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NARRATOR I was conscious

in my mother's womb.

Feeling the movements


in her body.

Aware of my own
helpless state.

This body bundle


of bones is not I.

Occasionally,
the darkness of the womb
would be dispelled

and light would visit me.

On one side I wanted


to express myself
as a human being,

yet, on the other side,


I didn't.

Because I felt I was spirit.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

I see behind the scenes.

The visible man is a shadow.


As soon as I change
my consciousness,
I see everything,

just as if it were
a motion picture.

RAVI SHANKAR
I distinctly remember

the excitement of meeting


Swami Yogananda.

He was straight
from the heart.

He looked strange,
like a woman with long hair.

But I remember
his powerful eyes.

He created such a stir.

KRISHNA DAS I remember


the first time I heard
Yogananda's voice.

I got a record,
I think, from SRF.

And I put it on,


and I didn't
know what to expect.
And then, this
booming, powerful

"I, Paramahansa Yogananda,


am singing.

"Sing with me."


I went... (GROANS)

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

I, Paramahansa Yogananda,
am praying.

Pray with me.

Bless me that
with the awakening dawn...

I may awaken
all souls with my own...

...and bring them to Thee.

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.

Just looked at the cover,

and he just zapped


me with his eyes.

I mean I can't imagine...


If I hadn't read that,

I probably wouldn't
have a life. Really.

Yeah, I probably would have


kicked the bucket.

Or I'd just be, you know,


some horrible person

with a pointless life.

It just gave meaning to life.

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)

MAS VIDAL Yoga, for many,


has become something
that you do with your body.

But the yogis


never taught that.

The way that


Yogananda taught yoga,

was use the body,


you have a body,

but it's really


about the mind.

Expanding your consciousness.

Who am I? Who you are?

Why we came to
this Earth as a human?

LI MIAO TSENG It's really


very easy to get lost

in the complexity of life.


FRANCIS CLOONEY We're
conflicted beings as humans.

One of the deepest


things about us

is that our lives


don't make sense,
except in the mystery.

Yogananda provided us
a vocabulary to talk
about the human spirit

that got away from dogma,


and doctrine, and ritual.

Whether it be a Hindu, Muslim,

Christian, Jewish, whatever


tradition you're part of,

Yogananda charted
a path inward

that connected you


with your own divinity.

NARRATOR Buried during


the Dark Ages...

Kriya Yoga was


revived for modern man

by the deathless
yogi Mahavatar Babaji.

Babaji instructed
Lahiri Mahasaya

to teach Kriya Yoga to others.

The transmission of
the ancient science
from guru to disciple.

Unknown to society in general,

a great spiritual renaissance


started in a remote
corner of Banaras.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

(BELLS RINGING)

(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

As the fragrance of flowers


cannot be suppressed,

so devotees from
every part of India
began to seek

the divine nectar


of this liberated master.
Day after day,
the guru initiated
one or two devotees

into Kriya Yoga,


the science of meditation.

Early in their married life,

my parents became disciples.

Lahiri Mahasaya
predicted my birth,

and that through this body

many shall receive


the spiritual
enlightenment of India.

"The message of yoga


will encircle the globe,"
he said.

It will aid in establishing


the brotherhood of man.

But when I heard


the word "guru,"
it frightened me.

For I knew what that


responsibility meant.

VIDAL His great burden


is to be the representative

of this ,-year-old
tradition.

FELICIA TOMASKO
This is a man with
intuitive knowledge.

Extraordinary yogic powers.

And he could perceive events


that were decades
in front of him.

But his teachings


caused controversy.

SONI He would be
called into question,

and everything he worked for


would unravel.

(INDISTINCT WHISPERINGS)

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

BROTHER VISHWANANDA
Every soul is on a journey.

People are at different levels


in that journey.
I think we all believe

that there's more to life

than what we experience


every day.

DEEPAK CHOPRA Yogananda


happens to be what I would
call a spiritual prodigy.

A spiritual genius.

Which means had


access to a domain

of awareness that most people


don't have access to.

Like mathematical geniuses,

he explored
a much larger territory
in the spiritual domain.

