The Complete Biography is a must read for anyone wanting to
know more about the life of the great householder Kriya Yogi. The book was written at
the behest of Lahiri Mahasaya's grandson, Satya Charan Lahiri.
The book is actually part biography and part commentary on Lahiri Mahasaya's
twenty six diaries on the Indian scriptures, including The Bhagavad Gita and
Upanishads. There is enough previously unpublished material about Lahiri
Mahasaya's life that it is well worth reading for that alone. It is wonderful
to learn of even the mundane occurrences in the great yogi's life, such as how
he would take tiffin with a little amount of ghee and sugar for breakfast and
smoke a hookah everyday after dinner, and how he travelled often by boat to the
court of the King to tutor his son. These warming and inspiring stories bring
Lahiri Mahasaya even closer to heart.
Relatively
little has been written about the life of Lahiri Mahasaya until recently, and
yet he is the Param Param Guru of tens of thousands of present day Kriya yogis.
He is revered as the Householder Yogi and hence holds a special place in our
hearts. The author says, "This book is for us, the common but sincere
householder Kriya Yogi." About his unique role Paramahansa Yogananda said in Autobiography of a Yogi , "He met his
great guru, Babaji, near Ranikhet in the Himalayas,
and was initiated by him into Kriya Yoga. This auspicious event did not happen
to Lahiri Mahasaya alone; it was a fortunate moment for all the human race. The
lost, or long-vanished, highest art of yoga was again being brought to light."
Yogiraj Sri Shama Churn Lahiree (Lahiri Mahasay) desired that
everyone should progress in the spiritual path by maintaining a family
existence. If anyone expressed a desire to take sanyas (to become a monastic),
he would refrain them from doing so, send them back home and remark, "The life of
the sanyas is austere. If any error is committed by a householder, he can be
forgiven, but a sanyas has no reprieve. The garb of a sanyas is the external
manifestation of spirituality; but non-desirous of self-revelation, the quiet
householder sadhaka's unostentatious sadhana has no external manifestation."
So, those who think that they would benefit more spiritually in this life if
they were a monastic, take hope, according to Lahiri Mahasaya, you have the best of all worlds!
Excerpts:
It is true that before, many have composed short biographies of this Sublime
Yogi, but none have till date composed His complete biography. Therefore in
accordance with the command of revered Satya Charan Lahiri Mahasaya, the
youngest grandson of this Sublime Household-Yogi, I have been encouraged to
write the biography of this Apogean Esse.
Many erudites and Kriyabans have for a long time been requesting the revered
Satya Charan Lahari Mahasaya to compose a complete and factual biography of
Yogiraj Shama Churn during his lifetime, because in his absence the correct
facts may become extinct. But due to old age and lack of time he could not
accomplish this. Therefore he advised me, who was like a son to him, to compose
this biography. I humbly appealed to him as to how it would be possible for me
to compose the biography of this Sublime yogi? It was a high hope indeed! Just
as a small blade of grass cannot assess the gigantic banyan tree, similarly I
felt that while writing the biography of this Noble Yogi, I might lose its
exactness and authenticity.
Yogiraj Sri Shama Churn Lahiree (Lahiri Mahasay) desired that
everyone should progress in the spiritual path by maintaining a family
existence. If anyone expressed a desire to take sanyas (to become a monastic),
he would refrain them from doing so, send them back home and remark, "The life of
the sanyas is austere. If any error is committed by a householder, he can be
forgiven, but a sanyas has no reprieve. The garb of a sanyas is the external
manifestation of spirituality; but non-desirous of self-revelation, the quiet
householder sadhaka's unostentatious sadhana has no external manifestation."
So, those who think that they would benefit more spiritually in this life if
they were a monastic, take hope, you have the best of all worlds!
