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Guru's Kriya Yoga Initiation

1:11:49 recording · EN · 3 speakers

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Brief overview

Mukunda surrenders to Sri Yukteswar, whose severe, plain-spoken training reshapes his health, mind and ego.

  1. Look fear in the faceSent to a dark chamber to be frightened by a ghost story, the boy went at once and complained only that he had missed the ghost.
  2. Change yourself, not the worldFound breathless in yogic trance while mosquitoes tormented his student, Master told him to be rid of the mosquito consciousness rather than wait for the world to change.
  3. Thought is a force like electricityLahiri Mahasaya showed that weakness and strength followed belief, and the narrator's guru gained 50 permanent pounds in one day.
Executive Summary AI
  • At their meeting Sri Yukteswar accepts responsibility for the narrator's life and makes his first request: go home to his family and enter college in Calcutta, because a Hindu teacher with a university degree will be heard in the West.
  • The disciple accepts his guru's authority in every detail on one condition, that Sri Yukteswar promise to reveal God to him, and Master consents with the words "Let your wish be my wish."
  • Asked about his own life, Master gives the bare facts: born Priyanath Karar in Serampore to a wealthy businessman who left him the ancestral mansion that is now the hermitage, married with one daughter, guided in middle life by Lahiri Mahasaya, and renamed Sri Yukteswar Giri after his wife's death.
  • Sri Yukteswar recounts how Lahiri Mahasaya showed him that his health followed his own expectations, until in a single day he gained 50 pounds that stayed with him permanently and onlookers became Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples.
  • Master's discipline is deliberately drastic — "If you don't like my words, you are at liberty to leave at any time" — and he tells the narrator that his own way is severity while the disciple's way in foreign lands will have to be the gentle approach of love.
Key Quote
“Moral, look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.”
— Sri Yukteswar
Key Quote
“Be rid of the mosquito consciousness.”
— Sri Yukteswar
Key Quote
“You have seen how your health has exactly followed your expectations.”
— Lahiri Mahasaya

Transcript

0:00 chapter twelve of autobi floor of a balconied
0:28 sitting room. His voice was cold, his manner unemotional. Yes, dear master, I'm here to follow
0:34 you. Kneeling, I touched his feet. How can that be? You ignore my wishes. No longer, Guruji.
0:42 Your wish shall be my law. That is better. Now I can assume responsibility
0:48 for your life. I willingly transfer the burden, Master. My first request, then, is that you return
0:55 home to your family. I want you to enter college in Calcutta. Your education should be continued.
1:03 Very well, sir. I hid my consternation. Would importunate books
1:07 pursue me down the years? First father, now Sri Yukteswar. Someday you will go to the West.
1:15 Its people will lend ears more receptive to India's ancient wisdom, if the strange Hindu
1:21 teacher has a university degree. You know best, Guruji, my gloom departed. The
1:27 reference to the West I found puzzling, remote, but my opportunity to please Master by obedience
1:34 was vitally immediate. You will be near in Calcutta. Come here whenever you find time.
1:41 Every day, if possible, Master, gratefully I accept your authority in every detail of my life on one condition yes that you promise to reveal god to me the implications in the pledge open out vast metaphysical vistas a guru must be on intimate terms indeed with the creator before he can obligate him to appear of exacting disposition. Then Master's consent rang out with compassionate finality.
2:28 Let your wish be my wish. Lifelong shadows lifted from my heart. The vague search hither and yon
2:35 was over. I had found eternal shelter in a true guru. Come, I will show you the hermitage master rose from his tiger mat i glanced about me my gaze fell with astonishment on a wall picture garlanded with a spray of jasmine lahiri mahasaya yes my divine guru was reverently vibrant. Greater he was as man and yogi than any other teacher whose life came within
3:08 the range of my investigations. Silently I bowed before the familiar picture. Soul homage sped to
3:16 the peerless master who, blessing my infancy, had guided my steps to this hour. Led by my guru,
3:24 I strolled over the house and its grounds.
3:26 Large, ancient, and well-built, the hermitage was surrounded by a massive pillared courtyard.
3:33 Outer walls were moss-covered. Pigeons fluttered over the flat gray roof, unceremoniously sharing
3:40 the ashram quarters. A rear garden was pleasant with jackfruit, mango, and plantain trees.
3:46 Value-strutted balconies of upper rooms in the two-storied building faced the courtyard from
3:52 three sides. A spacious ground-floor hall with ceiling supported by colonnades was used,
3:59 master said, chiefly during the annual festivities of Durga Puja. A narrow stairway led to Sri Yukteswar's sitting room,
4:08 whose small balcony overlooked the street.
4:10 The ashram was plainly furnished.
4:12 Everything was simple, clean, and utilitarian.
4:16 Several western-style chairs, benches, and tables were in evidence.
4:20 Master invited me to stay overnight.
4:22 A supper of vegetable curry was served by two disciples who were receiving hermitage training.
4:29 Guruji, please tell me something of your life.
4:32 I was squatting on a straw mat near his tiger skin.
4:35 The friendly stars were very close, it seemed, beyond the balcony.
4:40 My family name was Priyanath Karar.
4:43 I was born here in Serampore, where a father was a wealthy
4:47 businessman. He left me this ancestral mansion, now my hermitage. My formal schooling was little.
4:54 I found it slow and shallow. In early manhood, I undertook the responsibilities of a householder
5:01 and have one daughter, now married. My middle life was blessed with the guidance of
5:06 Lahiri Mahasaya. After my wife died, I joined the Swami order and received the new name of
5:13 Sri Yukteswar Giri. Such are my simple annals. Master smiled at my eager face. Like all

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