His Only Verbal Teaching: Meditate

Arguably the most important core value that Shivabalayogi promoted was meditation, to the point where we write that his only verbal teaching was to encourage people to meditate an hour daily.

Shivabalayogi traveled throughout India for three decades, and later in Sri Lanka, England and the United States.  Everywhere he conducted meditation programs.  Millions were given his gift of initiation into meditation, often, particularly in the West, without having to ask for it.

Devotees often summarized Swamiji’s mission with these words: 

“Know truth through meditation, then you yourself will know who you are, your religion, your purpose in life, and your nature.  Do not believe what others say and become a slave to religious prejudices.  Meditation is your religion.  Meditation is your purpose.  Meditation is your path.”

This expression of purpose was printed on invitations to Bangalore programs, invitations which were always presented to Swamiji for his review and approval.  In one version or another, this summary was picked up and generally used by devotees around the world.

Over the period 1987 to 1991, Swamiji gave meditation programs throughout the United States.  The flyers that advertised probably all of these programs had the heading “Meditate with a Master” and a statement of his mission.  “His Mission: Shivabalayogi awakens spiritual awareness through initiation into meditation.  He heals those with physical and mental disturbances.  He aids those who seek guidance.  And he safely guides willing aspirants into the ultimate union with God.”

Swamiji repeatedly emphasized not only the importance of meditation in his mission, but also the role of devotees to make the meditation available.

“You want to know the mission of Swami? Listen! To bring eight crore [80 million] people on the path of meditation throughout the world.  That is the mission of Swami.  See, before Swamiji actually comes on the stage, some of his devotees come and do the necessary ground work.  Then Swamiji does the main portion and whatever is left gets accomplished by the last batch of devotees.  Every time Swamiji has taken a human body, it happened more or less in the same way.”

While he was in his own physical body, Shivabalayogi instructed his devotees to initiate others into meditation even when he was physically absent.  He explained that he is present through an astral body which actually transmits the spiritual blessing.  Many people received Shri Swamiji’s initiation in this manner both before and after he dropped the physical form.  Some had been meditating for a long time, others hardly at all.  Yet common to all was that the initiation gave a deeper and more blissful concentration than ever before experienced.  The greater the prior experience with meditation, the greater was the effect of Swamiji’s initiation.  Some with no prior experience had divine visions, and almost all found that the one hour meditation had sped by as if only a few minutes had passed.  Such is the effect of a yogi’s grace.

For a downloadable, printer-friendly copy of
The Living Yogi, Perspectives on the Shivabalayogi Mission Today
The Living Yogi HOME page │ PREVIOUS page │ NEXT page