Source: HPI
KAPAA, HI, USA, July 23, 2010: Sri Swami Bua Maharaj, one of the world’s greatest yogis, passed away today. Robert Spalding Newcomb, a logtime student of Swami, reported that Swami was hospitalized in Bengaluru two days ago and left his body shortly after that.
Swami Bua was a legendary hatha yogi. True to his spirit of sannyas, he never disclosed his age, but his devotees and closest associates place the date of his birth on 1889 or 1890. Hindu scriptures say that 120 years is the ideal lifespan of an uncorrupted human body.
Swami was Hindu of The Year 1998 of Hinduism Today magazine (you can read the article ). The paragraphs below reproduced the article published in January, 1999:
Swami Bua won’t reveal his age or anything else that is personal about himself, and there is no independent verification for his devotees’ claim. But Hinduism Today founder Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami first met Swami in Paris in 1969, and Swami was at that time easily in his 70s. Then, as now, this accomplished hatha yogi was in the best of shape, able to blow a conch for several minutes without taking a breath. His intellect and sense of humor remain keen. During his long life, he has met Swami Sivananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranatha Tagore, Theosophist Annie Besant and Subramuniyaswami’s guru, Siva Yogaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.
Swami has lived alone since 1972 in a modest apartment in New York City near Central Park. The living room is his yoga classroom where small groups of students gather daily for instruction in hatha yoga and meditation. Though he lives on a mostly liquid diet of vegetable and fruit juice, Swami loves to cook.
He won’t say much about his past, except to tell one story from his childhood. “I was the 16th child of my parents, having 12 brothers and 4 sisters,” he said. “I was born crippled and remained so until I was ten. Then a doctor predicted I would die. I did die, or so they thought. They took me to the cremation ground and put my body on the pyre. As the flames were lit, my body began to shake. Everyone ran away. Only one sadhu named Yogeshwara stayed, and he took me off the fire, then to his ashram where he gave me Himalayan herbs and taught me yoga. By 17 I had regained my health, but my family would not take me back.” Swami has lived as a strict sannyasi ever since.
“No special practice is necessary for God Realization,” he told us. “I see God everywhere. If God is not there, how do so many things happen?” “My contention is that sickness is sin,” Swami went on. “Don’t kill other animals, don’t make the belly as a burial ground. I teach hatha yoga, but I don’t subscribe to the idea that hatha yoga is a physical gymnastic exercise. ‘Restraint of the modifications of the mind’ [according to Patanjali] is yoga. Altogether there are eight limbs. Yama, moral restraints, is a step. When are you going to perfect your yama? How many lives is it going to take? When are you going to perfect your niyama, spiritual observances? When are you going to perfect your pratyahara, drawing in the forces of the mind? It takes time.” And so has Swami been direct and outspoken throughout his life, and well deserved to be named “Hindu of the Year” in 1998.