A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Autobiography of a YOGI

P >> Paramhansa Yogananda >> Autobiography of a YOGI




"The newspapers published an account of the bold chastisement given
by Tagore. I admired the outspoken words of a man unhypnotized by
flattery," I went on. "I was introduced to Rabindranath in Calcutta
by his secretary, Mr. C. F. Andrews, {FN29-1} who was simply attired
in a Bengali DHOTI. He referred lovingly to Tagore as his GURUDEVA.

"Rabindranath received me graciously. He emanated a soothing aura
of charm, culture, and courtliness. Replying to my question about
his literary background, Tagore told me that one ancient source of
his inspiration, besides our religious epics, had been the classical
poet, Bidyapati."

Inspired by these memories, I began to sing Tagore's version of an
old Bengali song, "Light the Lamp of Thy Love." Bhola and I chanted
joyously as we strolled over the VIDYALAYA grounds.

About two years after founding the Ranchi school, I received an
invitation from Rabindranath to visit him at Santiniketan in order
to discuss our educational ideals. I went gladly. The poet was
seated in his study when I entered; I thought then, as at our first
meeting, that he was as striking a model of superb manhood as any
painter could desire. His beautifully chiseled face, nobly patrician,
was framed in long hair and flowing beard. Large, melting eyes; an
angelic smile; and a voice of flutelike quality which was literally
enchanting. Stalwart, tall, and grave, he combined an almost
womanly tenderness with the delightful spontaneity of a child. No
idealized conception of a poet could find more suitable embodiment
than in this gentle singer.

Tagore and I were soon deep in a comparative study of our schools,
both founded along unorthodox lines. We discovered many identical
features-outdoor instruction, simplicity, ample scope for the
child's creative spirit. Rabindranath, however, laid considerable
stress on the study of literature and poetry, and the self-expression
through music and song which I had already noted in the case of
Bhola. The Santiniketan children observed periods of silence, but
were given no special yoga training.

The poet listened with flattering attention to my description of the
energizing "Yogoda" exercises and the yoga concentration techniques
which are taught to all students at Ranchi.

Tagore told me of his own early educational struggles. "I fled from
school after the fifth grade," he said, laughing. I could readily
understand how his innate poetic delicacy had been affronted by
the dreary, disciplinary atmosphere of a schoolroom.

"That is why I opened Santiniketan under the shady trees and
the glories of the sky." He motioned eloquently to a little group
studying in the beautiful garden. "A child is in his natural setting
amidst the flowers and songbirds. Only thus may he fully express
the hidden wealth of his individual endowment. True education can
never be crammed and pumped from without; rather it must aid in
bringing spontaneously to the surface the infinite hoards of wisdom
within." {FN29-2}

I agreed. "The idealistic and hero-worshiping instincts of the young
are starved on an exclusive diet of statistics and chronological
eras."

The poet spoke lovingly of his father, Devendranath, who had inspired
the Santiniketan beginnings.

"Father presented me with this fertile land, where he had already
built a guest house and temple," Rabindranath told me. "I started
my educational experiment here in 1901, with only ten boys. The
eight thousand pounds which came with the Nobel Prize all went for
the upkeep of the school."

The elder Tagore, Devendranath, known far and wide as "Maharishi,"
was a very remarkable man, as one may discover from his AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Two years of his manhood were spent in meditation in the Himalayas. In
turn, his father, Dwarkanath Tagore, had been celebrated throughout
Bengal for his munificent public benefactions. From this illustrious
tree has sprung a family of geniuses. Not Rabindranath alone; all
his relatives have distinguished themselves in creative expression.
His brothers, Gogonendra and Abanindra, are among the foremost artists
{FN29-3} of India; another brother, Dwijendra, is a deep-seeing
philosopher, at whose gentle call the birds and woodland creatures
respond.

Rabindranath invited me to stay overnight in the guest house. It
was indeed a charming spectacle, in the evening, to see the poet
seated with a group in the patio. Time unfolded backward: the scene
before me was like that of an ancient hermitage-the joyous singer
encircled by his devotees, all aureoled in divine love. Tagore
knitted each tie with the cords of harmony. Never assertive, he drew
and captured the heart by an irresistible magnetism. Rare blossom
of poesy blooming in the garden of the Lord, attracting others by
a natural fragrance!

