Those who have been blessed to call themselves disciples and devotees of His Holiness Sri Gurudev Swami Satchidanandaji know the special grace of having a Satguru. Not only a Satguru, Sri Gurudev is a Tamil Siddhar (Siddha in other regions; realized saint) and what is...
Guidance from a Higher Level
Mahasamadhi (a realized saint’s conscious final exit from the physical body) and thus prepared his disciples brilliantly well in advance. He left the physical body in August 2002 in South India. Here are some of his words in relation to Mahasamadhi—his own and other...
The Last Satsang
On August 12, 2002, Sri Swami Satchidananda gave satsang at the Integral Yoga Institute of Coimbatore during which he answered questions. This excerpt is part of the last recorded satsang of Sri Swamiji and follows his participation as a keynote speaker at the World...
The Meaning Behind Being Made in “God’s Image”
In 2002, Sri Swami Satchidananda was invited to be a keynote speaker at the World Congress on Peace, Nonviolence and Harmony in South India. He left the body and entered Mahasamadhi a few days after the conclusion of the World Congress—his participation a fitting...
Seriousness is a Crime in the Court of God
In this Integral Yoga Podcast video, Avi Gordon (Integral Yoga Teachers Association director) talks with Jonathan Foust, MA, CSA. Foust is a guiding teacher with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and a founder of the Meditation Teacher Training Institute...
Meditation Slokas
These Sanskrit slokas are led by Swami Satchidananda and are from the Vedas and other sacred texts. Swami Satchidananda recommended chanting these prior to a meditation session to help connect to the Guru-tattva principle. This principle teaches that there's a...
How Mantras Work
In 1976, Swami Satchidananda was giving this talk (below) on Yoga in Denver, Colorado. Yoga was something that wasn't widely practiced, or understood, in its broader and deepest sense at that time—and in large part, still isn't today. And, the use of mantras in...
Yoga Nidra: Portal to Our Essence-Nature
Julie Lusk, MEd, E-RYT-500, NCC, has a new book out: Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation. Featuring twenty-four Yoga Nidra scripts written by author Julie Lusk and thirteen of the world's master teachers—including Swami Satchidananda—this book shows...
Liberation
Yoga is a path of liberation, and liberation has to begin in the here and now of our daily lives. We have to liberate ourselves from our own self-made prisons. These are prisons of attachments, concepts and habits, and the compelling forces of mechanical reactions and...
The Inner Guru
In this short video "The Inner Guru" from 1998 during Guru Poornima, Swami Satchidananda speaks about the true meaning of "Guru" and also about attuning oneself to the inner Guru. Using examples from his own Guru (Sri Swami Sivananda), the Bhagavad Gita and South...
Attuning to the Guru Within
Recently, someone was asking me about the connection to the Guru. Words are limited. Whatever “under-standing” I have on this matter comes from the experience of “standing-under” God’s Presence through Sri Gurudev Satchidananda’s loving guidance. Today I am far from...
Raja Yoga Now: The Master’s Touch
It was in September 1970 that I first met my spiritual master. It was a time when many great Gurus were being drawn to the West, attracted by the awakening aspiration of the youth. Several hundred of us had gathered at a rustic site in the mountains of California for...
What We Can Learn from a Flower
We can find lessons in everything we do. One of the lessons that I learned as a mechanic, many years ago, is very useful in being able to control the mind. The newer vehicles probably don’t require this anymore, but way back then, a car had to be periodically...
The Bhagavad Gita in Daily Life: Part 2, Sanatana Dharma
I would like to continue this series with a little more background and history to set the stage and context for our study of the Bhagavad Gita. Throughout the ages people, probably throughout the planet, maybe possibly other planets, went deep into the mind,...
Little Big Man: A Yogaville Adventure
Miles Eberle (son of the Yogaville and Integral Yoga Magazine webmaster, Sam, and wife Lilavati) was captured on his daily rounds in Yogaville, where he was born and lived until a few years ago, when he and his family moved to Colorado to be with the rest of the...
This is Your Brain on Enlightenment
Sara Novak's article on Discover magazine's website was clearly written pre-pandemic. It turns out she (a writer for Discover, Discovery Health, Popular Science, among others) was writing about a visit to Satchidananda Ashram, what drew her there, and about the field...