NARRATOR Sometimes, I used to


lapse into the consciousness
of my true spirit.

Clear recollections came to me


of a distant life,

in which I had been a yogi


amid the Himalayan snows.
STEFANIE SYMAN He also had
visions of seeing his guru.

VISHWANANDA Throughout
the ages, there have been

mystics who come


with special knowledge

that helps us understand


our place in the universe.

Yogananda was born at the dawn


of the atomic age,

when modern physics


would shatter
our most basic beliefs

about the nature of reality

and pave the way


for an ancient
and hidden teaching

to be received by many.

MAN Yogananda had


been told since infancy
by saints and seers,

that he'd be taking


these teachings to the West.
But he thought,
"How is this possible?"

You know, it was absurd,

because he barely
spoke any English.

NARRATOR One day, my mind


went away from Ranchi.

I went to the storeroom


to meditate,

and I fell into an ecstasy.

America.

Surely these people


are Americans.

It's scary to the mind.


I think the first
thing was, "Oh, my God."

VISHWANANDA Imagine in
your own life, having
a message so strong

that it totally changes


your life, in a moment.

And at that time he'd been


here about three years.

Probably thought
this was his life work.

NARRATOR I had founded


a school following

the educational ideals


of the rishis

whose forest ashrams had been


the ancient seat of learning.

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.

You have to learn


your grammar, you have

to learn your math


and your science.

But you also have


to learn how to live.
FEMALE TEACHER
One, two, three, four, five.

One, two, three, four, five.

(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE)

Love conquers all.

Love conquers all.


Very good.

MEHROTRA He's in love


with his country.

He is being respected
by his community,

he is seeing his
vision manifest

where children
are learning the art
and science of yoga.

And then he's sitting there


and all of a sudden,

he becomes aware
that he has to
leave all of it.

YOGANANDA God is taking me


away to America.

SRI DAYA MATA


He never wanted
to come to America.

That was not part


of his dream at all.

"Let me just go
to the Himalayas
and just live in a cave there.

"I can do good there.


I can pray for people."

But his teacher said, "No.

"You must go to the West.


Go to America."

NARRATOR Tears stood in


my eyes as I cast a last look

at the little boys,


and the sunny acres of Ranchi.

I knew, henceforth,
I would dwell in far lands.

How alone I was here.

Not a soul I knew.


I had heard many stories
about the materialistic West,

a land very different


from India.

It was somewhat of
a daunting experience,
to go out on the streets.

My strange dress prompted


boyish mockery and catcalls.

BOY What's that?

VIDAL There were kids that


were throwing stones at him,

calling him names.

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.

And now comes


a darker skinned swami

in orange robes and a turban.

NARRATOR I noticed
some hot dog signs.

In imagination I saw
all kinds of dogs

going through
the meat chopper.

And I thought, "My Lord.

"Why did you bring me to the


land where people eat dogs?"

BRAHMACHARI MARTIN
When Yogananda came
to the United States,

it was after World War I.


The world was
a very different place.

It was a very powerful time.

There was this upsurge

of freedom.

Freedom of sexuality,
freedom of expression.

Boundaries of known reality


were being shattered
and penetrated.
You had
the Einsteinian
revolution,

sort of flowering
into quantum physics.

And it became clear

that the world was not


what it appeared to be.

SONI Western philosophers


are talking about
the death of God.

And Yogananda says,


it's not about
the death of God,

it's about
the reconceptualization
of the divine.

CHIDANANDA It's significant


that Yogananda's
first lecture in America

was called
"The Science of Religion."

Not Hinduism, because using


religious terminology,

in Western peoples' minds,


would place his offerings
in a box.

But self-realization?

Oh. Yoga?
Oh, those are universal.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

Spine and the brain


are the altars of God.

That's where the electricity


of God flows down
into the nervous system

into the world.

and the searchlights


of your senses
are turned outwards.

But when you will


reverse the searchlights,

through Kriya Yoga,

and be concentrated
in the spine,

you will behold the Maker.

That's what
Self-Realization teaches.

The technique of meditation,

recharging the body battery


with cosmic energy.

For it is not a creed


or dogma,

but a science...

