Further reading: Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Siva the
Erotic Ascetic (New York: Oxford University Press,
1981); Stella Kramrisch, The Presence of Siva (Princ-
eton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981).
Lingayat sect See VIRASHAIVAS.
Lokenath Divine Life Mission
Lokenath Divine Life Mission is an outgrowth of the
work of Swami Shuddhananda (b. 1949), who has
become a holy figure serving the poor of Calcutta
(Kolkata), much as his late Roman Catholic coun-
terpart Mother Teresa. His fellowship carries out its
social and religious service in the areas where there
are poverty and sickness. He has played a major
role in developing schools and medical facilities, as
well as economic activity, to provide nourishment,
homes, and education for the underprivileged. The
mission offers courses to transform stress into a
positive power that produces success, peace, and
harmony. The mission also sponsors programs to
foster women’s empowerment and sustainable rural
development in India.
The fellowship is named for Baba Lokenath
(1730–1890), who reportedly lived for 160 years
as an embodiment of love, compassion, and
humility. He taught his disciples that he would
guide and help them forever, even after his death.
The Lokenath Fellowship calls upon this promise
and assumes that the enlightened sage watches
over the social service organization devoted to his
work in life.
As a young man, Shuddhananda emerged from
school and university as a professor in business at
Hyderabad University. Concerned about the reli-
gious and social service needs of underprivileged
people he eventually left the academic arena and
sought refuge in the Himalaya Mountains. He
remained there several years searching his soul
about how to help others.
As a very young man he had had visions of the
19th-century rishi and saint Baba Lokenath. The
memories of the visions never left him. After his
pilgrimage in the Himalayas he founded a social
service and religious center where he could nur-
ture those in need. The design of his mission and
the scope of his services, from medicine to social
support, are reminiscent of the work of Swami
SHIVANANDA SARASWATI of Rishikish, the founder of
the Divine Life Society.
During the 1990s Swami Shuddhananda trav-
eled to the United States to share his spirituality
and to talk about the way he has designed his
social service mission. A small number of disciples
have joined to learn from him and help with his
charitable work in India. The Fellowship in the
United States is located in Louisiana. The Interna-
tional Mission has headquarters in Calcutta.Further reading: Anne Cushman and Jerry Jones, From
Here to Nirvana (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998).Long, Barry (1926–2003) Australian teacher
of realization
Barry Long was a spiritual teacher from Australia
whose realization of immortality in 1965 trans-
formed his life and advanced him to realization of
a higher consciousness.
Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1926, Long pur-
sued a career in newspaper editing and politics.
At the age of 31 he experienced a death of self
and a dawning of a new sense of existence. The
event sparked in him a lifelong quest for truth
and self-knowledge. In the 1970s he traveled to
London to secure publication of his experiences.
There he continued writing and began meeting
regularly with small groups of people interested
in his teachings. In the 1980s he started holding
meetings and meditation classes with larger audi-
ences. His first widely circulated book, The Ori-
gins of Man and the Universe, published in 1984,
increased his public recognition.
The Barry Long Foundation was established as
an educational charity in England in 1985. Later
that year, he founded the Barry Long Centre onLong, Barry 261 J