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Secret Wind Registered User (3/28/06 2:30 am) Reply	1948 Yogananda Interview 1948 Yogananda interview extracted from Chapter 4, "The Making of a Devotee" by John Yale. theworld.com/~elayj/Chapter4.html ...The other suggestion concerned SRF, known to many because of the success of Yogananda's book, the Autobiography of a Yogi. An appointment was made for Bill and me to interview Yogananda at his Mount Washington headquarters. I recall that it was a Saturday. We were invited to come for lunch, a lunch which, counting the entertainment which followed the eating and the talk, was to go on till four o'clock in the afternoon. On arriving we passed through the offices, which contained about thirty desks — a big organization even then, with worldwide branches and thousands inscribed in correspondance courses. I noticed that every desk had on it a framed portrait of the Leader. We were conducted to the Paramahamsa's top floor apartment. I had known him from the frequently seen publicity photo, with long hair and an unmistakable resemblance to Jesus. In the flesh he seemed older (he would then have been in his mid-fifties) and the hair was considerably less abundant. During lunch, which consisted of egg curry and vegetarian items, Yogananda spoke constantly about himself, the size of the organization, the number of his adepts, the initiations he gave for various grades of attainment, his own struggles in building up the work. I remarked that I had passed an SRF restaurant somewhere down the Coast which advertised mushroomburgers. "Yes, it is I who invented the mushroomburger," he replied proudly, giving a history of how this meat substitute item had been conceived and popularized. As this very long interview, together with the lunch, came to an end, Bill and I prepared to take our leave. "Oh, no. You've only heard about my work, now you will see some of it." Space was made and a scene ensued that made me think of life in the court of some oriental potentate. The entertainment was given by about a dozen or twenty adolescent and pre-adolescent boys, barefooted and wearing gym outfits. They proceeded to do a series of yoga postures such as Bill and I had never seen before. The Paramahamsa proudly watched his performers, commented on the exercises, explaining the value of each. At one point some of the advanced students thrust needles through cheeks and tongue and removed them without drawing blood. The whole thing struck me very unpleasantly. Was this something I should have to accept in becoming an adept of Indian religion? I asked myself. I hoped not. What we had witnessed struck me as intensely unaesthetic and moreover carrying with it an unmistakable odor of eroticism. It was obvious that this was not to be my way, nor the Paramahamsa my spiritual guide. Later, when I gave an account of that luncheon to Swami Prabhavananda (who had known Yogananda since their younger days in Bengal) he looked quite grim. "Could it be said, Swami," I asked, in order to draw him out, "that one might classify Ramakrishna Vedanta as the Episcopalianism of Indian religious thought and the SRF people as its Holy Rollers?" Swami just looked at me disgusted. Paramahamsa Yogananda died suddenly at a banquet honoring the Indian Ambassador in Los Angeles on March 7, 1952. It was said that his body did not become corrupted; and there were plans to enshrine it on SRF grounds for future viewing; but this plan was rejected by the Los Angeles Health Department. It is now, like those of so many other former Los Angeles residents, buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery...
Secret Wind Registered User (3/28/06 2:49 am) Reply	Re: 1948 Yogananda Interview Of important note to add here on this quote from the article ... ------------------------------------------------------------ The Paramahamsa proudly watched his performers, commented on the exercises, explaining the value of each. At one point some of the advanced students thrust needles through cheeks and tongue and removed them without drawing blood. ------------------------------------------------------------ There's a chapter on this in B. Premanand's book "Science Versus Miracles (Vol. I)" titled, “No pain or blood when the tongue or cheek is pierced with a sharp needle or trident”. www.indian-skeptic.org/html/svm_cont.htm The book exposes many of the yogi tricks and how they're done, such as Yogananda's pulse trick: p208.ezboard.com/fcultbus...ID=2.topic

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