In his melodious voice, Rabindranath read to us a few of his exquisite
poems, newly created. Most of his songs and plays, written for the
delectation of his students, have been composed at Santiniketan.
The beauty of his lines, to me, lies in his art of referring to
God in nearly every stanza, yet seldom mentioning the sacred Name.
"Drunk with the bliss of singing," he wrote, "I forget myself and
call thee friend who art my lord."

The following day, after lunch, I bade the poet a reluctant farewell.
I rejoice that his little school has now grown to an international
university, "Viswa-Bharati," where scholars of all lands have found
an ideal setting.

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by
narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening
thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country
awake!" {FN29-4}
RABINDRANATH TAGORE

{FN29-1} The English writer and publicist, close friend of Mahatma
Gandhi. Mr. Andrews is honored in India for his many services to
his adopted land.

{FN29-2} "The soul having been often born, or, as the Hindus say,
'traveling the path of existence through thousands of births' . .
. there is nothing of which she has not gained the knowledge; no
wonder that she is able to recollect . . . what formerly she knew.
. . . For inquiry and learning is reminiscence all."-EMERSON.

{FN29-3} Rabindranath, too, in his sixties, engaged in a serious
study of painting. Exhibitions of his "futuristic" work were given
some years ago in European capitals and New York.

{FN29-4} GITANJALI (New York: Macmillan Co.). A thoughtful study
of the poet will be found in THE PHILOSOPHY OF RABINDRANATH TAGORE,
by the celebrated scholar, Sir S. Radhakrishnan (Macmillan, 1918).
Another expository volume is B. K. Roy's RABINDRANATH TAGORE: THE MAN
AND HIS POETRY (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1915). BUDDHA AND THE GOSPEL
OF BUDDHISM (New York: Putnam's, 1916), by the eminent Oriental art
authority, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, contains a number of illustrations
in color by the poet's brother, Abanindra Nath Tagore.



CHAPTER: 30

THE LAW OF MIRACLES

The great novelist Leo Tolstoy wrote a delightful story, THE THREE
HERMITS. His friend Nicholas Roerich {FN30-1} has summarized the
tale, as follows:

"On an island there lived three old hermits. They were so simple that
the only prayer they used was: 'We are three; Thou art Three-have
mercy on us!' Great miracles were manifested during this naive
prayer.

"The local bishop {FN30-2} came to hear about the three hermits
and their inadmissible prayer, and decided to visit them in order
to teach them the canonical invocations. He arrived on the island,
told the hermits that their heavenly petition was undignified, and
taught them many of the customary prayers. The bishop then left
on a boat. He saw, following the ship, a radiant light. As it
approached, he discerned the three hermits, who were holding hands
and running upon the waves in an effort to overtake the vessel.

"'We have forgotten the prayers you taught us,' they cried as they
reached the bishop, 'and have hastened to ask you to repeat them.'
The awed bishop shook his head.

"'Dear ones,' he replied humbly, 'continue to live with your old
prayer!'"

How did the three saints walk on the water?

How did Christ resurrect his crucified body?

How did Lahiri Mahasaya and Sri Yukteswar perform their miracles?

Modern science has, as yet, no answer; though with the advent of the
atomic bomb and the wonders of radar, the scope of the world-mind
has been abruptly enlarged. The word "impossible" is becoming less
prominent in the scientific vocabulary.

The ancient Vedic scriptures declare that the physical world operates
under one fundamental law of MAYA, the principle of relativity and
duality. God, the Sole Life, is an Absolute Unity; He cannot appear
as the separate and diverse manifestations of a creation except
under a false or unreal veil. That cosmic illusion is MAYA. Every
great scientific discovery of modern times has served as a confirmation
of this simple pronouncement of the rishis.

Newton's Law of Motion is a law of MAYA: "To every action there
is always an equal and contrary reaction; the mutual actions of
any two bodies are always equal and oppositely directed." Action
and reaction are thus exactly equal. "To have a single force is
impossible. There must be, and always is, a pair of forces equal
and opposite."

Fundamental natural activities all betray their mayic origin.
Electricity, for example, is a phenomenon of repulsion and attraction;
its electrons and protons are electrical opposites. Another example:
the atom or final particle of matter is, like the earth itself,
a magnet with positive and negative poles. The entire phenomenal
world is under the inexorable sway of polarity; no law of physics,
chemistry, or any other science is ever found free from inherent
opposite or contrasted principles.

