Kriya “works like mathematics”, he stated, emphasising the empirical, scientific nature of this technique. Through regular practice, he claimed, Kriya will change the neural pathways in your brain. ReallyIJ Can the act of mindful focusing and of interiorising our consciousness actually bring about physical changes in the brainIJ Very few scientists at Yogananda’s time would have felt comfortable with his claims. Yet today revolutionary new findings in neuroscience are showing that meditation does in fact bring favorable changes in the neural pathways of the brain. Scientific laboratories are now stumbling into truths experienced by yogis across the ages in, as Yogananda would say, the inner laboratories of their personal experience.
And what would be the inner markers that people could look for to assess their progress toward Self-realisationIJ lower stressIJ Greater peaceIJ He had begun his own quest for Self-realisation very early in life, a story so vibrantly captured in his spiritual classic, “Autobiography of a Yogi”, culminating in his master Sri Yukteswar giving him the monastic name “Yogananda”, which means “Bliss through Yoga”. True to his name, he exhorted truth-seekers to enjoy the early rewards of peace and well-being, but to then seek out the ultimate prize: eternal bliss. “When by constant practice of Kriya, the consciousness of [the] blissful state of the spiritual self becomes real, we find ourselves always in the holy presence of the blissful God in us.” God, to Yogananda, was thus not an external force to be idolised and worshiped and appropriated by a particular religion, but an inner force to be awoken to and realised.
Yogananda make a triumphant return to India in 1935-36, where he spent time, among others, with India’s other great saints Anandamayi Ma and Ramana Maharishi, and Nobel laureates CV Raman and Rabindranath Tagore. He also met with Mahatma Gandhi in 1935, amid the height of Gandhi’s political and social activism. Ever humble, Gandhi’s first commitment in life was to evolve himself, not the world around him. What better way to accelerate the inner journey than to pursue what Yogananda called “an airplane route” to universal consciousness, KriyaIJ So on this one sole occasion that life brought them together, Gandhi took initiation in Kriya Yoga from Yogananda. The bond between the two messiahs must have been very special; upon Gandhi’s assassination, Yogananda received and enshrined some of Gandhi’s ashes in the beautiful grounds of lake Shrine, an iconic Self-Realisation Fellowship temple in California.Since his passing in 1952, many teachers have followed Yogananda’s trailblasing path to bring yoga to the world, helping make it a fixture in popular culture as it continues to take hold with young and old, the elite and the ordinary, the spiritualists and the atheists. What distinguishes Yogananda from these subsequent emissaries is not simply that he was a pioneer of the modern yoga movement, but that he shone such a powerful and practical torchlight on yoga’s true purpose of Self-realisation, and the path one can take to scaling this sublime peak.The writer is Professor of Practice, Columbia Business School and is the Founder, Institute for Personal leadership
“[Yogananda]’s probably been the greatest inspiration for me”, the quiet BeatleGeorge Harrison once said.”I keep stacks of [his book]Autobiography of a Yogi around the house and I give it out constantly to people”, he says in the 2014 release of the much-acclaimed documentary about Yogananda,AWAKE.”When people need ‘regrooving,’ I say read this, because it cuts to the heart of every religion.”.Compare this toSteveJobs,whorarely revealed to people his fondness for Yogananda’s autobiography - the only book he had on his iPad. And yet, upon his passing, he arranged for every attendee at his memorial service to be given a box that contained his farewell message to them: the book “Autobiography of a Yogi.” So why is Yogananda not a pop icon at a time when yoga is the great movement of our timesIJ During the 1920s, Yogananda, who was much in demand on the speaker’s circuit, consciously decided to withdraw from public speaking so he could focus on building his organization, recording his teaching, and mentoring his flock of early monastics. “I prefer souls over crowds”, he said. And then he added, “But I love crowds of souls.”With the growing interestin mindfulness and meditation, perhaps these words will prove to be more prophetic than wistful.
On this first International Yoga Day,the time has come to tip our hats to theteacher who first introduced the modern world to the transformative power of yoga as a timeless inner discipline. So as you roll out your yoga mat, get into your favorite yoga pose, chant a collective ‘OM’ and feel a gentle zephyr of peace sweep over you, perhaps you can take pause to wonder at what experiences in consciousness may lie just beyond your present reach if you embark on yoga’s fuller, inner journey toward Self-realization. Yogananda would have called those experiences “undreamed of possibilities.”The writer is Professor of Practice, Columbia Business School and is the Founder, Institute for Personal leadership