Sri Shyamji was born and reared in India. At age 12, he met his spiritual teacher in the Himalayas and spent several years under his guidance. The Guru initiated Shyamji into the Saivite tradition of Tantra—imparting a rare oral tradition of sacred sounds (Nāda yoga), breath (Svar yoga), and spiritual wisdom.

The grace of the guru (guru krippa) and the spiritual practices he imparted (sadhana) are the basis for Sri Shyamji’s extraordinary intuition and unique chanting of sounds and mantra. For millennia this tradition was passed down from generation to generation through an oral tradition which preserved its purity. It is a rare opportunity to learn the science of sound from a true master.

Several years later, Sri Shyamji’s understanding of sound was enhanced through studying with the renowned vocalist, Pran Nath, and his disciple Jagdish Mohan. Pran Nath held fast to the premise that the expression of music was a sacred art, a spiritual offering and a deep direct pathway to the Divine. From these great vocalists, he also learned how to play the tambura (an ancient drone instrument).

In college, Sri Shyamji studied philosophy, comparative religion and history. It was at college that he met his dearest friend and associate Harish Johari. Together they visited places of pilgrimage, sadhus (spiritual practitioners), poets and musicians.

At age 24, he migrated to California; it was the beginning of his work on the effects of sound on consciousness. In the 1970s, he frequently taught at Esalen and was a guest lecturer at Berkley, California. During this time, he had the pleasure of playing tambura with Ravi Shankar on tour in several concerts, including Lincoln center and Carnegie Hall. Inspired by his 1965 tour on the East coast, Sri Shyamji relocated to New York City where he worked extensively with youth who were struggling to find their spiritual identity. He became known as the holy man of Greenwich Village due to his unending compassion, effective therapy and esoteric wisdom. He taught classes at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan.

In 1966, he undertook an intensive pilgrimage in the Himalayas. It was at this time that he had a vision of his own chakras. Vortices of light emanated throughout his subtle body and illuminated three channels which fed into the two hemispheres and lower portion of his brain. This vision was the beginning of a path which led to the discovery of microchakras, which are distinctive rays emanating from the chakras.

That year, Sri Shyamji co-founded "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" (truth, goodness, beauty) with Harish Johari and Pundit Rameshvar Panday in Bareilly, North India. This organization was founded with the intention of synthesizing the knowledge of East and West in order to aid those seeking to understand these principles in the conduct of their everyday lives.

In early 1967, he had an intuition. In five hours of automatic writing he revealed that each of the seven major chakras contained 21 microchakras and described the precise details of their functioning. This revelation is the basis of Microchakra™ Psychology.

Sri Shyamji began presenting his work internationally in major growth centers and Universities, including New York University, Bombay University, Asia Society, De Kosmos (Amsterdam) and many others. He introduced a unique method of education for young children, Conch Play, at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. His first open air mantra meditation concert was at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC). In 1968 he was invited by Dr. Bernard Aaronson, a psychologist at the neuro-psychiatric institute of Princeton, to experiment with the effects of sound. Around this time, he commenced his international teachings in Europe.

In 1970 Sri Shyamji established Sri Center International (an evolute of Satyam Shivam Sundaram), a non-profit organization for the promotion of the integration of ancient Indian wisdom and artistic expression with modern science and psychology. Sri Center has hosted rare spiritual teachers. It has also sponsored some of the greatest Indian singers to perform in the U.S. such as Pran Nath, Karunamayee, Kundan Lal Sharma and Salamat Ali.

In 1975, he was invited to the Royal Tropical Museum in Amsterdam to present his model of Microchakra™ Psychology. Professor H. van Praag, a noted parapsychologist, created a department of Chakra Studies for Sri Shyamji at the University of Lugano (Switzerland), awarding him an honorary professorship. www.midrashram.com

In 1991 he met Dandi Swami Atmanandendra (SwamiJi) a rare wandering monk and tapasvin (observer of spiritual practices). SwamiJi is the foremost disciple of his Holiness Sri Satchidanandendra Saraswati, the internationally acclaimed authority on Shankara Advaita Vedanta. Sri Shyamji met SwamiJi while walking in the high Himalayas. His life and work have been profoundly affected by meeting SwamiJi and his teachings which are pure Advaita Vedanta.

In 2012, Sri Shyamji renamed Sri Center to Chakra Institute in preparation for its larger role. Currently he has a worldwide network of students and professionals he teaches at various Chakra Institute locations. He is also on the faculty of the Open Center, New York’s leading center of holistic learning. 

For over four decades thousands of students and professionals have enriched their lives through Microchakra™ Psychology and InnerTuning®.