WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:05.639
<v Speaker 1>Chapter thirty eight of Autobiography of a Yogi. This is

2
00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:10.759
<v Speaker 1>a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

3
00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:16.440
<v Speaker 1>For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.

4
00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:23.640
<v Speaker 1>Read by John McAllister. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramanza Yogananda.

5
00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:31.039
<v Speaker 1>Luther Burbank, an American saint. The secret of improved plant rereading,

6
00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:36.159
<v Speaker 1>apart from scientific knowledge, is love. Luther Burbank uttered this

7
00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:39.399
<v Speaker 1>wisdom as I walked beside him in his Santa Rosa garden.

8
00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:45.000
<v Speaker 1>We halted near a bed of edible cacti while I

9
00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:49.719
<v Speaker 1>was conducting experiments to make spineless cacti. He continued, I

10
00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:52.840
<v Speaker 1>often talked to the plants to create a vibration of love.

11
00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:57.039
<v Speaker 1>You have nothing to fear, I would tell them, you

12
00:00:57.079 --> 00:01:02.119
<v Speaker 1>don't need your defensive thorns. I will protect. Gradually, the

13
00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:05.480
<v Speaker 1>useful plant of the desert emerged in a thornless variety.

14
00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:10.879
<v Speaker 1>I was charmed at this miracle. Please, Dear Luther, give

15
00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:13.319
<v Speaker 1>me a few cacti leaves to plant in my garden

16
00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:18.239
<v Speaker 1>at Mount Washington. A workman standing nearby started to strip

17
00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:23.200
<v Speaker 1>off some leaves. Burbank prevented him I myself will pluck

18
00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:26.439
<v Speaker 1>them for the Swami. He handed me three leaves, which

19
00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:29.879
<v Speaker 1>later I planted, rejoicing as they grew to huge estate.

20
00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:34.640
<v Speaker 1>The great horticulturists told me that his first notable triumph

21
00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:39.400
<v Speaker 1>was the large potato, now known by his name. With

22
00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:43.280
<v Speaker 1>the indefatigability of genius, he went on to present the

23
00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:47.400
<v Speaker 1>world with hundreds of crossed improvements on nature, his new

24
00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:56.400
<v Speaker 1>Burbank varieties of tomato, corn, squash, cherries, plums, nectarines, berries, poppies, lilies, roses.

25
00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:00.680
<v Speaker 1>I focused my camera as Luther led me before the

26
00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:03.640
<v Speaker 1>famous walnut tree by which he had proved that natural

27
00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:10.120
<v Speaker 1>evolution can be telescopically hastened. In only sixteen years, he said,

28
00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:14.080
<v Speaker 1>this walnut tree reached a state of abundant nut production

29
00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:17.360
<v Speaker 1>to which an unaided nature would have brought the tree

30
00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:22.800
<v Speaker 1>in twice. That time, Burbank's little adopted daughter came romping

31
00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:27.240
<v Speaker 1>with her dog into the garden. She is my human plant,

32
00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:31.520
<v Speaker 1>Luther waved to her affectionately. I see humanity now as

33
00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:35.919
<v Speaker 1>one vast plant, needing for its highest fulfillments. Only love,

34
00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:40.759
<v Speaker 1>the natural blessings of the great outdoors, and intelligent crossing

35
00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:45.159
<v Speaker 1>and selection. In the span of my own lifetime, I

36
00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:49.199
<v Speaker 1>have observed such wondrous progress in plant evolution that I

37
00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:53.400
<v Speaker 1>look forward optimistically to a healthy, happy world as soon

38
00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:56.639
<v Speaker 1>as its children are taught the principles of simple and

39
00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:04.080
<v Speaker 1>rational living. We must return to nature and Nature's god. Luther,

40
00:03:04.240 --> 00:03:06.960
<v Speaker 1>you would delight in my ranchy school, with its outdoor

41
00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:12.800
<v Speaker 1>classes and atmosphere of joy and simplicity. My words touch

42
00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:17.280
<v Speaker 1>the chord closest to Burbank's heart. Child education. He plied

43
00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:21.039
<v Speaker 1>me with questions, interest gleaming from his deep, serene eyes.

