HOME │ HIS LIFE │ MEDITATION │ PROGRAMS │ BHAVA │ EXPERIENCES │ YOGA VASISHTA │ BOOKSTORE │ PHOTOS│ VIDEO │ LIBRARY │ ARCHIVES

INDEX page │ PREVIOUS page │ NEXT page

 

Shivabalayogi’s Other Lives

“The great sages have written about Swamiji, that he is going to be born at this time and he is going to come and serve the people.  Everything about Swamiji is written.”

“It should be left to each devotee as to how they see Swamiji and what they believe.  If Swamiji is famous, it is because he has done twelve years of tapas.”

“It changes with time.  When Christ taught there was a need at the time, so Swamiji did that.  Thirteen hundred years back, the need of the times was different, so ISwamiji did it as Mohammed.  Now today is different, so Swamiji is doing it as Shivabalayogi.  But it’s all the same.”

“This time God sent him to be as a yogi.  So he is as a yogi.  The next time if he is sent for some other duty, he will be for that. Whatever God says he has to do that.”

“If Swamiji had not done twelve years tapas in this life, the devotees would not be giving him all this devotion.”

“Swamiji has had lots of lives and now he is this life.  In whichever lifetime it was, he didn’t come out to guide the people without doing tapas.  He had to do tapas in every lifetime.”

 

Swamiji used to tell us that in every birth, his mother had to have an amsha (portion) of Parvati and his father an amsha of Shiva.  This is because Swamiji is Ganesha.  He would tell us that Swamiji has the power of nine gods.  When Swamiji was born, these nine gods gave a spark of themselves to Swamiji’s being.  The nine gods include Hanuman, Nandi, Shiva, Vishnu, and Ganesha.

Shivabalayogi generally would not discuss prior lives, but privately on several occasions in the United States he confirmed the accuracy of the list of prior lives described in the Bhrigu Nadis and published in Swamiji’s biographies.  Swamiji added that the nadis include over two hundred and fifty prior lives, of which only the most recent twenty-seven are listed in his biographies.  Swamiji’s own nadis do not indicate so many previous lives, so I asked him about it in Bangalore in 1994.  He said that in Ramakrishna’s Bhrigu Nadi there is a list of over a hundred prior lives which included Jesus and Mohammed.  He explained that Ramakrishna’s nadis applied to Swamiji because Ramakrishna is a prior life of Shivabalayogi.

Many of us wondered how it was possible for Swamiji to have been all the people listed in the nadis.  Some of those people, like Lahiri Mahasaya and Ramakrishna, lived at the same time.  When questioned about this, Swamiji simply responded, “One atma, many bodies.  No problem.”

 

Is it helpful to know about our prior lives?  “Why should we bother about all that?  People keep taking birth and it keeps going on.  It should be enough if we take care of our duties now.  What is the use of talking about prior lives?  You should not depend on any glory you achieved in past lives.  You should achieve it in this life.”

From the Bhrigu Nadis:

“The most illustrious names known in his previous births are Shri Suka, Deva Datta, Agni Datta, Gunakara, Suryasimha, Mahadev, Shivadev, Gyaneswara, Tulsidas, Kabir, Rajabhushana, Namadev, Mahadev, Jayachandra, Mahabala, Nityananda, Bhavananda, Shri Chandra Valuripathi, Parameswara Prasad, Ramasasti, Arjunadev, Shiva, Gadadhara, Phani Mohana, and Satyarajans Ramakrishna Paramahansa, all of whom were devotional and attained international fame for their saintly character.”

More detail on the Bhrigu Nadis list of Shivabalayogi's Other Lives.

 

INDEX page │ PREVIOUS page │ NEXT page

Divine Play:   Shivabalayogi’s life and blessings, 290 pages and over a hundred photos.  Generally available in bookstores and online.

Swamiji’s Treasure:  The most comprehensive collection of biography, experiences, conversations & photographs of Shivabalayogi.

Tapas Shakti:  Published at Swamiji’s request in India, January of 1992.  Contains his biography, conversations & experiences.