Years in My Master's Hermitage, Chapter 12 - Autobiography of a Yogi, By Paramhansa Yogananda – Crystal Clarity Publishers - Crystal Clarity Publishers - Yogananda Inspired Books

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Y i M M ' H i Ch 12 A bi h f Y i b P h Y h // l l i / d / h 12 h


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Years in My Master's Hermitage Chapter 12 Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogan http://www crystalclarity com/yogananda/chap12 php


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Original First Edition, Copyright 1946,

by Paramhansa Yogananda

First Online Edition

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Chapter 12

Years in My Master's Hermitage

"You have come." Sri Yukteswar greeted me from a tiger skin on the floor of a balconied sitting room. His voice was cold, his manner unemotional.

"Yes, dear Master, I am here to follow you." Kneeling, I touched his feet.

"How can that be? You ignore my wishes."

"No longer, Guruji! Your wish shall be my law!"

"That is better! Now I can assume responsibility for your life."

"I willingly transfer the burden, Master."

"My first request, then, is that you return home to your family. I want you to enter college in Calcutta. Your education should be continued."

"Very well, sir." I hid my consternation. Would importunate books pursue me down the years? First Father, now Sri Yukteswar!

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"Someday you will go to the West. Its people will lend ears more receptive to India's ancient wisdom if the strange Hindu teacher has a university

degree."

"You know best, Guruji." My gloom departed. The reference to the West I found puzzling, remote; but my opportunity to please Master by

obedience was vitally immediate.

"You will be near in Calcutta; come here whenever you find time."

"Every day if possible, Master! Gratefully I accept your authority in every detail of my lifeon one condition."

"Yes?"

"That you promise to reveal God to me!"

An hour-long verbal tussle ensued. A master's word cannot be falsified; it is not lightly given. 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! I sensed Sri Yukteswar's

divine unity, and was determined, as his disciple, to press my advantage.

"You are of exacting disposition!" Then Master's consent rang out with compassionate finality:

"Let your wish be my wish."

Lifelong shadow lifted from my heart; the vague search, hither and yon, 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." Sri Yukteswar's tone was reverently vibrant. "Greater he was, as man and yogi, than any other teacher whose life came

within the range of my investigations."

Silently I bowed before the familiar picture. Soul-homage sped to the peerless master who, blessing my infancy, had guided my steps to this hour.

Led by my guru, I strolled over the house and its grounds. Large, ancient and well-built, the hermitage was surrounded by a massive-pillared

courtyard. Outer walls were moss-covered; pigeons fluttered over the flat gray roof, unceremoniously sharing the ashram quarters. A rear garden

was pleasant with jackfruit, mango, and plantain trees. Balustraded balconies of upper rooms in the two-storied building faced the courtyard fromthree sides. A spacious ground-floor hall, with high ceiling supported by colonnades, was used, Master said, chiefly during the annual festivities of

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"This reply was far from the one I had expected; my guru, however, added encouragingly:

"'Let me see; I am sure you ought to feel better tomorrow.'

"Taking his words as a gesture of secret healing toward my receptive mind, I was not surprised the next morning at a welcome accession of

strength. I sought out my master and exclaimed exultingly, 'Sir, I feel much better today.'

"'Indeed! Today you invigorate yourself.'

"'No, master!' I protested. 'It was you who helped me; this is the first time in weeks that I have had any energy.'

"'O yes! Your malady has been quite serious. Your body is frail yet; who can say how it will be tomorrow?'

"The thought of possible return of my weakness brought me a shudder of cold fear. The following morning I could hardly drag myself to LahiriMahasaya's home.

"'Sir, I am ailing again.'

"My guru's glance was quizzical. 'So! Once more you indispose yourself.'

"'Gurudeva, I realize now that day by day you have been ridiculing me.' My patience was exhausted. 'I don't understand why you disbelieve my

truthful reports.'

"'Really, it has been your thoughts that have made you feel alternately weak and strong.' My master looked at me affectionately. 'You have seen how

your health has exactly followed your expectations. Thought is a force, even as electricity or gravitation. The human mind is a spark of the almighty

consciousness of God. I could show you that whatever your powerful mind believes very intensely would instantly come to pass.'

