Swami Shankaratilakananda


Shrî Swami Shankarâtilakananda is the title and Vedic name of Master Javier Plazas. Swami ji was born in the city of Granada in Spain and is the direct disciple of His Holiness Shrî Swami Tilak Paramahamsa.

In 1974 at a very young age he was initiated in Yoga at the Shrî Pujya Swami Sivananda Sarasvati School by Shrî Pujya Swami Vishnudevananda Sarasvati. From Swami ji he received Divya Nama, Ishta Mantra, Naishtika Brahmacharya Diksha and embraced Vedic Dharma. Swami ji was a student and teacher in Canada, the United States and Spain at the International Sivananda Yoga Centres until 1978.

Swami ji was formally educated by Upacharyas, Acharyas, Upagurus and Gurudeva and was very faithful to each and every one of his masters serving and obeying them all. He studied the profound knowledge of spirituality and the religiousness of Vedic Dharma through Sanskrit, the Sacred Vedic Scriptures, Vedic Theology, Puranic Symbology Sacred History, Advaita Vedanta History, Pantajala Ashtanga Yoga, the Agamas and Nigamas, Kaulachara Tantra, Vyayam Vidya, Nada Yoga, Ayurveda and Ayursiddha; the art of fighting and Strategy, applied Psychology to Religion and Psychosomatics.

In 1976 he met His Holiness Pujya Gurudeva Shrî Swami Tilak when he visited Granada on a world tour promoting Vedic Dharma, but it wasn’t until 1978 when Swami ji travelled to India that he took refuge at his feet asking him to accept him as his disciple. Pujya Gurudeva Swami Tilak accepted him as Shisya and granted him the condition of Swami after embracing Sannyasa Diksha. Swami ji served Gurudeva collaborating with him in the mission of Diffusing Vedic Dharma in the west until Shrî Swami Tilak ji abandoned his physical body in 1984 in Spain. Shrî Swami ji was at his side until the last breath of his Venerable Master and since then he has always been at the head of the mission to preserve the work that Swami Tilak began and founded with total devotion, as Shrî Swami ji deeply loved his Venerable Master to which he handed over his youth and to whom he keeps on giving his whole life.

Pujya Gurudeva Shrî Swami Tilak Paramahamsa was disciple of the Very Venerable Master, Baba Bajaranga Dasi ji whose sacred ashes are kept in the Vedic Temple in Granada, Spain.

Shrî Swami ji´s intellectual, psychological, humane and spiritual preparation is wonderful and easily recognizable for all those who enter into contact with him and is fully accredited by those who accompany him in his teachings, which he has been doing for so many decades. Shrî Swami ji received a solid and profound academic and traditional education. His dedication to study and meditation is continuous and at times supernatural. His energy is unlimited and he is able to give classes for more than 12 hours without interruption, endless hours in sacred song, firmness in seated asana during satsanghs that extend from morning until evening, as is his ability to enter into deep sleep for no more than three hours daily. All of this is real and easy to see, you only have to get to know him and listen to him.

Shrî Swami ji has participated in numerous activities organized by Hindu Institutions. On various occasions he has been the guest of honour at the Benares Hindu University where, along with other activities, he was a special speaker in the Symposium about Sanskrit Languages and Philosophies of India in Benares. At the same University he gave special seminars for teachers from the Department of Vedic Philosophy and special courses for youths from the Secondary Schools associated with it.

Shrî Swami ji has directed and organized courses, conferences and seminars about Hinduism and Indology in Spain, India, the United States, Nepal, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain, Holland, Denmark, Japan, Bulgaria, Argentina, Italy and Portugal, and also numerous retreats and special programs in monasteries and Vedic theological monasteries in Canada, Mexico, Spain and India.

In India he participated in many varied activities organized by Hindu Institutions, like the Benares Sanscrit Universtiy. He is a member of the World Directive Board of the VHP “Vishva Hindu Parishad” (World Hindu Confederation) with its Head Office in New Delhi, and member of the World Directive Board of the World Hindu Federation reclaimed by the previous King of Nepal, his Majesty Bhirendra, with its headquarters in Kathmandu. He also participated in the World Conference on Indo Religions in Los Angeles, in the World Conference on Indo Religions in Amsterdam, in the conference of Hindu Communities of Europe in Copenhagen, and in the National Congress of the Yoga Professors Association of Spain in Zaragoza. These are some of the many conferences that Swami ji participated in along with many other events, workshops, Symposiums and Congresses. He has also imparted several conferences, for example the debates at the National Conference of Businessmen in India, at the Chamber of Commerce in Bombay.

