Dwapara Yuga and Yogananda: blueprint for a New Age [Paperback]

Poor Richard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2007

From the fall of Rome to the Renaissance almost nothing new was discovered. Man looked back to the great learning of classical civilization for inspiration: admiring their thinkers and architects but incapable of equaling them. In turn, those ancients looked back further, to a previous "Golden Age." Why did civilization fall and then rise again? In 1920, the Indian Yogi Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic "Autobiography of a Yogi", came to the United States with the answer. With his message of simple living and high thinking, he became the most popular speaker in the country. This short book deals with Yogananda and the New Age he described: Dwapara Yuga.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"Wherever you see ashes, throw it up, you might just get the priceless gem!"

Swami Sri Yukteswar

From the Back Cover

From the fall of Rome, around 500 AD, to the Renaissance, ten to twelve centuries
later, almost nothing new was discovered. Man looked back to the great learning of
classical civilization for inspiration: admiring their thinkers and architects but
incapable of equaling them. In turn, those ancients looked back further, to a previous
"Golden Age." Why did civilization fall and then rise again? In 1920, the Indian Yogi
Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic "Autobiography of a Yogi", came
to the United States with the answer.

Yogananda became the most popular speaker in the country, having the ear of leading
figures such as the President, the Governor of California, Burbank, Ford and Edison.
He brought an ancient message of simple living and high thinking to a new audience,
emphasizing healthy diet, exercise and meditation at a time when these ideas were far
from common.

Yogananda explained that we are entering a New Age called Dwapara Yuga
characterized by a breakdown of the idea of a material world and a growing
consciousness of the underlying unity of peoples, energy and nature. Like the days
and years, the Yuga or Age is a natural, astronomical cycle in which civilization
gradually rises for 12,000 years and then gradually falls for 12,000 years, as our Sun
orbits its binary star. The ancient Indians called these ages Kali, Dwapara, Treta and
Satya. The ancient Greeks called them Iron, Bronze, Silver and Gold.

In the period of 1600 to 1900 AD we transitioned from the constrictive, materialistic
Kali Yuga or Iron Age to the expansive, energy-focused Dwapara Yuga or Bronze Age.
This has lead to a continuing breakdown of barriers from oligarchy to democracy,
serfdom and slavery to individual freedom and to inventions such as the telescope,
television, atomic power, flight and the Internet. The subject of this short book is the
unfolding Dwapara Yuga, Paramhansa Yogananda, his mission, those who inspired
him and those who he inspired.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: The Noble New (December 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615181317
• ISBN-13: 978-0615181318
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,493,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The author is a student of the Yugas, met with many direct disciples of Paramhansa Yogananda, followers of Swami Sri Yukteswar and Swami Kebalananda in Europe, the US and India, over many years.

Trained in physics, meeting both Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins and business, meeting Wall Street to Dot Com leaders in a career from nuclear power in Europe, to leveraged hedge funds and Silicon Valley Startups in the US.

Poor Richard is a nom de plume in homage to Ben Franklin. Gyanananda is my spiritual name.

"The greatest enemy of man is ignorance and selfishness--not wars nor variety of religions nor customs nor races nor colors nor creeds. If ignorance and selfishness were driven from the hearts of men and they were taught to cooperate for mutual good, regarding themselves as brothers born of the one Father God, then that would pave the way for a World Nation." - Paramhansa Yogananda.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overview of Dwapara Yuga, Yogananda's historic mission and the unfolding of a New Age, January 12, 2008

By 

Poor Richard "Poor Richard" (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dwapara Yuga and Yogananda: blueprint for a New Age (Paperback)

This short book is written from an independent view point, taking in information from many branches of the Kriya Yoga Lineage and its several hundred gurus.

The tone is reverent, yet focuses on facts and history, hoping to avoid the overly soft focus typical of many hagiographies.

It contains much information that has never been published before, for example:
- The parallels of the American Revolution and the Bengal Renaissance
- The interplay of Sri Yukteswar, Yogananda, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda
- Martial arts, Sri Yukteswar and Yogananda
- Yogananda's historical mission and the history of SRF, including the many organizations continuing that mission outside of SRF
- Yogananda's influence in business, politics and music
- Yogananda and UFOs
- Yogananda and Reincarnation
- Sri Yukteswar, France and Germany, for example "The Holy Science" was originally written in French!

Most importantly it summarizes Yogananda's teachings and how he saw them developing a United States of the World, with appropriate citations to the original sources.

The back cover provides the following additional information.

"Dwapara Yuga and Yogananda: blueprint for a New Age by Poor Richard" is a take on Franklin's Almanac, offering not weather, household hints and amusements but teachings of simple living and high thinking from Yogananda, the author of the spiritual classic "Autobiography of a Yogi". From 1920, the Indian Yogi spoke of a New Age of "Dwapara Yuga" unfolding, becoming the most popular speaker in America, with the ear of the President, the Governor of California, Burbank, Ford and Edison.

Yogananda answered the question of why civilization fell from the Romans to the Renaissance with the ancient idea of a natural, 24,000-year cycle of time called a Yuga. He explained that from 1600 to 1900 we transitioned to a New Age characterized by a breakdown of the idea of a material world and a growing consciousness of the underlying unity of peoples, energy and nature. Franklin, with his belief in "God as the infinite" and reincarnation, seized lightning from the sky and the scepter from the hand of tyrants, epitomizing the New Age.

Yogananda's message of healthy diet, exercise and meditation was complimented by predictions that the future holds a coming together of the East and West, combining the spiritual qualities of India with the can-do competence of America, leading to a United States of the World - "Man must enlarge his allegiance, considering himself in the light of a world citizen. A person who truly feels: 'The world is my homeland; it is my America, my India, my Philippines, my England, my Africa,' will never lack scope for a useful and happy life. His natural local pride will know limitless expansion; he will be in touch with creative universal currents."

All profits from this book are donated to the One Laptop per Child Foundation.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great source of information and leads, May 29, 2009

By 

HAL9000 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dwapara Yuga and Yogananda: blueprint for a New Age (Paperback)

The other reviewer seems to be interested in furthering a partisan position in the online dispute between SRF and Ananda. There are a number of online hate sites that cater exclusively to such opinions.

The strength of the Dwapara book is that it draws from many different Kriya Yoga sources around Dwapara Yuga and not just the ones with the official SRF seal of approval and provides many themes for further research. It is a Kali Yuga, constrictive view point to imagine that any one organization can monopolize truth, an attitude mocked by Yogananda himself.

The book's a commentary and compliment to the Dwapara passages in books such as the Holy Science, Astrological World Cycles and the Autobiography of a Yogi and in no way a replacement for them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book pwns the competition, April 19, 2010

By 

Otis Funkmeyer "Psychonautic Backpacker from ... (The City of Angels Baby!) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Dwapara Yuga and Yogananda: blueprint for a New Age (Kindle Edition)

This was a great book. Not as good as like Autobiography of a Yogi : Includes Bonus CD but y'know, it does have some pretty compelling information.

I think that this is a must read for the open-minded devotee who wants to understand reality from a more 360 degree, uncensored, unfiltered perspective than the one offered by most modern ashram/yoga/guru-types.

I feel like this review is not doing this book justice. Let me try again. When I look back, what I got most from this book were a lot of really unique anecdotes about the yugas and Yogananda that I have never heard anywhere else but which all rang very very true to me and a deeper understanding of religious structures and the seemingly inevitable calcification of said structures.

I really recommend this book quite a lot. It's one of those deep-down-the-rabbit-hole kinds that separate the women from the girls, the wheat from the chaff if you will.