About
Shivani Giri

A little about me

I was born into one of Ireland's last lighthouse-keeping families, before automation brought an end to a way of life that had lasted for generations. My first home was Hook Head, and as I grew up we moved around the Irish coast, from Mizen Head to Rathlin Island. We were always by the sea.

I was raised Catholic and loved my faith. As a child, I would sometimes secretly let myself out of the house to go to early morning Mass before school, dreaming of becoming a nun in an enclosed religious order. As I got older, though, I found myself wrestling with bigger questions about life, God and the nature of existence. I had a deep need to understand, not just to believe, and I was searching for something I couldn't quite put into words.

As a teenager in Dublin, I met the Hare Krishna devotees and, shortly before my sixteenth birthday, left school to join their ashram in Ireland. I later trained on a bhaktin course with ISKCON Belfast and went on to live in their island community of Inis Rath, on Lough Erne. Life there was centred around devotion and the worship of Radha Govinda, whose deities were installed on the island.

Some years later, I felt the pull to explore other branches of Hinduism, and in 2007 I made my first trip to India. That turned into a decade spent mostly between India and Nepal, living in different ashrams, travelling and learning as I went. From Varanasi to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka to the Himalayas, I wandered around and took in as much as I could along the way.

Eventually, my travels brought me to Haridwar and Juna Akhara, where I found my place among the Naga sadhus. In time, I received my first formal diksha from my Guruji, Shree Mahant Aakash Giri Maharaj, a Naga Baba.

My journey is still unfolding. With Oh My Ghat, I simply want to share a little of the life I live, the places I go, the people I meet and the traditions that have become such a big part of my world. No grand explanations, just little glimpses of life as it happens.