Spiritual Science, the Path to Bliss

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Spiritual Science
The Path to Bliss — Chapter I
Life Story of Shri Shivabalayogi

by B. S. Lamba

In this chapter, brief history of an exhalted soul, who has completed the spiritual Evolution and who has traversed the Path to Bliss has been attempted.  It is impossible to describe in words the transcendent glory of such a perfect Master living in India.  However a brief life sketch will be of interest to those, who aspire for this Path.

The name Balayogi indicates that he became a yogi, while he was only a child, ‘Bala’ meaning a child.  The village Adivarumpeta, is a hamlet of Draksharama and is situated about one mile north of it.  Draksharama is situated at a distance of about 18 miles from Kakinada, the headquarters of East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh.  It is famous for its Bhimakandam, the renowned longest Shivlinga temple.  Adivarumpeta is a small village entirely inhabited by weaver families and the population is about 2,000.

One family were strong worshipers of Lord Shiva.  The head of the family was Allaka Bhimmanagaru with his humble wife, named Parvathiamma. They had four children, two boys and two girls.  The last child Sathiaraju, was born on the twenty-fourth January 1935 at 14.45 on Thursday, the Pushyami Bahula Panchami under the influence of Uthara Star in its third phase.  The child had instinctively taken to Lord Shiva as his parents took Shiv Linga ‘Dhiksha’ from Jangama Guru, ten years before his birth.  The parents were staunch devotees of Shiva.  When Sathiaraju was only two years old, he lost the protection of his father.  The poor widowed mother brought up the children in very humble circumstances.

Sathiaraju, the future Balayogi had his schooling in the local Primary School.  He passed hard days in his childhood due to poverty.

Seventh August 1949, when he was about fourteen years old, was the red-letter day in his life, when he took his spiritual birth.  He was in a group of about a dozen village urchins collecting Palmyrah fruits from the canal bund, by the side of the village.  At about half past three in the after-noon they all had a bath in the canal and part-took of their share of the collected fruit on the canal bank.  As they were enjoying the sweet drink, they noticed another ripe fruit falling from a Palmyrah tree about 25 feet further.  This was also shared by them.  As Sathiaraju was about to take the sweet juice out of it, a miracle took place.

While to other devotees, HE just gives a glimpse in the form of light, usually golden; in the case of this boy of about 14 years HE HIMSELF appeared mysteriously.  Holding the Palmyrah fruit in his hand, he heard a deafening sound like the beating of big drums and sound of Omkar (described as Nad or heavenly music).  The nut of the palm fruit burst and he saw a lighted Sivalingam emerging from the fruit.  The Siva-1ingam then burst out and a luminous gigantic figure seven feet tall with matted locks of hair, body smeared with ashes and a trident in hand commanded him to sit down and close his eyes.  The future yogi was dumb-founded and questioned as to why he should sit down and close his eyes.  The voice replied that he will be told after he had obeyed.

He sat down and closed his eyes.  The entity then helped him to sit in the posture of Padamasana; then pressed with his middle finger at the brow centre and patted at top head.  Immediately Sathiaraju became unconscious.  A final piercing stroke was then given with the trident at the brow center and the boy yogi remained unconscious.  The God then disappeared.

The other boys then appeared and befooled him teasing and beating him, thinking that he was only posing as a Sadhu.  Then they bodily lifted him and threw him in the canal water.  As he did not move, they thought him to be dead, left him on the canal bank and informed his parents.  The mother being out of the village, the boys tormented him and dealt blows at his abdomen and forehead.  The boys then dragged him to his house with the help of other villagers.  His legs became benumbed and he sat outside.  The boy resumed consciousness at mid-night and again fled to the same spot.  Next morning he was again taken back home and his relatives constructed a temporary hut with Palmyrah leaves for his meditation.

After two days his mother returned and found her son being tormented by the village folk.  Somebody soaked a cloth with kerosene oil and placed it on his left leg and set fire causing blisters over the burnt portion.  When the mother questioned him about it, he expressed his ignorance as he was absorbed in meditation and was in Samadhi and was forgetful of his body.  As he found the temporary hut not congenial, he again went back to the original place in the paddy fields.

