Peace, Bliss, Joy.

Just before sunrise, on the morning of December 3, 2002, Baba came to me in a dream. 

He was sitting up on the bed, talking to me in Bengali or Hindi, as I sat on the floor at the side of the bed. 

I could not understand what he was saying.

Then very clearly, he paused and looked into my eyes and said in english, "No matter it will be ok." 

Suddenly I woke up to find myself at home in my apartment in New York City.

The thought dawned on me that this was most likely, Baba's last day, as I knew he was in the hospice in Miami, Florida.

I spent the next few hours calling everyone one in the Kriya community I knew and asked them to meditate and pray for Baba, as I thought time was short.

At noon, I had finished my calls and the "realization" struck me that, yes this was Baba's last day in the body.

When this thought had really dawned on me, I felt unending waves of blissful vibration and light starting from the top of my head in the fontanel, spreading throughout my body, from head to toe.

This "unending waves of bliss" continued spreading throughout my body for about 15 minutes before it calmly settled down enough for me to return to my daily chores.

In the evening on December 3, 2002, while I was guiding the Kriya Yoga group meditation class at TRS on 32nd Street in New York City, Baba entered in to the final state of "Mahasamadhi" in Florida, USA.

I felt I was exactly where he wanted me to be, at that moment, guiding Kriya Yoga students in New York City, as this was where I was able to serve him, and act as a guide and host for his many trips to teach here in the city. 

Kriya Yoga is a path of action, and to practice the Kriya Yoga techniques, is possibly the highest skill in action a yogi can embrace and is the essence of Baba Hariharananda mission and life.

To have been sitting in Kriya Yoga meditation, with the group of Kriyabans in New York City, during his passing, was in accordance with the role he trained me for, in the continuation of his efforts to spread the message of Kriya Yoga.

Baba Hariharananda in Colombian Rhuana

"Mahasamadhi is the state a yogi enters when they consciously make the decision to leave their body."

"This is only possible once they have already achieved God realization, or Nirvikalpa samadhi, in which the yogi recognizes and experiences their true oneness and unity with God." 

"To enter Nirvikalpa samadhi is also to experience non-duality, where the perception of a duality of subject and object no longer exists."

"A yogi who has attained this is said to already dwell in a permanently enlightened state, which gives them the potential to enter Mahasamadhi."

"Mahasamadhi is a different experience to the death that happens for unenlightened beings. 

"To enter Mahasamadhi is an event that occurs only once."

"In making the decision to release their mortal body, the yogi also extinguishes their karma, thus ceasing the cycle of death and rebirth." (Mahasamadhi definition from Yogapedia.com)

Swami Hariharananda Giri

Three months later, at sunrise on a quiet Saturday morning , again quite unexpectedly, Baba appeared to me in a dream. 

This time I am standing outside of Baba's bedroom door, in the Homestead, Florida residence. 

I am being told that Baba is in seclusion and I can not go inside his room to see him.

Next thing I know, I am inside the room and he is laying down on the bed in front of me. 

I walk over to the end of the bed to bow and touch his feet, but he shifts his feet, not allowing me to touch his feet.  

A thought came to me that he was not in the body, but more than the body and in a state that was beyond the physical, so I was unable to touch his body.

I then realized Baba was laying down in bed reading a book and he is pointing to what he was reading and wants me to see what it is he is reading.

This time in a dream he wants to make sure I get the message he has for me.

He is pointing to a page of "shlokas", in an English translation of "The Bhagavad Gita":

Chapter 11, verse 5, 6, 7, & 8, where Krishna reveals his cosmic self to Arjuna: 

"Behold I am the Infinite Universe."

And again I awoke to find myself in my apartment in New York City.

Immediately, I gathered all the different translations of the Bhagavad Gita, that I had in my apartment, to get to the essence of the meaning of the "shlokas" and to fully understand Baba's message. 

This was very much in accordance with how Baba Hariharananda often taught in his classes.

He would recite a chapter and verse from the holy scriptures in Sanskrit and then give the English translation, followed by his commentary in the light of Kriya Yoga, as well as from  his depth of realization. 

Don Baba at Anandamayi Ma's Kolkata Ashram by the Ganges river

What I came to understand from this experience, is the Guru is more than the mind or body, and that time and space, had no limiting hold on Baba Hariharananda. 

In fact, many people experienced his "Omnipresent and Omniscience" both in-person and from the long distance", even after his "Mahasamadhi".

Guru is the "infinite universe" and the beyond the physical body.

Baba had stated that after he left his body, he would be able to help his disciples even more,  by pulling breath through nostrils of every living soul.

For me the message from the dream that Baba wanted me to realized, can be summed up as follows"

"The sun sets every day and goes below the horizon. 

Just because you can not see it, it doesn't mean it is not there. 

It is still there, beyond the limits of the senses.

Just because the Guru is not in the physical body, does not mean Guru is not present."

For me (and many others), Baba Hariharananda is very much present and helping our Kriya Yoga practice and spiritual evolution.

Baba would often say, "You may forget me, but I will never forget you.

Baba told me "This is a spiritual photo"

Lord Shri Krishna replied:

Behold, O Arjuna! My celestial forms, by hundreds and thousands, various in kind, in color, and in shape.

Behold the Powers of Nature: fire, earth, wind, and sky; the sun, the heavens, the moon, the stars; all the forces of vitality and of healing; and the roving winds. See the myriad wonders revealed to none but you.

Here, in Me living as one, O Arjuna! Behold the whole universe, movable and immovable, and anything else that you would see.

Yet since with mortal eyes you cannot see Me, lo! I give you the Divine Sight. See now the glory of My Sovereignty.

(The Cosmic Vision, Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11, avatarmeherbaba.org)