Guiding Light Psychic Tarot Readings

Harry TarotStoneCircle Distant learning. Alternative spiritual therapies KSC Crystals Psychic Workshops Bengalrose Healing Elizabeth Francis - Psychic Medium Lorrain Violet Moon Kim Barden Hypnotherapy BWRT Spiritual Energetics
Reiki Training: Usui Levels 1-2-3 : Angelic Reiki Levels 1&2
Date: 01-Dec-2024 3:30 PM

Visit Site
Address: 137 Sutherland Grove, London, UK, SW18 5QU, United Kingdom
Tea with Read
Date: 04-Jan-2025 10:00 AM

Visit Site
Address: Abbie's home in Essex - 2 minute walk from bus stop, with frequent buses running to and from Chelsmford. Ten minute walk from the main train station and free unlimited parking on Abbie's residential road., , United Kingdom
STOCKPORT Guildhall Mind Body Spirit Weekend Event 1st 2nd February 2025
Date: 01-Feb-2025 10:00 AM

Visit Site
Address: 169 171 Wellington Road South £3 to Park ( Brentnall St ) Stockport , SK1 3UA, United Kingdom
RESTORE, ENERGISE & CREATE RETREAT WITH THE LAW OF ATTRACTION AND MEDITATION, SNOWDONIA, UK
Date: 07-Feb-2025 4:00 PM

Visit Site
Address: Trigonos, Plas Baladeulyn, Nantlle, Caernarfon, Wales, LL54 6BW, LL54 6BW, United Kingdom
Hypnotherapy Foundation Certificate
Date: 08-Feb-2025 9:00 AM

Visit Site
Address: 60 Hampden Grove, Eccles, Manchester M30 0QY, UK, M30 0QY, United Kingdom
Pudsey Health Healing & Wellbeing Festival 15 & 16 February 2025
Date: 15-Feb-2025 10:00 AM

Visit Site
Address: Pudsey Civic Hall, Dawsons Corner, Pudsey Leeds LS28 5TA, LS28 5TA, United Kingdom
YORK HEALTH & HEALING FESTIVAL 26 & 27 April 2025
Date: 26-Apr-2025 10:00 AM

Visit Site
Address: York Racecourse, Knavesmire Stand York YO23 1EX, YO23 1EX, United Kingdom

International Version
Select County

Psychic Workshops IPHM Side - Therapists Accrediation Spiritual Events UK - Psychics For Hire Theta Healing Academy Psychic Paula Vgori Elain Stainton - Psychic Medium SMALL 12 MBS Web Design - Mind Body Soul Gathering of Minds Peaceful LivingLuna Chakra and Aura Certified Course Pauline Clairvoyant Medium Book this spot (SM29)






[ View My Events ]
  +Add Event +Add Article +Add Classified +Add To Directory
Search
EnjoyHolistic.com - Create your own dedicated holistic and spiritual page listing.

AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda

By:Sheri Linden
Date: Thu,01 Jan 2015
Submitter:Adept Yogi
Views:11753

View Related



Like This? (Click Me)
 Be the first person to like this
 Known Humans have read this.

Paramahansa Yogananda

The guru who brought kriya yoga to the West is the subject of a documentary exploring his lasting influence

Published in 1946, Autobiography of a Yogi is still in print in dozens of languages, and has been a gateway to Eastern philosophy for countless readers. The Indian author, Paramahansa Yogananda, is generally considered the man who brought kriya yoga to the West, arriving in Boston in 1920 and soon establishing a foothold in Southern California. The documentary Awake: The Life of Yogananda, designed for the uninitiated but sure to please followers, draws upon a rich archival cache to bring that East-meets-West period to life. Even so, it doesn’t delve deep beyond the surface of a New Age hero.

