Awake: The Life of Yogananda Page #3

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is there to lead you

to yourself. Not to himself.

To what we are

truly capable of,

not just the limited

aspect of us.

VIDAL:
The spiritual path

is farthest from easy.

It requires undoing

aspects of ourselves.

NARRATOR:
My guru could not

be bribed, even by love.

The hard core of

egotism is difficult

to dislodge, except rudely.

This flattening to

the ego treatment,

was hard to endure.

I sometimes felt that,

metaphorically,

he was discovering

and uprooting

every diseased

tooth in my jaw.

Many teachers will

tell you to believe,

and then put out

your eyes of reason.

My guru said,

"I want you to keep

your eyes of reason open."

In addition,

I will open in you,

the eye of wisdom.

Yoga for me is freedom.

The state of

needing nothing is yoga.

VISHWANANDA:
We become

one with peace,

we become one with joy,

we become one with love.

We realize that that

is our true nature.

NARRATOR:
How tirelessly

my master labored

that the boy Mukunda

be transformed into

the monk Yogananda.

Three happy years

were spent in humble

circumstances in Boston.

I gave public lectures,

taught classes,

and addressed clubs,

colleges, churches

and groups of

every denomination.

CHIDANANDA:
But it took

Yogananda a few years

to realize that he

wasn't in the right place

for this message

to really take off.

SONI:
In 1925, Yogananda

arrives in Los Angeles,

and on the first night,

according to the LA Times,

over 6,000 people

attend his talk.

That's double the capacity

of the auditorium.

Los Angeles is

this new frontier.

It's a place of possibility,

of a new beginning.

Ideas of Asian spirituality

have permeated the West Coast

in a way that they haven't

on the East Coast.

People come to Los

Angeles often looking

for something.

So there's this

already mind of a seeker.

SONI:
Yogananda does

a seven-night speaker series

at the LA

Philharmonic Auditorium.

People go just

to see the show.

And because he's exotic

and entertaining

and a great speaker.

And then others

really stick around

and end up finding that he has

really powerful teachings

and he's a very good vehicle

for the message.

He knew the power

of initiative.

He didn't wait

for anybody to get

this wisdom out.

He sent out lessons via mail.

Mail order at the time

was completely brand new.

It was like sending

out an e-blast today.

What Yogananda did

that was profound

for Americans

was talk about how

you can have a personal

relationship with the divine.

MAN'S VOICE:
I was

a totally frustrated man.

I had thought money

could give me happiness.

But nothing seemed

to satisfy me.

I was skeptical,

like everyone was.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

Sit straight,

shoulder blades together.

Chin parallel to the ground.

Concentrate on the point

between the eyebrows.

The center of thought

and will...

...and concentration.

And again and again say,

"Reveal thyself"...

...as joy and wisdom

and spiritual perception.

Again and again say,

"Reveal Thyself".

GOLDBERG:
James Lynn was

a wealthy industrialist.

And he went on to become

a very close devotee

and an important benefactor

of Yogananda's work

around the country.

CHIDANANDA:
Many who joined

his classes stepped forward

and wrote checks

trying to keep

Yogananda in LA.

And he saw such enthusiasm,

he thought this is the place

to establish a center.

NARRATOR:
When I saw

the large building on

the crest of Mount Washington,

I recognized it at once.

MATA:
As he saw,

this is the place.

CHIDANANDA:
This became

the headquarters of his work.

Yogananda called

it the spiritual

White House.

And it was a place

where he gave classes,

he even had rooms

available to rent,

with the idea of starting

a spiritual community.

And the first

event he held there,

before the property

was even purchased

was an Easter sunrise service.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

True Christianity has been

lost and forgotten.

And what the ancients

taught in India has been

lost and forgotten.

Those ought to be revived as

one highway to the infinite.

GOLDBERG:
One of the keys

to Yogananda's popularity

in America.

Was his love and

affection for Jesus.

He placed Jesus on

the altar with his lineage.

And with Krishna.

CLOONEY:
He said

that Jesus really was

representing to us,

"This is who you are

this is your ability

"to open yourself

to the divine mystery in ways

"that you never

thought were possible."

GOLDBERG:
Jesus is

revered in India,

people don't realize that.

But he is held to be either

an incarnation of God,

or, at the very least,

a supreme yogi.

CLOONEY:
The value of

Yogananda's teaching

was that he picked up

on this angle

that there is this

universal opportunity

to understand who we are.

What is true of Jesus is

also true of all of us.

MARTIN:
It's not

about religion at all,

it's about what's

behind religion.

Meditation. Meditate.

That's what he said.

Meditation is the catchword.

SONI:
Yoga really is

a philosophical system.

A lot of people go

to yoga to look hot.

It's not set up to

give you flat abs,

even though that's

an nice byproduct.

It's really set up

to understand God.

NARRATOR:
Kriya Yoga is

the science of God realization

through meditation.

VIDAL:
Yogananda did

teach Hatha Yoga

as one way to

prepare for meditation.

CHIDANANDA:
He also

developed this system

of energization exercises.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

The tension exercises...

...charge the body

with the life current

from the universe.

Energy...

distributed evenly

in the body...

...is what keeps the diseases

from settling.

You don't have to be afraid

of germs.

If your body's electrified...

...they'll be electrocuted.

ANDREW NEWBERG:

Everything you do

affects your brain.

By tensing the muscles,

you're activating

your frontal lobes.

You lower the stress

hormones in the brain,

it lowers your blood pressure

and your heart rate

and it gets your mind

prepared for

doing whatever it is

that you're about to do.

CHIDANANDA:
Kriya Yoga

teaches in the spine

are these instruments

of higher perception

that are normally

dormant in most people.

Through withdrawing

that energy and directing it

by concentration

into the spine and brain.

Yogananda said

those instruments

of divine perceptions awaken.

The physical world is not

the highest reality.

NEWBERG:
When we have

a dream at night, it feels

incredibly real while

we're in the dream.

And then we wake up

and we look at

the reality we're now in

and we say, "Oh, okay,

that was just a dream."

Well, when people have

mystical experiences, they say

"Well this is

the ultimate reality,

this feels more real."

And all this other stuff,

that's not really

the real reality.

NARRATOR:
Feel the life

currents ascending

and descending in the spine.

By mastery of

the intelligent life

currents in

the central nervous system.

The body and brain

can be purified.

Go up and down the spine.

Feeling the centers

and mentally chanting "om."

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