Reflections on the History of Religion—
How SRF's Development Mirrors Christian Religious History
Excerpted from A Place Called Ananda
by Swami Kriyananda, , Chapter 30
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Christian history
The karmic patterns that concern us here are those running through the fabric of Christian history, specifically. Yogananda made it clear that Jesus, in his original teachings, placed little emphasis on outer religion—that is to say, on church affiliation and church rituals. Had Jesus intended to strengthen people in their outer affiliation, he would have tried to work with the rabbis of his times. Instead, he challenged them outspokenly. He stated that he'd been sent to fulfill "the law and the prophets," but clearly that fulfillment didn't embrace the rabbinical point of view. He could not have intended to fulfill "the law and the prophets" in an outward, institutional way, only to contradict himself by urging his followers to establish a separate church. The fulfillment of which he spoke was the deeper teaching of the prophets: the teaching of Self-realization; the inner "ritual" of communion with God in deep meditation.
Paramhansa Yogananda, befitting his own mission to "bring back original Christianity," named his organization "Self-Realization Fellowship." He declared that SRF wasn't a new sect: Its purpose was only to give renewed emphasis to an important, universal principle. To him, this name signified Self-realization for every soul through communion with God, inner fellowship (sat-sanga) with great saints and masters, and outward fellowship with truth-seeking souls. With the obvious purpose of establishing a new karmic pattern, he sought to prevent a re-enactment of what he considered the disaster in Christian history, by founding an organization dedicated specifically, even by name, to perpetuating these high ideals.
Yogananda predicted that SRF would change his work
The ancient karmic patterns, however, were already established, and powerful. Self-Realization Fellowship, in its short history to date, has already introduced many changes into his work. The founding ideals of the organization were clearly stated by Yogananda: in its name; in his "aims and ideals" (some of which, however, have already been changed); in his books; in countless lectures. His organization, unfortunately, found itself drawn by that old karma into the vortex of "churchianity." By an irony of fate, the four principal directors, loyal disciples all—Tara, Daya, Ananda, and Mrinalini—were also former Mormons, raised in a tradition of absolute obedience to a supreme bishop, whose dominance is quite as absolute as the Pope's in Rome. Does this mean that nothing can be done now to return Yogananda's work to the spirit of individual freedom he intended?
I understand from certain knowledgeable people Yogananda grieved over these matters in letters to his closest disciple, Rajarsi Janakananda. He warned Daya Mata, "How you all will change this work!" Perhaps he even hinted to me of the need for "fresh blood" when he said, "You have a great work to do, Walter." Perhaps those words contained a subtle plea. For he said to me also, in May of 1950 at Twenty-Nine Palms, "Apart from St. Lynn (Rajarsi), every man has disappointed me—and you mustn't disappoint me!" He certainly didn't mean that all had disappointed him as disciples. We were talking then of the future of his work. His disappointment was that, whereas the spread of the work demanded more of an outgoing, masculine energy, no male disciple so far, except for Rajarsi, had understood the broad implications of his mission. I myself, before I was dismissed from SRF, was the only man on a nine-person Board of Directors.
To Dr. Lewis he said, "No matter what you or I do, this work [that is to say, this mission] will follow a certain pattern, ordained by God." What can those words signify, except a reference to karmic patterns? For Master would never have set his will against God's will, and certainly he hoped that no true disciple would ever do so, either. God had sent him into this incarnation to change old, karmic patterns: to reinforce the bright threads, if possible, and to diminish or eliminate the dark ones. It must be understood, of course, that no one, however great, could change the whole tapestry. God Himself would never do that, for it would mean going against his own karmic law. God never treats human beings as puppets, making and remaking history without reference to their individual and national karmas. When Yogananda used the words, "ordained by God," what he meant was, "ordained by the karmic law established by God." Again, if Yogananda was sent to bring back original Christianity, and if he saw that karmic currents would actively oppose that divine purpose, he did not mean that those currents would win out. Quite the opposite! In one way or another, by one instrument or another, the purpose of his incarnation, divinely ordained, cannot fail.
For this is, as I said, a new age—declared to be such by our own gurus. It is an age of energy. Jesus came at a time of descent into materialism and the entrenchment of people's consciousness in solid forms and fixed dogmas. In the present age, albeit materialistic, people's consciousness of matter itself is of the underlying reality of energy. Human understanding is lighter now, more expansive, less inclined to lock everything into fixed definitions and forms.
