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Yoga and the Purpose of Service

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Brief overview

Yogananda founds the Ranchi school on his guru's counsel, learning that selfless service outweighs private attachment.

  1. Organizations are hives for the honey of GodSri Yukteswar argues that form without spirit is useless, but that the spirit needs hives to be shared, so his disciple should build them.
  2. Renunciation must buy a larger familyHe who discards worldly duties can justify himself only by assuming responsibility toward a much larger family, which for Yogananda became the boys of the Ranchi school.
  3. Love without attachment lets souls goThe fawn could only die once Yogananda gave his loving permission, showing him that clinging prayers had held it back from a higher form.
Executive Summary AI
  • Sri Yukteswar asks whether his disciple is averse to organizational work, and Yogananda objects that leading one is a thankless task in which the leader is criticized no matter what he does or does not do.
  • The guru's retort is that God is the honey and organizations are the hives, both necessary, and that he should start busy hives full of spiritual nectar; Yogananda inwardly resolves to share the truths learned at his guru's feet, even after being warned he will miss a wife's companionship in old age and told that whoever discards worldly duties must assume responsibility toward a much larger famil
  • Seeing the arid results of instruction aimed only at body and intellect, he transfers his fast-growing group to Kashim Bazar and founds the Brahmacharya Vidyalaya on the rishis' forest-ashram ideal, teaching agricultural, industrial, commercial and academic subjects along with yoga concentration, meditation and the yogoda system of physical development whose principles he discovered in 1916.
  • The residential school could hold only about one hundred boys before day students were added, his youngest brother Vishnu Charungosh joined and later gave strength exhibitions in Europe and America including at Columbia University, and his father came to Ranchi to bless the choice he had once resented, joking that he himself had only eight children.
  • A pet fawn dies of overfeeding, revives after his desperate prayers, then begs in a dream to be let go, teaching him that his own selfish attachment had held the soul in animal form and that death does not end all.
  • Later Shanandan recounts how Swami Pranabananda fed about two thousand guests near Rishikesh, announced he was going to kick the frame, left his body by the second Kriya Yoga before thousands, and was reborn a few years later to join the great Babaji at Badrinarayan in the Himalayas.
Key Quote
“Do you want the whole divine chana, or milk curd, for yourself alone?”
— Sri Yukteswar
Key Quote
“you know that my desire in this life is to espouse only the cosmic beloved?”
— Yogananda
Key Quote
“I am now reconciled to your choice in life.”
— Father

Transcript

0:00 chapter twenty seven of autobiography of a yogi this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org autobiography of a yogi by paramhans yoganand Are you averse to organizational work? Master's question startled me a bit.
0:31 It is true that my private conviction at the time was that organizations were hornets' nests. It is a thankless task, sir, I answered.
0:35 No matter what the leader does or does not, he is criticized.
0:40 Do you want the whole divine chana, or milk curd, for yourself alone?
0:45 My guru's retort was accompanied by a
0:47 stern glance. Could you or anyone else achieve God-contact through yoga if a line of generous
0:54 hearted masters had not been willing to convey their knowledge to others? He added, God is the
1:00 honey, organizations are the hives. Both are necessary form is useless of course without the spirit but why should you not start busy hives full of the spiritual nectar
1:12 his counsel moved me deeply although i made no outward reply an adamant resolution arose in my breast i would share with my fellows so far as lay in my power the unshackling truths i had learned at my guru's feet lord i prayed may thy love shine forever on the sanctuary of my devotion and may i be able to awaken that love in other hearts order, Sri Yukteswar had made a most unexpected remark. How you will miss the companionship of a
1:47 wife in your old age, he had said. Do you not agree that the family man engaged in useful work
1:53 to maintain his wife and children thus plays a rewarding role in God's eyes?
1:59 Sir, I had protested in alarm, you know that my desire in this life is to espouse only the cosmic beloved?
2:07 Master had laughed so merrily that I understood his observation was made severely as a test of
2:13 my faith. Remember, he had said slowly, that he who discards his worldly duties can justify himself
2:21 only by assuming some kind of responsibility toward a much larger family.
2:27 The idea of an all-sided education for youth had always been close to my heart. I saw clearly the
2:33 arid results of ordinary instruction aimed only at the development of body and intellect.
2:39 Moral and spiritual values, without whose appreciation no man can approach happiness,
2:43 were yet lacking in the formal curriculum. i determined to follow a school where young boys could develop to the full stature of kashim bazar i was able to transfer my fast-growing group to was transformed into the headquarters for the new school which i called brahmacharya vidyalaya in accordance with the educational ideals of the rishis their forest ashrams had been the ancient seats of learning secular and divine for the youth of india for both grammar and high school grades. It included agricultural, industrial, commercial and academic subjects.
3:48 The students were also taught yoga concentration and meditation
3:51 and a unique system of physical development, yogoda,
3:56 whose principles I had discovered in 1916.
4:00 Realizing that man's body is like an electric battery,
4:02 I reasoned that it could be charged with energy through the direct supply of the life energy from one part of the body
4:45 to another part and to sit in perfect poise in difficult body postures. They performed feats
4:52 of strength and endurance which many powerful adults could not equal. My youngest brother,
4:57 Vishnu Charungosh, joined the Ranchi school. He later became a leading physical culturist in
5:03 Bengal. He and one of his students traveled to europe and america giving exhibitions of strength and skill which amazed the university savants including those at columbia university in new york at the end of the first year at r time was solely residential could accommodate only about one hundred.
5:26 Instruction for day students was soon added.
5:29 In the Vidyalaya, I had to play father, mother to the little children
5:33 and to cope with many organizational difficulties.
5:36 I often remembered Christ's words,
5:39 Verily I say unto you,
5:41 There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters,
5:45 or father, or mother, or sisters, or father, or mother,
5:46 or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospels, but he shall receive an hundredfold
5:53 now in this time, houses and brethren, and sisters and mothers and children, and lands
5:59 with persecutions, and in the worlds to come eternal life. Sri Yukteswar had interpreted these words,
6:06 the devotee who forgoes the life experiences of marriage and family,
6:10 and exchanges the problems of a small household and limited activities

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