Kavi Yogi Maharishi Dr. Shuddhananda Bharati (11 May 1897 – 7 March 1990) was an Indian philosopher and poet. His teachings are focused mainly on the search for God in

Self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

, through the Sama Yoga practice he created.

Biography

Bharati was born in

Sivaganga Sivaganga () is the City and headquarters of the Sivaganga district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is known for the 16th-century Sivagangai Fort, located in City Centre. Inside the fort, the Rajarajeshwari Amman Temple features many orn ...

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

, and attained Jeeva Samadhi in nearby Sholapuram. He spent 25 years in silence in

Pondicherry Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...

from 1925 to 1950, in the Ashram of

Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian Modern yoga gurus, yogi, maharishi, and Indian nationalist. He also edited the newspaper Bande Mataram (publication), ''Bande Mataram''. Aurobindo st ...

and the Mother

Mirra Alfassa Mirra Alfassa (21 February 1878 – 17 November 1973), known to her followers as The Mother or ''La Mère'', was a French-Indian spiritual guru, occultist and yoga teacher, and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of ...

. From the early 1950s to the 1970s, he lived in today's Yogi Gardens, beside the IIT near

Adyar, Chennai Adyar is a large neighbourhood in south Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is among the most upscale neighborhoods of the city. It is located on the southern banks of the Adyar River. It is surrounded by the Tharamani to the West, Thiruvanmiyur ...

. Bharati always lived alone, without an Ashram. He founded Shuddhananda Bharati Desiya Vidyalayam High School in 1979. Several of Bharati's disciples contributed to the construction of the main building of the school at Sholapuram in 1992.

Works

Bharati wrote over 250 published works: 173 in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, fifty in English, ten in French, four in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and three in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

. He was also conversational in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

and

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. He is the first translator to have done both verse and prose renderings of the ''

Tirukkural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' (), or shortly the ''Kural'' (), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven words each. The text is divided into three books wit ...

'' into English. He also translated the novels of

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

, the plays of Moliere and Racine, and

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

's ''

Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' (, ) is an Italian narrative poetry, narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of ...

'' into Tamil. In his magnum opus ''Bharata Shakti'', Bharati describes his ideal of "One humanity living in communion with a single God in a world transformed". The full work includes epic texts, lyrical dramas, operas, comedies, pastoral novels, news, biographies, comments on illustrated works, essays, poems in French corrected directly by the Mother, Sacred Odes, walks, Rondels and triplets. For this work, Bharati received the Raja Rajan Award from the

Tamil University The Tamil University is a public state university located in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established to provide higher research in the Tamil language. Location The university is situated in a campus of about , granted by the State go ...

Tanjore Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore,#Pletcher, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian c ...

in 1984, conferring upon him the title of

Doctor of Literature Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

. His autobiography, ''The Pilgrim Soul'' includes encounters with well-known personalities of the past century, including

Annie Besant Annie Besant (; Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was an English socialist, Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist and campaigner for Indian nationalism. She was an arden ...

Meher Baba Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani; 25 February 1894 – 31 January 1969) was an Indian spirituality, spiritual master who said he was the Avatar, or God in human form, of the age. A spiritual figure of the 20th century, he had a following o ...

Shirdi Sai Baba Sai Baba of Shirdi (), also known as Shirdi Sai Baba, was an Indian spiritual master considered to be a saint, and revered by both Hindu and Muslim devotees during and after his lifetime. According to accounts from his life, Sai Baba preached ...

, V. V. S. Aiyar,Sri

Sacchidananda Shivabhinava Narasimha Bharati Sri Sachchidananda Shivabhinava Narasimha Bharathi Mahaswamigalu (born as Shivaswami; 11 March 1858 – 1912) was the head of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham from 1879 to 1912. He played a pivotal role in identifying Kalady as the birthplace of the ...

Ramana Maharshi Ramana Maharshi (; ; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian Hindu Sage (philosophy), sage and ''jivanmukta'' (liberated being). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He was b ...

, C. V. Raman,

Subramanya Bharathi Subramania Bharati (Born Chinnaswami Subramaniyan; 11 December 1882 – 11 September 1921) was an Indian writer, poet, journalist, teacher, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot. He was bestowed the title ''Bharati'' for hi ...

Sivananda Swami Sivananda Saraswati (; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963), also called Swami Sivananda, was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of '' Vedanta''. Sivananda was born in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of mo ...

