Babaji and Sri Priya Yukteswar
Sri Yukteshwar (10.5.1855 – 9.3.1936 A.D) was a disciple of Sri Lahiri Mahasaya. Sri Yukteswar has said to his disciple Paramahansa Yogananda that he saw the deathless guru Babaji three times in flesh and blood. His first meeting was in 1894 in Allahabad in the Kumbha Mela. When Sri Yukteswar was initiated into Kriya Yoga by his guru Lahiri Mahasaya, he was then not a Swami. Sri Yukteswar spread light on Kriya Yoga by establishing Saadhu Sabah Centres, including ashrams at Puri and Serampore. In one of meeting, Babaji directed Sri Yukteswar to send one of his chief disciples to the West, in order to spread the awareness of Kriya Yoga there. Sri Yukteswar was such a powerful embodiment of love that at sight of the visitor, he could convey the message and guide them with divine promise and alacrity. More insight Sri Yukteswar could be gathered from the book Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.
Yukteswar was not a Swami then. His Guru Lahiri Mahasaya had already initiated Sri Yukteswar into Kriya Yoga. Lahiri Mahasaya encouraged Yukteswar to the Kumbha – Mela at Allahabad held in January 1894. On this fair, amidst chaos of noise and beggars, a tall Sanyasi halted Yukteswar and took him near a tree, whose branches were sheltering a Guru with an attractive group of disciples. The Master, a bright unusual figure with sparkling dark eyes, rose and embraced him. Babaji bestows the title of Swami on Yukteswar. Sri Yukteswar was instantly engulfed in a ware of spiritual blessing. Babaji reflected to Yukteswar. “I saw that you are interested in the West, as well as in the East. That is why I summoned you here”.
East and West must establish as golden middle path of activity and spirituality combined. India has much to learn from the West in material development, in return, India be able to base its religious beliefs on the unshakable foundation of yogic science.
You have a part to play in the coming harmonious exchange between Orient and Occident. Some years later, I shall give you a disciple, whom you can train for yoga dissemination in the West. I perceive potential saints in America and Europe, waiting to be awakened. It was none other the Sri Paramahansa Yogananda that Yukteswar’s disciple Babaji promised to give years ago.
Babaji said my child, why do you worry and doubt about your abilities? He said doubly assuring “whose work is all this”, you are not the doer, whatever the will of the God has to be done and you will see, it will materialise as soon you only will have to begin.
Yukteswar deemed doubly blessed, filled with all strength in him and agreed to obey the Guru’s wish for the good of the world. |