Physical science, then, cannot formulate laws outside of MAYA, the
very texture and structure of creation. Nature herself is MAYA;
natural science must perforce deal with her ineluctable quiddity.
In her own domain, she is eternal and inexhaustible; future scientists
can do no more than probe one aspect after another of her varied
infinitude. Science thus remains in a perpetual flux, unable to reach
finality; fit indeed to formulate the laws of an already existing
and functioning cosmos, but powerless to detect the Law Framer
and Sole Operator. The majestic manifestations of gravitation and
electricity have become known, but what gravitation and electricity
are, no mortal knoweth. {FN30-3}

[Illustration: A GURU AND DISCIPLE, Forest hermitages were
the ancient seats of learning, secular and divine, for the youth
of India. Here a venerable guru, leaning on a wooden meditation
elbow-prop, is initiating his disciple into the august mysteries
of Spirit.--see guru.jpg]

To surmount MAYA was the task assigned to the human race by the
millennial prophets. To rise above the duality of creation and perceive
the unity of the Creator was conceived of as man's highest goal.
Those who cling to the cosmic illusion must accept its essential law
of polarity: flow and ebb, rise and fall, day and night, pleasure
and pain, good and evil, birth and death. This cyclic pattern
assumes a certain anguishing monotony, after man has gone through
a few thousand human births; he begins to cast a hopeful eye beyond
the compulsions of MAYA.

To tear the veil of MAYA is to pierce the secret of creation. The
yogi who thus denudes the universe is the only true monotheist.
All others are worshiping heathen images. So long as man remains
subject to the dualistic delusions of nature, the Janus-faced MAYA
is his goddess; he cannot know the one true God.

The world illusion, MAYA, is individually called AVIDYA, literally,
"not-knowledge," ignorance, delusion. MAYA or AVIDYA can never be
destroyed through intellectual conviction or analysis, but solely
through attaining the interior state of NIRBIKALPA SAMADHI. The
Old Testament prophets, and seers of all lands and ages, spoke from
that state of consciousness. Ezekiel says (43:1-2): "Afterwards
he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the
east: and, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the
way of the east: and his voice was like a noise of many waters:
and the earth shined with his glory." Through the divine eye in the
forehead (east), the yogi sails his consciousness into omnipresence,
hearing the Word or Aum, divine sound of many waters or vibrations
which is the sole reality of creation.

Among the trillion mysteries of the cosmos, the most phenomenal
is light. Unlike sound-waves, whose transmission requires air or
other material media, light-waves pass freely through the vacuum
of interstellar space. Even the hypothetical ether, held as the
interplanetary medium of light in the undulatory theory, can be
discarded on the Einsteinian grounds that the geometrical properties
of space render the theory of ether unnecessary. Under either
hypothesis, light remains the most subtle, the freest from material
dependence, of any natural manifestation.

In the gigantic conceptions of Einstein, the velocity of light-186,000
miles per second-dominates the whole Theory of Relativity. He proves
mathematically that the velocity of light is, so far as man's finite
mind is concerned, the only CONSTANT in a universe of unstayable
flux. On the sole absolute of light-velocity depend all human
standards of time and space. Not abstractly eternal as hitherto
considered, time and space are relative and finite factors, deriving
their measurement validity only in reference to the yardstick of
light-velocity. In joining space as a dimensional relativity, time
has surrendered age-old claims to a changeless value. Time is now
stripped to its rightful nature-a simple essence of ambiguity! With
a few equational strokes of his pen, Einstein has banished from
the cosmos every fixed reality except that of light.

In a later development, his Unified Field Theory, the great physicist
embodies in one mathematical formula the laws of gravitation and
of electromagnetism. Reducing the cosmical structure to variations
on a single law, Einstein {FN30-4} reaches across the ages to the
rishis who proclaimed a sole texture of creation-that of a protean
MAYA.

On the epochal Theory of Relativity have arisen the mathematical
possibilities of exploring the ultimate atom. Great scientists are
now boldly asserting not only that the atom is energy rather than
matter, but that atomic energy is essentially mind-stuff.

