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He is also
called Lahiri Mahasaya and Lahiri Baba. He lived as a married accountant and gave kriya yoga to 5000 persons.
The Americanized guru Yogananda devotes chapters to Lahiri Mahasaya in his Autobiography of a Yogi. It is
online and SRF-published in several after-death versions too, as if edited from the grave.
Some variants of kriya yoga were made known through Lahiri Mahasaya. The guru made many mentions of
kriya while commenting on various scriptures. Lahiri mentions have since been published and republished.
An example from the Bhagavad Gita 15:4:
"Then that goal should be sought after, whither [to what place] having gone none returns again. Seek refuge in
that Primeval Purusha whence streamed forth the ancient activity or energy." - Swami Sivananda's translation.
Summing up from the verse without much yoga terminology: "Seek the goal that none returns from: seek ancient,
primeval, streaming Purusha." By a river one may drink or wash oneself, by dipping into the stream one may do
as the salmon and get upstream, or one may swim or wade ahead upwards. There are several options, and
many ways of yoga too.
Lahiri's commentary follows. Her it is without the bracketed additions supplied by a publisher, Swami
Satyeswarananda.
4. When he enters in the atom of Kutastha, the inner Self at the area between the eyebrows, thereafter, he
never returns. That is, he is at the After-effect-poise of Kriya. (p. 136)
He is the First Being (Purusa) and is seen beyond the Kutastha, inner Self. His Feet (Charana) are the Kriyas
which the seeker holds onto perfectly and from where all the manifested things are created.
Atom: The word 'atom' may be confusing. Lahiri's use of it is hinged to yoga. He refers to the centre dot of
the golden disc (etc.) seen in accomplished meditation. His special use of the term 'atom' is from earlier
decades than today's atom concepts; and is akin to 'monad' too. 'Atom' comes from the ancient Greek
adjective atomos, uncuttable. "The idea of distinct and individual units ("atoms") is very old in such as Greece
and India. From the twentieth century scientists concluded that atoms were not the least units, and refined their
ideas further. (WP, "Monad"; "Atom")
So the commentary of Shyama Lahiri talks of the Self and how to enter it (cf. ujjayi pranayama).
Enter the inner Self, get poise and never return to breathing again, he means -
First Being - Creator of all - is seen beyond that inner Self.
Kriyas [founded on ujjayi] are sort of tall feet to hold on to: and thus, see God and stay in kriya states.
The conundrum about a state one does not return from: Those who state "one never returns from there" - it is in
several translations - should also tell: Who can get out of that state and tell?
Words have their limitations. To transcend (go beyond) words or categories implies that the words do not
reach that state. It is beyond description. With deep and dreamless sleep the experience can be quite similar
in that one cannot tell a lot from one's inner depths.
Reality is of several levels. The old teaching is that one does not return from the highest level - the Self-
realisation level, also called Atmajnana in Vedanta. One may reach it, stay in it, and slowly incorporate living in
the world and talk too - while in the supreme state, while not returning from it.
This comment incorporates traditional ways of telling about the Goal.
Life
Among Lahiri Mahasaya's other titles and great appellatives are "Yogiguru Bhagavan Shrimat Brahmachari
Anilananda Maharaj". His biographer Jogesh C. Bhattacharya uses that. One or more "Shri" may be put in front
of his name too, according to Indian custom. Hence "Shri Shri Lahiri Mahasaya" or "Yogiraj Shri Shri Shyamacharan
Lahiri Mahasaya" or "Yogiraj Shri Shri Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya". The surname Lahiri came to be attached
to his forefathers after they received a village named Lahiri in the Bagura district. But really, the surname was
Lahiri Sarkar, where Sarkar is a title. Shyama Lahiri did not use it.
Shyama Charan Sharman Lahiri (1828-95) was born at the village Ghurni in the district of Nadia in Bengal. His
mother and father worshipped Shiva. In Ghurni his father had established a Shiva Temple, but one day a great
flood washed it away. As a result, the family moved to Varanasi (Banaras) in 1834. There the young Shyama
Charan went to school. And he attended a government college for eight years, showing exemplary conduct
and diligence.
"When salt was lacking in his curry, he would never want it," informs Bhattacharya. Shyama was keen and
had power of judgement. He was married at eighteen, when his bride was nine. In due time he initiated her into
kriya-yoga. Yogananda tells of it. He also recounts how Shyama Lahiri lost his interited 288 bighas* of land to
relatives who had unlawfully occupied it for long. They did not keep their promises to send him some rent, either.
He was swindled by relatives -
*A bigha is a measure of land in India, varying from a third of an acre to an acre.
Shyama Lahiri turned out to be a dutiful householder. He and his wife had two sons. Three years before his
father died in 1952, he entered the Military Works Branch, P. W. D., Benares Division, where he served as an
accountant. He also taught Hindi, Urdu and Bengali to engineers and other officers of his department.
