Otherware Salutes New Dimensions

Listening: Bro. Chidananda discusses "Christ Consciousness Here and Now" with host Michael Toms on New Dimensions. Free listening until June 5.

Feeling: Lazy - no Codes today. Thinking about doing a 30 minute intensive before sleep, but it's getting late.

One of the first books I ever read about yoga was the classic, "Autobiography of a Yogi", written by Paramahansa Yogananda, who brought yoga to the West. He wrote the book in 1946, 26 years after first arriving on US soil in Boston. He later moved to L.A. and nearly 90 years ago, predicted that California would eventually become a place for a new renaissance in spirituality and judging by the number of yoga schools, health retreats and the like that have sprung up there since the 80's, it's a prediction that has indeed come true, even though one would probably never think of Hollywood as being synonymous with spirituality, but these days it's big business there.

I loved that book, with it's fantastic accounts of Yogananda's master Babaji, who is reportedly hundreds of years old (and still lives today in the Himalayas), and the journey of this man who achieved his quest for spiritual enlightenment, and became a Master.

If you're a student of yoga already, or interested in finding out more, this interview with Bro. Chidananda is essential listening, as he discusses at length the life of this great spiritual leader and teacher. Michael Toms, who has been interviewing the world's greatest thinkers for more than 30 years, has done a stellar job as usual, asking his thoughtful, insightful questions in his wonderfully gentle but highly articulate style. And if you have been wondering about the "second coming" and how it will manifest, the "ascension" process, or even 2012, then you may find some very useful information here. HIGHLY recommended.


*Bro. Chidananda, an American, has been a monk in the Self-Realization Fellowship's monastic community for more than twenty-five years, and serves on the SRF International Publications Council. He has assisted in the editing and publication of numerous books by Paramahansa Yogananda, including The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of Christ Within You (Self-Realization Fellowship 2004) and Autobiography of a Yogi (Self-Realization Fellowship 1979).