Masters

All the saints great masters and seers are the incarnations of the Divine on earth. They are born against the background of unbearable miseries and incalculable shortcoming of men, in order to see that the contemporary world is uplifted materially, intellectually and spiritually. 
They live, so that their lives may provide beacon light of hope and inspiration amidst the darkness and gloom of human existence.
They are always the flawless ideals of dedicated action and selfless service. It is through these Sublime personalities that the Grace of the Providence descends on earth, so that an average mortal may afford glimpses of a superior, purer and a perfect plane of being. It is, however, only through the favor of the will of the Almighty that one is blessed with an opportunity of coming in contact with such truly great men, who are also truly good and who without any reservations or discriminating prejudices, exude blessedness and enlightenment for every body.
They are verily the ships that allow an almost effortless, successful Passage through the unfathomable, deep mysteries and insurmountable affliction of mortals.
Dhirendra Brahmachari

" Great saints, a mahatma, a yogi, a master a prophet or ( ajnani) lives on this earth like any other human being. He thinks, enjoys and eats like others. The great difference between a yogi and an ordinary man is that he has awakened a dormant faculty in man called awareness. He has unfolded this faculty, whereas the ordinary man has not. He is always aware. He is called a drashta - a seer. He is the witnesser of events. Your aim on the path to realizing and awakening your dormant potential should be to gradually unfold this faculty of awareness within yourself. You should try to become a seer."
Swami Satyananda Saraswati

SWAMI SIVANANDA

Swami Sivananda was born on Sept. 8, 1887 in the village of Pattamadai in Madras State, in the lineage of the, illustrious Appayya Dikshita. An inborn passion for service drew him to the medical career. Qualifying himself at an early age, he proceeded to distant Malaya where he endeared himself to the people as a kind and competent doctor and as a warm-hearted individual to whom any needy person could turn for assured help.

At the height of his career, this young doctor returned to India and renouncing wealth and home, position and prestige, took to the life of a wandering mendicant. Providence led him to Rishikesh, where one Swami Visvananda initiated him into the holy order of Sannyasa on June 1, 1924 and conferred on him the monastic name of Swami Sivananda. Following the instructions of his revered Guru, Swami Sivananda straightaway plunged himself in strict self-discipline, austerities. and meditation in the solitude of the Himalayan jungles.
And after years of spiritual struggle, when Swamiji was blessed by the beatific illumination, he heard the call of command from within: "Go thee forth and share thy wisdom with all". Thus was born the Divine Life Society, founded by Swami Sivananda in the year 1936, with the sole aim of disseminating spiritual knowledge far and wide. From then on, Swami Sivananda's life became a single round of tireless and loving spiritual ministration to suffering mankind. He started The Divine Life magazine in 1938, went on a hectic preaching tour through India and Ceylon in 1950, and followed it up with a World Parliament of Religions in 1953.
Work increased on all sides, but Swamiji never tired. Service delighted him. Service invigorated him. He answered correspondents, spoke words of guidance and consolation to visiting devotees, trained disciples,: recorded messages on tape and disc, wrote inspiring articles for innumerable journals, and books by the hundreds. The Divine Life Society Branches grew in number and Swami Sivananda's life-transforming works were translated into scores of languages both in India and abroad.
The end came rather abruptly. On July 14, 1963 the holy Master attained Mahasamadhi. His last written words were crisp and simple: "Remember. Forget". He always advised people to ever remember all that was good and true, and forget all that was base and false, and act accordingly.

Swami Satyananda

Swami Satyananda was born at Almora, Uttar Pradesh, in 1923. In 1943 he met Swami Sivananda in Rishikesh, where he lived as a sannyasin for the next 12 years.
Swami Satyananda found­ed the International Yoga Fellowship in 1956 and the Bihar School of Yoga in 1963. Over the next 20 years he toured internationally and authored over 80 books.
In 1984 he founded Siv­ananda Math, a charitable institution for aiding rural development, and the Yoga Research Foundation.
In 1988 he adopted  kshe­tra sannyasa and settled in Rikhia, Jharkhand, where he now lives as a paramahamsa sannyasin.

