Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth Date | 10 May 1855 Serampore, Bengal Presidency, British India (Present day in Hooghly district, West Bengal, India) |
| Died on | 9 March 1936 (aged 80) Puri, Bihar and Orissa Province, British India |
| Birth name | Priya Nath Karar |
| Guru/teacher | Lahiri Mahasaya |
| Philosophy | Kriya Yoga |
Sri Yukteswar Giri (born Priya Nath Karar) was an important Indian monk and yogi. He was the teacher, or guru, of famous spiritual leaders like Paramahansa Yogananda and Swami Satyananda Giri. Sri Yukteswar was born in Serampore, West Bengal, on May 10, 1855. He was a follower of Kriya Yoga, an expert in Jyotisha (Vedic astrology), and a scholar of Hindu scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. He was also an educator, author, and astronomer.
Sri Yukteswar was a student of Lahiri Mahasaya from Varanasi. He was also part of the Giri branch of the Swami order. As a guru, he had two special places for teaching, called ashrams. One was in Serampore and the other in Puri, Odisha. He would live in each ashram at different times of the year, training his students.
People described Sri Yukteswar as a kind and gentle person with a pleasing presence. He was known for his high character and holiness. He was also a forward-thinking person in the 1800s. He often held religious festivals and started a spiritual study group called "Satsanga Sabha." He also created study plans for schools and looked at the ancient Vedic astrological yugas in a new way. He was respected for his sharp mind and deep knowledge. Many Kriya yoga students in the Kolkata area looked up to him. He welcomed people from all walks of life to his ashrams to talk and share ideas.
Even though he was kind, Sri Yukteswar was also known for being very direct and strict with his students. His student Yogananda wrote about this in his book, Autobiography of a Yogi. This strict training helped his students, like Satyananda and Yogananda, prepare for their important work in India and America. Yogananda saw Sri Yukteswar as a Jnanavatar, which means "Incarnation of Wisdom," because of his high ideals and deep understanding.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Sri Yukteswar was born as Priya Nath Karar in Serampore, India. His parents were Kshetranath and Kadambini Karar. Priya Nath's father passed away when he was young. This meant Priya Nath had to take on a lot of responsibility for managing his family's land.
He was a very smart student. He passed his entrance exams and went to Srirampur Christian Missionary College. There, he became very interested in the Bible. This interest later led him to write his book, The Holy Science. This book talks about how the ideas in Yoga and the Bible are connected. He also studied at Calcutta Medical College for almost two years.
Family Life
After leaving college, Priya Nath got married and had a daughter. Sadly, his wife died a few years after they were married. He was a vegetarian.
Becoming a Spiritual Teacher
Priya Nath was formally initiated into the monastic Swami order. This is when he received his spiritual name, "Sri Yukteswar Giri." The word 'Sri' is actually part of his name, not just a separate title.
In 1884, Priya Nath met Lahiri Mahasaya, who became his spiritual teacher, or Guru. Lahiri Mahasaya taught him about Kriya Yoga. Sri Yukteswar spent many years with his guru, often visiting him in Benares. In 1894, he went to a large spiritual gathering called the Kumbha Mela in Allahabad. There, he met Mahavatar Babaji, who was Lahiri Mahasaya's Guru. Mahavatar Babaji asked Sri Yukteswar to write a book that would compare Hindu scriptures with the Christian Bible. At this meeting, Mahavatar Babaji also gave Sri Yukteswar the title of 'Swami'. Sri Yukteswar finished the book in 1894 and called it Kaivalya Darsanam, which means The Holy Science.
Teaching and Philosophy
Sri Yukteswar turned his large family home in Serampore into an ashram, which he named "Priyadham." This is where he lived with his students. In 1903, he also opened another ashram in the seaside town of Puri, called "Karar Ashram." From these two ashrams, Sri Yukteswar taught his students and started an organization called "Sadhu Sabha."
He was very interested in education. He created a study plan for schools that included subjects like physics, physiology, geography, astronomy, and astrology. He also wrote a book for people in Bengal to help them learn basic English and Hindi. It was called First Book. He also wrote a simple book about astrology. Later, he became interested in educating women, which was not common in Bengal at that time.
Yukteswar was especially good at Jyotiṣa (Indian astrology). He would suggest different astrological gemstones and bracelets for his students. He also studied astronomy and science. This can be seen in his Yuga theory that he wrote about in The Holy Science.
He had only a few students who stayed with him for a long time. But in 1910, a young man named Mukunda Lal Ghosh became his most famous student. This student later became known as Paramahansa Yogananda. Yogananda went on to share the teachings of Kriya Yoga around the world. He founded the Self-Realization Fellowship and Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Yogananda said that Sri Yukteswar had few students because his training methods were very strict.
Sri Yukteswar passed away peacefully at Karar Ashram in Puri, India, on March 9, 1936. This spiritual passing is called mahasamadhi.
The Holy Science
Sri Yukteswar wrote his important book, The Holy Science, in 1894.
This book introduced many new ideas for its time. For example, Sri Yukteswar disagreed with traditional Hindu beliefs. He said that the Earth was not in the age of Kali Yuga, but had moved forward to Dvapara Yuga. He based his proof on a new way of looking at the precession of the equinoxes. He also suggested that our sun has a 'dual star' that it revolves around. This cycle takes 24,000 years and explains the precession of the equinox.
This theory about the Sun's binary companion has caught the attention of scholars like David Frawley. He has written about it in his books. According to Frawley, this theory helps to figure out the ages of important Indian figures like Rama and Krishna better than other methods.
Notable Students
- Paramahansa Yogananda
- Swami Satyananda Giri
- Swami Hariharananda Giri
- Swami Bhabananda Giri
- Motilal Mukhopadyay
- Sri Sailendra Bejoy Dasgupta
- Sri Amulya Charan Santra
- Swami Narayana Giri (Prabhujee)
See also
In Spanish: Sri Yukteswar para niños
- Great Year
- Astrological age
- Axial precession
- Precession § Astronomy
- Yuga
