Yogiraj Sri Shyamacharan
Lahiri Mahashay
Pranams at the lotus feet
of Yogiraj!
Chapter - 3
There were three
illustrious Yogis highly remembered and discussed in Bengal for the past
hundred years, they were Sri Loknath Bhramachari, Shyamacharan Lahiri, and
Swami Vishudhdhanandha. These Yogis had several
numbers of disciples, hence the glories of their preceptors came into
light. Yogiraj Shyamacharan Lahiri
Mahashay was born on 30th September 1828, in Ghurni village, in
Nadhiya district, Bengal. There were
two children in the first wife of his father Gaur Mohan Lahiri, one was a
daughter and another was a son. After
the death of his first wife, Gaur Mohan Lahiri remarried to Mukthakashi and
Lahiri Mahashay was born as the first child to this pious Bhramin couple. In the year 1833, Jalangi river near to his birthplace changed
its course and swept off the Lahiri properties, one of the Shiva shrine built
by this family was also disappeared into the depth of river Ganga. Later, one of the devotees found the swirling
image of Lord Shiva in the water and installed it in a new shrine in Ghurni
village. Gaur Mohan Lahiri left the
Ghurni village and settled in Benares, he built a Shiva temple in Benares,
conducted worship, he continued a Vedic way of living, reading scriptures, the performance of
ceremonial rites, observance of charity, etc.. Lahiri Mahashay has done schooling in
a Bengali institution found by Joy Narayan Goshal, he learned English, Sanskrit,
French and Bengali, later he joined in Sanskrit college and attended Sanskrit
lessons. He had a great interest in learning scriptures and attending
lectures on scriptures given by the famous scholar Nag-Bhatta. Lahiri Mahashaya learned lessons on
Upanishads and scriptures from Nag-Bhatta.
There was a neighbor Debnarayan Sanyal who was close to this family. In
order to firm their relationship between the families, they decided to perform the marriage of the
children within the two families. In the
year 1846, Shyamacharan Lahiri married to Kashi Monidevi who was the daughter
of Debnarayn Sanyal. This couple had
two sons and two daughters. At the age
of 23, in the year 1851 Lahiri Mahashay was appointed as an Accountant in the
Military Engineering Department of English Government. He attained great success in career life and
spiritual life too. He had to work in various places and arrived in Dhanapur,
as a play enacted by the supreme Lord.
Suddenly, there was chaos among the family members about the family wealth
after the death of his father, Lahiri
Mahashay was a peace-lover, he entrusted all the family properties with his
stepbrother and left. He bought a house in the Garudeshwar Mohulla
in Benares.
