About Swamiji
Each one of us wants to live with joy and peace in our heart. However, the unpredictable vicissitudes of life make this an elusive goal. For ages, people from all walks of life and from diverse cultures have sought ways and means to reach a state of happiness, which cannot be disturbed by external demands and pressures. Many a time this search has been guided by extremely rare, wise men and women who provide the profound teachings and sagaciously lead the seeker in the right direction with practical guidance.
Their life and words of wisdom open our heart, remove our ignorance, and help us realise the Truth and reconnect us with our Universal Identity, our Inner Self.
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha (addressed as ‘Poojya Swamiji’ or ‘Swamiji’ by disciples and followers) is one such guide in an unbroken lineage of enlightened Souls. He has been guiding people in their spiritual pursuit and expounding the universal truths of Supreme Reality in India and abroad for over six decades. His rational exposition of the science of Self-knowledge and its application in the art of refining, strengthening, and elevating the human mind has benefited and transformed countless professionals, householders, and students. People involved in highly responsible and challenging positions find Swamiji’s teachings to touch deep chords in their mind and intelligence which generates the needed sublimity, clarity, and vision to address and overcome difficult situations in their lives.
Swamiji is a Sannyaasin belonging to the ‘Tirtha’ lineage of Adi Sankaracharya, and an active social reformer. He is widely revered as a spiritual master, scholar and exponent of the ancient Hindu Scriptures - Bhagavadgeeta, Srimad Bhāgavatam and Upaniśads - and is well-known for his discourses on Vedanta and its practical application in daily life. He has also been instrumental in organizing campaigns for abolition of some discriminative, derogatory and superstitious practices that were followed by some Hindu temples. He has stood strongly for restoration, preservation and promotion of national values, environmental protection, cultural and academic uplifting of village children and development and welfare of rural areas.
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha was born in 1933, in the village of Parlikad near Wadakkanchery in Thrissur district, Kerala, India. After completing his education, he moved to Kolkata (then known as Calcutta), to join his brothers and take up employment. It was during this phase of his life that he met and got associated with Baba Gangadhara Paramahamsa, a sage from Dakshinkhanda, West Bengal, which eventually led to his introduction to the world of spirituality and seeking self-realization.
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha’s association with Baba Gangadhara Paramahamsa inspired him to undergo intense meditation and spiritual practice. Ultimately, in 1956, at the age of 23, he renounced his professional life and embraced Sannyāsa, becoming a disciple of Baba. After being initiated into Brahmavidya (Science of Self-knowledge), he undertook assiduous study of the ancient texts and scriptures, as well as the Sanskrit language. As he progressed along the path of spirituality, some of his family members were also influenced to follow him. Later on, he decided to move back to Kerala, where the young ascetic was invited by many people, institutions and organizations for giving discourses on Indian spiritual texts, which gradually developed into his mission of spiritual knowledge dissemination, leading seekers towards the light of self-knowledge. He travelled extensively to conduct discourses, and his proficiency in English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil made it easy for him to interact with seekers from different parts of the country. In 1963, he set up Narayanashrama Tapovanam, in Venginissery, Thrissur, which has, over the years, developed into a centre of intense research in the fields of Spiritual learning and Vedanta.
Mission
जन्मानेकशतैः सदादरयुजा भक्त्या समाराधितो
भक्तैर्वैदिकलक्षणेन विधिना संतुष्ट ईशः स्वयम् ।
साक्षाच्छ्रिगुरुरूपमेत्य कृपया द्रुग्गोचरः सन् प्रभुः
तत्वं साधु विबोध्य तारयति तान् संसारदुःखार्णवात् ॥
For over 60 years, Poojya Swamiji has been travelling throughout the world like a moving university, exposing the audiences to a rational interpretation of our great spiritual compositions like Bhagavadgeeta, Sreemad Bhāgavatam, the Upaniśads, Yagavāsiśṭha Ramayana and others.
Swamiji is tirelessly working for the transformation of the human society, its betterment and upliftment. Initiating seekers into the sublime journey of Self-Realization, he guides them constantly to treat the integrated path of Karma, Jñāna and Bhakti, to reach their innermost abode of joy and bliss.
Swamiji presents Bhagavadgeeta as an 'Administrative Gospel', especially meant to inculcate excellence in professional life. Poojya Swamiji's interactions with the Corporate Executives have helped management thinkers to incorporate spiritual values into organisational culture.
Teachings
Five Noble Precepts as spelt out by Swamiji
1. Recognize the entire world to be a wholesome manifestation of God.
2. Cultivate ever-abiding love towards all beings. Express it more on mankind.
3. Never attribute fault to anyone or anything. Instead, seek to know the good ingrained in each.
4. Regulate the senses. Sublimate the mind. Practise divine introspection. By this three-fold means derive the knowledge of Brahman.
5. Resolve that sarveśwara-darśana (the vision of the one God in all) alone is life's fulfillment and transform your entire life into a magnificent sādhanā (seeking) for accomplishing it. Then indeed will emerge peace and blessedness every-where, always.
Teachings
Swamiji's special effort has been to make seekers understand that the real focus
- of devotional practices is not God, but the devotee's own mind and behaviour,
- of karmayoga is not action but the yogic orientation of the mind of the actor,
- of knowledge is not knowledge, but the self-improvement and self-purification of the practitioner.
Poojya Swamiji upholds that all problems in human life are born of the mind, and so the solutions thereof are also to be found within the mind. Thus, one must make the outgoing mind look inward.
1. Meditative Introspection that makes the seeker aware of the profound dimensions and potentials held within the mind and intelligence. The seeker discovers the real nature of the mind as well as the world, and realizes that for achieving joy and fulfillment, one needs to look into his mind and inner resources alone, not outside.
2. Interactional Sādhanā which is a technique of shifting our focus from the external situation to the mind's response to it, and treating the mind through knowledge so that any interaction will lead to inner enrichment. While meditative introspection is a time-bound pursuit, interactional sādhanā aims to transform every moment of our wakeful life into a spiritual pursuit of inner purification and enrichment.
Inner Resources Development
Most branches of Science and Technology aim at identifying and harnessing the external resources of nature as held by earth, water and air, light and other forms of energy. Parallel to this, the human personality preserves within itself enormous resources, which are the key to any human achievement.
'Inner Resources Development' is Swamiji's unique and systematic approach which guides modern day aspirants to identify, understand and harness this limitless inner potential and find joy and fulfilment in all spheres of human endeavour.