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28 Jan

Roy Eugene Davis: American Guru

Author: admin  //  Category: Biography


The Rev. Roy Eugene Davis

“Man’s freedom is final and immediate if he so wills; it depends not on outer, but inner victories.” – Paramahansa Yogananda

Roy Eugene Davis was born in Leavittsburgh, Ohio on March 9, 1931. He was the fourth of 5 children and the second son.

He grew-up in a farm at Trumbull County where his father, Hewitt Talmage Davis, had a modest trucking business.

After reading Autobiography of a Yogi, Roy enrolled in the three-and-a-half-year Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons and later, at the age of 18, traveled to California to be with his Guru.


Paramahansa Yogananda teaching

He was personally initiated by Paramahansa Yogananda into Kriya Yoga in August of 1950 from whom he also received sannyas.

Regarding the quality of his meditations while living as a monk, Roy wrote,

“During prolonged meditations I sometimes saw, in the spiritual eye, luminous personages, some known to me and some I did not recognize. Degrees of cosmic consciousness were spontaneously experienced even when I was engaged in ordinary activities. Conscious of my personality-self, I was also aware of myself and the universe existing in an unbounded field of consciousness.

“When meditating and at other times, powerful flows of life force flowed through my body, contributing to sensations that caused me to believe that mental faculties were being cleansed and my brain restructured. By experimentation I confirmed the validity of yoga practice, and by spontaneous revelation higher knowledge was revealed.” (Surrendered Love, Redeeming Grace, p. 47)

He had many intimate interactions and conversations with Yogananda, especially when the master retired from working with the public and moved to 29 Palms where he wrote God Talks with Arjuna and The Second Coming of Christ. Roy was a frequent visitor at the residence; he and his Guru would go out for morning walks and talk about God and pretty much about anything.

The Paramahansa had clearly foreseen the potential of this young renunciate, he (Yogananda) once told him, “Don’t look back, or to the left or right, but [look] straight ahead. You must go all the way [on the spiritual path] in this incarnation—and you can!” (Life Surrendered in God, p. 271)

Roy was ordained by Paramahansa Yogananda in late autumn of 1951 with these words, “Teach as I have taught. Heal as I have healed. Initiate devotees of God into Kriya Yoga.” (Seven Lessons in Conscious Living, p. 120)


Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine dedication ceremony. August, 1950. On the far left in the white robe is Rev. Bernard. Next to him is Rev. Stanley, then Dr. Lewis, Paramahansa Yogananda, and Rev. J. Donald. At the right of the picture is Rev. Roy.

He became assistant minister, then minister of the Self-Realization Fellowship Phoenix Center.


Roy’s Yoga Teacher (Yogacharya) certificate from Self-Realization Fellowship.

A year after Sri Yogananda’s passing Roy felt that his worldly experiences are inadequate to effectively counsel or teach others, having entered the Order at a young age, and that the degree of service a cloistered minister can give to people is quite limited.

After months of serious contemplation he decided to leave the monastic vocation, underwent basic and advanced training, and served at the military. He provided hospital patient care and was assigned at Fort Knox, Kentucky and Fort Riley, Kansas.

Upon completion of the required two years of service, Roy felt that the necessary experience has been gained and he was then ready to continue his work as a representative of his Guru. He then wrote SRF and received a reply from their new Board of Directors saying he will not represent the organization in any capacity.

The board’s decision failed to shake the determination of the ever-optimistic Roy, having been personally initiated and ordained by Paramahansa Yogananda and having played a major role in his work early in life, he was confident and his hopes never faltered. Still he followed his heart to fulfill his destiny. Roy moved to Denver and began teaching privately.


Roy performing cobra

Years passed and Roy became the leader of Christian Spiritual Alliance (now known as Center for Spiritual Awareness) located on an 11 acre wooded site near Lake Rabun, Atlanta, Georgia began by the late visionary couple Edwin and Lois O’Neal.

