Fast Tracking to Infinity: the Kriya Yoga of Ganesh Baba

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Fast Tracking to Infinity: the Kriya Yoga of Ganesh Baba YOGA PHILOSOPHY yogamagazine.com TheFAST TRACKINGKriya YogaTO INFINITY of Ganesh Baba Words: Dr. Keith G Lowenstein and Lyndsey Anderson PART 1 Photo Credit: Dr. Keith G Lowenstein very ancient school of thought or system of practice, no matter how profound and effective, E periodically needs an update for the particular time, a fresh reformation to resonate with an every- diversifying audience. This evolution of what is taught as well as how, is facebook.com/official.yogamag historically transmitted through masters willing and able to translate ancient practices for a contemporary audience. The lineage of Kriya Yoga is no exception. Kriya Yoga is no less than a foundational practice for the direct experience of the infinite. It’s practices are common to many of the mystical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, is the best- known Kriya Yoga master, but he was not the only yogi to bring Kriya Yoga to the West. One of these yogis was Ganesh Baba, formally Sri Mahant Swami Ganesh Ananda Saraswati Giri, who shared an accelerated and simplified system of Kriya Yoga until his death in 1987. Other students of Yogananda and other branches of the Lahiri line, like Paramahamsa Hariharananda, Ganesh Baba. Self-Realization Fellowship Lake who founded Kriya Yoga International, Shrine. Los Angeles, California. Early 1980’s. continue to teach Kriya around the globe. 46 Ganesh Baba was unique in several ways. Ganesh is the name of the elephant-headed god, commonly known as the remover of obstacles. Ganesh Baba lived up to the name, both placing and removing obstacles in the path of the student as a means of spiritual development. This dance of creating and removing obstacles allowed room for—and perhaps demanded— an untraditional teacher who could interact with and inspire the spiritually curious and psychedelically-centered counter- culture youth of mid-20th century America. Ganesh Baba, like Yogananda, was born around 1892 in British India. He told a story of being a young child who was close to death from cholera only to be saved by Lahiri Mahasaya. Lahiri was the man responsible for bringing Kriya Yoga back into public consciousness after the practice had facebook.com/official.yogamag been lost for hundreds of years. Lahiri his mid-40’s that Ganesh Baba fully Ever the seeker, Ganesh Baba was an established householder and entered the spiritual life, this time eventually felt himself drawn to family man when the great Mahavatar for good. Ganesh Baba spent the rest the Naga Babas, the traditionally Babaji appeared to him. Mahavatar of his life living and teaching the ways naked, dreadlocked, ash-smeared, Babaji is a Christ-like figure in Indian of Kriya Yoga. He became an ordained Shiva-worshipping swamis who culture, a man who has roamed monk under Swami Sivananda who gave consider cannabis a sacrament. In the foothills of the Himalayas for him the name Swami Ganesh Anand. an untraditional move for someone centuries, occasionally appearing Sivananda’s Vedantic philosophy, as well with the title of Saraswati, or "highly to a select few to help humanity as that of Sri Aurobindo, the exciting knowledgeable scholar," Ganesh Baba ascend and evolve into greater states new theories of modern physics, and the left Anandamayi Ma’s ashram and of consciousness. Mahavatar Babaji work of Carl Jung became the bedrock of became headman or Sri Mahant at the taught Lahiri Mahasaya the Kriya Yoga much of Ganesh Baba’s teachings. Shivite Anand Akhara in Bareilly. technique and urged him to teach this Ganesh Baba received his second When the sixties arrived, Ganesh ancient, powerful meditation system Kriya initiation from Sanyal Mahasaya, Baba was in his 70’s and dividing his to all who wished to learn. Years later, a direct student of Lahiri Mahasaya. time between the Akhara in Bareilly, when the choleric child was placed His third Kriya initiation came from Sri Benares and Kathmandu. Many in Lahiri Mahasaya’s arms, the Kriya Tripura, whose teacher was Sri Motilal, flower-child Westerners who traveled Yoga guru bestowed upon him his a disciple of Sri Yukteswar, reverently to India considered him the perfect first experience of Kriya, which saved depicted in Autobiography of a Yogi. teacher to share a chai and a smoke Baba’s life and allowed the child to From these masters, Ganesh Baba and learn about Kriya. While passing fully recover. received a broad and thorough training the chillum, Ganesh Baba always Despite his early introduction of various interpretations of Lahiri discouraged the use of marijuana into the wonders of Kriya, Ganesh Mahasaya’s Kriya Yoga. After leaving and drugs for the young, believing Baba had secular obligations to fulfill Shivananda’s ashram, Ganesh Baba and saying it should be reserved for before renouncing the material world