By the time Swami Satchidananda arrived in New York in 1966, he was no newcomer to the work of transformation. He had already spent more than a decade in Sri Lanka, where he transformed the lives of all who came within his orbit — opening Divine Life Society branches...
It all started in June 1968. I had just graduated from Columbia University with a degree in math and philosophy. But after all those years of studying Eastern and Western philosophy, much of it still felt theoretical. I wanted a real practice. Then I noticed an ad in...
The Beginning When Peter Petronio first encountered Swami Satchidananda in the summer of 1966, he was already a renowned spiritual master with students in India, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and Europe. It was Peter’s close friend, the artist Peter Max, who had met Swami...
It was 1966. The Beatles had stopped touring. A generation of young Americans was searching for meaning, for peace, for something the world around them could not seem to provide. From that searching rose the counterculture: restless, idealistic, and beneath all its...
In a handwritten aerogramme from Swami Satchidananda to Sohini Mehta – his first Indian disciple living in Bombay – he wrote, "I am now in New York, America. I just came for 2 days here, but many devotees have gathered round and insisted that I must stay longer. They...
During October 2026, we celebrate the founding of Integral Yoga by Swami Satchidananda in 1966 in New York. We look back at how Integral Yoga came to the West, the memories of some who were there in those early years, explore some of the spiritual roots from which it...
On September 17, 2026, Sadasivam Greenstone (Richard Alan Greenstone) passed away peacefully at his home in Yogaville, Virginia, with his beloved wife, Satya, holding his hand. He was 80 years old. For 60 years, Sadasivam had been a student of Swami Satchidananda. He...
The Integral Yoga community celebrates the extraordinary life and legacy of Peter Max (1937–2026), known to us by the name Atman, given to him by Swami Satchidananda. One of the most celebrated artists of the modern era, Peter helped define the visual language of a...
More than a century before Vedanta and Yoga became familiar parts of the American spiritual landscape, Ralph Waldo Emerson discovered in the wisdom of India a profound resonance with his own deepest intuition: that beneath the apparent separateness of life is an...
In this short video, Doreen Gail Hemp shares her journey of loss and learning how to find gratitude amid the loss. Even in life’s most challenging moments, beauty quietly waits to offer us comfort. In times of pain or loss, noticing the small things around us — the...
On September 8, 2026, we celebrate the 139th birth anniversary of Sri Swami Sivananda Maharaj, one of the great spiritual luminaries of modern India and the beloved Guru of Swami Satchidananda. We know Swami Sivananda as the sage of Rishikesh, founder of the Divine...
Br. David Steindl-Rast — Grateful Living founder and beloved longtime interfaith advocacy collaborator of Swami Satchidananda — became a centenarian on July 12, 2026! Enjoy a replay of the virtual celebration, highlights of the 100th Birthday celebrations at Br....
The Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville ground is charged. Once someone tells you to notice it, you cannot stop noticing it, and I mean this in more than a figurative sense. A practitioner who arrives with a settled enough mind can feel the field the way you feel a...
The full moon of Guru Poornima has waned, but the contemplation it awakens does not end with the observance. Only a few weeks later, on August 19, we mark the Mahasamadhi of our beloved Guru, Sri Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev). These two sacred observances...
On the blessed morning that marked the beginning of the Guru Poornima celebration at Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville, July 25th, 2026, our beloved brother and senior monastic, Swami Daasyanandaji, peacefully left the body. The timing of his departure seemed deeply...
Editor’s note: On July 31, 1966, Sri Swami Satchidananda arrived in New York City for what was expected to be a brief visit. Sixty years later, and as we also mark the 40th anniversary of the Light Of Truth Universal Shrine (LOTUS), we revisit Sri Gurudev’s own...