Yogaville

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Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville
Integral Yoga Interfaith Yantra. Symbols in the petals, clockwise from top: Faiths Still Unknown, Hinduism, Judaism, Shinto, Taoism, Buddhism, Other Known Faiths, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Traditional African Faiths, Native American Faiths.

Integral Yoga Yantra
Motto Truth is One, Paths are Many
Formation 1981
Type Ashram
Purpose/focus To disseminate the teachings of H.H. Sri Swami Satchidananda
Headquarters Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville Virginia
Location Buckingham, Virginia
Affiliations Sivananda Ashram
Website http://www.yogaville.org

Satchidananda Ashram - Yogaville was founded by Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidananda in 1980. The ashram is the international organizational headquarters of Swami Satchidananda's documented teachings, located in the county of Buckingham, Virginia.

The primary vision of this world-traveled guru Yogiraj Sri Swami Satchidananda (1914-2002) was interfaith understanding as a vehicle to world peace. To this end, with his vision and much work from thousands of disciples and admirers, the LOTUS (Light Of Truth Universal Shrine) was constructed and inaugurated in 1986.

The shrine is shaped like a lotus flower, because it is a place in honor of the divine light, universal motif in all faiths and nonbelievers (science and the formula for light). Swami Satchidananda was familiar with the symbology of these aquatic flowers and their characteristic behavior of always opening and turning to face in the sun's direction.

Expert museum-quality displays are located in the lower chamber of the shrine, with sacred and beautiful authentic artifacts and scriptures from the world's major religions and those lesser known. The faiths represented in the shrine are African, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Truths), Islam, Judaism, Native American, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism.[1] By displaying a shrine to each of these religions, the temple is a living environment to honor Swami Satchidananda's teachings and motto of Integral Yoga, "Truth is One, Paths are Many."

Controversy

Until December 1990, Joy Zuckerman was living at Yogaville, where she was known as Swami Krupaananda. She left after a friend confided in her that Satchidananda had made sexual advances toward her last summer, Ms. Zuckerman said.[2] 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.[3]

Catherine Cheng, a law student, dropped out of school to further her studies in yoga. Her friends and family were unprepared for the changes that came over her, such as her adoption of the Hindu custom of painting a red dot on the forehead. She changed her name to Meenakshi and became engaged to Swami Atmananda (Larry Gross), a man nearly 30 years her senior, just two weeks after meeting him at the Yogaville ashram in Virginia. They claimed they married for love.[4]

References

  1. ↑ LOTUS - Light Of Truth Universal Shrine
  2. ↑ Overton McGehee (August 2, 1991). "Ex-followers Say Swami Demanded Sexual Favors". Richmond Times-Dispatch. p. B-1. 
  3. ↑ Lisa Provence (August 22,). "Final rites: Yoga master dies teaching peace in India". The Hook. p. B-1. 
  4. ↑ Lisa Provence (September 13, 1999). "Exercising Her Free Will?". New York Post. p. 28. 

External links

Coordinates: 37°39′56.9″N 78°41′8″W / 37.665806°N 78.68556°W / 37.665806; -78.68556


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