44
00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:25.960
<v Speaker 1>Swami Gee, He finally said, schools like yours are the

45
00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.599
<v Speaker 1>only hope of a future millennium. I am in revolt

46
00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:33.560
<v Speaker 1>against the educational systems of our time, severed from nature

47
00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:37.240
<v Speaker 1>and stifling of all individuality. I am with you, heart

48
00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:42.080
<v Speaker 1>and soul in your practical ideals of education. As I

49
00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:45.000
<v Speaker 1>was taking leave of the gentle sage, he autographed a

50
00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:48.120
<v Speaker 1>small volume and presented it to me. Here is my

51
00:03:48.199 --> 00:03:50.840
<v Speaker 1>book on the training of the human plant. He said.

52
00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:56.159
<v Speaker 1>New types of training are needed, fearless experiments. At times

53
00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:58.840
<v Speaker 1>the most daring trials have succeeded in bringing out the

54
00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:03.599
<v Speaker 1>best and fruits and flood educational innovations for children should

55
00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:07.919
<v Speaker 1>likewise become more numerous, more courageous. I read his little

56
00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:11.719
<v Speaker 1>book that night with intense interest, his eye envisioning a

57
00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:15.240
<v Speaker 1>glorious future for the race. He wrote, the most stubborn

58
00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:18.319
<v Speaker 1>living thing in this world, the most difficult to swerve,

59
00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:22.759
<v Speaker 1>is a plant, once fixed in certain habits. Remember that

60
00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:26.439
<v Speaker 1>this plant has preserved its individuality all through the ages.

61
00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:29.720
<v Speaker 1>Perhaps it is one which can be traced backward through

62
00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:33.959
<v Speaker 1>eons of time in the very rocks themselves, never having

63
00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:37.240
<v Speaker 1>varied to any great extent in all these vast periods.

64
00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:42.079
<v Speaker 1>Do you suppose, after all these ages of repetition, the

65
00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:44.879
<v Speaker 1>plant does not become possessed of a will, if you

66
00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:49.959
<v Speaker 1>so choose to call it of unparalleled tenacity. Indeed, there

67
00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.319
<v Speaker 1>are plants, like certain of the palms, so persistent that

68
00:04:54.399 --> 00:04:57.000
<v Speaker 1>no human power has yet been able to change them.

69
00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.519
<v Speaker 1>The human will is a weak thing besides the will

70
00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:04.199
<v Speaker 1>of a plant. But see how this whole plant's lifelong

71
00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:07.639
<v Speaker 1>stubbornness is broken simply by blending a new life with it,

72
00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:13.720
<v Speaker 1>making by crossing a complete and powerful change in its life. Then,

73
00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:17.800
<v Speaker 1>when the break comes, fix it by these generations of

74
00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:22.439
<v Speaker 1>patient supervision and selection, and the new plant sets out

75
00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:26.399
<v Speaker 1>upon its new way, never again to return to the old,

76
00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.839
<v Speaker 1>its tenacious will broken and changed. At last. When it

77
00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:34.959
<v Speaker 1>comes to so sensitive and pliable thing as the nature

78
00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:41.199
<v Speaker 1>of a child, the problem becomes vastly easier. Magnetically drawn

79
00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:44.720
<v Speaker 1>to this great American, and I visited him again and again.

80
00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:48.439
<v Speaker 1>One morning I arrived at the same time as the

81
00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:52.639
<v Speaker 1>postman who deposited in Burbank's study about a thousand letters

82
00:05:53.879 --> 00:05:58.759
<v Speaker 1>horticulturists wrote him from all parts of the world. Swami,

83
00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.439
<v Speaker 1>g your presence is just the excuse I need to

84
00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:05.160
<v Speaker 1>get out into the garden, Luther said gaily. He opened

85
00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:09.839
<v Speaker 1>a large desk drawer containing hundreds of travel folders. See,

86
00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:13.639
<v Speaker 1>he said, this is how I do my traveling. Tied

87
00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:17.079
<v Speaker 1>down by my plants and correspondence, I satisfy my desire

88
00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:20.000
<v Speaker 1>for foreign lands by a glance now and then at

