Swami Yogananda Paramahansa. (Self-Realization Fellowship)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaks during an Apple Special Event September 1, 2010 in San Francisco, California. (AFP/Getty Images)

Yogananda read from his poem My India, concluding with the words “Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God—I am hallowed; my body touched that sod.” As he uttered these words, he lifted his eyes to the Ajna Chakra, and his body slumped to the floor. This article explains how Yogananda’s vision was prophetic. According to several media reports, Steve Jobs personally planned a gift for family and friends attending his funeral service and it wasn’t an Apple product. Instead, it was the book, “The Autobiography of a Yogi” by Yogananda Paramahansa, writes Pradeep B. Deshpande.

On March 7, 1952, Yogananda Paramahansa attended a dinner for Binay Ranjan Sen, visiting Ambassador of newly-independent India and his wife at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles (Source, Wikipedia). At the conclusion of the banquet, Yogananda spoke of India and America, their contributions to world peace and human progress, and their future cooperation, expressing his hope for a “united world” that would combine the best qualities of “efficient America” and “spiritual India.” As Yogananda ended his speech, he read from his poem My India, concluding with the words “Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God—I am hallowed; my body touched that sod.” As he uttered these words, he lifted his eyes to the Ajna Chakra, and his body slumped to the floor. This article explains how Yogananda’s vision was prophetic.

According to several media reports, Steve Jobs personally planned a gift for family and friends attending his funeral service and it wasn’t an Apple product. Instead, it was the book, “The Autobiography of a Yogi” by Yogananda Paramahansa. Business Insider reported Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff as saying, “I knew this was a decision Steve made that everyone was going to get this gift. So, whatever this was, it was the last thing Jobs wanted us all to think about. That was the message: Actualize yourself.” Now, Steve Jobs is remembered as one of the best creative and innovative minds of the Tech World. Why would such a visionary go to these lengths to gift Yogananda’s book? It appears, Steve experientially understood the power of kriya yoga, and maybe that was the source of his creativity and innovativeness. But in the absence of a scientific understanding, the best he could do was to implore the recipients to embrace kriya yoga by presenting a copy of the book at his funeral service. The gravity of his feelings could not have been lost on the people who received the gift.

Efficient America

Why America is so much more efficient than India? It is because the performance of processes and transactions here comes much closer to minimum variance than their counterparts in India. “Efficient America” translates into the wherewithal of how to do all that we do in the external world in the best possible manner by striving for minimum variance. This is science of external excellence. Quality initiatives such as Six Sigma, TQM, Kaizen, ISO, Lean, and others permit us to strive for minimum variance. Six sigma is the author’s favorite, for it is a structured, disciplined, and data-driven approach to problem-solving that doubles up as a topnotch quality initiative. Some 80% of Fortune 100 companies and 50% of Fortune 500 companies reportedly have six sigma programs in place. Six sigma was co-created at Motorola in the seventies by the late Bill Smith and the late Dr. Mikel J. Harry. The author has shown that six sigma is founded on natural laws, and so, it is not a fad of the day. It is here to stay. The reader may well conclude from this paragraph that quality initiatives alone are sufficient to transform India into “Efficient India” but that assessment wouldn’t be wholly correct.

Spiritual India 

Spiritual India, is tantamount to a pursuit of internal excellence and India has been a pioneer of the knowledge, wisdom, and practices of internal excellence. A scientific approach to achieving higher levels of internal excellence requires a scientific device to measure internal excellence and a process with which to raise it. Internal excellence cannot be measured but it strongly correlates with emotional excellence which can be measured. Our emotional state is linked to our vibrational characteristics. Unbeknownst to us, we all are vibrating all the time, but the signals are too weak for human perception with the five senses. Therefore, they must be stimulated and amplified. Our vibrational characteristics are our true nature and they determine everything about us including emotions. Vibrations can be thought of as light, not necessarily visible light, with unknown frequencies along the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Thus, the vibrational characteristics, our photonic glow, is our true nature and it is unique for everyone. The measurement is based on the principle of Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV). Here, a harmless electrical signal is applied to the fingers of both hands, one at a time. The finger’s response to this stimulus is a burst of photons that are captured on a digital computer and analyzed in comparison to tens of thousands of subjects in the database to estimate our vibrational characteristics from which our physiological and emotional state is estimated. The method is noninvasive, painless, and takes only a couple of minutes. Developed by a Russian scientist over twenty years ago, it has been approved by the Russian Health Ministry for use a routine medical diagnostic device in Russian hospitals and doctors’ offices. The GDV device delivers several results: (1) Overall energy, Joules, (2) State of chakras and their alignment along the central vertical line, (3) Emotional pressure on a scale of 0 to 10, (4) Health Status, Joules, and (5) Energy Reserve, Joules. There are targets for each of these parameters. Our energy level remains within a band throughout life, reduces owing to illnesses, and drops to a very low value at death. Therefore, it is imperative to keep our energy level up as late in life as possible and yoga helps us with this goal.

Figure 1(a) Strong (Left) and (b) Weak (Right) Photonic Glow of a Finger

With the measurement device on hand, the next step is to identify a process with which to raise internal/emotional excellence. Ancient sages have known for millennia that yoga is appropriate for this pursuit, but for that, but the term yoga must be correctly understood. In Sanskrit, yoga means “Union” or “To Connect” and the science of internal excellence teaches what to connect, why, and how, and the benefits of doing so. The author’s book on the Nature of Ultimate Reality, coauthored with Jim Kowall, a triple board-certified MD with a doctorate in Theoretical Physics, provides the details. Self-realization that Yogananda taught is at the top-end of the scale of internal excellence but even modest progress delivers a myriad of auditable benefits. The author has a large volume data on himself for several years that corroborate the benefits of yoga on the photonic energy field. A word of caution. Remain steadfastly committed to relying on data-alone for decision-making at all times except when you sit for meditation. Then, send your rational mind on a well-deserved vacation or else it will turn into your worst enemy. 

Why Combine Efficient America with Spiritual India?

Several years ago, the author made a critical discovery: “In the absence of an adequate level of internal excellence, the best of the best quality initiatives, including six sigma, do not, and cannot, deliver acceptable performance. Combine the two and the performance will zoom. The co-creator of six sigma, the late Dr. Mikel J. Harry was fully convinced of this assessment. The author’s paper, Profound Implications of Minimum Variance Control may be found on his blog, Business Improvement Times. Readers may also find it startling that the very culture that gave birth to such profound knowledge and wisdom on internal excellence eons ago, itself finds in urgent need for both components of excellence to catch up with the developed world. This phenomena too is consistent with ancient Indian wisdom. After fifty-five years in the U.S., it is becoming increasingly clear that America needs to embrace the science and practices of internal excellence if it is keep its inevitable and eventual decline at bay longer.

What is the Big Fuss?

Science of internal excellence together with the science of external excellence constitutes a scientific framework for world transformation toward a better and more peaceful world. The myriad of auditable benefits of the framework include health and wellness, exemplary performance, creativity and innovativeness, better leadership decisions, interpersonal relationships, and less discord and violence. Yukteshwar Maharaj sent his favorite disciple, Yogananda Paramahansa, to America to teach and spread the word on the practices of internal excellence. That Yogananda succeeded is evident from the fact that there is a Self-Realization Fellowship Center in virtually every major city in America and in many cities abroad. Yogananda also realized the importance of combining “efficient America” and “spiritual India.” It is hoped the reader sees that Yogananda’s vision was prophetic in that we now have a scientific framework for world transformation to continue his work where he left off. The Tech World has much to gain from the scientific framework. Truly heartwarming!