EARLY BOYHOOD
Sri Swami Sivananda, was born on September 8, 1887, at Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district in Tamilnadu, South India. His boyhood name was Kuppuswami. His saintly father, Vengu Iyer, was a devotee of Lord Siva and a descendant of the 16th century saint and scholar, Appayya Dikshitar. His mother was Parvatiammal.
During his student days he was brilliant in the classroom as well as on the sports field. He always stood first in his class. He was bold and cheerful. When Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream was staged, he played the part of Helena.
Good health to him was just as important as learning. He used to practise gymnastics and fencing. He would get up as early as 3am to do his exercises. In innocent mischief, before leaving his room, he would playfully deceive his mother by arranging the blankets and pillows in such a manner as to make her believe that he was still in bed!
As the desire to serve others was in the his nature, it was but natural that he should choose a medical career. Although his parents wanted him to follow another line, the Master was adamant in his desire to practise medicine. After completing his matriculation he joined the Tanjore Medical Institute.
Swamiji, remarkably intelligent as he was, was gifted with a phenomenal memory as well. He was extremely industrious and never went home during holidays. He used to spend the time in the hospital trying to acquire more knowledge. So prodigious was his memory that he would retain whatever he read. He revealed that even during his first year of medicine he could answer the fifth-year papers. After completing his studies, he served in India for some time and ran a medical journal called Ambrosia.
But Swamiji was not satisfied with his work in India and his ambitious spirit drove him to Malaya to seek employment there. He was appointed as doctor by Mr. A.G. Robins, the manager of a rubber estate, there , which had a hospital of its own.
Soon his extremely kind and loving nature became well-known in Malaya. He was a loving friend of the indentured labourers as well as of the local citizens. Together with his work in the hospital he also had his private practice. He never demanded any fee from his patients. Often he would give them money from his own pocket for their special diet. In serious cases he would keep vigil at night at the patient's bedside.
Swamiji loved sports. His favourite pastime was cycling. He read many books on Western games and attended scores of tournaments. For a certain period he even acted as a sports correspondent to the Malaya Tribune.
He led a luxurious life in Malaya. He had a great liking for high class dress, collection of curios and fancy articles of sandalwood, gold and silver. He would purchase various kinds of gold rings and necklaces and wear them all at the same time! He had many hats but seldom made use of them.
But Swamiji’s life-style did not prevent him from performing his daily spiritual practices and seeking the company of holy men.
The doctor's profession provided him with ample evidence of sufferings in this world. He realised that true, lasting happiness cannot be had merely by acquiring wealth. With the purification of heart acquired through selfless service, he had a new vision. He was deeply convinced that there must be a place-a sweet home of divine splendour, purity and pristine glory-where absolute security, perfect peace and lasting happiness can be had. And that was by realising God.
So he abandoned the life of ease and comfort and reached India in search of an ideal centre for purposes of prayer, meditation, study and a higher form of service to the whole world.
After coming to India, Kuppuswamy started visiting various pilgrimage destinations. He met Swami Vishwananda Saraswati in Rishikesh in 1924 and took him as his Guru. Vishwananda initiated him into sanyas (asceticism) and gave the name of Swami Sivananda. However, Swami Vishnudevananda, the Mahant of Sri Kailas Ashram, performed the rest of the Viraja Homa ceremonies later.
SERVICE OF MONKS
In spite of his extremely severe austerities and prolonged periods of meditation, he would find time to serve the sick monks and passing pilgrims. He would clean the rooms of the sick monks and sometimes keep vigil the whole night if the case was serious. He once carried Lek, a European monk, to the hospital. Orthodox monks of the Rishikesh colony did not believe in any kind of selfless service. So his activities were ridiculed.
Many monks were run down through malnutrition and the extreme winter cold. Most of them suffered from frequent attacks of fever and dysentery. He could not bear to see the helpless plight of these holy monks. He wanted to serve them, but he needed drugs and medicines for which money had to be found. Remembering his savings in an insurance company in Malaya, he managed to salvage Rs5,000. He deposited the sum in the post office and utilised the interest to obtain medicine and essential food items for the suffering monks.
Within a few months he felt the urgent need to organise this relief programme better. So the Satya Sevashram Dispensary thus came into being to serve the monks and the passing pilgrims.
While at Swarg Ashram, Swamiji kept a diary in which he recorded his thoughts. He used to meditate even up to sixteen hours a day. His method of developing a virtue was to take one at a time and practise it for a month. He admitted that he, too, used to kill scorpions in the beginning.
He founded the Divine Life Society in 1936, in premises that were once used as cowsheds. But it did not take long for seekers to be drawn to his magnetic personality and the Society grew rapidly.
He was simple and childlike in his attitude, yet he had the bearing of an ancient sage. He prostrated to saints and scavengers and bowed to stones, bricks and donkeys. He addressed even little children with courtesy. He respected the rights of animals and showed them extreme love and compassion.
He was an optimist. A negative attitude had no place in him. Every word he uttered, every sentence he wrote, was charged with a rare spiritual power, because he taught what he himself practised in his daily life. This was the outstanding feature of his personality.
FOUNDATIONS SET UP BY SWAMI SIVANANDA
- Divine Life Society (1936)
- Sivananda Ayurvedic Pharmacy (1945)
- All-world Religions Federation (1945)
- All-world Sadhus Federation (1947)
- Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy (1948)
SWAMI SIVANANDA YOGA
Sivananda Yoga is a type of Hatha Yoga, which lays stress on asanas (postures), savasana (relaxation), pranayama (proper breathing), diet (vegetarian) and Vedanta and dhyana (positive thinking and meditation).
