Lakshman Joo

Swami
Lakshman Joo
Born (1907-05-09)9 May 1907
Srinagar, Kashmir
Died 27 September 1991(1991-09-27)
Srinagar, Kashmir
Religion Hinduism
School Kashmir Shaivism

Swami Lakshman Joo Raina (9 May 1907 – 27 September 1991) was a mystic and scholar of Kashmir Shaivism or Trika. He was known as Lal Sahib ("Friend of God") by followers.[1]

Biography

Lakshman Joo was born in Srinagar, Kashmir. He was the fifth child in a household of four boys and five girls. His father Naraindas Raina (also known as Nav Narayan) was the first man to have introduced houseboats in Kashmir. His mother's name was Arnyamali.

He was introduced to the path of spirituality and to the principles of Kashmir Shaivism by his family priest Ram and later by his disciple Mehtab Kak. At the age of 20, it is said, he experienced self-realisation. Shortly afterwards he left home, as he wrote, "in search of the Supreme" and moved to the famous ashram of Sadhamalyun (Sadhuganga) in Handwara. Persuaded by his father to return to Srinagar, he continued to study Sanskrit and Shaiva philosophy under the guidance of a scholar named Maheshwar Razdan.

In 1934-35, he moved to the Nishat suburb of Srinagar where his parents built him a house a few hundred metres from the Nishat Gardens, the place where Abhinavagupta had lived nine centuries before.

Around the age of 30 he travelled to India, spending time on a Bombay beach and a short time with Mahatma Gandhi at Sevagram and then with Aurobindo at Pondicherry. From there he found his way to Tiruvannamalai to meet Ramana Maharshi. There he spent some weeks and later commented; "I felt those golden days were indeed divine".

He returned to Kashmir and has lived and taught there until his death in 1991, giving weekly lectures on the mystical and philosophical texts of Kashmir Shaivism. Many of these lectures were audio recorded by John Hughes and later published. Lakshman Joo's interpretation of Kashmir Shavism attracted the attention of a number of western Indologists, and his visitors included a number of Sanskrit scholars, such as Lilian Silburn, André Padoux, Jaideva Singh, Rameshwar Jha, Jankinath Kaul "Kamal", Gherardo Gnoli, Alexis Sanderson and Mark Dyczkowski. His teachings also influenced Paul Reps, whose rendering of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, later used by Osho, brought the meditation methods of his school to international prominence, and Miguel Serrano, a controversial writer from Chile.[2]

The teachings of Lakshman Joo are carried on by a local organisation Ishwar Ashram Trust which was founded by him.[3]

Selected publications

Posthumously:

Kashmir Shaivism – Library

Over a period of nineteen years John Hughes recorded Lakshman Joo's translations of the following texts. Transcripts of these lectures are maintained in the Universal Shaiva Fellowship library.

Audio recordings in Kashmiri language

DVD recordings in English

References

  1. ↑ "Swami Lakshmanjoo". Retrieved 2008-02-28.
  2. ↑ Miguel Serrano, The Serpent of Paradise : The Story of an Indian Pilgrimage, London: Rider [1963]; New York: Harper & Row [1st American ed., 1972] ISBN 0-06-090284-1; London: Routledge and Kegan Paul [Revised ed., 1974], ISBN 0-7100-7784-X & ISBN 0-7100-7785-8
  3. ↑ "Swamy Lakshman Joo's Birth Centenary Celebrations". One India. Retrieved 5 Jun 2012.

External links

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