hinduism

Yogananda's maiden voyage on the sea of authorship, THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION, surprises the reader us with paradoxes. In 1920, when still at his teacher's ashram in India, Yogananda received an invitation to speak to an International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, sponsored by the American Unitarian Association, thus beginning his three decades of teaching and work on this continent. "Science" and "religion" are usually discussed as opposites or adversaries, as are "reason" and "faith," but this expansion of his 1920 address to that congress brings the yoga approach: revealing the unities - in the most ancient and universal "unitarian" approach.

The very word "religion" has roots in "unity:" the Latin 'religare', which dictionaries often define unpleasantly as to restrain or to tie back; Yogananda cites the more yogic definition: to bind. To someone accustomed to the term "yoga" with its common roots in "to yoke together" or "to unite," the positive implications become apparent for religion as a force of LIBERATION rather than of restraint. If you are among the thousands who shun the contemporary uses of "religious" and say, with many of my friends, "I am not so much a religious person as a spiritual person," you will appreciate Yogananda's use of this more universal and positive meaning of "religious."

In this tightly reasoned essay on how ancient spiritual revelations from yoga science can elevate modern religion to liberating heights, Yogananda offers to even the most intellectual of audiences the best of reasons 1) why devotion to Truth and the experience of Spirit must logically go hand-in-hand and 2) how the airy realms of spirituality are pressingly practical: "...religion necessarily consists in the permanet removal of pain and the realization of Bliss or God."

He moves forward to show the differences between the basic four approaches to spiritual realization (as described by another reviewer, below) and provides more fundamentals about meditation and esoteric yoga practice than his 1920 audience could possibly have coped with. It is more accessible to our new, better-initiated century. The Science of Religion is an introduction to the universality of yoga, meditation, and the experience of the Divine, and -- although lacking the fascinating annecdotes of his Autobiography of a Yogi or the inspirational upliftment of such later books as Where There is Light and The Divine Romance -- The Science of Religion is a powerfully reasoned call to the intellect to open its heart along with its mind.

RECOMMENDATION: Especially good gift for your intellectual, agnostic friends - or those who have been alienated by narrow, orthodox, negativity-based presentations of religion.

This book is really a discourse on why we feel pain. For people of a more "intellectual bent", this book may be the perfect opening into Yogananda's other books and works. According to this book, there really is no pleasure. So what do we feel when we have sex or eat an ice cream cone? First of all, the mind is just fine as it is. That is, you will not add anymore pain. But by association in thought (thinking), one creates an "excitation" in the brain. This is a desire and it causes pain because we want the desired object. Now here is the hard part. The so-called pleasure is really just the removal of the WANT created by the association in the mind. I thought about writing a book review. Somebody calls. I feel upset (pain). But the pain is caused by my having thought about the book review in the first place. I created an "excitation" or spark in the brain. Then this excitation was not fulfilled. Great pain. But even if somebody doesn't call, and I do write this review, THE FEELING OF PLEASURE IS ONLY THE RESULT OF REMOVING THE ORIGINAL EXCITATION FROM MY BRAIN! So, there really isn't any pleasure. There is the pain of not satisfying the excitation and there is the neutral feeling of satisfying the excitation (which will uninevitably arise again). How do we get out of this quagmire of pain. Quite simple. Order this book from Amazon. com.

Religion or faith in fundamental principles, is the foundation upon which the edifice of reasoning, or science is built upon. While it is religion which binds us into courses of action consistent with those fundamental principles, it is science that enables us to stay clear of inconsistent systems of guiding principles, and to practically attain the goals posited by our principles.

The Science of Religion by Paramahansa Yogananda arrives by analysis at inner happiness or bliss as the goal that binds all men. Thus, from the standpoint of the etymological meaning of the word religion as that which binds (from religio-onis in Latin), the author says that the pursuit of bliss is universal religion, as it motivates all human actions.

Having arrived at universal religion, the author then goes on to present the practical means of attaining the goal, i.e.,the science. He outlines the four broad classes of methods that have been evolved to attain bliss, or God: the methods of reasoning, devotion, meditation, and life-force control. He points out the limitations of the first three methods, and recommends the method of life-force control (which acts directly upon the vital organs of the body, slowing them down) to sever the identification of human consciousness with the body that underlies all human suffering.