Part 58 (1/2)
”Let the fragrance of the KRIYA flower be wafted naturally, without any display,” he said ”Its seeds will take root in the soil of spiritually fertile hearts”
Although the great h thepress, he knew that the power of hisby its own force the banks of hued and purified lives of devotees were the siuarantees of the deathless vitality of KRIYA
In 1886, twenty-five years after his Ranikhet initiation, Lahiri Mahasaya was retired on a pension {FN35-17} With his availability in the dayti nuuru now sat in silence most of the time, locked in the tranquil lotus posture He seldom left his little parlor, even for a walk or to visit other parts of the house A quiet stream of chelas arrived, aluru
To the awe of all beholders, Lahiri Mahasaya's habitual physiological state exhibited the superhuman features of breathlessness, sleeplessness, cessation of pulse and heartbeat, cal for hours, and a profound aura of peace No visitors departed without uplift of a true man of God
The master now permitted his disciple, Panchanon Bhattacharya, to open an ”Arya Mission Institution” in Calcutta Here the saintly disciple spread the e of KRIYA YOGA, and prepared for public benefit certain yogic herbal {FN35-18} medicines
In accordance with ancient custoeneral a NEEM {FN35-19} oil for the cure of various diseases When the guru requested a disciple to distil the oil, he could easily accomplish the task If anyone else tried, he would encounter strange difficulties, finding that the h the required distilling processes Evidently the redient
[Illustration:--lnature, in Bengali script, are shown above The lines occur in a letter to a chela; the great master interprets a Sanskrit verse as follows: ”He who has attained a state of calmness wherein his eyelids do not blink, has achieved SAMBHABI MUDRA”
(SIGNED) ”SRI SHYAMA CHARAN DEVA SHARMAN”
The Arya Mission Institution undertook the publication of uru's scriptural coreat prophets, Lahiri Mahasaya hi interpretations were recorded and arranged by various disciples
So than others in correctly conveying the profound insight of the guru; yet, on the whole, their efforts were successful Through their zeal, the world possesses unparalleled commentaries by Lahiri Mahasaya on twenty-six ancient scriptures
Sri Ananda Mohan Lahiri, a grandson of thebooklet on KRIYA ”The text of the BHAGAVAD GITA is a part of the great epic, the MAHABHARATA, which possesses several knot-points (VYAS-KUTAS),” Sri Ananda wrote ”Keep those knot-points unquestioned, and we find nothing but mythical stories of a peculiar and easily-misunderstood type Keep those knot-points unexplained, and we have lost a science which the East has preserved with superhuman patience after a quest of thousands of years of experiment
{FN35-20} It was the coht, clear of allegories, the very science of religion that had been so cleverly put out of sight in the riddle of scriptural letters and ilery of words, the otherwise un formulas of Vedic worshi+p have been proved by the nificance
”We know that ent sway of evil passions, but these are rendered powerless and ence when there dawns on hih KRIYA Here the give-up, the negation of the lower passions, synchronizes with a take-up, the assertion of a beatitude Without such a course, hundreds of atives are useless to us
”Our eagerness for worldly activity kills in us the sense of spiritual awe We cannot comprehend the Great Life behind all nas home to us hoe can use the powers of nature; this familiarity has bred a contempt for her ultimate secrets Our relation with nature is one of practical business We tease her, so to speak, to kno she can be used to serve our purposes; we ies, whose Source yet remains unknown In science our relation with nature is one that exists between a man and his servant, or in a philosophical sense she is like a captive in the witness box We cross-exah her evidence in human scales which cannot measure her hidden values On the other hand, when the self is in coher power, nature automatically obeys, without stress or strain, the will of man This effortless com materialist
”The life of Lahiri Mahasaya set an exaa is a h KRIYA to understand his proper relation with nature, and to feel spiritual reverence for all phenomena, whether mystical or of everyday occurrence, in spite of the matter-of-factness of physical science {FN35-21} We o is no longer so, and what is ible a hundred years hence It is the Infinite, the Ocean of Power, that is at the back of all manifestations
”The law of KRIYA YOGA is eternal It is true like mathematics; like the simple rules of addition and subtraction, the law of KRIYA can never be destroyed Burn to ashes all the books on ically-minded will always rediscover such truths; destroy all the sacred books on yoga, its fundai who comprises within hie”
Just as Babaji is areatest of avatars, a MAHAVATAR, and Sri Yukteswar a JNANAVATAR or Incarnation of Wisdom, so Lahiri Mahasaya a
By the standards of both qualitative and quantitative good, he elevated the spiritual level of society In his power to raise his close disciples to Christlike stature and in his wide disse thethe saviors of mankind
His uniqueness as a prophet lies in his practical stress on a definite a freedom to all men Apart from the miracles of his own life, surely the YOGAVATAR reached the zenith of all wonders in reducing the ancient coa to an effective sirasp
In reference to miracles, Lahiri Mahasaya often said, ”The operation of subtle lahich are unknown to people in general should not be publicly discussed or published without due discries I have appeared to flout his cautionary words, it is because he has giventhe lives of Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Sri Yukteswar, I have thought it advisable to omit many true miraculous stories, which could hardly have been included without writing, also, an explanatory volume of abstruse philosophy
New hope for new men! ”Divine union,” the YOGAVATAR proclaih self-effort, and is not dependent on theological beliefs or on the arbitrary will of a Cosh use of the KRIYA key, persons who cannot bring themselves to believe in the divinity of any man will behold at last the full divinity of their own selves
{FN35-1} MATTHEW 3:15
{FN35-2} Many Biblical passages reveal that the law of reincarnation was understood and accepted Reincarnational cycles are a more reasonable explanation for the different states of evolution in which mankind is found, than the co (consciousness of egoity) carees of lustihood for thirty or ninety years, and then returned to the original void The inconceivable nature of such a void is a probleht the heart of a medieval Schoolman