Swami Shuddhananda Brahmachari
Swami Shuddhananda Brahmachari (born May 10, 1949) lovingly called as "Baba" or "Swamiji", a former professor of commerce in Hyderabad, is a Spiritual Teacher of Karma Yoga. He is a Karma Yogi. Baba renounced the worldly life at the age of 26 to dedicate his life to the Divine.
Early years
Swami Shuddhananda Brahmachari was born in 1949 in Calcutta, India. In 1978, God Incarnate Baba Lokenath appeared in a vision to Swami Shuddhanandaa, directing him to spread His message of love, compassion, and trust in the divine. Baba left for the Himalayas in 1982 as a wandering monk. When he came to the holy pilgrim center of Bageshwar, he established a retreat there in the mountains. Between 1985-87, Baba traveled India visiting various sacred pilgrimage sites. Then he came to Kolkata, where he began his humanitarian Mission. During those year s of travel, Baba began sharing the wisdom of the ancient Rishis. In 1990, the Centenary year of Baba Lokenath's Mahasamadhi, he came to the West for the first time.
Mission
When asked by a seeker AbOUT his mission, Baba replied, "My mission is to be a bridge between God and man, between the Universal and the individual. In the West, money has become a god. It is worshiped as the supreme value, the ultimate consideration that overrides other all other concerns in human activity. That has cast a debasing, consuming evil spell over the Western world. That dark influence is eating into the fiber of the Eastern world, too. Education has given rise to egocentric intoxication, to a deadly scientific and social hubris which destroys that which is natural in man and in our Mother, the Earth. The rich are poor in Spirit. The poor are looking for bread and are exploited by those in power, both political and religious. The Churches, Temples, Mosques, and Synagogues are, too often, preaching a dead religion based on dogma which divides humanity into tiny sects that are based on blindly followed beliefs. Most religious teachers are theologians and scholars without any direct experience of Divine Love and the Oneness of Existence.
Teachings
Teachings of Swami Shuddhananda Brahmachari
To the seeker of Truth, breath becomes the simplest place to begin the inner journey. The yogis of India have practiced the simple technique of watching the breath in order to calm the mind for thousands of years. Try it now and see how your mind becomes calm and quiet. How easily you become concentrated and focused.
When you observe your breath, you are closest to your Spirit. Your consciousness is deepening. Your energy is opening, harmonizing, flowing naturally and freely. You become meditative and contemplative.
Take a deep breath and exhale. Relax with the breath. Release all that you are holding on to into the space of letting go of the breath. Just smile. Offer everything into the rising and falling flow of the breath.
With each breath, see how easy it is to let go of your agitation, confusions and restlessness. Be at ease. Be your Self. Why add fuel to the fire of agitation? Why thicken the smoke of confusion with your unconscious, negative brooding?
To feel the spiritual glory of our inner being we need to pause in the midst of our busy schedules. Take a day, half-day, a few hours, or a few moments to be closest to your inner self, to be in silence. Turn off all communication devices. Be in the house, in the room, in the space of your contemplative willingness. Just be. Let go and move within. Instead of allowing the mind to plan and calculate, observe the mind and your breath as a witness, without any judgment. Grow in awareness of the energy around you. You may move to the garden, walk or sit, or do gardening with the awareness of the simplicity and beauty of nature.Commune in silence with the unspoken language of your heart. Feel the glory of the spirit within and around you. Be happy!
All beings on earth and the myriad of universes are eternally connected to the Divine Source. Each plant, each animal, each natural element, each human being, is a sublime manifestation of Divine Life, an exquisite incarnation of Divine Beauty and Divine Love.
We have no separate existence outside of God. When we do our duty without clinging or grasping the results, and only to please the Divine, then our life is filled with nectar-like grace. We easily give up our selfish, narrow will. We know the limitations of our separate existence and individual will.
Meditation is the path to discipline the mind. Meditation is training the mind to be mindful. Mindfulness is the bedrock, the foundation. To be present in the present moment, to receive the gift of the Presence within the moment, is the essence of Yoga. It is the art of living! 9. Good and bad experiences are Not Real. They are like the weather, ever-changing. Seek the one who experiences. Go deeper into the realm of inner spirit. View everything that happens from the ground of your spirit. This spiritual vision is cultivated through daily meditation, through the continuous effort to be awake and mindful. The light of the spirit can never fail. At times it May Be dimmed, but it is inextinguishable. See and feel the Presence in the light of your Spirit. Then all your good and bad experiences will merge into the pure light of the One who experiences, the spirit within.
As a fruit drops off the tree on its own once it is fully ripe, so also humble spiritual practices and intense faith in God ripen the ego fully. It drops by itself. The dropping away of ego and enlightenment happen simultaneously. There is no time gap!
Live in the presence of the inner light of Wisdom, the light of conscience. Guru is that inner light. It is only in silence that we can have the GLIMPSE of the Presence of the Divine within us. When the mind is agitated, clinging to some event of the past or apprehension of the future, it cannot dive deep into the realms of inner light and tranquility. When we become conscious and aware of the Higher Reality, when we stand apart from all the chaotic thoughts. Without adding any more fuel to the fire of agitation, gradually a stillness is felt. Presence is felt. Harmony and peace expands in the silence of the heart.
There are many in this world who live on borrowed knowledge. It is true, we need information from every direction to enrich our understanding. But deeper understanding can come only through our own experience. Borrowed knowledge can be the starting point, but we need to move to the Source within us. We need to dive deep in the fathomless world of our own consciousness, through the practice of concentration and meditation, through prayer and awareness. As we grow in the light of our own consciousness, we will not be able to advise anyone about that which we do not practice ourselves.
Books and later in life
Baba lectured at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1993 and was the keynote speaker at the Global Youth Conference held in Washington, D C. the same year. He addressed the assembly at the World Hindu Conference in Frankfurt in 1992. He was invited as a delegate to the Millennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders of the World organized by the United Nations in August 2000.
Baba believes that in developing true "friendship" with one's own self, we become able to feel unconditional love for all beings in Earth Baba translates his preaching into action through his "Lokenath Divine Life Mission" projects.
He has been relentlessly working for the emancipation of women and children in the remote villages of India. He founded "Lokenath Divine Life Mission" in 1985 in worship of the Living God in all beings on Mother Earth. Today, more than 8000 children belonging to the street slums of Kolkata and hundreds of inaccessible villages in India are given free education with a spiritual foundation. More than 200,000 patients in rural villages and city slums are treated without charge at outdoor medical clinics and Mobile Medical Vans. The Mission is also leading the West Bengal, an eastern state of India, in forming Farmers Clubs to promote eco-friendly agricultural and village development. As of June 2002, his Mission is the pioneer in the state of West Bengal in the field of Micro-Credit, serving more than 700 Self-Help-Groups of 10,000 women belonging to more than 500 villages.
Baba has authored several books, including the Biography of his spiritual Master Baba Lokenath "The INCredible Life of a Himalayan Yogi", "Your Mind, Your Best Friend", "Creating Space for Celebration in life -- Clutter free Home Clutter free Mind" and "Words of Pure Bliss".
He lives in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and in Mumbai, India most of the year and tours India and the world. Though he says he is not a Guru, thousands in India and abroad love and respect him as their spiritual guide and see in him The Embodiment of his Master, Mahayogi Baba Lokenath. (1730â1890).