Swami Satchidananda
| Swami Satchidananda | |
|---|---|
Swami Satchidananda in Switzerland in 1987
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| Born | C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder 22 December 1914 Chettipalayam, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Died | 19 August 2002 (aged 87) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Nationality | Indian, then American citizenship in 1976, granted to him as "Minister of Divine Words" |
| Titles/honours | U Thant Peace Award, B'nai B'rith Antidefamation League Award and many more. |
| Guru | Sivananda Saraswati |
| Philosophy | Integral Yoga |
| Quotation | His motto: "Easeful, peaceful and useful" |
Satchidananda Saraswati (22 December 1914 – 19 August 2002), born as C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder and known as Swami Satchidananda, was an Indian religious teacher, spiritual master and yoga adept, who gained fame and following in the West. He was the author of many philosophical and spiritual books. He had an enormous core of founding disciples who compiled and requested of Satchidananda Saraswati updated traditional handbooks of yoga such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita for modern readers, both with his incisive insights as a Yogiraj, master yogi, and as a master of humorous parables.
The international school Satchidananda Jothi Niketan is located in Mettupalyam, Tamil Nadu.
Satchidananda was born in 1914 in 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. He was Perur Temple manager early in his life.
He remained a vegetarian all his life, and later wrote a book called The Healthy Vegetarian. After study at agricultural college, he worked in a family business which imported motorcycles. At age of 23 he became a manager at India's National Electric Works. He married and had two sons. His wife died suddenly five years later. Ramaswamy's children remained with his mother Sri Vellamai, and he embarked on the life of an ascetic yogi, for many years practising and mastering classical yoga.Apostle of Peace, his later biography, includes many details updated in the 1990s.
After the sudden death of his wife, Ramaswamy travelled 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 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 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 travelled to Rishikesh, a holy town in the foothills of the Himalayas, located on the banks of the Ganges River. There, he discovered his guru, Sivananda Saraswati, founder of the Divine Life Society and a former physician, who ordained him into the holy order of sannyasa in 1949 and gave him the name Satchidananda Saraswati.
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