Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (tools of titans ebook .TXT) đ
- Author: Paramahansa Yogananda
- Performer: 978-0876120835
Book online «Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (tools of titans ebook .TXT) đ». Author Paramahansa Yogananda
âAll human ills arise from some transgression of universal law. The scriptures point out that man must satisfy the laws of nature, while not discrediting the divine omnipotence. He should say: âLord, I trust in Thee, and know Thou canst help me, but I too will do my best to undo any wrong I have done.â By a number of means-by prayer, by will power, by yoga meditation, by consultation with saints, by use of astrological bangles-the adverse effects of past wrongs can be minimized or nullified.
âJust as a house can be fitted with a copper rod to absorb the shock of lightning, so the bodily temple can be benefited by various protective measures. Ages ago our yogis discovered that pure metals emit an astral light which is powerfully counteractive to negative pulls of the planets. Subtle electrical and magnetic radiations are constantly circulating in the universe; when a manâs body is being aided, he does not know it; when it is being disintegrated, he is still in ignorance. Can he do anything about it?
âThis problem received attention from our rishis; they found helpful not only a combination of metals, but also of plants and-most effective of all-faultless jewels of not less than two carats. The preventive uses of astrology have seldom been seriously studied outside of India. One little-known fact is that the proper jewels, metals, or plant preparations are valueless unless the required weight is secured, and unless these remedial agents are worn next to the skin.â
âSir, of course I shall take your advice and get a bangle. I am intrigued at the thought of outwitting a planet!â
âFor general purposes I counsel the use of an armlet made of gold, silver, and copper. But for a specific purpose I want you to get one of silver and lead.â Sri Yukteswar added careful directions.
âGuruji, what âspecific purposeâ do you mean?â
âThe stars are about to take an unfriendly interest in you, Mukunda. Fear not; you shall be protected. In about a month your liver will cause you much trouble. The illness is scheduled to last for six months, but your use of an astrological armlet will shorten the period to twenty-four days.â
I sought out a jeweler the next day, and was soon wearing the bangle. My health was excellent; Masterâs prediction slipped from my mind. He left Serampore to visit Benares. Thirty days after our conversation, I felt a sudden pain in the region of my liver. The following weeks were a nightmare of excruciating pain. Reluctant to disturb my guru, I thought I would bravely endure my trial alone.
But twenty-three days of torture weakened my resolution; I entrained for Benares. There Sri Yukteswar greeted me with unusual warmth, but gave me no opportunity to tell him my woes in private. Many devotees visited Master that day, just for a DARSHAN. {FN16-2} Ill and neglected, I sat in a corner. It was not until after the evening meal that all guests had departed. My guru summoned me to the octagonal balcony of the house.
âYou must have come about your liver disorder.â Sri Yukteswarâs gaze was averted; he walked to and fro, occasionally intercepting the moonlight. âLet me see; you have been ailing for twenty-four days, havenât you?â
âYes, sir.â
âPlease do the stomach exercise I have taught you.â
âIf you knew the extent of my suffering, Master, you would not ask me to exercise.â Nevertheless I made a feeble attempt to obey him.
âYou say you have pain; I say you have none. How can such contradictions exist?â My guru looked at me inquiringly.
I was dazed and then overcome with joyful relief. No longer could I feel the continuous torment that had kept me nearly sleepless for weeks; at Sri Yukteswarâs words the agony vanished as though it had never been.
I started to kneel at his feet in gratitude, but he quickly prevented me.
âDonât be childish. Get up and enjoy the beauty of the moon over the Ganges.â But Masterâs eyes were twinkling happily as I stood in silence beside him. I understood by his attitude that he wanted me to feel that not he, but God, had been the Healer.
I wear even now the heavy silver and lead bangle, a memento of that day-long-past, ever-cherished-when I found anew that I was living with a personage indeed superhuman. On later occasions, when I brought my friends to Sri Yukteswar for healing, he invariably recommended jewels or the bangle, extolling their use as an act of astrological wisdom.
I had been prejudiced against astrology from my childhood, partly because I observed that many people are sequaciously attached to it, and partly because of a prediction made by our family astrologer: âYou will marry three times, being twice a widower.â I brooded over the matter, feeling like a goat awaiting sacrifice before the temple of triple matrimony.
âYou may as well be resigned to your fate,â my brother Ananta had remarked. âYour written horoscope has correctly stated that you would fly from home toward the Himalayas during your early years, but would be forcibly returned. The forecast of your marriages is also bound to be true.â
A clear intuition came to me one night that the prophecy was wholly false. I set fire to the horoscope scroll, placing the ashes in a paper bag on which I wrote: âSeeds of past karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the divine fires of wisdom.â I put the bag in a conspicuous spot; Ananta immediately read my defiant comment.
âYou cannot destroy truth as easily as you have burnt this paper scroll.â My brother laughed scornfully.
It is a fact that on three occasions before I reached manhood, my family tried to arrange my betrothal. Each time I refused to fall in with the plans, {FN16-3} knowing that my love for God was more overwhelming than any astrological persuasion from the past.
