Birth Commemoration of Paramhansa Yogananda : January 5, 1893

Paramhansa Yogananda was born on January 5, 1893 in Gorakhpur, India. This excerpt in honor of his birth, appears near the end of Chapter 45, “The Bengali Joy-Permeated Mother.” The introduction to this excerpted paragraph was a quote from the words of Jesus, “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

“Casting aside every inferior attachment, Ananda Moyi Ma offers her sole allegiance to the Lord. Not by the hairsplitting distinctions of scholars but by the sure logic of faith, the childlike saint has solved the only problem in human life–establishment of unity with God. Man has forgotten this stark simplicity, now befogged by a million issues. Refusing a monotheistic love to God, the nations disguise their infidelity by punctilious respect before the outward shrines of charity. These humanitarian gestures are virtuous, because for a moment they divert man’s attention from himself, but they do not free him from his single responsibility in life, referred to by Jesus as the first commandment. The uplifting obligation to love God is assumed with man’s first breath of an air freely bestowed by his only Benefactor.”

The above excerpt from the "Autobiography of a Yogi" may be the only direct chastisement to modern society that Yogananda wrote in his now famous life story. Given humanity’s multifarious challenges in every conceivable arena of life, it is no subtle hint that our misplaced, if seemingly well intentioned priorities are, themselves, part of the cause of our problems. When you see problems everywhere, it is no surprise that they multiply.

Attempting then to solve problems only through reason, legislation or brute force merely compounds them. There is a deeper reason why “reason” is inadequate: because in appealing to reason we are appealing not only to a lower level of consciousness but we are essentially affirming the power of ego to control our destiny. This is, subconsciously or otherwise, a rejection of God’s existence, power, and grace as the sole reality and as the “solution” to all suffering.

Humankind has placed EGO on the altar of our lives and our culture. Reason is a product of the conscious mind, which, in turn, is a key aspect of the human ego. It has produced both the wonders and horrors of modern science. This “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (meaning the secrets of this world of duality) is inadequate to solve the world’s problems, including our most pressing: lasting happiness and peace.

We offer to you the suggestion that for 2017 and on Yogananda’s birthday this week, Thursday, January 5, Yogananda’s birth commemoration, let us put “God first” in our lives. Let us commit to prayer throughout the day, and meditation, morning and night. Those who pray to Yogananda will be heard and uplifted, for this is the divine and eternal promise. “Avatara” means descent and it refers to the incarnation of a soul who has become one with God, and, is, in this sense, God. “Lift up your eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.” (Psalm 121)

Blessings and "Happy Birthday, Master!"

Swami Hrimananda