Customer Reviews

Dwapara Yuga and Yogananda: blueprint for a New Age

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Though the book had some interesting information none of it was particularly earth shattering.
What I found most disturbing was his attack on the SRF nuns. I don't know if the author just doesn't like women or if he's upset because the women are in charge. He actually got upset because the nuns went to Disneyland!
On the other hand he ignored the serious scandals that some of the men he quoted have been involved in.
I say skip it and instead read The Autobiography of a Yogi by Yogananda and The Holy Science by Sri Yukteswar.

Very interesting unknown facts in this book, and good analysis of the future of internet and technology, supported by extensive search.
Unfortunately, the book is filled with 80% of cheap attacks against "SRF inc", "the mata connexion", the Mormons, France (associated by the author to North Korea, Nazi Germany and USSR regimes!). That makes it very difficult to read and to find the perls...

The thing that lets this book down is the way the author has turned it into a political forum. He rants on with unfounded chatter that has nothing to do with the subject for which I paid good money. What is it with the bitterness? Especially when Yogananda's message is so clearly one of love.
The book contains a lot of unfounded heresy, delegated to the realms of "That's how it is and if you don't believe it YOU must be wrong." In addition there are references to Yogananda which I doubt he would have wanted to be discussed in general public, revealed in a kind of superior and arrogant way.
My advice is don't waste your money. It offers few solutions, a lot of moaning and whining and all presented in an incredibly biased, arrogant way, uncharacteristic of Yogananda. If you are looking for that Yogananda-esque loving and wise teaching, you are not going to find it here.