Swami Jnanananda Giri
~* 27.11.1929 to 06.11.2015 *~
The Swiss man who walked to India by his feet in 1952 at the age of 23, after having read the 'Autobiography of a Yogi' by Paramahansa Yoganandaji. He never returned home, became a monk initiated into Kriya yoga and stayed in India for the rest of his life.His Kriya yoga guru was a disciple of Swami Kebalananda (Yoganada's Sanskrit teacher), Swami Atmananda Giri of YSS (Yogoda Satsanga Society) in India who had taken sannyas-initiation (monk-hood initiation) from Paramahansa Yogananda and whom he met at Dakshineswar (Kolkata). He stayed with him in Kolkata for as long as he lived (12 years) before he moved on to the Himalayas.
Here's a close-up interview with him by Malcolm Tillis (1980)!Some quotes from this interview:~ "For anyone who has renounced the world, there is no past." ~
~ "I was drawn to complete renunciation: it is the best way to have sufficient time and to leave off thoughts of the world." ~
~ “All spiritual teachings are the same: the essence is to dwell in God, to dwell in the Reality at all times. By spiritual practice one aims to lose one’s little self to become one with the Ideal.“ ~
~ "(My Guru's teaching) was not a question of study from books to add to one’s knowledge. It was to surrender to the Divine to feel what is meant by Reality or Absolute Truth. To feel this is to know It. Such feeling comes by intense self-giving. It is the grace of the unspeakable power of the Divine that opens the way to bestow the new life." ~
~ "Now you have asked me about the hectic conditions under which most people live in the West. I believe the time will come when only those who meditate will be able to sleep at night. The total dependency on money and the security we imagine it brings is total ignorance if we are afraid to be alone without material possessions. At the time of death even millionaires are alone — nothing outside can help us. We are alone with our fears if we are rooted to the body, and we carry those impressions with us into the Beyond. Those who have meditated will also be alone when they leave, but will be filled with peace and they will carry that peace with them. To forget the world makes man a pilgrim; to forget the next world makes him a saint; to forget the ego gives him self-realization; forgetfulness of the forgetful is perfection." ~
~ "There is only the Guru. Guru is a state of consciousness — it is not a person. The person is only the instrument through which the power of guru flows." ~
~ "Now you have asked me about the hectic conditions under which most people live in the West. I believe the time will come when only those who meditate will be able to sleep at night. The total dependency on money and the security we imagine it brings is total ignorance if we are afraid to be alone without material possessions. At the time of death even millionaires are alone — nothing outside can help us. We are alone with our fears if we are rooted to the body, and we carry those impressions with us into the Beyond. Those who have meditated will also be alone when they leave, but will be filled with peace and they will carry that peace with them. To forget the world makes man a pilgrim; to forget the next world makes him a saint; to forget the ego gives him self-realization; forgetfulness of the forgetful is perfection." ~
