Sri Yukteswar Giri (also written
Sriyuktesvara, Sri Yukteshwar) (Devanagari:
श्रीयुक्तेश्वरगिरि, Bengali:
শ্রীযুক্তেশ্বরগিরী) (10 May 1855 – 9
March 1936) is the monastic name of Priya Nath Karar (Bengali:
প্রিয়নাথকাঁড়ার), the guru of Satyananda
Giri and Paramahansa Yogananda. Sri Yukteswar was a
Kriya yogi,
a Jyotisha
(Vedic astrologer), a scholar of the Bhagavad Gita
and the Upanishads, an educator and an astronomer. He was a disciple of Lahiri
Mahasaya of Varanasi and a member of the Giri branch of the swami
order. Yogananda considered Sri Yukteswar as Jnanavatar, or "Incarnation
of Wisdom".
Sri Yukteswar was born as Priya Nath Karar in Serampore, India to Kshetranath Karar and Kadambini. Priya Nath lost his father at a
young age, and took on much of the responsibility for managing his family's
land holdings. A bright student, he passed the entrance exams and enrolled in
Srirampur Christian Missionary College, where he developed an interest in the
Bible. This interest would later express itself in his book, The Holy Science, which discusses the unity behind the scientific principles underlying
Yoga and the Bible. He also attended Calcutta Medical College (then affiliated
with the University of Calcutta) for almost two
years.
After leaving college, Priya Nath married and had a daughter. His wife
died a few years after their marriage, and he eventually was formally initiated
into the monastic Swami order as "Sri Yuktesvar Giri" (note: thus
'Sri' is not a separate honorific, but part of his given name). "...many follow the usual procedure
(for writing or saying someone's name informally) and drop the "Sri"
and say only "Yukteswar", but this is not correct. If one wants to
put a "Sri" at the beginning as in the prevalent fashion, then his
name would look as: "Sri Sriyukteswar Giri".
In 1884, Priya Nath met Lahiri Mahasaya, who became his Guru and initiated him into the path of Kriya Yoga. Sri Yukteswar spent a great deal of time in the next several years in
the company of his guru, often visiting Lahiri Mahasaya in Benares. In 1894,
while attending the Kumbha Mela in Allahabad, he met the Guru of Lahiri Mahasaya, Mahavatar Babaji, who asked Sri Yukteswar to write a book comparing Hindu scriptures and
the Christian bible. Mahavatar Babaji also bestowed on Sri Yukteswar the title
of 'Swami' at that meeting. Sri Yukteswar completed the requested book in 1894,
naming it Kaivalya Darsanam, or The Holy Science.
Sri Yukteswar converted his large two-story family home in Serampore
into an ashram, named "Priyadham", where he resided with students and
disciples. In 1903, he also established an ashram in the seaside town of Puri, naming it "Karar Ashram". From these two ashrams, Sri
Yukteswar taught students, and began an organisation named "Sadhu
Sabha".
An interest in education resulted in Sri Yukteswar developing a syllabus
for schools, on the subjects of physics, physiology, geography, astronomy, and
astrology He also wrote a book for Bengalis on learning basic English and Hindi
called First Book, and wrote a basic book on astrology. Later, he became
interested in the education of women, which was uncommon in Bengal at that
time.
Yukteswar was especially skilled in Jyotiṣa (Indian astrology), and prescribed various astrological gemstones and
bangles to his students. He also studied astronomy and science, as evidenced in
the formulation of his Yuga theory in The Holy Science.
He had only a few long-term disciples, but in 1910, the young Mukunda
Lal Ghosh would become Sri Yukteswar's most well-known
disciple, eventually spreading the teachings of Kriya Yoga throughout the world as Paramahansa Yogananda with his church of
all religions – Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of
India. Yogananda attributed Sri Yukteswar's small number of disciples to his
strict training methods, which Yogananda said "cannot be described as
other than drastic".
The purpose of this book is to show as clearly as possible that there is
an essential unity in all religions; that there is no difference in the truths
inculcated by the various faiths; that there is but one method by which the
world, both external and internal, has evolved; and that there is but one Goal
admitted by all scriptures.
The work introduced many ideas that were revolutionary for the time - for
instance Sri Yukteswar broke from Hindu tradition in stating that the earth is
not in the age of Kali Yuga, but has advanced to Dwapara Yuga. His proof was based on a new perspective of the precession of the
equinoxes. He also introduced the idea that the sun takes a 'star for its
dual', and revolves around it in a period of 24,000 years, which accounts for
the precession of the equinox.Research into this theory is being conducted by the Binary Research
Institute, which produced a documentary on the topic titled The Great Year,
narrated by James Earl Jones. There is an Apple iPhone Application for calculating Sri Yukteswar's
calculations, just as there are calculators for currencies, lengths, areas and
volumes.
The theory of the Sun's binary companion expounded by Sri Yukteswar in
The Holy Science has attracted the attention of David Frawley, who has written about it in several of his books. According to
Frawley, the theory offers a better estimate of the age of Rama and Krishna and other important historical Indian figures than other dating
methods, which estimate some of these figures to have lived millions of years
ago – belying accepted human history.
