked closely with Swami Kriyananda during this time and was in regular, often daily, contact with him.

Many of the attitudes and actions of SRF's leaders discussed in this book were the subject of depositions, court testimony, and documents filed with the court. Most of these documents are a matter of public record and they confirm the picture of SRF presented by Kriyananda in this book.

The purpose of this book is to try to correct certain serious errors that have appeared in the presentation of Paramhansa Yogananda's life and legacy. It is, in a sense, an open plea-not to individuals, but against cer- tain actions by representatives of Self-Realization Fellowship (hereafter referred to by the initials, SRF), actions which have shown disregard for the true greatness of our Guru to the extraordinary extent of being willing to change the very legacy he left to the world, with a view to making his mission reflect what they think it ought to have been. This book will cover a number of such changes, many of them blatant. Among them are the following:

a) Paramhansa Yogananda wrote throughout his life, and often spoke in public, of his vision for "world-brotherhood colonies" (as he called them). He was last heard doing so only four months before his earth- ly passing. Self-Realization Fellowship has declared, "At the end of his life, he changed his mind on this point." They have actually gone so far as to eliminate this intention from his basic "aims and ideals," which describe his mission to the world.

I know for a fact that he was fervent in support of this point. I was there on some of the occasions when he spoke about it. I heard him with my own ears, and saw him with my own eyes. On one occasion, the power with which he spoke was enough to shake the heavens! I will explain these matters in detail through the following pages.

b) Yogananda wrote his name: Paramhansa. SRF, believing that the Master didn't even know how to spell his own title, rewrote it, Paramahania, putting an a in the middle and making five a's in all. This addition came as a result of a scholarly correction from India. SRF advances some sort of argument for why they added that a, but their reasoning is specious.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages