Kulguru Swami Rajarshi Muni of Lakulish tradition

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A brief note on Swami Rajarshi Muni-

• He was the founder of the Lakulish International Fellowship’s Enlightenment Mission (LIFE Mission).
• He was born in a Kshatriya family on February 11, 1931 in Porbandar, Gujarat. 
• Swamiji took diksha in 1970 from Swami Kripalvanand and renounced his home on his birthday in 1971. 
• Later he was involved in ‘yogsadhana’. He dedicated his life to popularising and developing yoga. 
• He established ashrams in Gujarat, Haridwar and USA. He also authored several books in English, Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi languages. 
• He was also awarded the Prime Minister’s Yoga Award in 2019 for outstanding contribution for promotion and development of yoga.
• He was also the founder of the Lakulish Yoga University based in Ahmedabad.

Who is Lakulisha?

• Lakulisha (meaning the lord with a staff or mace or club or stick) was a prominent Shaivite revivalist, reformist and preceptor of the doctrine of the Pashupatas, one of the oldest sects of Shaivism.
• According to some scholars, Lakulisha is the founder of the Pashupata sect. While, another section argues that the Pashupata doctrine was already in existence before Lakulisha, and he was only its first formal preceptor.
• According to a tradition stated in the Linga Purana, Lakulisha is considered as the 28th and the last avatar of Shiva and the propounder of Yoga system. 
• According to the same tradition, Lakulisha had four disciples, viz., Kaurushya, Garga, Mitra and Kushika. 
• According to another tradition mentioned in the Avanti Khanda of the Skanda Purana, Lakulisha and his four disciples while passing Mahakalavana, installed a linga at that place, which was then known as Kayavarohaneshvara. 
• The Kurma Purana, the Vayu Purana, and the Linga Purana predicted that Shiva (Maheshvara) would appear in the form of a wandering monk called ‘Lakulin’ or ‘Nakulisha’, and that he would have four disciples named, Kushika, Garga, Mitra, and Kanrushya, who would re-establish the cult of Pashupati and would therefore be called Pashupata(s). 
• Lakulisha was the fruition of these divine predictions. 
• According to Vayu Purana, Lakulisha was a contemporary of Vyasa and Krishna, and was the 28th incarnation of Rudra (Shiva).
• Lakulisha Pashupata has been identified as ‘Dualistic-combined with-Non-dualistic Monism’ (bheda-abheda) Shaivism, and there was strong emphasis on Yoga system. 
• The principal text of the Pashupata sect, the Pāśupata Sūtra is attributed to Lakulisha. 

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