Narrator:
Ma Yogadya || by Shyama Khyapa YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py0Rkp9tBmU
Narrator:
This is a transcript of the audio, translated and formatted for clarity.
Disciple/Host:
Gurudev, today a doctor has come from Dakshineshwar to meet you. He wants to talk to you about some treatments. If you'll allow him to speak…
Guru Shyama Khyapa:
Yes, yes. He is from Yogoda Society, right?
Doctor:
Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.
Guru Shyama Khyapa:
Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. I know his Gurudev very well. That Gurudev there… he has left his body, but even though he left his body, he is very much alive. He responds if called. This much I know. And it's hard to find someone like him in these times. What is his Gurudev's name?
Doctor:
Paramahansa Yogananda.
Guru Shyama Khyapa:
Paramahansa Yogananda. Oh! Tell us something about your Gurudev. Let the people hear.
Doctor:
Gurudev was first born in Gorakhpur. When he was in his childhood, his parents took initiation from Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya. You all know about Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya; he was an advanced Yogi. He used to wear dhoti and punjabi. Once he went to Trailanga Swami wearing dhoti and punjabi, and Trailanga Swami came forward to welcome him.
Doctor:
The Sanyasis sitting near him said, “Baba, we have been practicing sadhana with you for so many years, yet you don't talk to us. But this Bengali gentleman came wearing dhoti and punjabi, and you went forward to welcome him?” Then Trailanga Swami said, “What do you know? This Bengali gentleman, wearing dhoti and punjabi, has attained what I had to renounce everything for.” He practiced Kriya Yoga and took initiation from Mahavatar Babaji. Mahavatar Babaji is in a cave in the Himalayas.
Doctor:
Here is his picture… almost 2500-3000 years old. He is still alive. He also appeared to Paramahansa Yogananda ji. Babaji came to his house and knocked on the door. His house is in Garpar, Kolkata. Upon opening the door, he saw Babaji had come. He said, “Gurudev, you have come? Please come inside.” Then Babaji said, “No, I have come to tell you to go abroad and spread Kriya Yoga.” Having said that, Yogananda called him inside, but by then he had vanished.
Doctor:
So, such an advanced soul. Then Yoganandaji went there. His childhood name was Mukunda Lal Ghosh. I heard this from his cousin's mouth. I went to Swami Santanandaji's cousin's house in Srirampur. I heard that Prabhash Babu (the cousin) told Santanandaji that in his childhood, whenever Yoganandaji laughed, pearls would fall from his mouth. He was that advanced.
Doctor:
Not only that, when Mukunda Lal Ghosh was taken in his mother's lap to Gurudev Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya, Shyama Charan Lahiri Mahasaya said, “This boy of yours will one day show the path of peace to the people of the whole world.” Today it is seen that this Yogoda Satsanga… in India it is called Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, but abroad it is called Self-Realization Fellowship. You might have heard the name Daya Mata. Daya Mata was his disciple, a very advanced Yogi. She also left her body a few years ago.
Doctor:
Through very advanced Kriya Yoga, he achieved so many things, which you can read in his book Yogi Kathamrita, which he wrote as Autobiography of a Yogi. It has been translated into 37 languages now. The Bengali translation is Yogi Kathamrita. Reading that book, you can learn about his life and the lives of other Yogis. There was a boy named Kashi in his Brahmacharya school in Ranchi. He was from Kolkata. One day he said, “Gurudev, please look at my palm.”
Doctor:
He looked at the palm and said, “Kashi, you won't live long, only three or four more days. Then you will die.” Then Kashi said, “Gurudev, how can that be? If I die, I won't have your company. Please promise me that after I die, I will still have your company.” He said, “How is that possible? How would I know where you will be born?” Kashi said, “No, you must promise.” Then he said, “Okay, fine.”
Doctor:
Then the Durga Puja holidays started at the Ranchi Brahmacharya school. Gurudev had left for some work outside the ashram. He said that everyone could go for the holidays, but Kashi should not go home. Kashi's hostel superintendent didn't send him. Then his father and uncle came from their home in Kolkata. They said, “The Puja holidays have started, such a big Durga Puja is happening in Kolkata, why hasn't Kashi come?”
