Siva Shankar Baba
| Siva Shankar Baba | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Siva Shankaran 28 January 1949 Alangayam, North Arcot (now Vellore district), Tamil Nadu, India |
Siva Shankar Baba (Tamil: சிவ சங்கர் பாபா) (born 28 January 1949), also known as Bābā, is a spiritual leader from Tamil Nadu, India.[1]
Early life and education
Siva Shankar was born on 28 January 1949, to Narayana Sharma and Vijayalakshmi in the Alangayam village, near Vaniyambadi in the North Arcot (now comes under Vellore district) of Tamil Nadu. He went to University of Madras and completed his graduation in chemistry and post graduation from Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (London), Indian Institute of Road Transport (Pune) and the Institute of Rail Transport (Delhi).[2]
Siva Shankar as a Business Man
In 1978, Balamurugan Swami of Ratnagiri Temple asked him to start his own business. While this had not been Siva Shankar's plan for himself, he decided to follow his Guru's guidance to great success. Between 1978 and 1983, Siva Shankar's businesses soared to good heights, and he achieved a large amount of material success as a transport fleet owner & contractor, stock distributor, and producer of documentary commercials. He was on the management faculty of A.M. Jain Institute of Management, and also the founder Director of Madras Institute of Transport Technology. As a highly qualified management professional, he was involved with various government committees and the program of study committee of Anna University. He participated in various symposiums and seminars and presented several commendable papers on Management. He was also the President of The Madras Goods transport association, Managing committee member of Andhra Chamber of Commerce, Chartered Secretary of Rotary Club – Anna Nagar, IRTDA (Jakarta), Institute of Transport and Traffic Engineers, and several other organisations. His worldly life was flourishing.
Early Spiritual life
Siva Shankar always had a religious and spiritual side to his nature, and he spent a large portion of his personal time travelling to different religious and holy places, visiting temples, meeting known and renowned saints and religious leaders like Ratnagiri Swami Balamurugan Adimai of Vellore, Kanchi Mahaa Periavaal, Koti Swamy etc. He has been on yearly pilgimages to Sabarimala since the year 1968 (when he was 19 years old) to this day.
After establishing his businesses, Siva Shankar installed an idol of Lord Ayyappa in January 1983, in his bungalow at Chennai, and worshipped Him ever since. In May 1983, Kanchi Kamakoti Jayendra Saraswathi Swami paid a visit to his bungalow and performed pooja to the idol worshipped by Siva Shankar and said, 'This Ayyappa idol here is very powerful. Why don't you construct a temple for Him?' Siva Shankar did not take it seriously then, and in November 1983, discussed with Balamurugan Swami regarding the construction of the Ayyappa temple. Balamurugan Swami advised him to construct a temple in the South-West corner of his bungalow.
With the guidance of Sambhamoorthy Sivachariar, Head Gurukkal of the Kalikambal temple at Thambu Chetty Street, Chennai, and Swami Ramdas of Thiruverkadu, a temple was constructed and the Kumbabhishekam was fixed on 13–15 December 1983. After the kumbabhishekam, Siva Shankar went to Sabarimala. There it is reported that he had darshan of Lord Ayyappa on 16 January 1984. Around the same period, in Agastya Ashram at Palghat, Kalasa Abhishekam was done with the chanting of Shyamala Kanaka Sankarshini Maha mantra to Siva Shankar by the priest Nochur Swami. Vidhwan Lakshmanan (popularly known as astrologist Bala), gave Ganapathi Mantra Upadesham to Siva Shankar, as per the command of his Guru Brighu Rishi.
Siva Shankar becomes Shri Siva Shankar Baba
On 26 January 1984, Siva Shankar was present when the annual Abhishekam was being performed to Lord Murugan of Ratnagiri temple. For some unknown reason, Siva Shankar kept crying continuously for more than 1 hour during the Abhishekam. On a piece of paper, Balamurugan Swami wrote a note to Siva Shankar: “within this month-end there will be a welcome turning point in your life. God’s blessings”. After reaching Chennai on that same night (in the early hours c. 3:30 am), that greatest turning point in his life occurred.
Siva Shankar reported an experience where Raghavendra Swami of Mantralaya appeared physically before him and gave Siva Shankar a vision of his own dead body, by separating the body from the soul (out-of-body experience). This was the same experience which Venkatraman had before he became Bala Ramana Maharishi. It turns out this experience is also predicted in the Sahadeva Nadi of Siva Shankar which says "The body and soul were separated and the soul saw the body.”
Following the above experience, Siva Shankar had another one in which a snake originated from Siva Shankar, stood to the left side of Lord Muruga, and then vanished to become a seer with a Golden Face who said, "For every full moon, Eight Rupees, Eleven Full Moons, Swaminatha Venkateswara, Swaminatha Venkateswara, Swaminatha Venkateswara." This vision was to indicate that Siva Shankar was destined to receive Ashta Maha Siddhis (in the language of Siddhas, eight rupees means Ashta Maha Siddhis) within eleven full moon days, with the mantras of Sadakshara (Swaminatha) and Ashtakshara (Venkateswara).
Following this, Siva Shankar went to Thiruvannamalai regularly every full moon and experienced receiving various Siddhis as was ordained in his earlier experiences. During the Guru Purnimas in 1984, Siva Shankar was physically blessed by Yogi Ram Surat Kumar, God Child of Thiruvannamalai. Yogi Ram Surat Kumar graced Siva Shankar with mantras of Rama and Govinda and blessed Him.
Ever since then, his interest in worldly life declined and he has been focussing on spirituality as his path in life; He has undertaken numerous pilgrimages visiting almost every temple and sacred place of worship in India; featured articles of him chronicle his visits to Mount Kailash 11 times and Sabarimala more than 70 times.[2]
His accessibility, care and compassion for those who reach out to him, love for all beings, total tolerance touch a chord in everyone. He does not harbour anger or hatred. All he has is love, only love. He does not have any disparity of religion, caste, creed, gender or age. He has summed up Bhagavad Gita in four words "Flow Along with Life" and to the seeker who may wonder how then to battle with the ups and downs, the turmoils and tribulations of life, his answer is very simple "I will take care".
Experiences that people undergo once they invest their faith in him go to prove that he always does take care.[2]
His concept is "Aham Brahmasmi Tattavamasi" "I am God and so are you. Your so-called problems are fabrications of the mind that does not understand your innate divinity. Once you know that you are a divine spirit in a human form, you go beyond the petty fetters called 'problems'. He asserts "First be aware of the world you live in, establish yourself here through hard work without compromising on your values and that by itself becomes your worship to the Lord. Arise Awake Work Worship".
His life is his message. His Satsang talks offer simple ways by which we can deal with day-to-day life. In this world heavily laden with strife, his is a shoulder one can lean on and know comfort.
He is also one of the only spiritual teachers that uses email! He usually responds to email within 24 hours(except when he is away on pilgrimages.)[2]
Samratchana Ashram
Siva Shankar Baba established a [social, cultural, spiritual centre for self-realization, model for universal family][3] known as Samratchana in Chennai. Samratchana, Sree Ramarajya is a non-profit center which also offers classes for cartoon animation, embroidery, textile painting, typing and shorthand, tailoring, foreign languages, music, dance, journalism and screen printing. Center also offers free food from 11a.m. to 4p.m. and computer classes at nominal cost.[4] Samratchana has adopted two villages, Vengaleri and Alathur, near Thiruporur in Tamil Nadu, and provides facilities like free education and medical care.[3] He is the pioneer of Sree Ramarajya, a secular commune housing 400 families and also Hindu Temple, Church, Mosque, Buddha Vihar, Jain Temple. He is also the founder of Sushil Hari international residential school, which is located in Sree Ramarajya Kelambakkam and Praveena Hospitals rendering free medical service to the rural needy and nominally charged services to others and a host of free medical camps. [3]
References
- ↑ Delaflor 2005, p. 28.
- 1 2 3 4 "Biography of Shri Siva Shankar Baba". samratchana.net Samratchana. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
- 1 2 3 Delaflor 2005, p. 31.
- ↑ Delaflor 2005, p. 30.