Tag: Kriya Yoga

Paramahamsa Hariharananda, affectionately known by his disciples as Baba (Sanskrit for "Father"), was widely known as a God-realized Kriya Yogi in the lineage of Babaji Maharaj, Shri Shyamacharan Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Shriyukteshwar Giri and Paramahamsa Yogananda.
But who was Baba ? A divine mystery, a fountain of chaotic beauty and bliss. As Baba himself once said, "If anyone tried to know who is Baba, he would go mad"...

From his earliest childhood he was drawn to the spiritual life, and showed remarkable intellectual talents.

He had the heart of Buddha, the willpower of Moses, the compassion of Jesus, the penetrating mind of Shankara... and above all, he was Hariharananda. He had memorized and understood all of the major scriptures including the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Holy Bible, the Qu'ran and the Torah.

Paramahamsa Hariharananda was also a rare yogi. He had obtained the highest yogic state, the pulselessness and breathlessness state—also known as nirvikalpa samadhi—a fact observed by numerous medical doctors.

Paramahamsa Hariharananda was completely free from any religious dogma or sectarian belief. His outlook was reflected in his scientific approach of the teaching of Kriya Yoga. His whole life was oriented and focused on teaching spirituality. To meet and receive his blessing was an opportunity that will be long cherished and remembered.

Baba Hariharananda's chose his successor, Paramahamsa Prajñanananda, who lovingly carries on his legacy today by travelling the world to teach the ancient science of Kriya Yoga. Through Prajñanananda, one continues to feel the presence of Hariharanandaji. Long before Prajñanananda was ordained as a Swami in the Giri order, Paramahamsa Hariharananda predicted about him, "Whatever is started by me has to be completed by him."

Prajñanananda was given the title of Paramahamsa, the highest title given to monks and saints who attain the summit of God-realization, by his Gurudev on August 10, 1998, on his birthday.

Among Paramahamsa Hariharananda's many direct disciples are:
Swami Paramahamsa Prajñanananda Giri, Swami Premananda Giri, Br. Swarupananda Giri, Rajarshi Raghabanand Nayak, Rajarshi Peter van Breukelen, Swami Brahmananda Giri, Swami Shuddhananda Giri, Swami Vidyadhishananda Giri, Swami Sarveshwarananda Giri, Swami Mangalananda Giri, and Br. Vidyananda Giri.

More info http://www.kriya.org

Swami Kriyananda, born J. Donald Walters, is a direct disciple of the yogi Paramahansa Yogananda and had many hours of personal contact with him during the last four years of Yogananda's life (1948 – 1952). During this time Kriyananda became a minister for Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Yogananda. Yogananda also asked him to teach Kriya Yoga, which Yogananda called the highest technique of Self-Realization.

Kriyananda is the founder of Ananda, a worldwide movement of spiritual intentional communities based on Yogananda's World Brotherhood Colonies idea. Ananda has meditation centers and study groups throughout the world based on the teachings of Yogananda. Kriyananda is also the author of more than 80 books and the composer of over 400 songs. His books and music have sold over three million copies and have been translated into over 24 languages. In addition to English, he can speak Romanian, Greek, French, and Spanish.

Kriyananda was born in Romania into an American family. Growing up in Romania, France, and England, Kriyananda (then Donald Walters) returned to America with his family when he was 13 years old to escape World War II. Walters attended an American high school, as well as Haverford College and Brown University, leaving the latter with only a semester left before graduation.

In 1948, Walters read Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi and traveled to California to become a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. In the four years that followed, Walters spent time with Yogananda, learning and practicing his teachings, and taking extensive notes of his many conversations with Yogananda.

Kriyananda married in 1981, and publicly renounced his monastic vows on the occasion of his second marriage in 1985. He was later divorced. In 1995, he officially resumed his monastic vows and title.

In 1996, Swami Kriyananda began to spend most of his time at the Ananda Italy center. In 2003, he moved to India, where he began an Ananda center in Gurgaon, near Delhi, where he currently resides. He appears daily on Aastha TV, a cable station that shows throughout India, Asia, Europe, and now in the U.S. He also appears daily on the Sadhna channel, an Indian cable station. Ananda teachers are now giving classes on meditation and Kriya Yoga in many major Indian cities.

Mahavatar Babaji is the name given to an Indian saint by Lahiri Mahasaya and several of his disciples who met Mahavatar Babaji between 1861 and 1935. Some of these meetings were described by Paramahansa Yogananda in his book Autobiography of a Yogi, including a first hand telling of Yogananda’s own meeting with Mahavatar Babaji. Another first hand account was given by Sri Yukteswar Giri in his book The Holy Science. All of these accounts, along with additional meetings with Mahavatar Babaji, are described in various biographies of those mentioned by Yogananda.

