The Khyapa Parampara
Ma Kali, Ma Tara, and Bhairava at Tarapith — the lineage behind this archive, and the three teachers who carry it.
What is the Khyapa Parampara
The Khyapa Parampara is a devotional and tantric lineage rooted in Tarapith, in Bengal. Its name comes from the Khepa (also written Khyapa) — the “divinely mad” — for whom the Divine is not an idea to be studied but the only reality to be lived. What looks like madness to the world is, inside the tradition, the highest sanity: a life given wholly to Ma Kali, Ma Tara and Bhairav Baba.
This archive follows that current through three figures: Param Guru Bama Khyapa; his youngest disciple, Gurubaba Shyama Khyapa; and his Shishya who speaks of them today, Shri Praveen Radhakrishnan (my Guru ❤️).
Param Guru Bama Khyapa — the Living Bhairava
Param Guru Bama Khyapa, also called Bamdev, is the Guru of Gurubaba Shyama Khyapa. Tarapith remembers him as the Living Bhairava and as the son of Ma Tara: when Shiva drank the poison churned from the ocean, Tara took him to her lap to soothe him, and from that moment of the Mother’s tenderness the form of Bama Khyapa arose.
He was born into a poor Brahmin family and had little gift for scripture. What he had was the Name. He could not recite the Vedas, but when “Ma Tara” rose in him he would pass into samadhi. He made the cremation ground his home, sat with the dogs as his companions, and showed that the Divine is not reached through learning, procedure, or purity — but through the Name and through grace.
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Gurubaba Shyama Khyapa — the hidden master
Gurubaba Shyama Khyapa is the youngest disciple of Param Guru Bama Khyapa, and is known in this lineage as the Chathurthapurush, the fourth realized master. For most of his life he was a gupta sadhak — a hidden practitioner — bound by his Guru’s command not to be known. His name has only recently come into the open.
Before the path, his life was one of considerable wealth: a law and audit practice, a family, cars, a bungalow. A visit to Pashupatinath changed it. He heard an inner command to leave, handed the business to his partner, and walked out. He became a wandering monk and settled at the cremation ground of Tarapith, meditating by burning pyres and on the ash mound of Ugratara.
Read his full story →
Shri Praveen Radhakrishnan — the teacher and kaliputra today
Shri Praveen Radhakrishnan is the disciple of Gurubaba Shyama Khyapa and the teacher through whom this lineage has become known to a new generation of seekers. He is also the compiler’s Guru and the founder and guide of the Kaliputra Mission. The articles in this archive are transcriptions of spoken teachings; many of them are his accounts of the lineage.
His teaching begins from ordinary life. After thirteen years of personal sadhana, he began sharing freely what he had received: talks and writing, sadhana guidance around amavasya, satsangs, and service. The Kaliputra Mission grew around that sharing — annadanam, care for animals, and guidance offered without charge. The conviction is simple: one does not have to leave one’s duties to walk toward the Divine. A householder can keep Ma Kali’s name in the heart, serve what life puts in front of him, and meet Her there.
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The Scribe’s Offering
I, KaliPutra Ashish, am only the flute; the breath belongs to the Lineage. This site is offered as seva. The books, articles, and teachings shared here are laid at the feet of Guru Shrestha in obedience to Aadesh. Everything is offered in service to Ma Adya Mahakali and the Khyapa Parampara. May whatever you read here bring you a little closer to Her.
Jai Ma Adya.