Soham Swami was a Hinduguru and yogi from India. Originally named as Shyama Kanta Bandopadhyay, he was the disciple of the Advaita Vedantist Tibbetibaba. Tibbetibaba was a great yogi and guru of India. Soham Swami was born as Shyama Kanta Bandopadhyay at Adial, a small village in Bikrampur district in the Bengali month of Jaishthya in 1858 and was one of the pioneers of physical prowess of modern Bengal. He had so much physical strength that he could wrestle even tigers. He was known to the public, both Indian and European, as Professor Banerjee, the first tiger tamer of India, and to his admirers in Bengal as BaghaShyamakanta. These tiger bouts took place before he entered into the spiritual path. Soham Swami built a hermitage near a crematorium in Bhawali in Nainital. It was at the Nainital ashram, Niralamba Swami became his disciple. In his early life Niralamba Swami, also known as Jatindra Nath Banerjee, was a great freedom fighter of India.
Life
Shyama Kanta's family belonged to the Bandyoghati branch of Kulin Brahmans of Phulia Mel. His father Shashibhushan Bandyopadhyay was a Sheristadar in the district court in Tripura. He spent his childhood in Dhaka where he studied at Dhaka Collegiate School. When he was in school, he started bodybuilding at the akhara of Adhar Ghosh at Lakshmibazar, Dhaka. Later he wanted to be a soldier, but he was barred from entering into the British Indian Army. After that he was appointed the bodyguard of MaharajaBir Chandra Manikya Bahadur of Tripura. Later he left the job and joined Barishal Zilla School as a gymnasium trainer. Soon he left that job and started a circus. For 17 years Shyama Kanta entertained audience across Bengal and Bihar with his tiger wrestling acts. In 1899, he left home to become a monk. He was initiated by Nabin Chandra Chakrabarti Tibbetibaba, a Vedantic monk who renamed Shyama Kanta as ″Soham Swami″. Soham Swami set up his hermitage at Bhawali near Nainital in modern-day Uttarakhand, India. He followed the spiritual path of Advaita or non-dualism and was a staunch critic of religious bigotry and superstitions. The last book written by him in Bengali, Bhagabat Geetar Shamolochana, was a critical review of Bhagavad Gita. On 6 December 1918, Soham Swami passed away while in deep meditation or Samadhi in his hermitage at Bhawali. His samadhi is located at Palitpur, Burdwan, India.There is also a symbolic samadhi at his Nainital ashram. It is due to the fact that after his mahasamadhi or death at his Nainital ashram, his last remains were brought to the Palitpur ashram of Tibbetibaba and a samadhi was built at the Palitpur ashram.
Written works
The writings of Soham Swami include books named:
Soham Geeta: This book contains teachings of Soham Swami.It is a poem on Advaita philosophy.
Soham Tattva: This book is a collection of Bengali prose on Vedanta.
Soham Samhita: This book contains teachings of Soham Swami.
Common Sense: This book attempts to prove that all religions of the world are full of absurdities, inconsistencies, and fallacies. In this book the importance of development of common sense and realization of divinity in all beings is stressed. This book was first published in 1923.
Truth: This book was the only book written by him in English poetry. It was published in Calcutta, now Kolkata, in 1913.
His other notable works included: Vivekgatha, Shambuka Badh Kavya, Bhagabat Geetar Shamolochana.