I have often told Ananda members, "If by any chance we fail in carrying out the divine plan, God will find others to do so. If Master gave me a work to fulfill, it was not to me, personally. This is simply a mission that needs fulfilling. The advantage to our fulfilling it is that I knew him, personally. I can recall countless examples from his life that support what we are doing. And if anyone here, or if I myself, feel inclined to make a wrong choice, I can recall too many examples as possible correctives, and will always do my sincere best to abide by those examples."
Paramhansa Yogananda often remarked, "Jesus Christ was crucified once, but his teachings have been crucified daily for nearly two thousand years." In making this statement he implied not another failure, but eventual triumph. As he himself sometimes said, "The spirit I like in America is implied in the saying, 'Eventually? Eventually? Why not now?!'"
Self-realization—the true purpose of religion
We live in a new age—an age of energy. Humanity is ready to embrace a new and broader understanding. As Yogananda predicted, "Self-realization will someday become the religion of the world."
I challenged Daya Mata on this point in 1990 at a meeting between SRF and Ananda in Fresno. I said, "Master cannot possibly have meant 'Self-Realization Fellowship, Inc.' He had to have meant Self-realization as a principle." Daya replied, "That's . . . your opinion." Daya's way of responding to every challenge has always been to suppress it. But no, Daya, it is not mere opinion! It is self-evident in Yogananda's mission itself. He predicted that a new understanding would in time become the basis of all religions: a recognition that the purpose of religion is the realization of the one true Self of all beings, within.
Karmic Pattern #1: Betrayal of the Master
The betrayal by Judas has been treated as a unique event in history. It was by no means so. Yogananda even explained that Judas, personally, could have avoided the karmic pattern that forced him to that betrayal. Judas merely perpetuated an already-existing karma in Judaism itself, and perhaps in all religions. Jesus referred to this pattern when he declared, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" (Luke 13:34)
There has been a perpetual struggle in Christianity between inner, soul-aspiration and egoic desire for power, control, and worldly recognition. Judas betrayed Jesus because of his desire for money and worldly acceptance. The karmic "invitation," however, to respond to these delusions was already woven into the tapestry of history. By that betrayal, the thread was woven also into that part of the tapestry which depicts the story of Christianity.
Yogananda, in saying that the teachings of Jesus have continued to be betrayed, was speaking from his realization of God; he was not speaking as a historian. His statement was born of divine insight, not of scholarly logic. He also named the betrayer: "churchianity"—distinct, as he pointed out, from "Christianity." It is institutionalism that has undermined the purity of Christ's teachings.
The karma of Christ's crucifixion was not only Judas' single act of betrayal. Nor was it expiated by that suicide. The act had been foretold long before the life of Jesus. And the karma persists even to this day. What is the karma? It is that world-involving tendency to take the highest spiritual teaching, the soul's relation to truth and God, and to redefine it in such a way as to control those who believe in it.
Karmic Pattern #2: No new revelation outside of accepted Church dogma
The Church has consistently kept a tight rein on what it is pleased to call "Christian" worship. It has persecuted what it calls "heretics." It has even persecuted its saints. Thus also did the Jews, long before Jesus, for they considered their saints (whom they called "prophets") threats to the status quo. While the saints (or prophets) were alive, they were persecuted. Once they were safely dead, their persecutors claimed credit for their holiness.
The Jews would not accept any revelation that was not already declared in their scriptures. A rabbi I met in Jerusalem said, "Even if the Temple of Jerusalem were to descend from above onto the place where it once stood, I would consider it my duty to measure it carefully and see whether it corresponded exactly to the measurements given in the scriptures."
The Christian Church, also, has insisted that there could be no revelation since New Testament times; that the final declaration of truth can be found only in the Bible. Thus, the Church avoided the need to deal with any influence that might pulverize its rigid theology. The Jews, of course, have refused to accept Jesus even as a prophet, for Judaic theology was already ossified by New Testament times. Had there been openness in the time of Jesus, there would never have been a Christian religion. Jesus himself never said he'd been sent to start a new religion. Rather, what he told people was, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am come not to destroy, but to fulfill." (Matthew 5:17) The first Christian, as has been well said, was not Jesus Christ, but St. Paul. It is unfortunately common in this world for tradition to be built up, like a stone wall, to enclose its tenets, saying, "This much we accept, and no more." That was what Yogananda meant in saying that the teachings of Jesus Christ have been crucified daily.