Now, Roy Eugene Davis is a world-traveled lecturer, publisher of Truth Journal and Radiance magazines, and author of many books—some translated in several languages. He has taught the philosophical principles and life-enhancement practices of Kriya Yoga in over a hundred North American communities, as well as in Japan, Brazil, England, Europe, West Africa, and India. Aside from being the Spiritual Director of CSA, he is also the 1st Vice President of the International New Thought Alliance (INTA). When not in teaching tours, Roy spends his time facilitating retreats at the CSA headquarters and writing monthly lessons for disciples and students around the world.

“The final solution to all human problems is spiritual enlightenment: mental illumination and unfoldment of conscious knowledge of ourselves as spiritual beings abiding in the wholeness of God.

“Even though this good news has been proclaimed by seers for thousands of years and is known in the heart of every person, what it is like to be enlightened may be difficult to imagine and awakening to it may erroneously be believed to be difficult if not impossible.

“To make spiritual awakening easier, what is needed is a radical change in how we think and feel about ourselves in relationship to the whole: one which provides an overview that enables us to have an intimation of what God is, and how the reality of God expresses as the cosmos and as souls.” — Roy Eugene Davis


Noel Daryl Pahimna with Roy Eugene Davis

You may email your questions at filipino_guru@yahoo.com. Please keep it brief and to the point, and include your full name, city, and state.

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25 Jan

Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society

Author: admin  //  Category: Biography, Q&A


Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

What is your opinion about Helena Blavatsky, masters Morya and Koothoomi, and the Theosophical Society in general? – V.R., Dasmariñas City, Cavite, Philippines

Helena Blavatsky was an uneducated but brilliant Ukrainian scam artist who has read an enormous number of books on the occult and the esoteric mostly from her great-grandfather’s library and, through this vast knowledge of the occult and the esoteric, as well as the magic tricks that usually go with her trade as a medium, was able to dupe a lot of gullible but well-meaning “intellectuals” including Henry Olcott and Annie Besant.

One would probably imagine that the so-called “Mother of the New Age” was a vegetarian who avoided intoxicants and practiced self-discipline like a true yogini, or at least lived a life of moderation and was quite fit physically, mentally and emotionally. But on the contrary, Blavatsky did not only eat meat, she was a glutton who delighted in the most unhealthy foods, devouring them like a pig as if there was no tomorrow. In fact, she was morbidly obese. So fat that, at one of her late travels, she had to be hoisted by a crane to her ship. She was a chain-smoker and a marijuana addict, which by commonsense could have contributed to her outlandish ideas and “spiritual encounters.” Blavatsky was a pathological liar, had narcissistic personality disorder, and was notorious for throwing fits when she doesn’t get her way.


Artist rendition of made up “masters” Morya and Koothoomi

Morya and Koothoomi are fictitious names of non-existent “masters” that Blavatsky made-up to add credibility to her “works,” which were mostly a hodgepodge of plagiarized materials. The Theosophical Society, in an attempt to cover up for her dishonesty, later appended bibliographies to her books along with invitations to the public to help them credit the sources of her writings. The Mahatma letters were, of course, fraudulent and were actually written by accomplices and by Blavatsky herself.

The Theosophical Society has, however, evolved into a somewhat reputable organization engaged in a number of wholesome activities and social service but has totally lost its mass appeal and, as a consequence, is barely breathing (USA membership was 3,546 in 2010 and declining[1]). It still continues to propagate the ideas that Blavatsky put forth in her books like the yugas, the koshas, karma, reincarnation, the kundalini, and other standard elements of the Hindu religion, though Blavatsky was actually a Buddhist convert. The few non-standard ones that she invented and taught, like the doctrine about root races that you mentioned [elsewhere in your email], are just nonsense rubbish that are best ignored or taken as a form of entertainment akin to reading a book of pure fiction.

While I doubt that you will get anything of value by studying even those that I labeled as “standard elements of the Hindu religion,” if you still wish to pursue them, be warned that Blavatsky’s understanding of such things were often half-cooked (characteristic of the chopsuey culture that defines everything in theosophy) if not downright erroneous. In order to obtain a correct and complete perspective of them, you may want to turn to the works of authentic Hindu authorities like Swami Vivekananda[2], or Paramahansa Yogananda[3][4][5] and his guru Swami Sri Yukteswar[6].

