Shree Muktananda Ashram , in the Catskills area of upstate New York, is owned and operated by the SYDA Foundation . Its purpose is to provide a location where students of Siddha Yoga can study the philosophy and culture of the Siddha Yoga path and follow its daily practices (known as sadhana ). Shree Muktananda Ashram houses the headquarters of the SYDA Foundation, the organization that protects, preserves, and facilitates the dissemination of the Siddha Yoga teachings. The ashram is located in South Fallsburg , approximately 130 kilometres north-west of New York City.
25-696: The ashram that is currently known as Shree Muktananda Ashram was founded by Swami Muktananda , who was the disciple of the Indian guru Bhagavan Nityananda and the guru of the current spiritual head of the Siddha Yoga path Swami Chidvilasananda . Between 1970 and 1981, Muktananda undertook three world tours, establishing Siddha Yoga ashrams and centers in several countries. During his third world tour, Muktananda inaugurated Shree Nityananda Ashram in honour of his guru Bhagawan Nityananda . After Swami Muktananda's death in 1982, his successor Gurumayi Chidvilasananda changed
50-484: A disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda . He wrote books on the subjects of Kundalini Shakti, Vedanta , and Kashmir Shaivism , including a spiritual autobiography entitled The Play of Consciousness . In honorific style, he is often referred to as Swami Muktananda , or Baba Muktananda , or in a familiar way just Baba . Swami Muktananda was born in 1908 near Mangalore in Madras Presidency , British India , to
75-527: A large open-air pavilion known as Shakti Mandapa , which was located behind the original hotel building, now known as Anugraha (divine grace). In the following year, the SYDA Foundation bought the Brickman Hotel, also on Brickman Road, which became known as Atma Nidhi ( treasure of the soul ). The ashram became a 550 acres (220 hectares) site. From the inception of Shree Muktananda Ashram until 2004,
100-437: A little and fell flat into the aisle; my eyeglasses flew off. As I lay there with my eyes closed, I could see a continuous fountain of dazzling white lights erupting within me. In brilliance, these lights were brighter than the sun but possessed no heat at all. I was experiencing the thought-free state of "I am," realizing that "I" have always been, and will continue to be, eternal. I was fully conscious and completely aware while I
125-732: A profound and sublime experience. For the next nine years, Muktananda lived and meditated in a small hut in Yeola . He wrote about his sadhana and kundalini -related meditation experiences in his autobiography. In 1956, Bhagawan Nityananda acknowledged the culmination of Muktananda's spiritual journey. He appointed Muktananda as the leader of an ashram in Ganeshpuri, near Bombay . The same year he started teaching his Siddha Yoga path. Between 1970 and 1981, Muktananda went on three world tours. During these tours, he established Siddha Yoga ashrams and meditation centers in many countries. In 1975, he founded
150-902: A receiver make it happen. The very consciousness of the god or guru is held to enter into the Self of the disciple, constituting an initiation into the school or the spiritual family ( kula ) of the guru. It is held that shaktipata can be transmitted in person or at a distance, through an object such as a flower or fruit. The term shaktipata is derived from Sanskrit , from shakti "(psychic) energy" and pāta , "to fall". In Kashmir Shaivism , depending on its intensity, shaktipata can be classified as: Swami Muktananda , in his book Play of Consciousness , describes in great detail his experience of receiving shaktipata initiation from his guru Bhagawan Nityananda and his spiritual development that unfolded after this event. Paul Zweig has written of his experience of receiving shaktipata from Muktananda . In
175-488: A shorter version of this teaching: "God dwells within you as you." According to Lola Williamson, Muktananda was known as a " shaktipat guru because kundalini awakening occurred so readily in his presence". Through Shaktipat Intensives participants were said to receive shaktipat initiation, the awakening of Kundalini Shakti that is said to reside within a person, and to deepen their practice of Siddha Yoga meditation. Historically, Shaktipat initiation had been reserved for
