Paramahamsa Hariharananda Giri
A God-realized yogi in the Lahiri Mahasaya tradition of Kriyayoga, Paramahamsa Hariharananda was affectionately referred to as “BABA” (Father) by his pupils. Baba was born Rabindranath Bhattacharya in the Nadia district of West Bengal. At twelve years of age, he was granted Jnana Yoga Deeksha by Shri Bijoy Krishna Chattopadhyay.
He encountered Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, a Kriya Yoga guru, in 1932. Sri Yukteswarji, who was impressed by the spiritual qualities of the adolescent Rabindranath, introduced him to Kriyayoga at his Serampore ashram. In 1935, he met Paramahamsa Yogananda and received his second Kriya initiation from him. Swami Satyananda Giri, the then-head of the Karar Ashram and a childhood companion of Paramahamsa Yogananda, initiated him into the third Kriya in 1941. Lahiri Mahasaya’s youngest disciple, Sri Bhupendranath Sanyal Mahasaya, gave him the final higher Kriya initiations from 1943 to 1945.
In the mid-1940s, a youthful, unknown, and enigmatic yogi who emerged in Karar Ashram taught him the most secret technique of samadhi. He achieved six phases of samadhi during this period. In 1948, he achieved Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the state of being breathless and without a pulse, which is the pinnacle of a devoted yogi’s spiritual development. A few months later, in 1949, while still in seclusion in his monastic cell, he had a second glimpse of the deathless yogi Babaji Maharaj. He received blessings from Babaji and was foretold that his mission would be to disseminate the original teachings of Kriya masters worldwide.
He was bestowed the monastic title of Swami Hariharananda Giri and received his monastic vows from Srimad Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha, the Shankaracharya of Puri, on May 27, 1959. His initial journey to the West occurred in 1974, and he would return annually to disseminate the message of divine love through the cultivation of a conscious awareness of God within. According to him, the fundamental principles of authentic Kriyayoga are as follows: “Breath control is equivalent to self-control, breath mastery is equivalent to self-mastery, and breathlessness is equivalent to deathlessness.” On December 3, 2002, Paramahamsa Hariharananda attained Mahasamadhi.