"The frank realization that physical science is concerned with
a world of shadows is one of the most significant advances," Sir
Arthur Stanley Eddington writes in THE NATURE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD.
"In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the
drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow
table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all
symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. Then comes the
alchemist Mind who transmutes the symbols. . . . To put the conclusion
crudely, the stuff of the world is mind-stuff. . . . The realistic
matter and fields of force of former physical theory are altogether
irrelevant except in so far as the mind-stuff has itself spun these
imaginings. . . . The external world has thus become a world of
shadows. In removing our illusions we have removed the substance,
for indeed we have seen that substance is one of the greatest of
our illusions."

With the recent discovery of the electron microscope came definite
proof of the light-essence of atoms and of the inescapable duality
of nature. THE NEW YORK TIMES gave the following report of a 1937
demonstration of the electron microscope before a meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science:

"The crystalline structure of tungsten, hitherto known only indirectly
by means of X-rays, stood outlined boldly on a fluorescent screen,
showing nine atoms in their correct positions in the space lattice,
a cube, with one atom in each corner and one in the center. The atoms
in the crystal lattice of the tungsten appeared on the fluorescent
screen as points of light, arranged in geometric pattern. Against
this crystal cube of light the bombarding molecules of air could
be observed as dancing points of light, similar to points
of sunlight shimmering on moving waters. . . .

"The principle of the electron microscope was first discovered in
1927 by Drs. Clinton J. Davisson and Lester H. Germer of the Bell
Telephone Laboratories, New York City, who found that the electron
had a dual personality partaking of the characteristic of both
a particle and a wave. The wave quality gave the electron the
characteristic of light, and a search was begun to devise means for
'focusing' electrons in a manner similar to the focusing of light
by means of a lens.

"For his discovery of the Jekyll-Hyde quality of the electron,
which corroborated the prediction made in 1924 by De Broglie, French
Nobel Prize winning physicist, and showed that the entire realm of
physical nature had a dual personality, Dr. Davisson also received
the Nobel Prize in physics."

"The stream of knowledge," Sir James Jeans writes in THE MYSTERIOUS
UNIVERSE, "is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe
begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine."
Twentieth-century science is thus sounding like a page from the
hoary VEDAS.

From science, then, if it must be so, let man learn the philosophic
truth that there is no material universe; its warp and woof is MAYA,
illusion. Its mirages of reality all break down under analysis.
As one by one the reassuring props of a physical cosmos crash
beneath him, man dimly perceives his idolatrous reliance, his past
transgression of the divine command: "Thou shalt have no other gods
before Me."

In his famous equation outlining the equivalence of mass and energy,
Einstein proved that the energy in any particle of matter is equal
to its mass or weight multiplied by the square of the velocity of
light. The release of the atomic energies is brought about through
the annihilation of the material particles. The "death" of matter
has been the "birth" of an Atomic Age.

Light-velocity is a mathematical standard or constant not because
there is an absolute value in 186,000 miles a second, but because
no material body, whose mass increases with its velocity, can ever
attain the velocity of light. Stated another way: only a material
body whose mass is infinite could equal the velocity of light.

THIS CONCEPTION BRINGS US TO THE LAW OF MIRACLES.

The masters who are able to materialize and dematerialize their
bodies or any other object, and to move with the velocity of light,
and to utilize the creative light-rays in bringing into instant
visibility any physical manifestation, have fulfilled the necessary
Einsteinian condition: their mass is infinite.

The consciousness of a perfected yogi is effortlessly identified,
not with a narrow body, but with the universal structure. Gravitation,
whether the "force" of Newton or the Einsteinian "manifestation of
inertia," is powerless to COMPEL a master to exhibit the property
of "weight" which is the distinguishing gravitational condition
of all material objects. He who knows himself as the omnipresent
Spirit is subject no longer to the rigidities of a body in time
and space. Their imprisoning "rings-pass-not" have yielded to the
solvent: "I am He."

