Book 2 of 5
The Guru, Immortality and Alchemy
Part 1Guru, disciple and the lineage
- 1Guru and disciple: trust, duties, money and what a guru isFrom the text: His books describe four types of Guru-disciple relationship: Guru as master with the disciple running for him; friends who share secrets; disciple as son and Guru as father …
- 2Initiation (diksha, shaktipat) and the five vowsFrom the text: On practice and the stability of the mind needed for diksha: that is how it happens with everybody, it takes time for the mind to become stable …
- 3The Kriya lineage: Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Yogananda and Guruji's own lineFrom the text: Introducing himself: a disciple in the Kriya Yoga lineage from Babaji Maharaj through Shyamacharan, Tinkori and Satya Charan Lahiri; he is the fifth representative.
- 4The Nath lineage and other paramparasFrom the text: Patanjali was a disciple of Nandi, the chief Gana of Shiva, with eight other disciples, per Briggs's Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis and Nath traditions.
- 5Other teachers and sects: Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Osho, Aurobindo, Castaneda, Buddhist lineagesFrom the text: Naga babas do very difficult penance and guard other sadhus, with historical records of them protecting pilgrimages; some were very accomplished yogis, like Totapuri Maharaj, Ramakrishna's Guru, who granted him nirvikalpa samadhi …
Part 2Guruji's life, the Darshan room and humour
- 1Early life and the search for a GuruFrom the text: Before Guru Purnima a 99-year-old man visited with his grandson: he could not do khechari but did 24 mahamudras and 288 pranayamas daily and ran up the steep stairs of his Guru's three buildings …
- 2Samadhis and the practice years, told as eventsFrom the text: He told the neighbour 'I do this' and vanished: the neighbour saw the writing on the wall behind him, took him for a ghost, and stayed away for 20 years.
- 3Visions and mystical encounters (Shiva, Hanuman, Babaji, Matsyendranath, the astral)From the text: He met Matsyendranath on 16 June 2000 around noon.
- 4Govardhan: the cremation ground, the natural Shivalingam, the campus and daily life thereFrom the text: On the Govardhan campus confrontations: locals resisted him from the start, jealous of the big place and of the lost use of the grounds; after quarrels he stopped talking to them.
- 5Tests and demonstrations (EEG, pulse, MRI, visitors)From the text: It was his great fortune to see genuine people like Banamali Lahiri, who he believes achieved Samadhi.
- 6Family, bloodline and past livesFrom the text: His family belongs to the Bharadwaj gotra, descendants of Ashwatthaman and Dronacharya, so Shiva is its Kula devata; Shiva devotion may be stamped in the genes.
- 7His books, commentaries and public statementsFrom the text: Besides Autobiography of a Yogi, he names Jonathan Livingston Seagull, still his favorite and still with him from near 1980, Andersen's Ugly Duckling, and a story 'But for this' he cannot place.
- 8Humour, films, comics, tea and the Darshan roomFrom the text: To someone awed in a master's presence: do not take him as a master, he is a very ordinary disciple, just a beginner in yoga; wisdom begins the moment you realise your ignorance.
Part 3Immortality and the immortals
- 1What immortality is: kinds, purpose and the pure-energy bodyFrom the text: The many atoms in you make you a powerhouse of energy; if one atom expresses its energy it starts a chain reaction, as eminent scientists say, and the body would transform into pure energy.
- 2Longevity and the 120-year borderFrom the text: Alchemy and yoga both speak about longevity and teach about life.
- 3The immortals: Babaji, the Naths and how they liveFrom the text: Yogis in forests and mountains are immortals, who keep roaming or live secretly begging food; the Gita may be the manual for immortals: make no vows, keep wandering, stay unattached.
- 4Ashwatthaman, Kalki, Ravannath and the named immortals' storiesFrom the text: Ashwatthaman was an incarnation of Shiva, born to Dronacharya's tapas, hence immortal.
- 5Meetings with immortals and the signs of themFrom the text: The no-blinking, no-sweat, no-shadow, feet-off-the-ground signs belong only to devatas, though immortals sometimes cast no shadow.
Part 4Alchemy and rasayana
- 1Mercury and its processes; experiments and accidentsFrom the text: Mercury is one result of khechari: it gives khecharatva, an anti-gravitational effect, and khechari is used in all experiments on mercury (most failed).
- 2The alchemical Gita and the alchemical reading of the textsFrom the text: Gita as alchemy: processed mercury that transforms is the death of one form and the life of another, and its essence makes you immortal; those who find mercury's essence are almost like Krishna.
- 3Rasa siddhas, Nagas, gold, bhasma and the philosopher's stoneFrom the text: In India the philosopher's stone was believed to be found naturally, by the lucky.
- 4Kaya kalpa, rasayana and herbal longevity medicineFrom the text: Kaya kalpa has 2-3 ways and works better on yogins; it depends on a sadhu's grace and cannot be forced.
- 5Warnings and market claimsFrom the text: Market rasayanas must be checked to be made exactly as the book describes, because real rasayanas are not available to the general public in a shop.