Religion provides the big story that allows people to make sense of their often chaotic lives. And universality has been the goal of nearly all religions since the start of recorded human history. The core message of Christianity, universalist in tone, proclaims love and forgiveness as the means to create heaven on earth. Through God’s grace, humans can reach reconciliation with and an appreciation for their neighbors. The example of Jesus points the way to living a life in love.
Paramahansa Yogananda (author of the seminal Autobiography of a Yogi, who lived goes one step further, claiming that such ex-from 1893-1952), though born and raised in periences connect the individual with cosmic a culture steeped in Yoga and Vedanta, was consciousness, providing an encounter with deeply moved by the story of Jesus and, while the God within. living and teaching in Los Angeles, sought out As noted in the introduction to The Second and talked about the similarities between the Coming of Christ by Sri Daya Mata, Presireligious philosophies of India and the Chris-dent of the Self-Realization Fellowship since tian world. 1955, Yogananda commented in the 1930s
The big story Yogananda was born with “I never dreamed before how deep are the came from Yoga and Vedanta, philosophies teachings of Jesus. Through the interpretation that tell similar stories. Yoga holds forth the that is being given to me now, I see that they truth and possibility that people can attain a express the same truths as Patanjali’s aphostate of inner peace and tranquility. Vedanta risms” (from page xvi). Over the course of ?mahansa Yogananda explores such topics as baptism, Satan, temptation, miracles, the ?preting each through the prism of Yoga and Vedanta. ??cussed on page 899), others will be pleased ?rection of Jesus after he suffered on the cross. This handsomely bound set of books includes ?es that Yogananda cites from the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible. In another collection, Swami Kriyananda (1924-) has gathered a series of twenty-four ?ings and the Bible in Revelations of Christ. This book includes personal anecdotes from his own life and stories about his master, Paramahansa Yogananda. Noting that the ?tions (on page 135), Swami Kriyananda gives several examples of how Biblical passages can be interpreted to reflect the teachings of Yoga. He suggests that “gates” in the Bible refer to chakras (energy centers), that various passages allude to the awakening of ?ni (the coiled energy at the base of the spine), and draws many other parallels. He tells a ?vivalist meeting conducted by Amie Semple Macpherson and remained standing as she brought thousands to their knees due to guilt over their sin, a state from which Yogananda ?tian theology accord well with the precepts and practices of Yoga and Vedanta, though certainly not all.
These two sizable works provide an opportunity to participate in a living dialogue between Christianity and the Yoga-Vedanta traditions. Paramahansa Yogananda’s words ?test to his heartfelt desire to understand and communicate the message of Jesus. Swami Kriyananda uses contemporary metaphors and explanations, nicely complementing the ?ization Fellowship. Consulting and drawing from both resources allow one to receive a full picture not only of the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through Yoga, but a ?municated to Christians in America through the genius of Paramahansa Yogananda for nearly a century.
