Who is Shivabalayogi?
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Sri Sri Sri Shivabalayogi Maharaj was born to a poor but respected family of weavers in the south Indian village of Adivarapupeta on January 24, 1935, and was given the name of Satyaraju. For thousands of years, this part of India had been steeped in the lore and spiritual practices devoted to Lord Shiva.While possessed of a dynamic personality, Satyaraju gave no sign of his future destiny until he was 14, when Lord Shiva himself appeared to the boy in the form of an imposing seven-foot ascetic. The Lord brought the boy into the state of samadhi (God-consciousness) by a mere touch of his finger to the spot between his eyebrows known in yoga as the brikhuti.
This event marked the beginning of an intense spiritual discipline called tapas, where the bala yogi (boy yogi) meditated in samadhi for 23 hours a day for eight years, mastering the powers of the four directions, then 12 hours a day for four more years. Throughout his tapas, there were periods when he stayed in samadhi continuously for months at a time. His practice was brutally hard on his body, including the time a neighboring boy threw a burning kerosene rag on him and another when he was bitten by a cobra. Fortunately, he was given healing treatments known as kaya kalpa by another famous yogi who recognized the boy as a reincarnation of his own guru from ages past. This yogi was Tapaswiji Maharaj, who understood that the boy was one of India's great souls who had come to earth many times in the past to guide and save humanity.
Upon completion of the 12-year tapas, Sri Shivabalayogi, as he was now called, was visited by his divine guru with his consort, Parvati, the Divine Mother. Lord Shiva announced that the tapas had been successful and that the young yogi was now free to do as he pleased. Sri Shivabalayogi replied that he had no particular desire, and that because his guru had put him into tapas, he should now tell him what to do.
Thus began the worldwide mission of Sri Shivabalayogi. From 1963 onward he traveled throughout India, founding many ashrams and conferring his initiation and blessings on millions of people. In 1987, he came to the West, paying several visits over the next several years to Europe and the United States. During these visits, he bestowed the gift of yogic meditation, also called dhyan, on thousands.
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On January 24, 1994, during his 59th birthday celebration, Sri Sri Sri Shivabalayogi Maharaj made a comment while cutting his birthday cake that he would be cutting 45 more. Those devotees who were present and had observed his deteriorating health were relieved and overjoyed at what appeared to be a promise from the guru himself. Thus his mahasamadhi on April 2 of that year completely devastated his devotees around the world. Yet there was also a desperate hope stemming from his messages that if his devotees wanted him and prayed, he would return to them. The atmosphere was filled with tension. Was there going to be another incarnation? Could this be possible? Was Sri Swamiji in yoga nidra (yogic sleep)?Then, within minutes of leaving his body in Adivarapupeta in Andhra Pradesh, he entered the body of a long-time devotee named M.P. Singh in faraway Agra and started issuing instructions about the correct disposal of his body. Thus his Indian devotees, who could not believe that Sri Swamiji could have uttered an empty promise, had him back in their midst within minutes. But our brothers and sisters in the Western world had to wait until 1998 to experience the full impact of his manifestation in the body of M.P. Singh.
In the early fall of 1998, Sri Shivabalayogi Maharaj, manifested in the body of M.P. Singh, resumed his temporarily interrupted mission in the western hemisphere. He made a stop in London, then proceeded to the U.S. Sri Swamiji had already visited the U. S. in his original form four times from 1988 to 1991. The resumption of his mission now was like a "homecoming" both for him and his devotees.
In 1999, Sri Swamiji returned to the U.S. for a significantly longer visit. First came a 15-day retreat in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The three-month tour culminated in Durham, North Carolina, with the blessing by Sri Swamiji of a plot of land a devotee had donated for an ashram. Thus was realized a prophecy made by Sri Swamiji 10 years earlier that his first North American ashram would be in North Carolina at a place surrounded by forests. The ashram is called Ganesh Place and will contain a panchmurthy temple (temple to five deities), a meditation center, a residence for Sri Swamiji when he visits the U.S., and housing for visiting devotees.
During Sri Swamiji's 1998 visit, several new centers were opened. By the conclusion of the 2000 visit, which added Canada to Sri Swamiji's itinerary, his programs were being hosted by many east coast cities, including Toronto, Canada. The 2001 tour was followed by the commencement of one year of tapas by Sri Swamiji.
Written by Mriganka Gupta
The Power of Tapas
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There is no equivalent for the word "tapas" in the English language. It is translated most frequently as "penance," but that word does not accurately describe the spiritual discipline wherein a person meditates in samadhi for at least 12 hours a day for an extended period of time. A Yogi is a man or woman who has completed tapas under the guidance of a guru.Sri Shivabalayogi had no personal desire for God-realization when he was made to sit in yuga tapas, a 12-year cycle of tapas, by his divine guru, Lord Shiva. It was done solely for the benefit of the world. The tapas shakti, or spiritual power, that Sri Shivabalayogi attained enabled him to initiate and guide seekers on the yogic path of dhyan and to give bhava samadhi to increase faith and devotion, as well as heal physical and mental ailments.
When Sri Shivabalayogi completed his yuga tapas in 1961, Lord Shiva told him that he would also be made to sit in tapas from time to time when the need arose. He completed a year-long tapas at the instruction of his guru beginning on August 7, 1968, as well as periods of forty-days of tapas during the Indo-Pakistani wars of 1965 and 1971. By sitting in tapas during crucial moments, Sri Shivabalayogi was able to reduce or prevent conflicts that threatened mankind. He said that, "If there is a lot of danger in the country or the world, then Swamiji will sit in tapas."
A yogi has access to a limitless source of spiritual power. During the period in which tapas is performed, this immense energy is harnessed and distributed to the world. The powerful vibrations reduce tensions, change the minds of those in power, and further the progress of those on the spiritual path. The collective consciousness is raised and catastrophes are averted or mitigated.
Sri Shivabalayogi has also performed tapas in his present form of Sri Swamiji. When Sri Swamiji began his present cycle of teaching in 1998, he told his American devotees that an extremely difficult time lay ahead for mankind, beginning in the near future. He later announced that he wished to conduct a year of tapas in the United States. He would do so at the donated property in North Carolina, a wooded area on the outskirts of Durham. During the 2000 tour, Sri Swami and his devotees looked at modular homes. Over the next few months, a design was selected which was large enough for both the tapas and meditation programs.
When Sri Swamiji arrived from India on May 31, 2001, to start his next tour, he said that his tapas would begin on August 22, no matter what. Work on the house progressed rapidly, though delays caused by rain meant that, for the first month, Sri Swamiji meditated in an RV on a nearby property. Sri Swamiji's urgency to start tapas on time had seemed remarkable to those around him. Less than three weeks after he started came the terrible new of the September 11 attacks which began the current time of troubles that he predicted.
For the next year, Sri Swamiji meditated every day from 5:00 a.m. to about 5:00 p.m. After a month, he moved to his new house, which is now the site of the Ganesh Place ashram. His nourishment was virtually non-existent-one or two glasses of milk a day, a small amount of tea with honey, and some nutritional supplements. During the year he was attended by devotees, spoke at most in whispers, and his weight gradually dropped to half its original amount. He completed his tapas as planned on August 22, 2002. Devotees came from all over the world for the great celebration which followed. A week later a radiantly happy but much slimmer Sri Swamiji returned to India as his devotees exulted at the tremendous work that he had accomplished on behalf of mankind.