In Japan, Shrî Swami ji enjoyed the great enthusiasm of the Japanese giving a number of courses, talks and organized meetings in one of the countries most relevant Buddhist organizations, "Kofukuno kagaku" in the cities of Matsumoto, Fukui Ken, Kyoto and in the Health Centre of the Maha-Yoga Academy of Shira Kawa Masako in Tokyo and Matsumoto. In one of the main Fujitsu factories of electronic components in the city of Matsumoto, he gave a memorable Vyayam Yoga class in front of more than 500 workers and executives with help from his prestigious Japanese student, Gauri Sashti Satomi Miyagoshi.
He was co organizer along with Dr. Guirao Lopez- Chancellor and President of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Granada- of the only Doctorate course on Ayurvedic Medicine, celebrated in the Royal Academy of Medicine in Granada and sponsored by FEV.

Shrî Swami ji has been a speaker and coordinator of the Courses and Conferences about “Mysticism, Eastern-Western Dialogue”, organized by the Vedic Foundation and the International Training Centre O.C.D of Theresa-Saint John of Avila, during the preparation acts for the IV centenary of the death of Saint John of the Cross.
He conducted and organized courses, conferences and seminars about Hinduism and Indology in Spain, India, the United States, Nepal, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain, Argentina, Holland, Denmark and Japan. He has collaborated in many Training courses for Yoga Teachers organized by many Yoga centres.

Shrî Swami ji has participated in the organization as coordinator and promoter of meetings, conferences and congresses about Yoga and Mysticism, among them, the congress “Beyond Death” realized in conjunction with the magazine “Beyond Science” and celebrated in Granada.

Shrî Swami ji has also frequently participated in radio and television programs particularly a weekly participation during one year in Popular Radio in Pamplona as tutor, and participating during two years in the Spanish Television program “The Round Table” as assessor and commentator. Shrî Swami ji was the director of various publications like the Indology magazine of the VHP-Vishwa Hindu Parishad in the Spanish edition, and co editor of the European edition. He has been the editor of the Vedic Magazine, of the FEV in Granada and director of the Vedic Publishers Gnyana Prakashana Editions.
Swami ji has also been the Chancellor of the Vedic Foundation from 1985 until 1989, and has not been affiliated with any religious institution.

Shrî Swami ji was a member of the World Directive Board of the VHP “Vishva Hindu Parishad” (World Hindu Confederation) with its Head Office in New Delhi. He was a member of the World Directive Board of the WHP “World Hindu Federation” reclaimed by the previous King of Nepal, his Majesty Bhirendra, with its headquarters in Kathmandu. He was member of the European Theology Committee and the Commission for the promotion of Dharma, New Delhi VHP “Vishva Hindu Parishad”.. He has promoted and assessed the creative programs and establishment of the first college in the world for Vedic studies for westerners in Kathmandu, Nepal. He is an honorary member of the Honourable Hindu Acharya Samiti Kawaii (United States) and Shri Lanka (Hindu Masters Society). He is also member of the Brahmana International Organization of Hyderabad (India) and of the Lion Rotary Club in Lalcarwaza, Hyderabad (India).

Shrî Swamiji is the author of various specialized books and co-author and supervisor of many others, among them we can mention: The Vyayam Book, edited by Edaf; Ashtavakra Gita , edited by Edaf; Vyayam, the Art of Dynamic Breathing, Published by New Age Books,
Ayurvedic Therapy for the gastrointestinal digestive system and for collateral stress, Commentary of the Gita Amritam, Orientation notes about Yoga, Vedic Orations and together with Mr. Ricard Daula Tantra for Westerners.
In the books The Round Table Vol. I, II, III by Francisco Oleza, he collaborated by supervising several sections and is mentioned in them as Antonio Javier Plazas and Swâmî Shankaratilakananda.