Paramanubhavabodhe of Sri Nijaguna Sivayogi (The Teaching for Experience God, The Supreme): An Old and Rare Book

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Sri Nijaguna Sivayogi is one of the great saints of India who had lived in Kollegal taluk area of the Mysore district of the present Karnataka State, most probably during the Fifteenth century A.D., or earlier. He was a Paleyagar turned into a great saint. He has written Six excellent treatises dealing with spiritual and philosophical matters, which are popularly known as "Shatchastras'' one of which is Viveka Chintamani, the first encyclopedia in Kannada language.

This book: ' Paramanubhavabodhe' is considered to be the best among these. It is in the form of the cordial conversation between the great Sage Yajnavalkya and his beloved pious wife - Maitreyi, who had married him mainly for obtaining Atma Jnana, the spiritual knowledge. When Sage Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi were living happily together, Maitreyi asked the Sage one day to tell her the way by which she could easily get rid of the sorrow of entanglement in the Worldly affairs and ever live in bliss.

The reply to this request of Maitreyi is the subject matter of this book. The Sage has first explained to his beloved wife how the physical world came into existence and what the true nature of the beings is. He has then described in detail different techniques like the Sagunashtanga Yoga, Nirgunashtanga Yoga, Raja Yoga, Sivayoga which is the Integrated Yoga or Poorna Yoga, etc., to attain self-realisation, that is God-realisation. As a final advice, the Sage has told Maitreyi that the easiest way for living in everlasting bliss is to surrender through devotion (Bhakti) the individual ego to God, the Supreme which is the Universal Sakti.

In this book thus, Sri Nijaguna Siva yogi gives clearly the techniques which could be adopted by persons of different aptitudes to achieve the goal of experiencing God-realisation and of living in everlasting bliss.

Professor Mathada Sivamurthy is by profession a Demographer and a Statistician. Literature is his hobby. In his professional field, Sivamurthy worked in the Reserve Bank of India, Bombay, in the Department of Statistics of the Karnatak University, Dharwad (India), and as Professor of Statistics in Bangalore University, Bangalore (India). He also served as United Nations Demographic Expert in the Cairo Demographic Centre, Cairo (Egypt) for more than ten years. His research work in Demography has been published in reputed Professional Journals, and Research Monographs of the Cairo Demographic Centre. One of his books: 'Growth and Structure of Human Population in the Presence of Migration,' is published by the Academic Press, London.

Sivamurthy has contributed to the Kannada literature through translating from English to Kannada a book on Research Methods in Social Sciences, and through writing a number of articles and poems in Kannada. He is also one of the contributors to the Kannada Encyclopedia prepared by the Mysore University. He started writing poems in Kannada during his High School days, but it blossomed well in the literary atmosphere of Mysore, while he was studying in the Mysore University. It was then that he was awarded Professor B.M. Srikantaiah Gold Medal by the Mysore University for one of his long poems. One collection of his poems in Kannada - Kadina Hoovugalu, has been published. He has also written a few poems in English.

Sivamurthy hails from a small village - Mangapura, in Kudligi taluk of Bellary district in Karnataka State (India). His illustrious parents were: Ugranamathada Sri Gurusiddaiah, a village school teacher and a farmer and Smt. Channaba-savamma. He is married to Smt. Shambhavi Sivamurthy, daughter of Sri H.M. Halaiah and Smt. Channaveer- amma of Harihar and has two daughters - Krupa and Chetna.

He had his early education under the guidance of his illustrious uncle Sri Mathada Channabasaiah who had the honour of receiving the President of India Award for best teachers. He then got his Masters degree in Statistics from the Mysore University (India) in 1958 and his Ph.D. degree in Demography from the Australian National University, Canberra (Australia) in 1970.

He was introduced to spiritual literature and practice by his grand-father Sri Hiremathada Basalingaiah of Bachigon-danahalli and to 'Sri Nijaguna Sivayogi's literature by Sri H.M. Vrushabhendraiah of Harapanahalli, which later ripened with the blessings of the most merciful Gurujis: Sri Mad-Ujjini Jagadguru Siddheshwara Sivacharya Mahaswamyji, Sri Guru Nagalinga Swamyji of Mustur Dasona Math and Sri Guru Doddabasava Swamyji of Punya Kshetra, Nandipura (Bellary district).