Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri - The Holy Science

Copyright 1990 Self-Realization Fellowship

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Ebook edition, 2017.
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Contents

Photographs

Foreword

Prophets of all lands and ages have succeeded in their God-quest. Entering a state of true illumination, nirbikalpa samadhi, these saints have realized the Supreme Reality behind all names and forms. Their wisdom and spiritual counsel have become the scriptures of the world. These, although outwardly differing by reason of the variegated cloaks of words, are all expressionssome open and clear, others hidden or symbolicof the same basic truths of Spirit.

My gurudeva, Jnanavatar Swami Sri Yukteswar (18551936) of Serampore, was eminently fitted to discern the underlying unity between the scriptures of Christianity and of Sanatan Dharma. Placing the holy texts on the spotless table of his mind, he was able to dissect them with the scalpel of intuitive reasoning, and to separate interpolations and wrong interpretations of scholars from the truths as originally given by the prophets.

It is owing to Jnanavatar Swami Sri Yukteswars unerring spiritual insight that it now becomes possible, through this book, to establish a fundamental harmony between the difficult biblical book, Revelation, and the Sankhya philosophy of India.

As my gurudeva has explained in his introduction, these pages were written by him in obedience to a request made by Babaji, the holy gurudeva of Lahiri Mahasaya, who in turn was the gurudeva of Sri Yukteswar. I have written about the Christlike lives of these three great masters in my book, Autobiography of a Yogi.

The Sanskrit sutras set forth in The Holy Science will shed much light on the Bhagavad Gita as well as on other great scriptures of India.

Paramahansa Yogananda

249 Dwapara ( a.d. 1949)

Preface

By W. Y. Evans-Wentz, M.A., D.Litt., D.Sc.
Author of
The Tibetan Book of the Dead,
Tibets Great Yogi Milarepa,
Tibetan Yogaand Secret Doctrines, etc.

It has been my privilege to meet Sri Yukteswar Giri. A likeness of the venerable saint appeared as part of the frontispiece of my Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines. It was at Puri, in Orissa, on the Bay of Bengal, that I encountered Sri Yukteswar. He was then the head of a quiet ashrama near the seashore there and was chiefly occupied in the spiritual training of a group of youthful disciples. Sri Yukteswar was of gentle mien and voice, of pleasing presence, and worthy of the veneration that his followers spontaneously accorded to him. Every person who knew him, whether of his own community or not, held him in the highest esteem. I vividly recall his tall, straight, ascetic figure, robed in the saffron-coloured garb of one who has renounced worldly quests, as he stood at the entrance of the hermitage to give me welcome. He had chosen as his place of earthly abode the holy city of Puri, whither multitudes of pious Hindus, representative of every province of India, come daily on pilgrimage to the famed Temple of Jagannath, Lord of the World. It was at Puri that Sri Yukteswar closed his mortal eyes, in 1936, to the scenes of this transitory state of being and passed on, knowing that his incarnation had been carried to a triumphant completion.

I am glad, indeed, to be able to record this testimony to the high character and holiness of Sri Yukteswar.

Sri Sri Swami Sri Yukteswar and Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, Calcutta, 1935

Sri Sri Swami Sri Yukteswar and Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda during religious festival held at Sri Yukteswars Serampore ashram, December 1935. The following day, the great Guru summoned his beloved disciple and transferred to him the responsibility for his ashrams and spiritual work: My task on earth is finished; you must carry on.I leave everything in your hands.

Introduction

[This Kaivalya Darsanam (exposition of Final Truth) has been written by Priya Nath Swami, son of Kshetranath and Kadambini of the Karar family.

At the request in Allahabad of the Great Preceptor (Mahavatar Babaji) near the end of the 194th year of the present Dwapara Yuga, this exposition has been published for the benefit of the world.]