"Fiat lux! And there was light." God's first command to His ordered
creation (GENESIS 1:3) brought into being the only atomic reality:
light. On the beams of this immaterial medium occur all divine
manifestations. Devotees of every age testify to the appearance
of God as flame and light. "The King of kings, and Lord of lords;
who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto." {FN30-5}

A yogi who through perfect meditation has merged his consciousness
with the Creator perceives the cosmical essence as light; to him
there is no difference between the light rays composing water and
the light rays composing land. Free from matter-consciousness,
free from the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension
of time, a master transfers his body of light with equal ease over
the light rays of earth, water, fire, or air. Long concentration
on the liberating spiritual eye has enabled the yogi to destroy
all delusions concerning matter and its gravitational weight;
thenceforth he sees the universe as an essentially undifferentiated
mass of light.

"Optical images," Dr. L. T. Troland of Harvard tells us, "are built
up on the same principle as the ordinary 'half-tone' engravings;
that is, they are made up of minute dottings or stripplings far
too small to be detected by the eye. . . . The sensitiveness of
the retina is so great that a visual sensation can be produced by
relatively few Quanta of the right kind of light." Through a master's
divine knowledge of light phenomena, he can instantly project into
perceptible manifestation the ubiquitous light atoms. The actual form
of the projection-whether it be a tree, a medicine, a human body-is
in conformance with a yogi's powers of will and of visualization.

In man's dream-consciousness, where he has loosened in sleep his
clutch on the egoistic limitations that daily hem him round, the
omnipotence of his mind has a nightly demonstration. Lo! there in
the dream stand the long-dead friends, the remotest continents, the
resurrected scenes of his childhood. With that free and unconditioned
consciousness, known to all men in the phenomena of dreams, the
God-tuned master has forged a never-severed link. Innocent of all
personal motives, and employing the creative will bestowed on him
by the Creator, a yogi rearranges the light atoms of the universe
to satisfy any sincere prayer of a devotee. For this purpose were
man and creation made: that he should rise up as master of MAYA,
knowing his dominion over the cosmos.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." {FN30-6}

In 1915, shortly after I had entered the Swami Order, I witnessed
a vision of violent contrasts. In it the relativity of human
consciousness was vividly established; I clearly perceived the
unity of the Eternal Light behind the painful dualities of MAYA.
The vision descended on me as I sat one morning in my little attic
room in Father's Gurpar Road home. For months World War I had been
raging in Europe; I reflected sadly on the vast toll of death.

As I closed my eyes in meditation, my consciousness was suddenly
transferred to the body of a captain in command of a battleship.
The thunder of guns split the air as shots were exchanged between
shore batteries and the ship's cannons. A huge shell hit the powder
magazine and tore my ship asunder. I jumped into the water, together
with the few sailors who had survived the explosion.

Heart pounding, I reached the shore safely. But alas! a stray
bullet ended its furious flight in my chest. I fell groaning to the
ground. My whole body was paralyzed, yet I was aware of possessing
it as one is conscious of a leg gone to sleep.

"At last the mysterious footstep of Death has caught up with me,"
I thought. With a final sigh, I was about to sink into unconsciousness
when lo! I found myself seated in the lotus posture in my Gurpar
Road room.

Hysterical tears poured forth as I joyfully stroked and pinched my
regained possession-a body free from any bullet hole in the breast.
I rocked to and fro, inhaling and exhaling to assure myself that
I was alive. Amidst these self-congratulations, again I found my
consciousness transferred to the captain's dead body by the gory
shore. Utter confusion of mind came upon me.

"Lord," I prayed, "am I dead or alive?"

A dazzling play of light filled the whole horizon. A soft rumbling
vibration formed itself into words:

"What has life or death to do with Light? In the image of My Light
I have made you. The relativities of life and death belong to the
cosmic dream. Behold your dreamless being! Awake, my child, awake!"

As steps in man's awakening, the Lord inspires scientists to
discover, at the right time and place, the secrets of His creation.
Many modern discoveries help men to apprehend the cosmos as a varied
expression of one power-light, guided by divine intelligence. The
wonders of the motion picture, of radio, of television, of radar,
of the photo-electric cell-the all-seeing "electric eye," of atomic
energies, are all based on the electromagnetic phenomenon of light.

The motion picture art can portray any miracle. From the impressive
visual standpoint, no marvel is barred to trick photography. A man's
transparent astral body can be seen rising from his gross physical
form, he can walk on the water, resurrect the dead, reverse the
natural sequence of developments, and play havoc with time and
space. Assembling the light images as he pleases, the photographer
achieves optical wonders which a true master produces with actual
light rays.

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