VII. Yogananda

VII. Yogananda

I have a friend in the city named Henry who started down the spiritual path several years before I did, through the teaching of the SelfRealization Fellowship founded by the great Indian Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda. I thought my friend would be delighted to hear that I had found God, had given up drugs, and was in touch with great spiritual teachers. I was disappointed that his reaction was cool, at best. Just like the protestant minister with whom I was at odds theologically, Henry, too, found it difficult to relate to a pathway to God that was not accounted for in the dogma of his chosen religion. He was suspicious of my "teachers'' since he was convinced that only lowlife entities would lower themselves to my level. He insisted that the direct path to God through meditation was the only worthy path.

We had a long conversation about such things, and struck a bargain whereby he would do something I suggested to him, and I would do something he advised me to do. He never did keep up his end of the bargain, but I kept up my end. I am grateful to him for his advice.

Henry was especially skeptical of my taking down music dictated by other people; his suggestion was that I go to the Source of all Being, and, in a state of raised consciousness, get my own music. This I attempted to do in the following manner: I would choose a portion of text (I was writing a musical at the time) and internalize the feelings of the character just as I had done for the feelings involved in the symphony and the concerto that I took down from Jesus. This time, however, instead of taking dictation a note at a time, I listened to an inner voice that would sing me the music in a nearly finished form. I had to use my intelligence to get through modulations and so on, but the native material itself came from within, created spontaneously out of my growing Godconsciousness. Spirit

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floved down through me, by Grace, and spontaneously manifested God's truth. This way of making music is not that different from the way I had always made music, the way everybody makes music; the only difference is the depth to which I was able to reach within for the expression of my true self.

An important realization I had from taking dictation from Jesus and Schutz and Anton, was that all music, poetry, painting, wisdom, ideas, etc. everything  comes from God. At first, I was overjoyed to be the channel for such great music. Then, at a certain point, I thought, "What about me? I want to make music. I want to be great. I want the credit.'' My whole life, my whole selfimage had always centered around what I considered to be the selfvalidating knowledge that I had the ability to create great works of art; without this knowledge my self had no basis for affirmation whatsoever; I was nothing. Is this what my teachers had made of their humblethoughslightly welleducated messenger boy? Nothing?

My petty ego had to realize that I had never ever written a note of music completely by myself; it had always come from God in a more or less pure state. I had to learn that I had often been a channel for higher personalities' ideas, just as I, from the astral plane, had channeled through other artists before being born in this present life. My teachers have explained to me that often an artist benefits from unconscious association with higher personalities. I had to learn that this creativity game does not depend on individuals, because the point of it is not to glorify individuals but to channel the glory of God down into the physical by whatever means possible.

When an artist opens himself to higher influences by raising his consciousness through concentration or, you might say, invocation, his prayer is often answered by some high, benevolent guide or angel who more or less dictates

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the artwork by creating an inner vision in the mind of the artist. The artist who is skilled at capturing the vision and translating it to a physical medium is a very great blessing to mankind from God and is called genius and prodigy, great etc., when in fact all he may have to commend himself is a nicely tuned receiver. The artist can recreate the vision from God more or less well depending on his perceptivity, attention, and, importantly, his powers of memory. Training at an early age is extremely important because the young mind disciplined to retain specialized information can accomplish miracles of memory later on. Mozart, for instance, claims to have received many pieces in a single flash of insight; this flash of inspiration was not unique to Mozart, I am sure, since artists of every age and medium know what it is to be inspired. Mozart's historical dictinction was his unique power of memory, his ability to retain an entire symphony in perfect order in his mind for days while he took the time to write it down.

Many times, more than one personality channels through the open door of an artist's creativity: when more than one spirit channels through an artist, this can explain differences in the artist's style from piece to piece, period to period, or form to form. Between lives, I myself, from the astral plane, contributed to the work of Charles Ives, specifically his violin music and some songs. It was no surprise to me to learn this, since I have always felt close to Ives, and it had been noted more than once that there is an affinity between my music and his music; this applies to music I wrote before I discovered Ives, as well as music written after I became consciously influenced by him.

I am in no way saying that I am the reincarnation of Charles Ives, I am saying that there was a group of personalities, whispering in Ives' ear, who contributed to his enormously rich and variegated output, and I was one of

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them. Without much digging, I can put my finger on a half dozen musical contexts in Ives which are echoed almost verbatim in my music; furthermore, Ives' transcendentalist essays on music and life reflect many of the same attitudes you are reading in this book. I am not taking credit, I am reminding you that Ives opened himself and I, among others, was there. When an artist opens himself to higher influences through concentration, meditation, trance, etc., there will always be help from higher up. We do not do any great, beautiful thing alone.

Anyway, Henry's words, besides motivating me to revolutionize my way of making music, also motivated me to dig deeper into Yogananda's teachings. I read his autobiography and a few other writings, as well as the beginning lessons of the Self Realization Fellowship. These exercises brought me to a realization of the lifeforce which circulates all through the body, originating at the base of the spine. I gained a rudimentary knowledge of the chakras (energy centers, or doors, through which different kinds of cosmic energy circulate). I followed Yogananda's path for several months, fastidiously performing his spiritual execises, and absorbing his attitudes and knowledge. I met Yogananda personally and grew to love him very much. He gave me a special lullaby for Emlyn which has a charmed effect on the child to this day.

Most of what I learned from Yogananda has continued to be of benefit to my spiritual understanding and growth. Perhaps Yogananda's most important point was what Henry kept telling me : that God comes before all else; that to be seduced by the glamour of psychic phenomena was the most treacherous pitfall a chela could encounter on his path to God; that the role of my teachers was to lead me to God, not to become one more physical distraction diverting my attention from its ultimate goal. In keeping with this,

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Yogananda specifically taught that if there is no God in the music it is worthless.

I learned that &od is infinitely patient and infinitely forgiving, but to indulge in what Yogananda called "chattinesst' and other forms of weakness of mind was to delay the coming of the Christ. Yogananda was very firm with me about getting in control of my "monkey mind", and what slight control I now have over it I owe to his guidance.

Yogananda broadened my understanding of world religion by making me see how God had spoken to the world through the Christ consciousness of many great masters. He helped me begin to perceive the continuity from one religion to the next; to see that many apparent contradictions were not contradictions at all when seen from a higher vantage point. Yogananda showed me that the SelfRealization Fellowship is actually a denomination of the Christian church. Hearing of Yogananda's special relationship with Jesus did much to help me integrate my new spiritual knowledge with the teachings of Jesus which I had absorbed through long association with the church.

The most outstanding lesson I retained from my association with Yogananda was his personal strength. There was a great, loving, understanding sweetheart in that personality, but there was also a nononsense taskmaster whose example is an inspiration of incalculable magnitude to his chelas in the SelfRealization Fellowship. As I ponder his teaching, it continues to inspire me.

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