Speaker 1: Chapter thirty eight of Autobiography of a Yogi. This is
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Speaker 1: Read by John McAllister. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramanza Yogananda.
Speaker 1: Luther Burbank, an American saint. The secret of improved plant rereading,
Speaker 1: apart from scientific knowledge, is love. Luther Burbank uttered this
Speaker 1: wisdom as I walked beside him in his Santa Rosa garden.
Speaker 1: We halted near a bed of edible cacti while I
Speaker 1: was conducting experiments to make spineless cacti. He continued, I
Speaker 1: often talked to the plants to create a vibration of love.
Speaker 1: You have nothing to fear, I would tell them, you
Speaker 1: don't need your defensive thorns. I will protect. Gradually, the
Speaker 1: useful plant of the desert emerged in a thornless variety.
Speaker 1: I was charmed at this miracle. Please, Dear Luther, give
Speaker 1: me a few cacti leaves to plant in my garden
Speaker 1: at Mount Washington. A workman standing nearby started to strip
Speaker 1: off some leaves. Burbank prevented him I myself will pluck
Speaker 1: them for the Swami. He handed me three leaves, which
Speaker 1: later I planted, rejoicing as they grew to huge estate.
Speaker 1: The great horticulturists told me that his first notable triumph
Speaker 1: was the large potato, now known by his name. With
Speaker 1: the indefatigability of genius, he went on to present the
Speaker 1: world with hundreds of crossed improvements on nature, his new
Speaker 1: Burbank varieties of tomato, corn, squash, cherries, plums, nectarines, berries, poppies, lilies, roses.
Speaker 1: I focused my camera as Luther led me before the
Speaker 1: famous walnut tree by which he had proved that natural
Speaker 1: evolution can be telescopically hastened. In only sixteen years, he said,
Speaker 1: this walnut tree reached a state of abundant nut production
Speaker 1: to which an unaided nature would have brought the tree
Speaker 1: in twice. That time, Burbank's little adopted daughter came romping
Speaker 1: with her dog into the garden. She is my human plant,
Speaker 1: Luther waved to her affectionately. I see humanity now as
Speaker 1: one vast plant, needing for its highest fulfillments. Only love,
Speaker 1: the natural blessings of the great outdoors, and intelligent crossing
Speaker 1: and selection. In the span of my own lifetime, I
Speaker 1: have observed such wondrous progress in plant evolution that I
Speaker 1: look forward optimistically to a healthy, happy world as soon
Speaker 1: as its children are taught the principles of simple and
Speaker 1: rational living. We must return to nature and Nature's god. Luther,
Speaker 1: you would delight in my ranchy school, with its outdoor
Speaker 1: classes and atmosphere of joy and simplicity. My words touch
Speaker 1: the chord closest to Burbank's heart. Child education. He plied
Speaker 1: me with questions, interest gleaming from his deep, serene eyes.
Speaker 1: Swami Gee, He finally said, schools like yours are the
Speaker 1: only hope of a future millennium. I am in revolt
Speaker 1: against the educational systems of our time, severed from nature
Speaker 1: and stifling of all individuality. I am with you, heart
Speaker 1: and soul in your practical ideals of education. As I
Speaker 1: was taking leave of the gentle sage, he autographed a
Speaker 1: small volume and presented it to me. Here is my
Speaker 1: book on the training of the human plant. He said.
Speaker 1: New types of training are needed, fearless experiments. At times
Speaker 1: the most daring trials have succeeded in bringing out the
Speaker 1: best and fruits and flood educational innovations for children should
Speaker 1: likewise become more numerous, more courageous. I read his little
Speaker 1: book that night with intense interest, his eye envisioning a
Speaker 1: glorious future for the race. He wrote, the most stubborn
Speaker 1: living thing in this world, the most difficult to swerve,
Speaker 1: is a plant, once fixed in certain habits. Remember that
Speaker 1: this plant has preserved its individuality all through the ages.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it is one which can be traced backward through
Speaker 1: eons of time in the very rocks themselves, never having
Speaker 1: varied to any great extent in all these vast periods.
Speaker 1: Do you suppose, after all these ages of repetition, the
Speaker 1: plant does not become possessed of a will, if you
Speaker 1: so choose to call it of unparalleled tenacity. Indeed, there
Speaker 1: are plants, like certain of the palms, so persistent that
Speaker 1: no human power has yet been able to change them.
Speaker 1: The human will is a weak thing besides the will
Speaker 1: of a plant. But see how this whole plant's lifelong
Speaker 1: stubbornness is broken simply by blending a new life with it,
Speaker 1: making by crossing a complete and powerful change in its life. Then,
Speaker 1: when the break comes, fix it by these generations of
Speaker 1: patient supervision and selection, and the new plant sets out
Speaker 1: upon its new way, never again to return to the old,
Speaker 1: its tenacious will broken and changed. At last. When it
Speaker 1: comes to so sensitive and pliable thing as the nature
Speaker 1: of a child, the problem becomes vastly easier. Magnetically drawn
Speaker 1: to this great American, and I visited him again and again.
