Rajarsi Janakananda

Rajarsi Janakananda ( born May 5, 1892 as James Jesse Lynn, † February 20, 1955 ) was the most prominent disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda and a prominent businessman in Kansas City, Missouri. He was a millionaire when he met Yogananda in 1932. In later years he gave his entire fortune of an estimated six million dollars to Yogananda's organization, Self-Realization Fellowship and helped her as a long-lasting success. Yogananda Janakananda chose from as a successor for the office of President of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Janakananda was president of this organization 1952 until 1955.

Childhood and professional success

James Jesse Lynn was born as the son of Jesse William Lynn, a farmer, and his wife Salethia Archibald Lynn, lived near the village Archibald in Louisiana, one of the southern states of the USA. He grew up in modest circumstances. His early childhood was marked by the work on the farm. So it is one among others to milk the cows to his duties, to beat the butter and help with the cotton harvest. He received his basic education in a small wooden schoolhouse. He left school at fourteen and began to work for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. As a simple cleaning workers, he received $ 2 monthly. He worked for several years in various positions at the railroad company until it quickly to the position of office heads for the Vice President of Kansas City, Missouri arrived. To complete his education, he attended night school in Kansas City. He also took courses in accounting and law. At 21, he started in the finance department of ' Bell Telephone Company ' to work and before completing his law studies, he was admitted to the Bar Association of Missouri. In 1913 he married Josephine Prill Fred. At 24 he was the finance exam with the highest score ever achieved in Missouri. Soon after, he started for the largest insurance company in the country, USEpperson to work. At the age of 30 years was able to take him with a risky loan this company. This step allowed him a successful career as a businessman. He invested heavily in fruit plantations and railway projects. He was a respected businessman in Kansas City.

Student of Paramahansa Yogananda

Despite his material success Lynn was unhappy and had to admit that he flared up easily and was nervous. In January 1932, his life changed when he participated in lessons that were given by Paramahansa Yogananda. He felt by the presence Yogananda changed immediately:

On the second evening class, I realized that I was sitting up, his back was straight and absolutely numb. I looked down at my hands, the previously otherwise always moving restlessly and which were wonderfully quiet now ... I knew I had found the path that gave me satisfaction and inner peace, and that I had found what I was looking for namely a guru.

Lynn met Yogananda private in 1932 in Kansas City after one of the lessons. A short time later, Lynn was initiated by Yogananda as his student. Due to possible criticisms that would cause a friendship with a Hindi teacher, Lynn and Yogananda agreed not to make known to the public their connection.

During the next 20 years Lynn visited his yoga teacher often in his main residence is in Los Angeles or in his apartment in Encinitas, California. The two spent many hours together, during which they meditated and talked about spiritual matters.

Lynn said of his friendship with Yogananda:

One of the gifts I received through my friendship with Yogananda, was the liberation of nervousness, of tension and internal uncertainty. I won serenity, peace, joy and a sense of security that you can have only when one has found the true security of the soul.

In his book ' Autobiography of a Yogi ' shows Yogananda on page 318, a photo of James J. Lynn with the following statement: After five years practiced Kriya Yoga daily, Mr. Lynn received in January 1937 on a secluded beach in Encinitas, California, in the state of Samadhi, the beatific vision: the infinite Lord as the glory in our own psyches. Although he fulfilled his worldly duties conscientiously, Mr. Lynn was still time to meditate every day deeply about God. Was an enlightened Kriya Yogi from the successful businessman.

1951 gave Yogananda Lynn the religious name Rajarsi Janakananda. After the death of Yogananda in March 1952 was Janakananda president of Self-Realization Fellowship. Janakananda died on February 20, 1955 in Borrego Springs, California.