Muktananda
Muktananda | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 2 October 1982 | (aged 74)
Swami Muktananda (May 16, 1908-October 2, 1982) is the monastic name of an Indian Hindu guru and disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda. Swami Muktananda was the founder of Siddha Yoga. He wrote a number of books on the subjects of Kundalini Shakti, Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism, including an autobiography entitled The Play of Consciousness.
Biography
Muktananda was born in 1908 near Mangalore in Karnataka State, India into a wealthy family. His birth name was Krishna.[1] At 15 he encountered Bhagavan Nityananda, a wandering avadhoot who profoundly changed his life.[1] He studied under Siddharudha Swami at Hubli, where he learned Sanskrit, Vedanta and all branches of yoga, and took the initiation of sannyasa, becoming Swami Muktananda. He then began wandering India on foot.
In 1947 Muktananda went to Ganeshpuri to receive the darshan of Bhagavan Nityananda. He received shaktipat initiation from him in the early morning of August 15 of that year. Swami Muktananda often said that his spiritual journey didn't truly begin until he received shaktipat from the holy man Bhagavan Nityananda. According to his description, it was a profound and sublime experience.[2]
August 15, 1947 Nityananda stood facing me directly. He looked into my eyes again. Watching carefully, I saw a ray of light entering me from his pupils. It felt hot like burning fever. Its light was dazzling, like that of a high-powered bulb. As that ray emanating from Bhagavan Nityananda's pupils penetrated mine, I was thrilled with amazement, joy, and fear. I was beholding its color and chanting Guru Om. It was a full unbroken beam of divine radiance. Its color kept changing from molten gold to saffron to a shade deeper than the blue of a shining star. I stood utterly transfixed. He sat down and said in his aphoristic fashion, "All mantras... one. Each... from Om. Om Namah Shivaya Om... should think, Shivo'ham, I am Shiva... Shiva-Shiva...Shivo'ham...should be internal repetition. Internal...superior to external".[2]
Muktananda spent the next eight years living and meditating in a little hut in Yeola. He wrote about his sadhana and kundalini-related meditation experiences, in his autobiography published in 1978. In 1964 he received his master's degree from Jabalpur University and became a lecturer in Hindi at W. M. Ruia College, India. In 1966, Swami Nityananda gave Muktananda a small piece of land at Ganeshpuri, near Bombay on which Muktananda developed an ashram.[3]
Muktananda established Gurudev Siddha Peeth as a public trust in India to administer the work there, and founded the SYDA Foundation in the United States to administer the global work of Siddha Yoga meditation.[4] He wrote many books; sixteen are still kept in print by the SYDA Foundation.
In May 1982, Muktananda appointed two successors as joint leaders of the movement, Swami Chidvilasananda, his former translator, and her brother Mahamandaleshwar Nityananda, who later resigned and formed his own group. Muktananda died in October 1982 and is buried at Ganeshpuri, where the Gurudev Siddha Peeth ashram houses his samādhi shrine.
According to the Siddha Yoga organization,[5]
A Siddha Guru is a spiritual teacher, a master, whose identification with the supreme Self is uninterrupted. The unique and rare quality of a Siddha Guru is his or her capacity to awaken the spiritual energy, kundalini, in seekers through shaktipat.
Teaching
Swami Muktananda's teaching can be summarized in two quotations:
- Honor your Self, Worship your Self, Meditate on your Self, God dwells within you as you.
- See God in Each Other.
Bibliography
- Light on the Path (1972), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-914602-54-3
- Mukteshwari: The Way of Muktananda (1972), SYDA Foundation
- Getting Rid of What You Haven't Got (1974), Wordpress ISBN 0-915104-00-8
- Ashram Dharma (1975), SYDA Foundation, ISBN 0-911307-38-9
- I Love You (1975), SYDA Foundation
- Selected Essays (1976), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-37-0
- God is With You (1978), Siddha Yoga Publications ISBN 0-914602-57-8
- I Am that: The Science of Hamsa from the Vijnana Bhairava (1978), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-914602-27-6
- I Welcome You All With Love (1978), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-65-6
- In the Company of a Siddha: Interviews and Conversations With Swami Muktananda (1978), Siddha Yoga Publications ISBN 0-911307-53-2
- The Nectar of Chanting: Sacred Texts and Mantras Sung in the Ashrams of Swami Muktananda (1978), SYDA Foundation, ISBN 0-914602-16-0
- Play of Consciousness: A Spiritual Autobiography (1978), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-81-8
- Satsang with Baba : questions and answers between Swami Muktananda and his devotees (1978), Volumes 1 - 5, SYDA, ISBN 0-914602-40-3
- Kundalini: The Secret of Life (1979), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-34-6
- To Know the Knower (1979), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-914602-91-8
- Meditate (1980), State University of New York Press, ISBN 0-87395-471-8
- Kundalini Stavah (1980), SYDA Foundation, ISBN 0-914602-55-1
- The Perfect Relationship: The Guru and the Disciple (1980), SYDA Foundation, ISBN 0-914602-53-5
- Reflections of the Self (1980), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-914602-50-0
- Secret of the Siddhas (1980), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-31-1
- A Book for the Mind (1981), SYDA Foundation
- Does Death Really Exist? (1981), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-36-2
- Lalleshwari (1981), SYDA Foundation, ISBN 0-914602-66-7
- Where Are You Going?: A Guide to the Spiritual Journey (1981), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-60-5
- I Have Become Alive: Secrets of the Inner Journey (1985), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-26-5
- From the Finite to the Infinite (1990), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-31-1
- Mystery of the Mind (1992), SYDA Foundation
- The Self is Already Attained (1993), Siddha Yoga Meditation Publications, ISBN 0-914602-77-2
- Bhagawan Nityananda (1996), Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-45-1
- Nothing Exists that Is Not Shiva: Commentaries on the Shiva Sutra, Vijnana Bhairava, Guru Gita, and Other Sacred Texts (1997) Siddha Yoga Publications, ISBN 0-911307-56-7
References
- ^ a b "Baba Muktananda's Meditation Revolution Continues Ten Years After His Passing". Hinduism Today. 1992. Retrieved 2006-06-01.
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ignored (help) - ^ a b Muktananda, Swami (1978). Play Of Consciousness. Siddha Yoga Publications. ISBN 0-911307-81-8.
- ^ http://www.answers.com/topic/swami-muktananda
- ^ "Muktananda's Legacy". Hinduism Today. 1995. Archived from the original on 2006-05-22. Retrieved 2006-06-01.
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ignored (help) - ^ "The Guru". Retrieved 2008-10-05.
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Further reading
- Brooke, Tal. Riders of the Cosmic Circuit. Chariot Victor Publications, 1987 ISBN 0-595-09315-9