Like one of his parents, grand-parents, and fore-fathers, Tarun Kumar was born in Haridwar, the birth-place of Meditation. On the day of his birth, the family astrologer visited and after making the horoscope predicted that he will be of significant service to both of the realms of the material and the spiritual world.
The personality and teachings of his grand-father had a lasting impact on young Tarun. He has been learning and practicing meditation since an early age.
Even before he was ten years old, he took to 2 years long extra-curricular and deep studies of Bhagvad-Gita and Ramayana, two scriptures most revered in India.. He formally studied Sanskrit language for 4 years till the age of 16. Much later, he was tutored in German language by a native German.
After formal schooling, Tarun did not pay much attention to formal studies. Being a voracious reader, he was seen more in libraries than lecture-theatres. Still, he earned master of sciences and later masters in international trade from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. For the latter, he was awarded a medal of overall merit by the then Union Commerce Minister of India.
Tarun started his working life at a time when Berlin wall, European Bank, Soviet Union, Apartheid Act, World Wide Web project became household words.
He is a British Chevening Scholar, Fellow of 21st Century Trust, England and Fellow of Salzburg Seminar, Austria.
In his last assignment, he was managing director, India of a listed British high technology company.
Tarun has been quoted dozens of times by several leading agencies like Reuters, and Indian journals and newspapers like The Economic Times, Business Standard, The Hindu, The Hindu Business Line, etc. and a few times by newspapers in some other countries too.
He sits on weekly meetings of a decades old technology cluster of Silicon Valley, USA that works toward funding of women led ventures, some of which are also related to mindfulness.
Tarun has been deeply influenced with Swami Vivekananda, the first Indian monk to have visited the West. Tarun has also dealt with a variety mystic traditions. Like Swami Vivekananda, Tarun also explored freemasonry and quickly rose to become master of a century-old lodge under the English constitution.
The crux of his learnings and teachings is explained through discussions of nine contradictions after which one stumbles upon the gem that opposites are actually alikes. And hence there are no reasons for disharmony in the world.
A focus of his present life is on bridging the chasms between the two realms of material & spiritual worlds, East and West, and ancient & modern.
Tarun has traveled to over two dozen countries, at times as a member of official bilateral delegations. He doesn’t travel abroad for the past ten years.
Tarun has been teaching Yoga and meditation, on a non-commercial basis, for the past many years. He has been accepting seekers who come purely through recommendations.
For the past few years, he has also been accepting complete strangers, chiefly from the Western countries too, who come and stay for about a month.
Tarun lives and practices at AZIMVTH Ashram located on the hallowed banks of Ganges and majestic foothills of Himalayas at Haridwar in northern India.
SPIRITUAL CREATIVITY & ART
Tarun is not an artist either by training or profession. He considers and uses creatives as an expression of meditation. Following art-works were created by him.
Besides these, Tarun has created other works of visual-arts too which include – private art, practice studies, co-created works, calligraphy & crafts, analog and digital photography, digital art, etc. He has also co-created works of other art forms like performing arts, performance arts, music, installations, and literary works.
AZIMVTH.ORG 