With regards to the organization itself and its presence in our Country, Ismael Zapata was the first president of the autonomous Philippine section of the Theosophical Society (TSP) established in 1933. Zapata was a student of Charles Leadbeater who, in Henry Olcott’s own words, was a homosexual pedophile. The current president, Dr. Roselmo Duval-Santos, is a grandson of Ismael Zapata. The TSP is headquartered at #1 Iba corner Florentino Streets, Brgy. Sta Teresita, Quezon City should you decide to check them out.

Like all established socio-civic, religious, and/or spiritually-inclined organizations, the Theosophical Society has a good mix of people in its roster, including a few high-profiled professionals and public servants. Though it would be impossible to separate Blavatsky from theosophy, the degree of tolerance, or even respectability, that is being enjoyed by the organization at present is largely due to the public’s ignorance about their founder, their teachings, and their history.

The society has benefitted immensely from the presidency of popular feminist Annie Besant, who, unlike Blavatsky, was honest and honorable but gullible (it was her gullibility that made her partly responsible for the entire “World Teacher” fiasco involving self-confessed non-World Teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti[7][8]). Besant’s virtually taintless public image as well as her contributions in women’s rights and advocacy of Irish and Indian self-rule eventually drew people’s attention away from the much publicized findings of the Society for Psychical Research exposing Blavatsky as a fraud.

Suggested Readings

Coleman, W. E. (1893). Critical Historical Review of The Theosophical Society. Retrieved 01/29/12 from http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/cole1893.htm

Falk, G.D. (2009). Stripping the Gurus: Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment. Toronto, ON: Million Monkeys Press

Johnson, P. K. (1994). The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press

Meade, M. (1980). Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Washington, P. (1995). Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America. New York, NY: Schocken Books

You may email your questions at filipino_guru@yahoo.com. Please keep it brief and to the point, and include your full name, city, and state.

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18 Jan

How Do You View Paramahansa Yogananda?

Author: admin  //  Category: Q&A

Among the spiritual teachers whose works you have come across, why were you attracted to follow the path of Paramahansa Yogananda? Are you willing to recognize that he also made mistakes or, like his other followers, do you believe that he was faultless? – R.S., Bakersfield, CA

I did not follow the path of Paramahansa Yogananda. The path of Yogananda is that of monasticism and renunciation, of using his own Hindu beliefs to interpret the teachings of other religions (and insist that that is their true meaning), of practicing Kriya Yoga to hasten the “evolutionary process” of a millions years, of worshipping an impersonal “God” in whatever shape or form is most acceptable to the worshipper, and so on.

My path, on the other hand, is that of a householder, and I believe that the Lord intends for most of us to be married and have kids of our own for our lives to be happy, meaningful and complete. I acknowledge, understand, and respect the differences in the teachings and practices of various religions, and make no attempts to Hindunize [or Christianize] them in order to support my personal convictions, or prove to my students that we understand other people’s religions better than they do themselves. I practice Kriya Yoga to have calmness, clarity of thought, increased creativity[1], better concentration[2], a more powerful brain and nervous system[3][4], and to further refine my awareness. I worship God as He is and as He has decreed[5][6][7], not according to my own imagination of who and what He is or my own preferences.

Here, you will realize that I did not really follow Yogananda’s path and that we only have one thing in common, the practice of Kriya Yoga, which I would not have learned if not for the great work that he did in disseminating it to the world.

Yogananda is alive in his writings and you can’t help but feel his presence as you delve deeper into them. He has the ability to explain the loftiest philosophical concepts and the most sophisticated personal experiences in ways that one will surely appreciate in his own level of understanding. It is this, as well as his gentleness, wit, and the air of mystique projected by his very appearance that made his works appealing; and it was probably due to this appeal, this magnetism, that I decided to learn from him in 1992. There were a few who came close, but not quite. I sent my application to study the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons straightway after reading Autobiography of a Yogi.

