Copies of old East West Magazines Disappeared!

It's a shame that decades of early, non copyrighted East West magazines from Yogananda have disappeared from the web. They used to be at this address.

It was a simple matter for any interested reader to search independently, or via the old link from this site, and find what Yogananda wrote regarding many diverse topics, not all of which are covered by the in-print publications of SRF, or for that matter any Kriya Yoga Group.

Obviously a devotee's first focus should be how they live, especially meditation but it is still a loss to have less first hand material to peruse.

Footnote

A helpful reader pointed out that the East-West materials previously hosted on the deceased "Athens/Academy/5185" or /CollegePark/Library/7587" Geocities.com sites could still be found on the "Wayback machine" archive.

At first glance it seems like a lot of the material is intact although not necessarily in an immediately usable form. It is now archived across 8 or so years of date-based directories with transformed links and java scripting added, layered on top of the original Office 97 exported as HTML.

No one sees these archives since they are flagged to be invisible on search engines.

Update

The archives are only partial, with many dead links, even when using smart web site downloaders for Mac and Windows that try to follow Java Script links and repair broken ones.

The most complete set of what remains are located at the (unaffiliated) Mystic Portal.

If anyone has a complete archive, let me know and I'll make it freely available, without ads, or links to any particular group. Any fresh insight is welcome. This exercise has been something of a hitech refresh course on CS101 - a couple of UNIX "gurus" are pictured.

Afficianados of tools like sed and awk will have a field day cleaning up the HTML coming back from the original archive, although sadly not enough of the original materials are there for a full reconstruction to be made.

It's only 60 years since Yoganandaji's passing and already we're doing forensic reconstruction techniques like those used from the Dead Sea Scrolls!

Dwapara Yuga - There's an app for that!

There are now three iPhone or iPod Touch apps relating to the ideas of Kriya and the age of Dwapara Yuga on Apple's iTunes store.

This summer saw Ananda Thailand launch a free Autobiography of a Yogi app and later this blog launched the Yuga Calendar Calculator app.

Ananda is just announcing the availability of a free app of daily inspirational quotes and accompanying audio explanations called "Do It Now!" by Swami Kriyananda, perhaps the best known of all Yogananda's direct disciples.

It's a marvelous thing that the inspiration of Kriya consciousness is so widely available around the world, in video, audio, books and now phone apps, not simply limited to a handful of people living in Northern or Southern California, or lucky enough to be in a large urban environment where groups of Kriyabans of whatever group meet.

The web and the iPhone are logical extensions of Yogananda's own ideas for widely disseminating the teachings, as he did first via newspaper ads, posters, large public lectures and then by study lessons and books, with more and more books, CDs and DVDs appearing in just the last 15-20 years from the private SRF archives and the pens of those still-living direct disciples (now often in their 80s and 90s).

Is there a place for titles like Hitechananda in Dwapara Yuga, or is hitech just another clever form of Maya, as materialistic in looking at quantum circuits as stacking bricks into ancient pyramids? A very large number of monastics in SRF and Ananda come from fields like architecture, aeronautical and software engineering.

Dwapara Yuga: Thorium reactors

A recent Wired magazine article describes a renewed enthusiasm for Thorium-powered nuclear reactors.

Thorium has three key advantages over conventional Uranium-powered reactors -

1) It is much safer and less polluting

2) It is does not produce plutonium that can be used for nuclear weapons.

3) It is much more abundant

(1) and (3) meant that in the 1960s it was seen as the natural successor to Uranium but the Cold War and the perceived need for ever more nuclear weapons meant that research was essentially ended.

In the current energy pantheon, the major resources are oil, coal, gas and conventional nuclear energy, with wind, hydro, geothermal and solar playing relatively small roles.

Of course big oil would like to refocus to big gas, as Exxon's recent purchase of XTO signals but all the fossil fuels are unnecessarily polluting and a civilian nuclear power industry whose focus is energy and not necessarily a front for weapons manufacturing might fill the gap.

Dwapara Yuga - It might get loud

This week saw the DVD release of It Might Get Loud, a documentary on modern guitar, illustrated by Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White.

Each is a testament to abilities developed in this and past lives shining through adverse early circumstances, moving towards a form of musical or self-expressive mastery. They are an almost uniquely Dwapara phenomenon, previous self-taught musical greats like delta bluesmen having lived and died in near perfect obscurity.

Ravi Shankar lamented the lack of intense formal training found in Western rock musicians, especially in the 60s and 70s. The "Guitar Gods" tended to be self taught and to viscerally express themselves without tens of thousands of hours under acknowledged masters, conforming to every last nuance of a traditional past.

The Indian model had once been the mainstay of formal musical education in the west, with those with the right early talent, social, political connections and money to pursue it -- armies of Salieris, knowing the rules of composition and form but lacking the raw and disruptive genius of a Mozart, their carefully weighed compositions often indicative of their oppressed and oppressive natures.

