Is Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda the same as Paramahamsa Yogananda

I agree with what you write, Alx, about coming to the formless through form.

Sri Ramakrishna discussed these kinds of things. And many other teachers as well, that going to God through Bhakti, worship of God as a conscious infinitely loving Being is the quickest way to God.

From my reading of things, there is and has only ever been one path. Not that there aren't differences between Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, etc. etc. etc., but that it is, in some sense, "all one thing."

So, I think that the Bhakti path laid down by say, Sri Krishna or Sri Chaitanya is not significantly different than the Bhakti path that a modern Yogi would lay down. Or, say, I don't think that the Raja Yoga path, which includes kundalini meditations, is going to be any significantly now versus the Raja Yoga path laid down by some ancient rishi.

To me, seeing Yogananda is seeing God. Seeing Sri Yukteswar is seeing God. And, I did accept a Guru, from India,...from a different lineage and I do view him in the same regard.

So, you get those kinds of direct benefits, from personally being around the deeply loving presence of a saint. Even with great men, like Abraham Lincoln, it was said that however great he might have been from afar, it was never the same as those who had direct contact with him, saw the light and delight play in his eyes and feel the heart of the man. After Frederick Douglass directly met with him, he said something like, he had never met a man anywhere, ever, with a purer heart.

And all real Gurus basically teach the same thing...be as moral as you possible can, pray and meditate as best you can, do all the good you possibly can. No real teacher significantly deviates from these kinds of tenets.

So, people can know. If some teacher is telling you to break the law, do something unethical or immoral or bathe in chocolate syrup and dance the funky chicken....you go have that guy arrested and find a new teacher. If the teacher does not do every single thing that he asks his students to do...then you know something is up. The real teachers are not only speaking with authority and power, but being extremely humble, before everyone. So, for example, Gandhi cleaned the latrines of his own ashram...I think it was Swami Gambhirananda who was quite stern with his students, but one night a disciple caught him feeding bread crumbs to little mice, out of his own hand. Bama found a dog stealing a piece of bread from his table and had such love for the innocent creature, that he ran after him so that he could butter the bread!

The saintly nature of the real teachers comes out...and the devious bs of the charlatans also eventually shows.

There is a great Indian parable. This servant is told by his master (secular master, not spiritual master) to deliver some goods. He is on the way, but his journey is blocked by a stream that has become a raging river. He returns to his master. The master is arrogant, cold-hearted and dismissive, and not a little bit sadistically cruel. As a joke, he tells the servant to just go to the river and chant the name of "Rama" three times and the waters will calm down. The servant goes to the river, chants Rama, the stream calms down and he crosses the river and delivers the goods. He comes back to the master and the master is amazed. So, the master goes down to the stream, which is now raging again, chants Rama three times, tries to cross the river and promptly drowns.

So, if one is sincere, one can come to God even through a false teacher. And God will not allow any powerfully sincere disciple to stay very long with a false teacher. So, it is our own most sincere spiritual aspiration that is our best protection against false teachers (and every other manifestation of evil).

God is in charge here, not men, not evil....if we seek Him with all manner of devotion and sincerity, we are perfectly protected.