Autobiography of a Yogi | Page 5

"'Of course.' Joy filled me at the miraculous answer to my prayer, and
the quick, favorable turn of events.
"The next evening your parents and I entrained for Benares. We took a
horse cart the following day, and then had to walk through narrow lanes
to my guru's secluded home. Entering his little parlor, we bowed before
the master, enlocked in his habitual lotus posture. He blinked his
piercing eyes and leveled them on your father.
"'Bhagabati, you are too hard on your employee!' His words were the
same as those he had used two days before in the Gorakhpur field. He
added, 'I am glad that you have allowed Abinash to visit me, and that
you and your wife have accompanied him.'
"To their joy, he initiated your parents in the spiritual practice of
KRIYA YOGA. {FN1-10} Your father and I, as brother disciples, have
been close friends since the memorable day of the vision. Lahiri
Mahasaya took a definite interest in your own birth. Your life shall
surely be linked with his own: the master's blessing never fails."
Lahiri Mahasaya left this world shortly after I had entered it. His
picture, in an ornate frame, always graced our family altar in the
various cities to which Father was transferred by his office. Many a
morning and evening found Mother and me meditating before an
improvised shrine, offering flowers dipped in fragrant sandalwood
paste. With frankincense and myrrh as well as our united devotions, we
honored the divinity which had found full expression in Lahiri
Mahasaya.
His picture had a surpassing influence over my life. As I grew, the
thought of the master grew with me. In meditation I would often see his
photographic image emerge from its small frame and, taking a living

form, sit before me. When I attempted to touch the feet of his luminous
body, it would change and again become the picture. As childhood
slipped into boyhood, I found Lahiri Mahasaya transformed in my
mind from a little image, cribbed in a frame, to a living, enlightening
presence. I frequently prayed to him in moments of trial or confusion,
finding within me his solacing direction. At first I grieved because he
was no longer physically living. As I began to discover his secret
omnipresence, I lamented no more. He had often written to those of his
disciples who were over-anxious to see him: "Why come to view my
bones and flesh, when I am ever within range of your KUTASTHA
(spiritual sight)?"
I was blessed about the age of eight with a wonderful healing through
the photograph of Lahiri Mahasaya. This experience gave
intensification to my love. While at our family estate in Ichapur,
Bengal, I was stricken with Asiatic cholera. My life was despaired of;
the doctors could do nothing. At my bedside, Mother frantically
motioned me to look at Lahiri Mahasaya's picture on the wall above my
head.
"Bow to him mentally!" She knew I was too feeble even to lift my
hands in salutation. "If you really show your devotion and inwardly
kneel before him, your life will be spared!"
I gazed at his photograph and saw there a blinding light, enveloping my
body and the entire room. My nausea and other uncontrollable
symptoms disappeared; I was well. At once I felt strong enough to bend
over and touch Mother's feet in appreciation of her immeasurable faith
in her guru. Mother pressed her head repeatedly against the little
picture.
"O Omnipresent Master, I thank thee that thy light hath healed my
son!"
I realized that she too had witnessed the luminous blaze through which
I had instantly recovered from a usually fatal disease.
One of my most precious possessions is that same photograph. Given to

Father by Lahiri Mahasaya himself, it carries a holy vibration. The
picture had a miraculous origin. I heard the story from Father's brother
disciple, Kali Kumar Roy.
It appears that the master had an aversion to being photographed. Over
his protest, a group picture was once taken of him and a cluster of
devotees, including Kali Kumar Roy. It was an amazed photographer
who discovered that the plate which had clear images of all the
disciples, revealed nothing more than a blank space in the center where
he had reasonably expected to find the outlines of Lahiri Mahasaya.
The phenomenon was widely discussed.
A certain student and expert photographer, Ganga Dhar Babu, boasted
that the fugitive figure would not escape him. The next morning, as the
guru sat in lotus posture on a wooden bench with a screen behind him,
Ganga Dhar Babu arrived with his equipment. Taking every precaution
for success, he greedily exposed twelve plates. On each one he soon
found the imprint of the wooden bench and screen, but once again the
master's form was