Yukteswar Giri

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Sri Yukteswar

Sri Yukteswar Giri ( Bengali যুক্তেশ্বর গিরী , Sri Yukteśbar Girī; born May 10, 1855 in Serampore , West Bengal ; † March 9, 1936 in Puri , India ; real name: Priya Nath Karar ) was a well-known yogi and guru . Sri Yukteswar was a member of the Giri branch of the Hindu Advaita order Dashanami Sampradaya .

Life

Priyanath ("loving lord") came from a wealthy family. His parents were called Kshetranath and Kadambini Devi. He had completed a medical degree and also had a profound knowledge of scriptures and astrology. From 1861 to 1885 he was an employee who was sent to various places in India. After the death of his father, the now very wealthy heir married at the request of his mother and became the father of two sons and three daughters.

Even before this time, his spiritual endeavors had led him to Lahiri Mahasaya , from whom he had been initiated into Kriya Yoga . He turned his house in Serampore, on the outskirts of Calcutta , into an ashram , which became known as Priyadham (Apartment of Love) . There he discussed the Bhagavad Gita with his students . Among other things, Paramahansa Yogananda was trained by him. Other important students were Swami Satyananda Giri Matital Thakur and Hariharananda .

After the early death of his wife and the marriage of his last daughter, Priyanath was celibate and took care of his mother. Priyanath only saw himself as a Swami after meeting Mahavatar Babaji on the occasion of the Kumbha Mela in Allahabad , in the month of Magha (February / March) 1884. He then wrote the Sacred Science . From then on he was called Priyanath Swami or Kararswami . It was not until much later that he became a sannyasin and was given the name Swami Shri Yukteshwar: "Who is always fused and united with God and his divine glory" .

Sri Yukteswar's second Ashram is the Karar Ashram in Puri, which he founded on March 22, 1903, the date of the equinox of spring , which is considered to be spiritually particularly favorable . There he died in 1936. In the course of inheritance disputes, the original house in Serampore was given up.

Sri Yuktes was meditating.

Sri Yukteswar bequeathed the Karar Ashram to his successors: First it was headed by Paramahansa Yogananda (March 22, 1936 - March 7, 1952), after his departure to the west by Swami Satyananda (until his death on August 2, 1971), then continued by Sri Yukteswar's youngest personal student Hariharananda until March 22, 1983. Since Hariharananda turned to the spread of Kriya Yoga especially in the West, Swami Yogeshwarananda Giri took over at this time . A request for the presidency of the ashram brought in by Hariharananda's lineage holder Prajnanananda in 2002 was dismissed by the court in 2006.

Literary works

Since Yukteswar has devoted his life primarily to the direct training of his students, he has left few written works. In 1894 he wrote Kaivalya Darshan (The Holy Science) in Sanskrit , which was also published in English during his lifetime under the title The Holy Science . According to his own statement, he wrote the book on behalf of the mythological Mahavatar Babaji . The beginning of the book deals with the four ages, the so-called " Yugas ", in order to create a basis for the following chapters, in which Yukteswar deals with the spiritual development potential of humans. He also describes - in his opinion - "errors of modern science", for example by using anatomical examples to show that humans are fruit-eater like monkeys and not omnivores like pigs or bears in terms of their teeth and digestive structure .

literature

  • Jnanavatar Swami Yukteswar Giri: The Sacred Science . Barth, Weilheim 1949 and later, ISBN 3-502-62670-7 ; New edition 2000, ISBN 0-87612-057-5
  • Paramahamsa Prajnanananda: Swami Shriyukteshwar, Incarnation of Wisdom , Prajnana Mission 1999, ISBN 3-90166523-4 (English)

Remarks

  1. One of his favorite students, Yogananda, gave him the attribute " Jnana - Avatar " or " Incarnation of Wisdom" which Yoganananda's successor retained: Jnanavatar Swami Sriyukteswar Giri (in different spellings).
  2. Prajnanananda: The Kriya Yoga Masters p. 14th
  3. ↑ An indication of the master's attitude towards private life is given by his handling of the death of one of the daughters: During one of the lectures, the body was picked up from an adjoining room. When his students asked why he didn’t break off because of this, he replied: "These are doing their job, let's continue ours."
  4. Prajnanananda: Swami Shriyukteswar, Incarnation of Wisdom , quoted in: Kriya Yoga Journal 2013, pp. 7ff (English); To his amazement, Babaji addressed Priyanath as Swami and replied to his objection that he was not an consecrated monk: "I say what I see [...]". During this conversation, Babaji gave the order to write a book on the metaphysics of East and West.
  5. Prajnanananda: The Kriya Yoga Masters, pp. 29ff
  6. In the understanding of the yogis there is no death: A highly developed being like Sri Yukteswar consciously passes into the state of Mahasamadhi , from which it can materialize at any time in order to appear physically, or incarnate in order to support the spiritual progress of humanity as a living person serve.
  7. The Yogoda Satsanga Society later built a temple in the immediate vicinity .
  8. S. court order, 2006. ( Memento of 24 February 2012 at the Internet Archive ) (PDF, 9 kB)
  9. Prajnanananda reports, based on Yogananda, of commentaries on the first 9 chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, which arose as supplements to lectures, and of an early comment by Yukteswar on the Bible, in French, the manuscript of which he gave a Christian priest for review, whereupon it "Could never be found again". Paramahamsa Prajnanananda: Swami Shriyukteswar, Incarnation of Wisdom, quoted in: Kriya Yoga Journal 2013, pp. 11f (English).

Web links

Commons : Sri Yukteswar  - collection of images, videos and audio files