...of the soul and spirit.

How the soul descended from


the cosmic consciousness...

into the earth and


the body and the senses...

...is the purpose


of this work.

VIDAL Imagine hearing that


God is in your spine.

In .

It was radical.

It was a bold explanation


of where to go
to experience God.

MAISHA MOSES For me,

God is still
a bit unfathomable.

She's in everything.
She's in everyone.

If you call Him energy,


that's fine.

SONI Yogananda thought


of self-realization
as a science.

He thought of Kriya
Yoga as a science.

Religion has a lot of baggage,

but a science
means that it's part
of a scientific process.

It's empirical,
you can test certain things.

And your own


spiritual practice
and self-realization
is that scientific process.

An individual is sort of
an organized packet
of consciousness

that is part of a bigger ocean


of consciousness

in that when
you are meditating
and going deep within,

such as in yoga,

your inner consciousness


is combining with
that higher consciousness.

CHIDANANDA
You couldn't have
described to a Westerner

what Yogananda
was teaching prior
to the twentieth century.

There simply wasn't


a vocabulary for it.

The apparently solid body

is made up of
these whirling atoms,
and protons, and electrons.
And those are composed
of energy.

The basic substance


of creation.

NARRATOR The body


is potentially vast
and omnipresent.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

This earth is nothing


but movies to me.

Just like the beam


of a motion picture.

So is everything made
of shadows and light.

That's what we are.


Light and shadows of the Lord.

Nothing else than that.

There's one purpose.

To get to the beam.

VIDAL But the doors


of perception don't often
open with the intellect.
Something very powerful
has to happen

to shake us out of
our comfort zone.

NARRATOR It was in
Bareilly on a midnight...

As I slept beside Father,

I was awakened by
a peculiar flutter.

CHIDANANDA When he was


about years old,

he and his father


were in northern India.

The family was


temporarily separated,

and his mother


had gone to Calcutta

to prepare for the wedding


of the eldest brother.

And unknown to them,

she had contracted


Asiatic cholera.
SYMAN He had a dream
that night, that his mother
came to him.

NARRATOR The flimsy curtains


parted and I saw the beloved
form of my mother.

"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.

She had died in


a matter of hours.

NARRATOR What was


the purpose of this?

Her solacing black eyes


had been my refuge

in the trifling tragedies


of childhood.

WOMAN'S VOICE
Farewell my child.

The cosmic mother


will protect you.

(ECHOING) It is I who have


watched over thee,

life after life,

in the tenderness
of many mothers.

See in my gaze
the two black eyes.

The lost,
beautiful eyes
thou seek'st.

NARRATOR I used to dream


in my childhood,

a tiger used to break


my leg at night.

(GROWLING)
Mother used to come running
with a candle and say,

"You are dreaming.

"Where is it broken?"

(CHUCKLES) And then


I used to laugh.

From that time on,


I was watchful,

even in dreams,

to separate the unreal


from the real.

VIDAL Once he had


cracked open the door,

his world would


never be the same.

But it would take time,


and many tests,

before he would fully awaken


into this new reality.

NARRATOR Mercifully mother


of the universe,
teach me thyself
through visions,

or through a guru
sent by thee.

I hoped to find them


in the Himalayan snows.

The master whose face


often appeared to me
in visions.

I gazed searchingly
about me, on any
excursion from home

for the face


of my destined guru.

One day, I wiped


my tear-swollen face,

and set out for


a distant marketplace
in Banaras.

(VENDORS SHOUTING)

Something told me
to look behind.

I had seen him in dreams.


The face was
the one I had seen
in a thousand visions.

Holding a promise
that I had not
fully understood.

I came to know him long before


I met him in this life.

It was him.

It was my master.

He said,
"I have been waiting."

MEHROTRA A true guru


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 , Yogananda
arrives in Los Angeles,

and on the first night,


according to the LA Times,

over , 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."

WOMAN'S VOICE Dear Guruji,


I have absorbed so much.
I will try to keep
it all within me,
and profit by it.

Self-realization
has helped my career.

It has helped me
to think very little of me,

and let the great spirit


pass through me.