The spirit of Judas lives on, vitalized by the churches themselves.
Interestingly, Yogananda himself was aware of, and even valued, both sides of this issue. He was not anti-authoritarian, as one might expect from the fact that he prized inner freedom so highly. He only wanted people to give supreme recognition to divine, not merely to church, authority.
He showed this orthodox outlook in the way he summed up an episode that he and others of us witnessed together in an Indian movie called "The Light of India," about the life of Gyandev, a medieval Indian saint. (Gyandev is perhaps better known in India as Gyaneshwar.)
Gyandev's father had been born a brahmin. He sinned, however, against the brahminical code, and as a result was declared an outcaste. Later in life he paid the supreme penalty for his sin by committing suicide. The brahmins of his day, however, would not reinstate his children as brahmins even then, for they could find no sanction for doing so in the scriptures. Gyandev reminded them that the Bhagavad Gita states that all beings are equal in the sight of God. Thereupon the priests replied, "On this particular point, the scriptures are silent; therefore we must be silent also." Receiving this answer, Gyandev started to recite a passage from the Bhagavad Gita which declares that God is equally manifested in all beings. A priest tried to stop his mouth, placing a hand over it. At that point, a bull standing nearby finished the passage, speaking in a deep, bovine tone. The brahmins then had to accept Gyandev as a great soul indeed, and reinstated all of them, humbly stating, "Truly, it is you who are the true brahmins!"
Yogananda's comment afterwards was, "Those priests were right also, however, to abide by the scriptures as they understood them. Gyandev was right, but they too were right. What Gyandev did was simply give them a higher perception of truth."
Thus, Yogananda's statement that the churches have crucified the teachings of Christ by "churchifying" them cannot mean that he faulted them for acting according to their sincere understanding. What he faulted only was their narrow vision, and their determination to impose their narrowness on others. In India, this danger is avoided by the general recognition that true saints revitalize religion, and bring to priestly understanding the fresh air of direct, inner realization.
Karmic Pattern #3: Mystic traditions persecuted by Church
The emphasis of early Christians on the importance of Self-realization was first condemned by the Church as heretical, then persecuted, and finally, in time, buried. Writings that emphasized inner communion with God were determinedly destroyed, and "true" (which is to say, formally recognized) Christians were exhorted to heed only outer authority, and to engage only in outer ritual.
This was the churches' act of betrayal.
It wasn't until the Twentieth Century that long-buried texts were discovered at Nag Hammadi. Though scholars at first kept them from the public eye, they were obliged at last to release them. People who have scrutinized those texts declare that they reveal something quite unexpected: that the ancient, so-called "Gnostic" emphasis on direct communion with God, so long dismissed as heretical, was far more important to early Christians than had hitherto been thought. Indeed, from what Yogananda said about "original Christianity," the teaching of the early Gnostics was probably—when stripped of its later distortions—the original, true Christianity.
The true custodians of religion are the saints
This is not to say that all those gnostic teachings were equally valid. It seems safe to say that, where they depart significantly from the sayings of Jesus in the New Testament, they deserve to be discarded as either suspect or, quite simply, wrong. I have frequently stated elsewhere in my writings that the true custodians of religion are the saints. There were Gnostics and Gnostics. Those alone were true who had attained divine insight, or true "gnosis."
Webster's Third International Dictionary, published in 1961, when the contents of the Nag Hammadi discoveries were still being debated, out of sight of the public, defines Gnosticism as "The thought and practice of any of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries declared heretical by the Church and distinguished chiefly by pretension to mystic and especially esoteric religious insights, by emphasis on knowledge rather than faith, and by the conviction that matter is evil." The Oxford American Dictionary, published in 1980, does not even contain the word "Gnosticism," nor any word related to it, such as gnosis or gnostic.
If we could go to Jesus himself, there would be no need to look to scholars for explanations of his "original teachings." Nor is there any need now to go to scholars for explanations of "Gnosticism," about which present-day information is in any case vague, since we have Paramhansa Yogananda's explanation of the original teachings of Jesus. For Yogananda was himself a great master. However, the issue here is not even whether Yogananda's explanation was correct. Rather, it is that, since he did explain them, his disciples have a spiritual duty to abide by that explanation.
