About Shreevidya Akhandmahayog

Shreevidya Akhandmahayoga is a spiritual discipline originated from Lord Shri Dakshinamurty ( Lord Shiva in the role of Vishwamahaguru, the preceptor of the whole cosmos ) to bring the highest spiritual realization for the most ardent spiritual aspirant. The spiritual tradition of Shree-Vidya-Mahayoga is also known by other various names such as Shree-Vidya-Akhand-Mahayoga, Shree-Brahma-Vidya-Akhanda-Yoga, and Mahayoga.

What is Shreevidya? Shreevidya is the supreme conscious-force or power, Chit-Shakti – the divine energy of Parabrahman, the acosmic formless nameless Absolute. Just as the heat is the intrinsic energy of fire and the light is the intrinsic energy of the sun, so too, Shreevidya is the intrinsic energy of Parabrahman. Hence, this energy is also called Brahmavidya. It is this Shreevidya which creates the infinite plurality of various names and forms which is called “world” or “universe” upon the background of Sachchidanand Parabrahman. She is “Shreemata”, the Mother Divine i.e. the divine matrix of the universe. She is the Lhadini Shakti, the infinite power of love. When touched by this power of divine love, the mind of the sadhaka is filled with desireless devotion which is none else but a selfless love for Sachchidanand Parabrahman. This Shreevidya in the form of Lhadini melts the heart of the sadhaka with the feeling of pure devotional love and leads him towards Sachchidanand Parabrahman in its personal form known as Bhagawan or the Divine Person. The Lhadini Shreevidya gives the sadhaka blissful lovable experience of his innermost inseparable proximity (Sameepya) with his/her divine lover or beloved realized as Sachchidanand Bhagawan i.e. Divine Person.

Shreevidya is divine Yogamaya whose grace makes the sadhaka participate in the supreme Godhead, the Paramatman directing him to realize that he is an Aunsh i.e. an aspect of Paramatman, the supreme Godhead just as the ray is an aspect of the Sun and the tide is an inseparable aspect of Ocean. Realizing this fact, the sadhaka participates in the divine nature of Paramatman in the sense that he enjoys all those divine characteristics such as Omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, indestructible Bliss, absolute freedom in will, knowledge and action as his essential inborn nature. Shreevidya is Shuddhavidya, the pure wisdom. She is pure supra-rational intuition that makes the sadhaka realize his essential unchangeable ever-abiding identity with Sachchidanand Parabrahman. It is in this state of supreme realization that the sadhaka becomes aware that the whole cosmos full of infinite diverse plurality is non-different, inseparable from him who is none else but Sachchidanand Parabrahman itself just as a person experiencing dream appearances would recognize that whatever so called objective world he happens to know, and act within dream has no existence independent of his own being as the perceiver of dream and hence the whole dream-world is non-different from him. In the same way Shreevidya as Shuddhavidya imparts to the sadhaka supra-rational realization that he is not a finite individual subject limited in will, knowledge and action but he is supreme Parabrahman with whom the whole cosmos is inseparable, non-different like the tides from their original source, ocean and like the rays from their original source, the Sun.

Shreevidya is Mahatripursundari, the cosmic beauty par excellence. Her realization makes the sadhaka drown in an ineffable bliss and liberates him from lust, anger, hatred, and similar lower mental states, lifting him up from the lower mental levels to higher and higher levels of consciousness, ultimately establishing him firmly in the highest level of Unmani – supra-rational intuition where he simultaneously realizes that Sachchidanand Paramarth i.e. Ultimate Reality is Vishwotteerna Parabrahman i.e. the transcendent Absolute, and also Vishwatmaka Mahashakti i.e. the Cosmic Supreme Power manifesting itself through the diverse plurality of the universe and also the Mother Divine, showering Her unending graceful love upon the whole cosmos as Her most lovely and lovable child.

Thus, Shreevidya is Brahmavidya whose grace makes the sadhaka realize his triple relation with the supreme Sachchidanand in its triple aspects of Bhagawan i.e. Divine Person, Paramatman i.e. the supreme cosmic Godhead and Parabrahman i.e. acosmic formless nameless Absolute. One may say Shreevidya is a complete triune realization in the light of which the sadhaka becomes aware of his blissful proximity (Sameepya) with Sachchidanand Bhagawan, his magnificient similarity (Sadrushya) with Pramatman, and his unchangeable ever-abiding identity or non-difference with Parabrahman, the acosmic nameless formless Absolute.