He sat there exposed to Sun and torrential rain for a couple of months.  The tormentation from the villagers continued.  As he was statue-like, rats, ants and rabbits would move over his body and sometimes bit him.  This caused wounds and bleeding over his body.  The wounds attracted ants in millions.  When he used to go for bath in the canal of Godavari waters, fishes will come and pinch off the ants from the wounds making them deeper.  He had no body-consciousness; but when irritation was excessive, he could notice the wounds and ants etc.

As he was still being tormented for about two months, he decided to shift to a neighbouring Ashram.  He went to that place called Pasalapudi, about five miles from his own place.  But that was also not found congenial and therefore he returned to his original place under the Ravi tree on canal bank after a few days.

The teasing by the village urchins again started.  He was then shifted to a palmyrah hut constructed by his maternal uncle. Here also the village boys continued to tease him disgracefully.  He then shifted on 8.II.1949 to the burial ground where usually boys were afraid to go for fear of ghosts.  A small thatched shed was constructed in the paddy fields by the villagers.

In the meanwhile, as the news about the boy Yogi spread all round, Shri Garaga Narasimhamurthy the Ilaqua Tehsildar and the District Collector Shri Balasundram Pillai paid him a mid-night visit.  They found the boy yogi with tears in his eyes.  He requested for their help against the tormentations by the villagers, so that he could carry out meditation peacefully.  These officers warned the villagers against their depradations and the villagers got a temporary hut thatched with palmyrah leaves to afford protection to the yogi against Sun and rain.  The local landlord, Vellah Zamindar, Vatti-Kuti Pattabiramayya later constructed a small masonry building for housing the Yogi.  This was further extended later to a double storey, building, a room above the ground floor by Tapasvi Maharaj another prominent Yogi.

It is said that God usually tests his devotees, who are sometimes brought back from the jaws of death.  When this Yogi had been in the crematorium for one month to test his undauntedness, a big cobra blocked the doorway.  As the Yogi was to go out for bath, be had no alternative but to put his foot on the cobra in order to go out.  The cobra immediately bit him tearing off a morsel of flesh from the sole of his left foot.  He went to the canal, took bath and on return sat for meditation.

The poison worked and he felt great pain and his complexion became blue.  He wept and then lay senseless, when Lord Shiva with his consort Parvati appeared, lifted him up and brought him back to senses and relieved the pain.  The snake bite has left a permanent scar mark on the foot.

The Yogi has revealed to his devotees, that Lord Shiva comes to him accompanied by his consort a number of times in physical body to give necessary guidance for any marked change in the spiritual path.  He first started his meditation facing East and continued for four years.  Then Lord Shiva came and changed the direction to face North.  This continued for two years.  Next he changed the direction towards West for two years and next towards south for another two years.  Perfection (Diksidhi) has been gained in a period of ten years.  He had two years more to complete (in 1959) according to the directions of his guru.  He continues his Samadhi facing East again and it will be completed on 7-8-1961.  It has been revealed that meditation facing West was the most difficult.

During most of the period of his penance, he observed mounam (Silence) for some years starting in October 1954.  He left eating anything and even answering the calls of nature and urinating.  At first he was living on the nectar secreted by Thalmus in the throat.  Now he absorbs energy directly from the atmosphere.

By long years sitting on the same posture, his limbs and fingers have got twisted and nails are a few inches long.  His eyes glisten with divine splendour and he is always cheerful being in bliss and radiates resplendent joy.  He had god-realisation in 1956 after about seven years hard work on the Path.

At first he could be seen only on the last Saturday, once in a month.  Now there is not much restriction and be can be seen by arrangement with the mother as the room is kept locked.  He gives open darshan on two days during Shivratri when thousands of people flock there and get their bodies purified of sins.  Poor feeding is arranged there for two days by the devotees.

By sitting in the same posture, his lower limbs almost got paralysed and Lord Shiva had to appear to rejuvenate them and bring them into working order.  The Yogi requested Lord Shiva to straighten his hand fingers and palms; the reply came that this will be done when he needed them.  The hair is thickly matted.  His black complexion is changed to fair and rosy with divine sparkle in this eyes.  He sits on a tiger skin on a wooden dais on the ground floor of a small room about 12'x12'.

On Shivratri day he sits in the first floor room where there is arrangement for pilgrims to come up from one side along the stair case and after darshan to go down from the other side.  The one room double story cottage housing the Yogi with a strong blue light on the top with his mother at the gate has been shown in the photograph.

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