The Journey Home Could Be the Worst Book in the World
At least in many ways, The Journey Home by Radhanath Swami is the worst book I have ever had the great misfortune to lay these poor hands on. After reading it, I concluded that this catalogue of concocted yoga bursts with more crap than an Alabama outhouse. The Journey Home is to genuine yoga what Cher is to womanhood—you could call it yoga that has undergone repeated plastic surgery. Divinity with silicone implants. It is like a paper packet of artificial sweetener; just add water and stir and—voila—instant saccharine mahatma-ism.
The Journey Home is a great train ride with a different Mayavadi Babaji or Holy Mom sitting in each car of the locomotive. All the while, each one of these divinities in human form is putting on their best guru act to score a new disciple in the form of the seeker Radhanath, who always genuflects obediently before each of them.
There is a real dichotomy in the Hare Krishna Movement these days. The Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a pure devotee and divine instrument of the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna wrote the absolute best and most spiritually potent books in the world. And along comes a Mayavadi dressed as a GBC swami and he writes books that gush with yoga baloney and—what do you know?—this is the book that the authorities at the Bhaktivedanta Manor choose to give to a visiting dignitary. And it is sold in ISKCON temples worldwide as a real affront to the entire line of Gaudiya acharyas.
Truth be told, Mayavada and Shunyavada have infected the Hare Krishna Movement, and the leaders are simply sitting on their thumbs absorbed in their own trances of imagined self-glory. Or maybe they have more important things to do than uproot impersonalism …
After all they are now making films about the mansions they live in; they are writing books about health; and making advertisements for flats in Rasamrita Kunj. They are busy signing autographs for those who are fortunate enough to wash their feet. They are adding new rules to their volumes of Law Books at their frequent GBC meetings. They are holding seminars on why their editing of the books of the spiritual master is so necessary. They are getting organ transplants and collecting forms from guru wannabees and deciding “who to rubber stamp next?”.
Our GBCs are mostly too busy to create farming communities since, anyway, each of the leaders has safely prepared for himself against coming hard times. And certainly no GBC could ever think of violating the sacred vow of “I scratch your back and you scratch mine,” and thus appear to criticize anything—even Mayavada pig dung like The Journey Home—scribed by a fellow GBC.
Ma Ananda Mayi
In The Journey Home, our hero Radhanatha Swami waxes far out into the cosmos with his descriptions of the holy mother Anandamayi Ma. The following slice of toast with a bit too much buffalo butter begins on page 131:
“Wherever I traveled, people spoke reverentially of a woman saint named Anandamayi Ma. I myself had read of her extraordinary qualities in the classic Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhamsa Yogananda in the chapter entitled “The Joy-Permeated Mother.” On the banks of the Ganges at Deva Prayaga a sadhu informed me that she was living in the Himalayan town of Dehra Dun. ‘Í’m going by bus to visit the Holy Mother today,’ he said. ‘You’re welcome to join me.’
“Upon arrival I entered a quaint courtyard filled with the mother’s followers. All were eager to see her. My companion disappeared. A small crowd gathered around me to share stories from their guru’s life. I was told that Anandamayi Ma, who was the guru of Prime Minister Indira Ghandi (sic), was born at a small village in East Bengal at the dusk of the nineteenth century … As her followers spoke to me about her ecstasies, miracles and compassion, I became more enthralled than ever. Just then, everyone rose to their feet as a petit lady appeared in the assembly wearing a simple white sari. Greeting us with folded palms, her eyes glistened with joy and she sat on a chair. Thin and frail, she nonetheless emanated an unearthly power … She appeared wise and sober like a universal mother, yet she also radiated the exuberance of an innocent little girl. Although her demeanor was as soft as the flower she held in her hand, one could feel that she possessed an indomitable will power.”
Next Radhanath waxes eloquently about the Mayavadi sermon that this mother of the universe delivered. His love for this sort of rancid impersonal stew—that any true Vaishnava would have to run out of the room to hurl after hearing—is obvious Our hero continues …
“One day as I sat alone in the courtyard, Anandamayi Ma gracefully appeared. To show my reverence, I knelt down and touched her feet. Hopping backwards, her face tensed with humility. She appeared embarrassed. Guilt rushed thorough me like a whirlwind. In her gentle presence, attempting to show my reverence and respect, I nonetheless felt that I had acted barbarically. What had I done? I understood that, though she was an exalted being, she must humbly prefer followers not touch her feet.
“Taking pity on me in my mortification, she sat in a nearby chair. With a childlike smile her eyes rolled upwards into her head as her eyelids fluttered and then closed. In the silence of the moment she entered into a trance. I felt an aura of motherly affection beaming from her motionless form. Mystically, her face shown like an angelic child. An intimate silence prevailed as she came out of her trance, smiled and motioned for me to come closer. Her eyes sparkled with affection, yet as I looked deeper into them they appeared utterly blank from desires. Silently touching a lotus flower to her nose and lips, she placed it in my hand, and then, rising from her seat, departed.”
It gets worse, but the whole episode reminds me of something I saw years ago as seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUGHGXyuH98
And now, just what you readers have all been waiting for—a few shining gems of Mayavadi wisdom from the Universal Mother Anandamayi Ma (all quoted from Wiki):
As you love your own body, so regard everyone as equal to your own body. When the Supreme Experience supervenes, everyone's service is revealed as one's own service. Call it a bird, an insect, an animal or a man, call it by any name you please, one serves one's own Self in every one of them.” -Anandamayi Ma, Ananda Varta Quarterly
Ma Ananda Mayi with Yogananda