Brij Mohan Sharma
Since time immemorial, one of the features of Indian culture has been its incessant probe into the ultimate verities of Nature. This diligent research has led mankind to the most important discovery of “The Science of Spirit”, and the discoverers of this hitherto hidden wisdom are called Maharishis, Mahamunis, Yogis and Gurus in Indian parlance. Born in every generation, these wise men have been imparting this holy science to people, and spending every moment of their life to ensure welfare of humanity.
Born in India on January 5, 1893, Paramahansa Yogananda- ji was one such Mahayogi and well wisher of humanity. His parents were Bengalis and were blessed with saintly nature. Early in their life, they had become disciples of a great master known as Lahiri Mahasaya of Banaras who was an accomplished self -realized Yogi- saint. He initiated the couple to the spiritual practice of Kriya Yoga- a yogic technique whereby the sensory tumult is stilled permitting man to achieve the ability to hormonize body, mind and soul and achieve an ever-increasing identity with cosmic consciousness.
The picture of Lahiri Mahasaya, which always graced the alter of the family had a surpassing influence over Yogananda’s life. As he grew the thought of this master grew with him. In meditation, he would often see his photographic image emerge from its small frame and taking a living form before him. When he attempted to touch the feet of the luminous body, it would change and again become the picture.
As Yoganandaji grew into boyhood, he found Lahiri Mahasaya transformed in his mind from a little image cribbed in a frame to a living, enlightening presence. Yoganandaji frequently prayed to him in moments of trial or confusion and was often rewarded with advice and direction. Many such influences gave a tremendous boost to his love for the Divine.
“What is behind the darkness of closed eyes ? This probing thought came powerfully into his mind. Usually, an immense flash of night at once manifested to his inner gaze. Divine shapes of saints, sitting in meditation posture in mountain caves were screened within his forehead like cinema pictures. They told him that they were Himalayan yogis. The vision, however, used to vanish abruptly leaving the silvery beams of the flash light expanded in ever widening circles to infinity.
All such directly perceived fascinating visions made Yoganandaji revive his earliest memories covering the anachronistic features of a previous incarnation. In his Autobiography, he has written :”Clear recollections came to me of a distant life, in which I had been a yogi amid the Himalayan snows. The glimpses of the past, by some dimensionless link, also afforded me a glimpse of the future”.
It may also interest the readers to know that when Yogananda was still a babe, his parents’ Guru Lahiri Mahasaya had predicted that Yogananda ” will be a yogi. As a spiritual engine, he will carry many souls to God’s kingdom.”
As the adage goes ‘ coming events cast their shadows before’. It is no wonder, therefore, that Yogananda ji’s childhood was really remarkable which clearly indicated that his life was marked for a divine destiny.
When he was only eleven, the loss of his mother, whom he loved above all else in the world fanned more vigorously the embers of his inherent resolve to find God and to receive from the Creator Himself answers to the questions yeaning in his heart.
He became a disciple of Swami Yukteshwar Giri, who himself was the disciple of Sri Lahiri Mahasaya. Lahiriji was the disciple of Mahavtar Babaji, the deathless master who revived , in this age, the science of Kriya Yoga which Krishna gave milleniums ago to Arjuna. Mahavatar Babaji revealed this sacred Kriya to Lahiri, who handed it down to his disciple Sri Yukteswar, who taught it to Paramahansa Yogananda.
Why is it that Mahavatar Babaji is called deathless ? It is said that the Himalayan crags near Badrinarayan are still blessed by his presence. The secluded master has retained his physical form for centuries, perhaps for milleniums. His spiritual state is beyond human comprehension. His mission has been to assist prophets in carrying out their special dispensations. He has stated that he gave yoga initiation to Shankara, the reorganiser of Swami order, and to Kabir the famous medieval master. His chief nineteenth century disciple was Lahiri Mahasaya. Paramahansaji explains that the fact “that there is no historical reference to Babaji need not surprise us. The great Guru has never openly appeared in any century.. Babaji works in humble obscurity.. such masters always veil themselves from the gross public gaze and have the power to become invisible at will. The deathless Guru bears no marks of age on his body; he appears to be a youth of no more than twenty-five. Babaji can be seen or recognized by others only when he so desires. He is known to have appeared in many slightly different forms to various devotees. Needless to say, this is an indisputable reality.
As regards Kriya Yoga, it means “union” (Yoga) with the infinite through a certain rite (Kriya). A yogi who faithfully practises the technique is gradually freed from Karma of the lawful chain of cause-effect equilibriums. Yoganandaji explains: “Kriya yoga is a simple psycho physiological method by which human blood is decarbonized and recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transmuted into life current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centres”. The ancient yogis discovered that the secret cosmic consciousness is intimately linked with breath mastery. This is India’s unique and deathless contribution to the world’s treasury of knowledge.
Kriya Yoga is twice referred to by Lord Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita. One stanza reads :” Offering the unhaling breath into the exhaling breath and offering the exhaling breath into the inhaling breath, the yogi neutralizes both breaths; thus he realeases prana from the heart and brings life force under his control.” (B.G, IV-29)
Another Gita stanza says : “That meditation expert (muni) becomes eternally free who, seeking the Supreme Goal, is able to withdraw from external phenomena by fixing his gaze within the midspot of the eyebrows and by neutralizing the even currents of prana and apana (that flow) within the nostrils and lungs; and to control the sensory mind and intellect; and to banish desire, fear and anger.” (B.G. V: 27-28).
When in 1920, Paramahansa Yoganandaji was deemed ready to begin his world mission of disseminating the soul- liberating science of yoga, Mahavatar Babaji appeared before him in his home in Calcutta and made him aware of the divine responsibility that was to be his; ”You are the one I have chosen to spread the message of Kriya Yoga in the West..Follow the behest of your guru and go to America”.
Yoganandaji began his mission in America in 1920, and for more than a decade he travelled the length and breadth of America, speaking almost daily to capacity audiences in all major cities. It came as no small revelation to the West that Yoga-so eloquently expounded and clearly interpreted by Yoganandaji- is a universal science, and that as such it is indeed the “essence” of all true religions.
In Los Angeles in 1925, he founded the International headquarters for Self – Realization Fellowship, the society he had founded in India in 1917 as Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.
With the help of large- hearted students, by the end of 1925, he had established headquarters on the Mount Washington Estates in Los Angeles, California. As was his long cherished wish, the building resembles the one he had seen before in his vision in Kashmir. We have now Yogoda Meditation Centres almost in every major city in India and abroad.
Paramahansa Yogananda was the first great master of India to live in West for a long period (over thirty years). He entered the world in 1893, and left it in America on 7th March 1952.
Today, more than ever, Yoganandaji is recognized as a world teacher, an enlightened exponent of the universal science of Yoga, a great son and spiritual ambassador of India, a God realized master. This Autobiography of a Yogi is indeed a masterpiece. He has written it with unforgettable sincerity, incisive wit and divine fervour. This book, now a classic, has been translated in many languages. It has transformed the lives of millions all over the world.
While concluding, it may be worthwhile to state that knowing God is not only a privilege and a divine duty, but a practical necessity. Why should man grovel in self -insufficiency when he can tap the source of all power and fulfilment. If you can attain that consciousness then even death cannot disturb you.
(The author is a former Addl. Secy. to Govt)
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