NARRATOR
Dear Swami Dhirananda...

(READING)

Mount Washington needed


someone to be at the helm.

While Guruji traveled


throughout the United States,

lecturing, giving classes.

He brought one of his


most beloved friends.

He was a very capable teacher.

He was very well-liked.


NARRATOR I am powerless
to tell how greatly
he has helped me

in carrying on
my educational work
in India and Boston.

He successfully
carried on the work

at the Ranchi school


during my absence from India.

CHIDANANDA This was


his childhood friend
from Calcutta.

I think as boys,
both of them felt that their
families didn't understand

their spiritual longings.

In fact, Dhirananda
said that it was

impossible for him


to even meditate

at his family home.

So Yogananda allowed him


to hide out in his attic room
and he would sneak food up
to him after the meals.

CHIDANANDA The s
was a period of almost
ceaseless travel for him.

He was visiting all


of the largest cities
in the Unites States,

where people were


getting their first

glimpse of this
yoga philosophy.

There is no, um,


precursor for Yogananda.

He has to do something
completely new that no one
has done before.

There is no path.

GOLDBERG There were


other gurus who came.

Swami Vivekananda,
whom Yogananda
respected greatly,

had been here and started


the Vedanta Society
in the s.

But he only stayed


a few years.

Yogananda was
the first major guru

to have a nationwide impact


and really make
America his home.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

In America, everybody is busy.

If you keep on running after


too many hobbies,

you won't have any time left


for bliss.

VIDAL Everything was


covered in the lessons,

from how to achieve


success in our life.

Magnetizing or
attracting your soul mate.

Creating abundance,
how to create
harmony with others,
how to find happiness.

You people do not


sleep correctly.

You subconsciously worry


about unpaid bills.

And allow your


sleep to be disturbed

by the mental
movies of dreams.

By closing the eyes,


and inner relaxation

I can remain
asleep several nights.

And by opening the eyes


and recharging the body,

I can keep awake several days.

CHIDANANDA Willpower is
really one of the
absolute necessities

for spiritual progress.

Yogananda defined
willpower this way,
he said,

"Will is that
which changes thought
into energy."

"He asks the six


men to line up

"with their hand


on each other's back

"making a line
across the platform.

"Swamiji said, 'The first one,


put your hands on my stomach.'

"With just a tiny


straightening of his body

"and a quick
flick of his stomach,

"Swamiji sent the six men


catapulting across the stage."

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

What's the key of success?


Concentration power.

You meditate to achieve


the concentration powers.
VIDAL He would control
his heart and stop the pulse.

And the doctors would rush,


check his pulse,

he's dying,
he doesn't have a pulse.

And then he would


bring himself back to life.

CHOUDHURY Every human being


in the world has
a supernatural power.

But having doesn't


mean anything

if you don't
know how to use it.

MALE ANNOUNCER Yoga combines


the physical, mental
and spiritual forces.

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.

That's why Yogananda called


it self-realization.

You have to
realize that power.

Supernatural, cosmic,
physical, mental,
spiritual power.

NARRATOR Don't take


my word for anything.

Apply these techniques,


and find out for yourselves.

MARTIN Here is a small,


brown, mystic,

from a nation that


very few Americans

had ever been to,


much less read about.

And he is here
delivering his message
with such force

through personal transmission


to people who came to see him.

NARRATOR Most important


is to create a church
within yourself.

Where you are the minister


in the temple
of your own soul.

When somebody is in
a deep meditation,

there are
changes in the brain.

We've seen changes


in the brain scans

of the different
parts of the brain

that become more active.

What you're seeing during


a meditation practice

is a very substantial
decrease of activity

in the part of
the brain which normally
helps us to create
a sense of ourself

and a sense of our orientation


in space and time.

As you progressively
block the activity
in that area,

then you block your


ability to establish
your sense of self

as distinguished
from the rest
of the world.

And you begin to feel


that sense of deep
connectedness or oneness

with everything in the world.

GOEL I'm a physicist


and a physician.

I spent years
between the Harvard
physics department

and Harvard Medical School.

Going back and forth


across the Charles River,

but they don't talk


to each other.