89
00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:26.120
<v Speaker 1>these pictures. My car was standing before his gate. Luther

90
00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:28.600
<v Speaker 1>and I drove along the streets of the little town,

91
00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:31.920
<v Speaker 1>its gardens bright with his own varieties of Santa Rosa,

92
00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:37.920
<v Speaker 1>peach blow and Burbank roses. My friend Henry Ford and

93
00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.920
<v Speaker 1>I both believe in the ancient theory of reincarnation, Luther

94
00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:46.199
<v Speaker 1>told me, it sheds light on aspects of life. Otherwise,

95
00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:51.040
<v Speaker 1>inexplicable memory is not a test of truth. Just because

96
00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:54.240
<v Speaker 1>man fails to remember his past lies does not prove

97
00:06:54.279 --> 00:06:58.560
<v Speaker 1>he never had them. Memory is blank concerning his womb

98
00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:02.560
<v Speaker 1>life and infancy too, but he probably passed through them,

99
00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:08.360
<v Speaker 1>he chuckled. The great scientists had received krea initiation during

100
00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:12.480
<v Speaker 1>one of my earlier visits. I practiced the technique devoutly,

101
00:07:12.519 --> 00:07:16.560
<v Speaker 1>Swami Ge, he said. After many thoughtful questions to me

102
00:07:16.639 --> 00:07:22.160
<v Speaker 1>about various aspects of yoga, Luther remarked slowly, the East

103
00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:26.519
<v Speaker 1>indeed possesses immense hordes of knowledge which the West has

104
00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:32.959
<v Speaker 1>scarcely begun to explore. Intimate communion with nature, who unlocked

105
00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:35.839
<v Speaker 1>to him many of her jealously guarded secrets, had given

106
00:07:35.879 --> 00:07:41.879
<v Speaker 1>Burbank a boundless spiritual reverence. Sometimes I feel very close

107
00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:46.480
<v Speaker 1>to the infinite power, he confided, shyly, his sensitive, beautifully

108
00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:50.240
<v Speaker 1>modeled face lit with his memories. Then I have been

109
00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:53.600
<v Speaker 1>able to heal sick persons around me, as well as

110
00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:58.319
<v Speaker 1>many ailing plants. He told me of his mother, a

111
00:07:58.399 --> 00:08:03.319
<v Speaker 1>sincere Christian. Many times after her death, Luther said, I

112
00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:06.600
<v Speaker 1>have been blessed by her appearance and visions she has

113
00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:10.920
<v Speaker 1>spoken to me. We drove back reluctantly toward his home.

114
00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:17.959
<v Speaker 1>In those waiting thousand letters, Luther I remarked, next month,

115
00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.839
<v Speaker 1>I am starting a magazine to present the truth offerings

116
00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:24.160
<v Speaker 1>of East and West. Please help me decide on a

117
00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:28.199
<v Speaker 1>good name for the journal. We discussed the titles for

118
00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:32.600
<v Speaker 1>a while and finally agreed on East West. After we

119
00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.720
<v Speaker 1>had re entered his study, Burbank gave me an article

120
00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:40.120
<v Speaker 1>he had written on science and civilization. This will go

121
00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:43.159
<v Speaker 1>in the first issue of East West, I said, gratefully.

122
00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:48.679
<v Speaker 1>As our friendship grew deeper, I called Burbank my American saint.

123
00:08:49.399 --> 00:08:52.639
<v Speaker 1>Behold a man I quoted in whom there is no guile.

124
00:08:53.480 --> 00:08:58.960
<v Speaker 1>His heart was fathomlessly deep, long acquainted with humility, patience, sacrifice.

