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"Lahiri Mahasaya's words were mild and healing, even when he was forced to speak openly of a chela's faults," Sri Yukteswar once told me. He added ruefully, "No disciple ever fled from our master's barbs." I could not help laughing, but I truthfully assured Sri Yukteswar that, sharp or not, his every word was music to my ears.

"'Never mind; just do as I ask. Lahiri Mahasaya's cheerful mood was incomprehensible; I was still in the unassuaged agony of bereavement. Pouring out a small amount of oil, I departed for Rama's house. "I found my friend's body rigid in the death-clasp.

The following morning I could hardly drag myself to Lahiri Mahasaya's home. "'Sir, I am ailing again. "My guru's glance was quizzical. 'So! Once more you indispose yourself. "'Gurudeva, I realize now that day by day you have been ridiculing me. My patience was exhausted. 'I don't understand why you disbelieve my truthful reports.

Thus it came about that a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya was present when Babaji deemed the time to be ripe for him to proclaim the possibility of bodily immortality. He uttered this promise before Ram Gopal Muzumdar, that it might finally become known for the inspiration of other seeking hearts. "I sometimes left my isolated cave to sit at Lahiri Mahasaya's feet in Benares," Ram Gopal told me.

One of Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples, the venerable Kali Kumar Roy, related to me many fascinating details of his life with the master. "I was often a guest at his Benares home for weeks at a time," Roy told me. Sometimes they would engage in discussion of meditational and philosophical points. At dawn the exalted guests would depart.

For a time Lahiri Mahasaya served as private tutor to the son of Maharaja Iswari Narayan Sinha Bahadur of Benares. Recognizing the master's spiritual attainment, the maharaja, as well as his son, sought KRIYA initiation, as did the Maharaja Jotindra Mohan Thakur. A number of Lahiri Mahasaya's disciples with influential worldly position were desirous of expanding the KRIYA circle by publicity.

'When your book is finished, I shall pay you a visit, he promised. 'Good-by for the present. "I left Allahabad the following day and entrained for Benares. Reaching my guru's home, I poured out the story of the wonderful saint at the KUMBHA MELA. "'Oh, didn't you recognize him? Lahiri Mahasaya's eyes were dancing with laughter. 'I see you couldn't, for he prevented you.

'I will guide your thoughts, that the right interpretation be uttered. In this way many of Lahiri Mahasaya's perceptions came to be recorded, with voluminous commentaries by various students. "The master never counseled slavish belief. 'Words are only shells, he said. 'Win conviction of God's presence through your own joyous contact in meditation.

Other close disciples were similarly satisfied to keep the Yogavatar hidden in their hearts as the deathless preceptor. Nevertheless, mindful of Lahiri Mahasaya's prediction about his biography, I spared no effort to secure and substantiate the facts of his outward life.

Hearing the wheels of Amar's carriage in the road, I hastily tied together a blanket, a pair of sandals, Lahiri Mahasaya's picture, a copy of the BHAGAVAD GITA, a string of prayer beads, and two loincloths. This bundle I threw from my third-story window. I ran down the steps and passed my uncle, buying fish at the door. "What is the excitement?" His gaze roved suspiciously over my person.