Subodh Ji

Subodh Katiyar (called nowadays also Subodh Ji) was born on 25 september 1975 in Kanpur.

Subodh Ji (Subodh - beautiful wisdom, Ji - respected) is a direct disciple of Papaji (Poonjaji) whom he met at an early age of 18-19 during Apr 1993.

He is simply addressed as swamiji by his friends, though he was named Promodh by Poonjaji at his request, which according to Poonjaji means Love with wisdom.

Early years

SubodhJi says he experienced a thoughtless state at an early age of 6 though he says he didn't understand what he was going through. In his own words: "The sudden silence was deafening". Later he started searching for truth in day-to-day existence which took a back foot during his early teens except few experiences of visions of Krishna in his godly form smiling at him.

He took to chanting of various mantras to attain to self. According to him, it all stayed in his mind and attributed to the person more than to the self.

Meeting with Papaji

In September 1992, confused over reality, and with a feeling of inner calling, he met someone who talked about meditation and asked SubodhJi to try it while he was still living in Kanpur. Seeing no harm in trying something he went ahead and got lost into it for hours on the first day. When he came back he realized this was what he was missing and started reading scriptures to find out more. To his utmost relief he realized that the questions bothering him were actually present in other forms and there were ways and means to find the answers.

It gave him immense relief and immediately brought back previous experiences of thoughtlessness. Following this experience he read about OSHO Rajneesh and tried his methods but felt something missing between the words. He learnt about Poonjaji after few months and traveled to Lucnow with one of his friend. On his first day there he was so excited that when Poonjaji arrived and SubodhJi was to stand up to greet him, he says he couldn't do it and for the first time he saw his body from a distance. This experience changed a few things in him and he changed from being an extrovert gym lover to entirely different person.

He kept visiting Poonjaji on and off, initially he used to drive to Lucknow for attending morning satsangs and used to come back to Kanpur immediately afterwards.

One day while coming from Lucknow after attending a satsang, he saw Poonjaji going to Lucknow airport to see someone off, he followed Poonjaji to there and stopped for a word with him. Poonjaji asked him if he could be in nomind right then and Subodhji says he went inside forgetting where he was, ending up falling flat on the ground. Poonjaji asked him to visit often that day. SubodhJi was studying those days and there were not enough funds to continue his daily visits to Lucknow so his visits were less frequent and he stayed satisfied with the bliss of nothing.

Life at Varanasi

Later he dropped his first year studies at Christ Church College Kanpur and moved to Varanasi with his family where his father was posted. He started meditating on the banks of the Ganges river and served the lepers there during 1994-1995.

He met there Kusumacharya (Dr a.k.bhattacharya) one day and was told about Puranas. Subodhji started studying the Vedas and Purans and discovered that Advaita was the eternal principle behind all present consciousness teaching and Hinduism. He also studied Astrology and Ayurveda.

Education and other

He enrolled for Philosophy studies at Banares Hindu university where he graduated in 1997. During this period he also enrolled for master degree in technical education and completed it in 1998. Later he did his Masters in information technology in 2004.

He participated in various meditation groups and also organised Osho meditation camp in 1996 with the help of three of his friends, two of whom later took him as master.

Around this time he once again visited Poonjaji in July - August 1997.

Travels and career

In late 1998 he moved to Pune. There he worked as a freelance network engineer for a while before returning to Varanasi due to health problems of his father.

In late 1999 his father passed away and Subodhji shifted the family to Lucknow due to his association with the city of his master.

He worked in software industry and visited United kingdom, Malaysia, and Maldives on assignments. He started giving private one-to-one sessions to a few people who took on the spiritual journey under his guidance.

Lastly he was working as principle architect in a software company before he returned back to Lucknow where he lives presently.

He still works in technology-related assignments and believes that spirituality is a foundation of life and one doesn't need to become an ascetic to live a spiritual life, "its all complete inside" he says.