Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas

Kashinath was born in winter of 1878* (Footnote 1) in Durgadi, a village in Bihar, India, to Sampatti Devi Mishra and Ramdahin Mishra. His parents named him Kashinath after Lord Shiva. Prior to his birth, his mother reported having a vision of Lord Krishna. Devotees in India regard such visions as auspicious signs indicating the coming of a great being.

Kashinath grew up in a devout Hindu family. While other children were playing, he was reportedly meditating. By age seven, Kashinath was consumed by questions about identity and mortality. At one point, he reportedly ran away in search of the meaning of death, but was retrieved by his parents and sent to a school. At age 13, Kashinath left home for good to reportedly search for spiritual enlightenment.

For the next 30 years, Kashinath travelled across India. He ofter visited remote and unsettled areas, seeking saints and yogis living in seclusion to teach him. He would eventually become adept at Mantra, Yantra, Hatha, Raja and Jnana yogic practices and philosophies. At age 27, Kashinath took his vows of renunciation (sannyasa) and received the spiritual name of Madhusudandas.

Although he had mastered many yogic paths and practised intense austerities, Kashinath believed that he had failed to attain his ultimate goal of self-realization. In 1921, while practising stringent austerities in a cave on Mount Abu in Rajasthan, Kashinath met his Satguru. Shri Yogiraj Parameshwardas, a master of Kundalini yoga. Shri Parameshwardas bestowed Shaktipat initiation on Kashinath. According to Kashinath, he immediately he attained the highest state of samadhi and his ultimate goal of self-realization.

Kashinath recounts that when he opened his eyes three days later, Shri Parameshwardas was sitting before him in the form of Lord Hanuman. Lord Hanuman, was the quintessential devotee of Shri Rama embodying the highest level of bhakti (devotional love), jnana (knowledge of Reality), vairagya (renunciation or detachment) and seva (selfless service). According to And these Divine qualities of Lord Hanuman became the hallmarks of Shri Dhyanyogi Madhusudandas.

Through the guidance of Shri Parameshwardas, Kashinath became a master of Kundalini Maha Yoga. This would give him the power to awaken the dormant Kundalini in spiritual aspirants, and to then guide their spiritual evolution from subtle levels. In recognition of this attainment, Shri Parameshwardas conferred on Kashinath the honorary title "Dhyanyogi." *(footnote 2)

After this, Kashinath carried on his work and teachings in a small ashram which he established in Bandhavad in the Indian state of Gujarat.

In 1960, Kashinath began widespread public instruction in Kundalini Maha Yoga, conducting group meditations throughout India. For millennia, Shaktipat had been an esoteric path to self-realization, not openly bestowed, or explicitly discussed in ancient Vedic scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita. Kashinath became one of the first teachers of this ancient tradition to openly work at a mass level by bestowing Shaktipat initiation on all who sought it from him. He said: “All those who came to me for Shaktipat are worthy, and all of them are my spiritual heirs. For my energy works through them.”

In late 1960s and early 1970s, During a protracted drought and famine in Gujarat, Kashinath collected charitable funds for relief there.

On 7 December 1971, exhausted by his unceasing efforts for famine victims, Kashinath suffered a dramatic near-death experience (NDE) which he recounted in a pamphlet entitled "Death, Dying and Beyond". He reported being taken to a heavenly abode of Lord Rama, his principal devotional deity. But then being sent back by Rama to his "dead" body to fulfill his desire to help many people, whose faces were shown to him from that subtle dimension beyond our Earthly "reality". After the NDE, Kashinath established a secondary school in Bandhwad, a hospital in a backward area of Bihar to help the needy, and a temple on his small Bandhwad ashram.

In 1976, Kashinath left India for the first time to expand his worldwide mission, described as helping spiritual seekers and raising humanity's consciousness. Following prior requests from American devotees, Kashinath came to the United States. He traveled around the country teaching meditation and offering Shaktipat. .

During Kashinath's four years in the US, he established many local groups and initiated thousands into Kundalini Maha Yoga. In his US lectures, he revealed that during his 1971 NDE he had seen and identified many of the same people who came to him in the West. He said: “Many of those faces that I saw in the courtyard of Lord Rama, I have seen here, since I came to America. All of the people I saw are my family, and I have to help them.” In introducing Kundalini Maha Yoga to Americans, Kashinath said that it was not a religion but a spiritual practice bringing “lasting inner peace and happiness to individuals of any belief or religious affiliation.” He describes this path in the book “Shakti: An Introduction to Kundalini Maha Yoga.”

In 1980, at age 102, Kashinath returned to India where he spent his remaining years in or near Ahmedabad, in Gujarat.

On 29 August 1994, the anniversary of Lord Krishna's birth, Kashinath died. To his devotees, it meant that he left his physical. Many of his devotees report that they continue to experience his transformative shakti energy at subtle levels of awareness.