Shivapuri Baba
According to the biography written by John G. Bennett, Long Pilgrimage - The Life and Teaching of the Shivapuri Baba, Shivapuri Baba was born in the Indian State of Kerala as Jayanthan Nambudiripad in 1826 and became a seeker after truth at the age of 18.
He was one of the first spiritual teachers to travel to the West, where he met various European heads of state, as well as U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, before returning to India in 1915.[1]
He spent the last decades of his life in Nepal, where Bennett visited him twice in the early 1960s.
Teaching
Shivapuri Baba appears to have been the first modern yoga master to transplant the wisdom of India to the West. He had no fewer than 18 audiences with Queen Victoria, who considered this great sage a friend.[citation needed] He was blessed with a very long life, which, after his awakening at the age of 50, he dedicated entirely to the spiritual welfare of others.
Shivapuri Baba taught that as humans we have three principal duties: first, physical duty, consists mainly in maintaining body and mind through proper livelihood, including the obligation to help one’s dependents to accomplish the same. Second, moral duty, consisting in remaining sensitive to the obligation to seek the truth 24 hours a day. Third, spiritual duty, by which he meant the worship of the Divine. He felt certain that if we attend carefully to the first two duties for a decade, we will naturally become able to fulfill the third duty. Physical discipline, he noted, brings pleasure. Moral discipline gives us serenity. Spiritual discipline yields deep peace and ultimate happiness.[
Shivapuri Baba was dismissive of conventional yogic paths, because he saw in them potential distractions that might keep a person from performing the three duties. On closer inspection, his own sensible prescriptions are in fact a form of yoga
He is said to have been not harmed by the horrendous animals such as tiger, snakes in the forest. Instead, they were his good friends and would visit him regularly to eat what he offered to them.
Comment
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Comment by Yevgeniy on October 6, 2009 at 6:47pm -
Speaking of which i think it was an awesome idea to post pages from "Deeper(i know it is a hard word) Man" here.
Wanting is different from wishing. I think somebody would only want education if it brings higher rank or better place in the society, etc. Wishing is a different matter altogether - i think it involves our decision, our Will, whenever wanting just involves something that pulls us, like blue ice cream.
I believe that in your example you are wishing for the better education which is absolutely "proper livelihood".
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Comment by Lily on October 6, 2009 at 5:49pm -
Hmm... OK, I want education because I don't have enough, and it's never enough. So I'm suffering all my life, and then it's not "proper livelihood"?
And, I see the reason for the post: you finally read the "forward" to "Deaper Man"??
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Comment by Yevgeniy on October 6, 2009 at 11:18am
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Except for the "horrendous animals" part. The only "horrendous animal" is man.
Physical Discipline
# Take care of the Body.
# Decide how much to eat, how much to drink, how much to Sleep,how much sex and extra activity.
# Have a professional duty.
# Earn money to maintain Life and family. Look after your dependents.
please (v.)
c.1325, "to be agreeable," from O.Fr. plaisir (Fr. plaire) "to please," from L. placere "to be acceptable, be liked, be approved," related to placare "to soothe, quiet," from PIE base *p(e)lag- "to smooth, make even" (cf. Gk. plax, gen. plakos "level surface," plakoeis "flat;" Lett. plakt "to become flat;" O.N. flaga "layer of earth;" Norw. flag "open sea;"
- I think what he means is that by attending to our physical duties we are making our life even, we have just enough, but ALL THE TIME. Suffering (in this case as the opposite of pleasure) is when we don't have enough, when we want something. To want is to lack something, right?
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Comment by Lily on October 5, 2009 at 10:06pm
- Awesome post. I wonder how physical discipline brings pleasure. Perhaps I don't fully understand what physical discipline and "proper livelihood" mean... Does it mean no blue ice cream?
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Comment by Yevgeniy on September 14, 2009 at 3:34pm
- This "Path of Right Living" is a very challenging practice. Very often these responsibilities and duties are exactly what we are trying to escape. It takes time to realize who interconnected everything is, how we need to re-evaluate our external life so our internal life gets better and vice versa.
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Comment by Yevgeniy on September 14, 2009 at 1:45pm
- Thanks Graham!
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Comment by Graham Edwards on September 12, 2009 at 3:09am -
i like the emphesis of the three princpal duties, and the underlying engagement and application required not an instant achievement, refreshingly realastic, to our unfolding.
Graham
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