Going to the Wall (Eve)

(Write about the discovery that a 'brick wall' limitation is actually an illusion.)

As a teen-ager and well before he became a renowned swami, Yogananda was the equivalent of the 50 kg. weakling who gets sand kicked in his face while sunning at the beach. Of course there were not beaches per say in Yogananda’s native Bengal nor were there any gyms in the early part of the 20th century to build up one’s sadly flabby physique.

Besides Yogananda’s fitness regime was always going to be based on Indian tradition, more psychic than physical. Meditation and mentorship with a guru was the go.

Even as an adolescent, in the long sessions of his meditation practice, Yogananda learned to cultivate extraordinary powers of awareness. One day a vision beckoned to him; it was unmistakably his spiritual teacher. The young seeker donned his sandals and set off trudging the rocky hills, plains, and valleys of Uttar Pradesh, until one magnificent day at the end of a dry plateau, he discovered the teacher of his vision, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, living abstemiously in a thatched hut.

Swami Giri greeted his new pupil with a reverent Namaste and then, as Yogananda was later to describe: “We dissolved into a oneness of tranquility, words a barrier to what was for me a revolutionary new manner of dialogue – the Master communicating soundless content from his heart directly to mine.”

Thus commenced an intense year of mostly silent learning, Swami Giri mentally transmitting understanding to Yogananda. To borrow a modern notion, the process was rather like downloading the psyche of the guru into the acolyte.

Yogananda was a quick learner and with characteristic discipline practiced what are called in Sanskrit “siddhis”, mystical powers, like: clairvoyance, clairaudience, levitation, teleportation, and his personal favourite, psychometry, that is, being able to move matter just by the power of his mind.

Very nearly a year to the date, Swami Giri charged his young disciple with what would be his mission. He was to travel the world spreading his guru’s teachings on India's ancient practices and philosophy of yoga and its tradition of meditation.
By now, Yogananda was ready to take on the mantle of a great teacher himself. With his guru’s imprimatur and the powers now invested in him, Yogananda set off across the continents of Europe and North America.

New York of the 1920’s, as much as now, has the reputation for nurturing a kind of tough, cynical breed of people, not likely to be pushovers for someone selling spiritual ideals. This was the site for the beginning of Yoganada’s American tour.

As a guest speaker at the Congress of World Religious Leaders being held in the Hotel Lexington ballroom, Yogananda knew he had to stage an attention-grabber for these flinty New Yorkers.

Yogananda briefed the President of the conference who was about to introduce him, and then he left the room.
The President, at the end of his formal introduction, asked the delegates to stand, turn 180 degrees and face the wall at the back of the room. They did so slowly and reluctantly. In short order, smooth as a knife going through warm butter, Yoganada materialized in front of the delegation.

Stunned (one woman fainted), and completely silent, this group of religious seekers experienced the very cells in their brains being re-ordered to accommodate an event completely out of their ken.

Needless to say, Yogananda’s dazzling demonstration of the dissolution of matter guaranteed a felicitous welcome to New York City and entry into major city of the United States.