Mahavatar Babaji’s real name and date of birth are not sure, those who met him during that period all called him by the title first given to him by Lahiri Mahasaya. ‘Mahavatar’ means ‘great avatar’, and ‘Babaji’ simply means ‘revered father’. Some of the encounters included two or more witnesses — discussions between those who met Mahavatar Babaji indicate that they all met the same person.

A Version of His Early Life

Babaji was believed to be born on the 30th day of November 203 A.D., in a small coastal village now known as Parangipettai, in Tamil Nadu, India, near where the Cauvery River flows into the Indian Ocean. He was given the name "Nagaraj," which means "serpent king," referring to "kundalini," our great divine potential power and consciousness. His birth coincided with the ascendancy (Nakshatra) of the star of Rohini, under which Krishna was also born. The birth took place during the celebration of Kartikai Deepam, the Festival of Lights, the night before the new moon during the Tamil month of Kartikai.

At the age of 5, he was kidnapped by a trader and taken as a slave to the area of today's Calcutta. A rich merchant purchased him, only to give him his freedom. He joined a small band of wandering monks, and with them became learned in the sacred religious and philosophical literature of India. However, he was not satisfied. Hearing of the existence of a great siddha, or perfected master, named Agastyar, in the south, he made a pilgrimage to the sacred temple of Katirgama, near the southern most tip of Ceylon, the large island just south of peninsular India. There he met a disciple of Agastyar, whose name was Boganathar. He studied "dhyana," or meditation, intensively and "Siddhantham," the philosophy of the Siddhas, with Boganathar for four years. He experienced "sarvihelpa samadhi," or cognitive absorption, and had the vision of Lord Muruga, the deity of the Katirgama temple.

At the age of 15, Boganathar sent him to his own guru, the legendary Agastyar, who was know to be living near to Courtrallam, in Tamil Nadu. After performing intensive yogic practices at Courtrallam for 48 days, Agastyar revealed himself, and initiated him into Kriya Kundalini Pranayama, a powerful breathing technique. He directed the boy to go to Badrinath, high in the Himalayas, and to practice all that he had learned, intensively, to become a "siddha." Over the next 18 months, Babji lived alone in a cave practicing the yogic techniques which Boganathar and Agastyar has taught him. In so doing, he surrendered his ego, all the way down to the level of the cells in his body, to the Divine, which descended into him. He became a siddha, one who has surrendered to the power and consciousness of the Divine! His body was no longer subject to the ravages of disease and death. Transformed, as a Mah or great siddha, he dedicated himself to the uplift-ment of suffering humanity.

Babaji's Longevity

Since that time, over the centuries, Babaji has continued to guide and inspire some of history`s greatest saints and many spiritual teachers, in the fulfillment of their mission. These include Adi Shankaracharya, the great 9th century A.D. reformer of Hinduism, and Kabir, the 15th century saint beloved by both the Hindus and Muslims. Both are said to have been personally initiated by Babaji, and refer to him in their writings. He has maintained the remarkable appearance of a youth of about 16 years of age. During the 19th century Madame Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, identified him as the Matreiya, the living Buddha, or World Teacher for the coming era, described in C.W. Leadbetter's "Masters and the Path."

Although Babaji prefers to remain obscure and invisible to others, he does on occasion gradually reveals himself to his devotees and disciples, capturing their hearts in various types of personal devotional relationships in which he guides them in their development.

The Legendary Powers of Mahavatar Babaji

Legendary powers and age have been attributed to Mahavatar Babaji mainly by the disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya.

Paramahansa Yogananda, in his autobiography, described Mahavatar Babaji’s role on earth:

The Mahavatar is in constant communion with Christ; together they send out vibrations of redemption, and have planned the spiritual technique of salvation for this age. The work of these two fully-illumined masters–one with the body, and one without it–is to inspire the nations to forsake suicidal wars, race hatreds, religious sectarianism, and the boomerang-evils of materialism. Babaji is well aware of the trend of modern times, especially of the influence and complexities of Western civilization, and realizes the necessity of spreading the self-liberations of yoga equally in the West and in the East.

In addition, Babaji is reputed to be ageless, according to some accounts, and about 500 years old around the late 1800’s, according to Swami Pranabananda. Yogananda reports that, according to the disciples of Lahiri Mahasaya, nobody knows Babaji’s age, family, place of birth, true name, or other details “dear to the annalist’s heart.”

The grandson of Lahiri Mahasaya called Shibendu Lahiri, a teacher of Kriya Yoga by himself, who lives and teaches in the temple of the family in Varanasi, usually refuses to speak about Babaji except of one time when reportedly he told students that Babji visited the family temple a few years ago.

Early Life

Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India into a devout Bengali family. From early age, his awareness and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary.

In his youth he sought out many of India's Hindu sages and saints, hoping to find an illuminated teacher to guide him in his spiritual quest.

