Why would Paramahansa exaggerate stuff in his book?

[Magnanimous]

I assumed he wouldn't lie being an exceptional spiritual teacher. But I guess its for marketing and increasing the spread of Kriya Yoga.

Why though?

[Ramasta9]

A deeper teaching / lesson that will make sense in good timing  

[Wilhelm44]

6 hours ago, Magnanimous said:

I assumed he wouldn't lie being an exceptional spiritual teacher. But I guess its for marketing and increasing the spread of Kriya Yoga.

Why though?

What specifically do you feel he was lying about ?

[Magnanimous]

On 01/01/2026 at 11:33 PM, Wilhelm44 said:

What specifically do you feel he was lying about ?

Leo just said he thought a lot of the spiritual power stories were exaggerated 

[Jodistrict]

I have studied the Self Realization Fellowship lessons which are based on his writings.   I find a lot of the writing to be fuzzy language and not precise or particularly illuminating.   But maybe that is just how Bakti Yoga works.  Did Jesus really walk on water?

[Wilhelm44]

5 hours ago, Magnanimous said:

Leo just said he thought a lot of the spiritual power stories were exaggerated 

Leo probably hasn't been to India.

[Oppositionless]

My theory is yoga is a gang and he's marking his territory. All religions are gangs, miracles are gang warfare.

Do you feel the consciousness of India provides these abilities ?

Edited yesterday at 07:05 AM by Oppositionless

[Ramasta9]

7 hours ago, Magnanimous said:

Leo just said he thought a lot of the spiritual power stories were exaggerated 

Who is Leo lol. You guys think Leo is actually some highly evolved being, he has fooled you all.

[Wilhelm44]

1 hour ago, Oppositionless said:

My theory is yoga is a gang and he's marking his territory. All religions are gangs, miracles are gang warfare.

Do you feel the consciousness of India provides these abilities ?

Miracles are just proof that reality is much more "woo" than science has led us to believe.

[Oppositionless]

42 minutes ago, Wilhelm44 said:

Miracles are just proof that reality is much more "woo" than science has led us to believe.

The ultimate miracle is going beyond survival.

Edited yesterday at 08:50 AM by Oppositionless

[Wilhelm44]

8 hours ago, Oppositionless said:

The ultimate miracle is going beyond survival.

Would that be similar to unconditional love ?

[theleelajoker]

10 hours ago, Ramasta9 said:

Who is Leo lol. You guys think Leo is actually some highly evolved being, he has fooled you all.

I am also surprised - again and again - how much people take his SUBJECTIVE experience with sample size of ONE as god given truths. He's IMO quite deep in his stories and projections 

[Oppositionless]

33 minutes ago, Wilhelm44 said:

Would that be similar to unconditional love ?

Yes

[Jodistrict]

I have studied Yoganandra’s SRF lessons.  His basic message is to develop an intense longing to know God.  He also has a lot of techniques like Kriya yoga.   If you are a Bakti yogi, it could be a good fit. 

[Yimpa]

He’s sexy and he knows it.

[Leo Gura]

Because it is part of Hindu culture, tradition, and group-think. The exaggeration is baked into the culture and he is repeating things he's heard since he was a child.

You don't need to be a liar to spread fantasy and belief.

[Wilhelm44]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Because it is part of Hindu culture, tradition, and group-think. The exaggeration is baked into the culture and he is repeating things he's heard since he was a child.

You don't need to be a liar to spread fantasy and belief.

Leo, sometimes I think all this strict epistemology stuff tends to close ones mind to certain possibilities. For example, when you said you tried some alternative healers, but nothing worked - maybe it didn't work because you believed right from the outset that it wouldnt. Of course i could be wrong.

[theleelajoker]

 

15 minutes ago, Wilhelm44 said:

Leo, sometimes I think all this strict epistemology stuff tends to close ones mind to certain possibilities. For example, when you said you tried some alternative healers, but nothing worked - maybe it didn't work because you believed right from the outset that it wouldnt. Of course i could be wrong.

"In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true, within certain limits. These limits are to be found experientially and experimentally.”

Did a Shaktipat many years ago. Did not believe that a transmission like that is possible. But I was open to verify or falsify. 

Holy shit, never underestimate true gurus and their mastery over energy. 

Edited 9 hours ago by theleelajoker

[Leo Gura]

2 hours ago, Wilhelm44 said:

Leo, sometimes I think all this strict epistemology stuff tends to close ones mind to certain possibilities. For example, when you said you tried some alternative healers, but nothing worked - maybe it didn't work because you believed right from the outset that it wouldnt. Of course i could be wrong.

No, I believed it could work. I paid money in the hope that it would work. I needed it to work.

Yes, epistemic rigor closes the mind to certain things, like fantasy and falsehood.

I am not saying healing is impossible. But most people who claim it are surely self-deceived. You should be skeptical of such people until they demonstrate otherwise. It's way too easy to claim you healed people when you didn't, they just improved on their own. Spiritual people claim credit for healings they didn't actually cause but deluded themselves into thinking they caused. I know for a fact they do this.

Edited 7 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Ajay0]

On 1/1/2026 at 11:11 AM, Magnanimous said:

I assumed he wouldn't lie being an exceptional spiritual teacher. But I guess its for marketing and increasing the spread of Kriya Yoga.

Why though?

I suppose the reference is for the psychic abilities mentioned that most westerners find hard to believe.

As a skeptic-rationalist myself,  I have myself witnessed many psychic abilities in enlightened sages and yogis in India, which heavily eroded the skepticism within me.

In course of meditation and Satsang, I found psychic abilities even rising in my own person, which left me totally convinced of such abilities.

Imho, it is only when we discover such abilities rising in ourselves, that the cocoon of disbelief in them is finally shattered.

These psychic abilities can be manifest in any healthy human being provided there are the right causes.

Yogananda mentions such psychic abilities and astral dimensions and so on in his book, 'The autobiography of a yogi'.

I don't know about the astral dimensions due to lack of direct personal experience  but I do know that psychic abilities is a fact.

However the likes of Buddha and Ramakrishna discouraged the exhibition of such psychic abilities which comes automatically in the spiritual process, as they are bound to increase the ego and tendencies to show off which can be detrimental to spiritual growth.

However a utility of such psychic abilities is that one realizes the limitations of modern education and the voidness of the notion that the material world is the fundamental and only reality.

Edited 7 hours ago by Ajay0