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Dr. P.S. Das is following
the footsteps of his gurus and spreading the
essence of this great people’s efforts
and visions.
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Mahavatar
Babaji, a Himalayan mahayogi said
to be about 1,800 years old, is the founder
of kriya yoga. The world first heard about
him courtesy's Autobiography of a Yogi.
Today, many cults are growing around his
enigmatic persona. Mumbai-based Dr Ram Bhosle
claims to have lived with him for six years. |
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Babaji's
influence as a guru is said to have prevailed
over the ages from Adi Shankaracharya and
Kabir to more recent saints like Sai Baba
of Shirdi, Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaon and
Swami Samartha of Akkalkot. The last three
were reportedly firebrand revolutionaries
who were given up for dead in the First
War of Indian Independence in 1857. It is
said that the first was a Muslim, while
the other two were Hindus. They escaped
to the Himalayas for sanctuary and were
later given a spiritual initiation by Babaji.
They eventually returned as illumined leaders
of humanity. |
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Babaji
mostly works in obscurity, even while serving
as a spiritual mentor to scores of masters.
He has guided the destiny of India & |
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her people, yet he is perhaps one of the most
accessible of siddhayogis to walk in our midst
in recent times. Over two millennia, Babaji has
continued to nurture hundreds of accomplished
disciples. |
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Yogavatar
Shyama Charan Lahiri, best known as Lahiri
Mahasaya (September 30, 1828 - September 26, 1895)
was an Indian yogi and the guru of Sri Yukteswar
Giri. Mahasaya is a Sanskrit religious title.
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He was
unusual among Indian holy men in that he was a
householder. Lahiri lived with his family in Benares
rather than in a temple or monastery apart from
family life. Nonetheless, he achieved a substantial
reputation among 19th century Hindu religionists.
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Paramahansa
Yogananda tells stories of Lahiri Mahasaya in
his Autobiography of a Yogi; He was an office
worker until the age of about 30, when he met
his own guru, Mahavatar Babaji. Lahiri was said
to have been chosen by his semi-legendary guru
to reintroduce the lost practise of Kriya Yoga
to the phenomenal world. Lahiri's disciples included
both Yogananda's parents as well as Yogananda's
own guru Sri Yukteswar. |
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Gyanavatar
Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, was born in 1855
and, at that time, had been given the secular
name of Priya Nath Karar. He was born from wealthy
parents and during his early adulthood he got
married and invested his heritage in properties.
He entered the Swami order after the death of
his wife, and from that time on he dedicated his
life to studying, learning and teaching. He divided
his time between two ashrams; one in Puri and
one in Serampore. |
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Sri Yukteswar
did not meet his guru Shyama Charan Lahiri early
in his life. He was initiated by him in the practice
of kriya yoga in his adulthood, and, later, authorized
to give the holy initiation as well. Sri Yukteswar,
after many researches discovered a mistake in
the Hindu almanac. He said that there is an equinotial
cycle of 24.000 years through which universe's
evolution unfolds. each sub-cycle is called "Yuga".
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Sri Yukteswar
consciously left his body when he was 81 years
old, while meditating in the lotus posture. His
body is still buried in his Ashram where a shrine
has been built.
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Paramhansa
Yogananda, was born Mukunda Lal Ghosh on
January 5th 1893, in Gorakhpur, India, into a
devout and well-to-do Bengali family. He was the
first yoga master of India to take up permanent
residence in the West. He arrived America in 1920,
and traveled throughout the United States on what
he called his ‘spiritual campaigns’.
His enthusiastic audiences filled the largest
halls in America. Hundreds of thousands came to
see the yogi from India. |
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Yogananda's
initial impact was truly impressive. But his lasting
impact has been even greater. Yogananda's Autobiography
of a Yogi, helped launch a spiritual revolution
in the West. His message was nonsectarian and
universal. Yogananda’s teacher sent him
to the West with the admonition, “The West
is high in material attainments, but lacking in
spiritual understanding. It is God’s will
that you play a role in teaching mankind the value
of balancing the material with an inner, spiritual
life.” |
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On March 7, 1952, Paramahansa Yogananda entered mahasamadhi,
a God-illumined master's conscious exit from the body
at the time of physical death. His passing was marked
by an extraordinary phenomenon. |
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Bishnu
Charan Ghosh, was born in Lahore, India
in 1903. He was a celebrated physical culturist
and the first to scientifically document Yoga's
ability to cure chronic physical ailments and
heal the body.
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Ghosh
came from an extraordinary family. He was initiated
into the field of yogic exercise and physical
education by his guru and older brother, Paramahansa
Yogananda, the world renowned Yogi and spiritual
master. In 1923, at the young age of 20, he founded
the first Ghosh College of Physical Education
in Calcutta and his fame quickly spread throughout
India.
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In 1939,
Ghosh came to the United States to educate people
on the subject of yoga by giving demonstrations
of amazing yoga feats. He lectured at Columbia
University in New York, generating a great deal
of interest in the field, and was widely acknowledged
and respected in the academic community. In 1968
he went to Japan with his troupe and traveled
all over the country giving lectures and yogic
demonstrations. Ghosh's were the first yoga |
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exhibitions to be televised outside of India, and were
seen and loved by millions of Japanese. He passed away
in 1970. His legacy is being continued by his son, Biswanath
Ghosh, the current director of the Ghosh College in
Calcutta. |
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Swami
Vivekananda, crammed immense labor and
achievement into his short life, 1863-1902. Born
in the Datta family of Calcutta, the youthful
Vivekananda embraced the agnostic philosophies
of the Western mind along with the worship of
science. He is a spiritual genius of commanding
intellect and power. |
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At the
same time, vehement in his desire to know the
truth about God, he questioned people of holy
reputation, asking them if they had seen God.
He found such a person in Sri Ramakrishna, who
became his master, allayed his doubts, gave him
God vision, and transformed him into sage and
prophet with authority to teach. |
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After
Sri Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda renounced
the world and criss-crossed India as a wandering
monk. His mounting compassion for India's people
drove him to seek their material help from the
West. Accepting an opportunity to represent Hinduism
at Chicago's Parliament of Religions in 1893,
he won ins- |
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tant celebrity in America and a ready forum for his
spiritual teaching. For three years he spread the Vedanta
philosophy and religion in America and England and then
returned to India to found the Ramakrishna Math and
Mission. Exhorting his nation to spiritual greatness,
he wakened India to a new national consciousness. He
died July 4, 1902, after a second, much shorter sojourn
in the West. His lectures and writings have been gathered
into nine volumes. |
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Akhandamandaleshwar
sri sri swami swarupananda paramhansa,
he was the guru of late Prof. Ashutosh Das (father
of Dr. P.S. Das). |
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