Inspirers
Swami Sivananda
Swami Sivananda Saraswati, the great spiritual luminary of the 20th century, was born on the 8th September 1887 at Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu). From his early childhood he exhibited the gift of divine vision, renunciation, compassion for the poor, and the uncommon gift of sama drishti or equal vision and love for all.
As the desire to serve and help others was foremost in Swami Sivananda’s heart, it was natural that he chose to study medicine and later started his medical practice. This inborn spirit of service led him to Malaya where he worked at a rubber estate hospital for seven years. In spite of his extremely busy life, Swami Sivananda was always regular in his daily worship, prayers, yoga asanas and study of sacred scriptures. This ignited his innate spirituality and with a heart purified by selfless service, he had a new vision. In a state of total renunciation, he gave up his practice and all his belongings and came to India in 1922, to live the life of a penniless sadhu. In 1924 he arrived at Rishikesh to live on the banks of Ganga and on 1st June in the same year was initiated into sannyasa by Swami Vishwananda Saraswati. Ganga remained an important feature in the life of Swami Sivananda and he remained beside this sacred river throughout his life.Although, as per the tradition of sannyasa, he lived a life of self-imposed austerity and simplicity, he never neglected selfless service. He started a charitable dispensary to help and serve the poor and needy as he saw this as a worship of God who dwells in each being. From 1927 he started sharing his spiritual experiences through writing articles and books and his divine lustre started influencing people from all over the world. People began to experience that every word he uttered, every sentence he wrote,
was charged with a rare spiritual power. From his small kutir on the banks of the Ganga, Swami Sivananda’s influence spread throughout the world and The Divine Life Society was founded in 1936 with aim of worldwide dissemination of spiritual knowledge and service to mankind. It did not take long for seekers to be drawn to his magnetic personality. His tenfold path – Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realise, Be good, Do good, Be kind, Be compassionate, became a road map for spiritual aspirants worldwide. Swami Sivananda never let anyone forget that their spiritual salvation lay in helping and serving others.
Swami Sivananda raised the goal of God-realization before the eyes of the people as the only real purpose for human birth. He acquainted millions with the facts and details of spiritual life and trained many sannyasins of extraordinary calibre through whom his mission is carried on this day. To spread yoga ‘from door to door and from shore to shore’ was a mission that Swami Sivananda entrusted to one of his brightest disciples, Swami Satyananda, who developed the ancient systems of Tantra and yoga to their highest potential and literally took them to each and every corner of the world. Through his dedicated sannyasins, Swami Sivananda saw the fulfilment of his mission before attaining Mahasamadhi in 1963. To this day and for ages to come, his light spreads far and wide for the spiritual upliftment of humanity.
Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Swami Satyananda Saraswati, born at Almora in 1923, was initiated into the Dasnami Order of sannyas by Swami Sivananda Saraswati, on 12th September 1947 at Rishikesh. In 1956, after spending twelve years in guru seva, his Guru sent him out into the world and gave him the mission to “spread yoga from door to door and shore to shore”. Although his formal education and spiritual tradition was that of Vedanta, at the command of his Guru the task of disseminating yoga became his movement.
His mission unfolded before him in Bihar where he established the Bihar School of Yoga at Munger in 1963. From then until 1983, Swami Satyananda took yoga to each and every corner of the world, to people of every caste, creed, religion and nationality guiding millions of seekers, establishing centres and ashrams of yoga throughout the world.
His frequent travel took him to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, USA, England, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Dubai, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Mauritius, Alaska and Iceland. One can easily say that Sri Swamiji hoisted the flag of yoga in every nook and cranny of the world. Well-versed in all religions and scriptures, he incorporated their wisdom with such a natural flair that people of all faiths and nationalities flocked to him. He initiated thousands into mantra and sannyas, sowing in them the seed to live the divine life.
Due to his tremendous zeal and energy in the short span of twenty years Sri Swamiji had fulfilled the mandate of his Guru. By 1983, Bihar School of Yoga was well established and recognized throughout the world as a reputed and authentic centre for learning yoga and the spiritual sciences. More than that, yoga had moved out of the caves of hermits and ascetics into the mainstream of society. In 1983 at the peak of his accomplishment Sri Swamiji renounced all that he had created and departed from Munger, never to return again, returning to his original life as a mendicant, without any personal belonging or assistance from his disciples or the institutions he had founded.
