Remembering Shyamdas (1953–2013)
“Bhakti Yoga is about the most important thing in the universe: the joy of your own soul” — Shyamdas
It turns out that my beloved Shyamdas was a saint who came and went quickly to give his gifts to humanity. Like many sages, such as Jesus Christ or Yogananda or Jimi Hendrix, he did not stay long once his work was done.
When he met his guru Neem Karoli Baba, that was it. He stayed with him for the rest of his short life and made the absolute most of it. Shyamdas became fluid in the language, understandings and music of his guru’s culture. He travelled tirelessly back to the U.S. every year to share his guru’s grace.
He had fallen in love with truth/Reality/God/life as it actually is that outshines all conditions in the embrace of love. No dissociation.
Although he visited his home to teach in United States every year he stayed on in India in the culture that he had fallen in love with. He loved to live within the sacred empowered places of India. Over 30 years in India he absorbed the wisdom Traditions in a very unique way for a western and Jewish person.
His Abiding In the bright reality that he found, that outshines the apparent patterning of divine light was passed on to all he met in India and the west… with great love, and tireless enthusiasm.
The true tantra, the true yoga, is the relationship itself. And the deep satisfaction of having that intimacy, that Friendship, the capital ‘F’ Friendship with somebody. That is the true yoga. The true intimacy with Life. Deeper than deep. Subtler than subtle. Beyond the “beyond”.
I went to India with Shyamdas. We did a workshop in Rishikesh. We held hands in the city Haridwar (meaning “door of God”) at Kumbh Mela. This is a festival of millions of devotees that runs every four years and has done since primordial times. It is a meeting of all wisdom Traditions in the collective recognition that they are One. We meet as a singularity in tolerance and respect.
Shyamdas taught on the lesser known dharma of non-dual tantra in Vaishnavism. His own guruparampara was initiated by lesser known non dual acharya Wallabacharya.
In summary, Krishna is appearing as the sweetness of all arising conditions. In relationship to all tangible objects therefore, we know the sweetness of Krishna, our Source Reality.
He also discreetly taught the hidden tantra of Radha and Krishna’s union as the very form of our own embodiment. Where the intoxicating elixirs of Eros, of devotion flow as life itself. Their besotted attraction and love of each other is divine love. The intrinsic union that is Life.
This esoteric eroticism is very private and discreet. It is about one’s intimacy with God. It has nothing to do with conventional sex. Although sex may be transformed into such devotion. This is the non dual tantra, the Bhakti of Vaishnavism that Shyamdas and his gurus stood for.
“People go out and they try to find that joy by focusing on things in the world whether objects or individuals, and many cases the contacts they have in the world, when they don’t have a sense that everything is a reflection of this single Narayan, they fall short from the mark because they are unsatisfied with those relationships.
“Bhakti Yoga teaches that those relationships are fine because we feel and love things in the world because we are actually loving the spirit of the soul. So who wouldn’t embrace something as beautiful as that. Although it is incredibly straightforward and simple it remains a supreme secret because one has to know the sweetness of the heart” — Shyamdas
From 10th C, Vedanta and Tantra became interwoven dhamas. Vedanta adopted sacred texts of the Tantras that flourished for 1000 years throughout Hinduism and Buddhism. The Yogas became the practical means for all ordinary people to actualize the non dual state (a dvait, literally “not two”) no separation, no divisiveness, only God. The opposites are already in union.
One implies the other. One empowers the other. The “two” ARE “One”. So in Vaishnavism, Yoga asana / pranayama is the first and most vital spiritual practice. In its popular forms today, in ISKCON and other religious cults, this is not understood or practiced.
In my own background Krishnamacharya, a great Vaishnava acharya himself and yoga master, would affirm that hathayoga asana, the union of opposites, is the practical means by which we know “the source of all opposites.”
Asana is the enactment of the Radha Krishna Union inside and out. It has always been so, the first and most vital devotional practice of Vaishnava dharma. Shyamdas and I would love these discussions.
When I taught Shyamdas the Yogas from Krishnamacharya, he immediately recognized it and knew it to be the most vital part of the life of a Bhakta and for devotees of all faiths.
He is a saint of our own time. Such a serious and yet joyful person as you could ever find.
