Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 29: At the Holy Feet of Silence

Sambasivam Chaitanya’s journey now brings him to Tiruvannamalai, to the holy presence of Arunachala, and to Ramanashram, where one of modern India’s greatest sages sat in the stillness of Self-realization. At Ramanashram, Advaita was no longer only a subject of...

A Sacred Tapestry: The Spiritual Roots of Integral Yoga

This month, in place of our regular installment of “Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey,” we turn to the spiritual lineage that shaped Sri Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) before he arrived in America in July 1966. As we celebrate Guru Poornima, we also mark 60 years...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 28: Upanishad Vihar and the Call of the Self

After his years of disciplined training at Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam and his time of hands-on service with Sri Bhikshu Swamigal in the nature cure camps, Sambasivam Chaitanya’s journey began to move in another direction. The earlier stages had shaped him through...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 27: In Service of Healing

From the banks of the Kaveri and the quiet intensity of the Samadhi Shrine of Sri Sadasiva Brahmendra, Sambasivam Chaitanya’s journey did not pause. It continued, as it so often would in those early years, not according to any fixed plan, but in response to a series...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 26: At the Samadhi of a Jivanmukta

From Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam, the young brahmachari Sambasivam Chaitanya—later known to the world as Swami Satchidananda—traveled some 53 kilometers along the banks of the Kaveri River to the quiet village of Nerur. It was not a casual journey. It was a pilgrimage....

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 25: The Seeds of a Living Synthesis

In Parts 23 and 24 of the Spiritual Odyssey series, we stepped into an important chapter of Swami Satchidananda’s earlier life: his time at Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam (Ashram) under the guidance of the great Tamil monk and scholar Sri Swami Chidbhavananda. Though those...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 24: Swami Chidbhavananda—The Sage Who Bridged Bhakti and Jnana

In the spiritual history of South India, there are teachers who preserve tradition, and others who reinterpret it for a new age. More rarely, there are those who do something subtler still: they translate inner realization across languages, cultures, and temperaments,...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 23: A New Chapter Unfolds

In every authentic spiritual life, there comes a moment when wandering gives way to commitment—not because freedom is lost, but because it deepens. For Ramaswamy, the young seeker who would one day be known to the world as Swami Satchidananda, that moment arrived on...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 22: Darshan in Pondicherry

In the great spiritual biographies of India, there are periods that seem, on the surface, uneventful—stretches of wandering, waiting, or uncertainty. Yet these are often the hidden chapters in which the deepest transformation takes place. For Ramaswamy, the young...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 21: Swami Ranga Nath and the Awakening of Discernment

The life of a seeker is marked not only by radiant moments of revelation but by encounters that test the very fiber of discernment. For the young Ramaswamy—who would one day be known to the world as Swami Satchidananda—one such turning point came through his meeting...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 20: When Grace Meets Destiny–The Siddha Who Pointed the Path Beyond India

The history of a sage’s journey is not measured only in years spent with a teacher, but in the depth of the impression left upon the soul. For Ramaswamy (later known to the world as Swami Satchidananda) one such moment came during his years as a sadhu (wandering...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 19: When Breath Becomes Light – The Legacy of Swami Badagara Sivananda

When tracing the spiritual roots of Sri Swami Satchidananda’s extraordinary life and mission, one finds a constellation of saints, Siddhars, and sages who shaped his vision. Among these was a yogi of remarkable attainment and discipline: Sri Swami Sivananda...

Official Journal of Integral Yoga® International

Founded in December 1969, Integral Yoga Magazine is a free monthly eMagazine featuring “Weekly Words of Wisdom” and all the same great content

it has for over 50 years: inspiring articles, program info, the latest news—and videos

Introduction to Integral Yoga®

An inspiring introduction to Integral Yoga: the wisdom teachings, global community, and international organization

 

Featured Posts

The Wisdom of Right Relationship

The majority of the suffering that you experience is caused not by something outside of yourself but by your internal reaction to things. And those reactions that bring pain are usually based on attachments and expectations that are unfulfilled. You make an...

Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey, Part 29: At the Holy Feet of Silence

Sambasivam Chaitanya’s journey now brings him to Tiruvannamalai, to the holy presence of Arunachala, and to Ramanashram, where one of modern India’s greatest sages sat in the stillness of Self-realization. At Ramanashram, Advaita was no longer only a subject of...