became the logistics manager of one of those over 60 once their householder and becoming a sadhu, a wandering Anandamayi Ma’s ashrams. At the time, chores and worldly responsibilities monk. Baba attended school in British Anandamayi Ma was one of the most were completed. Those who failed India and studied physics, quantum revered spiritual teachers in India, and to take his advice and continued to mechanics and Jungian psychology. is still considered a saint. At it’s height, get high were told to leave unless He became a successful businessman, her ashram fed thousands of people a they carried their "spinal column as a providing dowries for all eight of day. Ganesh Baba thrived in this post for column rather than an arch.” Slouchers his younger sisters. It was not until nearly a decade. were not tolerated. 47 YOGA PHILOSOPHY yogamagazine.com the language of the teachings accessible to Western students, removing Sanskrit words for certain processes and replacing ‘‘IT IS ONLY THROUGH A them with alliterative English phrases like COLLECTIVE AWAKEN- Optimal Operational Order and Ultimate ING THAT LOVE, THE ES- Universal Unity. While the language may SENCE OF NATURE AND have been full of colorful alliterations, it HUMANITY, WILL TRULY helped the concepts stick in the minds of his students. Ganesh Baba could easily PERMEATE THE HUMAN incorporate Western scientific theory CONDITION.’’ into Kriya philosophy and topics like the electromagnetic spectrum, Darwinism, Jungian archetypes and Patanjali’s Yoga reserved only for initiates—a group to Sutras were all harmonious with Ganesh which, legend has it, both Lord Krishna Baba’s system. Even the physical practices and Jesus Christ belonged. And while themselves, condensed into a process Mahavatar Babaji’s instructions to known as the 4 V’s, easily aligned with Lahiri were to spread Kriya to Indian Baba’s comprehensive synthesis of science, householders, the practices remained philosophy and conscious evolution. guarded, taught only to those who For the past 40 years, a small group sought out these masters of the Kriya of Ganesh Baba’s closest students have Yoga lineage. This made Ganesh Baba remained committed to teaching Kriya the ultimate outlier: not only did he Yoga. They are scattered in Oregon, Ganesh Baba. Self- teach anyone who wanted to learn, but New York and France, where Baba Realization Fellowship, Mt he stayed up all night with them, lived went after leaving the United States in Washington. Los Angeles. in their houses, and tasked them with 1986. Because of the tutelage of Baba’s Early 1980’s. transcribing his teachings in a detailed, original students, new generations of meticulous way. practitioners are beginning to learn and By the late 1970’s, it was clear the While Ganesh Baba freely taught teach the introductory aspects of Kriya time had come for Ganesh Baba to the curious and the committed, his Yoga, fulfilling Ganesh Baba’s request facebook.com/official.yogamag travel to America to spread his unique teachings were not for the complacent, of his students to “leave footprints in interpretation of Kriya Yoga. Ganesh and those who came to Baba expecting the sands of time”. Kriya Yoga is a path Baba spent about eight years in the an easy-going technique from a hip- to true knowledge, capable of helping United States, teaching Kriya as he and-harmless psychedelic guru were humanity move through it’s current state moved around while keeping a home quickly turned away. His teaching style of affairs. And as Ganesh Baba taught,it base in New York City and upstate may have been revolutionary for a Kriya is only through a collective awakening New York, and visiting California, master but Ganesh Baba was strict, and that love, the essence of nature and where he hobnobbed with Timothy his insistence that students maintain a humanity, will truly permeate the human Leary, Marilyn Ferguson, Gary Zukav bolt-upright posture at all times kept condition. and other leading-edge thinkers. his following from growing larger than Baba possessed undeniable charisma, a modest handful of students. Those Dr. Keith Lowenstein is an and while his elephant-esque spirit caught relaxing their posture in his integrative psychiatrist in Portland, trampled the egos of students and nay- presence were quickly reprimanded in Oregon and was Ganesh Baba’s sayers alike, he radiated glee and love, no uncertain terms. And while many last formal student. They spent attracting a modest group of devoted were drawn to the practices of Kriya the better part of five years living followers willing to maintain ramrod through Ganesh Baba’s charismatic together and teaching Kriya. It straight backs. and emphatic enthusiasm, those who was Ganesh Baba who strongly Ganesh Baba’s approachability was became his most committed students requested Dr. Lowenstein to enter perhaps his most radical aspect. Never remained because of the depth medical school.
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