During his travels he stayed at Trayambakeshwar the abode of his ishta devata, the jyotirlingam of Lord Mrityunjaya, during which time his future place and sadhana were revealed to him, according to which, Sri Swamiji came to Rikhia in 1989 and began to live in seclusion in this small village, on the outskirts of Baba Baidyanath Dham at Deoghar, Jharkhand.
After his arrival at Rikhia, he undertook sadhanas that one only reads about in books, such as panchagni and Ashtottar-Shat-Laksh (108 lakh) Mantra purascharana. Here he entered the lifestyle of the paramahansas who do not work for their flock and mission alone but have a universal vision.
The eternal precepts of Vedanta such as atmabhav and atmasakshat became established in him at Rikhia. In that sense Rikhia witnessed in him the flowering and blossoming of all the highest ideals of sannyas, which he emulated throughout his life and his vision became truly cosmic in thought, word and deed.
This reflected itself in the many events and projects he initiated at Rikhiapeeth through Sivananda Math, an institution he had founded while he was in Munger, in memory of his Guru Swami Sivananda. Inspired by the mandate he had received from his Guru of Serve, Love and Give, Sivananda Math offered free assistance to the villagers of Rikhia in need of basic amenities such as food, clothing, shelter and medical care. As a natural progression of this selfless service today the villagers are also assisted in agriculture, employment and education for their children.
About his life at Rikhia Swami Satyananda has said, “Of course I have been treading the spiritual path since I was 18. I have spent more than sixty years in sadhana. There is no sadhana that I have not done and there is no scripture that I do not know by heart. Oh, I did so many things but not once did my number come up in the lottery. But after coming to Rikhia, luck smiled on me and I got the winning number. A metamorphosis took place in my life and my destiny and everything became crystal clear. That metamorphosis was spiritual and universal.”
At midnight on 5th December 2009, Swami Satyananda abandoned his physical body at his Tapobhumi, Rikhiapeeth, and in the true spirit of yoga, became cosmic and universal.
About Swami Satyananda his Guru Swami Sivananda said, “Few would have such vairagya at such a young age. Swami Satyananda is full of the Nachiketa element. Yet, any work he takes on he will complete in a perfect manner. He does the work of four people and yet never complains. He is a versatile genius, yet humble and simple, an ideal sadhak and Nishkarma sevak. He is a pillar of the Divine Life mission. May God bless him with health, long life, peace, prosperity and eternal bliss.”
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati born in 1960 in Rajnandgaon, Chhatisgarh, joined his guru’s mission of spreading yoga around the world at the tender age of four. When he was six years old he came to live in the ashram in Munger with his Guru Swami Satyananda. Under the tutelage of Swami Satyananda, he received intense gurukul education and training and was educated in languages, scriptures, sciences and contemporary subjects through the system of yoga nidra developed by Swami Satyananda. At the age of ten he was initiated into the Dasnaami order of sannyas on 11th January 1971 at Munger, by his Guru Swami Satyananda and was sent out to tour the world as a bal sannyasin to spread the message of yoga. At the age of 22 he was recalled back to India to take up the mantle as President of Bihar School of Yoga from Swami Satyananda who gave him the full charge of the yoga mission that he had created and nurtured.
In 1988 when his Guru left Munger to live the life of a Paramahansa, he left the reins in the hands of Swami Niranjanananda whom he had nominated as his successor even before his birth. Until now he had succeeded his Guru in the administration of Bihar School of Yoga but the departure of Swami Satyananda now required him to take up the role of both administrator and Guru to the innumerous devotees of Bihar School of Yoga which was already a reputed institution which he did with great efficiency guiding its activities from 1983 to 2008, with insight, clarity and devotion.
During this period he traveled extensively nationally and internationally, providing practical guidance and inspiring aspirants everywhere to live a yogic lifestyle by integrating head, heart and hands and emerged as a divine light and world Guru, inspiring and initiating people from all over the world to spiritual life. Swami Niranjanananda is an inspiring and gifted speaker on any given topic as his unflinching link with Sri Swamiji allows the grace and magnetism of Guru to shine. Initiated as a paramahansa sannyasin at the age of thirty, he was anointed preceptor in succession to Swami Satyananda by the leading luminaries of the sannyasa tradition in 1993. Clear, fluent and insightful writer, he authored numerous classical books on yoga, tantra and the upanishads, and founded the Bihar Yoga Bharati the first yoga university in order to further his Guru’s vision of making yoga a world culture.
