PARAMAHAMSA YOGANANDA’S

 

“Whispers from Eternity”

 

K. V. Rama Rao

 

            (Note: The Birth Centenary of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was celebrated all over the world in 1993. Hailed as a spiritual luminary and an avatar by Swami Sivananda and the late Paramacharya of Kanchi, Paramahansa Yogananda did yeomen service in spreading Kriya Yoga in the West. He lived and worked in America for over three decades. His magnum opus AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI is hailed as a spiritual classic and is translated into 19 languages of the world. Yogananda was practical and scientific in his approach to life and God. He is an eminently twentieth century man. He published three books of poetry. One of them is WHISPERS FROM ETERNITY. An interesting aspect of Yogananda’s conception of Godhead is studied hereunder:)

 

            God is Love. God is unconditional love. Creation is rooted in love. God indulges in a game of hide-and-seek with his devotees. He is the hound of Heaven, ever pursuing His children, lovingly. He can use force, but he never does, to extract obedience or love from His children, he is a true democrat. He has given his children Freewill and he wants to see if His children use their ‘free will’ to love Him. If, instead of loving the Giver of all gifts, the children love only the gifts of the world - he waits patiently, tenderly, pitying their foolish play with things of the world.

 

            The Master of this whole Creation, God, has ‘something’ to aspire for, and that is our love. Unless we choose to bestow it on Him, He cannot have it. These are some of Yogananda’s ideas about God. His ideas about man’s life on earth and the goal of human life are as follows:

 

            Man is engaged in a quest. His soul yearns for joy, unsullied joy. Unguided by wisdom or guided by unwisdom man erroneously thinks that things of the world, or sense pleasures give him joy. But they do not give permanent happiness. Disillusioned, man turns to God and tries to re­establish his (never-severed, but not ­realized) kinship with God. Man’s search or pursuit of god takes various forms.

 

            The multi-hued man-God relationships have formed a rainbow-­bridge between terrestrial and celestial planes, between the human and the divine aspects of the SELF-in this eternal ‘lila’ (play) of hide-and-seek.

 

            Paramahansa Yogananda, though a great yogi and sage in the line of Vedic Rishis, is a product of the twentieth century, in the externals of his being. His scientific/approach to life and God, his cosmopolitanism and world­wide sympathies, his expatriate existence in America for more than thirty years, his love of individual freedom and democratic approach to life and God - all these make him a twentieth ­century man. And all these characteristics find expression in his writings including prose-poems (which again, is another strong characteristic of the twentieth century literary scene).

 

            In his standard and regular prayer Paramahansaji invokes God as “Heavenly Father, Divine Mother, Friend, Beloved God” - all in a row; all in one. Depending on his playful mood or scientific or imaginative turn of mind Yogananda has invented many new names by which to attract the attention of his Friend, Beloved, God - reflecting the Formless One is visualized and addressed in various forms by Paramahansa Yogananda. Some of these names are new and modern and reveal the novel way in which Yogananda conceived God, the Divine Player of diverse roles. They are not only anthropomorphic, but some represent forces from physical, chemical and natural sciences and some are contemporary social concepts.

 

            The Potter and the Wheel are literary commonplaces. Omar khayyam, Kabir and Robert Browning and many others used this image. But Yogananda’s conception is cosmic and grand - it inspires awe rather than ‘vairagya’ (philosophic disillusionment).

 

            “With vibratory fingers didst Thou mould earth’s clay ball; daily Thou art whirling it, ray-strung to the sun and rhythmically revolving around it.

 

            “O Cosmic Potter, on Thy wheel of life; Thou dost form trillions of never duplicated vessels of flesh-vulnerable vehicles of man’s immortal spirit.” (Whispers from Eternity, P. 16).

 

            Thus the emphasis, in describing human bodies, is on the amazing variety and on the deathlessness of spirit rather on life’s fragile littleness.

 

            The commerce of daily living is elevated to the status of a fine art in the hands of the artist Yogananda.

 

            “Thou art the Originator, manufacturer, and ever-timely Exhibitor of Nature-Products’. Thou art the Celestial Salesman who extols the value of new inner Possessions for the fine art of gracious living.” (Whispers from Eternity, P. 17).

 

            Thus industry and commerce which are the warp and woof of modern life are pressed into the service of poetry and of God - “All material things may be brought and sold, but Thou, O Priceless one, art not for sale!” (P. 17) declares the Yogi-poet.

 

            Employing many modern metaphors the poet describes God as the mystic Electrician, the Divine Dynamo, the Patient Physician, the Divine Sculptor, the blessed Broadcaster, Lord of Phantasmagoria and Light of Supernatural subtlety. He is also referred to as the Divine Bee, the maker of dreams and the Divine Incendiary.

 

            ‘I shook the pillaring hours and pulled my life upon me’ - said Francis Thompson. Let us have a look at Yogananda’s ‘cottage’:

 

“Come Thou, O Mystic Electrician! My little Soul cottage by the brook of life is in need of repairs.

 

            “The nerve wiring has been shaken and torn by the winds of the years. The multihued lamps of my senses are no longer effulgent.

 

            “O Builder of Bodies, O Divine Dynamo of all cosmic currents of life force! Resurrect the deadened wires of my wrecked nerves and infuse them with Thy power, that my senses gleam again with Thy glory.” (Whispers from Eternity, P. 31)

 

            With the advance of years, nerves become weak and senses become dull. They need to be repaired and strengthened either the material or the spiritual way. According to Yogananda, the ultimate healer is God who heals through his omnipresent cosmic energy; others are his instruments.

 

            Calling God the Mystic Electrician and describing the human body as a cottage with the ‘wiring’ of nerves is a superb piece of metaphoric utterance.

 

            Edgar Allan Poe (in his ‘Sonnet to Science’) like the other Romantics, bewailed how Diana is pulled down from her chariot (the ill-effects of science on poetic imagination). Many modern poets have mastered and ‘enslaved’ some aspects of science. The yogi-poet, who can see (because he is a SEER) farther and deeper than others, describes God as a Light of Supernatural Subtlety and says:

 

            “Thou dost hide behind Thine ultra­violet rays in the sun and in earth ­bombarding cosmic rays. Lord, Thine etheric veil, patterned with intricate crisscrosses of countless invisible currents, effectively conceals Thee from me. Drop Thou the raiment of space, that I see Thee without matter - illusions.” (Whispers from Eternity, P. 56).

 

REFERENCE:

 

            Paramahansa Yogananda, Whispers from Eternity, Calcutta, Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, 1982.

 

 

 

 

Arjuna: “If knowledge is considered superior to works, then why do you engage me in this terrible deed (of fighting)? You confuse my mind with statements that seem contradictory. Tell me for certain that one way by which I could reach the preferable goal?”

 

Sri Krishna: “freedom from action is not gained by abstaining from action.....And no man attains perfection merely by renunciation. Action is superior to inaction–Indeed, without action of some sort, even sustaining the body will be impossible. The world is bound up with action, work, one must, therefore but without attachment”.

 

-Bhagavadgita.

 

 

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