There is a strange building on Sunset boulevard, the temple of Self-Realization Fellowship / Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, an organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda. From the outside, it looks like something coming from a Hollywood movie about an Indian fantasy, with golden domes and white walls, but it is a religious thing, based on the teachings of Yogananda, including a very old form of yoga (Kriya Yoga).
George Harrison, Peter Gabriel, Van Morrison, Jon Anderson (of Yes), Elvis Presley, Kerry Livgren (of Kansas), Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) and Madonna have all been interested by that cult at one point of their life.
Elvis Presley fell in love with the guru’s writings (there was a meditation garden in Graceland), and when he considered a marriage to Ginger Alden before his death, he wanted the ceremony to be held in a pyramid-shaped arena ‘in order to focus the spiritual energies upon him and Ginger’. In the 60’s and 70’s, Presley donated thousands of dollars to the organization.
Harrison, although not himself a disciple, was introduced to Yogananda’s writings by Ravi Shankar, and the Indian guru (with 3 other ones), was included on the cover of Sgt. Pepper. In 2002, Harrison’s family donated proceeds from ‘My sweet lord’ re-release to the Self-Realization Fellowship.
Roger Hodgson from Supertramp wrote a song, ‘Babaji’ for the 1977 ‘Even in the Quietest Moments’ album, inspired by Yogananda’s teachings.
Peter Gabriel has confirmed and christened his two daughters in 6 different religions at Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine temple in Los Angeles.
Madonna spoke positively about the Indian guru’s autobiography.
And what is wrong with that? The problem is that this Yogananda, who was the first yoga master from India to spend the greater part of his life in North America, was claiming all kinds of things that are either impossible or the result of some tricks.
He pretended, among other things, he could walk on fire, go without eating indefinitely, and his autobiography contains numerous claims of miraculous healings, levitation, bilocation and raising of the dead by members in the Self-Realization Fellowship.
He also claimed that he had lived around 1500 BC in a previous incarnation, or, on other occasions, that he was the reincarnation of William the Conqueror or William Shakespeare.
A very funny thing, he wrote many ‘predictions’ for the future (in Kriyananda, 1974), and among them were an American revolution against governmental interference, the end of England as a world power, the absorption of Japan by China, and a Third World War, around the 1970s, to spread communism throughout ‘much of the free world’. Then he predicted another war that would devastate Europe, annihilate Russia, and leave America victorious, restoring peace for hundreds of years. But there was also a prediction, which said that if America were ever losing, space aliens from UFOs would intervene. Of course this Kriyananda book is out of print.
When Yogananda died, the Self-Realization Fellowship claimed his body did not rot, manifesting a ‘divine incorruptibility’. He is buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, the same one where Michael Jackson and other celebrities are.
I always wonder how can rock stars and other celebrities swallow so much crap? Although, the Self-Realization Fellowship has many temples throughout California, the building on Sunset boulevard is at one block from the Scientology building, another big celebrity ‘religious’ magnet.