1898 Shivapuri Baba encountered George Bernard Shaw, who professed contempt for yogis; "You Indian saints are the most useless of man; you have no respect for time."

S.B replied: "It is you who were slaves of time. I live in Eternity."

Spirituality always keenly draws my interest. I heard the name of Shivapuri Baba when I was in grade 8. I was amazed by knowing that he lived for 137 years.

The question was hitting my mind about the name of Shivapuri Baba: Was his name assigned by the name of the hill or was the hill assigned by his name?

The North of India rejoiced at the birth of twins in 1826; a boy and a girl were born as grandchildren of Achyutam in a high Brahmin family. At the age of five, he took on Brahmacharya, and at the age of 12, he mastered the four Vedas with two subsidiary works, the Dhanurveda and the Ayurveda. At age eighteen, in 1884, the young Brahmin decided to abandon the world. He traveled as a long pilgrimage all around the world. In the last 40 years of his life, he stayed in the Himalaya foothill of Nepal and attained Jiwanmukti.

While consulting to write the biography about him, S.B replied that his teaching is more important than his biography. Spiritual, Moral, and Physical disciplines are his three major teachings.

i. Physical
The foundation of the first discipline is discrimination. Discrimination on liking and disliking, what is good and what is bad for the self, body. The body should remain fit and fine; for this, you should carefully decide the amount you intake as food, not more, not less, but the exact amount. The time to go to bed, the surrounding where you stay or live. Family, social duties, professional duties, and charity should be done.

ii. Moral
Morality is sattwa, that is purity and is achieved through doing the right action; Karma. The rajas and tamas gunas are useless (akarma) and harmful (Vikarma) actions, which are linked with demonic influences of mind.

iii. Spiritual
It is the supreme task of human life. According to S.B., this is the very purpose of human existence and for which man does all the preparations. The first stage of spiritual discipline is Dharana, meaning devoting the mind. The second is Dhyana, which is the form of meditation, and the last stage is Samadhi, where there will be unity of object and subject.

Each individual can attain the highest goal in his life if he follows the right life and meditation. The right life consists of three stages: 1. Simple Observation 2. Detection 3. Elimination.

S.B. tells that God-realization is the final goal of every human being. I also came to know the future Shivapuri Baba used to be named Govindananda Bharati in his childhood.

S.B. is one of the most remarkable men of our time. While reading the book, I found that, aside from the religious priests and pandits, S.B.'s teachings were very simple and pragmatic, solving our day-to-day problems not by avoiding them but by thinking and performing in an efficient manner.