Ranchi, Feb 12 (PTI) People need to learn some skills to become the master of their faculties in order to avoid being a victim of social media, said Swami Chidananda Giri, President of Ranchi-headquartered Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS).
The monk, also chief of the US-based Self Realisation Fellowship (SRF) founded in 1920 by Paramhansa Yogananda, also described the fight among people over supremacy of one religion over another as squabbling of children trying to impose their opinions.
Nowadays one is barraged with outer stimuli from the fast-moving pace of events of the world that come through social media and mass media, Swami Chidananda, who is on a tour of India, told PTI in an interview.
“Unless we have some skills… if we don’t learn some skills to become the master of our faculties, we become completely a victim of outer circumstances. That leads to misery and that results in the disease of the body inharmony and lack of any sense of purpose, peace of mind and complete obliviousness of the soul,” he said.
He also cautioned against allowing children to get into the world of social media unguided with no tools of protection.
“That is going to be a recipe for disaster for society, the future. So, parents and educators and mass media and news media – all have to accept a certain responsibility,” the YSS president said.
Paramhansa Yogananda, the author of the much-revered book, ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’, which has been translated into over 50 languages, founded the YSS in 1917. The spiritual guru was also a pioneer of yoga in the West.
Swami Chidananda, who became the head of both YSS and SRF in 2017, said it is childish to fight over supremacy of one religion over another.
“This is one of the plagues of unenlightened humanity going back thousands of years is one sect or type of religion powers over one religion think that they have an exclusive access to divine truth and naturally a form of immaturity,” he said.
Sages of India which is a vast treasure of wisdom have always asserted that truth is one, but the wise identify it by many names, Swami Chidananda said.
“If we read great ones – the rishis like the Yogananda and Ramakrishna – those who have truly touched that divine reality, they tell us: No, that is not where you find unity and harmony. You find it by focussing on what is common to all religions… the world is all one family,” he said.
But it would be meaningless unless one experiences it and that is what Kriya Yoga does, the YSS head said.
YSS founder, Paramhansa Yogananda, used to teach his students under a litchi tree in Ranchi which is now inside its headquarters. Followers of the order include personalities such as entrepreneur Steve Jobs, cricketer Ravi Shastri and film star Rajnikanth. PTI PTI NAM SAN NN NN
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