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in my mother's womb.
Aware of my own
helpless state.
Occasionally,
the darkness of the womb
would be dispelled
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)
just as if it were
a motion picture.
RAVI SHANKAR
I distinctly remember
He was straight
from the heart.
He looked strange,
like a woman with long hair.
But I remember
his powerful eyes.
I got a record,
I think, from SRF.
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
I, Paramahansa Yogananda,
am praying.
Bless me that
with the awakening dawn...
I may awaken
all souls with my own...
He wasn't trying
to sing prettily,
wasn't trying to
entertain people.
He was singing,
you know, to God.
It was so powerful.
HARRISON
While I was in India,
I was with Ravi Shankar.
He gave me
Autobiography of a Yogi.
I probably wouldn't
have a life. Really.
HITENDRA WADHWA
Steve Jobs apparently had
only one book on his iPad.
Lo and behold,
that book turns out to be
the Autobiography of a Yogi.
(FEMALE INSTRUCTOR
SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
Why we came to
this Earth as a human?
Yogananda provided us
a vocabulary to talk
about the human spirit
Yogananda charted
a path inward
by the deathless
yogi Mahavatar Babaji.
Babaji instructed
Lahiri Mahasaya
The transmission of
the ancient science
from guru to disciple.
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)
(BELLS RINGING)
(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)
so devotees from
every part of India
began to seek
Lahiri Mahasaya
predicted my birth,
of this ,-year-old
tradition.
FELICIA TOMASKO
This is a man with
intuitive knowledge.
SONI He would be
called into question,
(INDISTINCT WHISPERINGS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)
BROTHER VISHWANANDA
Every soul is on a journey.
A spiritual genius.
he explored
a much larger territory
in the spiritual domain.
VISHWANANDA Throughout
the ages, there have been
to be received by many.
because he barely
spoke any English.
America.
VISHWANANDA Imagine in
your own life, having
a message so strong
Probably thought
this was his life work.
Overcoming restlessness
of the body and mind,
my concentration techniques
achieved astonishing results.
He established
a "How to Live" School,
I wish we had
"How to Live" Schools.
He is being respected
by his community,
he is seeing his
vision manifest
where children
are learning the art
and science of yoga.
he becomes aware
that he has to
leave all of it.
"Let me just go
to the Himalayas
and just live in a cave there.
I knew, henceforth,
I would dwell in far lands.
It was somewhat of
a daunting experience,
to go out on the streets.
VISHWANANDA I think
he was called a magician
at one point, a snake charmer.
BROTHER CHIDANANDA In ,
many Americans were still
not used to having Jews here.
NARRATOR I noticed
some hot dog signs.
In imagination I saw
all kinds of dogs
going through
the meat chopper.
BRAHMACHARI MARTIN
When Yogananda came
to the United States,
of freedom.
Freedom of sexuality,
freedom of expression.
sort of flowering
into quantum physics.
it's about
the reconceptualization
of the divine.
was called
"The Science of Religion."
But self-realization?
Oh. Yoga?
Oh, those are universal.
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
and be concentrated
in the spine,
That's what
Self-Realization teaches.
but a science...
In .
It was radical.
God is still
a bit unfathomable.
She's in everything.
She's in everyone.
He thought of Kriya
Yoga as a science.
but a science
means that it's part
of a scientific process.
It's empirical,
you can test certain things.
An individual is sort of
an organized packet
of consciousness
in that when
you are meditating
and going deep within,
such as in yoga,
CHIDANANDA
You couldn't have
described to a Westerner
what Yogananda
was teaching prior
to the twentieth century.
is made up of
these whirling atoms,
and protons, and electrons.
And those are composed
of energy.
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
So is everything made
of shadows and light.
to shake us out of
our comfort zone.
NARRATOR It was in
Bareilly on a midnight...
I was awakened by
a peculiar flutter.
"Rush to Calcutta,
if you would see me."
The wraith-like
figure vanished.
(NARRATOR GASPS)
Mother is dying.
I collapsed into
an almost lifeless state.
CHIDANANDA
A telegram arrived.
WOMAN'S VOICE
Farewell my child.
in the tenderness
of many mothers.
See in my gaze
the two black eyes.
The lost,
beautiful eyes
thou seek'st.
(GROWLING)
Mother used to come running
with a candle and say,
"Where is it broken?"
even in dreams,
or through a guru
sent by thee.
I gazed searchingly
about me, on any
excursion from home
(VENDORS SHOUTING)
Something told me
to look behind.
Holding a promise
that I had not
fully understood.
It was him.
It was my master.
He said,
"I have been waiting."
To what we are
truly capable of,
It requires undoing
aspects of ourselves.
