By Japhet Alakam

Swami Shivapad, fondly known as Swamiji, is a dedicated yoga and meditation teacher who has devoted his life to the upliftment and betterment of society.  Swamiji who started his art life at a tender age by usually sitting alone, observing nature and introspecting into the purpose of life, has been teaching various programs from The Art of Living extensively across India through to the remote areas of the north eastern states, as well as abroad.

He visited Nigeria recently to spread happiness and the seed of awareness to every Nigerian allowing one to tap into their inner wealth regardless of one’s status, position and power.

After his first interaction with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar he abandoned luxury for a higher cause of serving humanity and joined the Art of Living Foundation. He has a Masters in English literature (M.A), and excelled in various extracurricular activities which include cricket, archery, and target shooting and racing.

Photography is one of his greatest passions to date with a keen subject interest in wild life. A very rare quality is his ability to interact with every age group, extracting one’s attributes and enabling them to blossom to their unrealized full potential.

The Art of Living teacher  has reached out to thousands with his expertise in meditation, specific yoga programs and discourses on various scriptures empowering many facets of an individual through to improved ethics and ethos in the work environment.

His wealth of knowledge has transformed and enabled a diverse population that ranges from villagers, public servants, community groups, medical professionals, army personnel, war veterans, corporate and government officials.

Swamiji has taught and continues to teach the various programs across 3,000 villages and cities across India, South East Asia & Africa.

According to him, when we live every moment of our lives with awareness we do not allow the mind to reminisce about the past or dwell in the future. These are spheres of regret, anger, uncertainty and fear. The beauty, depth and the possibilities of the present dawns in you. The unbounded potential within you finds a means to express itself in the present. To experience this though one needs to dive deep within.

Thus when we live a life of awareness, every moment we are unconsciously directing our mind to change its perennial habit of either living in the past or the future. Mastering one’s mind is cakewalk for a person living with awareness in each moment.

This seed of awareness can be sown and nurtured. Your unbounded potential can be experienced. Your mind can be mastered. This is all achieved through Meditation.

In 2004, post Kargil war, he worked with the Indian Army personnel offering stress and trauma relief programs as well as rehabilitation programs.

Creativity, Clarity of mind, Intuition, Sharpness of Intelligence, Empathy, Re-emergence of value systems, a Win-Win attitude and effective communication skills are factors that are essential for business. These traits and values surface in you as by products.