Maharisi Kartikeya

The great seer and saint, Sri Kartiktyaji, was born in a highly respected and distinguished Btahmapa family of Uttat Pradesh, a State in Northern India. Even in his early days 6e gave ample and unmistakable signs of a promising genius. His behavior was always a most noble and enlightened one. He was gifted with a faculty of prescience, which enabled him to tell precisely where a missing article or person could be located. It is said that, when someone, with a view to test his capabi­lities, placed before him the great Sanskrit classic, the epic Mahabharata in original, he read out its after chapter, with a perfect ease and scholarly fluency. On tire occasion of investment with the sacred thread, the unusual child as he always had been surprised everybody by chanting the famous and sacred incantations of the Gayatrl-Mantra on his own, though he was never taught it. 
Soon after his sacred thread ceremony, he left home and roamed about amongst the desolate peaks of the Himalayas, like those of Kaiiasa, Manasarovara, Dropadri, Gandhamadana, and Sumeru etc; which for centuries of the hoary past have been the abodes and the seats of the mystics and the votaries of spiritual practices. All these years of pilgrimage in the ennob­ling hilly tracks helped him in formulating his mission in life. Divinity of the Lord Badrinarayana with his shrine, in the woods of Badrinatha, inspired him unequivocally to dedicate his life to the service and uplift of mankind. He was, through the ideals of his excellent behavior, gospels, philosophy, meditation­tin and the study as well as the teaching of yoga, Divinely ordained to work for making the world a better and blessed place.

His whole life was an exemplary ideal and a source of inspira­tion for the entire humanity. He had a charming personality, which could inspire the devotees and the spiritual disciples. They even used to get the fulfillment of their wishes and the realizations of their ideals through meditating on him. From what­ever he spoke, often even totally beyond the ken of human intellect, goodness shone forth. Every letter, word and even the very tone of his speech was so melodious and so potent in resounding the innermost cords of human mind that none who listened to him could help experiencing Cosmic Bliss. Like a powerful magnet, these rare attributes used to create and cast an irresistible magic chum on the heads and the hearts of all men.

I had the good fortune of coming into contact with this unusual personality in a village of Bihar. The spiritual exaltation and the ecstasy of feelings that I experienced on the occasion beggars description.. I felt as though the experience for which my mind and heart were thirstily longing, since ages, was now in front of me. The people from far and wide used to flock together and surge forth to have just a glimpse of him. All, without exception, were charmed, by his gifted speech. They used to get so much overwhelmed by his presence, as to imagine that the great Lord Rama himself or the greatest of Yogis, Lord Krishna, was re-incarnated in him. He possessed matchless capabilities and a prefect knowledge of almost everything under the sun. He was a unique judge of the aptitudes, potentialities and character of men. To the devotees, for instance,
he would teach the gospels of Love, but to the ones who were intellectually oriented, he would expound the bases of logic, reason and the nature of true knowledge. He would give ­amazingly well-informed discourses on the mysteries of yogic prac­tices to the yogis, though to a family man, he would equally, willingly and extensively suggest the, tenets and the codes of good conduct and righteous behavior.    .

No details of everyday life escaped his attention. He would gladly offer his valuable opinions on anything. He had an extraordinarily liberal heart. His teachings abounded in and were permeated with an unrestricted and spontaneous love for persons of all sects, creeds or beliefs. He talked of nothing but the good of all the creatures of the universe. Never before had I seen such a wonderful, energetic personality. An immediate and perfectly satisfying answer was always available, whenever interrogated about any of the many human problems whether political, economical, religious or of any other nature. .

I had the singular privilege of attracting the attention of this great soul. Finding that I had an aptitude and eagerness to take to the path of yoga, he, with the indulgent affection and the kindly care of a mother, explained to me the highly treasur­ed and little known mysteries of yoga; and also initiated me into one of those systems of yogic practices (viz., the systems of yogic subtle exercises) which is not to be found in any of the available texts. In keeping with his own avowed ideals, he bade me to dedicate myself to the service and welfare of mankind through them rare, valuable yogic techniques. These techniques have already proved their efficacy against a host of supposedly incur­able maladies and thousands have been able to attain an unprecedented stability and purity of mind.

