Biography
Paramahamsa Hariharananda, affectionately known as "Baba" to his students, was known as a Kriya Yogi in the lineage of Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, and Paramahamsa Yogananda.
Hariharananda's father Haripada Bhattacharya, an affluent community landlord was a Brahmin. Hariharananda's mother, Nabin Kali, was a woman from the village of Birnagar, Nadia and came from a Brahmin family. Nabin Kali and Haripada had eleven children, five sons and six daughters. Rabindranath (Rabi in short) was the youngest son and later came to be known as Paramahamsa Hariharananda.
According to a disciple, at the age of twelve Hariharananda took initiation in the path of Jnana Yoga from a certain Shri Bijoy Krishna Chattopadhyay, after visiting him a couple of times in the company of his brother Pareshnath and brother-in-law, both disciples of his. A disciple of Trailinga Swami of Benares, Bijoy Krishna Chattopadhyaya was known as "Howrah Thakur" because he lived in the Howrah suburb of Kolkata.
In 1932, Hariharananda went to meet the Kriya master, Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri who initiated him into Kriya Yoga, in his Serampore ashram, West Bengal. Hariharananda stated that the Swami taught him cosmic astrology, and entreated him to come and live in his Karar Ashram in Puri, Orissa.
In 1935, he met Paramahamsa Yogananda, and received the second Kriya initiation from him. In 1938, he renounced the material life and entered his guru's Ashram in Puri, Orissa, starting the life of an ascetic monk as Brahmachari Rabinarayan.
He received the third Kriya initiation from Swami Satyananda Giri in 1941, then head of the Karar Ashram and childhood friend of Paramahamsa Yogananda.
In 1951 he got written permission from Paramahamsa Yogananda to initiate and teach Kriya Yoga.
On May 27, 1959 he took formal monastic vows from the Shankaracharya of Puri Srimad Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha and was named Swami Hariharananda Giri.
From 1960 to 1974, Hariharananda toured all over India to spread the message of Kriya Yoga. In 1971 he became the 4th president (sadhusabhapati) of Karar Ashram and succeeded Swami Satyananda Giri . The year 1974 marked his first journey to the West, where he would return every year. His travels took him all over Europe, South America, the United States, and Canada where he established centers and ashrams.
Paramahamsa Hariharananda resided at the ashram he founded in Homestead, FL for several years prior to his mahasamadhi in Miami, Florida, United States in December 2002 and was buried in Balighai, Orissa, India that same month.
Read more about this topic: Hariharananda Giri
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)
“The best part of a writer’s biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)