Mahavatar Babaji Maharaj is both ageless and eternally young. Sometimes he is formless, while at other times, he appears before his disciples in any form he wishes to liberate humanity from its worldly fetters. Babaji Maharaj remains engrossed in deep meditation in the dense forests, caves, and snow-covered peaks of the Himalayas, at the same time keeping a watchful gaze on earnest seekers on their paths to the Ultimate. His divine play of miraculous appearance and disappearance, as narrated by his disciples Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Pranavananda, Swami Shriyukteshwar, Hamsa Swami Kevalananda. Paramahamsa Yogananda, and Paramahamsa Hariharananda, is his unique way of guiding disciples on the path of divinity toward rapid liberation.
Shyamacharan Lahiri was ordained by Babaji Maharaj to liberate both saints and householders through the easy and simple techniques of Kriya Yoga. Under the able guidance of his erudite father, pious mother, and the watchful eye of Babaji Maharaj, he matured into a Self-realized divine being, established in sthitaprajna and wisdom. His interpretation and analysis of Indian and Western scriptures was based on his personal realization of their essence, rather than intellectual analysis
Swami Shriyukteshwar Giri was born to a disciplined, punctilious, and diligent landowner father, Kshetranath Karar, and a devout, pious, and pure mother, Kadambini Devi, on the tenth of May, 1855 in Serampore on the banks of the holy river Ganga. Originally named Priyanath Karar, he was brilliant, inquisitive, fearless, bold, highly spiritual, reasonable, and logical from his very childhood. His innate, deep-rooted tendency to quest inwardly and his unquenchable thirst for knowledge helped him pass all his school examinations successfully and then attend college and medical school.
Bhupendranath Sanyal Mahasaya was born on January 20, 1877, in the village of Sadhana Para in the district of Nadia in West Bengal, India. This area is a holy and spiritually fertile land that has given birth to many great personalities, sages, and saints such as Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Paramahamsa Hariharananda, and Shri Sitaram Das Omkaranath.
Yogananda was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, to a devout family. According to his younger brother, Sananda, from his earliest years young Mukunda’s awareness and experience of the spiritual was far beyond the ordinary. In his youth he sought out many of India’s Hindu sages and saints, hoping to find an illuminated teacher to guide him in his spiritual quest. Yogananda’s seeking after various saints mostly ended when he met his guru, Swami Yukteswar Giri, in 1910, at the age of 17. He describes his first meeting with Yukteswar as a rekindling of a relationship that had lasted for many lifetimes.
Manmohan (Swami Satyananda) was born to Mohini Mohan Majumdar and Tarabasini Devi on the 17th of November, 1896, in his maternal uncle’s house in Bikrampur (Bangladesh). He was a philosopher, singer, composer, poet, social worker, and above all, a gifted disciple and truly divine master in the lineage of Kriya Yoga. A hint of his impeccable love for humanity, without distinction of class, caste, or religion, was evident at the young age of six or seven when he flouted the entrenched tradition of untouchability on a social occasion in the presence of his relatives and friends. By the age of ten, his quest for liberation was extremely deep-rooted, making strong his burning quest for the independence of India as well as for the ultimate liberation of mankind from the fetters of worldly sufferings, bondage, and body consciousness.
Paramahamsa Hariharananda, a realized Kriya Yoga master, was born as Rabindranath Bhattacharya in the hamlet of Habibpur of Nadia in Bengal, India, the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, on May 27, 1907. He was born into a wealthy family, to a Brahmin father, Haripada Bhattacharya, and an outstandingly pious, generous, and loving mother, Nabin Kali Devi. The child Rabi would be as luminous and brilliant as the sun, removing the darkness of ignorance from the world, as augured by his father (Rabi means “sun.”). Rabi was highly spiritual and cultured, staunch and astute, and well versed in all scriptures. His precocious memory for intricate mantras, hymns, and prayers in Sanskrit, which he learned while listening to his father even at the age of four, exhibited uncommon and marvelous perspicacity. Under the guidance of his father, he quickly mastered Vedic astrology, astronomy, and palmistry. When Rabi was twelve, Shri Bijoy Krishna Chattopadhyay, a renowned Self-realized sadhaka, initiated him into Jnana Yoga and later inspired him to meet Jnanavatar Shriyukteshwar.
Paramahamsa Prajnanananda was born as Triloki Dash in the village of Pattamundai in Orissa, India. Raised in a pious and spiritual atmosphere, he began searching for a spiritual mentor in early childhood. In 1980, while still a student in college, he met his Gurudev Paramahamsa Hariharananda, who initiated him into Kriya Yoga. Unlike his peers, Triloki Dash spent much of his time in prayer, puja, and meditation. He frequently retreated to the solitude of remote Himalayan caves to be in the company of sages and saints seeking ultimate Truth. He kept up a rigorous spiritual practice under the tutelage of his beloved Gurudev while working as a professor of Economics at Ravenshaw College in Cuttack.