Outside of fairs ('the devil's melodies') and the church, in Kali Yuga, music was limited to those with the means to engage orchestras and ensembles. In that period, talent or ability did not determine position in society, or career, rather birth - the son of a King was to be King, no matter how insane, perverse or incompetent, the son of a Knight a Knight and so on. Even outright genius such as Mozart's still required sponsorship. Martin Luther had to find his protectors (and limit his criticisms of their foibles) and the first reflex of society for a Saint Francis was imprisonment.

We each have before us a wonderful opportunity to flower in whatever field yet with the erosion of middle class incomes at highs in the 1950s, 60s and 70s before declining in real terms. The pressure of the exploitative Kali Yuga system is for commoditized, expendable doctors, lawyers, engineers and professors to trot out traditional formulae (with a handful of world famous exceptions). There are to be no gaps in resumes for time in India, or retreats, or distracting musicianship (or mechanical rather than compositional work), art or languages a measured progression from the right undergrad to grad school to the modern factory of cubes and beeping phones and emails - credit slaves (paying for schools, mortgages, cars, divorces, healthcare and trips to get away from constant stress).

The Kali memes left over to us are factories not of the spinning machines of dark satanic mills but spinning pre-defined, pre-approved ideas in easily palatable forms -- not the hard to get into Jethro Tull with its deep layers of meaning but the bubble gum pop of Britney Speers, with a flavor used up in seconds and a long-lasting bitter aftertaste.

The current musical fad is for vocals created with auto tune software, making anyone and everyone sound like the 'singer' T-pain - he even has his own iPhone app. That is talent bought and paid for in a single download, instant stardom and instant obsolescence -- just right for a lingering Kali Yuga system about collectivism and regimentation, as afraid of a musical or writing spark as any bomb.

How wonderful for Page and company to show us what can really be done, beginning by expressing themselves on hand-me-down or throw away instruments as they came up from nothing - denying the Kali ideas of years of private tuition in far away institutions, multi thousand dollar silver flutes and grand pianos.

Dwapara Yuga - Dark Matter in Minnesota!

Dark matter may have been "felt" for the first time deep in a Minnesota mine, physicists say.

Detectors in the mine, part of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment, were tripped recently by what might be weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, according to Nat Geo this month.

In line with Dwapara Yuga, physicists are able to get a better and better understanding of ever more subtle energies.

The timeline spells out advances in physics from the almost unknown concept of energy in the depths of Kali Yuga to E=mc2 at the dawn of Dwapara Yuga.

Dwapara Yuga - What's in a name?

It's interesting the different consciousnesses that Malcolm X tuned into as Malcolm Little, Detroit Red, Malcolm X, and el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, or Ali as Cassius Clay and then Muhammad Ali, or Cat Stevens at first Steven Georgiou and finally as Yusuf Islam.

Bob Dylan was once the unknown Robert Zimmerman, Elton John was Reg Dwight, Marilyn Monroe once Norma Mortenson and Marilyn Manson was once Brian Warner.

Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky began as Vladimir Ulyanov, Loseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili and Lev Bronstein.

Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus.

Pope Benedict XVI was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger.

Peter Parker became Spiderman.

In past eras, women took their husband's name for life, symbolic of a different consciousness, but today there is little difference between marriage and dating with most marriages lasting for a few years, or months only in the West with more and more women not bothering to update paperwork, much less affect a change of consciousness (a change equally lacking in their husbands).

Yogananda began as Mukhunda Ghosh before becoming Swami and then "Great Swan" Paramhansa Yogananda.

Mohandas Gandhi became "Great Soul" Mahatma Gandhi.

Krishna, Christ and Buddha are not names but rather words meaning the ultimate transformation of consciousness - enlightenment.

Dwapara Yuga - Let freedom ring

Jesus was cut down because worldly priests, politicians, soldiers and money lenders feared that his Kingdom of God might challenge their earthly ones (although by the pit of Kali Yuga the Roman Empire had become the very worldly Holy Roman Empire, obsessed with lands, titles and power).

So too was Dr Martin Luther King Jr cut down for demanding that paper-based freedoms beloved of politicians and academics become worldly realities, expressing the Dwapara Yuga vibration of individual rather than collectivists consciousness, whatever its leadership.

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.


In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Dwapara Yuga : Space-based solar project approved for California

This month Solaren's plan to generate electricity for California from solar panels based in space was approved.

Solaren anticipates generating 1,700 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year through a 15-year contract with PG&E beginning in 2016. First, a ground-based receiving station must be built in Fresno and a satellite launched into space.

The idea of space based power is simple - collect more energy outside of the atmosphere 24 hours a day and beam it down to the earth via radio waves.

The idea was first postulated in the 1940s by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, took more solid shape form the 1960s onwards and captured the public imagination in films like 1995's GoldenEye. The real Dwapara Yuga innovation is not so much the technological solution but rather the forward looking energy policies held in California that lead not only the rest of the United States but the world.

Space based power -- cleanly capturing energy over distance and overcoming Kali Yuga era political support for global warming, war-sponsoring fossil fuels makes it a poster child for Dwapara Yuga consciousness.