Baba Hariharananda in Paris

'Baba' Swami Hariharananda Giri is telling his life story; how he met Sri Yukteswarji early on in 1930, and many other details of his long life as Kriya Yoga Master. Swami Hariharananda Giri (Bengali: স্বামী হরিহরানন্দ গিরী) (27 May 1907 – 3 December 2002), was an Indian yogi and guru who taught in India as well as in western countries. He was born as Rabindranath Bhattacharya in Nadia district, West Bengal. He was the head of the Kriya Yoga Institute, United States. According to the Times of India, Hariharananda was a direct disciple of Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri. Hariharananda, affectionately known as "Baba" to his students, was known as a Kriya Yogi in the lineage of Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, and Paramahansa Yogananda. In 1932, he went to meet the Kriya master, Shriyukteshwar Giri, who initiated him into Kriya Yoga, in his Serampore ashram, West Bengal. Shriyukteshwar taught him cosmic astrology, and entreated him to come and live in his Karar Ashram at Puri, in Odisha. In 1935, he met Paramahansa Yogananda, and received the second Kriya initiation from him. In 1938, he renounced the material life and entered his guru's ashram in Puri, starting the life of an ascetic monk as Brahmachari Rabinarayan. He received the third Kriya initiation from Swami Satyananda Giri in 1941, the head of Karar Ashram and childhood friend of Paramahansa Yogananda. Further initiations he received from Bhupendranath Sanyal in Puri. Sanyal Mahasaya was the last living disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya at that time. Swami Hariharananda resided at the ashram he founded at Homestead, Florida, for several years prior to his death in Miami in December 2002 and was buried at Balighai, in Odisha, that same month.