Yogananda Podcast

We are joined by our friend, Daanish, who introduces himself with a heartfelt and divinely inspired poem. This episode discusses Paramahansa Yogananda’s meeting the President of USA, the civil rights and racial segregation issues he faced in Washington DC, and how he went on to establish the Afro-American Yogoda Centre. 

0:00 Meet Daanish, ready with a poem;

10:29 Setting the scene and Summary of minute;

14:36 Racial segregation in USA;

20:34 Culture of decrimination;

29:00 Prerequisites for meeting a President of USA;

41:52 Founding a Yogoda Centre for Afro-Americans.  

The article discussed in the minute can be found in the following ink of the EAST WEST magazine, issue May—June, 1927 VOL. 2—4.   http://www.mysticalportal.net/2-4.html

Jay joins us from California to discuss Anita Goel’s monopolisation of this whole minute. Thankfully she has some quite thought-provoking dialogue. We relish the discussion on the Vedas, unity in nature, consciousness and Paramahansa Yogananda’s life long goal of marrying the East and the West. The majority of the scenes are filmed in the Harvard Faculty Club, but thankfully we, as guests, will be allowed to enter through this exclusive minute. 

0:00 Meet Jay;

5:37 Summary of minute;

6:49 Vedic philosophy;

17:26 Mining for knowledge without WiFi;

24:20 Anita Goel in the Harvard Faculty Club;

30:05 The discovery of unity in nature;

47:51 Anita's Lab and our meditation experiments.  

If you wish to hear more about Anita Goel and her research interests, you can listen to our episode for Minute 18: The yogic rite to Write DNA:

https://youtu.be/Z73TkhaKwDM

This minute starts with the narrator (Paramahansa Yogananda) asking you “to create a church within yourself”. We dig a little deeper into what this would mean, taking inspiration from Guruji’s famous book: Journey to Self-Realization. Dr. Andrew Newberg talks more about brain scans, and the impact of the meditation. Dr. Newberg suggests there is a decrease in a sense of yourself, orientation of space time and a general feeling of connectedness and oneness with the world. 

0:00 Chris's guns;

1:20 Minute Summary;

2:44 The inner church;

11:36 Changing your brain;

31:00 Partaking in Christ Consciousness;

35:14 Be in this world, but not of it.

What is the purpose of the display of miracles and how are some souls able to perform abilities of the supernatural variety? Paramhansa Yogananda talks about this in detail in the Autobiography of a Yogi, chapter 30: The Law of Miracles. This minute also has Bikram talking about the topic, with old footage of him doing a stunt. We talk about Robert Love, an eloquent speaker that has a big part to play in the rest of the film.  

0:00 Meet Carlos;

7:10 Summary of minute;

9:35 Robert Love;

12:28 Bikram's showboating l and the supernatural;

34:42 Developing intuition powers.  

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience”

— French philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Brother Chidananda talks about willpower and energy, but how are the two connected? Brother Jayananda tells a story about Paramahansa Yogananda using both of those dimensions together to catapult six men across a stage! Did you know energization exercises were first titled: “Yogoda or Tissue Will System of Physical Perfection”? Mas Vidal tells us of another story of Guruji being able to control his pulse, indeed, this minute is packed with intriguing content and we do our best to unwrap it all. 

0:55 Summary of minute;  

1:52 Pictures of Guruji and his gaze;

10:10 Willpower and energization;

20:13 Volition on early infancy;

25:32 Hindu rites of passage and hair;

31:43 The materialising power of the Word;

33:40 Brother Jayananda;

41:22 Bikram Choudhury and concentration power;

47:02 Lazarus and the science of coming back from the precipice.

The complete talk given by Brother Jayananda: Living Fearlessly: Overcoming the Causes of Stress and Worry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR_BAHZpvMs 

Other information discussed in this podcast episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_syndrome

We are delighted to be joined by Vivek Atray, one of India's most renowned Motivational Speakers, a Best Selling Author, a Columnist, a Visiting Professor and a devoted disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda.

In this minute we focus on the formulation and importance of the Self-Realization Fellowship / Yogoda Satsanga Society of India study at home lessons (now also available on digital platforms). Some rare footage of Paramahansa Yogananda teaching us how to sleep is reviewed, along with the many newspaper clippings shown during this minute on varied topics such as material and spiritual success, harmony and attracting a soul mate.