Romain Rolland Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...

Jean Herbert Jean Herbert was a French Orientalist and one of the first generation of interpreters for the United Nations organization. He was a former chief interpreter of the United Nations interpretation service in New York City. Biography Herbert was o ...

and others.

In English

* ''Our Religion'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 171 pages, * ''Yoga for All'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 152 pages, * ''The Divine Master'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 162 pages, * ''The Secrets of Sadhana'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 95 pages, * ''Guiding Lights'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 130 pages, * ''Gospel of Perfect Life'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 226 pages, * ''Cosmic Riddles'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 144 pages, * ''Mystic Treasure'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 230 pages, * ''Pilgrim Soul'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 503 pages, * ''Mahatma Ramalingam'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 164 pages, * ''Sama Yoga'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 172 pages, * ''Secrets of Sama Yoga'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 183 pages, * ''Tamil Sentiment'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 202 pages, * ''Poet Nightingale Bharathiyar'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 213 pages, * ''Sri Krishna and His Gospel'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 171 pages, * ''Silambu Selvam'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 369 pages, * ''Secrets of Yoga'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 236 pages, * ''Alvar Saint'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 165 pages, * ''Thirukkural'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 185 pages, * ''The Soul sings'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 157 pages, * ''The Yoga Master'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 189 pages, * ''The Revelation of Saint Meikandar'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 103 pages, * ''The Magic Weapon of Shiva'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 145 pages, * ''The Delightful Tamil Garden'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 120 pages, * ''Art Temple'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 296 pages, * ''Letters of Kavi Yogi, Volume 1'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 191 pages, * ''Letters of Kavi Yogi, Volume 2'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 174 pages, * ''Adi Shankara Bhagavan'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 193 pages, * ''Bharata Shakti, Canto one, Emanation of the Pure One'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 285 pages, * ''Bharata Shakti, Canto two, Gowri Kandam'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 430 pages, * ''Bharata Shakti, Canto three, Sadhana Kandam'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 471 pages, * ''Bharata Shakti, Canto four, Satyan at Danavam'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 371 pages, * ''Bharata Shakti, Canto five, Victory of Shuddha Shakti'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 313 pages, * ''Arrival of Mira, Love story between Bhojan and Mira'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 133 pages, * ''The Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, Live in Yoga with the Divine, a Life Divine !'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 113 pages, * ''The Secrets of Shiva'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 119 pages, * ''His sixtieh birthday celebration'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 131 pages, * ''Illumination Hymn and Conference'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 133 pages, * ''Voice of Tayumanar'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 205 pages, * ''Poet's Forum, Kavi Arangam'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 144 pages, * ''The Arrival of Buddha'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 101 pages, * ''Fasting and Divinity'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 104 pages, * ''The Grand Epic of Saivism'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 257 pages, * ''Songs for Children'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 100 pages, * ''Essence of Religion'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 127 pages, * ''William Blake'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 104 pages, * ''Francis Thompson'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 97 pages, * ''Kama Thilagan and Vanarasu'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 137 pages, * ''Chariot of Life'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 207 pages, * ''Vivekanandam and The Story of our Independence'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 137 pages, * ''Fire of Tamil, Thamizhkanal'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 207 pages, * Sadasiva Brahman, the Silent Sage

Biographies and sources

* Sri Dewan Bahadur. ''A Study of all the works of Dr. Shuddhananda Bharati'', L'Auberson, Éditions ASSA, 224 pages, * The best known biography of Maharishi Yogi Kavi Dr. Bharati Shuddhananda is that written in his hand in his book ''Pilgrim Soul'
Extracts of Pilgrim Soul
Editions ASSA, L'Auberson, Christian Piaget, . * ''Dancing with Shiva'', Published by Himalayan Academy India,

References

External links

"The path to spiritual communism"
Profile of Dr. Shuddhananda Bharati, ''Indian Express'', Chennai, 14 April 1990
Coverage of Dr. Shuddhananda Bharati's visit to South Africa

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bharati, Shuddhananda 1897 births 1990 deaths Indian spiritual teachers 20th-century Indian philosophers People from Sivaganga district Tamil writers Epic poems in Tamil Carnatic composers 20th-century Indian composers Tamil–English translators 20th-century Indian translators Translators of the Tirukkural into English