Unfortunately, the history of his organization shows already a tendency to enclose his teachings in a straitjacket. Such indeed was the betrayal Yogananda imputed to the Christian Church! Alas, he himself said to Daya Mata, "How you all will change my work!"
Karmic Pattern #4: Persecution of "heretics"—those who disagree
In early Christianity, disciples who wanted a personal, inward relationship with Christ and God were persecuted by an institution that was determined to subject them to its control. The Church insisted that, if people's emphasis on a direct relationship with God were not brought under rigid control—of course, in time it was suppressed altogether—the Church would lose any say in what practices were permissible. Who, then, the Church "Fathers" asked, could be certain what the teachings of Jesus really were? The solution they settled on was to ban as "heretical" the claim that anyone could speak—as Gyandev did—with inner, God-given authority. Authority became vested in the pope. Martin Luther's Reformation caused Protestants to invest it in scripture itself. This, however, was a disastrous development, for it removed altogether the possibility of a wise, living authority, and led inescapably to the conclusion that truth depends on majority agreement. Thus, any interpretation of scripture is admissible, provided only that enough people fancy it.
SRF today has introduced a new paradigm, one very different from that which Yogananda originally—and, I should add, fervently—proposed. Surely SRF's actions, and the justification SRF offers for those actions, are identical with those of the Church, which has "crucified" Christ by insisting that it has a monopoly on Christ's teachings. The Church enforced its claim by persecuting all whom it considered "heretics." The lengths to which SRF has gone to achieve the same ends are extraordinary. SRF, too, has persecuted others in the name of "protecting the purity of the teachings."
I see some justification for self-defense, when one is under attack. I can see none for destroying people whose motives are pacific and harmonious, and who merely want to serve God as they are guided to do from within, and as they are able. Kamala Silva, for example, wrote a beautiful book of reminiscences on her life with Paramhansa Yogananda. She was denounced by SRF, not because the book itself was objectionable, but only because it was written without SRF's sanction. Many such examples might be cited. Perhaps it is enough to cite the fact that I myself was denounced without being given an opportunity to defend myself, that I had projected onto me motives I knew were not true, that my right to continue serving my Guru either within or outside of the organization was denied, and that I have been persecuted for more than forty years because I wouldn't simply turn my back on them, as most people in my shoes would have done. Their accusations against me are based entirely on the fact that my continued devotion to my Guru, and to his teachings, is an embarrassment to them. They have shown themselves to be more concerned with saving face than with compassion, or with truth.
When Daya Mata asked me to declare publicly that I'd resigned from SRF, to which request I replied, "I can't. It isn't true, and you know it isn't true!" she said, unbelievably, "Well, you should have resigned." [For more about this tragic episode in SRF's history, see Kriyananda's My Separation from SRF]
Startling changes to Yogananda's work during Daya Mata's presidency
SRF would like to say that I have changed the teachings. In fact, it is they who have changed them, and in some respects fundamentally. Unknowledgeable people have asked us, "Why did Ananda take Krishna off its altars?" Ananda never took Krishna off its altars: SRF added him!
Most people are unaware of the numerous ways SRF has changed Master's work during Daya Mata's presidency. The addition of Krishna to its altars is at least understandable, since Yogananda, and Lahiri Mahasaya before him, said that Babaji was Krishna in a former life.
Yogananda's own signature changed by SRF
Another change is less understandable: the spelling of Yogananda's title, "Paramhansa."
Yogananda himself wrote it that way. SRF added an "a" in the middle of it, thus: Paramahansa. Both spellings are encountered in India. The problem with that extra "a," apart from the fact that in Yogananda's printed signature it has necessitated copying another part of the same signature—a glaring forgery—is that it also forces Westerners to mispronounce the word. For with all those "a"s staring at them, they feel the need to linger on the middle one as if gathering strength to move on to the finish. An Indian, on the other hand, sails over that "a" as if it didn't exist. That is to say, most Indians don't pronounce it at all. Particularly offensive to me personally, however, is the fact that the change, which Tara Mata [a powerful member of SRF's board for many years] accepted on the advice of a pundit in India, showed Tara herself willing to take a stranger's word over that of her own Guru. To me this shows her inclination, already evident from other statements of hers, to belittle Master's linguistic ability, from a tendency to pride herself on her own. And this pride of hers is worrying, when one thinks of the editing she did on his works during her final years.
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