A Yogi, Sri
Paramahamsa YogAnanda says, in the very beginning of his ‘Autobiography of a
Yogi’ thus:- “My own path lead to a Christ like sage; his beautiful life was
chiselled for the ages. He was one of the great masters who are India’s truest
wealth. Emerging in every generation, they have bulwarked their land against
the fate of ancient Egypt and Babylonia”
Here Sri YogAnandaji,
pays his heartfelt adoration to the great unbroken chain of great masters
(Gurus), from unknown ancient time; they, the Guru parampara had, with indescribable
might had protected our Indian civilization and culture from destruction,
because of invasions. If not protected by those mighty dedicated Gurus, Indian
civilization and culture would have met the same fate, (disappearance) as that
of Egypt and Babylonia.
We will try to gather some few accounts of
one or two true Yogi’s, as presented by Sri YogAnandaji. Before proceeding along those lines, I would
like to draw your attention about droplets of the basement of our Indian
spiritual culture that runs as an undercurrent all along, from unknown ancient
time. Even the most uneducated raw field worker or aged women deeply handling
family responsibilities, held the basic knowledge that one who dies drops the body alone, cuts off
family-ties and has continuity of life in the next birth. The aged old man or
the old lady will easily express, “I have settled my children, and am ready to
leave when the ‘CALL’ comes.” Our great,God realized souls have sown the seed of
that culture in our soil, in the bygone ages.
The Guru of Sri
Yoganandaji’s parents was Sri LAhiri MahAsayA. “This Guru’s picture in an
ornate frame always graced our family altar. Morning and evening mother and me
meditated before an improvised shrine. With frankincense and myrrh as well as
our united devotions, we honoured the divinity that had found full expression
in Lahiri MahAsayA.” says Sri YogAnandA.
The above few
lines unmistakably announce, what the altar was and what the picture of the
Guru was for the school boy Mukunda. The family members worship the divinity in
the altar; when the boy Mukunda meditates and worships, he had already realized
the divinity expressing itself in his guru.
His guru’s
picture was no more just a picture. It was the very person of the guru,
interacting with Mukunda. He loved his guru with the thickest cream of devotion.
The boys love and devotion has worked out an intimately acting bond with the
guru. Mukunda expresses himself thus:-“His picture has a surpassing influence
over my life. As I grew, the thought of the master grew with me. In meditation
I would often see his photographic image emerge from it’s small frame and,
taking a living form, sit before me. When I attempted to touch the feet of his
luminous body, it would change and again become the picture. As childhood
slipped into boyhood, I found LAhiri MaHAsayA transformed in my mind, from a
little image, cribbed in a frame, to a living enlightening presence. I
frequently prayed to him in moments of trial and confusion, finding within me
his solacing direction.”
