STORY OF THE MONTH
(Sep 2026)
Miracles of Sri Sri Lahiri Mahasayaji
““Revered Mother, I (Paramahansa Yogananda) was baptised in infancy by your prophet-husband. He was the guru of my parents and of my own guru Sri Yukteswarji. Will you therefore give me the privilege of hearing a few incidents in your sacred life?”
I was addressing Srimati Kashi Moni, the life companion of Lahiri Mahasaya. Finding myself in Banaras for a short period, I was fulfilling a long-felt desire to visit the venerable lady.
She received me graciously in the home of the Lahiri family in the Garudeswar Mohulla section of Banaras. Although aged, she was blooming like a lotus, emanating a spiritual fragrance. She was of medium build, with fair skin, a slender neck, and large lustrous eyes.
“Son, you are welcome here. Come upstairs.”
Kashi Moni led the way to a very small room where, for a time, she had lived with her husband. I felt honoured to witness the shrine in which the peerless master had condescended to play the human drama of matrimony. The gentle lady motioned me to a pillow seat by her side.
“It was years before I came to realize the divine stature of my husband,” she began. “One night, in this very room, I had a vivid dream. Glorious angels floated in unimaginable grace above me. So realistic was the sight that I awoke at once; strangely, the room was enveloped in dazzling light.
“My husband, in lotus posture, was levitated in the centre of the room, surrounded by angels. In supplicating dignity they were worshipping him with palm-folded hands.
“Astonished beyond measure, I was convinced that I was still dreaming.
“‘Woman,’ Lahiri Mahasaya said, ‘you are not dreaming. Forsake your sleep forever and forever.’ As he slowly descended to the floor, I prostrated myself at his feet.
“‘Master,’ I cried, ‘again and again I bow before you! Will you forgive me for having considered you as my husband? I die with shame to realize that I have remained asleep in ignorance by the side of one who is divinely awakened. From this night, you are no longer my husband, but my guru. Will you accept my insignificant self as your disciple?’
“The master touched me gently. ‘Sacred soul, arise. You are accepted.’ He motioned toward the angels. ‘Please bow in turn to each of these holy saints.’
“After I had finished my humble genuflections, the angelic voices sounded together, like a chorus in an ancient scripture.
“‘Consort of the Divine One, thou art blessed. We salute thee.’ They bowed at my feet and lo! their refulgent forms vanished. The room darkened.
“My guru asked me to receive initiation into Kriya Yoga.
“‘Of course,’ I replied. ‘I am sorry not to have had that blessing earlier in my life.’
“‘The time was not ripe.’ Lahiri Mahasaya smiled consolingly. ‘Much of your karma I have silently helped you to work out. Now you are willing and ready.’
“He touched my forehead. Masses of whirling light appeared; the radiance gradually formed itself into an opal-blue spiritual eye, ringed in gold and centred with a white pentagonal star.
“‘Penetrate your consciousness through the star into the kingdom of the Infinite.’ My guru’s voice had a new note, soft like distant music.
“Vision after vision broke as oceanic surf on the shores of my soul. The panoramic spheres finally melted in a sea of bliss. I lost myself in ever surging blessedness. When I returned hours later to awareness of this world, the master gave me the technique of Kriya Yoga.”
“Lahiri Mahasaya performed two miracles in connection with a woman disciple, Abhoya.
She and her husband, a Calcutta lawyer, started one day for Banaras to visit the guru. Their carriage was delayed by heavy traffic; they reached the Howrah main station in Calcutta only to hear the Banaras train whistling for departure.
Abhoya, near the ticket office, stood quietly.
“Lahiri Mahasaya, I beseech thee to stop the train!” she silently prayed. “I cannot suffer the pangs of delay in waiting another day to see thee.”
The wheels of the snorting train continued to move round and round, but there was no onward progress. The engineer and passengers descended to the platform to view the phenomenon.
An English railroad guard approached Abhoya and her husband. Contrary to all precedent, the guard volunteered his services. “Babu,” he said, “give me the money. I will buy your tickets while you get aboard.”
As soon as the couple was seated and had received the tickets, the train slowly moved forward. In panic, the engineer and passengers clambered again to their places, knowing neither how the train started nor why it had stopped in the first place.
Arriving at the home of Lahiri Mahasaya in Banaras, Abhoya silently prostrated herself before the master, and tried to touch his feet.
“Compose yourself, Abhoya,” he remarked. “How you love to bother me! As if you could not have come here by the next train!”
Abhoya visited Lahiri Mahasaya on another memorable occasion. This time she wanted his intercession, not with a train, but with her coming baby.
“I pray you to bless me that my ninth child live,” she said. “Eight babies have been born to me; all died soon after birth.”
The master smiled sympathetically. “Your coming child will live. Please follow my instructions carefully.
The baby, a girl, will be born at night. See that the oil lamp is kept burning until dawn. Do not fall asleep and thus allow the light to become extinguished.”
Abhoya’s child was a daughter, born at night, exactly as foreseen by the omniscient guru. The mother instructed her nurse to keep the lamp filled with oil.
Both women kept the urgent vigil far into the early morning hours, but finally fell asleep. The oil in the lamp was almost gone; the light flickered feebly.
The bedroom door unlatched and flew open with a violent sound. The startled women awoke. Their astonished eyes beheld the form of Lahiri Mahasaya.
“Abhoya, behold, the light is almost gone!”
He pointed to the lamp, which the nurse hastened to refill. As soon as it burned again brightly, the master vanished. The door closed; the latch was affixed without visible agency.”
Abhoya’s ninth child survived; in 1935, when I made enquiry, she was still living.”
(Excerpts from the book, “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda and published by Self-Realization Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India)
***********************
Notes:
1. Sri Lahiri Mahasayaji, also known as Yogavatar, was born on 30th Sep 1828 and he took mahasamadhi (a great yogi's conscious exit from the body at the time of death) on 26th Sep 1895
2. Many more stories from the life of this great Christ-like Master are given in, “The Autobiography of a Yogi”, the influential work of Sri Sri Paramahansa Yoganandaji
3. Sri Lahiri Mahasaya was the disciple of Mahavatar Babaji; a story regarding this Guru-disciple relationship is available for reading in Jul 2026 archives (“Babaji Materialises A Golden Palace in the Himalayas”).
Sri Lahiri Mahasaya’s disciple was Swami Sri Yukteswarji, whose disciple was Sri Paramahansa Yoganandaji. A story of this Guru-disciple relationship is available in Aug 2026 archives (“What is the Astral Cosmos Like?”).
These four great Masters – Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasayaji, Swami Sri Yuketswarji, Paramahansa Yoganandaji – along with Bhagavan Krishna and Jesus Christ comprise the lineage of six Gurus of Self-Realisation Fellowship/Yogoda Satsanga Society of India
***********************
NEW:
"SATSANGA OF THE MONTH" (Sep 2026)
"Seeing God in Everyone: Satsanga Q&A"
Click Here