Shivabalayogi worked tirelessly and without regard to his own physical body. After over thirty years of travel and giving of himself to the public, his body wore out. He pushed it as long as he could, but finally he dropped his physical form on March 28, 1994, and entered mahasamadhi, the great or final samadhi.
Photo taken in Adivarapupeta the day before Shivabalayogi’s body was interred in the samadhi. Intended to be of his physical body, it shows a light body. The chair in which the physical body is seated, between two women fanning, is visible behind the light body.
Through bhava samadhi, Swamiji explained that he wanted to show the form in which he is now working.
His body is interred in the Adivarapupeta ashram in what is now the Samadhi, his tomb.
His body died, but “death” was never a word that Shivabalayogi allowed to be used with reference to yogis. Yogis do not “die”, he insisted. Neither their presence nor their work is limited by time or space.
Mahasamadhi does not mean that Shivabalayogi has gone some place. On the contrary, it means he is still here in the same way he used to be. A yogi’s presence is never defined by a physical body. When Swamiji was in Bangalore or London, devotees in New York or Dehradun knew he was with them. Mahasamadhi means that nothing has changed.
Experiences confirm Shivabalayogi’s continuing presence. His initiation into meditation, which before his mahasamadhi was transmitted through devotees, remains as powerful. People continue to experience bhava samadhi (divine trance), and some say the phenomenon is even more powerful now. Some have seen his physical form; others have had his darshan in dreams.
“Yogis come in their astral bodies and guide you. All the yogis do that. Christ appears to a lot of people here and there. How does he do that? It is his astral bodies that travel and do the work. Christ travels in astral bodies to bless his devotees. A yogi has many astral bodies of many different kinds. The yogi guides and help people through these astral bodies.”
The Samadhi
in Adivarapupeta, where
Shivabalayogi’s body is interred.
The area in front will be
the site of a meditation hall.
More on Shivabalayogi’s
mahasamadhi.
More on Shivabalayogi’s
Samadhi (tomb).