Shreevidyaakhandmahayoga is a spiritual discipline which, if practiced under the guidance of Shreevidyamahayogi, makes the sadhaka able to receive the grace of Shreevidya, the supreme Chit-Shakti of Prabrahman. It makes the total personality of sadhaka from its most gross part, the physical body to its subtlest aspect, the ego purified and divinized and prepares him to receive and store the grace of Shreevidya, the divine Chit-Shakti when She descends, by Her own free will, upon the sadhaka. The practical discipline of Shreevidya called Mahayoga or supreme yoga implies in its wider practical application the essential principles of all existing yogas such as Hatayoga, Rajyoga, Layayoga and Mantryoga. It is also Mahayoga because it equally emphasizes the purification of the body through performance of outward physical ritualistic actions and also upon the purification of mind through different meditative techniques, the purification of the Vac, the power of speech or vocalization through the recitation of mantras. The practical discipline of Shreevidya is also called Akhandmahayoga because of its holistic approach to human personality. The human personality is akhand, a harmonious whole in which no part should be treated as useless or unimportant in spiritual pursuit. On the other hand, the sadhaka should try to utilize and divinize through appropriate sadhana each and every aspect of his personality from the most gross physical body to the subtlest ego aiming to divinize the whole of his personality which will ultimately result in the attainment of Shreevidya i.e. complete spiritual realization of divine Sachchidanand in its triple aspect of Bhagawan, Paramatman, and Parabrahman.

As already stated Shreevidyaakhandmahayoga as a spiritual tradition is rooted in the ancient Vedas. In the present Vaivaswata Manwantar, it was brought into light before the deserving aspirants by Bhagawan Paramshiva Shri Dakshinamurty who handed it down to his disciple Lord Dattatreya, an incarnation of Mahavishnu born to Vedic sage Atri and his wife Anasuya. Lord Dattatreya initiated Lord Parashuram, the sixth incarnation of Lord Mahavishnu born to Vedic sage Jamadagni and his wife Renuka into Shreevidyamahayoga. Lord Parashuram passed on this tradition to his disciple Sumedha Haritayayna. From that time till today the tradition of Shreevidyamahayoga is uninterruptedly proceeding further and further through an unbroken line of the Guru-shishya relation.

Shrigurudev Shriniwasji Siddhacharya alias Shriniwasji Shamrao Katkar is one of the present day Shreevidyamahayogis. Shrigurudev Shriniwasji is a savant scholar and practicing yogi in the field of Shreevidya. Shrigurudev Shriniwasji got initiated in his early young age in this hoary, spiritual, and all-inclusive yogic discipline from his two illustrious sadgurus — H.H. Shri Chandrashekharendra Saraswati, Shri Shankaracharaya, the 68th pontiff of Kanchikamkotipeetham, reveredly called among millions of his devotees the Sage of Kanchied, and Mahayogi Sadgurudev Pundit Shri Ishwarshatri Dixit from Sangali, Maharashtra, who being a perfect siddha in the field of Shreevidyamahayoga, was in his own life time one of the great masters in the unbroken line of Shreevidya tradition, beginning directly from Lord Paramshiva Dakshinamurty, flourished and developed by the divine sages such as Shri Agastya, Shri Durwasa, Shri Dattatreya, and Shri Parashuram in ancient times and Shri Adi Shankar Bhagavadpada, Shri Bhaskrraya alias Bhasurandnath, Shri Shivachidambar Dixit alias Purnanandnath from Murgod, Karnataka in modern times. Shrigurudev Shriniwasji reveredly known among his friends, admirers and disciples as Shrigurudev, is now enjoying a retired life, spending it in his personal studies, sadhana and guiding the eligible seekers in the practicle discipline of Shreevidyamahayoga.

Interested readers desirous to know about this spiritual tradition in detail and enter its fold through initiation by Shrigurudev Shriniwasji are requested to refer to our articles “About Shrigurudev” and “Shreevidyaakhandmahayoga-A Historical Survey” included in this website.