Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha

Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha (1888 - 1958) was a sannyasin and guru of the Tirtha-Siddhayoga lineage in the early 1900s, founder of Shankar Math in Uttarkashi and the Siddhayoga Ashram in Varanasi. His writings influenced modern Siddhayoga authors. The prolific Siddhayoga author Swami Vishnu Tirtha was his disciple as was Swami Narayan Tirtha. Swami Muktananda, founder of the modern Siddha Yoga group, was influenced by Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha's book, Yoga Vani.

Biography
Shankar Purushottam Tirtha, born in 1888 in the Vikrampar division of Dacca, Bengal, was the son of a devoted orthodox brahmin family who exhibited an interest in the path of yoga and Self-Realization) from childhood. He admired Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and entered readily into (meditation) and bhakti (devotion to the Divine). In daily worship before Ramakrishna's picture he asked Ramakrishna's blessings to find a guru and Ramakrishna's portrait transformed into a person he had never seen before.
Afterwards a friend invited him to visit the nearby village of Binotia where he saw that very ascetic - Sri Narayan Dev Tirtha, who behaved as if they were long acquainted and invited Shankar Purushottam to stay overnight. As he sat for meditation with the other followers of the yogi he became submerged in an ocean of spiritual ecstasy. He sought Narayan Dev as his guru the next morning and became a brahmacharya (celibate) known as Atmaprakash Brahmachari, studying with his guru for eight years.
Thereafter he went to the holy city of Varanasi where he penned his experiences, later becoming the book Yoga Vani. Ultimately he opted to become a sannyasi (ascetic) and his guru directed him to Puri where the eminent scholar, writer and speaker Jagadguru Swami Sri Bharati Krishna Tirthaji Maharaja . He was initiated into sannyas and renamed Shankar Purushottam Tirtha.
After a few years, when Bharati Krishna Tirtha Swami was invited to USA by Paramhansa Yogananda, he left the swami in his seat as Shankaracharya. Upon his return the swami moved to the jungle of Uttarkashi in the Himalayas for a more secluded life. While in Puri he helped the Raja of Uttarkashi who thanked him by building him the ashram Shankar Math. His disciples later built him an ashram in Varanasi, Siddhayogashram. He chose Swami Narayan Tirtha as his successor and died in 1958 in Kolkota.
Teachings
Siddhayoga is attained by the infusion of spiritual force through the good grace of a saintly preceptor. Shakti flows from God through the guru into the disciple, awakening kundalini. Shastras that discuss kundalini shakti as a part of the siddhayoga experience include Yogachooraamani Upanishad and Gautameeya Tantra. Kularnava Tantra explains how shakti is infused by the guru through touch, observation, and volition. Just as the bird hatches its offspring by sitting Siddhayoga gurus animate the disciple's shakti through their touch. As the fish raise its offspring by observation, so the guru raises the student’s shakti through observation. Tortoises, after laying their eggs, raise them from a distance through will. So the guru can infuse shakti into the disciple (known as Sambhabi diksha in the Bayabiya Samhita).
While many meditation how-to books admonish sitting absolutely still during meditation, Siddhayoga explains the need and value of letting the body be spontaneous. Thus described are various ‘quivers’ or shaking movements of the body including feeling dizzy, going into spontaneous yoga asana positions and pranayam (breathing) modes, all occurring naturally as the body cleanses the sushumna nadi (a spiritual channel in the spine).
Knowledge is beyond the limits of any specific rites or rituals - as the Bhagavad Gita 6:44 says. Seekers need intellectual knowledge and direct spiritual experience. Intellectual knowledge serves to inform a person of the steps leading to the goal and of the goal itself, and to confirm spiritual experience. Knowledge is of two kinds; external, objective knowledge, and internal, subjective knowledge. Objective knowledge is obtained from the guru and shastras (spiritual texts) while subjective knowledge is obtained through devotion and meditation, as the Yogashika Upanishads confirm.
Swamiji’s advice on how to know if something is true to base it on three tests: if the scriptural authority (shastra), the guru’s instruction, and one’s own direct experience all correspond, then you know something is true . Anything less involves some degree of blind faith and uncertainty.
Again following the Gita, one who acts out of loving service to humanity more easily experiences union of individual soul with eternal soul than the intellectuals or those seeking self-reward. Spirituality involves removing human suffering and not mere discussion of lofty, esoteric concepts. Yoga Vani begins with this message. The solution to suffering is liberation (moksha) and Self-Realization. The growth of Self-Realization is the growth of divine love, and for this, a natural lifestyle was required; straining or forcing against one’s own nature can cause anger, frustration.. In addition to yoga sadhana there is the need to live a well rounded, balanced life of moderation (citing references from Gheranda Samhita and Bhagavad Gita) and ethical living (Yama and Niyama)
Books by Shankar Purushottam
*Yoga Vani: Instructions for the Attainment of Siddhayoga (Bengali, Hindi, English)
*Guru Bani: 100 Ways to Attain Inner Peace (Bengali, Hindi, English)
*Jap Sadhana (Bengali, Hindi)

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