Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha

Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha (1888 - 1958) was a sannyasin and guru of the Tirtha-Siddhayoga lineage in the early 1900's, founder of Shankar Math in Uttarkashi and the Siddhayoga Ashram in Varanasi. His writings influenced modern Siddhayoga authors. The prolific Siddhayoga author Swami Vishnu Tirtha was his disciple [cite web|url=http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~keutzer/kundalini/vishnutirth.html|title=Vishnu Tirth|accessdate=2007-10-08] as was Swami Narayan Tirtha. Swami Muktananda, founder of the modern Siddha Yoga group, was influenced by Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha's book, "Yoga Vani". [cite book | last = Muktananda | first = Swami | authorlink = Muktananda | coauthors = Zweig | title = Play of Consciousness | publisher = SYDA Foundation | date = 1988 | location = | pages = 99 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-914602-37-3 |edition = 4th]

Biography

Shankar Purushottam Tirtha, born in 1888 in the Vikrampar division of Dacca, Bengal, was the son of a devoted orthodox brahmin family who exhibited an interest in the path of yoga and Self-Realization) from childhood. He admired Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and entered readily into samadhi (meditation) and bhakti (devotion to the Divine). In daily worship before Ramakrishna's picture he asked Ramakrishna's blessings to find a guru and Ramakrishna's portrait transformed into a person he had never seen before.

Afterwards a friend invited him to visit the nearby village of Binotia where he saw that very ascetic - Sri Narayan Dev Tirtha, who behaved as if they were long acquainted and invited Shankar Purushottam to stay overnight. As he sat for meditation with the other followers of the yogi he became submerged in an ocean of spiritual ecstasy. He sought Narayan Dev as his guru the next morning and became a brahmacharya (celibate) known as Atmaprakash Brahmachari, studying with his guru for eight years.

Thereafter he went to the holy city of Varanasi where he penned his experiences, later becoming the book "Yoga Vani". Ultimately he opted to become a sannyasi (ascetic) and his guru directed him to Puri where the eminent scholar, writer and speaker Jagadguru Swami Sri Bharati Krishna Tirthaji Maharaja [author of "Vedic Mathematics" [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaja Sri Shankaracharya of Govardhana Pitha, Puri | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Vedic Mathematics | publisher = Motilal Banarsidass | date = 1988 | location = Mumbai | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 81-208-0164-4 ] and "Vedic Metaphysics" [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Bharati Krsna Tirthaji Maharaja Sri Shankaracharya of Govardhana Pitha, Puri | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Vedic Metaphysics | publisher = Motilal Banarsidass | date = 1983 | location = New Delhi | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = ] ] . He was initiated into sannyas and renamed Shankar Purushottam Tirtha.

After a few years, when Bharati Krishna Tirtha Swami was invited to USA by Paramhansa Yogananda, he left the swami in his seat as Shankaracharya. Upon his return the swami moved to the jungle of Uttarkashi in the Himalayas for a more secluded life. While in Puri he helped the Raja of Uttarkashi who thanked him by building him the ashram Shankar Math. His disciples later built him an ashram in Varanasi, Siddhayogashram. He chose Swami Narayan Tirtha as his successor and died in 1958 in Kolkota. [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = Swami Shankar Purushottam | authorlink = Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha | coauthors = Excerpts from Swami Narayan Tirtha's 'About the Author' section of the book | title = Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga | publisher = Sat Yuga Press | date = 1992 [English ed.] | location = New York, NY | pages = iv-v | url = http://swaminarayantirtha.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=27 | doi = | id = | isbn = ]

Teachings

Siddhayoga is attained by the infusion of spiritual force through the good grace of a saintly preceptor. [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 3] Shakti flows from God through the guru into the disciple, awakening kundalini. [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 23] Shastras that discuss kundalini shakti as a part of the siddhayoga experience include "Yogachooraamani Upanishad" [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 34] and "Gautameeya Tantra". [ Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 37] "Kularnava Tantra" explains how shakti is infused by the guru through touch, observation, and volition. Just as the bird hatches its offspring by sitting Siddhayoga gurus animate the disciple's shakti through their touch. As the fish raise its offspring by observation, so the guru raises the student’s shakti through observation. Tortoises, after laying their eggs, raise them from a distance through will. So the guru can infuse shakti into the disciple (known as Sambhabi diksha in the Bayabiya Samhita). [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 23-24]

