About Baba Loknath

Baba Lokenath Brahmachari was born as the fourth child, to Kamala devi & Ramnarayan Ghosal (a devout lover of god), in 1730 in a village called Chakla in Barasat district, a few miles to the north of the city of Kolkata. Ramnarayan, believed in the age-old Hindu tradition of dedicating one person from the family to become a renunciate monk, in service to god. Filial attachment prevented the mother from giving up any of her first three children.

However, divine phenomena occurred during the birth of her fourth child which persuaded her to willingly dedicate it to God! He was named ‘Lokenath’ which literally means, the Lord of Lokas (all the worlds). When Lokenath was 11 years old, Ramnarayan handed over the responsibility of this child to a great householder yogi and renowned Vedic scholar, Bhagwan Ganguly, who, realizing the divine providence of Lokenath’s birth, initiated him & his playmate Benimadhav, who also insisted on becoming a sannyasi!

For 30 years, Lokenath went through the most difficult yogic practices from ashtanga yoga to incredible feats of hatha yoga while living in the jungles and the plains, observing the vow of celibacy and fasting. Finally, they all left for Himalayas and there, Baba, at the age of 90 years, touched the highest peaks of spiritual illumination, Nirvikalpa Samadhi (complete oneness with the whole cosmos or the divine).