Meeting his master, Sri Yukteswar

Yogananda's seeking after various saints mostly ended when he met his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, in 1910, at the age of 17. He describes his first meeting with Yukteswar as a rekindling of a relationship that had lasted for many lifetimes.

Sri Yukteswar was a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya of Varanasi and a member of the Giri branch of the swami order. Sri Yukteswar was the disciple of Mahavatar Babaji. Babaji rediscovered the Kriya Yoga system and the lineage starting in him preserved the system and initiated the following generation in the technique.

Yogananda himself met Lahiri Mahasaya and Mahavatar Babaji.

Studies, Monastic Life, and Early Activity

After passing his Intermediate Examination in Arts from the Scottish Church College, Calcutta, he did his graduation in religious studies from the Serampore College, a constituent college of the University of Calcutta. This allowed him to spend time at Yukteswar's ashram in Serampore.

In 1915, he took formal vows into the monastic Swami Order and became 'Swami Yogananda Giri'.

In 1917, Yogananda founded a school for boys in Dihika, West Bengal that combined modern educational techniques with yoga training and spiritual ideals. A year later, the school relocated to Ranchi. This school would later become Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, the Indian branch of Yogananda's American organization.

Move to America

In 1920, he went to the United States aboard the ship "City of Sparta", as India's delegate to an International Congress of Religious Liberals convening in Boston. That same year he founded the Self-Realization Fellowship to spread worldwide his teachings on India's ancient practices and philosophy of Yoga and its tradition of meditation.

For the next several years, he lectured and taught on the East coast and in 1924 embarked on a cross-continental speaking tour. Thousands came to his lectures.

The following year, he established in Los Angeles, California, an international headquarters for Self-Realization Fellowship, which became the spiritual and administrative heart of his growing work. Yogananda was the first Hindu teacher of yoga to make his permanent home in America, living there from 1920-1952.

Visit to India, 1935-1936

In 1935, he returned to India to visit his master Yukteswar and to help establish his Yogoda Satsanga work in India. During this visit he met with Mahatma Gandhi, the Bengali female saint Anandamoyi Ma, Nobel winning physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, and several disciples of Yukteswar's Guru Lahiri Mahasaya.

While in India, Yukteswar gave Yogananda the monastic title of Paramhansa (the spelling was later changed to 'Paramahansa'). Paramahansa means "supreme swan" and is a title indicating the highest spiritual attainment.

In 1936, while Yogananda was visiting Kolkata, Yukteswar died in the town of Puri.

Aftermath

After returning to America, he continued to lecture, write, and establish churches in Southern California.

In the days leading up to his death, he began hinting that it was time for him to leave the world.

On March 7, 1952, he attended a dinner for the visiting Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Binay Ranjan Sen and his wife at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. At the conclusion of the banquet Yogananda spoke of India and America, their contributions to world peace and human progress, and their future cooperation, expressing his hope for a "United World" that would combine the best qualities of "efficient America" and "spiritual India."

According to two eyewitnesses — long-time disciples Swami Kriyananda and Daya Mata — as Yogananda ended his speech, he read from his poem My India, concluding with the words "Where Ganges, woods, Himalayan caves, and men dream God—I am hallowed; my body touched that sod". At the very last words, he slid to the floor, dead from a heart attack. Kriyananda wrote that Yogananda had once stated in a lecture, "A heart attack is the easiest way to die. That is how I choose to die."

No body decay even after 20 days

As reported in Time Magazine on August 4, 1952, Harry T. Rowe, Los Angeles Mortuary Director of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California where Yogananda's body was embalmed, stated in a notarized letter:

The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramahansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our experience.... No physical disintegration was visible in his body even twenty days after death.... No indication of mold was visible on his skin, and no visible drying up took place in the bodily tissues. This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one.... No odor of decay emanated from his body at any time.

Autobiography of a Yogi

In 1946, Yogananda published his life story, Autobiography of a Yogi. It has since been translated into twenty-five languages. In 1999, it was designated one of the "100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century" by a panel of spiritual authors convened by HarperCollins publishers.

After Yogananda's death, his unfortunately corrupted followers at the Self Realization Fellowship (SRF) allowed themselves to bluntly change over and over the book content that was originally written by Yogananda. As for example they changed sentences of Yogananda that could jeopardize their monopoly of initiation in Kriya Yoga (this is yet another terrible example of how followers of a saint can distort and falsify their guru's words out of disloyalty and ego, other examples are Jusus followers and Osho followers).

But it appears that the universe or Yogananda's soul made sure to punish the corrupted followers: Due to a stupid technical error, the original first edition of the book has no copyrights whatsoever!

Make sure you read the first edition of 1946 if you want to read Yogananda's original words (see the books tab of the profile). You can also download the eBook version from here (see atachements below).