The revered Sri Satya Charan Lahiri Mahasaya, by presenting all facts from
the twenty-six self-written diaries of Yogiraj, by imparting many familiar
details and exact incidents in the life of Yogiraj has enriched this book. The
essences from the self-written diaries of Yogiraj and facts from His letters to
His devotees have been directly incorporated without any amendment or
alteration. They have been retained exactly in bold letters and His
realizations are included so that those facts do not lose their significance
and the statements are not distorted in any manner in the future. The direct
statements of almost all great yogis are rarely available to future sadhakas
because due to the onslaught of time they assume a distorted shape. I hope that
by this; the future devoted sadhakas will derive benefit.
About the Author:
Yogacharya Dr. Ashoke Kumar Chatterjee was invited as the sole
representative from India
to participate in the Parliament of World Religions held at Val St. Hugon, France in 1997 convened by the
Dalai Lama and sponsored by UNO, UNESCO, UNCHR. At this Parliament of World
Religions, he upheld the tenets of Sanatana yogadharma to the world with a
clarion voice. His brilliant exegesis on the subject of love, peace and
solidarity - one world, one religion, one God, received tumultuous applause.
He was born in 1933 in West Bengal. He
received initiation in Kriyayoga in April 1961. He reached the pinnacle of
Kriyayoga within a short span. His three Gurus were stalwarts in this
discipline. His first Guru was Sri Annanda Charan Sasri (Bhattacharya) disciple
of Panchanan Bhattacharya, (Lahiri Mahasaya's chief disciple). After Sastriji's
demise, Dr. Chatterjee obtained initiation from Sundarlal Lala of Varanasi, disciple of Sri
Harinarayan Paladhi, who was the disciple of Yogiraj and later from Sri
Satyacharya Lahiri, grandson of Yogiraj. Today Yogacharya Vacaspati Chatterjee
is acknowledged as a World Kriyayoga Master. He has founded 'Yogiraj
Shyamacharan sanatan Mission'
and the temple of Yogiraj at Kakdwip, West Bengal, India with the objective
that mankind can derive the Kriyayoga revived by Yogiraj.
A civic reception graced by luminaries from all walks of life was accorded
to him on 10th June 1998 in Calcutta.
About the translation:
So far as we can tell, the translation is very good. It is a complex work
with countless Sanskrit references and so it is not surprising that it took ten
years to translate. To quote: "it has
been extremely difficult to exactly translate these connotations expounded in
the original Bengali book (first published in July 1981) into English. The
principal reason for this is that any Indian language is afferent especially in
the yoga concept. But we have been absolutely faithful and established a close
harmony with the original, so that the reader can lose himself in the spiritual
nuances of Yogiraj. However, certain Indian words on yoga have been retained
(for which a Glossary has been provided) so that they do not lose their essence
and significance. Paying due attention to the foreign reader's desire to
pronounce these words in the Indian way, we have scrupulously followed the
accents in Monier William's Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Finally, it has taken
ten years of laborious endeavours to translate the book. The English version is
replete with subtle copious details to facilitate the foreign reader to grasp
the yoga-essence, which was not necessary in the Bengali original. Therefore
the book is greater in volume than the Bengali book and is invaluable. All
inclusions in the translation have been done in the author's presence with his
due approval."
Contents:
Foreword I
Title Significance X
Introduction Xii
Preface xxix
Chapter
I. The
Sublime Advent 1
II. Education
and family life 6
III. Initiation and Sadhana 14
IV. In
the Path of Sadhana 25
V. Rapt
in Yoga 32
VI. Resemblance
to Indian sages 38
VII. The Sublime Guru 105
VIII. Divine Abstruse Causations and Sententious Sayings 124
IX. Esotery
of Yogasadhana 155
X. The
Mahasamadhi 354
Appendix
A. Horoscope
of Yogiraj 381
B. Genealogical
table of Yogiraj 384
C. Genealogical
table of Kashimani Devi 385
D. 386
Glossary 389
Purana Purusha - a wealth of inspiration. 
