RE: Astrology, Omar Khayyam, and Yogananda
Hi NoP,
Yes, in theory I'd agree with you, and in that pattern of distribution you'd expect a proliferation of Kriya Yoga, with no one person being 'it'. In fact, In 'Autobiography of a Yogi' it seems that Babaji initially gave the Kriya teachings with a view to it being disseminated. So, I don't know 😉 - but a glance at that site shows that they seem to be saying that other Kriya teachings that have reached the West are insufficient and lacking; that they are the 'authentic' way. It's hard to imagine that Sri Yukteswar got it wrong or taught Yogananda insufficiently.
The site I gave a link to is largely about a book, now re-released as 'Kriya Yoga', and that might help to form an opinion, but I haven't seen it yet. In time I'll be interested to read it, as it tells the story of a Westerner coming across the individual to whom this strand was passed from Lahiri Mahasaya's grandson
V
RE: Astrology, Omar Khayyam, and Yogananda
This seems to happen in all religions, sadly. Anyway, it's the message not the messenger, right?
I plan to buy Yogananda's book about the Second Coming of Christ. A bit pricey with its fancy cover, which I would probably have to hide from born-agains, who might burn me at the stake when they find out Jesus isn't coming back in the flesh.
RE: Astrology, Omar Khayyam, and Yogananda
I didn't know of that Yogananda book. Is that the title? - 'Second Coming of Christ'?
RE: Astrology, Omar Khayyam, and Yogananda
Dear Sunanda
I did not miss it dear one.
I think you and Venetian misunderstand me
I was asking for Yogananda's translation of the quatrain, or maybe I did not make myself clear.
Dear No Patterns
Ah...but he is coming back in the flesh......
Glory BE to GOD
Kim xx
RE: Astrology, Omar Khayyam, and Yogananda
A few other views and perspectives to share.
It is interesting that wine played an important part in sacred ceremony and initiation in ancient times. The community that wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls offered baptism in water for the lower orders, reserving baptism by wine for those that embraced the monastic life. Water was considered good enough for the unclean lepers, gentiles, married men, disabled people and women. But it was Jesus that turned this doctrine on its head by making wine available to all as a demonstration of equality.
In her book Jesus the Man Barbara Thiering an Australian biblical scholar, states that its essential point was easily accessible to a pesharist with knowledge of the Qumran initiation system. The earlier state was a baptism by water, followed two years later by full initiation, the main privilege of which was the receiving of the Drink of the Community the wine at the sacred meal.
To this day Jewish people carry out this sacred ceremony, a spiritual man from Israel that joined me in Florence demonstrated it at the Harmonic Epiphany.
She goes on to say As the sign of this initiation, he was given wine, but not new wine, the drink that was prescribed in the Scrolls. In Judea, new wine was used at the time of the grape harvest in September. The highest initiates received their initiation in September, the season of the great Jewish feasts. The scrolls reveal that the feast of the Pentecost was one of the initiation seasons. Thiering says that when Peter was accused of being drunk with new wine at Pentecost, it was a way of saying that he used fermented wine as sacred wine. It had been the custom to drink fermented wine earlier in the evening at a common meal for satisfying hungar, then to drink the new wine in the later sacred part when the communion was held. Excess was also permitted in some communities.
Alcohol, mainly in the form of wine, mead and ale played a crucial role in ancient times, it was seen as safer to drink than water, throughout our history it was used as a medicine, both as an antiseptic for wounds and as a restorative if ill. Its renaissance, in part, has been due to the growing body of evidence from eminent researchers and physicians that drinking in moderation is not only enjoyable and sociable but prolongs life by protecting against heart disease and stroke as well as late onset diabetes, alzheimer disease and in the words of Plato, the 'crabbedness of old age'!
http://www.drinkingandyou.com/site/us/history.htm
Now Persians were big drinkers. In ancient Persia couples were expected to imbibe the sweet mead every day. They were the oldest civilization in the world who were drinking alcohol
http://hometown.aol.com/ahreemanxii/page1.html
This was the religion of Ancient Persia before the advent of Islam 1400 years ago. ... Today it is replaced by vinegar since alcohol is banned in Islam. http://www.tehran.stanford.edu/Culture/nowruz.html
Sufi Tokers
Unlike alcohol, cannabis was not prohibited by Mohammed (570-632 AD). Many Moslems have used and praised marijuana over the centuries, and coffeehouses that served the drug were at one time commonplace. Some have even suggested that Mohammed himself was a secret imbiber of the herb, noting the prophet's shamanistic out of body flight to Mecca.
[DLMURL] http://www.cannabisculture.com/cgi/article.cgi?num=1883 [/DLMURL]
The Mawlawi (or Mewlawi) order of Sufi's are famous for their whirling ...
ended the ban on alcohol (Atatürk liked to drink). Interesting this link mentions there is some confusion over who wrote the Rubaiyat and that it is acclaimed to be Rumi and Omar Khayyam.
http://www.mandalivia.com/talk/archives/cat_history.php
Now let me be clear I am not suggesting that the Rubaiyat is not about the intoxification of GOD.
What is in question is whether Omar actually abstained completely from other substances and everyone will have their very own view on that. It is also interesting that wine and drink is used so frequently (from a psychology point of