As a child, having been


exposed to things
like Vedic philosophy

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

these two worlds of


physics and biomedicine.

Physics, our physics


of the last century

has not come


to terms with life,
living systems and things
like consciousness.

The writings of Yogananda


are very appealing
to a scientific appetite.

He was committed
to bringing together

the technology and


the material efficiency

and the scientific


understanding of the West

with the ancient


spiritual wisdom
of the East.

And creating
a unified framework
and an integrated approach

to living life on this planet.

ROBERT LOVE In Washington,


something remarkable happened.

Yogananda drew
the largest audiences

a public speaker
had drawn in the city.
Congressmen, senators, judges,

and he was even


invited to the White House
by President Coolidge.

But Yogananda came in


for a rude awakening
when he was in Washington,

which is really part of


the American South.

NARRATOR In the national


capital, I was told

that white people only


would be permitted

to attend the classes.

This surprised me very much.

I defied this.

And founded
a Afro-American Yogoda center
to teach my negro brethren.

Cosmic delusion is
always snaring us
through our ignorance.

LOVE The civil rights


movement was still
decades away,

and it was inspired,


in fact, by

a revolution that
was fomenting in India.

CHIDANANDA Many people


don't realize that
Gandhi was a yogi,

and he was putting


yoga principles
such as non-violence

into action on a mass scale.

SYMAN Yogananda himself


was a very open and
vocal supporter of Gandhi

and lectured at Harvard


about him and his movement.

LOVE For this, he was put on


a government watch list

and kept under surveillance.

SONI Anyone affiliated


with India, and someone
specifically affiliated

with Mahatma Gandhi


would be a person of interest,

for the American government.

Why are these people drawn


to this heathen teacher?

Oh, what is he doing


behind closed doors?

Are they trying to overthrow


our government too?

LOVE There was literally

a war against yoga


being waged in the media.

GOLDBERG A huge scandal


erupted when

Swami Dhirananda,
Yogananda's right-hand man,

was discovered giving


private lessons
to a married woman.

And her husband...

...found out about it,


stormed Mount Washington,
and a brawl erupted.
There were crazy
tracts being written,

rumors,
all kinds of allegations,

not just about Yogananda,

but some of the other swamis


and yoga teachers

that this was a love cult


and they were corrupting
the women of America.

SONI
Yogananda, as a yogi,
would often talk

about mastery
over one's sexuality,

over one's urges.


Self-discipline.

But oftentimes that


was misinterpreted
to mean something scandalous.

LOVE You had a kind of


paranoia on the part of

the husbands and


law enforcement officials,
that, you know,
we couldn't trust our women

with these
dark-skinned
foreigners.

SYMAN You can read


between the lines here
what the problem really is.

I mean this was a period where


miscegenation laws, you know,

you were forbidden in America,


if you were white,

to marry
a brown-skinned man or woman.

So, I mean, it was


illegal to mix
the races at that point.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

This marriage is symbolical...

of breaking down
the barriers...

of the brown Caucasian


of India...
...and the white Caucasian
of America.

Om.

Amen

Om.

SYMAN On the one hand,


open-minded Americans

revered him,
but his unorthodox views

really raised the ire of more


conservative Americans.

By the time he went


into the Deep South,

it really reached
a fever pitch.

LOVE "Swami was


ordered to leave Miami
for his own safety.

"The husbands of
more than Miami women

"were preparing to,


'get the Hindu.'"
SYMAN His supporters
swarmed City Hall,

and during the hearing,


Police Chief Quigg

claims that Yogananda


tried to hypnotize him.

SONI Yogananda's no
longer being invited

to receive the keys


to different cities.

He's no longer being


invited to speak

to different
religious congregations.

NARRATOR I am going through


the severest trial of my life.

Judge for yourself


the lying capacity
of the newspapers.

CHIDANANDA Back in Los


Angeles, the district attorney
eventually cleared Yogananda,

and Mount Washington


of all wrong-doing.
But the damage had
already been done.

NARRATOR The fruits


of a lifetime of service
to mankind

reduced to ashes
by the soulless efforts
of yellow journalism.

