Life and Vision of Baba Lokenath |
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Born in the year 1730, Sri Sri Lokenath Brahmachari was the fourth son of Ram Narayan Ghosal and Kamala Devi. Ram Narayan was a deeply religious person and had decided that his first-born son would be dedicated to the life of austerity. But motherly love was too great a bond for Kamala Devi to break and she could give up neither her first born, nor the second born, not even the third born. At last, the divine scheme of things was at play when the forth son was born to her. With the baby in her lap, whose body was glowing with a divine radiance, she knew that at last the time was ripe for the fulfilment of her husband's greatest wish. She knew that she could not bind this child with the fetters of her own attachment, so she let him follow the path of spiritual awakening. |
Then one day, having learnt that they too were destined to become like these sanyasis, Lokenath asked his guru to take them away from this place immediately because he wanted to sever all ties with his family, who knew where they were and were still sending them money and clothes for them. So the three of them moved away from Kalighat and went into deeper jungles.
Like a loving mother did Guru Bhagwan prepare the two boys for the hard life of austerity and renunciation. Under his able guidance, the boys, in addition to the practice of deep meditation, also observed various fasting vows that lasted - starting from a single day - to two days, then for three, five, nine and twelve days and then a fortnight. When the fasting lasted for a full month, twice in a row, Benimadhav could not complete his vow the second time, while Lokenath could do it easily. During the long years that these vows were being observed, Guru Bhagwan took complete care of his two disciples, from begging alms, to preparing their food, and even attending to their calls of nature. Afterwards, Baba Lokenath would always speak of his Guru with tears in his eyes and his voiced choked with emotion.
In accordance with the injunction of the Shastras that a sanyasi should visit his native place of birth after practising meditation and renunciation for twelve years, Lokenath and Benimadhav returned to their birthplace with (ruru Bhagwan Ganguly. Now at his native place, Baba Lokenath found himself gradually being engulfed into the web of Maha-Maya and the scheme of sensual indulgence as arranged by the Divine Mother. Many a day passed and never once did Guru Bhagwan remonstrate Lokenath for his behaviour, neither did he ask him to break his attachment and come away. Like the great teacher and proficient reader of the human mind that he was, Guru Bhagwan waited patiently for the time when Lokenath would have had enough of the test of the Divine Maya and would, of his own accord, tear himself away from his worldly attachments.