Paramhansa Yogananda, author of the now classic life story, “Autobiography of a Yogi,” brought the Self-realization teachings of India to the West in 1920. Yogananda was a monk in the Giri branch of the Swami order of India.
He used a variety of terms to describe his teachings according to the emphasis and context. One term he used was Sanatan Dharma. It is an ancient term that describes the essential revelations of Indian religion which pre-date the classic period of Hinduism. This term can be translated to mean the “Eternal Religion” or the “Universal Truths”. The meaning here is that the essential teachings represent the core and universal purpose of the creation in general and humanity specifically. It contains the foundational revelations of all true faiths such as a belief in God, divine love and goodness, the divine omnipresence in all creation, the destiny of all souls to seek and be reunited with the Creator and the role of those who are the agents of salvation. (Even a faith like Buddhism that is reluctant to discuss such tenants in these terms, professes compassion for all life and the importance of liberation from delusion.)
Another term he used is “Self-realization.” He used this term in naming his organization. It is a reference to the teaching that the individual human soul (or Atman) has for both its purpose and destiny to be re-united with the Creator (Brahman) in cosmic consciousness. That destiny is not automatic. The soul must make the effort to transcend its temporary identification with the body and personality to begin the journey to transfer its self-identification to the overarching Spirit within. The soul’s self-effort creates the magnetism to attract to itself the second crucial ingredient to its successful reunion: the grace of a God-realized guru.
Another term Yogananda used to describe his work in the West was the “Second Coming of Christ.” This was certainly an audacious moniker for a Hindu-yogi who was traveling and teaching in America. He did NOT claim HE was a reincarnation of Jesus Christ. He stated that he was sent to the West at the behest of both Babaji (a reincarnation of Lord Krishna of the Bhagavad Gita) AND Jesus Christ. The two of whom, he said, conferred together: one without a body and with a body! He hinted at a deeper and long-standing relationship to Jesus Christ when he stated that the three wise men were none other than the yogis of his current life lineage in their former incarnations.
Yogananda said that he came to resurrect the ORIGINAL teachings of BOTH Krishna from the Bhagavad Gita and Jesus Christ specifically to emphasize the daily practice of meditation and the underlying similarity in their core teachings. Both in India and in the West, religion had gone too far in the direction of outward ritual, priestly control, and sectarian beliefs and had lost the all-important emphasis on the individual’s inner relationship with God for which meditation is uniquely helpful. Further, given the technological and scientific orientation of modern times, he knew that a method for “inner communion” (through meditation) would be welcomed and appreciated. Towards this end, Yogananda’s lineage in the nineteenth century revitalized and refined an ancient and advanced technique which they called, simply, “Kriya Yoga.”
Paramhansa Yogananda also taught hatha yoga, and the Eight-Fold Path of Patanjali (raja yoga) as steps toward initiation into the advanced technique of kriya yoga. Though the Yoga Sutras are too often assumed to be only the basis of yoga, a careful reading of their pithy statements easily reveals their universality and nonsectarian view.
This brings us at last to our question: Are these Self-realization teachings Christian? Or Hindu? Or, neither? Both?
Yogananda said “I didn’t come here to Indianize you!” He was not even a Brahmin by caste (but a Kshatriya). There is a strong resemblance in his teachings to those of a parallel but slightly earlier lineage: Ramakrishna Paramhansa and his chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda (who came to America at an earlier time, 1893).
Ramakrishna was a nonconformist from orthodoxy but less so than Yogananda if for no other reason than Ramakrishna did not travel outside India. Ramakrishna is perhaps best known for having achieved an inner realization of the potential of each of the major faiths of humanity to bestow God-realization.
One might say that Yogananda continued the direction away from orthodox Hinduism by focusing on the mainstream of Raja Yoga practices as taught in the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. (Ramakrishna focused on training his monastic disciples and did not publicly teach yoga-meditation practices.) Nonetheless, between the two Paramhansas, a trend or direction in religion was being launched.