Swami Satchidananda
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Swami Satchidananda (1914–2002) was an Indian religious figure who gained fame and followers in the West, especially in the United States.
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[edit] Early Years
Satchidananda was born in the Tamil Nadu region of southern India in 1914 to privileged and observant Hindu parents who named their son Ramaswamy. Like other children from religious families, young Ramaswamy loved to play guru and disciple with his friends. He did not become involved in spiritual matters immediately upon reaching adulthood, however. Instead, he was a strikingly handsome, chain-smoking manager at India’s National Electric Works. He eventually fell in love, married, and settled down to raise a family. But as with so many other worldly things, he would say that he never felt wholly attached during his five years as a householder, or as the father of two sons. Sadly, a few years after the birth of his second son, his wife passed away.
[edit] Spiritual Quest
After his wife’s death, Ramaswamy left his children with his mother and went off on a spiritual quest that witnessed him traveling throughout India to meditate at holy shrines and to study with spiritual teachers. For years, Ramaswamy searched out men revered as sages and saints, and spiritual masters. Eventually, he discovered his guru, Sri Swami Sivananda, who ordained him into the order of Sannyasa.
During the late 50s and most of the 1960s, Swami Satchidananda headed the Kandy Thapovanam, one of Swami Sivananda's ashrams situated in the hill country of Sri Lanka. Here, Swami Satchidananda taught his Integral style of Yoga and pursued many interfaith activities and modernized the ancient mode of living that renunciates had followed for many years. For example, Swami Satchidanda drove a car, wore a watch and actively engaged the questions of seekers. These modernizations were at first unacceptable to many individuals in the orthodoxy but, in hindsight, were seen to be necessary for the more effective dissemination of the message of Integral Yoga.
[edit] The United States
After serving his guru for many years, in 1966 he visited New York City at the request of a U.S. disciple, the artist Peter Max. Soon after his initial visit, Swamiji, as he was known to disciples, formally moved to the United States and became a citizen. From his new home he spread his teachings of yoga and enlightenment.
Satchidananda first came to public attention as the opening speaker at the Woodstock music and arts festival in 1969. Over the years he wrote numerous books and gave hundreds of lectures. He also ordained a number of western disciples into the holy order of sanyasa. He was the founder of the Integral Yoga Institute,and in 1986 opened the LOTUS, the Light of Truth Universal Shrine at Yogaville in Buckingham, Virginia. On August 19, 2002, Satchidananda died from a ruptured thoracic aneurysm in his native Tamil Nadu, India. However, Integral Yoga and Yogaville continue.
Satchidananda's better-known disciples included Alice Coltrane, Allen Ginsberg, Jeff Goldblum, Carole King, Peter Max, and Scott Shaw. Guitarist John Fahey spent some time living in Yogaville, and endorsed the ideals of Integral Yoga, even going so far as to dedicate his 1973 album Fare Forward Voyagers to Satchidananda. Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo grew up in Yogaville.
[edit] Integral Yoga
Although Satchidananda is thought to have briefly met Sri Aurobindo, he viewed his brand of teaching as a unique entity.
Swami Satchidananda characterized Integral Yoga as "...a flexible combination of specific methods to develop every aspect of the individual: physical, intellectual, and spiritual. It is a scientific system which integrates the various branches of Yoga in order to bring about a complete and harmonious development of the individual."
This would make it very similar to Sri Aurobindo's concept of Integral Yoga which clearly preceded the work of Swami Satchidananda: "Sri Aurobindo describes the nature and practice of integral yoga in his opus The Synthesis of Yoga. As the title of that work indicates, his integral yoga is a yoga of synthesis, intended to harmonize the paths of karma, jnana, and bhakti yoga as described in the Bhagavad Gita. It can also be considered a synthesis between Vedanta and Tantra, and even between Eastern and Western approaches to spirituality."
There are also simalarities in the symbolism used by Sri Aurobindo & Swami Satchidananda, in addition, Satchidananda's center was coined "Yogaville" ("Auroville" was founded 1966).
Satchidananda's group trademarked the term "Integral Yoga" in the United States. [1] [2]
Integral Yoga believes the goal and the birthright of all individuals is to realize the spiritual unity behind the diversity throughout creation and to live harmoniously as members of one universal family. This goal is achieved by the maintaining of our natural condition:
- a body of optimal health and strength
- senses under total control
- a mind well disciplined, clear, and calm
- an intellect as sharp as a razor
- a will as strong and pliable as steel
- a heart full of unconditional love and compassion
- an ego as pure as crystal
- a life filled with supreme peace and joy
Attain this through asanas, pranayama, the chanting of holy names, self-discipline, selfless action, mantra japa, meditation, study, and reflection.”
[edit] External links
- [3] The Fahey Files' description of John Fahey's Fare Forward Voyagers album, including Fahey's liner note dedication to Satchidananda
- Integral Yoga Institute, New York
- Satchidananda Ashram Yogaville
- Shrine Bio
- Frontline Article on Activities
- Swamiji abridged biography
- Biography of Swami Satchidananda
- "Final rites: Yoga master dies teaching peace" in the the Hook weekly