200-518: A wealthy family. His birth name was Krishna Rai. At 15, he encountered Bhagawan Nityananda, a wandering avadhoot who profoundly changed his life. After this encounter, Krishna left home and began his search for the experience of God. He studied under Siddharudha Swami in Hubli , where he learned Sanskrit , Vedanta , and all branches of yoga . He received sannyasa initiation in the Sarasvati order of
225-406: Is meditation. The crux of the question is: What do we meditate upon?' Continuing his talk, Baba said: 'Kundalini starts dancing when one repeats Om Namah Shivaya.' Hearing this, I mentally repeated the mantra, I noticed that my breathing was getting heavier. Suddenly, I felt a great impact of a rising force within me. The intensity of this rising kundalini force was so tremendous that my body lifted up
250-818: The Dashanami Sampradaya , taking the name of Swami Muktananda. After Siddharudha's death, Muktananda left to study with a disciple of Siddharudha called Muppinarya Swami at his Sri Airani Holematt in Ranebennur Haveri District. Then Swami Muktananda began wandering India on foot, studying with many different saints and gurus. In 1947, Muktananda went to Ganeshpuri to receive the darshan of Bhagavan Nityananda, who had originally inspired Muktananda's search for God. He received shaktipat initiation from him on August 15 of that year. Muktananda often said that his spiritual journey did not truly begin until he received shaktipat from Nityananda. He described it as
275-798: The Siddha Yoga Ashram in Oakland in the San Francisco Bay area . In 1979, he established Shree Nityananda Ashram (now Shree Muktananda Ashram ) in the Catskills , northwest of New York City . Muktananda established Gurudev Siddha Peeth as a public trust in India to administer his work there. He founded the SYDA Foundation in the United States to administer the global work of Siddha Yoga meditation. He wrote many books, sixteen of which are still in print with
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#1733086158833300-592: The academic journal Nova Religio (2001), argued that Muktananda was both an enlightened spiritual teacher and a practitioner of Shakta Tantrism, but also "engaged in actions that were not ethical, legal or liberatory with many disciples." According to Lola Williamson, "Muktananda stressed the value of celibacy for making progress on the spiritual path, but he almost certainly violated his own rules." Author Andrea Jain asserts "Muktananda engaged in secret sexual rituals with several of his young female disciples—some of whom were teenagers—that were meant to transmit sakti to
325-511: The same mental state, hence the importance of the high spiritual level of the guru. The physiological phenomena of rising kundalini then naturally manifest. In his book, Building a Noble World, Shiv R. Jhawar describes his shaktipata experience at Muktananda's public program at Lake Point Tower in Chicago on September 16, 1974 as follows: "Baba [Swami Muktananda] had just begun delivering his discourse with his opening statement: 'Today's subject
350-438: The transmission (or conferring) of spiritual energy upon one person by another or directly from the deity. Shaktipata can be transmitted with a sacred word or mantra , or by a look, thought or touch – the last usually to the ajna chakra or agya chakra or third eye of the recipient. Shaktipata is considered an act of grace ( Anugraha ) on the part of the guru or the divine. It cannot be imposed by force, nor can
375-451: The SYDA Foundation offered retreats and courses at the ashram. Since then, courses and retreats have been created by the SYDA Foundation at Shree Muktananda Ashram for dissemination globally via local Siddha Yoga centres and via the Internet. Muktananda Muktananda (16 May 1908 – 2 October 1982), born Krishna Rai , was a yoga guru and the founder of Siddha Yoga . He was
400-641: The SYDA Foundation. In May 1982, Muktananda appointed two successors, Swami Chidvilasananda and her younger brother, Swami Nityananda, as joint leaders of Siddha Yoga. Nityananda later resigned and formed his own group. Muktananda died in October 1982 in Gurudev Siddha Peeth in Ganeshpuri, India. He is buried in his samādhi shrine there. Central to his teachings were to "See God in each other", and "Honor your Self. Worship your Self. Meditate on your Self. God dwells within you as you." Muktananda often gave