Doctor:
They were told Gurudev had forbidden it. They said, “We won't listen to Gurudev's prohibition, we will take him.” The superintendent didn't want to let him go, but the father and uncle went to the Ranchi police station and brought him home through the police. Coming here, Kashi died of Asiatic cholera.
Doctor:
Then Gurudev returned to the ashram and asked, “Where is Kashi?” He was told Kashi wasn't there, his father and uncle took him away with the police. He said, “Everything is ruined; the boy couldn't be saved.” Then from Ranchi, he raised his hand like this and saw, like sparking in a tuning fork, Kashi was towards Kolkata.
Doctor:
Then Yoganandaji came by train from Ranchi, and as he passed Howrah, he saw Kashi's father and uncle returning home after cremating Kashi at the Nimtala ghat. Then Gurudev said, “Being father and uncle, you killed the boy? Why did you bring him?” Anyway, it was already done. Later Gurudev saw that Kashi had been born in Kolkata. He raised his hand to see where the sparking was. Then coming to Kolkata, wandering through various streets, he saw Serpentine Lane near Sealdah.
Doctor:
When he went to Serpentine Lane, going to a door, the sparking happened. In that house in Serpentine Lane, going in front of the door, he said, “In this house, a lady is expecting a child.” They said, “Yes.” He said, “This boy, after being born, will come to me, because in his previous life, he was in my ashram.” There are many more incidents in Gurudev's life. If you read the book Yogi Kathamrita… because there are so many incidents to tell. I will send you a copy of Yogi Kathamrita if I can.
Guru Shyama Khyapa:
Send one; I will read it. Definitely.
Doctor:
Gurudev, by his guru's order, went to far-off America. What was his Guru's name? Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri Maharaj. Srirampur was his home. Yukteswar Giriji was not on the spiritual path initially; he was a family man. He also had a daughter. Later, coming in contact with Lahiri Baba, he became very advanced.
Doctor:
Once he went to the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. Babaji Maharaj had come to that Kumbh Mela. He said, “Bring that Swami ji here.” They asked, “Which Swami ji?” He said, “The one standing there wearing a full shirt.” He wasn't wearing saffron clothes. Then the sanyasis went and said, “Swami ji, Babaji is calling you.” He said, “Which Swami ji?” They said, “You.” He said, “But I am not a Swami.”
Doctor:
Then after going to Babaji, he realized he was an advanced Yogi. And by staying with Lahiri Baba, he became very advanced in Kriya Yoga. Yoganandaji was a seeker of God from his childhood. He even tried to run away to the Himalayas to be with his Guru. He went to Master Mahasaya (the one in Kathamrita) to take initiation. Then Master Mahasaya said, “I am not your Guru; your Guru will be found very soon.”
Doctor:
Then going to Srirampur, he met Sri Yukteswar Giriji and took initiation in Kriya Yoga from him. A disciple of Yukteswar Giriji was alive, and when I went to Srirampur for treatment, he told me that Yukteswar Giriji used to sit in the air. We once thought, when we were young, that maybe he was hanging by a thin wire. So we tried to check above his head with a stick and saw there was no wire; he was sitting in the air.
Doctor:
So by taking Kriya Yoga lessons from Yukteswar Giriji, he became a very advanced Yogi. Let me tell you an incident from his student days. He was studying IA at Scottish Church College. Then Yukteswar Giriji said, “Mukunda, get admitted to Srirampur College for BA.” Mukunda said, “Gurudev, there is no BA course here.”
Doctor:
Speaker 1 (Disciple/Host): (Interrupting) Stop here for a bit.
Doctor:
Then he said, “I am telling you, go and study in this Srirampur College.” Then it was seen that in that very year, the BA course started in Srirampur College. From there, after passing BA, he lived in Panthi Boarding House, from where by his Guru's order, he went to America. And Babaji Maharaj came and instructed him, “Mukunda, you go. Go to America and spread Kriya Yoga.” From then on, he became very popular there as an advanced Yogi.
Disciple/Host:
Okay, that's all for today. Doctor, a terrible storm has started outside. So we are ending today's episode here. There has also been a power cut here. Gurudev, please accept my respects. We are finishing.