Swami Chidananda Giri, president and spiritual head of Yogoda Satsanga Society of India/Self-Realization Fellowship (YSS/SRF), recently visited India and gave inspirational talks on the Kriya Yoga teachings of Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (author of the Autobiography of a Yogi and founder-Guru of YSS/SRF).During his stay in India, Swami Chidanandaji was interviewed on matters of import affecting different strata of the society and the world. Here are some excerpts:

Q: Swamiji, in India, we have the tradition of reading the scriptures like the Ramayana, the Gita, and the Upanishads. For all those who are reading Yoganandaji’s teachings, is all that wisdom contained in these teachings? And do they also need to read them?

Also, sometimes somebody recommends to us to read a book or listen to a particular motivational talk. Is it spiritual snobbery on the part of a devotee to not look at other paths, or not be interested in reading other spiritual books?

Swami Chidanandaji: No! It's loyalty! And it depends really where one is on the path. When you're in the phase of just exploring and comparing teachings then of course, it's natural to “Oh! let us listen to that lecture and see if that makes sense, or this one makes more sense.” That's fine. But, for Kriyaban disciples who have formed that relationship with the Guru, Yoganandaji has explicitly told us that the spiritual power comes through one channel only, and that is the channel of one’s God-ordained Guru.

Now, even that needs to be understood with balance and common sense. It doesn't mean that you now have to be afraid of, or shun things. There is a lot of wonderful inspiration and encouragement that you can get from inspiring stories of other people, or scientific information that really helps to stimulate the mind, and which validatessomething that our Guru has taught. It’s just a matter of not taking other spiritual instructions or spiritual methods after you’ve accepted the sadhana of your own Guru.

First of all, as devotees of Yoganandaji, you are already reading the scriptures — the ‘Gita’; and for the Western world, it is the Gospel teachings of Christ. Those are two wonderful scriptures. We aren’t saying,“You give up reading the scriptures.” But is it necessary to read all the scriptures? No! Because Guruji has distilled everything that the devotee needs out of the scriptures, and put it into a practical programme of sadhana. Many people (and this is just the way of the world), read some scripture and then they think “OK, I've fulfilled my duty.” But that's not going to get you what you want. You want consciousness of your soul, you want consciousness of your living dynamic relationship with God. You are not going to get that from reading a book, even a scripture.

So, there's nothing wrong with reading scriptures. They're wonderful, they have lots of inspirational material, and lots of eternally very useful principles of right behaviour and deep spiritual truths and so on. So, I would say it's not necessary to read them, but there's also nothing wrong with doing so,except for a devotee, if it's done at the cost of spending more time on them than studying the YSS Lessons and actually meditating. Guruji has said that if you read for one hour then you write your reflections for twice that amount of time and think deeply about it for an even longer period. Of foremost importance is meditation. Reading books can continually inspire us, but in the end, inspiration is really worth very little if it isn't put into practice.” Further info.: yssofindia.org