In 2009 when his Guru took Yoga Samadhi he handed over his duties of President of Bihar School of Yoga to Swami Suryaprakash and entered a new phase of his sannyasa life dedicated to establishing the tradition of sannyas and presenting its ideals as a necessary way for self-development, creative expression, so that an individual may lead a successful happy and fulfilling life.
In 2010 he founded the Sannyaspeeth at Munger for the achievement of this aim and initiated a three year sannyas course as a training ground for individuals who wish to live life with a higher vision.Presently he resides at Munger guiding and inspiring aspirants who flock there for spiritual sustenance.
In 2013, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati commenced panchagni sadhana within the sacred grounds of Satyam Udyan (Akhara) at Ganga Darshan in Munger, to follow the tradition of his guru Swami Satyananda. He undertook this arduous sadhana for five years until its culmination in 2017. Though this tapasya he fulfilled the mandate he received from his guru to follow the Paramahansa sadhanas, of which panchagni is a part.
In 2014, at the conclusion of the second year of this intense panchagni sadhana, Swami Niranjanananda revived an ancient spiritual science: the Pashupata Astra Yajna. Last performed by Arjuna over 5000 years ago, the resurrection of this potent fire ritual and its accompanying mantras awakened once again the potential of the ancient vidyas to restore peace, harmony and light.
Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati
Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati, popularly known as Swami Satsangi, was born in 1953. Although from childhood she had a completely modern education and upbringing, she opted for the traditional life of renunciation and sannyasa after she had a series of inner awakenings at an early age, which led her to her Guru, Swami Satyananda Saraswati. She was initiated into the Dashnami tradition of sannyasa on 6th July 1982 at Ganga Darshan, Munger.
Thereafter she travelled extensively and ceaselessly with Swami Satyananda on his tours in India and abroad, which gave her immense exposure and contributed to her development into a scholar with deep insight into the yogic and tantric traditions as well as modern sciences and philosophies. A truly inspirational teacher and gifted writer, Swami Satsangi is the author of major texts on yoga and tantra, such as Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, Karma Sannyasa, Light on the Guru and Disciple Relationship and Sri Saundarya Lahari. One of her most acclaimed books, Tattwa Shuddhi: The Tantric Science of Inner Purification outlines an essential practice for inner experience which she herself developed and presented. Her ability to articulate ancient teachings from yogic, tantric and vedic texts and bring these into a modern context makes Swami Satsangi an ideal teacher to transmit the wisdom of her Guru’s teachings.
In 1989 when her Guru Swami Satyananda, ordained by an inner mandate he received in meditation, went to live in seclusion at a remote rural village in Jharkhand known as Rikhia, Swami Satyasangananda was the person who located the place he saw in his vision and negotiated the purchase of the land, which was to become the Tapobhumi of Swami Satyananda. At that time Rikhia was a poor, nondescript, unknown village in one of India’s poorest states. No roads, no electricity, no phones, no shops, no traffic, no trace of the 21st century, that was the Rikhia she entered in 1989, to prepare for the arrival of her Guru.
Since that time Swami Satyasangananda has dedicated herself to fulfilling her Guru’s vision of uplifting the neglected, impoverished and downtrodden villagers in the surrounding areas of the ashram, by implementing the cardinal teachings of Paramguru Swami Sivananda: Serve, Love, Give. Her tireless and unceasing efforts, which are carried out under the banner of Sivananda Math, an institution founded by Swami Satyananda in 1987 at Munger in memory of his Guru, have transformed the entire area into a vibrant centre of spirituality where people throng in large numbers for spiritual solace.
On 1st January 2007, she was initiated into the Paramahansa order and appointed as the Peethadhishwari of Rikhiapeeth by Swami Satyananda. Presently she resides at Rikhia, the Tapobhumi of Swami Satyananda, and is fully committed to the material and spiritual upliftment of the local community.
In 2009 when her Guru took Yoga Samadhi she entered a new phase of inspiring and guiding the multifarious activities at Rikhiapeeth and traveling extensively around the world spreading the light of her Guru’s teachings. She embodies compassion with clear reason and is the foundation of her Guru’s vision. In continuation of the tradition established by her guru Swami Satyananda, she commenced panchagni sadhana at Rikhiapeeth in 2013.
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