Awake: The Life of Yogananda Page #6

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Causing the formation

of subtle,

electrical pathways

in the brain.

Somewhat like the grooves

in a phonograph record.

Your life follows

the grooves

that you yourself

have created in the brain.

NEWBERG:
It appears

that Yogananda was talking

about neuroplasticity

almost 50 years

before Western doctors

took an interest in it.

He said that

regular Kriya practice

could rewire your brain

and help eliminate

unwanted habits.

HARRISON:
The Autobiography

of a Yogi is the book

that I keep stacks

of around the house.

And I give it out

constantly, you know,

to people.

You know, like when people

need regrooving.

Read this.

BROTHER ANANDAMOY: We are not

talking about suppression,

we are talking

about transmutation.

Rechanneling,

that's the whole

science of yoga,

rechanneling your energy.

Creating new patterns

of thinking,

new patterns of

the emotional life.

SISTER PARVATI:
When he

looked at you penetratingly,

he was changing you.

He said,

when he looked at you

he was changing

your brain cells.

And he did.

LEO C*CKS:
He started

going into my inner

thoughts and feelings,

maybe things where

you've slipped a little.

He dissected me on

the deepest level

I've ever been.

I felt like I was

being carved down

into a little tiny person,

down to almost like an ant.

And I remember

I just literally

couldn't take anymore.

Humanly, emotionally

couldn't take it.

You know, I was hurting.

I was crying.

He reached over

and he gave me a big hug.

"I've given you

my unconditional love,"

he says.

"Do not fail to take

advantage of it."

It's a friendship

and a love that...

He took you as you were

and he gave it all to you

as much as you could take.

NARRATOR:
There is just

a thin screen

of ether between

the world and my guru.

He's haunting me

day and night.

"Return to India.

"You must come.

Make the supreme effort."

Traversing ten thousand miles

in the twinkling of an eye.

His message

penetrated my being

like a flash of lightning.

I have spent 15 years

in spreading my guru's

teachings in America.

Now he recalls me.

Our arrival found

such an immense crowd

assembled to greet us.

I was unprepared

for the magnitude

of our welcome.

We broke our journey

halfway across

the continent,

to see Mahatma Gandhi.

After great discussions

he took lessons,

Kriya,

and recharging exercises.

I was touched

by his spirit of inquiry.

When we prayed together,

the whole place

seemed filled with God.

WRIGHT:
Master could

hardly wait until he

got to meet his master.

It was indescribable, the...

...meeting between the two.

Master dropped to

his knees, touched his feet,

of Sri Yukteswar Giri

Yukteswar Giri

was welcoming back

his triumphant son.

NARRATOR:
A healing calm

descended at the mere sight

of my guru.

Quietly sitting beside him,

I would feel his bounty

pouring peacefully

over my being.

Such spiritual atmosphere

I so long missed.

Day and night

passes with God-mad,

God-hungry crowds.

It's wonderful to work

amidst people

who don't need coaxing

to be spiritual.

The Himalayan caves

are calling me.

And the people's heart-caves

are welcoming me.

But for a few

beloved disciples

at Mount Washington,

I have no attraction

to go back to America.

I would roam by

the Jumna where Krishna

played his flute of eternity

and never visit the shores

of material life.

The lion of Bengal is gone.

The body which had reflected

omnipresent wisdom lay

lifeless, before me, mocking.

Master mine,

why did you leave me?

The Lord is showing me,

wherever I am,

that's my home.

My home is on the train.

Then it shall be in the hotel.

And then on the ship.

How can I leave my home?

It's everywhere.

CHIDANANDA:
When Sri Yukteswar

first sent Yogananda

on his mission to America,

it was right

after World War I,

which was supposed to be

the war to end all wars.

Now, tensions were heating up

in Europe and Asia,

and Yogananda saw

that we could be

entering a period of

even greater horror.

CHIDANANDA:
The need

for the teachings was

more urgent than ever.

After his guru died,

something shifted in him.

GOLDBERG:
He was just

experiencing these profound

states of consciousness.

His eyes just turned glassy.

He just... (WHOOSHES)

Withdrew.

And he was gone, you know.

MATA:
And ofttimes it gave

concern to us younger ones.

His heart seemed

to cease beating.

He had instructed us

that whenever he

went into Samadhi,

that we could

bring him out of it

by chanting "om"

in his right ear.

And I thought "Wow.

This is something different."

This was a little scary.

(GASPS)

Is my guru,

always now going to be

in this state?

I would be in awe to ever

approach him in the same way.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

My body became

just like stone...

and still I was

fully conscious,

...and everything was Light.

CHIDANANDA:
And it was out

of that consciousness,

that he was pulling

these writings,

these profound truths

and experiences.

MATA:
He constantly

stressed to me,

get my thoughts,

understand what I mean.

I can do much

more now to reach.

To reach others with my pen.

CHIDANANDA:
The Autobiography

of a Yogi was the first memoir

of a genuine

Indian holy man.

SHANKAR:
It was his

personal feeling about

his devotion to his gurus

and what he really

received from them.

But it's not all

that Yogananda wrote.

Yogananda produced an

incredible literary corpus.

MATA:
Every morning,

he would have us bring

a typewriter and a table,

and bring it into his study.

GOLDBERG:
He'd still

be up at 1:
00 or 2:00

in the morning, writing.

DAYA MATA:
Night and day,

he wrote or he dictated.

And we would type

all day long.

MRINALINI MATA:
And he would

be totally, totally absorbed.

Hours would go by.

His whole consciousness

became absorbed

in finishing his writings.

And it was that

sense of urgency,

it was like an acceleration,

an acceleration of our

discipline, of our training.

CHIDANANDA:
And not only

was he writing,

he was building temples,

founding Brotherhood Colonies,

and encouraging people

to live together

in spiritual communities.

GOLDBERG:
And then

in 1945, while he was

writing the autobiography,

we set off

the first atomic bomb.

ROBERT OPPENHEIMER:

Few people cried.

Most people were silent.

I remembered the line from

the Hindu scripture

of the Bhagavadgita,

"Now I am become death,

"the destroyer of worlds."

About a hundred years ago,

Einstein gave us a framework

that radically changed

modern physics,

that put energy and matter

on some sort of

equivalent footing.

We're going to have to expand

the language of physics

to come to terms not only

with matter and energy,

but matter, energy,

and maybe even

consciousness.

NARRATOR:
The human mind

can and must liberate

within itself

energies greater than those

within stones and metals.

Lest the atomic giant,

newly unleashed,

dawn on the world in

mindless destruction.

CHOPRA:
Modern science,

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