Shivapuri Baba, also known as Swami Govindanath Bharati, was a Hindu saint who reportedly lived from 1826 to 1963, making him 137 years old at the time of his death. According to the biography written by John G. Bennett, Long Pilgrimage - The Life and Teaching of the Shivapuri Baba, Shivapuri Baba was born in the Indian State of Kerala as Jayanthan Nambudiripad in 1826 and became a seeker after truth at the age of 18.
He was one of the first spiritual teachers to travel to the West, where he met various European heads of state, as well as U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, before returning to India in 1915.
He spent the last decades of his life in Nepal, where Bennett visited him twice in the early 1960s.
Shivapuri Baba appears to have been the first modern yoga master to transplant the wisdom of India to the West. He had no fewer than 18 audiences with Queen Victoria, who considered this great sage a friend.He was blessed with a very long life, which, after his awakening at the age of 50, he dedicated entirely to the spiritual welfare of others.He was also known for good well being personality because of his spiritual power and divine.
Shivapuri Baba taught that as humans we have three principal duties: first, physical duty, consists mainly in maintaining body and mind through proper livelihood, including the obligation to help one’s dependents to accomplish the same. Second, moral duty, consisting in remaining sensitive to the obligation to seek the truth 24 hours a day. Third, spiritual duty, by which he meant the worship of the Divine. He felt certain that if we attend carefully to the first two duties for a decade, we will naturally become able to fulfill the third duty. Physical discipline, he noted, brings pleasure. Moral discipline gives us serenity. Spiritual discipline yields deep peace and ultimate happiness.
Shivapuri Baba was dismissive of conventional yogic paths, because he saw in them potential distractions that might keep a person from performing the three duties. On closer inspection, his own sensible prescriptions are in fact a form of yoga.
He is said to have not been harmed by dangerous animals such as tigers or snakes in the forest. Instead, they were his "good friends" and would visit him regularly to eat what he offered to them.
The SHIVAPURI BABA lived to be a hundred and thirty seven years old.
He was born as a twin, in 1826, and came into this world with a smile on his face.
His grandfather, Achyutam, was a famous astrologer, and along with the other signs of his birth, he announced that a great soul had been born and that the family line would come to an end, as it had fulfilled its purpose on earth.
In 1844, at the age of eighteen, the future saint was ready to leave civilization and attempt the vision of God. For the next quarter of a century, he lived alone in the remote forest beside the Narbada river, in the upper Deccan of southern India. What he was after, to be more precise, was ' Itambhara Prajna ', or complete union with Absolute Will beyond Being itself. To achieve that, the young renunciate had to live the minimum life possible so he could empty his mind of all its contents, thereby enabling him to make that supreme act of total surrender and to remain in anxious suspension until the Breakthrough arrived.
And what a Breakthrough he had, after twenty-five years of non-stop practice, capped off by the crowning Touch of Divine Grace, the veil of consciousness was finally lifted, in a flash!, and he landed up in Eternity.
As if that wasn't enough, after achieving the Impossible, the Saint then left the jungle, beaming radiant with the Light of God Realization, (after all, had he not drunk from the Milk of Paradise?) to perform the next activity on his list which just happened to be taking a walk around the entire world!
The year he set out, trekking through the Khyber Pass, was 1875, and after covering 80% of the land mass on foot, and meeting many of the world leaders of that time, including Queen Victoria (this fact is curious, a lot of people dispute it), Queen Emma of the Netherlands, and President Theodore Roosevelt, to name a few, our amazing Saint returned to India forty years later in 1915, in one piece, without a single scratch, whereupon he helped found a university in Benares, with some diamonds his grandfather had set aside, but of course he refused the Chancellorship; revealed the route up Mount Everest that the Hunt expedition finally chose in 1952; taught B.G. Tilak [i.e. Arctic Home in the Vedas (doesn't that ring a bell?)] a ' little ' astronomy; settled down alone in a small hut outside of Katmandu, in the Shiva Puri Forest, where a wild leopard used to come sit beside him like a domestic house cat; received tons of visitors all asking questions about God; took up smoking at one hundred and seven; still looked like the picture of health and vitality at one-hundred and twenty-nine; and eventually died in 1963, shortly after he had approved the draft for his biography, titled " Long Pilgrimage ", by John G. Bennett.
He was born as a twin, in 1826, and came into this world with a smile on his face.
His grandfather, Achyutam, was a famous astrologer, and along with the other signs of his birth, he announced that a great soul had been born and that the family line would come to an end, as it had fulfilled its purpose on earth.
In 1844, at the age of eighteen, the future saint was ready to leave civilization and attempt the vision of God. For the next quarter of a century, he lived alone in the remote forest beside the Narbada river, in the upper Deccan of southern India. What he was after, to be more precise, was ' Itambhara Prajna ', or complete union with Absolute Will beyond Being itself. To achieve that, the young renunciate had to live the minimum life possible so he could empty his mind of all its contents, thereby enabling him to make that supreme act of total surrender and to remain in anxious suspension until the Breakthrough arrived.