Autobiography of a Yogi is such a compelling piece of work, it will make you want to learn and practice Kriya Yoga, and Yogananda did not deny that that was the reason why he published it: “When I have left this world, this book will change the lives of millions. It will be my messenger when I am gone.” The most important portions of the book are those that deal with his childhood, his ashram training, his relationship with his guru Swami Sri Yukteswar, and his very accurate description of sabikalpa samadhi (it was not until 1948 that he attained nirbikalpa Samadhi at age 55), the rest are anecdotal tales full of nonsense miracle mongering that, in my opinion, have no real place in the scientific and educated mind.

While I recognize that he made mistakes and that he was not an avatar (and that there are no avatars in real life for goodness sake) as the adherents of his cult would like to believe, it is absolutely profitless to dwell on such negativities. In order to benefit from the works of Yogananda, we must focus on and strive to emulate his great love for humanity. He dedicated his life in guiding others to live in the highest, most fruitful, and happiest way that was known to him. He was against all barriers to world brotherhood, be it territorial borders, religious dogma, racial discrimination, selfishness and greed, etc. Even during his speech at the Biltmore Hotel where he breathed his last[8], he was zealously crusading against the forces that separate us human beings from one another—a true yogi ‘til the very end.


श्री श्री परमहंस योगानंद

You may email your questions at filipino_guru@yahoo.com. Please keep it brief and to the point, and include your full name, city, and state.

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11 Jan

Is Enlightenment Spiritual?

Author: admin  //  Category: Q&A

Does enlightenment automatically make one highly spiritual? – H.T., Auburn Hills, MI

Enlightenment is a psychophysiological experience and the enlightened condition is a psychological state, it is not a spiritual state. This means that a person can be enlightened and at the same time be completely unspiritual. To such a one, spirituality may appear to have lost its depth, relevance, and appeal, while religions may be viewed as frivolous traditions invented and perpetuated by zealots for the purpose of gaining control. Though a good number of enlightened individuals try to make sense of their experiences in the light of spirituality and religious rationale, others turn to purely material and/or scientific explanations.

Sometimes the enlightened condition leads to an amplification of one’s core values resulting in selflessness, charity, and an overall morality upgrade—provided that the person was raised to view such qualities as virtuous [in contrast, for example, with those who have been raised to view killing and hording as virtuous]. In such cases, the enlightened condition may be viewed as complementary to one’s spiritual life and even his religion, if ever he has one. According to St. James, pure and faultless religion is looking after orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself unpolluted by worldly iniquities[1].

The problem with spiritually-inclined realizers is that they often confuse their enlightenment as not only a spiritual experience, which it is not, but a spiritual experience so high and all-encompassing that it transcends all religions. So, there is a tendency for such realizers to discard their respective religion or at least believe that they have done so. I said “believe that they have done so” because one can easily find supposedly enlightened Hindus who still draw their explanation of enlightenment and the enlightened condition from traditional Hindu sources, the same is true with Buddhists, Christian mystics, Sufis, and believers of New Age teachings like theosophists and rosicrucians.

You may email your questions at filipino_guru@yahoo.com. Please keep it brief and to the point, and include your full name, city, and state.

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04 Jan

Is Enlightenment Annihilation?

Author: admin  //  Category: Q&A

Does enlightenment entail the annihilation of the individual self? – J.L., Elyria, OH

Enlightenment refers to the cathartic realization of one’s connectedness to all life. The individual, for a moment, feels as though the entire universe is an extension of himself, and the impression left by such a powerful experience can, and often does, radically alter the way one views himself and the rest of creation.

The individual is not annihilated but simply “connects” with something greater. When I say “connect” I don’t mean that the connection did not exist prior to the enlightenment experience, because the connection has always been there regardless if the person is aware of it or not. “Connecting,” in this sense, simply refers to one’s spontaneous recognition of that connection.

There is a problem with the term “individual self,” because for an “individual self” to exist there must be a “universal self”—there is no such thing as a “universal self.” There is only the self, the individual. Every experience, even that of enlightenment, occurs within the individual’s frame of reference.

You may email your questions at filipino_guru@yahoo.com. Please keep it brief and to the point, and include your full name, city, and state.

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