425-601: The article, based on twenty five interviews, former devotees charged that Muktananda had molested under-age girls, and engaged in sexual interactions with young devotees, which "drew naive young women into esoteric Tantric rituals." Lis Harris repeated and extended Rodarmor's allegations in an article in The New Yorker (1994). Shaktipat Traditional Shaktipata ( Sanskrit : शक्तिपात , romanized : śaktipāta ) or Shaktipat refers in Hinduism to
450-459: The few who had done many years of spiritual service and practices; Muktananda offered this initiation to newcomers and yogis alike. There are several published accounts that describe the reception of shaktipat from Muktananda. Paul Zweig wrote one such account of receiving shaktipat from Muktananda. In Gurus of Modern Yoga , Andrea Jain , in her chapter on Muktananda, quotes an anonymous source, who describes his moment of shaktipat, when he
475-506: The name of the ashram to Shree Muktananda Ashram. The early ashram was established in a former hotel. The SYDA (Siddha Yoga Dham Associates) Foundation -- established by Muktananda in 1974 as the administrative organization for Siddha Yoga -- bought the Gilbert Hotel, situated on Brickman Road, Fallsburg . Extensive renovations began and the site became the location of the offices that were to administer Siddha Yoga activities globally. In
500-503: The same book Itzhak Bentov describes his laboratory measurements of kundalini-awakening through shaktipata , a study held in high regard by the late Satyananda Saraswati , founder of the Bihar School of Yoga , and by Hiroshi Motoyama , author of Theories of the Chakras . Barbara Brennan describes shaktipata as the projection of the guru's " aura " on the disciple who thereby acquires
525-467: The summer of 1979, Siddha Yoga devotees gathered for the first retreat in the former Gilbert Hotel. A former ballroom became a meditation room and a temple honoring Nityananda was built. In 1983, another hotel in the area, the Windsor, was acquired and converted to dormitory accommodation and offices. This centre became known as Sadhana Kutir. This facility has since been sold. In 1985, construction began on
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#1733086158833550-565: The tantric hero." In 1981, Stan Trout, a swami for Siddha Yoga, wrote an open letter in which he referred to a number of stories of Muktananda engaging in sexual activities with young women, and threats and harassment in order to force people to "stop talking about your escapades with young girls in your bedroom." In 1983 William Rodarmor printed several allegations in CoEvolution Quarterly from anonymous female devotees that Muktananda regularly had sex with them and raped them. In
575-556: Was 19 years old, conferred by Muktananda with a wand of peacock feathers in 1975: I almost jumped when the peacock feathers, firmly but with a soft weightiness, hit me repeatedly on my head, and then gently brushed my face as [Muktananda] [...] powerfully pressed one of his fingers into my forehead at a spot located just between my eyebrows [...] I'm honestly somewhat reluctant to write about what happened next because I know that whatever I say will inevitably diminish it, will make it sound as if it were just another "powerful experience." This
600-446: Was experiencing the pure "I am," a state of supreme bliss. Outwardly, at that precise moment, Baba shouted delightedly from his platform, "Mene kuch nahi kiya; kisiko shakti ne pakda" ("I didn't do anything. The Energy has caught someone"). Baba noticed that the dramatic awakening of kundalini in me frightened some people in the audience. Therefore, he said, 'Do not be frightened. Sometimes kundalini gets awakened in this way, depending upon
625-458: Was not an experience. This was THE event of my spiritual life. This was full awakening. This wasn't "knowing" anything, because you only know something that is separate from you. This was being: the Ultimate - a fountain of Light, a dancing, ever-new source. Utter freedom, utter joy [...] Completely fulfilled, completely whole, no limits to my power and love and light." Sarah Caldwell, in an essay in
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