125
00:08:59.720 --> 00:09:03.759
<v Speaker 1>His little home amidst the roses was austerely simple. He

126
00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:08.159
<v Speaker 1>knew the worthlessness of luxury, the joy of few possessions,

127
00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:12.799
<v Speaker 1>the modesty with which he wore His scientific fame repeatedly

128
00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:15.159
<v Speaker 1>remind me of the trees that bend low with the

129
00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:19.080
<v Speaker 1>burden of ripening fruits. It is the barren tree that

130
00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:23.679
<v Speaker 1>lifts its head high in an empty boast. I was

131
00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:27.120
<v Speaker 1>in New York when, in nineteen twenty six, my dear

132
00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:31.799
<v Speaker 1>friend passed away in tears. I thought, oh, I would

133
00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:34.679
<v Speaker 1>gladly walk all the way from here to Santa Rosa

134
00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:39.600
<v Speaker 1>for one more glimpse of him. Locking myself away from

135
00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:43.279
<v Speaker 1>secretaries and visitors, I spent the next twenty four hours

136
00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:48.320
<v Speaker 1>in seclusion. The following day I conducted a Vedic memorial

137
00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:52.840
<v Speaker 1>rite around the large picture of Luther. A group of

138
00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:56.960
<v Speaker 1>my American students, garbed in Hindu ceremonial clothes, chanted the

139
00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:01.000
<v Speaker 1>ancient hymns as an offering was made of flowers, water,

140
00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:05.000
<v Speaker 1>and fire, symbols of the bodily elements and their release

141
00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:10.120
<v Speaker 1>in the infinite source. Though the form of Burbank lies

142
00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:13.159
<v Speaker 1>in Santa Rosa under a Lebanon cedar that he planted

143
00:10:13.240 --> 00:10:16.840
<v Speaker 1>years ago in his garden, his soul is enshrined for

144
00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:21.600
<v Speaker 1>me in every wide eyed flower that blooms by the wayside,

145
00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:25.679
<v Speaker 1>withdrawn for a time into the spacious spirit of nature?

146
00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:30.440
<v Speaker 1>Is that not Luther whispering in the winds walking her downs.

147
00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:35.039
<v Speaker 1>His name has now passed into the heritage of common speech,

148
00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:41.000
<v Speaker 1>listing Burbank as a transitive verb. Webster's New International Dictionary

149
00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:45.919
<v Speaker 1>defines it to cross or graft a plant, hence figuratively,

150
00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:51.279
<v Speaker 1>to improve anything as a process or institution by selecting

151
00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:55.440
<v Speaker 1>good features and rejecting bad, or by adding good features.

152
00:10:56.639 --> 00:11:00.919
<v Speaker 1>Beloved Burbank, I cried after reading the definition, your very

153
00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:06.240
<v Speaker 1>name is now a synonym for goodness. A letter from

154
00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:12.519
<v Speaker 1>Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, California, U s A. December twenty second,

155
00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:17.799
<v Speaker 1>nineteen twenty four. I have examined the Yugoda system of

156
00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:21.639
<v Speaker 1>Swami Yogananda, and in my opinion, it is ideal for

157
00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:27.519
<v Speaker 1>training and harmonizing man's physical, mental, and spiritual natures. Swami's

158
00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:30.720
<v Speaker 1>aim is to establish how to live schools throughout the

159
00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:35.080
<v Speaker 1>world where an education will not confine itself to intellectual

160
00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:40.200
<v Speaker 1>development alone, but also training of the body, will, and feelings.

161
00:11:41.480 --> 00:11:45.159
<v Speaker 1>Through the Yugoda system of physical, mental, and spiritual unfoldment.

162
00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:50.440
<v Speaker 1>By simple and scientific methods of concentration and meditation, most

163
00:11:50.440 --> 00:11:53.840
<v Speaker 1>of the complex problems of life may be solved and

164
00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:58.559
<v Speaker 1>peace and good will come upon the earth. The Swami's

165
00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:03.679
<v Speaker 1>idea of right education is plain, common sense, free from

166
00:12:03.720 --> 00:12:08.720
<v Speaker 1>all mysticism and nonpracticality. Otherwise it would not have my approval.

167
00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:12.919
<v Speaker 1>I am glad to have this opportunity of heartily joining

168
00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:16.399
<v Speaker 1>with the Swami in his appeal for international schools on

169
00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:20.960
<v Speaker 1>the Art of living, which, if established, will come as

170
00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.879
<v Speaker 1>near to bringing the millennium as anything with which I

171
00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:31.279
<v Speaker 1>am acquainted. Signed Luther Burbank, end of Chapter thirty eight.