Working in the army as a civilian accountant, one day in 1861 he was transferred to the Ranikhet army
headquarters in a forest region near Nainital in the Himalayas. It is 14 miles outside the town at Drongiri. Roving
or climbing the hills around there, one day he was gently knocked on the head by a recluse called Babaji on
the Drongiri Mountain, and consequently taught kriya-yoga. Through that knock Lahiri Mahasaya attained to
something that is hard to put in words fairly and squarely, and "There are differences in details of how exactly
the Yogiraj received his first initiation," says Bhattacharya. But, as it stands out, one day a stranger on a hill
touched his head and lo! Shyama Charan suddenly understood he had used to meditate in a cave at the place
in a former life. No one knew the name of the stranger, but they called him such as Jnana-Netra, Tryambaka
Baba ("Father Three-Eyes") and Shiva Baba. Yogananda further tells in his autobiography how Babaji "whipped
up" (called into being) a palace for his chosen disciple to be initated in on that place, only to remove it after
the initiation, jewels inside it and all.
Lahiri's first disciple after he left Ranikhet and came back to the plains was a garland-maker. It happened
very often that so-called educated gentlemen would have to wait for years for receiving initiation from him.
The guru refused to be given material presents. Receiving gifts was almost a forbidden thing in his family, and
he followed that sort of family tradition with scrupulous care. He would only take five rupees when he initiated
anybody: he was instructed to do so by his own guru, Babaji. Shyama Lahiri sent the sums to his guru.
Shyama Lahiri was not for indiscriminate kriya-yoga propaganda. He would rather ask his disciples to go on
silently. A time would come, he said, when the yoga would be accepted world-wide.
He would generally instruct his devotees not to forsake their normal social and religious customs. He did not
want to disturb patterns of living as long as they did not stand in the way of progress. He would normally ask his
disciples to marry at the proper age and adopt the house-hold life. Exceptions were made for those who were
bent on renunciate living.
He also interpreted twenty-six Hindu scriptures in the light of kriya yoga, including the Bhagavad Gita,
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and Manu Samhita. English translations found on Sanskrit Classics (below) seem more
readable than corresponding ones from Yoganiketan, but the latter are told to be accurate.
Knowledge of the ultimate Self is to know Oneself by oneself. [Lahiri Baba (▫Saying 90 of an on-line
summary)]
"Always remember that you belong to no one, and no one belongs to you." [Lahiri Baba saying in ch.
34.]
Perhaps it should be added with John Donne from his Meditation 17, that "No man is an island" - for the
sake of ease and harmony, You need to strike a suitable balance between dependence and
independence till you get really independent, rather.
I am ever with those who practice Kriya," he said . . . "I will guide you to the Cosmic Home through your
enlarging perceptions. [Lahiri Baba saying, ch. 35]
Here is a question to probe: Is he with those who learn kriya from other sources than the Babaji-Lahiri
line too? How can you find out? Core kriya is, after all, a publicly well known pranayama technique
called ujjayi.
Clear your mind of dogmatic theological debris . . . Attune yourself to the active inner Guidance . . ."
[Lahiri Baba saying, ch. 35]
It should be very wise not to let Lahiri statements become theological debris either. You may need to
reflect. Now it is also written in the Babaji-Lahiri line:
"Even when Lahiri Mahasaya was silent, . . . I discovered that nonetheless he had transmitted to me
ineffable knowledge." [Sri Yukteswar in Autobiography of a Yogi, chap 12]
"Ineffable knowledge" cannot be formulated, and may not get checked. There is a possible problem
right there, since many intuitions actually prove wrong when rigorously tested. As it shows up, many of
the claims of Yukteswar prove wrong. Here is an online book full of such evidence: [Link]
If you are searching for reliable information, think and sort the sources better than Yogananda. He
writes, for example:
"Lahiri Mahasaya carefully graded Kriya into four progressive initiations. He bestowed the three higher
techniques only after the devotee had manifested definite spiritual progress [which could be honesty]
...
"His . . . interpretations were recorded and arranged by various disciples. Some of [them] were more
discerning than others in correctly conveying the profound insight of the guru . . . Through their zeal, the
world possesses . . . commentaries by Lahiri Mahasaya on twenty-six ancient scriptures . . .
"Lahiri Mahasaya . . . gave his chelas [dear friend-disciples] liberty to express their lives in
conformance with environment and upbringing.
[From Autobiography of a Yogi, 1st ed. chap 35]
Lahiri's Kriya is graded in steps and stages, but there were more than four of them. More on kriya yoga:
The processes of the kriya yoga taught by Lahiri Mahashaya make one gradually fit to [rise into] the
Divine within ourselves, with much less effort than is usually necessary. [Professor Jogesh Chandra
Bhattacharya, paraphrased]
Kriyayoga teaches man that God is to be discovered in [one's] own body first, [by] concentrating [the]
gaze on the point between his eye-brows . . . Mantrayoga [mental repetition of certain sounds too] can
. . . lead man to success, . . . through a constant chanting.
A mantra is a syllable or set of syllables, and is best repeated mentally, says the Manu Samhita 2:85: "An
offering, consisting of muttered prayers, is ten times more efficacious than a sacrifice performed
according to the rules (of the Veda); a (prayer) which is inaudible (to others) surpasses it a hundred
times, and the mental (recitation of sacred texts) a thousand times." Allowing some leeway in the
proportions given, may it be added that a fit mantra is given by a guru, and blessing go with that. That
is the age-old teaching.
In yoga literature, Lahiri Baba is presented as the disciple of Babajiand the guru of Yukteswar and many
others.
If you are fond of miraculous tales, Yogananda's autobiography is full of them, and of express
devotionalism and demagoguery too, which are dangers to the credulous.
You cannot find your Self by reading about it only. The crucial thing is experiencing it. So do not get
attached to mere words, no matter how godly and devoted they seem on the surface.
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