An Unbroken Lineage of Realized Masters

Mahavatar Babaji Maharaj

No dates are recorded — the tradition describes him as ageless, mahakal, not bound by time or place.

Babaji Maharaj stands at the head of the lineage as the master who returned Kriya Yoga to the modern world. In 1861 he initiated Shri Lahiri Mahashaya in the Himalayas near Ranikhet, guiding him to nirvikalpa samadhi — and then, decisively, sent him back to ordinary household life to teach. That instruction changed who the practice was for: liberation ceased to be the preserve of renunciates and became available to people with families, work, and obligations. The tradition holds that Babaji remains in deep meditation in the Himalayas while continuing to guide the lineage’s masters, and credits him with inspiring Paramahamsa Hariharananda in 1949 to carry the teaching westward.

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Shri Lahiri Mahashaya

Born September 30, 1828, Ghurani, Nadia district, West Bengal · Mahasamadhi September 26, 1895

Birth name Shyamacharan Lahiri; also known as Lahiri Mahasaya

Shyamacharan Lahiri met Babaji Maharaj at Ranikhet and received initiation into Kriya Yoga, then returned to Varanasi and to his life as an accountant, husband, and father. He is the reason this lineage is a householder tradition: he demonstrated that full realization is compatible with work and family, and he taught yogis, monks, and householders alike without regard to caste or station. Ordained by his guru to teach both renunciates and householders, he is remembered as a siddhi yogi in the mould of Rajarshi Janaka — spiritually untouched while fully engaged in the world. His often-quoted final assurance was that Kriya Yoga would spread to every house.

Read more about Shri Lahiri Mahashaya at Kriya Yoga International · Wikipedia

Swami Shriyukteshwar Giri

Born May 10, 1855, Serampore, West Bengal · Mahasamadhi March 9, 1936

Birth name Priyanath Karar; also known as Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri

Priyanath Karar became Lahiri Mahashaya’s disciple after meeting him at Kashi, and was close enough to his guru to be called simply “Priya” — beloved. At Lahiri Mahashaya’s direction he wrote Kaivalya Darshanam (The Holy Science), setting out the correspondences between Eastern and Western scripture and science. On March 22, 1903 he founded Karar Ashram at Puri, which carried the practice from the Himalayas to the coast and remains central to the lineage. He passed through all four traditional stages of life, and taught by five principles: self-control, steadiness in practice, knowledge of scripture, self-surrender, and strict discipline. He trained the two masters who would take Kriya Yoga worldwide — Paramahamsa Yogananda and Paramahamsa Hariharananda.

Read more about Swami Shriyukteshwar Giri at Kriya Yoga International · Wikipedia

Shrimat Bhupendranath Sanyal Mahashaya

Born January 20, 1877, Sadhana Para, Nadia district, West Bengal · Mahasamadhi January 18, 1962

Birth name Bhupendranath Sanyal; also known as Sanyal Mahashaya

Initiated by Lahiri Mahashaya at sixteen, Sanyal Mahashaya advanced quickly enough that his guru authorized him to initiate others — and, before his passing, directed him to take the higher techniques from Panchanan Bhattacharya and to spread the teaching. He reached Self-realization in 1902. Intending monastic life, he instead married Kalidasi Devi at twenty-one and raised six children, a second demonstration that the path does not require withdrawal from the world. He taught alongside Rabindranath Tagore from 1902 to 1909 in the founding of Shantiniketan, established ashrams at Puri (Gurudham, 1923) and Bhagalpur (1924), and wrote extensively, including Sanskrit commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita. Between 1943 and 1945 he conferred the last higher Kriya initiations on Paramahamsa Hariharananda.

Read more about Shrimat Bhupendranath Sanyal Mahashaya at Kriya Yoga International

Paramahamsa Yogananda

Born January 5, 1893 · Mahasamadhi March 7, 1952

Birth name Mukunda Lal Ghosh; also known as Paramahansa Yogananda

Yogananda is the master through whom most Westerners first encounter Kriya Yoga. A disciple of Swami Shriyukteshwar — who gave him the title paramahamsa — he spent fifteen years teaching in America before returning to India in 1935, where he initiated Mahatma Gandhi and his disciples at Wardha Ashram. His Autobiography of a Yogi remains among the most widely read spiritual books of the twentieth century, joined by Whispers From Eternity, The Divine Romance, and Science of Religion. He presented Kriya Yoga not as a sect but as the scientific foundation underlying all religions. His body is recorded as having remained incorrupt for twenty days after mahasamadhi.

Read more about Paramahamsa Yogananda at Kriya Yoga International · Wikipedia

Swami Satyananda Giri

Born November 17, 1896, Bikrampur, in present-day Bangladesh · Mahasamadhi August 2, 1971

Birth name Manmohan

A childhood friend of Yogananda, Manmohan was initiated into Kriya Yoga by Swami Shriyukteshwar during his college years and into monastic life in 1919. Invited to join Yogananda in America, he declined in order to serve in India. He organized the residential school at Ranchi Ashram, helped bring Kriya Yoga to Mahatma Gandhi, and in 1944 founded the Sevayatan Satsang Mission to serve victims of the Bengal famine — summarizing his approach as service with love and meditation for all. He spent much of his life as a wandering teacher across India and remained president of Karar Ashram at Puri until his death. After Shriyukteshwar’s mahasamadhi in 1936, he initiated the young Rabinarayan Brahmachari — later Paramahamsa Hariharananda — into the higher kriyas.

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Paramahamsa Hariharananda

Born May 27, 1907, Habibpur, Nadia district, Bengal · Mahasamadhi December 3, 2002

Birth name Rabindranath Bhattacharya; also known as Brahmachari Rabinarayan, Swami Hariharananda Giri

Born Rabindranath Bhattacharya, and known from 1938 as Brahmachari Rabinarayan, Hariharananda received Jnana Yoga initiation at twelve, his first Kriya initiation from Swami Shriyukteshwar in 1932, his second from Paramahamsa Yogananda in 1935, and the higher kriyas from Shrimat Bhupendranath Sanyal between 1943 and 1945. He attained nirvikalpa samadhi between 1946 and 1948, was appointed acharya of Karar Ashram in 1950, authorized to initiate seekers in 1951, and took sannyasa in 1959 as Swami Hariharananda Giri. In 1974 he travelled to Switzerland and spent the rest of his life establishing centers across Europe, the Americas, and India — the network the Greater Portland Center belongs to. Known as vishwa guru for teaching the unity underlying the religions, he wrote extensively on scripture through the lens of Kriya Yoga.

Read more about Paramahamsa Hariharananda at Kriya Yoga International · Wikipedia

Paramahamsa Prajnanananda

Born in Pattamundai, Orissa

Birth name Triloki Dash; also known as Swami Prajnanananda Giri

Prajnanananda met his gurudev, Paramahamsa Hariharananda, in 1980 while a college student, received Kriya Yoga initiation, and kept a rigorous practice while working as a professor of economics. He took sannyasa in 1995 as Swami Prajnanananda Giri and received the title Paramahamsa — the highest given to monks who reach the summit of God-realization — on August 10, 1998. Hariharananda named him his successor: “Whatever is started by me has to be completed by him.” He now travels continuously, giving lectures, retreats, and initiations worldwide, has written and translated many works, and founded Prajnana Mission, including the Hariharananda Balashram school for orphaned children and the Hariharananda Gurukulum ashram. Initiations in this lineage — including at Portland — are given by him or by yogacharyas he authorizes.

Read more about Paramahamsa Prajnanananda at Kriya Yoga International