Debashree Mukharjee: “Look Fear in the Face and it will Cease to Trouble You!” Affirmed ‘The Lion of Bengal’, Jnanavatar Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri; the divine guru of ‘The Father of Yoga in the West’ Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda. In the spiritual classic ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ Yoganandji delves into the unfathomable nature of his guru saying he fitted the Vedic definition of a man of God: ‘Softer than the flower where kindness is concerned, stronger than the thunder where principles are at stake’.
Born Priya Nath Karar on May 10, 1855 in Serampore, Bengal, he became the disciple of the exalted yogi Lahiri Mahasaya of Benaras. Later he joined the Swami Order and received the new name of Sri Yukteswar Giri. Intellectual and spiritual education being his lifelong interest, he turned his ancestral mansion into a hermitage of learning. All the chelas under his care were meticulously trained to be ‘the living liaisons of Western and Eastern virtues.’
Being a perfectionist, his methods were often drastic, as Yoganandji confesses, “I shook many times under the weight of his disciplinary hammer.” Understandably the Master was not sought after by superficial students, but the wise, though minuscule in number, deeply revered him.
When those students craving an easy path or an ‘ego balm’ from the stoic master fled from the hermitage, he would comment wryly; “Tender inner weaknesses, revolting at mild touches of censure, are like diseased parts of the body recoiling before even delicate handling.”
Though his verbal assaults, ‘never wrathful but impersonal with wisdom,’ were only on students who had asked him to discipline them. He often encouraged them with the words; “Everything in future will improve if you are making a spiritual effort now.” Those disciples who took the training in the right spirit eventually discerned a deeply loving heart under the guise of fiery sternness.
“Roam in the world as a lion of self-control; don’t let the frogs of sense weakness kick you around!” Was his clarion call to his disciples.
The Master vehemently advocated to his disciples that no outward forms of honour mattered except one’s ‘steady, daily spiritual advancement.’ He reminded them to practise the highly advanced spiritual technique of Kriya Yoga.
It was during a Kumbh Mela that Mahavatar Babaji, the deathless Himalayan Master, had requested Sri Yukteswarji to write ‘The Holy Science’ a short book on the underlying harmony between Christian and Hindu scriptures. Furthering his great role in the ‘coming harmonious exchange between Orient and Occident’ Babaji promised to send him a disciple to be trained for yoga dissemination in the West. The illustrious disciple was Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, who later on established Yogoda Satsanga Society of India at Ranchi, and Self Realization Fellowship in California, which continue to illumine both the East and the West with the ineffable light of Kriya Yoga since its inception more than a century ago.
Yoganandji expressed his great reverence for his beloved Guru with this tribute; “I often reflected that my majestic master could easily have been an emperor or world-shaking warrior had his mind been centered on fame or worldly achievement. He had chosen instead to storm those inner citadels of wrath and egotism whose fall is the height of a man.”
২৪X৭ নিউজ বেঙ্গল এ সবার আগে পড়ুন ব্রেকিং নিউজ। থাকছে দৈনিক টাটকা খবর, খবরের লাইভ আপডেট। সবচেয়ে ভরসাযোগ্য বাংলা এবং ইংলিশ খবর পড়ুন ২৪X৭ নিউজ বেঙ্গল এর ওয়েবসাইটে। নিয়মিত খবরে থাকতে লাইক করুন ফেসবুকে ও ফলো করুন টুইটারে।
‘রঙ’ ছাড়া সংবাদ খুঁজে পাওয়া কঠিন। কোন খবরটা ‘খাচ্ছে’? সেটাই কি শেষ কথা? নাকি আসল সত্যিটার নাম ‘সংবাদ’! ‘ব্রেকিং’ আর প্রাইম টাইমের পিছনে দৌড়তে গিয়ে দেওয়ালে পিঠ ঠেকেছে সত্যিকারের সাংবাদিকতার। অর্থ আর চোখ রাঙানিতে হাত বাঁধা সাংবাদিকদের। কিন্তু, গণতন্ত্রের চতুর্থ স্তম্ভে ‘রঙ’ লাগানোয় বিশ্বাসী নই আমরা। আর মৃত্যুশয্যা থেকে ফিরিয়ে আনতে পারেন আপনারাই। সোশ্যালের ওয়াল জুড়ে বিনামূল্যে পাওয়া খবরে ‘ফেক’ তকমা জুড়ে যাচ্ছে না তো? আসলে পৃথিবীতে কোনও কিছুই ‘ফ্রি’ নয়। তাই, আপনার দেওয়া একটি টাকাও অক্সিজেন জোগাতে পারে। স্বতন্ত্র সাংবাদিকতার স্বার্থে আপনার স্বল্প অনুদানও মূল্যবান। পাশে থাকুন।
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