Yogananda, Paramahansa, 1893-1952; Yogis -- India -- Biography
The eternal bond of guru and disciple that existed between John and
Jesus was present also for Babaji and Lahiri Mahasaya. With tender
solicitude the deathless guru swam the Lethean waters that swirled
between the last two lives of his chela, and guided the successive
steps taken by the child and then by the man Lahiri Mahasaya.
It was not until the disciple had reached his thirty-third year
that Babaji deemed the time to be ripe to openly reestablish the
never-severed link. Then, after their brief meeting near Ranikhet,
the selfless master banished his dearly-beloved disciple from the
little mountain group, releasing him for an outward world mission.
“My son, I shall come whenever you need me.” What mortal lover can
bestow that infinite promise?
Unknown to society in general, a great spiritual renaissance began
to flow from a remote corner of Benares. Just as the fragrance of
flowers cannot be suppressed, so Lahiri Mahasaya, quietly living
as an ideal householder, could not hide his innate glory. Slowly,
from every part of India, the devotee-bees sought the divine nectar
of the liberated master.
The English office superintendent was one of the first to notice a
strange transcendental change in his employee, whom he endearingly
called “Ecstatic Babu.”
“Sir, you seem sad. What is the trouble?” Lahiri Mahasaya made this
sympathetic inquiry one morning to his employer.
“My wife in England is critically ill. I am torn by anxiety.”
“I shall get you some word about her.” Lahiri Mahasaya left the
room and sat for a short time in a secluded spot. On his return he
smiled consolingly.
“Your wife is improving; she is now writing you a letter.” The
omniscient yogi quoted some parts of the missive.
“Ecstatic Babu, I already know that you are no ordinary man. Yet I
am unable to believe that, at will, you can banish time and space!”
The promised letter finally arrived. The astounded superintendent
found that it contained not only the good news of his wife’s
recovery, but also the same phrases which, weeks earlier, Lahiri
Mahasaya had repeated.
The wife came to India some months later. She visited the office,
where Lahiri Mahasaya was quietly sitting at his desk. The woman
approached him reverently.
“Sir,” she said, “it was your form, haloed in glorious light, that
I beheld months ago by my sickbed in London. At that moment I was
completely healed! Soon after, I was able to undertake the long
ocean voyage to India.”
Day after day, one or two devotees besought the sublime guru for
KRIYA initiation. In addition to these spiritual duties, and to
those of his business and family life, the great master took an
enthusiastic interest in education. He organized many study groups,
and played an active part in the growth of a large high school in
the Bengalitola section of Benares. His regular discourses on the
scriptures came to be called his “GITA Assembly,” eagerly attended
by many truth-seekers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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