Swami Satchidananda (December 22, 1914 – August 19, 2002), born as C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder, was an Indian religious teacher, spiritual master and yoga adept, who gained fame and following in the West during his time in New York. He was the author of many philosophical and spiritual books, including a popular illustrative book on Hatha Yoga. He is widely known in India as the spiritual guru of the Indian cinema superstar Rajinikanth. He also founded the school Satchidananda Jothi Niketan located in Mettupalyam, Tamil Nadu.
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Swami Satchidananda was born in 1914 into a pious and devoted Gounder family at Chettipalayam, a small village in Coimbatore, near Podanur in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and was named C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder. His parents affectionately called him Ramu. Swami remained a vegetarian all his life and abstained from eating meat at all times.[1] After graduating from an agricultural college, he took a position with his uncle's firm, which imported motorcycles. By the age of 23 he became a manager at India's National Electric Works. During this period he got married and had two children. His wife died five years later. Ramaswamy then left his two young sons with their paternal grandmother and decided to go on a spiritual journey.[2]
After the sudden death of his wife, Ramaswamy traveled throughout India, meditating at holy shrines and studying with revered spiritual teachers. For years, Ramaswamy searched for real sages, saints, and spiritual masters. Eventually, he was initiated into pre-sannyasa in the Ramakrishna Thapovanam and given the name Brother Sambasiva Chaitanya. While at the ashram, his job was to care for orphaned young boys. During this period, he also studied along with the renowned Sri Ramana Maharshi. He eventually left the ashram when he could not bear the suffering of Sri Ramana's arm cancer and treatment procedures. Ramana Maharshi died shortly after his departure. He then traveled to Rishikesh, a holy town in the foothills of the Himalayas, located on the banks of the Ganges River. There, he discovered his guru, Sri Swami Sivananda who ordained him into the order of sannyasa in 1949 and gave him the name Swami Satchidananda.[2]
During the late 1950s and into the 1960s, Swami Satchidananda headed, along with another swami female disciple of Sri Swami Sivananda, to the Kandy Thapovanam, one of Swami Sivananda's ashrams situated in the hill country of Sri Lanka. Here, Swami Satchidananda taught yoga, conceived and implemented innovative interfaith approaches to traditional Hindu festivals and modernized the ancient mode of living that renunciates had followed for many years. For instance, Swami Satchidanda drove a car (to teach throughout Sri Lanka), wore a watch (to be on time), and actively engaged the questions of seekers. These modernizations were ridiculed by certain individuals in the orthodoxy but he felt them to be necessary natural extensions and serving tools for betterment in his spiritual yogic work.
The name Saccidānanda, Satchidananda, or Sat-cit-ānanda (Sanskrit: सच्चिदानंद) is a compound of three Sanskrit words, Sat (सत्), Cit (चित्), and Ānanda (आनंद) (the ā is of longer vocal length), meaning essence, consciousness, and bliss, respectively. The expression is used in yoga and other schools of Indian philosophy to describe the nature of Brahman as experienced by a fully liberated yogi. Satcidānanda may be understood as the energetic state of non-duality, a manifestation of our spiritually natural, primordial, and authentic state which is comparable in quality to that of deity.
After serving his guru for many years, in 1966 he visited New York City at the request of the artist Peter Max. Soon after his initial visit, Swamiji, as he was known to disciples, formally moved to the United States and eventually became a citizen. From his new home he spread his teachings of yoga, selfless service, ecumenism and enlightenment.
Satchidananda came to public attention as the opening speaker[3] 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 order of sannyasa. He was the founder of the Integral Yoga Institute and Yogaville in America, and Spiritual Guru of major Hollywood actors and western musicians. He was also the spiritual guru for the popular Tamil actor Rajinikanth[4], and in 1986 opened the Light of Truth Universal Shrine (LOTUS) 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 western disciples include: Alice Coltrane, John Fahey, Allen Ginsberg, Dean Ornish, Jeff Goldblum, Carole King, and Scott Shaw. Liev Schrieber and Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo lived at the Satchidananda Ashram during the early part of their lives. Drummer Muruga Booker met Satchidananda at the Woodstock Festival while playing with Tim Hardin, and was given the name Muruga at that time.
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 between Eastern and Western approaches to spirituality.
There are also similarities in the symbolism used by Sri Aurobindo and Swami Satchidananda. In addition, Satchidananda's center was given the name "Yogaville." (Aurobindo's "Auroville" had been founded in 1968.)
Satchidananda's group trademarked the term "Integral Yoga" in the United States.[5] [6]
Manifestos relating to religious belief are described as Credos. "Easeful, peaceful and useful" was the simple motto of Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidananda.
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 as:
- 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, and
- a life filled with supreme peace, joy and bliss.
Attain this through asanas, pranayama, the chanting of holy names, self-discipline, selfless action, mantra japa, meditation, study, and reflection.
Until December 1990, Joy Zuckerman was living at Yogaville, where she was known as Swami Krupaananda. She left after a friend claimed to her that Satchidananda had made sexual advances toward her the previous summer, Ms. Zuckerman said.[7] In 1991, placard-carrying protesters demonstrating against the alleged transgressions marred one of the Swami's last local public appearances, a speech at the Omni Hotel.[8] Satchidananda denied the allegations. [9]