Sri M

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Not to be confused with Mahendranath Gupta.

Sri M (born Mumtaz Ali Khan) is a yogi and a disciple of Sri Maheshwarnath Babaji, who was a disciple of Mahavatar Babaji . Sri M, also known as Sri Madhukarnath ji, is an initiate of the Nath sub-tradition of Hinduism. He lives in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh, India.[1] Sri M received the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, in 2020.[2]

Early life[]

Mumtaz Ali Khan was born on 6 November 1949 to an affluent Muslim family in Trivandrum, Kerala.[3][4] In his autobiography, Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master, Sri M describes meeting his guru Maheshwarnath Babaji in the garden of Sri M's home in Trivandrum: a distinguished, youthful-looking stranger with matted hair, standing near a jackfruit tree. After a brief conversation, the stranger disappeared. This was a turning point in nine-year-old Sri M's life, and he later said about the meeting:

After the jackfruit tree incident, although outwardly I looked like any other boy of that age, my personality had undergone a profound change. A secret life went on within, side by side with the ordinary activities of day to day existence. The inner journey had begun and the first sign of this was that I began to meditate without even knowing the word meditation.[5]

After this awakening, Sri M made contact with a number of South Indian saints who included Bhagawan Nityananda of Ganeshpuri,[6] Yogi Gopala Saami, Kaladi Mastan, Swami Abhedananda, Chempazhanti Swami, Swami Tapasyananda and Mai Ma.[3][7]

Quest for self-realisation[]

According to his autobiography,[8] Sri M left his home at age nineteen to find his master in the Himalayas. Exhausted by the search, he met Sri Maheshwarnath Babaji—the same person he had met when he was nine—at the Vyasa Gufa (cave) near Badrinath. Sri M lived with Maheshwarnath for three-and-a-half years and learnt many things. Initiated into the Nath tradition, his Kundalini energy was awakened.[9] Sri M and Maheshwarnath travelled to a mutt in Tholing, Tibet.[10] His desire to meet Grand Master Mahavatar Babaji was fulfilled on Nilkantha Hill with the help of Maheshwarnath. Sri M claimed that Mahavatar Babaji was his master in a previous life, and Maheshwarnath reportedly had the power to materialize and de-materialize in any form on earth or beyond.[11]

Later years[]

After spending three years in the Himalayas as a wandering yogi with his master, Sri M said that he was asked by his master to go back and prepare for his life mission. He returned from the Himalayas and travelled throughout India, meeting gurus such as Neem Karoli Baba, Lakshman Joo and J. Krishnamurti. Sri M spent substantial time in the Ramakrishna Mission and the Krishnamurti Foundation. While associated with the foundation he met his future wife, Sunanda Sanadi; they have two adult children.[12]

Sri M heads the , which runs two schools in Andhra Pradesh: the Peepal Grove School and the Satsang Vidyalaya. The Peepal Grove School, a boarding school, was dedicated by former President of India A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in 2006. Satsang Vidyalaya is a free school for children in the Madanapalle area, where Sri M lives. The foundation began Bharat Yoga Vidya Kendra, a training programme for yoga teachers, in 2020. He writes in "Speaking Tree", a spiritual forum run by The Times of India.[13] A documentary film, The Modern Mystic: Sri M of Madnapalle,[14] was directed by Raja Choudhury in 2011.

In 2015, Sri M undertook a "Walk of Hope": a 7,500-kilometre (4,700 mi) padayatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. The walk began on 12 January, the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda (who had undertaken a similar journey over a century earlier). With a group of fellow travellers, Sri M walked through 11 Indian states and considered the Walk of Hope an exercise to restore the country's spirituality.[15] The padayatra ended in Srinagar, Kashmir, on 29 April 2016.[16]

Sri M published The Journey Continues, the second part of his autobiography, in 2017.[17] It exceeds the earlier book in apparently-miraculous incidents; in the introduction, he wrote that his readers might think that he "had finally gone bonkers". Sri M detailed a number of his previous lives over a period of 2,000 years, during which he (or she; in several lives, he was a woman) was associated with Indian saints.[18]

Books[]

  • Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master - A Yogi's Autobiography. Magenta Press, 2010. ISBN 81-910096-0-9.
  • Wisdom of the Rishis: The Three Upanishads (Ishavasya, Keno, Mandukya). Translated by Kamal Aswami. Satsang Communications, 2002.
  • Jewel in the Lotus: Deeper Aspects of Hinduism. Magenta Press, 2011.
  • The Little Guide to Greater Glory and a Happier Life. Magenta Press, 2014.
  • The Upanishads: Katha - Prashna – Mundaka. Magenta Press, 2017.
  • The Journey Continues: A Sequel to 'Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master'. Magenta Press, 2017.
  • Shunya. Westland by Amazon, 2018.
  • On Meditation : Finding Infinite Bliss and Power Within. Penguin Random House India, 2019.
  • Yoga: Also for the Godless Westland, 2020.
  • The Homecoming and Other Stories. Penguin, 2020.

References[]

  1. ^ http://satsang-foundation.org/?page_id=80 Sri M — Founder of Satsang Foundation
  2. ^ Jan 26, TNN |; 2020; Ist, 8:12. "Padma honour for eight Malayalis | Thiruvananthapuram News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 26 January 2020.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b "Sri M | Spiritual guide, Social Reformer and Educationist".
  4. ^ Sri M (2010). Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master. Magenta Press. Chapter 2.
  5. ^ Sri M (2010). Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master. Magenta Press. Chapter 2.
  6. ^ Sri M (2017). The Journey Continues. Magenta Press. Chapter 2.
  7. ^ Sri M (2010). Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master. Magenta Press. Chapters 4–12.
  8. ^ Apprenticed to a Himalayan master: a yogi's autobiography, Sri M, 2010, Magenta Press, ISBN 81-910096-0-9
  9. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20140220082831/http://www.ourkarnataka.com/kannada/articles/srim.htm – Review of Sri M's autobiography
  10. ^ http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=13702 – Another review of Sri M's autobiography
  11. ^ http://www.heraldofindia.com/article.php?id=554 – Article about book
  12. ^ Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master, Chapter 47.
  13. ^ http://www.speakingtree.in/srim Sri M profile in Speaking Tree
  14. ^ http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/8173/The-Modern-Mystic--Sri-M-of-Madnapalle – Documentary – The Modern Mystic: Sri M of Madnapalle
  15. ^ "Walk of Hope 2015–16". Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  16. ^ Ajai Kumar Singh (former DGP-IGP), former state police chief from Karnataka, also walked the entire stretch from Kanyakumari to Kashmir with his wife Tara (an ex-IAS officer).Hemanth Kashyap (10 May 2016). "Age no bar in this walk for a cause". Bangalore Mirror. Archived from the original on 23 April 2019.
  17. ^ Sri M (2017). The Journey Continues. Magenta Press.
  18. ^ "Sri M travels to past lives in search of human consciousness". The New Indian Express.

External links[]

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