Directors Paola di Florio (Home of the Brave) and Lisa Leeman (One Lucky Elephant) combine historical and new footage, dramatic reenactments and impressionistic imagery that embraces the meditative aspect of kriya. They don’t always find the right balance. The doc, which was commissioned by the Self-Realization Fellowship, the international organization that Yogananda founded and which carries on his teachings, offers discerning commentary yet too often has the ring of a promotional presentation.
The guru’s story holds a certain fascination not just for spiritual seekers but for anyone interested in non-mainstream American culture of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. And given the stateside explosion of hatha yoga, the film stands to entice its practitioners and expand their workout-routine understanding of yogic discipline. (On the cinematic front, Yogananda will be on screens again soon, played by Victor Banerjee, in an upcoming narrative feature, The Answer, the story of one of his American disciples.)

Yogananda wasn’t the first guru in the U.S., but he was the first with far-reaching impact, and became something of a Jazz Age celebrity. Playful clips of Our Gang and Felix the Cat bolster the sense of time and place, as do vintage tunes. “East Indian Mystic Starts on Motor Tour,” a newspaper headline announces — one item in the filmmakers’ strong selection of clips, stills and printed matter. President Coolidge invited him to the White House. He crisscrossed the country to lecture overflow audiences on mind-expanding topics like “The Science of Religion.”

n that department, Yogananda was well ahead of his time; he prefigured the scientific concept of neuroplasticity with his description of electrical pa

thways in the brain that could be “regrooved,” as George Harrison put it. Di Florio and Leeman excel at condensing complex ideas with clarity. They bring the story, and the teachings, up to date in interviews with theologians, scientists and artists who speak persuasively of the benefits of kriya, a discipline defined by the quest for spiritual development.
The polished production sets a suitably serene tone while leaving many stones unturned. It offers the chance to hear the man himself, through audio recordings as well as excerpts from his writings, delivered in the resonant voice of Bollywood actor Anupam Kher. Re-creations of key events in the yogi’s life range from the lovely to the ham-handed. Beyond his exceptional spiritual aptitude, there’s little sense of the man, even as he inspired Roaring Twenties industrialists and other wealthy disciples to bankroll his mission.
Relating the basics of a scandal involving Yogananda’s close friend Swami Dhirananda and a lawsuit between them, the film offers no clue to Yogananda’s reaction to the events. His apparent knack for publicity and fundraising goes unexplored as well.
At its most beside-the-point, the film incorporates a Self-Realization Fellowship monk’s present-day pilgrimage to India, providing a smattering of local color but nothing else, and spotlights straight-to-the-camera comments on religious experience by unidentified people (Russell Simmons among them). Also on the pop-culture front, there's compelling interview footage of Harrison, of the original Apple, crediting Yogananda's autobiography with transforming his life. And there are reports that Steve Jobs, appropriator of the Apple brand name, arranged for every mourner at his funeral to receive a copy of the book. One endorsement is as good as another; as with much of Awake, there's ample wisdom on offer, but the finer points are often brushed aside, or left for the viewer to sort out.

Production company: CounterPoint Films
With: George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Krishna Das, Deepak Chopra, Anita Goel, Russell Simmons
Narrator: Anupam Kher
Writer-directors: Paola di Florio, Lisa Leeman
From writings and talks by Paramahansa Yogananda
Producers: Peter Rader, Paola di Florio, Lisa Leeman
Director of photography: Arlene Nelson
Editors: Peter Rader, Ken Schneider, Paola di Florio, Lisa Leeman
Music: Michael R. Mollura, Vivek Maddala
Rated PG, 87 minutes


Post a Comment   View Comments(0)
Did you enjoy this article? why not let us know.

Visit website for more info:
www.awaketheyoganandamovie.com/






Share Page with Friends EmailBookmark and Share
Contact Me Contact Me
Request Delete/Amendment Request Amendment
Digg this article!
Delicious! Add this article to Del.icio.us!
Discuss Article on TheSpiritGuidesNetwork.co.uk Discuss Article on TheSpiritGuidesNetwork.co.uk

Post Article:
Submit Your Own Article

Leave a Comment



  




  


Enter the numbers shown above:

Comments

Copyright 2006-2013 TheSpiritGuides.co.uk
Tel: 07967 595893
A Mind Body Soul Directory and Spiritual Knowledge Site. Dedicated to Brenda Smith and all spiritual seekers out there.
0