Autobiography of a Yogi

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

On Tue, 30 Sep 1997, Greg Goode wrote:

> I'll have to go down to a bookstore and look up the name of the kriya yoga
> writer.  He's no fan of Yogananda's!
>

You're probably referring to Sri Satyeswarananda Giri, who is now based in
San Diego. He is the only Kriya Yoga writer I've read, who criticizes
Yogananda.

Re: the legend about Mahavatar Babaji initiating Sankaracarya into Kriya
Yoga - The Autobiography of a Yogi does not say that Sankara's guru,
Govinda was also initiated by the Mahavatar Babaji. From what I remember,
the text seems to say that Govinda taught Vedanta to Sankara, while the
Babaji taught him Kriya Yoga.

According to some oral traditions, Sankara's guru, Govinda, is supposed to
be an ever-young, undying Himalayan ascetic. I don't know the origins of
this tradition, as the southern monasteries don't seem to subscribe to it,
but the same thing is also said of Mahavatar Babaji, by the Kriya Yoga
teachers. If anything, there seems to be a tendency to identify Mahavatar
Babaji with Govinda.

In any case, it is clear that the contemporary teachers of Kriya Yoga are
inheritors of two traditions, one originating from Lahiri Mahasaya, a
householder yoga teacher, and another tracing itself to the ascetic
Sankaracarya lineage. Sri Yukteswar Giri, guru of Sri Yogananda, became a
sannyasin at the Bodhgaya matha, and Yogananda himself invited Sri Bharati
Krishna Tirtha, the Sankaracarya of Puri, to visit the USA in the 1950's.

Vidyasankar