LINEAGE

Bhagavan Nityananda

Nityananda, whose name means "bliss of the eternal," lived in southwest India from around the turn of the 20th century until 1961. Details of his early life are difficult to verify, but from the 1920s until his passing, he was surrounded by an ever-increasing number of disciples and devotees. By the late 1930s he was established in Ganeshpuri in the countryside near Bombay and an active ashram developed around him.

Nityananda would come into a small room in this ashram which was lit by a few bare electric light bulbs, and sit there quietly with his eyes open. People would come from all distances to see him because, in India, the mere viewing of a spiritual teacher, called darshan, is considered a profound and important blessing. Nityananda would sit in this space with his eyes open, simply establishing a connection with each visitor according to his or her capacity to experience and sustain that contact.

Nityananda was well known in the districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, where he is revered to this day as a great saint. In its essence, Nityananda's teaching is profoundly simple. Like the ancient sages of many traditions, he said that anyone who merges the individual into the universal is an enlightened person. To realize the universal nature of one's own individual consciousness is the goal of sadhana (spiritual practice). However, it is hard to describe Nityananda's greatness to most Westerners since his most profound achievements were internal. He never explicitly identified himself with a particular spiritual practice or tradition. In fact, he rarely spoke at all. The thousands of people who came to see him did so because in him they experienced the miracle of pure consciousness in human form. Such a holy person is called an avadhut. Timeless and eternal, the avadhut is a direct link to the absolute, encompassing all teachers who precede him and all who follow.

Swami Rudrananda (Rudi)

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rudi had been actively pursuing his spiritual development for many years. In India at age 30, he was at a crossroads in his life when an associate took him to meet Nityananda at his ashram in Ganeshpuri. Rudi wrote, "My first meeting, in India in 1958, with the great Indian saint Bhagavan Nityananda, was of such depth that it changed the course of my life."

Rudi continued to study with Nityananda and after Nityananda's mahasamadhi in 1961, traveled regularly to Ganeshpuri to visit his shrine and to study with Swami Muktananda. In 1966, Swami Muktananda initiated Rudi as a Swami into the Saraswati order, naming him Rudrananda, or "bliss of Rudra," a fiery and early aspect of the Hindu god Shiva. One of the first Americans to be recognized as a Swami, Rudi came back to the United States and established many ashrams across North America and Europe.

Rudi was instrumental in exposing many Americans to the spirituality and rich cultures of the East. He had a deep respect and appreciation for these different spiritual and cultural traditions and saw a need for them to be presented in a way the West could comprehend. Though recognized as a Swami in India after many years of study, he was not as concerned with the form of Eastern tradition as he was with the content. Rudi saw the art and culture of Eastern spirituality as the symbol of something profound and universal, a truth that cut across all cultural boundaries. To that end, Rudi's teaching was direct and to the point, transmitting his profound understanding with a style that was uniquely his own.

The foundation of Rudi's teachings was based on a deep personal wish to grow spiritually. Rudi talked about this wish to his students constantly. He described how a sincere wish to grow would lead to a deep and intense feeling which, as it matured in an individual, would evolve quite naturally into a deep love of God and of life.

According to his teachings, a shift will happen as this wish to grow would be further transformed into a deep state of surrender. To grow spiritually, Rudi taught that we must live and work in the world from a deep internal state of surrender without any exceptions.

Rudi passed away in 1973. Before he died, he designated Swami Chetanananda as his successor.