And what a Breakthrough he had, after twenty-five years of non-stop practice, capped off by the crowning Touch of Divine Grace, the veil of consciousness was finally lifted, in a flash!, and he landed up in Eternity.
As if that wasn't enough, after achieving the Impossible, the Saint then left the jungle, beaming radiant with the Light of God Realization, (after all, had he not drunk from the Milk of Paradise?) to perform the next activity on his list which just happened to be taking a walk around the entire world!
The year he set out, trekking through the Khyber Pass, was 1875, and after covering 80% of the land mass on foot, and meeting many of the world leaders of that time, including Queen Victoria (this fact is curious, a lot of people dispute it), Queen Emma of the Netherlands, and President Theodore Roosevelt, to name a few, our amazing Saint returned to India forty years later in 1915, in one piece, without a single scratch, whereupon he helped found a university in Benares, with some diamonds his grandfather had set aside, but of course he refused the Chancellorship; revealed the route up Mount Everest that the Hunt expedition finally chose in 1952; taught B.G. Tilak [i.e. Arctic Home in the Vedas (doesn't that ring a bell?)] a ' little ' astronomy; settled down alone in a small hut outside of Katmandu, in the Shiva Puri Forest, where a wild leopard used to come sit beside him like a domestic house cat; received tons of visitors all asking questions about God; took up smoking at one hundred and seven; still looked like the picture of health and vitality at one-hundred and twenty-nine; and eventually died in 1963, shortly after he had approved the draft for his biography, titled " Long Pilgrimage ", by John G. Bennett.
When the hour came to meet death, the SHIVAPURI BABA rose up from his bed, took a drink of water, said "Live Right Life, Worship God. That is all. Nothing more." Then he laid down on his side with his right hand supporting his head, spoke his last words, "I'm gone", in Hindi, "Gaya", ditched the old body, then I guess, he went immediately to join God and his grandfather. What a life! What a life!!
ShivaPuri Baba
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| Ashram Picture taken from outside compoud | Ashram Picture Taken From Inside Compound |
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| Hut where baba used to stay | A special chair where baba used to stay and swing |
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| Inside Portion of Meditation Hall | A very old picture where baba seems to be sitting on 'jhulan' |
Shivapuri Baba was an ancient saint. He landed this planet in 1826. (corresponding to Bikram Sambat 1883, Bhadra Mul Nakshtra). He was born in Nambudari Family, Malabar, Kerala, South India .
He smiled at his first breath in the earth.His grandfather was an astrologer and had once forecasted that the family will come to an end . He was born as a twin along with her sister.Baba was looked after by his grandfather and grandmother as his parents died during his early childhood. Grandmother most often used to tell him stories before going to bed.
Baba mastered all four vedas (Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharba Veda, Dhanur Veda) at his early stage of 14.
Baba was accompanied by his grandfather Achyutam in Amar Kantaka Forest, near Narmada, Madhya Pradesh, India for the quest of the Truth.
He stayed nearly 20 years in the deep forest and realized God. He remarked his god realization expereince in his own words as “God came in a flash. All the problems were solved”.
Babas' Teachings to realize GOD is simple. His teaching is Right Life( SWADHARMA) which means Devotion And Discrimination.
Right Life comprises following Physical, Moral and Spiritual Disciplines.
Physical Discipline
Moral Discipline
- Follow the 26 divine virtues mentioned in the first three verses of 16th Chapter of Bhagavad Gita..
- Do not harm people.
- Use discrimination and help people at the time of need.
- Contribute at least 10 percent of your income to the needy people, educational institutions, students etc.
- Save 30 percent of your income to use that amount at the time of need.
- Begin charity from the home, neighbors.
- Make your mind strong.The strong mind is the link between two worlds which enables human being to face their duties with serenity and to enter upon his search for God.
- Read the Books like Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavata, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Books On Buddha, Christ, Mohammad and other spiritual personalities.
- Devote maximum time in God worship.
- Meditate on him, in the beginning with form and try to go beyond form.
- If you go on passing your time on meditating on God, God will come in a flash.
- If you see God or Truth, all your problems will be solved and no re-birth in the world.
- After God realization also the soul immediately will not leave this gross body.
- It stays in the body so long as one enjoys prarabdha.
- Prarabdha is the accumulation of your deeds in your past life. When balance is not left, no rebirth.
"Truth is harsh and justice uncompromising ."
-Shri Shivapuri Baba
After the demise of Grandfather, he came out of the forest and initiated Sanyas at Sringeri Math. Sringeri Math was established by First Shankaracharya (Adi Shankaracharya). After initiation, he was named Govindananda Bharati.