Speaker 1: One morning I arrived at the same time as the
Speaker 1: postman who deposited in Burbank's study about a thousand letters
Speaker 1: horticulturists wrote him from all parts of the world. Swami,
Speaker 1: g your presence is just the excuse I need to
Speaker 1: get out into the garden, Luther said gaily. He opened
Speaker 1: a large desk drawer containing hundreds of travel folders. See,
Speaker 1: he said, this is how I do my traveling. Tied
Speaker 1: down by my plants and correspondence, I satisfy my desire
Speaker 1: for foreign lands by a glance now and then at
Speaker 1: these pictures. My car was standing before his gate. Luther
Speaker 1: and I drove along the streets of the little town,
Speaker 1: its gardens bright with his own varieties of Santa Rosa,
Speaker 1: peach blow and Burbank roses. My friend Henry Ford and
Speaker 1: I both believe in the ancient theory of reincarnation, Luther
Speaker 1: told me, it sheds light on aspects of life. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: inexplicable memory is not a test of truth. Just because
Speaker 1: man fails to remember his past lies does not prove
Speaker 1: he never had them. Memory is blank concerning his womb
Speaker 1: life and infancy too, but he probably passed through them,
Speaker 1: he chuckled. The great scientists had received krea initiation during
Speaker 1: one of my earlier visits. I practiced the technique devoutly,
Speaker 1: Swami Ge, he said. After many thoughtful questions to me
Speaker 1: about various aspects of yoga, Luther remarked slowly, the East
Speaker 1: indeed possesses immense hordes of knowledge which the West has
Speaker 1: scarcely begun to explore. Intimate communion with nature, who unlocked
Speaker 1: to him many of her jealously guarded secrets, had given
Speaker 1: Burbank a boundless spiritual reverence. Sometimes I feel very close
Speaker 1: to the infinite power, he confided, shyly, his sensitive, beautifully
Speaker 1: modeled face lit with his memories. Then I have been
Speaker 1: able to heal sick persons around me, as well as
Speaker 1: many ailing plants. He told me of his mother, a
Speaker 1: sincere Christian. Many times after her death, Luther said, I
Speaker 1: have been blessed by her appearance and visions she has
Speaker 1: spoken to me. We drove back reluctantly toward his home.
Speaker 1: In those waiting thousand letters, Luther I remarked, next month,
Speaker 1: I am starting a magazine to present the truth offerings
Speaker 1: of East and West. Please help me decide on a
Speaker 1: good name for the journal. We discussed the titles for
Speaker 1: a while and finally agreed on East West. After we
Speaker 1: had re entered his study, Burbank gave me an article
Speaker 1: he had written on science and civilization. This will go
Speaker 1: in the first issue of East West, I said, gratefully.
Speaker 1: As our friendship grew deeper, I called Burbank my American saint.
Speaker 1: Behold a man I quoted in whom there is no guile.
Speaker 1: His heart was fathomlessly deep, long acquainted with humility, patience, sacrifice.
Speaker 1: His little home amidst the roses was austerely simple. He
Speaker 1: knew the worthlessness of luxury, the joy of few possessions,
Speaker 1: the modesty with which he wore His scientific fame repeatedly
Speaker 1: remind me of the trees that bend low with the
Speaker 1: burden of ripening fruits. It is the barren tree that
Speaker 1: lifts its head high in an empty boast. I was
Speaker 1: in New York when, in nineteen twenty six, my dear
Speaker 1: friend passed away in tears. I thought, oh, I would
Speaker 1: gladly walk all the way from here to Santa Rosa
Speaker 1: for one more glimpse of him. Locking myself away from
Speaker 1: secretaries and visitors, I spent the next twenty four hours
Speaker 1: in seclusion. The following day I conducted a Vedic memorial
Speaker 1: rite around the large picture of Luther. A group of
Speaker 1: my American students, garbed in Hindu ceremonial clothes, chanted the
Speaker 1: ancient hymns as an offering was made of flowers, water,
Speaker 1: and fire, symbols of the bodily elements and their release
Speaker 1: in the infinite source. Though the form of Burbank lies
Speaker 1: in Santa Rosa under a Lebanon cedar that he planted
Speaker 1: years ago in his garden, his soul is enshrined for
Speaker 1: me in every wide eyed flower that blooms by the wayside,
Speaker 1: withdrawn for a time into the spacious spirit of nature?
Speaker 1: Is that not Luther whispering in the winds walking her downs.
Speaker 1: His name has now passed into the heritage of common speech,
Speaker 1: listing Burbank as a transitive verb. Webster's New International Dictionary
Speaker 1: defines it to cross or graft a plant, hence figuratively,
Speaker 1: to improve anything as a process or institution by selecting
Speaker 1: good features and rejecting bad, or by adding good features.
Speaker 1: Beloved Burbank, I cried after reading the definition, your very
Speaker 1: name is now a synonym for goodness. A letter from
Speaker 1: Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, California, U s A. December twenty second,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty four. I have examined the Yugoda system of
Speaker 1: Swami Yogananda, and in my opinion, it is ideal for
Speaker 1: training and harmonizing man's physical, mental, and spiritual natures. Swami's
Speaker 1: aim is to establish how to live schools throughout the
Speaker 1: world where an education will not confine itself to intellectual
Speaker 1: development alone, but also training of the body, will, and feelings.
Speaker 1: Through the Yugoda system of physical, mental, and spiritual unfoldment.
Speaker 1: By simple and scientific methods of concentration and meditation, most
Speaker 1: of the complex problems of life may be solved and
Speaker 1: peace and good will come upon the earth. The Swami's
Speaker 1: idea of right education is plain, common sense, free from
Speaker 1: all mysticism and nonpracticality. Otherwise it would not have my approval.
Speaker 1: I am glad to have this opportunity of heartily joining
Speaker 1: with the Swami in his appeal for international schools on
Speaker 1: the Art of living, which, if established, will come as
Speaker 1: near to bringing the millennium as anything with which I
Speaker 1: am acquainted. Signed Luther Burbank, end of Chapter thirty eight.