"Knowing that Lahiri Mahasaya never spoke idly, I addressed him with great awe and gratitude: 'Master, if I think I am well and have regained my

former weight, shall that happen?'

"'It is so, even at this moment.' My guru spoke gravely, his gaze concentrated on my eyes.

"Lo! I felt an increase not alone of strength but of weight. Lahiri Mahasaya retreated into silence. After a few hours at his feet, I returned to my

mother's home, where I stayed during my visits to Benares.

"'My son! What is the matter? Are you swelling with dropsy?' Mother could hardly believe her eyes. My body was now of the same robust

dimensions it had possessed before my illness.

"I weighed myself and found that in one day I had gained fifty pounds; they remained with me permanently. Friends and acquaintances who had

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literally "the Inaccessible," an aspect of Divine Mother, Shakti, the female creative force personified.

Back to text

2 Sri Yukteswar was born on May 10, 1855.

Back to text

3 Yukteswar means "united to God." Giri is a classificatory distinction of one of the ten ancient Swami branches. Sri means "holy"; it is not a name

but a title of respect.

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4 Literally, "to direct together." Samadhi is a superconscious state of ecstasy in which the yogi perceives the identity of soul and Spirit.

Back to text

5 Snoring, according to physiologists, is an indication of utter relaxation (to the oblivious practitioner, solely).

Back to text

6 Dhal is a thick soup made from split peas or other pulses. Channa is a cheese of fresh curdled milk, cut into squares and curried with potatoes.

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7 The omnipresent powers of a yogi, whereby he sees, hears, tastes, smells, and feels his oneness in creation without the use of sensory organs, have

been described as follows in the Taittiriya Aranyaka: "The blind man pierced the pearl; the fingerless put a thread into it; the neckless wore it; andthe tongueless praised it."

Back to text

8 The cobra swiftly strikes at any moving object within its range. Complete immobility is usually one's sole hope of safety.

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9 Lahiri Mahasaya actually said "Priya" (first or given name), not "Yukteswar" (monastic name, not received by my guru during Lahiri Mahasaya's

lifetime). (See page 109.) Yukteswar" is substituted here, and in a few other places in this book, in order to avoid the confusion, to reader, of twonames.

Back to text

10 "Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."-Mark 11:24.

Masters who possess the Divine Vision are fully able to transfer their realizations to advanced disciples, as Lahiri Mahasaya did for Sri Yukteswar

on this occasion.

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11"And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched

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of men."

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18 Jnana, wisdom, and bhakti, devotion: two of the main paths to God.

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19 "Man in his waking state puts forth innumerable efforts for experiencing sensual pleasures; when the entire group of sensory organs is fatigued,

he forgets even the pleasure on hand and goes to sleep in order to enjoy rest in the soul, his own nature," Shankara, the great Vedantist, has written.

"Ultra-sensual bliss is thus extremely easy of attainment and is far superior to sense delights which always end in disgust."

Back to text

20 Mark 2:27.

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21 The Upanishads or Vedanta (literally, "end of the Vedas"), occur in certain parts of the Vedas as essential summaries. The Upanishads furnish the

doctrinal basis of the Hindu religion. They received the following tribute from Schopenhauer: "How entirely does the Upanishad breathe throughout

the holy spirit of the Vedas! How is everyone who has become familiar with that incomparable book stirred by that spirit to the very depths of his

soul! From every sentence deep, original, and sublime thoughts arise, and the whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit. . . . The

access to the Vedas by means of the Upanishads is in my eyes the greatest privilege this century may claim before all previous centuries."

Back to text

22 Commentaries. Shankara peerlessly expounded the Upanishads.

Back to text

23 Proverbs 16:32.

Back to text

Chapter 13


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Order the Book

More on Yogananda

Publisher's Notes

Preface

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

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Chapter 13



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Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

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Chapter 33



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p

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

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Years in My Master's Hermitage, Chapter 12 - Autobiography of a Yogi, By Paramhansa Yogananda – Crystal Clarity Publishers - Crystal Clarity Publishers - Yogananda Inspired Books