0:00 Hear the Jñāna of Vivek Atray;

19:40 Summary of minute;

20:16 SRF / YSS lessons, why sign up?;

28:52 Images used in the minute;

29:42 Old lessons differ between the SRF and YSS editions;

32:50 Material, Mental and Spiritual success;

41:42 Newspaper articles and spectacular marketing:

46:18 Harmony with others;

53:26 What are you committing to by signing up for the lessons?;

54:35 “You people sleep incorrectly!“;

1:03:22 Final messages from Vivek.

Swami Yogananda travelled extensively in USA during the mid 1920s, speaking to large audiences in cities: breaking new ground; exposing minds and souls to yogic philosophy. In this minute we have contributions on this topic from Brother Chidananda, Varun Soni, Philip Goldberg and hear the voice of our guru Paramahansa Yogananda. One question he asks in this minute is as relevant now as it was back then: are we being distracted away from God by our many multifarious hobbies?

0:00 Jurassic Covid;

2:04 Summary of minute;

2:50 Why did Guruji travel across USA;

11:03 Where did he go and who did he meet?;

20:11 Swami Vivekananda;

32:30 Images used in the minute and Kodak;

38:51 Do you have time for Bliss?.

Some lovely images and history of his tour can be found:

http://www.srf-denver.org/History.html

The voice of Swami Vivekananda discussed in this minute can be found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdTy8e7XMxA

Basu Kumar Bagchi (Swami Dhirananda) and Mukunda Lal Ghosh (Paramahansa Yogananda) grew up together, serving together to establish spiritual sangas, libraries, and schools in their youth.  They worked very closely during the formative years for Ranchi School (Brahmacharya Vidyalaya). The early success of Boston and Los Angeles would have been difficult to attain without (Swami Dhirananda). This minute focusses on the positives, before things took a sour turn for the relationship of these two childhood friends.

0:00 Preamble;

1:53 How Yogananda met Dhirananda;

6:58 The first time they worked together;

10:34 Pictures of Yogananda, Dhirananda and Satyananda;

13:34 Yogananda becoming Dhirananda’s Guru;

18:33 Did Dhirananda work on the book The Science of Religion?;

23:10 Yogananda called upon Dhirananda or Satyananda to come to America;

25:59 Do you have a meditation spot at home?;

33:57 Why did Yogananda call Dhirananda to LA?;

41:12 SRF retreats in Brazil.

Amelita Galli-Curci was devoted to Paramahansa Yogananda and praises the impact his teachings had on her life and career. The teachings are our Guru in recent times and the new Self-Realization Fellowship lessons no doubt have a similar impact on devotees around the world. We discuss the famous opera, Aida, that forms part of this minute. Amelita also delightfully meditates with Guruji, albeit with a less than ideal posture, but if you were with Master, would it matter? We also discuss the other parts of this minute including why Swami Yogananda would call Swami Dhirananda to LA (using a telegram) from Boston.

0:00 Preamble;

2:44 Meditating with eyes half open;

9:28 Favourite meditation posture;

16:28 Amelita’s voice;

18:53 Amelita wrote the foreword for Whispers From Eternity;

23:03 A snippet of opera;

28:50 O terra, addio;

32:45 The invention of telegraphs;

38:23 A telegram to Dhirananda;

42:23 Planning a multi city lecture in the 1920s;

44:18 O God Beautiful;

48:20 Chanting at the meditation center;

50:15 Yogananda demonstrating full body control on stage;

53:55 Inter-religious dialogue.

The opera, Aida, that forms part of the minute, has a unique and spiritual plot:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aida

A modern rendition of the famous opera Aida is available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8rsOzPzYr8

In this minute, we look at the nature of reality, dreams and mysticism, both through our own experience and as taught by Paramahansa Yogananda. When you wake up a from a dream you think, ah it was just a dream. Guruji tells in reality this whole life is a dream, we are not material beings having a spiritual dream, we are spiritual beings having a material dream. Tahiel, a Self-Realization Fellowship devotee and musician joins us from Buenos Aries, Argentina. Tahiel quotes Claude Debussy: "Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art".

0:00 Meet Tahiel;

8:20 Summary of Minute;

9:30 What is reality;

18:04 A shared mind or oversoul;

29:45 The Astral body;

40:42 Using the Kundalini force;

52:20 Which technique works most for you?.

“The coiled creative life force at the base of the astral spine, kundalini, has always been symbolized as a serpent. When this creative force is "asleep" in delusion, it flows down and outward and feeds all the senses; uncontrolled, its stinging venom causes insatiable lusts. But when the pure kundalini force is "awakened" by the yogi, it rises to the brain and is transformed into the bliss of Spirit. This uplifting serpentine current is Vasuki, the supreme force for human liberation.”

—Paramahansa Yogananda