Shivabalayogi

Shivabalayogi (b. 24 January 1935. d. 28 March 1994) is a God realized master of meditation in the tradition of the ancient and modern yogis of India. He attained Self realization through twelve years of particularly difficult tapas (spiritual austerities), meditating in samadhi (God consciousness) for twenty-three hours daily.

After he completed tapas, he assumed the name Shivabalayogi, which some devotees had already began to use for him. The name means “Yogi devoted to Shiva and Parvati.” Shiva is God in the form of a yogi. Bala is one of the many names for Parvati, God in the form of a yogini. The name reflects that Shivabalayogi is a manifestation of both the male and female aspects of the divine (Ardhanari). Generally, he referred to himself as “Swami” (Master), and devotees called him simply “Swamiji” meaning “respected Master”.

For three decades he traveled extensively in India and Sri Lanka, initiating over ten million people into dhyana meditation. From 1987 to 1991, he traveled in England and the United States.

Childhood

Shivabalayogi was born Sathyaraju Allaka on January 24 1935, in the small village of Adivarapupeta in the rice paddy country of the Godavari River delta in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Most of the villagers earned a simple living making cotton sarees and "dhoties" (man’s wraps) on handlooms. Sathyaraju’s father, Bheemanna, was a weaver with very little means and died before Sathyaraju was three. The young boy was raised by his mother, Parvatamma, and maternal grandfather, Goli Satham. They were among the poorest in the village. [1]

Sathyaraju began weaving at age five and dropped out of school at age twelve to work full time to support his mother. In addition to weaving cloth, the traditional occupation of his community, he made and sold country cigarettes (beedis), soft drinks and other sundries.

The villagers called him “Against” because of his reputation for challenging authority when he felt it was being applied unfairly. He was popular among the children and the elders of the village. Many of the rest were jealous or angry at the headstrong boy. [2]

Initiation in Tapas

Sathyaraju experienced "samadhi" (enlightenment) on August 7 1949 when he was fourteen years old. He was sitting on the bank of the Godavari irrigation canal just outside the village, eating palmyra fruit that he and eleven friends had divided up. As Shivabalayogi described the incident, he was eating the fruit when his body began to vibrate, a bright light emanated from the fruit in his hands, and he heard the cosmic sound of Aum. As he watched, a black lingam, about a foot and a half tall, appeared in his hands. The lingam broke in two and a tall, handsome man emerged standing in front of the boy.The man was in the form of a "jangamma devara", an ascetic who worships and dresses like Lord Shiva. His dark skin appeared smeared with light ash. He wore a white cloth ("dhoti") wrapped around his waist, a necklace of rudraksha beads, and his matted hair piled on top of his head, all in the manner of the yogis of ancient times. He was extremely handsome with large, beautiful eyes. A bright light emanated from him, and all Sathyaraju could see was the yogi and the divine light.

The yogi instructed Sathyaraju to sit in a cross-legged position and close his eyes. The yogi touched the boy’s forehead at the spiritual third eye ("bhrikuti") between the eyebrows, then gently tapped him on top of the head. Sathayaraju immediately passed into "samadhi".

The eleven other boys with Sathyaraju saw none of this spiritual drama other than their friend sitting as if in meditation. They thought he was acting. But when they were unable to wake him up, they were afraid Sathyaraju was either possessed by a spirit or dead. They ran to the village for help. The villagers also tried to wake up the boy and carried him back to the front porch of his mother’s house, but the young yogi remained in "samadhi" then returned to where he had been initiated.

Tapas

Sathyaraju became known as Adivarapupeta Balayogi, the boy yogi of Adivarapupeta. Most of the villagers believed he was acting, probably to earn fame as a holy man (sadhu) and make money. Many abused the boy, hitting him, pouring sugar water over his body so ants would bite him, and even throwing a burning, gasoline-soaked rag on him. The Balayogi was in samadhi twenty-three hours a day. In samadhi, Shivabalayogi later explained, there is no awareness of the body or its physical surroundings. Each midnight he would return to ordinary consciousness and then he would feel the pain that his body was suffering.

The Balayogi moved the place of his meditation to a field where the villagers buried children who died while very young. It was a place the villagers feared at night, so they mostly left the boy alone. There his body suffered from insect, rodent and cobra bites. His body became stiff from the constant meditation until, as Shivabalayogi described, the yogi who had initiated him into tapas, his divine guru, cured all but his hands. They always remained frozen in the way he clasped them during meditation.

For eight years, the Balayogi meditated twenty-three hours every day. In that time, he mastered meditation in all four cardinal directions (east, north, west and south). Then his divine guru instructed him to meditate twelve hours a day for another four years to complete a full twelve-year cycle. He emerged from his tapas on August 7, 1961, before a crowd of tens of thousands.

His Mission: Silent Teaching through Meditation

From 1963 to 1987, Shivabalayogi traveled extensively throughout India, then Sri Lanka. From 1987 to 1991, he traveled to the U.K., U.S.A., and Italy. Everywhere he gave public programs consisting of initiation into meditation ("dhyana diksha"), giving darshan in samadhi, evoking spiritual trance (bhava samadhi), particularly during "bhajans" ("kirtan", spiritual song). When people asked for healing, he typically gave them blessed vibhuti (ash). Giving prashad (blessed food) was also very important for him, and devotees often arranged for mass feedings when thousands would be fed.

