G.P. Mahan was born on 2 May 1900 into
a respected family in Kansapuram, a small village in the Ramnad District of
Tamil Nadu, India. His parents were poor. G.P. Mahan learnt to be a very
hardworking and industrious person. He did not go to school, but was very pious
and carried out his religious obligations faithfully. At the age of 16, he left
India for Burma (now Myanmar) with his uncle to do business. In 1933, he
started his own business.
Following that incident on 11 November
1911, G.P. Mahan became very restless and inquisitive and was determined to
seek the truth about God. He travelled to various places of worship, observed
all kinds of penance and practised different types of yoga. But his mind was
still restless. His aim was to obtain true knowledge, and not for a single
moment did he divert his mind from this goal.
Finally, on 7 January 1938, an elderly
guru he had met in Myanmar initiated him into the Tantric system of Yoga (a
form of Kundalini Yoga) by touching him on his forehead. At that moment of
“initiation”, the sound waves from the bell of a nearby Buddhist temple began
to “dash” against his forehead and he felt an increase in awareness and
heaviness in that area.
From that day onwards, he began to
concentrate on the inside of his forehead at all times, even while eating. This resulted in him eventually experiencing
super-consciousness. He had said: “By the dawn of knowledge, intuitive
vision was obtained. The divine wealth of knowledge was increased. Being merged
in the super-conscious state of knowledge, I revel in bliss in my own temple.”
Eventually, after much
experimentation, G.P. Mahan devised a simple and safe technique to awaken the
Kundalini energy, which lies in a coiled position at the base of the spinal
cord, and bring it up to the crest of the head and the forehead.
As a result
of his self-knowledge, and perfect understanding of everything (enlightenment),
G.P. Mahan gave up all imaginary and superstitious beliefs and traditions and
founded the Universal Peace Sanctuary to teach people true knowledge of their
own selves in accordance with nature, to make them enlightened and to fill the
world with peace, amity and happiness.
A humble house in the city of Madurai
in Tamil Nadu served as the base for the Universal Peace Sanctuary which G.P.
Mahan established in 1938. Today, the sanctuary is thriving with many branches
all over India and other countries.
G.P. Mahan had travelled widely in
India. He had visited and lived in Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
Between 1955 and 1970, GP Mahan visited Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Cambodia,
Vietnam, Hong Kong and Japan. In 1970, he went to London, Paris, Rome and
Cairo. Later, he made an extensive tour of Canada and the United States.
G.P. Mahan departed on 7 January 1981.
His Samadhi is at the Universal Peace Sanctuary in New Washermanpet, Chennai,
India, in the compound of the abode where he had lived and where his daughter
and her family now reside.
