Swami Hariharananda Giri (5/27/1907 - 12/3/2002)
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 5 years before Sep 08, 2017
Alfredo 5 years ago
Michael asked me to share some information about Swami Hariharananda Giri. Especially his life and the austerities he practiced to become the great yogi he was, as a pointer that usually yogis have to work hard for what they accomplish. Michael and Surya had met Swamiji in a visit to his ashram in South Florida in 1999.
I recently posted in the file section a booklet I wrote and dedicated to Swamiji in the year 2000. It is called "Shri Hariharananda Gita". I painted the portrait of the book with a theme from the Ramayana showing Rama and Sita, Rama's brother Bharata and Hanuman (kneeling). I posted a picture of it today in the photo section.
I met Swamiji in Miami in the late 1990s when he was 89. I was at his deathbed when he passed away on December 3, 2002 at the age of 95.
I was initiated into Kriya Yoga by one of his swamis, and later on into 2nd Kriya by Hariharanandaji himself alone in a room.
Swamiji was born as Rabindranath Battacharya in a wealthy Bengali family in the year 1907 in the hamlet of Habibpur near Calcutta. His was one of those special births detailed in the Gita, as his parents were both wealthy and yogis themselves.
Since childhood, he was inclined to the spiritual life. For all his life he was celibate and a vegetarian, and also an accomplished yogi.
In 1932, at the age 25, he was initiated into Kriya Yoga by Swami Shriyukteshwar in his Serampore ashram. Later he lived in Karar Ashram (former Shriyukteshwar’s residence), when he became known as Brahmachari Robinarayan.
Among the austerities he practiced throughout his life, besides the Brahmacharya and vegetarianism already mentioned, we can highlight several years in silence (Mouna) mostly alone in a room following strict practices that lead to several levels of Samadhi. In 1959 he was initiated into sannyasa as Swami Hariharananda Giri by Jagadguru Bharati Krishna, the Shankaracharya of Gobhardana Peeta, Puri.
If you are interested in the life of Swamiji, stay tuned to this file, which I plan to update with information and commentaries.
MiBeloved 5 years ago
From this one gets the feeling of boat which is travelling down a river and which has travelled a long way and which will continue travelling down until it gets to the mouth of the river and into the open sea.
Yoga practice is completed in several lives. It is a long journey. Sometimes the ship turns back and goes back-up the river and then it has to traverse part of the journey again. Sometimes a current in the river goes upstream, so that the boat even though its engine is running on maximum does not make much progress. In other words in some lives a yogi is stagnant in his yoga practice and the entire life time is wasted doing social chores.
Getting in touch with the advanced yogis, of whom Swamiji is an example, gives one a little push so that one’s ship can go a little faster down the river.
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It is very important that students immediately and without hesitation regard Swamiji as our guruji, as our father-guruji. Everyone should take help and blessings from these great yogins and try to get some of their energy into our individual psyches, so that our path in yoga will be with the least possible impediments.
No one should think:
"Oh! I am as great as this guruji. I am potentially his equal. What does he know about yoga that I cannot master? I am God also, so I don’t need to bow to this guruji. We are all One, why should I have to take anything from somebody who is outside myself? Why do I need this Guruji?”
No one should feel like that.
Instead these gurujis are our spiritual fathers and as good sons we should take shelter under them like good boys. There is no need for any of us to man-up to an advanced yogi.