While many meditation how-to books admonish sitting absolutely still during meditation, Siddhayoga explains the need and value of letting the body be spontaneous. Thus described are various ‘quivers’ or shaking movements of the body including feeling dizzy, going into spontaneous yoga asana positions and pranayam (breathing) modes, all occurring naturally as the body cleanses the sushumna nadi (a spiritual channel in the spine). [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 43]

Knowledge is beyond the limits of any specific rites or rituals - as the Bhagavad Gita 6:44 says. [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = Swami Sadashiva | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Bhagavad Gita for Modern Times: Secrets to Attaining Inner Peace and Harmony | publisher = Sat Yuga Press | date = August 15, 2007 | location = New York | pages = 99 | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0-9658042-6-4 ] Seekers need intellectual knowledge and direct spiritual experience. [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = Swami Shankar Purushottam | authorlink = Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha | coauthors = | title = Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga | publisher = Sat Yuga Press | date = 1992 [English ed.] | location = New York | pages = 6 | url = http://swaminarayantirtha.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=27 | doi = | id = | isbn = ] Intellectual knowledge serves to inform a person of the steps leading to the goal and of the goal itself, and to confirm spiritual experience. Knowledge is of two kinds; external, objective knowledge, and internal, subjective knowledge. Objective knowledge is obtained from the guru and shastras (spiritual texts) while subjective knowledge is obtained through devotion and meditation, as the Yogashika Upanishads confirm. [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 6]

Swamiji’s advice on how to know if something is true to to base it on three tests: if the scriptural authority (shastra), the guru’s instruction, and one’s own direct experience all correspond, then you know something is true . [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 27] Anything less involves some degree of blind faith and uncertainty.

Again following the Gita, one who acts out of loving service to humanity more easily experiences union of individual soul with eternal soul than the intellectuals or those seeking self-reward. [Bhagavad Gita for Modern Times, 6:46] Spirituality involves removing human suffering and not mere discussion of lofty, esoteric concepts. "Yoga Vani" begins with this message. [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 1] The solution to suffering is liberation (moksha) and Self-Realization. The growth of Self-Realization is the growth of divine love, and for this, a natural lifestyle was required; straining or forcing against one’s own nature can cause anger, frustration. [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 3] This idea is also cited in Ayurvedic texts [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = Swami Sadashiva | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Ayurveda Encyclopedia: Secrets to Healing, Prevention & Longevity | publisher = Sat Yuga Press | date = August 2007 | location = New York | pages = 36-37 | doi = | id = | isbn = 978-0-9658042-6-4 | edition = 4th] . In addition to yoga sadhana there is the need to live a well rounded, balanced life of moderation (citing references from "Gheranda Samhita" and "Bhagavad Gita") [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 85] and ethical living (Yama and Niyama) [Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga, 71-78]

References

Books by Shankar Purushottam

*"Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga" (Bengali, Hindi, English) [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = Swami Shankar Purushottam | authorlink = Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha | coauthors = | title = Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga | publisher = Sat Yuga Press | date = 1992 [English ed.] | location = New York, NY | pages = 195 | url = http://swaminarayantirtha.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=27 | doi = | id = | isbn = ]
*"Guru Bani: 100 Ways to Attain Inner Peace" (Bengali, Hindi, English) [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = Swami Shankar Purushottam | authorlink = Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha | coauthors = | title = Guru Bani: 100 Ways to Attain Inner Peace | publisher = Sat Yuga Press | date = 1995 [English ed.] | location = New York, NY | pages = | url = http://swaminarayantirtha.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=27 | doi = | id = | isbn = ]
*"Jap Sadhana" (Bengali, Hindi) [cite book | last = Tirtha | first = Swami Shankar Purushottam | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Jap Sadhana | publisher = Siddhayogashram | date = | location = Siddhayogashram, D60/23 Choti Gaibi, Varanasi 221010, India | language = Bengali, Hindi | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = ]

External links

* [http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~keutzer/kundalini/purushottam.html About Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha]