Another book by Paramahamsa Prajnanananda is a brief biography of "Yogiraj" Shri Shyamacharan Lahiri - the "fountainhead" of Kriya Yoga - which includes a chapter on his teachings too. The teachings are given in point-wise format, each put in only a few sentences. There are clear statements there about space being created from Brahman (The Universal One) and about the subtle body of senses and ego residing within the soul and how all the elements (bhutas) perform the subtle works by the power of the soul. There are some (slightly) discouraging statements about how the practice of pranayama and mahamudra are not to be learned from a book but from a perfect and realized guru :). And there is a clear recommendation that worldly duties are to be performed remaining always in "paraavasthaa", where paraavasthaa is defined as the tranquil breath state which is achieved after the practice of kriya. Kriya practice itself should be increased during winters and reduced during summer. Pregnant women are forbidden from practicing the physical kriyas - but mental kriyas may be performed by them too. Physical kriyas may be started three months after delivery, if the body is fit. There is no fault with marriage but if practitioners do not want to, then it is okay for them to not marry too. Sexual indulgence should be avoided - married people may engage in sex twice a month. Muslims and Christians who would like to practice kriya should continue sincere prayers according to their traditions - e.g., the Christian should read The Bible twice a day kneeling before Christ and the Muslim should offer namaz four times a day. Then, kriya should be practiced - that brings immense peace. Kriya practice in general would reduce undesirable qualities like jealousy, greed, pride, etc., and enhance positive attitudes like devotion, faith, love and wisdom. Practicing kriya for self-realization, practitioners would see many gods and deities appear before them. If they move further without stopping there, the same deities would help them reach their destination by extending
their helping hands.
As a student at university more than 20 years ago, the present author sometimes doubted the emphasis put on positive qualities by books and teachers. Having been brought up in an environment and a schooling system where good behavior was "the" currency (or, equivalently, was "the" God!), it seemed logical that anyone not following similar behavioral rules would be considered an "outsider" by the body and brain system. This in turn would take us far away from the teachings of so many yogis and swamis, in which tolerance and looking at all (humans at least!) as manifestations of God was taught as the better attitude to take in life. The number of such books consumed by the author at that time was considerably smaller, but general ideas are often clear even from a single one. Hence there was confusion and a deep desire to transcend ones's own view of life and see how we could increase our internal acceptance of the beyond, while externally maintaining all the "good" behaviors which had been taught as "right behaviors". The confusion was fueled by suggestions that good behaviors merely put a cover on man's inherent laziness. Instead of rewarding the enterprising and punishing the lazy, good behaviors merely covered the real story and helped the lazy get a larger share of the pie than they "deserved". It was only much later, after some more books had been explored, that the internal confusion subsided. The central argument is very simple and well-known. However, it was not explicitly on the author's conscious mind. The literature (e.g., the Bhagwad Geeta and many writings in the same spirit) has always placed "rajas" above "tamas" in the hierarchy of "gunas". Gunas can be translated loosely as "qualities" in common parlance, and more academically as "modes of material nature" (by Swami Prabhupada of Krishna Consciousness fame). The tamasic qualities are the dark ones, and when not kept in balance with the higher qualities, can lead people beyond simple sleep and rest, to their undesirable forms - e.g., laziness, madness, ignorance, etc. The rajasic qualities are exemplified by actions motivated mainly by desire for some relatively self-centered gains. When in excess, rajasic tendencies lead to greed and over-exertion at work (in order to achieve limited material gains which are mainly of a self-centered kind) and are known to lead to sorrow (beyond a point). The sattwik qualities are the enlightened ones, which motivate practitioners towards knowledge, peace, wisdom, self-control, and similar enlightened behaviors. An excess of sattwa has also been discussed in some places - this may lead to, for example, too much reading without proper assimilation and proper practice. Meditation is said to be a good antidote to excess sattwa - where relevant. In general, though, sattwa is the quality associated with knowledge and peace. When this hierarchy is kept in mind, it becomes very clear that the literature never places laziness above work - even when work is motivated by personal ambition! However, with some more wisdom, it is expected that practitioners will work with a sense of righteous duty and not mainly due to satisfy a personal want or desire. So sattwic behaviors are placed above rajasic, but never are the excessive tamasic qualities given a place above the rajasic. In other words, there is nothing wrong with an incentive system which pulls people out of excessive dullness and interia - only that the lower incentives are not placed above "dharma", duty, and wisdom in the literature. The wise, as modelled in the literature, continue to work. The change is in the motivation for work. The motive for them is a wiser one. There is then no conflict with people who feel that the traditional behaviors are merely cover for inertia. When the "incentivist" rationalists meet with people who work from a higher motive, they will know the difference, because some rational deduction will point them towards that.
Lahiri Mahasaya's father, Shri Gourmohan Lahiri was a recognized scholar and also keen on God realization via meditation. His father (Ram Ballav) was a close friend of the then king of Krishnanagar, who gave him the lease of a village called Ghurani. This gave the family good revenues as well as a high status in society. Earlier, the family's ancestors were settled in the areas of Bagada and Murshidabad.
Shri Gourmohan was given the title "Sarkar" by the king for his scholarship and wisdom. Unfortunately, his first wife died leaving him with two sons and one daughter. He married again, and Shri Lahiri Mahasaya was his son from the second wife, Muktakeshi Devi. With both parents being devout devotees of Lord Shiva, Lahiri Mahasaya must have grown up in an atmosphere particularly conducive to his spiritual quest. In his younger days too, Lahiri Mahasaya was given to meditation and on one occassion, a monk foretold his mother of his bright future as a great householder-saint and spiritual master. This young monk was none other than Shri Guru Babaji, who is said to have retained his youthful body for more than a couple of hundred years and is known to have initiated or guided more than a few generations of Kriya Yogis in modern times. (Lahiri Mahasaya's disciple, Sri Yuketshwar and Sri Yukteshwar's disciple Paramahansa Yogananda have all been known to have met and taken guidance and blessings from Sri Guru Babaji. More recently, Sri M - a contemporary yogi from the Nath tradition - has also written of a few occassions when Babaji materialized in front of him in his usual youthful form and blessed him with his presence. Babaji is known to have materialized in the same youthul form in front of Sri Lahiri Mahasaya and Paramahansa Yogananda too - time and distance seem to make no difference to Babaji's appearance and his yogic powers.) All this must have happened before Lahiri Mahasaya attained the age of five.
Born in 1828, he had to see his father's house and temple washed away in a flood in 1832 and soon after that, his mother, Muktakeshi Devi, also passed away. His father then settled in Kashi - where again, he was widely known for his erudition and intelligence. Lahiri Mahasaya therefore got not only the traditional Sanskrit schooling which was common in scholar families in those days, but also had the opportunity to learn English, French, Persian, Hindi, Urdu and a few other languages too. At the age of eighteen, he was marrried to Kashimoni, who was eight years younger to him but was probably the obvious choice for Lahiri Mahasaya, because she was the daughter of a scholar friend of Shri Gourmohan and it is said that whenever the family asked her who she would marry when she grew up, she always pointed to Lahiri Mahasaya and replied that it would be him.
The first five years of their marriage were spent in deep poverty though - despite Lahiri Mahasaya being well-known for being highly erudite and of a very noble character. Simplicity, equanimity and calmness were his ornaments and he had no pride despite being well-known for his deep understanding of many philosophies and literature. In fact, one of the reasons his father got him married was to prevent him from permanently leaving society in his spiritual quest. Perhaps in those days, scholars did not earn much unless they were engaged in direct service of the king. Perhaps his father - after the loss of his property in the floods and the death of Muktakeshi Devi - was himself not too keen on cashing in on his reputation unless the reasons were compelling enough. Whatever the several reasons, the couple lived in great poverty till Lahiri Mahasaya found a job as a second clerk in a public works department. This happened in 1851 - three years after he finished his formal education in 1848. The book says that he was looking for a job for these three years. Clearly, there was no well-nown job market to speak of at that time, even for brilliant students and boys who were otherwise liked by all around them.
Even after he started working, there were financial difficulties and the couple bore them with equanimity. However, over the 34 years of his salaried service, Lahiri Mahasaya set the most wonderful example for householder yogis. He was efficient at work, spoke little, discharged his official duties with great joy, and earned great respect from his office colleagues for his behavior. To supplement his income, he tutored children and a few years later, the list of his students also included dignitaries like the princes of Kashi and Nepal. At some point, he even opened a school - and the motivation was more than just supplementing his income to make ends meet. The book clearly states that he considered education to be critical for the welfare of the people and this included education of girls too. He gave due importance to good administration of the school too - and fined a watchman once for sleeping at work. The fine was charged purely to set the right example. Lahiri Baba was not known to be guided by anger or hatred. A school he opened for girls failed due to the highly conservative beliefs of the society around him, but in the process, he managed to teach his wife quite a few things, including the scriptures.
While engaged in all these works too, Lahiri Baba always found time to sit with scholars and saints to discuss spiritual and philosophical issues. Later, after his initiation by Shri Guru Babaji (or, Mahavatar Babaji, as Paramahana Yogananda called him), he was known for working all day, having dinner with his family with the most pleasant and humorous attitude and frequently staying up all night with his disciples guiding them in their search or just meditating with them. It is said that there were times when he only rested briefly in a sitting position with eyes closed - otherwise, he showed no need for rest on those days. Thus, it is no surprise that other legendary yogis like Trailanga Swami told their disciples that what they had earned by renouncing the world had been attained by Lahiri Baba while still remaining a householder. By 1864, Lahiri Baba had saved enough from his meager income to move into a house of his own - with Kashimoni and his eldest son. Over the years, the couple had another son, and three daughters. He was posted to several cities within the state of Uttar Pradesh and he moved cities as per the needs of the job.
