May 10, 2005 marks
the 150th anniversary of the birth of Swami Sri Yukteswar
— the revered guru of Paramahansa Yogananda. Swami Sri
Yukteswar, an ideal exemplar of India’s ancient heritage
of illumined rishis, is venerated as a Jnanavatar ("incarnation
of wisdom") by people all over the world who have been
inspired by his life and teachings. He manifested the self-mastery
and divine attainment that have been the highest goal of truth
seekers throughout the ages.
In his Autobiography
of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda describes his many years
of spiritual discipline in Sri Yukteswar’s ashram in Serampore,
India. Yogananda wrote of his Guru: "Each day with him
was a new experience in joy, peace, and wisdom….Sri Yukteswar
was reserved and matter-of-fact in demeanor. There was naught
of the vague or daft visionary about him. His feet were firm
on the earth, his head in the haven of heaven. Practical people
aroused his admiration. ‘Saintliness is not dumbness! Divine
perceptions are not incapacitating!’ he would say. ‘The
active expression of virtue gives rise to the keenest intelligence.’
"Sri Yukteswar’s
intuition was penetrating; heedless of remarks, he often replied
to one’s unexpressed thoughts….I daresay he would
have been the most sought-after guru in India had his speech
not been so candid….
"Amazing
it was to find that a master with such a fiery will could be
so calm within. He fitted the Vedic definition of a man of God:
‘Softer than the flower, where kindness is concerned; stronger
than the thunder, where principles are at stake.’"
Born Priya
Nath Karar in Serampore (near Calcutta) in 1855, Swami Sri Yukteswar’s
incisive intellect and thirst for knowledge were evident even
as a young boy. Later on, his pursuit of Truth led him to the
great master Lahiri Mahasaya of Banaras, who extolled the sacred
science of Kriya Yoga meditation as the most effective means
of attaining God-realization, and who was the first to teach
openly this ancient science in modern times. Through the guidance
of Lahiri Mahasaya and through his own practice of Kriya, Sri
Yukteswar achieved the supreme spiritual state.
A saint of
truly universal outlook, Sri Yukteswar recognized that a synthesis
of the spiritual heritage of the East with the science and technology
of the West would do much to alleviate the material, psychological,
and spiritual suffering of the modern world. His deep conviction
that tremendous advances could be made, both individually and
internationally, by exchange of the finest positive features
of each culture was crystallized by his remarkable meeting with
Mahavatar Babaji, the guru of Lahiri Mahasaya. His spiritual
classic, The
Holy Science, demonstrates and explains the universal
evolution of consciousness, energy, and matter — the entire
spectrum of experience we call life.
It was in 1910
that Sri Yukteswar met the disciple whom Babaji had promised
to send him for disseminating Yoga in the West: Mukunda Lal
Ghosh, on whom Sri Yukteswar later bestowed the monastic name
of Paramahansa Yogananda. In 1920 Swami Sri Yukteswar sent his
foremost disciple, Sri Yogananda, to America to disseminate
knowledge of the liberating science of Kriya Yoga to truth seekers
around the world. It was for this purpose that Paramahansa Yogananda
founded Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society
of India.
In 1935, Paramahansaji
received an intuitive summons from his guru — a portent
that his guru’s days were drawing to a close — and
so he returned to India for a year-long visit. The following
excerpt from an account by Richard Wright, brother of Sri Daya
Mata and one of two Americans who had accompanied Paramahansaji
on his trip, provides a personal description of Sri Yukteswar:
"I easily perceived the saintliness of the Great One through
his heart-warming smile and twinkling eyes. Quickly discernible
in his merry or serious conversation is a positiveness in statement:
the mark of a sage — one who knows he knows, because he
knows God. The master’s great wisdom, strength of purpose,
and determination are apparent in every way."
Sri Yukteswar
entered mahasamadhi (a yogi’s final, conscious exit
from the body) on March 9, 1936. In its report of the burial
ceremony for Swami Sri Yukteswar, the leading newspaper of Calcutta,
Amrita Bazar Patrika,
stated: "India is really poorer today by the passing of
such a great man. May all fortunate enough to have come near
him inculcate in themselves the true spirit of India’s
culture and sadhana which was personified in him."