CLOONEY All these incidents


culminated in a falling out

between Yogananda
and Dhirananda.

Dhirananda left,

and started
another organization not far
from Mount Washington.

LOVE Many of the students


went with Dhirananda

because Yogananda
had been busy

touring the country


for the last year.

CHIDANANDA The final


heartbreak came
a couple of years later,
when Dhirananda left
the Swami Order altogether.

And married one of his


Los Angeles students.

Then he sued Yogananda

for his share of the work


they had done together.

NARRATOR With a heavy heart,


I'm starting for Mexico.

Cutting loose from everything,

that I may consecrate myself


to God entirely.

Divine Mother,

free me,
let me go back to India,
to serve you there, not here.

There, there is bitterness


and heartache and frustration.

And no one to listen


to your message.

VISHWANANDA In Yogananda's
darkest hours, there's only
one place that he went.

He always went within.

We call it God,
place of stillness.

NARRATOR Many times


I have tried to walk away

from these organizational


responsibilities.

Every time, Divine Mother


comes and takes me by the ear

and says, "Come back."

He said, "When I received


that answer, I wept.

"And I knew I had to go back.

"I knew this is what


God wanted from me."

NARRATOR Walking away under


the guise of renunciation,

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.

Even those who avow


themselves my enemies.

For I see thee in every being.

I will rebuild this


organization from scratch.

Just as I did when


I arrived from India in .

MATA With that renewed faith,

and the determination

that he would not give up

even though he was sorely

tried and wanted to leave,

he began to draw disciples.


One of them was me.

I came in .
Many other young
people came.

There were older people here,

there was
all ages living here.

LOVE Yogananda
had consistently
drawn his devotees

from all walks of life.

Prominent businessmen,
judges, lawyers,
even hardened journalists.

But by the early s,


something very different
was beginning.

A small, core group


of devotees

came to Yogananda
and asked to be accepted into

this monastic path


of complete renunciation.

To completely
devote their whole lives
to following his teachings,

and seeking God


through this path
of Kriya Yoga meditation.

James Lynn,
the wealthy businessman,
was one of them.

And he'd go on to become


a highly advanced yogi,

and take monastic vows


like the others.

And so through Yogananda,

this ancient
monastic swami order

from India
took root
in America.

MATA Now began the training.

I knew nothing
about renunciation.

CHIDANANDA The new monastics


took strict vows,
like Yogananda himself,
of simplicity, celibacy,
obedience, and loyalty.

Yogananda's lay students


faced other challenges.

HERB JEFFRIES I'd been there


about six or seven weeks,
and I said

"Guruji, all my life,


I heard thou canst not,

"thou shalt not,


thou must not.

"These are
the rules of the religious
teachings that I've heard

"around my relatives."

"What I want to know from you


is, what canst thou?"

He said "Well, do you smoke?"

And I said, "Yes."


He said, "You may continue."

"Do you drink?"

"Alcohol?" I said, "Yes."


He said, "You may continue."
"Do you

"enjoy the opposite


sex promiscuously?"

"Yes."
"Well, you may continue."

I said, "Wait a minute.

"You mean that I can

"come up on this hill here,

"in this good place


with all of these

"wonderful people,
your disciples

"and the devotees,


and the brothers up here,

"and study these teachings,

"and I can go back down there

"and do all these things?"

"Absolutely."
"But I will
not promise you that as you

"continue to study
these teachings,

"that the desire


to do these things

"will not fall away from you."

NARRATOR Repeated
performance of inaction
creates a mental blueprint.

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 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 COCKS 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 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 line 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 or
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 , 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,


as it is now,

is based on what is called


the subject-object split.

I am the subject
and there is the universe.

Whereas spirituality
says that

there's a consciousness
that includes the subject

and the object.

Consciousness gives
rise to everything,
including the brain.

HARRISON We've been


brought up to think that

the mind is this thing


that sits up here
somewhere in your brain.

But really,
the mind is everywhere.

NEWBERG Some people have


argued that consciousness

resides in every cell


of our body.

The only way for us


to really understand

the nature of consciousness


and what it is,

is to explore it both
from the outside in
and from the inside out.