Amongst the list of his disciples are many who are believed to have attained full self-realization (mastery of nirvikalpa samadhi) by his guidance and grace. His two sons - Tinkori and Dukori Lahiri are only two of the top names on the list. The great Sri Yukteshwar - guru of the world famous Paramahansa Yogananda - is another one, and another very highly respected name in the list of the fully self-realized disciples is that of Pandit Panchanan Bhattacharya, who later established he Arya Mission Institution, which published many books based on Lahiri Mahasaya's interpretations and discourses. The list goes on, of course.
There were advanced muslim and women disciples too. Other than Kashimoni herself, Pandit Panchanan's wife - Surdhuni Devi - was also an advanced disciple, and also published a yogic interpretation of the Bhagwad Gita called the "Surdhuni Gita". An advanced muslim disciple was Abdul Gafur Khan, was known for never meeting anyone, lest he hurt someone's sentiments. Several British officers also got to hear of Lahiri Mahasaya and took initiation from him. Religion, gender, nationality and marital status posed to no barriers for him.
The story of his initiation is equally wonderful. It is said that Mahavatar Babaji arranged for his transfer to Ranikhet by his divine powers in 1861, and Lahiri Mahasaya moved there, leaving Kashimoni at Kashi, which was his hometown. While travelling on duty, Babaji is supposed to have met him and asked him to come after office hours. Later that evening, in a cave in the mountains, with Babaji's blessings, Lahiri Mahasaya regained the memory of a past life in which he was a monk and meditated in that cave sitting on the same tiger skin which was still lying there. Convinced and reminded of his long standing relationship with his Guru, Lahiri Mahasaya accepted initiation into Kriya Yoga from Mahavatar Babaji and also accepted the task given to him by Babaji - of spreading the message of Kriya Yoga in common people while still remaining a householder, so that they could see for themselves that discharging the duties of a householder was not necessarily an impediment to self-realization. Babaji also promised Lahiri Mahasaya that he would appear whenever Lahiri Mahasaya called him, but this promise was later retracted after Lahiri Mahasaya once asked Babaji to materialize in front of some scholars and devotees who still did not have enough faith. Although Lahiri Mahasaya's purpose was only to instill faith into doubting minds, Babaji did not think of it as a good enough reason for Lahiri Mahasaya to make the request. He appeared on that occasion in front of the doubting minds, but later retracted his promise to appear on demand.
Lahiri Mahasaya was bereaved of his father too in 1852, about one year after he landed his job as a clerk. The title Yogiraj was bestowed on him much later by his father-in-law, Mahamahopadhyay Pandit Devanarayan, who also accepted Kriya Yoga initiation from him, quoting one the scriptures where it is said that if the son attains Brahman (i.e., is God-realized), then he has every right to initiate the father.
Lahiri Mahasaya himself completed about 26 books and diaries with spiritual interpretations and discourses. Other than that, he motivated several of his disciples to write books based on his yogic interpretations of scriptures. His life was marked by several miraculous events - including his knowledge of events distant in time and space, appearing in person at more than one place at the same time, curing sick people who otherwise felt that they had no hope and also bringing back a disciple after his physical death was announced by the doctors attending to him. At the time of his initiation by Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya was shown a grand vision of a golden palace - which was explained to him by Babaji as a manifestation for him, because he had once had the desire to live in a lavish palace.
About 6 months prior to his final departure, he is supposed to have given hints to Kashimoni about the impending end of the physical journey and about 3 months ago to some other disciples too. Most of these hints were, of course, not on the minds of the disciples at the time of his death, who were imploring him to cure himself of the sickness and not leave them directionless in the world. He replied by telling them that practitioners of Kriya could never perish and become "orphans" in the world and that even if his body perished, the ever existent Guru would always be with them. Thus calming his disciples, he left the world in deep meditative posture, following the Kriya Yoga method, on the auspicious day of Mahashtami in September, 1895.
To end, it is instructive to look at the five sermons of Shri Lahiri Baba, as retold by his disciple Swami Shri Yukteshwar. The language is slightly changed, but hopefully not the substance.
1. Aspirants should belittle themselves via service, worship and surrender to God.
2. Practitioners should remain absorbed in soul or God-consciousness by using all means - whether meditation, association with saints or self-study.
3. It is advisable to sometimes engage in group discussions on meditation and yogic practices too.
4. Denigration of spiritual names is not adviable.
5. Aspirants should seek the company of the Guru for at least three days every year, if not more.
Sadanand Tutakne
