Vivek Atray
There is hardly any parallel in the whole universe to the guru-disciple relationship, which abides and flourishes in India even today. All other forms of human bonding and love are perhaps linked to ties of blood, romance or friendship, but the guru-disciple relationship is uniquely distinct in nature, being based on the selfless yearning of a guru for the spiritual progress of his disciple, and by the unconditional, all surrendering love of his protégé.
A glorious example of the exemplary relationship between a saint and his foremost disciple was provided by Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri and his peerless protégé, Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, author of “Autobiography of a Yogi”, one of the most renowned spiritual classics of all time. This magnificent book outlines for us with disarming and inspiring insights, the years of grooming under the loving but unsparing eye of Sri Yukteswarji which led to the blossoming of Mukunda, the devotee, into the jagat-guru, or global guru, that Yoganandaji came to be.
A significant chapter from this great book titled, “Years in my Master’s Hermitage” highlights the sheer quality of Sri Yukteswarji’s training and the unstinting, unwavering receptivity, despite initial human trepidations, of Yoganandaji, who ultimately emerged as the father of yoga in the western world after having migrated to the United States at his guru’s bidding.
Yoganandaji established, in 1917, the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS) and later, in the US, its counterpart, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) the global level sister-organisation of YSS. These two bodies continue to disseminate the yoga-meditation teachings of Yoganandaji and emphasise the need for direct contact with God, along with the oneness of all true spiritual teachings of the world. Hundreds of thousands of devotees of these teachings vouch for the fact that their lives have undergone a tangible turn for the better, once they began the walk on this spiritual path in right earnestness.
Several incidents from those formative years of Yogananda’s life under the watchful eye and strict but innately loving tutelage of Sri Yukteswarji, as described in “Autobiography of a Yogi,” bring forth to the discerning reader the sheer hunger of the young Yoganandaji for contact with the Divine, and the even greater determination of his guru to chisel his disciple’s life in accordance with the finest spiritual laws.
The delicate, sensitive, love-permeated bond of the chela and his guru, along with the necessary concomitants of wisdom, forgiveness and heavenly love, constitute the real legacy of these two towering lives which were dedicated to the cause of upliftment of mankind from the threefold types of suffering- physical, mental and spiritual, that the destructive force of maya-delusion impels all men to go through.
The highest scientific meditation technique, Kriya Yoga, is the timeless and universal gift that Sri Yukteswarji and Yoganandaji, (guided by the divine param-gurus, Lahiri Mahasaya and Mahavatar Babaji), bequeathed to this world, which has been battered and bruised by inexorable karmic forces over several millennia.
The mahasamadhi divas of Sri Yoganandaji was on March 7 and of Sri Yukteswar on March 9. Even these neighbouring dates are perhaps indicative of the eternal bond between them. And the most priceless quality that enveloped their lives is love for God, a love that each one of us must seek to cultivate.
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