Talk:Rajarsi Janakananda

Redirect page made
"James J. Lynn" to this page (Rajarsi Janakananda).Jack B108 (talk) 04:00, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Meaning of the name Rajarsi Janakananda
On page 47 of the biography of Rajarsi published by the Self-Realization Fellowship (Rajarsi Janakananda: a great Western yogi), it states:

"Rajarsi is a spiritual title meaning 'royal rishi'; Janakananda means 'the bliss of Janaka'. Janaka was a great king as well as a fully Self-realized master of ancient India.

The Sanskrit word Rajarsi is composed of raja "king" + rsi, "rishi, illumined saint or sage."

An early misspelling as 'Rajasi' in which the r in rsi (rishi) is dropped, means 'in the quality of rajas', the activating force in Nature; and is also the name of an aspect of Divine Mother, God's creative or 'activating force' in Nature. Neither of these definitions is related to the meaing of the spiritual title given by Paramahansaji to Rajarsi and penned by him as deriving from raja (king) and rsi (saint)."

The explanation of Mr. Lynn's name in the article comes from materials by Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters), a disciple of Yogananda's who was formerly affiliated with the Self Realization Fellowship and has headed the Ananda Church of Self-Realization, another kriya yoga organization, since its founding in 1964.

I thought in the interests of fairness that the explanation of Mr. Lynn's name taken from his biography by the Self Realization Fellowship should be noted. Rajarsi became president of the SRF after Yogananda's death and presided over the SRF until his own death in 1955.