Infinite Grace

During the twenty-eighth Dwapar age when Dwaipayan, son of Parasar, will be Vyas and Lord Vishnu shall incarnate as Lord Krishna, son of Vasudeva, I too shall incarnate in the body of a celibate and shall be known as Lakulish. The place of my incarnation shall be siddhakshetra and it shall be renowned among men till the earth shall last. (Shiv Puran, Shatrudra Samhita, 5:43-50). This prophesy came to pass nearly 4500 years ago, when Lord Lakulish appeared on earth at Kayavarohan, a well-known holy pilgrimage center in western India. He preached the principles of Sanatan Dharma and the spiritual science of Divine Yoga. His spiritual tradition flourished for nearly 3000 years. In 1913 Lord Lakulish reappeared and gave spiritual initiation to Swami Pranavanandji, and thus once again revived his spiritual tradition. Swami Pranavandjii, the second spiritual head of the lineage, achieved significant yogic attainments through intense secluded sadhana, even conquering hunger and thirst. At the very instant of the death of Pranavanandaji, Lord Lakulish merged into his body and assumed its identity for the purpose of initiating a young man who would subsequently become the third spiritual head of the lineage. That 19 year old youth was destined to become Swami Kripalvanandji (later to be lovingly called Bapuji by his disciples). Bapuji had the great fortune to spend 15 months with his Guru, Swami Pranavanandji, but he did not discover his Guru s true identity as Lord Lakulish, the 28th incarnation of Lord Shiva, until some 23 years later, by a divine incident that occurred in 1955, according to destiny. During the months he spent with his Guru, he witnessed many miraculous events, but Pranavanandji had told his young disciple that he should neither speak about him nor write his biography until he, Bapuji, attained nirbij samadhi. At the same time he gave bapuji permission to share these experiences in the future with his favourite disciple. In 1971, Swami Kripalvanandji ( Bapuji) initiated Swami Rajarshi Muniji as his prime disciple and passed on to him the secrets of Divine Yoga. While teaching Rajarshi yoga and the deep mysteries contained in certain scriptural passagages, Bapuji would often talk to him of Dadaji s (Swami Pranavanandji s) extraordinary character. But Bapuji specified that Rajarshi not make the stories public, according to Dadaji s instructions, until he, Bapuji, attained Nirbij samadhi. After Bapuji left his mortal body towards the end of 1981, Rajarshi Muni was in mental strife over whether he should make the episodes from Dadaji s divine life public. His thoughts were that it would not be proper of him to hold back the treasure of these valuable incidents from others and that if he were to die suddenly, this precious collection would vanish with him. Subsequently Swami Rajarshi Muni, the present spiritual head of the lineage, narrated the story of the extraordinary spiritual tradition of Lord Lakulish in modern times in a 1989 published book entitled Mari Guruparampara (My Spiritual Lineage). It tells the story of Bapuji from his birth to his Maha-Samadhi in 1981 and includes greater detail about Bapuji s Guru, Swami Pranavananji, than had hitherto been made public. The English translation of this book, Infinite Grace, its first English edition, was published in 2002. The reader will not want to put this book down, once started.