This flattening to
the ego treatment,
was hard to endure.
he was discovering
and uprooting
every diseased
tooth in my jaw.
My guru said,
"I want you to keep
your eyes of reason open."
In addition,
I will open in you,
the eye of wisdom.
VISHWANANDA We become
one with peace,
we become one with joy,
and groups of
every denomination.
SONI In , Yogananda
arrives in Los Angeles,
over , people
attend his talk.
Los Angeles is
this new frontier.
It's a place of possibility,
of a new beginning.
So there's this
already mind of a seeker.
at the LA
Philharmonic Auditorium.
People go just
to see the show.
He didn't wait
for anybody to get
this wisdom out.
I was skeptical,
like everyone was.
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
Sit straight,
shoulder blades together.
...and concentration.
trying to keep
Yogananda in LA.
I recognized it at once.
MATA As he saw,
this is the place.
Yogananda called
it the spiritual
White House.
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
True Christianity has been
lost and forgotten.
He placed Jesus on
the altar with his lineage.
And with Krishna.
CLOONEY He said
that Jesus really was
representing to us,
Meditation. Meditate.
That's what he said.
A lot of people go
to yoga to look hot.
as one way to
prepare for meditation.
CHIDANANDA He also
developed this system
of energization exercises.
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
Energy...
distributed evenly
in the body...
...they'll be electrocuted.
ANDREW NEWBERG
Everything you do
affects your brain.
prepared for
doing whatever it is
Through withdrawing
that energy and directing it
by concentration
Yogananda said
those instruments
of divine perceptions awaken.
"Well this is
the ultimate reality,
this feels more real."
By mastery of
the intelligent life
currents in
the central nervous system.
Self-realization
has helped my career.
It has helped me
to think very little of me,
NARRATOR
Dear Swami Dhirananda...
(READING)
in carrying on
my educational work
in India and Boston.
He successfully
carried on the work
I think as boys,
both of them felt that their
families didn't understand
In fact, Dhirananda
said that it was
CHIDANANDA The s
was a period of almost
ceaseless travel for him.
glimpse of this
yoga philosophy.
He has to do something
completely new that no one
has done before.
There is no path.
Swami Vivekananda,
whom Yogananda
respected greatly,
Yogananda was
the first major guru
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
Magnetizing or
attracting your soul mate.
Creating abundance,
how to create
harmony with others,
how to find happiness.
by the mental
movies of dreams.
I can remain
asleep several nights.
CHIDANANDA Willpower is
really one of the
absolute necessities
Yogananda defined
willpower this way,
he said,
"Will is that
which changes thought
into energy."
"making a line
across the platform.
"and a quick
flick of his stomach,
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
he's dying,
he doesn't have a pulse.
if you don't
know how to use it.
Bikram must be in
complete control,
or he's in danger
of being impaled.
Here he goes.
He did it!
And Yogi Bikram
is all right.
CHOUDHURY
But before you use it,
you have to realize it.
You have to
realize that power.
Supernatural, cosmic,
physical, mental,
spiritual power.
And he is here
delivering his message
with such force
When somebody is in
a deep meditation,
there are
changes in the brain.
of the different
parts of the brain
is a very substantial
decrease of activity
in the part of
the brain which normally
helps us to create
a sense of ourself
As you progressively
block the activity
in that area,
as distinguished
from the rest
of the world.
I spent years
between the Harvard
physics department
growing up in
rural Mississippi,
I became inspired
by this deep belief
that there's
an underlying unity
in nature.
By which these
different fields
could come together.
So that led me
to want to combine
He was committed
to bringing together
And creating
a unified framework
and an integrated approach
Yogananda drew
the largest audiences
a public speaker
had drawn in the city.
Congressmen, senators, judges,
I defied this.
And founded
a Afro-American Yogoda center
to teach my negro brethren.
Cosmic delusion is
always snaring us
through our ignorance.
a revolution that
was fomenting in India.
Swami Dhirananda,
Yogananda's right-hand man,
rumors,
all kinds of allegations,
SONI
Yogananda, as a yogi,
would often talk
about mastery
over one's sexuality,
with these
dark-skinned
foreigners.
to marry
a brown-skinned man or woman.
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
of breaking down
the barriers...
Om.
Amen
Om.
revered him,
but his unorthodox views
it really reached
a fever pitch.
"The husbands of
more than Miami women
SONI Yogananda's no
longer being invited
to different
religious congregations.
reduced to ashes
by the soulless efforts
of yellow journalism.
between Yogananda
and Dhirananda.
Dhirananda left,
and started
another organization not far
from Mount Washington.
because Yogananda
had been busy
Divine Mother,
free me,
let me go back to India,
to serve you there, not here.