RUSSELL SIMMONS Delusion is


the belief that there's
something outside of you.

But your happiness


is not based on any thing
outside of you.

In the inside,
where the watcher

is watching all
of the craziness,

kind of just laughing.

So look inside
for the watcher,

and be connected
to the watcher.

And then be awake.

GOLDBERG The Indian


teachings that Yogananda
represented were not escapes.

They were methods of adapting

to these upheavals
and these changes

because they remind


people that we are
more than the personality

and the roles that we play,

and the body we inhabit.

(MAN SPEAKING)

When I am in the soul

I know that...

...nothing is important
on the earth.
Nothing, nothing at all.

Only Love is important.

GOLDBERG If we're going


to change those kind
of circumstances

so there's hope
for our survival,

the change has to


come from inside out.

NARRATOR A man who has


reformed himself

will reform thousands.

CHIDANANDA Yogananda saw


that if there wasn't some
way to reach the masses,

with this message


of experiencing

the spirit within


every human being,

the world would not


survive the transition
into the atomic age.
They were leading
this foundation at that time

to bring
the teachings current.

So they can really create


a transformation on
a collective level

in the world,
not just in the forest.

That forest is here now.


This is bigger,
and is ever-increasing.

If we don't practice
the teachings here,

there will be no
forest left at all.

GOLDBERG The autobiography


was a doorway in,

it was a table setter


for millions of people.

Whether they ended


up being practitioners
of Kriya Yoga or not,

Yogananda was a doorway


into whatever pathway
they found.
(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE)

(OVERLAPPING VOICES)

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

(SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE)

MARC BENIOFF On the way


out of the memorial
service for Steve,

they handed us a copy


of Yogananda's book.

Steve's last message to us


was, "Actualize yourself."

That was Yogananda's message.

He was constantly
encouraging you

to simultaneously
be able to think
of yourself

as this little blip


on the planet

but on the other hand,


you also had
infinite potentialities.
You had
the eternal soul in you.

So, can you simultaneously


operate with that awareness

of recognizing,
in a humble way,

the limited bounds


of your human life,

and at the same time,


the infinite potentialities

of you as a soul.

We have a far too limited

sense of our capacity


as human beings

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

visited Los Angeles


for the first time,

how happy Yogananda was


that this representative
of free India,

liberated from
the colonial rule,
had come to Los Angeles.

And he was able to honor him.

A banquet was organized


to welcome the ambassador.

And Yogananda,
being one of

the most well-known


Indians in the community,

was invited to give one of


the key speeches that night.

MRINALINI MATA
The night before,
we were walking down the hall,
he turned to me and said,

"Do you know,


it's just a matter of hours,

"and I will be gone."

SWAMI KRIYANANDA When Master


got up to speak, I was there.

He had always said,


"When I die, I want to die

"speaking of my America
and my India."

DAYA MATA
"Free me then, O Lord,
from the bondage of the body

"that I may show others


how they can free themselves."

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

...lotus, scenic beauty,


and sages, thy wide doors
are open,

welcoming God's true sons


through all the ages.
Where Ganges,
woods, Himalayan caves,

and men dream God,

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.

With the message to my soul,

"This time you cannot


call him back."

CHIDANANDA
In the yoga tradition,
there is a sacred practice

of knowing when you


will leave your body.

And so consciousness moves


to a grander space.
The doctor said that
he had a heart attack.

NARRATOR Watch the shore


of the universe,

but do not become


absorbed in it.

I behold life
and death like

the rise and fall


of waves on the sea

I am the ocean
of consciousness.

A guru can't be
a little old man
in a blanket.

Or a guy in robes.

It could look like that,

because guru-ness
might be living in
that body for a while,

and it interacts with you


because you have a karmic
tie with that being,
but that being,
if he's really a guru,

he's not at all identified


with being in that body.

Once I asked a saint in India,


I said, "Athimara..."

I said, "How can I


get closer to my guru?"

He looked at me
like I was crazy.

He said, "Your guru


is what's looking out
of your eyes right now."

So get with that for a while.

(YOGANANDA SPEAKING)

Everything is Brahma

Everything is Spirit

Everything is Light

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