Swami Shiv Prakash Bharti (Shiva)

– 31 January 2023.

Shiv Prakash Bharti’s Death Celebration was held on 3 February in Koregaon Park, Pune.

A letter from the family

Oh, our beloved Papa,

Fly peacefully, oh beloved of our hearts!
May your journey carried away by angels to heavens be blessed!
Eternally rest in Heaven, the true home you have earned!
Gratitude for the beautiful life you have lived with us!
Gone too soon, never forgotten, glory is yours!
Guess, Heaven has gained a new angel; it must have been in need of the best one!
May the eternal light shine on you!
You will be forever in our hearts!
Until we meet, let the angels watch over you!

Love you,
Papa’s Family

Chaitanya Keerti remembers

Swami Shiv Prakash Bharti, who left his body on 31st January in Pune, was originally from Panipat, my home town, where I had lived until I came to Osho in 1971 and was initiated into sannyas.

After travelling around India with our Osho Kirtan group for about 18 months, I returned to Panipat and wrote to Osho: “I would like to publish a monthly magazine in Hindi for North India.” In those days Osho was not much known in that part of India. I received an instant response from Osho; he sent me a name for the magazine.

In the meantime I had opened a library with Osho’s books and advertised it with posters all over town. The first person to visit the library was a young man called Shiv Kumar Goyal. He was a lover of books and was from a middle-class family. He started visiting my library more and more often and we became friends. Once he invited me his home.

It was a bit of a strange visit…

I arrived, of course, wearing orange and Osho’s mala. His parents did not like the idea of Shiv Kumargetting attracted to a sannyasin. They were so afraid that their son would renounce the world that they banned me from entering their home ever again.

But, whatever is supposed to happen, then happened…

I left Panipat and went to live in another city, Ludhiana in Punjab, from where I published my monthly magazine. After a few months, I invited Shiv Kumar to come to Ludhiana – and he came.

His parents came to know about it and sent his elder brother, Shiv Prakash Goyal, to bring him back. And a strange thing happened: both of us managed to kindle his interest in Osho’s vision of neo-sannyas.

A couple of years later, when the ashram in Pune was open, Shiv Kumar Goyal became initiated into sannyas and received his new name, Swami Shivanand Bharti. And a few years also Shiv Prakash Goyal came to Pune to check out what was happening. After listening to Osho’s discourses, a few years later, on 8 May 1978, he was also initiated into sannyas.

The younger brother, Swami Shivanand Bharti, was for several years a gate guard and the elder brother, Swami Shiv Prakash Bharti, worked in the middle of 1988 as an electrician in the commune.

Chaitanya Keerti