Lahiri Mahasaya
LIFE
Lahiri Mahasaya was born on September 30, 1828, in the village of Ghurni in Bengal, India. At the age of thirty-three, while walking one day on Drongiri mountain, in the Himalayan foothills near Ranikhet, he met his guru, Mahavatar Babaji. It was a divine reunion of two who had been together in many lives past; at an awakening touch of blessing, Lahiri Mahasaya became engulfed in a spiritual aura of divine realization that was never to leave him. Mahavatar Babaji initiated him in the science of Kriya Yoga and instructed him to teach the sacred technique to sincere seekers. Lahiri Mahasaya returned to his home in Banaras to fulfil this mission. [Mahasaya, a Sanskrit religious title, means "large-minded."]
Paramahansa Yogananda wrote in Autobiography of a Yogi: "As the fragrance of flowers cannot be suppressed, so Lahiri Mahasaya, quietly living as an ideal householder, could not hide his innate glory. Devotee-bees from every part of India began to seek the divine nectar of the liberated master... The harmoniously balanced life of the great householder-guru became the inspiration of thousands of men and women." As Lahiri Mahasaya exemplified the highest ideals of Yoga, union of the little self with God, he is revered as a
Yogavatar,
or incarnation of Yoga.
Disciple of Mahavatar Babaji and guru of Swami Sri Yukteswar (Paramahansa Yogananda's guru), Lahiri Mahasaya was the one whom Babaji chose to teach openly for the first time the ancient, almost lost science of Kriya Yoga. He was a Christlike teacher with miraculous powers; but also a family man with business responsibilities, who demonstrated for the modern world how an ideally balanced life can be achieved by combining meditation with right performance of outer duties.
Lahiri Mahasaya was a seminal figure in the renaissance of Yoga in modern India, giving instruction and blessing to countless seekers who came to him, without regard to caste or creed. No prophet before him, Paramahansa Yogananda pointed out, had distilled the entire Raja Yoga system of Patanjali and the yoga teachings of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita into a number of uncomplicated techniques capable of producing the greatest Self-realization. "Apart from the miracles of his own life," Paramahansaji wrote, "surely the Yogavatar reached the zenith of all wonders in reducing the ancient complexities of yoga to an effective simplicity within the ordinary grasp."
Lahiri Mahasaya established no organization during his lifetime, but made this prediction: "About fifty years after my passing, an account of my life will be written because of a deep interest in Yoga that will arise in the West. The message of Yoga will encircle the globe. It will aid in establishing the brotherhood of man: a unity based on humanity's direct perception of the one Father."
Lahiri Mahasaya entered mahasamadhi in Banaras, September 26, 1895. Fifty years later, in America, the prediction of Lahiri Mahasaya was fulfilled. An increasing interest in Yoga in the West inspired Paramahansa Yogananda to write Autobiography of a Yogi, which contains an account of the Yogavatar's life.
Lahiri Mahasaya Best Quotes
He only is wise who devotes himself to realising,
not reading only...
Solve your problems through meditation. Exchange unprofitable speculation for actual God-communion.
Clear your mind of dogmatic theological debris; let in the fresh, healing waters of direct perception. Attune yourself to the active inner Guidance; the Divine Voice has the answer to every dilemma of life. Though man's ingenuity for getting himself into trouble appears to be endless, the Infinite Succor is no less resourceful.
The master never counseled slavish belief. "Words are only shells," he said. Win conviction of God's presence through your own joyous contact in meditation.
No matter what the disciple's problem, the guru advised Kriya Yoga for its solution.
The yogic key will not lose its efficiency when I am no longer present in the body to guide you. This technique cannot be bound, filed, and forgotten, in the manner of theoretical inspirations.
Continue ceaselessly on your path to liberation through Kriya,
whose power lies in practice.
Divine union is possible through self-effort, and is not dependent on theological beliefs or on the arbitrary will of a 'Cosmic Dictator'.
Meditate unceasingly, that you quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. Cease being a prisoner of the body; using the secret key of Kriya, learn to escape into Spirit.
Seek divine wealth, not the paltry tinsel of earth. After acquiring inward treasure, you will find that outward supply is always forthcoming.
"Banat, Banat, Ban Jai !"
(‘Making, making, some day made!’)
It was Lahiri Mahasaya’s encouragement to persevere in meditation.
If you don’t invite God to be your summer Guest, He won’t come in the winter of your life.
Through delusion you are perceiving yourself as a bundle of flesh and bones, which at best is a nest of troubles. Meditate unceasingly, that you quickly behold yourself as the Infinite Essence, free from every form of misery. Cease being a prisoner of the body; using the secret key of Kriya, learn to escape into Spirit.
I am ever with those who practice Kriya. I will guide you to the Cosmic Home through your ever enlarging spiritual perceptions.
— all above quotes are from Autobiography of a Yogi