Biography of Yogiraj Shri Shri Lahiri Mahashaya

The need for a complete biography in English of Yogiraj Shri Shri Shyamacharan Lahiri Mahashaya has been very strongly felt. There are chapters on Shri Shri Lahiri Mahashaya in the English Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda his spiritual grandson. But all the other biographies of this Great Saint arewritten in Bengali or Hindi.The present volume is an outcome of a Gracious Command of my beloved Gurudeva Yogiguru Shrimat Brahmachari Anilanandaji Maharaj. How else could I dare to go into the mystery of an astounding spiritual personality like Shri Shri Lahiri Mahashaya? Let the fruit of this labour be offered to the Lotus Feet of Shriguru. “Hari Om.”Shyama Charan Lahiri (30 September 1828 – 26 September 1895) best known as Lahiri Mahasaya was an Indian yogi guru who founded the Kriya Yoga school. In 1861 his non-physical master Mahavatar Babaji appeared to him ordering him to revive the yogic science of Kriya Yoga to the public after centuries of its guarding by masters. He was unusual among Indian holy people in that he was a householder marrying raising a family and working as a government accountant an Ideal yogi-householder. He became known in the West through Paramhansa Yogananda a disciple of Sri Yukteswar Giri and through Yoganandas 1946 book Autobiography of a Yogi considering him a Yogavatar or Incarnation of Yoga since Lahiri himself was chosen by the yogic masters to disseminate the principles of yoga to the world.