He toured extensively throughout the length and breadth of the country and benefited countless number of persons while passing through Ujjain, Indore, Rajputana, Brija, Uttar Pradesh etc. Finally Swamiji Maharaj reached Ayodhya, the birth-place of Lord Rama, where on the bank of river Sarayu at Guptar­ghat, while the evening prayer was on, he entered into Maha Samadhi on 24-9-53 at 830-P.M. sitting in Siddhasana before a large gathering.
Maharsi was, indeed, blessed with longevity inasmuch as he lived for over three centuries. He had a vision, most probably, to stay on the temporal plane still longer as may be inferred from his casual talks. He used to say, in good humor, that he would outlive us all (his disciples); but I feel he gave up the idea to continue his stay here for long. Two years before he passed away, he started foretelling that his existence was requir­ed in some region other than this globe. The mortal remains of the blessed soul were then consigned to the sacred waters of the Sarayu in pursuance of his instructions that they should neither be cremated nor be buried. Thus he attained the eternal PEACE.

DHIRENDRA BRAHMACHARI

Sri Dhirendra Brahmachari

Dhirendra Brahmachari was  Indian's top-notch yogi and yoga teacher. He had the Vishwayatan Yogashram (Yoga International Center), a State ­subsidized institution to propagate the cause of yoga and carry out research, with the help of modern medical science, on, the effects and consequences of  yogic exercises on human body and mind. A widely traveled man, Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari has authored several books on the subject and appears on the TV regularly.

"Kushwanth Singh has mentioned a lot of incidents of his encounter with Dhirendra Brahmachari. Kushwanth singh devotes an entire chapter in his book ‘God and Godmen of India’ for Dhirendra Brahmachari.  He also has some good things to say about Brahmachari. He mentions that Dhirendra brahmachari was one among the few people who in the 20 years of his association with him showed no signs of ageing in all those 20 years. He looked very young even at 70 and had no grey hair or wrinkles. Apart from that Kushwanth Singh also mentions about the Brahmachari’s trip to Russia. He was asked by the communist government in USSR (the then undivided Russia)  to teach the astronauts yoga. There is a photograph of Brahmachari in Russia where he stands in the freezing cold and is just wearing a Dhoti and a thin cotton cloth to cover his upper part. Kushwanth Singh also mentions with glee (how he likes to catch the holy cows unarmed)  He also used to say about his meetings with the yogi and the way the yogi used to check about the correct working of his solar plexus."

from  http://drvasu.wordpress.com

PRIME MINISTER'S HOUSE NEW DELHI

Seeking a greater understanding of man and nature, modern science is constantly making new discoveries and coming to new conclusions. One of the most notable of these, concerns the integration of mind and matter. This new discovery is also one of the oldest of human discoveries. At least in our country the ancient sages had a profound understanding of the subtle interdependence of the physical and the mental. This wisdom is embodied in the Yoga-Shastras. Yoga-asanas are the discipline by which the seeker can secure bodily and mental health. The efficacy of Yoga-asanas is well known and does not require fresh enumeration.
My father attributed his fitness to a lifelong habit of beginning the day with Yoga-asanas. I myself was initiated at an early age. Later, when my father and I met Shri Dhirendra Brahmachari, we learnt his system of Sukshma Vyayam) which I found more convenient to follow as a keep-fit routine when one is rushed for time and constantly on the move.
My father and I were greatly interested in the six "cleansing processes", but they seemed to be shrouded in mystery and so complicated as to be beyond the capacity of the average person. Shri Dhirendra Brahmachari proved their simplicity by teaching three of these processes not only to us grown-ups but even to my two small sons. I hope this authoritative work will be useful to students of Yoga and to all those who are interested in fitness.

(Indira Gandhi)

New Delhi, December 29, 1966.