Here Comes the Yogiman 93
by Satyananda, Yogananda’s childhood friend and later collaborator, does affirm
Yogananda’s claim that, following his death, Lahiri Mahasaya was seen by three
different disciples in vastly different locations. However, for the most part his
biographers limit his superhuman abilities to things like supreme omniscience,
kindness, and detachment.^5 It is only in Yogananda’s accounts that we see Lahiri
Mahasaya performing actions such as levitating, delaying trains, inducing visions,
and raising the dead. However, given that Yogananda’s only encounter with Lahiri
Mahasaya occurred when the former was only an infant, the accounts must have
been relayed to him by other disciples. Thus, assuming that Yogananda did not
simply invent the stories to embellish his own account, tales of Lahiri Mahasaya’s
powers as told by his devotees must have been much less modest than the other
published accounts would suggest.
As to the historicity of Lahiri Mahasaya’s initiation into Kriya Yoga by the
immortal Babaji, it is uncertain where biography ends and hagiography begins.
Given the breadth and complexity of his published commentaries, it is not
unlikely that he might have picked up quite a bit of material simply by means
of independent study. However, the details of the Kriya Yoga practice, insofar
as they have been made available through the publications of Lahiri Mahasaya’s
disciples in India, suggest a fairly complex tantric sādhana. While it is possible
that Lahiri Mahasaya might have elaborated on the metaphysical elements of
the practice based on his own knowledge, the method itself must have been
taught to him via oral transmission by an actual adept. Given the highly abstruse
nature of tantric ritual manuals, it would be nearly impossible for one to acquire
anything beyond a basic theoretical understanding of the physical mechanics
of the practice. Thus, Babaji, immortal or otherwise, appears to be a necessary
character in the saga. Whether Kriya Yoga truly constitutes a lost ancient prac-
tice is far more doubtful. No full description of the method is available to non-
initiates. However, the existing information points to a form of tantric or, even
more likely, haṭha yogic sādhana based primarily on the practice of prāṇāyāma.
Among the major elements, or kriyās, are relatively familiar practices such as
khecarī mudrā (the extension of the tongue upwards into the nasal cavity),
which, despite being esoteric, were by no means lost prior to the middle of the
nineteenth century.^6
Yogananda’s own guru, Sri Yukteswar,^7 was born Priyanath Karar on May
10, 1865, in Serampore. Sri Yukteswar was educated at Serampore Christian
Missionary College and spent some time at Calcutta Medical School before fam-
ily matters forced him to abandon both. He married and had one daughter, work-
ing as an accountant for some time. Building on his earlier training, Sri Yukteswar
studied naturopathic medicine and was interested in physical culture. A partic-
ular obsession of his was astrolog y, which he firmly considered to be scientific