Shivabalayogi taught in silence. Once he was asked, “What is Swamiji’s teaching?” He simply replied, “"Dhyana. Vibhuti. Bhajan. Bhava samadhi."” (Meditation. Blessed ash. Spiritual song. Divine trance.) He valued knowledge through direct experience far more than words.

His only verbal teaching was to encourage people to meditate for one hour each day, summarized in these words: “Know truth through meditation, then you yourself will know who you are, your religion, your purpose in life, and your nature. Do not believe what others say and become a slave to religious prejudices. Meditation is your religion. Meditation is your purpose. Meditation is your path.”

Yogi

Although Shivabalayogi preferred personal experience to words, he did enjoy engaging in conversations with devotees. He explained that a yogi is one who has attained Self realization (he regarded Self and God to be the same) through tapas, which he defined as meditation in samadhi for at least twelve continuous hours every day until God physically appears to declare the tapas a success. At that time, the yogi has the opportunity to ask for whatever boon she or he may desire. If the yogi has done tapas without any personal desire, then she or he can become what Shivabalayogi described as an agent of God, serving the people. He said that Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed were all such yogis who serve all people equally. He also said there were many yogis among Native Americans, but because so many had been murdered, they remain hidden. [3]

Religion, Shivabalayogi said, is the result of mixing spirituality with politics. Spiritual leaders claim their religion is better than others. Shivabalayogi insisted that yogis do not impose any belief on anyone, but after the yogi drops the physical body, their followers and devotees quickly begin making such claims. Even Hinduism, Swamiji would say, is a religion, and no yogi ever promotes a religion.

Yogis, he would say, do not die. Although they drop their physical form through the process of "mahasamadhi", their soul presence remains available. Why else, Swamiji once said, are there so many devotees of Jesus in the world? Just as yogis are able to do during their physical lifetimes, they continue to be able to manifest subtle or astral bodies, even bodies that have a tangible, physical appearance. [4]

Darshan

Darshan refers to the blessings received from simply being in the presence of something or someone holy. Traditionally, yogis did not travel and preferred to live quietly and remain hidden from the general public. These seeking their darshan would have to travel to find the living master.

Shivabalayogi’s travels are unusual among yogis. Unlike other well known yogis of the modern era such as Ramakishna, Lahiri Mahasaya, Nityananda, Ramana Maharshi, Shirdi Sai Baba, and Haidakhan Babaji, Shivabalayogi traveled extensively. One reason Shivabalayogi gave was that the world was in serious danger because of nuclear bombs and pollution. The unusual dangers of the modern world required unusual measures to “reduce tension”, something he often said was his purpose to visiting the West. [5]

The Gift of Meditation

Yogi generally give initiation to advanced disciples. Shivabalayogi gave initiation to all who wanted. By his own count, he initiated over ten million people. The meditation he taught, he explained, was the same meditation he was taught by his own divine guru. It consists of concentrating the mind and sight at the third eye, the point between the eyebrows.Initiation involves a physical touch of the guru. For the three decades Shivabalayogi traveled, this was done through his blessed vibhuti and the touch of a devotee. Swamiji explained that it was his subtle body transmitting the power to meditate. The connection need be made only once. If the devotee practices regularly and meditates well (the mind is still), Swamiji “guarantees” samadhi. Once "samadhi" is attained, one meditates to realize the Self.

“When you become enlightened you will do tapas. There is a difference between enlightenment and Self realization. What Swamiji has achieved is Self realization. He is not just an enlightened person. When a person gets enlightened that person starts doing tapas to realize the Self.”

“Swamiji was just a normal youngster like any of you. He went to play and while he was eating the palmyra fruit he got enlightenment. Then he started doing tapas and now he has become a yogi. That is the meaning of enlightenment. Enlightenment is not everything.”

“If you sit in tapas you will get into "samadhi". When this samadhi stays for an extended period, twenty-four hours a day, then God will come down to awaken you. That will be God realization. When God appears to you in front of your eyes, that is the "siddhi" [mastery] . That is the indication that you have finished your "tapas" successfully. You should not fail in that. Some people fail in the final stages.”

Shivabalayogi did not like the connotations of the word “initiation.” Instead, he used an expression in Telugu meaning “the gift of meditation”. The significance is that he gave initiation without any expectation or obligation on the part of the recipient. He discouraged devotees from leaving their existing spiritual teachers, practices or beliefs. He simply suggested that they practice the meditation.

Vibhuti

"Vibhuti", Swamiji once said, was one of his forms. When he gave meditation, he would also give blessed "vibhuti" with the instruction to place some between the eyebrows before meditation. It had the power to transmit power to meditate, he would say.If people asked him for healing or blessings, which millions did, he would often give them "vibhuti" blessed for that purpose. Countless people have been blessed in this way, and there are hundreds of testimonials and records of miraculous healings in this way.