VISHWANANDA In Yogananda's
darkest hours, there's only
one place that he went.
We call it God,
place of stillness.
all non-attachment
is the easy part.
It shows more
spiritual fiber to live
a godly life
in the jungle
of civilization.
I love all.
I came in .
Many other young
people came.
there was
all ages living here.
LOVE Yogananda
had consistently
drawn his devotees
Prominent businessmen,
judges, lawyers,
even hardened journalists.
came to Yogananda
and asked to be accepted into
To completely
devote their whole lives
to following his teachings,
James Lynn,
the wealthy businessman,
was one of them.
this ancient
monastic swami order
from India
took root
in America.
I knew nothing
about renunciation.
"These are
the rules of the religious
teachings that I've heard
"around my relatives."
"Yes."
"Well, you may continue."
"wonderful people,
your disciples
"Absolutely."
"But I will
not promise you that as you
"continue to study
these teachings,
NARRATOR Repeated
performance of inaction
creates a mental blueprint.
electrical pathways
in the brain.
NEWBERG It appears
that Yogananda was talking
about neuroplasticity
almost years
before Western doctors
took an interest in it.
He said that
regular Kriya practice
Read this.
we are talking
about transmutation.
Rechanneling,
that's the whole
science of yoga,
rechanneling your energy.
new patterns of
the emotional life.
He said,
when he looked at you
he was changing
your brain cells.
And he did.
He dissected me on
the deepest level
I've ever been.
And I remember
I just literally
couldn't take anymore.
Humanly, emotionally
He reached over
and he gave me a big hug.
It's a friendship
and a love that...
of ether between
the world and my guru.
He's haunting me
day and night.
"Return to India.
His message
penetrated my being
like a flash of lightning.
I was unprepared
for the magnitude
of our welcome.
Kriya,
and recharging exercises.
I was touched
by his spirit of inquiry.
Master dropped to
his knees, touched his feet,
of Sri Yukteswar Giri
Yukteswar Giri
was welcoming back
his triumphant son.
I have no attraction
to go back to America.
I would roam by
the Jumna where Krishna
played his flute of eternity
Master mine,
that's my home.
It's everywhere.
entering a period of
even greater horror.
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.
(GASPS)
Is my guru,
always now going to be
in this state?
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
My body became
just like stone...
and still I was
fully conscious,
MATA He constantly
stressed to me,
get my thoughts,
I can do much
more now to reach.
of a genuine
Indian holy man.
SHANKAR It was his
personal feeling about
his devotion to his gurus
Yogananda produced an
incredible literary corpus.
an acceleration of our
discipline, of our training.
we set off
the first atomic bomb.
ROBERT OPPENHEIMER
Few people cried.
I am the subject
and there is the universe.
Whereas spirituality
says that
there's a consciousness
that includes the subject
Consciousness gives
rise to everything,
including the brain.
But really,
the mind is everywhere.
is to explore it both
from the outside in
and from the inside out.
In the inside,
where the watcher
is watching all
of the craziness,
So look inside
for the watcher,
and be connected
to the watcher.
to these upheavals
and these changes
(MAN SPEAKING)
I know that...
...nothing is important
on the earth.
Nothing, nothing at all.
so there's hope
for our survival,
to bring
the teachings current.
in the world,
not just in the forest.
If we don't practice
the teachings here,
there will be no
forest left at all.
(OVERLAPPING VOICES)
(SPEAKING FRENCH)
He was constantly
encouraging you
to simultaneously
be able to think
of yourself
of recognizing,
in a humble way,
of you as a soul.
to overcome disease,
to overcome poverty.
And therefore,
to allow that power
to begin to transform
the world.
(PEOPLE SHOUTING)
(PEOPLE CHEERING)
CHIDANANDA
When the Ambassador
of India
liberated from
the colonial rule,
had come to Los Angeles.
And Yogananda,
being one of
MRINALINI MATA
The night before,
we were walking down the hall,
he turned to me and said,
"speaking of my America
and my India."
DAYA MATA
"Free me then, O Lord,
from the bondage of the body
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
I am hallowed,
my body touched that sod.
CHIDANANDA He finished
saying, "I am hallowed,
my body touched that sod,"
and then,
he collapsed to the floor.
MATA As I kneeled
over his body,
tremendous force
entered this body.
CHIDANANDA
In the yoga tradition,
there is a sacred practice
I behold life
and death like
I am the ocean
of consciousness.
A guru can't be
a little old man
in a blanket.
Or a guy in robes.
because guru-ness
might be living in
that body for a while,
He looked at me
like I was crazy.
(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)
Everything is Brahma
Everything is Spirit
Everything is Light