Many of India’s spiritual masters remain hidden in its spiritual fabric. Lahiri Mahasaya (1828-1898), the greatest proponent of Kriya Yoga, is one. His original name was Shyama Lahiri and the prefix Mahasaya means “magnanimous one.’ Lahiri Mahasaya only became well known through Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi. Yogananda was a disciple of Sri Yukteswar, and Sri Yukteswar was a direct disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya. Thus the Kriya Yoga tradition that has spread around the world can be traced to Lahiri Mahasaya and the great Avatar Babaji.
His journey began from the Himalayan foothills when he was 33 years old. One evening, Shyama Charan Lahiri was walking when he heard a voice calling his name. It was a sadhu calling him from a distance. The sadhu approached him and said, “Can’t you recognise me, my son?” Then he uttered the names of Shyama Charan’s father and grandfather. Then the sadhu took him into a cave and showed him a trident, a sacred water pot, a lion skin, a tiger skin and some beads. He said, “Can you recognise these? They are all yours,” but Shyama Charan remained baffled. The sadhu then placed his hand on Shyama Charan’s spine. Shyama Charan recognised his master. The sadhu said, “My name is Babaji. You were my dear student in your previous life. You attained samadhi in an exalted state and I want you to complete your spiritual life in
this incarnation.”
Shyama Charan cried and did not want to return home. Babaji said he must. He wanted his disciple to guide householders to lead a better and purer life. The sadhu was none other than the Lion Guru or Avatar Baba. There are many miracles Mahasaya has performed. One when his friends wanted him to demonstrate his occult powers, he invoked Avatar Baba. The guru came but was furious at his exhibitionism. But when Mahasaya asked him to manifest himself to his friends, Baba forgave him and showed them his true form. When a friend died, he resurrected him. Once when an aspirant asked one of the master’s disciples to recommend him as a chela, Mahasaya famously said: “If one is thirsty does one go to the well or does the well come to him?”
On 26 December 1895, Shyama Charan Lahiri fell very ill. As he lay in bed, he was surrounded by his intimate disciples. Even from his sickbed, he was giving a discourse on the Bhagavad Gita. All of a sudden he stood up and said, “What am I doing here? Why am I wasting time? It is high time for me to go home to my real home.” A few hours later, on the same day, three of his intimate disciples at different places saw his luminous spiritual body consoling them. They did not know he had passed on; they knew only that he was very sick. But when they went to their Master’s ashram, they found that he had died. His physical body was dead, but he had travelled to visit them in his spiritual body.