Bhava Samadhi

Shivabalayogi’s programs consisted of giving the initiation, an hour of meditation practice while he himself would meditate in samadhi, then an hour of bhajans (spiritual song) during which he would continue to meditate in "samadhi". After, people could go up to him individually for "darshan" and blessings. Always blessed food ("prashad") would be distributed to everyone present.

Shivabalayogi explained that all yogis use "bhajans" to awaken spiritual awareness. Singing songs of devotion to God is an expression of the path of devotion (bhakti). Swamiji once said, “Yogi is love.”

When Shivabalayogi’s presence is invoked during "bhajans", some will experience varying degrees of "bhava" and "bhava samadhi" — spiritual trance. "Bhava" is impossible to define and has to do with intense feelings of devotion and bliss, the movement of spiritual currents in the body, awareness of realities other than what is ordinarily perceived, varying degrees of disassociation from conventional reality, physical and mental healing, and stillness of the mind.

One explanation Swamiji gave for "bhava" was that the gods, yogis and other holy beings delight in the presence of yogis. Their astral bodies ("sukshma sharira", also translated as soul, spirit or subtle body) constantly hover around yogis like Swamiji. When the devotees’ devotion manifests during the bhajans, the divine beings express themselves through the devotees, sometimes taking over the movements of the physical body. It might be the god whose "bhajan" was being sung or the form of God the devotee worshipped, one’s ishtadeva. Often the experience was of Shivabalayogi himself, often revealed by the devotee’s hands adopting the unique posture (mudra) of the yogi’s hands.

Shivabalayogi often used the expression the “path of devotion” (bhakti marga) to describe spiritual life. He would say, “You can win over anything with devotion. If God can be won over by devotion, rest assured that anything can be won by devotion. You have to come from devotion to practice meditation. Only then will you get Self realization. You should always begin meditation with devotion. Chanting and bhajans are for devotion. They are the start for the spiritual path. Just like you go for the first class in primary school. It’s like that. Prayer, bhajans, homa, japa and all these things help you develop further and further on the spiritual path. Gradually they will bring you into the line of meditation.”

Mahasamadhi

Shivabalayogi dropped his physical body on March 28 1994. He had been on dialysis since 1991 and for some fifteen years he suffered from diabetes and an injured foot which became infected and never healed. He made sure that knowledge of these physical difficulties were kept from devotees generally, so when the news of his mahasamadhi came, it was a shock. His body was taken to the ashram in Adivarapupeta where it was interred in April 2 1994.

As he himself predicted, devotees continue to experience his presence. For example, those receiving his initiation today report the same kinds of experiences as those who were initiated in his physical presence. Devotees continue to experience bhava samadhi, and people continue to receive healing through his blessed vibhuti.

Ashrams

During Shivabalayogi’s three decades of travel, many properties were donated to him in India as ashrams to be held in trust for the public.

The first ashram is in Adivarapupeta, his native village where he completed twelve years of tapas. That is the site of his samadhi, the tomb where his body is buried, and is a pilgrimage site for devotees particularly for Mahashivaratri, the annual great night of Shiva.

In 1963, when Shivabalayogi began traveling in India, a small ashram was established for him in Doddaballapura, a small town north of Bangalore, then the following year in Bangalore on Bannerghatta Road. As he traveled, additional ashrams were established in Sambhar Lake, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Anantapur, Hindupur, and Agra. On August 7 1977, he established a new ashram in Bangalore at J.P. Nagar, where he later consecrated a temple in honor of the three divine manifestations of God: Brahma and Saraswati the Creator, Vishnu and Lakshmi the Sustainer, and Shiva and Parvati the Destroyers of Illusion. In Indian tradition, the worship of Brahma is forbidden, yet Shivabalayogi insisted upon consecrating an idol to the god.

Shivabalayogi established charitable trusts in London, Portland, Oregon, and North Carolina. Since the mahasamadhi, additional trusts and ashrams have been established in India, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia.

Notes

1. Singh, Lt. Gen. Hanut, "Shri Shri Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj: Life & Spiritual Ministration"

2. Palotas, Thomas L., "Tapas Shakti"

3. Id.

4. Id.; Palotas, Thomas L., "Divine Play"

5. Id.

References

"Shri Shri Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj: Life & Spiritual Ministration" by Lt. Gen. Hanut Singh (India 1980, reprinted India 2008)

"Shri Shri Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj: Darshan" by Thomas L. Palotas (Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, Bangalore, India, 1991)

"Tapas Shakti: Shri Shri Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj" by Thomas L Palotas (Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, Bangalore, India, 1992)

"The Living Yogi" by Thomas L. Palotas (Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj Trust, Bangalore, India, 1995)

"Divine Play: the Silent Teaching of Shiva Bala Yogi" by Thomas L. Palotas (Lotus Press, 2006, ISBN 0-9760783-0-9).

"Swamiji’s Treasure: God Realization and Experiences of Shivabalayogi" by Thomas L. Palotas (Lulu.com, 2007, ISBN 0-9760783-1-7)

External links

The Shivabalayogi [http://shivabalayogi.org] , Shiva [http://shiva.org] , and Handloom [http://handloom.org] , websites.