Baba Sri Siva is a businessman-guru whose philosophy is to think rich. By focusing the mind intently on achieving material wealth, prosperity is only chants away, the India-born mystic teaches. Sri Siva, born Baskaran Pillai, visited Philadelphia last week as part of what he says are his efforts to spread the teachings of the Tamil siddhas, gurus from southern India whose philosophies are known primarily to a few select students.
His teachings were the inspiration for New Age author Wayne Dyer's best-selling Manifest Your Destiny: The Nine Spiritual Principles for Getting Everything You Want. Followers and curiosity-seekers came from as far away as Florida to sit in on two lectures here.
"When your basic needs are in danger, you can't behave naturally," said Sri Siva, 55. "You can't be angry and without clothes or food and talk about kindness and peace."
His philosophy could be described as a Hindu take on Christian "prosperity gospel": that faith and belief are forces that can be harnessed to achieve anything.
Sri Siva teaches that what can be harnessed are centers of energy known as chakras situated at various points in the body. The way to harness the energy is through meditation and chanting, focusing on the goal being sought.
Through that practice, he said, people can actualize their goals, perhaps a new car, new house or new job. They will not only seek opportunities to achieve the goal, but attract opportunities as well. He outlines the methods in his book The One-Minute Guide to Prosperity and Enlightenment.
Tamil siddha teachings have their roots in tantric yoga, which is one of the traditions within Hinduism, said K.L. Seshagiri Rao, editor of the Encyclopedia of Hinduism and a retired religion professor at the University of Virginia.
"While others underestimate the things of the world and the body, this tradition uses the world and the body and its enormous potentiality for attaining the highest achievements," Rao said.
The practices, Sri Siva said, can also be used to dismantle a person's karma, or destiny that has been determined by actions in previous lives.
But achieving wealth simply for wealth's sake is not the point, the guru said.
"The only excuse for wealth is that it gives you the freedom to realize your higher self and gain enlightenment," Sri Siva said. "If you lose sight of God or the higher self and only focus on material things, then you become corrupt and greedy."
Sri Siva developed his philosophy over his years as a student and teacher.
He was born in the Tamil Nadu state of India, the son of an artist and homemaker. He earned two degrees in literature from the University of Madurai in India and later traveled to the United States to study. He received a doctorate in religious studies from the University of Pittsburgh and taught at the school for four years.
Sri Siva was raised in Hinduism and studied with gurus in the Himalayas. He later became interested in Buddhism, but said he found impractical its principles that desire is bad and money is evil. He developed his own philosophy, eschewing pie-in-the-sky for a comfortable here-and-now on the way to higher consciousness.
Sri Siva himself has achieved a degree of personal prosperity. He owns SI Systems in New York, a business intelligence computer firm, and donates some of the proceeds from his financial endeavors, including the sale of teaching materials, to the Tripura Foundation, a hunger-relief charity he founded.
At his first lecture here, Sri Siva walked to the stage of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia after about a half-hour of musical chanting by an eight-person band. A slight man in black pants, a shawl, and a loose-fitting white top, he sat on a chair draped in yellow fabric and surrounded by flowers.
In a resonant, soothing baritone, Sri Siva talked deliberately for nearly two hours to the crowd of about 125 people. To meditate, he said, visualize a light going through the eyes and into the brain, and chant, "Om Siva Baba."
Michael Barron, 42, of University City, attended with his wife, Stephanie. He heard about Sri Siva while watching the author Dyer on television.
"There's got to be more to life than getting up, going to work, paying bills, and then doing it all over again," Barron said. "I came out to get what I can, and if I can get a little truth, I'll take it."
Barron had never meditated before that night, but said the most valuable lesson he learned at the session was techniques for "quieting the mind." He had his doubts, however, about the talk of prosperity.
"We are so much more than that," Barron said. "It's about finding oneness. That's what's important."
Harry Brown of New York said he found Sri Siva's openness about material possessions refreshing, something the guru talked about without attaching guilt.
"If your heart is open and your pocketbook is full, you can have a bigger impact on society than if you go up in the Himalayas," said Brown, a psychiatrist who drove from Manhattan for the lecture. "I want to be more at peace with myself and have a system of working on myself and achieving my goals in the world."