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Interview with the Sacred Mother

20:28 recording · EN · 5 speakers

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Brief overview

Yogananda gathers firsthand accounts showing Lahiri Mahasaya's hidden mastery through his wife, his women disciples and Trilanga.

  1. The householder guru hid his stature at homeKashimoni says it was years before she realised the divine stature of her husband, who played the human drama of matrimony in a very small room.
  2. Inward treasure first, outward supply followsRebuked for seeking money, she was told to seek not the paltry tinsel of the earth, and a disciple later left a considerable sum for the family.
  3. Miracles taught law, not spectacleTrilanga lay on blistering slabs, floated on the Ganges and drank lime to show that a yogi's life does not depend on oxygen or ordinary conditions.
Executive Summary AI
  • In chapter thirty-one of Autobiography of a Yogi, Yogananda visits Kashimoni, the life companion of Lahiri Mahasaya, at the old Lahiri homestead in the Garudaswamuhula section of Benares, and asks her for incidents from her sacred life.
  • She recounts waking one night to find the room filled with dazzling light and her husband levitated in lotus posture, worshipped by angels, telling her "forsake your sleep for ever and for ever"; that night he gave her the technique of Kriya Yoga and never slept in her room again.
  • She then confesses that, feeling neglected, she scolded him for spending all his time with disciples and not providing more money, whereupon he vanished, rematerialized in the air with his head touching the ceiling, and told her to seek inward treasure, promising that one of his spiritual sons would provide for the family — which a disciple later did.
  • Yogananda relays two miracles for the disciple Abhoya: a Banaras train whose wheels turned without moving until she and her lawyer husband were aboard with tickets, and the survival of her ninth child after eight babies had died, with Lahiri Mahasaya appearing in the bedroom at night to have the failing lamp refilled.
  • The chapter closes on Lahiri Mahasaya's friend Trilanga, reputed to be over three hundred years old and weighing more than three hundred pounds, who drank a bucket of burning lime unharmed and publicly called the householder Lahiri Mahasaya "a divine kitten" who had attained the realization for which Trilanga himself renounced even his loincloth.
Key Quote
“Son, you are welcome here.”
— Kashimoni
Key Quote
“It was years before I came to realise the divine stature of my husband”
— Kashimoni
Key Quote
“Son, you are greedy.”
— Kashimoni

Transcript

0:00 chapter thirty one of autobiography of a yogi
0:13 rabbi tim ro autobiography of a yogi by paramahansa yogananda an interview with the sacred mother. Reverend Mother, I was baptized in infancy
0:25 by your prophet husband.
0:27 He was the guru of my parents
0:29 and of my own guru,
0:31 Sri Yukteswarji.
0:32 Will you therefore give me
0:33 the privilege of hearing
0:34 a few incidents
0:35 in your sacred life?
0:37 I was addressing
0:38 Sri Matikashimuni,
0:40 the life companion
0:41 of Lahiri Mahasaya.
0:43 Finding myself in Benares
0:44 for a short period, I was fulfilling a long-felt desire to of Lahiri Mahasaya. Finding myself in Benares for a short period,
0:45 I was fulfilling a long-felt desire to visit the Venerable Lady.
0:49 She received me graciously at the old Lahiri homestead
0:52 in the Garudaswamuhula section of Benares.
0:56 Although aged, she was blooming like a lotus,
1:00 silently emanating a spiritual fragrance.
1:02 She was of medium build with a slender neck and fair skin.
1:07 Large, lustrous eyes softened her motherly face.
1:11 Son, you are welcome here.
1:13 Come upstairs.
1:15 Kashimoni led the way to a very small room where, for a time, she had lived with her
1:20 husband.
1:20 I felt honoured to witness the shrine in which the Peerless Master had condescended to play the human drama of matrimony.
1:28 The gentle lady motioned me to a pillow-seat by her side.
1:31 It was years before I came to realise the divine stature of my husband, she began.
1:37 One night in this very room, glorious angels floated in unimaginable grace above me.
1:43 So realistic was the sight that I awoke at once.
1:47 The room was strangely enveloped in dazzling light.
1:49 My husband in lotus posture was levitated in the centre of the room,
1:54 surrounded by angels who were worshipping him
1:56 with the supplicating dignity of palm-folded hands.
2:00 Astonished by your measure, I was convinced that I was still dreaming.
2:04 Woman, Lahiri Mahasayaaya said you are not dreaming forsake your sleep for ever and for ever as he slowly descended to realize that i have remained asleep in ignorance by the side of one who is divinely awakened from this night you are no longer my husband but saints when i had finished my humble genuflections the angelic voices sounded togetheriri mahasaya smiled consolingly much of your karma i have silently helped you to work out he touched my forehead masses of whirling light appeared the radiance gradually formed itself into the opal-blue spiritual eye ringed in gold and centered with a white pentagonal star vision after vision broke as oceanics surf on the shores of my soul the panoramic spheres finally melted in a sea of bliss i lost myself in ever-surging blessedness when i returned hours later to awareness of this world
3:53 the master gave me the technique of kriya yoga from that night on lahiri mahasaya never slept in my room again nor thereafter did he ever sleep he remained in the front room downstairs in the company of his disciples,
4:07 both by day and by night.

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