âThe deeper the self-realization of a man, the more he influences the whole universe by his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.â These words of Masterâs often returned inspiringly to my mind.
Occasionally I told astrologers to select my worst periods, according to planetary indications, and I would still accomplish whatever task I set myself. It is true that my success at such times has been accompanied by extraordinary difficulties. But my conviction has always been justified: faith in the divine protection, and the right use of manâs God-given will, are forces formidable beyond any the âinverted bowlâ can muster.
The starry inscription at oneâs birth, I came to understand, is not that man is a puppet of his past. Its message is rather a prod to pride; the very heavens seek to arouse manâs determination to be free from every limitation. God created each man as a soul, dowered with individuality, hence essential to the universal structure, whether in the temporary role of pillar or parasite. His freedom is final and immediate, if he so wills; it depends not on outer but inner victories.
Sri Yukteswar discovered the mathematical application of a 24,000-year equinoctial cycle to our present age. {FN16-4} The cycle is divided into an Ascending Arc and a Descending Arc, each of 12,000 years. Within each Arc fall four YUGAS or Ages, called KALI, DWAPARA, TRETA, and SATYA, corresponding to the Greek ideas of Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Golden Ages.
My guru determined by various calculations that the last KALI YUGA or Iron Age, of the Ascending Arc, started about A.D. 500. The Iron Age, 1200 years in duration, is a span of materialism; it ended about A.D. 1700. That year ushered in DWAPARA YUGA, a 2400-year period of electrical and atomic-energy developments, the age of telegraph, radio, airplanes, and other space-annihilators.
The 3600-year period of TRETA YUGA will start in A.D. 4100; its age will be marked by common knowledge of telepathic communications and other time-annihilators. During the 4800 years of SATYA YUGA, final age in an ascending arc, the intelligence of a man will be completely developed; he will work in harmony with the divine plan.
A descending arc of 12,000 years, starting with a descending Golden Age of 4800 years, then begins {FN16-5} for the world; man gradually sinks into ignorance. These cycles are the eternal rounds of MAYA, the contrasts and relativities of the phenomenal universe. {FN16-6} Man, one by one, escapes from creationâs prison of duality as he awakens to consciousness of his inseverable divine unity with the Creator.
Master enlarged my understanding not only of astrology but of the worldâs scriptures. Placing the holy texts on the spotless table of his mind, he was able to dissect them with the scalpel of intuitive reasoning, and to separate errors and interpolations of scholars from the truths as originally expressed by the prophets.
âFix oneâs vision on the end of the nose.â This inaccurate interpretation of a BHAGAVAD GITA stanza, {FN16-7} widely accepted by Eastern pundits and Western translators, used to arouse Masterâs droll criticism.
âThe path of a yogi is singular enough as it is,â he remarked. âWhy counsel him that he must also make himself cross-eyed? The true meaning of NASIKAGRAM is âorigin of the nose, not âend of the nose.â The nose begins at the point between the two eyebrows, the seat of spiritual vision.â {FN16-8} Because of one SANKHYA {FN16-9} aphorism, âISWAR-ASHIDHA,â-âA Lord of Creation cannot be deducedâ or âGod is not proved,â {FN16-10}âmany scholars call the whole philosophy atheistical.
âThe verse is not nihilistic,â Sri Yukteswar explained. âIt merely signifies that to the unenlightened man, dependent on his senses for all final judgments, proof of God must remain unknown and therefore non-existent. True SANKHYA followers, with unshakable insight born of meditation, understand that the Lord is both existent and knowable.â
Master expounded the Christian Bible with a beautiful clarity. It was from my Hindu guru, unknown to the roll call of Christian membership, that I learned to perceive the deathless essence of the Bible, and to understand the truth in Christâs assertion-surely the most thrillingly intransigent ever uttered: âHeaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.â {FN16-11}
The great masters of India mold their lives by the same godly ideals which animated Jesus; these men are his proclaimed kin: âWhosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.â {FN16-12} âIf ye continue in my word,â Christ pointed out, âthen are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.â {FN16-13} Freemen all, lords of themselves, the Yogi-Christs of India are part of the immortal fraternity: those who have attained a liberating knowledge of the One Father.
âThe Adam and Eve story is incomprehensible to me!â I observed with considerable heat one day in my early struggles with the allegory. âWhy did God punish not only the guilty pair, but also the innocent unborn generations?â
Master was more amused by my vehemence than my ignorance. âGENESIS is deeply symbolic, and cannot be grasped by a literal interpretation,â he explained. âIts âtree of lifeâ is the human body. The spinal cord is like an upturned tree, with manâs hair as its roots, and afferent and efferent nerves as branches. The tree of the nervous system bears many enjoyable fruits, or sensations of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. In these, man may rightfully indulge; but he was forbidden the experience of sex, the âappleâ at the center of the bodily garden. {FN16-14}
âThe âserpentâ represents the coiled-up spinal energy which stimulates the sex nerves. âAdamâ is reason, and âEveâ
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