MAHĀSIDDHA YOGA
SAṂPRADĀYA
AVADHŪTA
BHAGAVĀN NITYĀNANDA
(- August 8, 1961) Born in South India, Bhagavān Nityānanda was apparently abandoned as a baby and was rescued by the couple Uniamma and Chathu Nair, both from the village of Trunei, in the state of Kerala, India. Nityānanda's adoptive parents died, leaving him an orphan when he was 6 years old. The lawyer Ishwar Iyer, owner of the land where they lived, took care of Nityānanda until he grew up.
Since childhood he loved solitude, he was always absorbed in supreme bliss and possessed surprising powers. For Bhagavān, divine joy existed everywhere. He occasionally spoke to teach his disciples.
Nityānanda is an Avadhūta. It is unknown who Bhagavān Nityānanda's Guru was, therefore he is recognized as a being who has not received teaching, but is born, manifested, in a permanent state of full consciousness, liberated, the Divinity itself incarnated, this state is called “Avadhūta” A Śaktipāta Guru, that is, a teacher capable of awakening the Kuṇḍalinī energy of his disciples.
Great miracles occurred in his presence. He freed many people from their afflictions, pain and poverty. People loved him and wanted to be around him.
From 1936 he settled in Ganeshpuri, Maharashtra. It was at Ganeshpuri that Swami Muktānanda met him and received the teachings. There he spent the last twenty-five years of his life. During this period innumerable devotees came to Him, seeking His guidance and help.
Ganeshpuri became a pilgrimage site.
The book called "Cidākāśa Gītā" is attributed to him, which is actually a collection of sutras transcribed by Tulsi Amma, one of his disciples.
SVĀMĪ MUKTANANDA PARAMAHANSA
Muktānanda was born in 1908 near Mangalore, India. At the age of fifteen, after an encounter with Bhagavān Nityānanda, he left home on a walking pilgrimage throughout India.
In 1947 Muktānanda finally arrived at Ganeshpuri to receive the darśan of Bhagavān Nityānanda, the saint who had originally awakened Muktānanda. Following his instructions, he spent eight years in retreat near Yeloa, immersed in intense meditation practice, receiving initiation, Śaktipāta, from him on August 15, 1947. Muktānanda often said that his spiritual journey did not truly begin until he received Śaktipāta from sacred Bhagavān Nityānanda. According to his description, it was a profound and sublime experience. The same year he began to teach his path called "Siddha Yoga".
Gurudev Muktānanda undertook three world tours, during which he brought spiritual awakening, meditation and mantra chanting to thousands. He spent two years in the West teaching meditation, awakening people to the richness of their inner Being and was called the Guru's Guru.
His reputation as a meditation teacher spread throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. His spiritual autobiography, "Play of Consciousness," was published in 1971 by Harper and Row. In it, Baba documented his devotional relationship with his Guru and the remarkable spiritual development that resulted from the transmission of the spiritual energy he received.
He was the author of several books that even today continue to illuminate the spiritual path of thousands of beings.
He gave of himself, constantly expressing his devotion to his own Guru and affirming that everything that happened in his presence occurred by the Grace of Bhagavān Nityānanda.
He insisted on setting aside traditional caste distinctions. All pilgrims, whether famous or simple villagers, were received equally and treated equally.
He maintained a delicate balance between the popularity he received from his world tours and the traditional institutions of Indian culture. Both the Western and Indian Svāmīs were initiated by Mahamandaleshwar Svāmī Brahmananda Giri of Haridwar. They were trained and sent to teach, conduct intensives, courses, and represent Baba in his expanding centers around the world.
Hundreds of people came to sit in the presence of a living meditation teacher who could convey a direct experience of joy and inner wisdom.
Baba said: “Meditation is universal. It is not the property of any particular religion or nationality. “Through meditation, we realize the fundamental unity of all creation.”
Until the last day of his life he continued his role of guiding many sincere aspirants on the path of liberation. The essence of his teaching is:
“Honor your own Self. Worship your own Self. Meditate on your
own Being. God lives within you as yourself.”
SVĀMĪ SATYĀNANDA SARASVATĪ
He was born in Barcelona on August 31, 1955. In 1976, at 21 years of age and moved by a deep inner calling, he traveled to India in search of a teacher who could guide him towards the path of recognition of the Being.
In 1976 he met Svāmī Muktānanda Paramahansa, who initiated him into meditation, yoga and Hindu dhārma, thus beginning an intense spiritual practice under his tutelage. In 1980 Svāmī Satyānanda received initiation into sannyāsa (renunciation of the order of Śri Śāṅkara) and his current name. Under the instruction of his guru he created an āśram in Barcelona, another in Paris and coordinated the centers and āśrams throughout Europe.
Shortly after Svāmī Muktānanda's mahāsamādhi, at the end of 1982, Svāmī Ji began a pilgrimage to sacred places in India where he met and lived with great Mahātmas. (Mahātmas: Great souls, holy people).
He later settled in southern India and lived for more than twenty years at the foot of the Aruṇācala mountain, near the āśram of Śri Ramana Maharṣi.
During this period, Svāmī Ji lived with direct disciples of Sri Ramana Maharṣi, delving into Advaita Vedānta, while carrying out an intense practice of contemplation, yoga, study and meditation.
He subsequently lived for five years in Sri Gnanananda Niketan, dedicated to the contemplation of
the Upaniṣads Holy Scriptures) and the traditional texts of Advaita Vedānta, under the guidance of Svāmī Nityānanda Giri.
In 2009 Svāmī Ji, encouraged by a group of devotees, settled in Catalonia where he founded the Hindu association Advaitavidya. The association has naturally spread throughout Europe, Mexico, Argentina and other countries in America to which it regularly travels teaching.
In 2017, near Barcelona, he created Kailāśa Āśram, a place dedicated to intense practice, meditation and study, where he lives with his disciples.
In 2018 he founded Edicions Advaitavidya, a publishing house specialized in publishing classic texts of Hinduism, unpublished in Spanish and Catalan, as well as the lives and works of Mahātmas. He is the author of numerous articles and introductions to books on indica topics.
Currently Svāmī ji continues to teach regularly in the pure and direct Caitanya (living, oral) way, just as the Saṃpradāya has traditionally transmitted, from guru to disciple.
