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Rama Raised from the Dead

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Brief overview

Sri Yukteswar recounts Lahiri Mahasaya raising Rama from death, proving a master's word binds the whole cosmos.

  1. A master's word is binding on the cosmosLahiri Mahasaya said twice that Rama would be well, and death itself had to give way to it.
  2. The castor oil was a symbol, not a cureYukteswar explains the oil had no meaning except that he expected something material, so the guru used the nearby lamp to awaken his faith.
  3. The 1945 book fulfils a fifty-year predictionLahiri Mahasaya foretold that about fifty years after his passing his life would be written because of the West's deep interest in yoga.
Executive Summary AI
  • On the balcony of his Serampore hermitage, Sri Yukteswar expounds the Christian scriptures to disciples and a small group of Ranchi students, reading the resurrection of Lazarus and explaining that the Son of God is the Christ or divine consciousness in man.
  • He then tells his own story: his inseparable friend Rama contracted Asiatic cholera, two specialists were summoned, and though Lahiri Mahasaya twice smiled and said Rama would be well, the young Yukteswar watched his friend die and wept an hour by his body.
  • At dawn Lahiri Mahasaya pointed to a cup-shaped lamp of crude castor oil and told him to fill a little bottle and put seven drops into Rama's mouth, brushing aside the objection that Rama had been dead since the previous noon.
  • As the seventh drop touched the cold lips Rama shivered violently and sat up, and Lahiri Mahasaya later explained that the oil had no meaning except as an objective symbol for awakening Yukteswar's greater faith, since his own word had already bound the healing.
  • Yogananda closes with Lahiri Mahasaya's prediction that about fifty years after his 1895 passing his life would be written for a yoga-hungry West, fulfilled in 1945, and with the guru's birth on September 30, 1828 at Gurani, his 1846 marriage to Kashimoni, his 1851 government accountancy post, and his initiation into Kriya Yoga by Babaji in his thirty-third year.
Key Quote
“The Son of God is the Christ or divine consciousness in man.”
— Sri Yukteswar
Key Quote
“No mortal can glorify God. The only honour that man can pay his creator is to seek him.”
— Sri Yukteswar
Key Quote
“Lahiri Mahasaya resurrected one of my friends from the dead.”
— Sri Yukteswar

Transcript

0:00 chapter thirty two of autobiography of a yogi under. Rama is raised from the dead. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus. When Jesus heard that,
0:29 he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be
0:36 glorified thereby. Sri Yukteswar was expounding the Christian scriptures one sunny morning on
0:42 the balcony of his Serampoa Hermitage.
0:51 Besides a few of Master's other disciples, I was present with a small group of my Ranchi students.
0:54 In this passage, Jesus calls himself the Son of God.
1:00 Though he was truly united with God, his reference here has a deep and personal significance.
1:02 My guru explained,
1:06 The Son of God is the Christ or divine consciousness in man.
1:14 No mortal can glorify God. The only honour that man can pay his creator is to seek him. Man cannot glorify an abstraction that he does not know. The glory or nimbus around the head of the saints
1:19 is a symbol witness of their capacity to render divine homage. Sri Yukteswar went on to read the marvellous story of Lazarus's resurrection.
1:29 At its conclusion, Master fell into a long silence, the sacred book open on his knee.
1:35 I, too, was privileged to behold a similar miracle.
1:38 My guru finally spoke with solemn unction.
1:41 Lahiri Mahasaya resurrected one of my friends from the dead.
1:45 The young lads at my side
1:46 smiled with keen interest. There was enough of the boy in me, too, to enjoy not only the philosophy,
1:54 but in particular any story I could get Sri Yukteswar to relate about his wondrous experiences
1:59 with his guru. My friend Rama and I were inseparable, Master began. Because he was shy
2:04 and reclusive, he chose to visit our guru Lahiri Mahasaya
2:07 only during the hours of midnight and dawn,
2:11 when the crowd of daytime disciples was absent.
2:13 As Rama's closest friend, I served as a spiritual vent,
2:17 through which he let out the wealth of his spiritual perceptions.
2:21 I found inspiration in his ideal companionship.
2:24 My guru's face softened with
2:26 memories. Rama was suddenly put to a severe test. Sri Yukteswar continued. He contracted
2:32 the disease of Asiatic cholera. As our master never objected to the services of physicians
2:38 at times of serious illness, two specialists were summoned. Amidst the frantic rush of
2:43 ministering to the stricken man, I was deeply to lahiri mahasaya for help i hurried to his home and sobbed out the story the doctors are seeing rama he will be well my guru smiled jovially
2:55 i returned with a light heart to my friend's bedside only to find him in a dying state he cannot last more than one or two hours one of the physicians told me with a gesture of despair once more i hastened how lahiri mahasaya's words could fail to come true Thus on the seas of faith and apprehensive doubt, I ministered to my friend as best I could.
3:46 He roused himself to cry out,
3:48 Yukteswar, run to my master and tell him I am gone.
3:52 Ask him to bless my body before its last rites.
3:55 With these words, Rama sighed heavily and gave up the ghost.
3:58 I wept for an hour by his beloved form.
4:01 Always a lover of quiet,
4:03 now he had attained the utter stillness of death.
4:06 Another disciple came in.
4:08 I asked him to remain

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