Sri Yukteswar, The Incarnation of Wisdom
Swami Sri Yukteswar
Paramahansa Yogananda recognized Sri Yukteswar as his guru the moment he saw him. Sri Yukteswar was humble, learned, and a tough but loving spiritual teacher. Yogacharya O’Brian shares how we can learn, even in modern times, from the wise teachings of this great Kriya Yoga master.
Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian is the founder of the Yoga Hour. She is an acclaimed teacher, poet, award-winning author, and minister who has served seekers of spiritual enlightenment from all walks of life for over forty years. She is the recent recipient of the 2021 New Thought Walden Award for Interfaith and Intercultural Understanding. She has published several books including her latest book, The Jewel of Abundance: Finding Prosperity Through the Ancient Wisdom of Yoga. A teacher in the tradition of Kriya Yoga, Yogacharya O’Brian serves people from all faith backgrounds who are seeking what is known as Self- or God-realization, or awakening and is the spiritual director of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, a meditation center in San Jose, CA.
WEBSITES: ELLENGRACEOBRIAN.COM CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
YOGA HOUR TEAM COMMENTS: Yogacharya O’Brian offers us deep teachings from the tradition of Kriya Yoga in just this short hour. Her comments about attunement with the guru offered insight into the connection between the spiritual teacher and their student. She told us that when one has a guru who is steeped in the higher states of consciousness and you are in their presence, you get the experience or soul memory of their consciousness, they share their higher states of consciousness and which creates imprints in our own consciousness. We then take that with us and can draw on that. This is evidence of the importance of being in the physical presence of the guru whenever we can be. Her quote from Sri Yukteswar saying that Kriya Yoga is karma yoga is very important to understand. Kriya Yoga is a path of service. Our devotion, our study, our inner work all leads to serving others, to serving the world around us.
DR. TRUJILLO’S COMMENTS: I learned a lot from this discussion of the great Kriya Yoga teacher, Swami Sri Yukteswar. I appreciated the opportunity to discuss why it is important to study the “states of consciousness and virtuous attitudes and behaviors of spiritually enlightened saints and sages” (as Roy Eugene Davis translated from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra #1.37) which can provide guidance and inspiration for us on our own spiritual journey. I also welcomed her comments about Swami Sri Yukteswar’s focus that Kriya Yoga is a life of service, and that the culmination of mystical experience lies in serving others. I found the discussion of the yugas, or ages, as outlined in Swami Sri Yukteswar’s book The Holy Science to be hopeful and reassuring. We are in an ascending cycle of our spiritually awakening world, and even thought we see chaos and negativity we are on an upward trajectory for this world becoming more spiritually awake.