Yogiraj Sri Shyamacharan Lahiri Mahashay

Pranams at the lotus feet of Yogiraj!

Chapter – 13

One day a man approached Babaji and said “ Gurudev, I was searching for you in the whole woods, I am here with an appeal to you, kindly accept me as your disciple,” Gurudev did not respond to his request, he became anxious seeing the silence of Babaji, he said “ If you did not accept me as your disciple, I will jump from this mountain and sacrifice my life.” Babaji said “ Do it. I cannot accept you as my disciple.” Immediately that person jumped from the mountain and sacrificed his life, it was an experiment conducted by Babaji on that person, thus he became successful in his test.  Later, Babaji said his disciple to bring his dead body, many disciples went down and conducted a rigorous search for the body and brought it before Babaji.  While everyone was watching in awe, Babaji put his hands on his head, his life was restored and he was brought back to normal, he prostrated before Gurudev.   At that moment Sri Kevalanandhji and Lahiri Mahashay were present before Babaji.  Babaji pleasantly said “You have passed in a difficult test, now you are qualified to remain as my disciple, death cannot touch you,”

Lahiri Mahashay used to talk about his preceptor,  “he is a divine personified on the Earth, Babaji is mercy personified, whoever remembers his name with devotion and faith would attain his blessings and guidance in spirituality.” Sri Yuktheshwar Giri who was a disciple of Lahiri Mahashay has seen Babaji in person several times.  Once Yuktheshwarji was attending the Prayag Kumbhamela to take a holy dip in Ganga, there was a huge crowd of saints and holy men as usual.   He saw a few of them were begging for alms, he felt disappointed thinking that there is no one true in search of Supreme spirit, Is this festival for begging alms? At that moment, one stranger came towards Yuktheshwarji and said “ Maharaj, one saint is waiting for you, kindly come with me.” Yuktheshwarji was spellbound, there was no one familiar to him in the Prayag, he asked “ Who is he?” the stranger said “ he is sitting under the tree.” He came forward to see the saint, where he could see Babaji who has great splendor sitting under the shade of the tree and few of his disciples were sitting around him, he came close to  Yuktheshwarji and embraced him, Yuketheshwarji felt some divine energy passing through his body, he felt supreme bliss,  Babaji said “ Sanyasin, kindly be seated,”.  Those days Yuktheshwarji was not initiated to Sanyasa, he was learning Kriya Yoga from Lahiri Mahashay, so  he said “ I am not a saint,” and Babaji repeated, “ kindly be seated.” There were lectures on Gita was going on, suddenly the saint said “You were writing Bashya on Gita, aren’t you?” Yuktheshwar was shocked, he never discussed this thing with anyone, he was surprised how did the saint know about it all, saint started speaking “you must be knowing Shyamacharan Lahiri living in Kashi, give my message to him, tell him that there is little time left, energy is draining,” Yuktheshwarji stunned and looked at Babaji. While leaving Babaji said, “I will meet you again.” Yuktheshwarji conveyed all the messages to Lahiri Mahashay after returning from Prayag, Lahiri Mahashay  while listening about Babaji went into a state of trance,  he said “ Yuktheshwar, you are really fortunate, you have seen my preceptor,” Yuktheshwarji was in an awe after listening to Lahirimahashay,  he had not even a single thought of meeting Babji who is a great master for whom several noble souls are yearning to meet him for several Yugas, he was not even thought of this fortune in his dreams, he felt so disappointed and hated himself for not bowing down his head before the great Mahapurusha.   Lahiri Mahashay understood the state of mind of Yuktheshwarji and said “do not worry, Babji already promised to meet you again, therefore he will definitely give his Dharshan, you finish your writing task.”   Yuktheshwarji built an Ashram at Srirampur/Serampur in Bengal; he finished his writing task in that hermitage.  One day he finished bathing in Ganga and while returning he saw Babaji under the shade of a tree surrounded by his disciples, he rushed to Babaji and bowed down his head at his lotus feet, Yuktheshwarji said “ Babaji, kindly visit my hermitage, and purify it with your presence .” He did not accept the request of Yuktheshwarji, so he said “Kindly wait here for some time, I will bring offerings to Guruji, so that I may achieve some piousness of feeding my Guru.”  Yuktheshwarji rushed to the nearby sweet shop, when he returned there was no one to be seen, he felt miserable.  Yuktheshwarji’s sorrow was visible to Lahiri Mahashay, he prostrated before Lahiri Mahashay.   Mahashay asked, “ did you meet Babaji at the door.” Yuktheshwarji said, “ No I did not meet him.” Lahiri Mahashay said “ See, he is standing there, waiting for you” Yuktheshwarji shocked to see Babaji is standing at the door and he was all smiling, his body has great effulgence, seeing Yuktheshwarji’s non-responsiveness, Lahiri Mahashay became anxious and said “ Yuktheshwar, you did not prostrate before Babaji till now.?” Babaji said “ Yuktheshwar is angry at me. Child, you were too emotional that day that was the reason I had to leave, I was behind the sun, you could not see me, keep practicing meditation,” saying so Babaji disappeared from their sight.