Neha Prakash
A divine Guru does not need his body to be the Guru. Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, the author of the spiritual classic, “Autobiography of a Yogi” and Sri Sri Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, author of the untrammelled book, “The Holy Science” stand behind this statement for billions of their devotees even today.
March marks their momentous mahasamadhis, a phenomenon where a God illumined Master consciously exits the body at the time of death. Sri Yukteswar Giri entered his Mahasamadhi on March 9, 1936, and his globally renowned disciple, Paramahansa Yogananda on March 7, 1952.
The two Gurus of the Kriya Yoga lineage dropped their bodies like an identifiable piece of clothing and lived on, guiding their devotees towards moksha, one giant Kriya breath at a time.
Kriya Yoga as described in “Autobiography of a Yogi” is a practice that decarbonises the blood with each breath, eventually lessening and preventing the decay of the body. The extra oxygen atoms transmutes the cells into pure energy. Thus making one Kriya breath of 30 seconds equal to one year of natural evolution.
It is an ancient science which Krishna gave to Arjuna and was later known to Patanjali and other disciples. In this yuga, Mahavatar Babaji gave it to Lahiri Mahasaya who in turn gave it to Sri Yukteswar Giri, the guru of Yoganandaji.
Mukunda as Yoganandaji was called then, met his Guru, Sri Yukteswar Giri in 1910 when he was 17 years of age. The exacting mentorship that had the other boys in the hermitage flee away for balmier words saw Mukunda receiving his Guru’s instructions on to his soul.
The young lad was being trained by his Guru to become a Guru, after all. Because Babaji had professed it to Sri Yukteswar Giri years ago that Yoganadaji is the one chosen to spread Kriya Yoga in the West.
Yoganandaji, although reluctant at first to start an institution even in the east, bowed his head down and conceded to his Guru. In 1917, he founded Yogoda Satsang Society of India (YSS). And in 1920, the prophesized call for America came. The young Guru left for the land whose language was as alien to him as the Yoga was to that land. But a sheer communication tool could barely come in the way of a God realised Guru. His first English lecture happened in the ship that was taking him aboard, followed by packed halls in every city of America that God chose him to speak in. This led to the formation of Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) in 1920.
The peerless Guru taught Kriya Yoga to monastics and house holders until his mahasamadhi, which too again, was nothing short of dramatic.
His body showed no sign of disintegration even after 20 days of death. Mr. Harry T. Rowe, the Mortuary Director recorded, the body of Paramahansa Yogananda stayed in “a phenomenal state of immutability”. The great Guru was proving to humanity in death, as he had in life, that it was possible to master the forces of nature and time through yoga and meditation.
Yoganandaji, as promised in his own words, continues to teach Kriya to his earnest devotees through Home Study lessons in Self-Realization, even 73 years after his mahasamadhi, “Those who have come to Self-Realization Fellowship or Yogoda Satsanga Society of India truly seeking inward spiritual help shall receive what they seek from God. Whether they come while I am in the body, or afterward.”
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