The Guru Who Gives Us Eyes to See

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...

Brotherhood Beyond Boundaries: The Profound Friendship of Br. David Steindl-Rast and Swami Satchidananda

There are friendships that transcend the limitations of time, culture, and tradition—friendships that seem destined, woven into the very fabric of life’s unfolding story. Such was the deep and abiding bond between Br. David Steindl-Rast, OSB, and Sri Swami...

Swami Daasyananda: A Life of Service, Stillness, and the Infinite Self

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...

“How I Came to the West”: Sri Swami Satchidananda in His Own Words

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...

A Sacred Tapestry: The Spiritual Roots of Integral Yoga

This month, in place of our regular installment of “Embarking on a Spiritual Odyssey,” we turn to the spiritual lineage that shaped Sri Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) before he arrived in America in July 1966. As we celebrate Guru Poornima, we also mark 60 years...
Featured News

New Book Brings Yoga Philosophy “Off the Mat”

A new book from North Atlantic Books invites practitioners to rediscover Yoga as something far more expansive than physical postures. Yoga Off the Mat: A Practical Guide to the Wisdom of Yoga—Find Balance, Meaning, and Liberation in Your Daily Life, by longtime Yoga...

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Brother David Steindl-Rast: 100th Birthday Celebration

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....

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LOTUS 40th Anniversary Celebration: September 2026

Join us at Satchidananda Ashram—Yogaville to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Light of Truth Universal Shrine (LOTUS) September 4-6, 2026. This weekend is a time to come together and renew our commitment to the universal message of LOTUS dedicated to the Light of...

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Explore Practice

How to Deepen Your Meditation Practice

Deepening your meditation practice requires more than simply sitting for longer periods of time. A truly effective practice depends on cultivating a sufficient level of refined energy. This energy expresses itself as alertness, mental clarity, willpower, conviction,...

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The Glory of Santosha – Contentment

“Contentment is golden. A contented mind is a golden mind.”  –Swami Satchidananda It’s funny how children enjoy the simplest of toys and teenagers relish in their relationships with their best friends, while a quiet transition commences during adulthood and suddenly...

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Explore Lifestyle

Rosa Parks: Yoga and the Practice of Quiet Strength

There is another image of Rosa Parks, far removed from the photographs most Americans know. She is not seated on a Montgomery bus. She is not being fingerprinted after her arrest. She is not standing beside Martin Luther King Jr. or addressing a civil rights...

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The Yoga of Gardening

I dropped the corn seeds in the furrow and wondered if they would grow. In the dark earth they glowed like citrine quartz; it seemed improbable that in two months the tiny dry seeds would grow into plants that would stand above my head. Many gardeners told me growing...

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Healing the Dis-ease of Busyness

I know so many people, that when I ask how they are doing, respond with something about how busy they are. It has become the status quo for our lives to be filled to the maximum and beyond so that we’re not really aware of how driven we are, how stressed our lives...

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Explore Philosophy

Spiritual Luminaries Series: Aldous Huxley

From Brave New World to the Wisdom of Vedanta To millions of readers, Aldous Huxley remains the author of Brave New World, the chilling 1932 vision of a society pacified by conditioning, consumption, entertainment, and chemically induced contentment. Yet the man who...

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The Charged Ground

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...

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Explore Education

Raja Yoga Teacher Training – September 2026

Join the Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco for a 2-part Raja Yoga Teacher Training with trainers Swami Ramananda and Swami Divyananda Date and Times (PDT) Part 1: September 30, 2026 – December 12 and Part 2: February 27 – April 3, 2027. For Yoga teachers, Yoga...

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Explore Health

Combating Aging with Rasayana

Rejuvenation is an Ayurvedic specialty whose main purpose is to maintain health and virility as age advances. We all age, but we don’t need in the process to enter an era of disease. We can age gracefully and avoid diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, autoimmune...

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Demystifying Tongue Scraping and Neti Pots

In Ayurveda, the accumulation of toxins in the body is called ama. It builds up as a result of the contaminants in our environment, improper eating habits, poor digestion, and/or a reflection of an imbalance in the gastrointestinal system. When these toxins are not...

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Working with Our Fears

Nalanie Chellaram, founder of Service in Satchidananda and one of Integral Yoga's master teachers,  asks the question: What do you fear - Death? Sickness? Having no money? In this, the first in a video series, Nalanie discusses some of the different fears we may have,...

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