Shrimat Bhupendranath Sanyal Mahashaya

Shrimat Bhupendranath Sanyal Mahashaya was born on 20 January 1877 in the village of Sadhana Para in the Nadia district of West Bengal. His spiritual practice began already in childhood — in 1890, after his sacred-thread ceremony, at the age of thirteen he began reading the scriptures and meeting spiritual masters.

At the age of sixteen he was initiated into Kriya Yoga by Lahiri Mahashaya himself. Tradition describes the moment with tenderness: “A sixteen-year-old boy, initiated into Kriya Yoga, stood before the great master Lahiri Mahashaya with a handful of flowers, a softened heart, and tears running down his face.”

Although he intended to live a monastic life, at twenty-one he married Kalidasi Devi and had two sons and four daughters. He never departed from the path of Kriya Yoga, however, and became an example of a saint living amid the duties of family life.

He attained self-realization in 1902 and became a widely recognized yogi. Between 1902 and 1909 he taught at the Santiniketan institute alongside Rabindranath Tagore, and later founded ashrams in Puri (1923) and Bhagalpur (1924).

He was a gifted and prolific writer — he wrote spiritual books and produced commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita in Bengali. He entered mahasamadhi on 18 January 1962, yet remains immortal in the hearts of thousands of devotees.

Source: Kriya Yoga International ↗