Sivananda Yoga is a type of Hatha Yoga, which lays stress on asanas (postures), savasana (relaxation), pranayama (proper breathing), diet (vegetarian) and Vedanta and dhyana (positive thinking and meditation).
The all-merciful Divine Master, Sri Swami Sivananda merged in God on July 14, 1963, leaving behind numerous followers all over the world to spread his great gospel of love and service.
HIS HOLINESS SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA SARASWATI MAHARAJ
At the age of eight, Sridhar Rao's life was influenced by one Sri Anantayya, a friend of his grandfather, who used to relate to him stories from the epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. Doing Tapas (austerities), becoming a Rishi (sage), and having a vision of the Lord became ideals which he cherished.
His uncle, Krishna Rao, shielded him against the evil influences of the materialistic world around him, and sowed in him the seeds of the Nivritti life (life of renunciation) which he joyously nurtured until, as latter events proved, it blossomed into sainthood.
His elementary education began at Mangalore. In 1932, he joined the Muthiah Chetty School in Madras where he distinguished himself as a brilliant student. His cheerful personality, exemplary conduct and extraordinary traits earned for him a distinct place in the hearts of all teachers and students with whom he came into contact.
In 1936, he was admitted to Loyola College, whose portals admit only the most brilliant of students. In 1938, he emerged with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. This period of studentship at a predominantly Christian College was significant. The glorious ideals of Lord Jesus, the Apostles and the other Christian saints had found in his heart a synthesis of all that is best and noble in the Hindu culture. To him, study of the Bible was no mere routine; it was the living word of God, just as living and real as the words of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita. His innate breadth of vision enabled him to see Jesus in Krishna, not Jesus instead of Krishna. He was as much an adorer of Jesus Christ as he was of Lord Vishnu.
The family was noted for its high code of conduct and this was infused into his life. Charity and service were the glorious ingrained virtues of the members of the family. These virtues found an embodiment in Sridhar Rao. He discovered ways and means of manifesting them. None who sought his help was sent away without it. He gave freely to the needy.
Service to lepers became his ideal. He would build them huts on the vast lawns of his home and look after them as though they were deities. Later, after he joined the Ashram (hermitage), this early trait found in him complete and free expression where even the best among men would seldom venture into this great realm of divine love, based upon the supreme wisdom that all are one in God. Patients from the neighbourhood, suffering from the worst kind of diseases came to him. To Sridhar Rao the patient was none other than Lord Narayana Himself. He served him with tender love and compassion. The very movement of his hands portrayed him as worshipping the living Lord Narayana. Nothing would keep him from bringing comfort to the suffering inmates of the Ashram, no matter what the urgency of other engagements at the time.
Service, especially of the sick, often brought out the fact that he had no idea of his own separate existence as an individual. It seemed as if his body clung loosely to his soul.
Nor was all this service confined to human beings. Birds and animals claimed his attention as much as, if not more than, human beings. He understood their language of suffering. His service of a sick dog evoked the admiration of Gurudev. He would raise his finger in grim admonition when he saw anyone practicing cruelty to dumb animals in his presence.
His deep and abiding interest in the welfare of lepers had earned for him the confidence and admiration of the Government authorities when he was elected to the Leper Welfare Association, constituted by the state - at first as Vice-Chairman and later as Chairman of The Muni-ki-reti Notified Area Committee.
Quite early in life, although born in a wealthy family, he shunned the pleasures of the world to devote himself to seclusion and contemplation. In the matter of study it was the spiritual books which had the most appeal to him, more than college books. Even while he was at college, text-books had to take second place to spiritual books. The works of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Gurudev took precedence over all others. He shared his knowledge with others, so much so that he virtually became the Guru of the household and the neighbourhood, to whom he would talk of honesty, love, purity, service and devotion to God. He would exhort them to perform Japa of Rama-Nama. While still in his twenties he began initiating youngsters into this great Rama Taraka Mantra. He was an ardent admirer of Sri Ramakrishna Math at Madras and regularly participated in the Satsangs (association with the wise) there. The call of Swami Vivekananda to renounce resounded within his pure heart. He ever thirsted for the Darshan (vision) of saints and Sadhus (renunciates) visiting the metropolis.
In June 1936, he disappeared from home. After a vigorous search by his parents, he was found in the secluded Ashram of a holy sage some miles from the sacred mountain shrine Tirupati. He returned home after some persuasion. This temporary separation was but a preparation for the final parting from the world of attachments to family and friends. While at home his heart dwelt in the silent forests of spiritual thoughts, beating in tune with eternal Pranava-Nada (mystic sound of the Eternal) of the Jnana Ganga (river of Knowledge) within himself. The seven years at home following his return from Tirupati were marked by seclusion, service, intense study of spiritual literature, self-restraint, control of the senses, simplicity in food and dress, abandonment of all comforts and practice of austerities which augmented his inner spiritual power.
The final decision came in 1943. He was already in correspondence with Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj of Rishikesh. He obtained Swamiji's permission to join the Ashram.
On arriving at the Ashram, he naturally took charge of the dispensary. He became the man with the healing hand. The growing reputation of his divine healing hand attracted a rush of patients to the Sivananda Charitable Dispensary.
Very soon after joining the Ashram, he gave ample evidence of the brilliance of his intellect. He delivered lectures, wrote articles for magazines and gave spiritual instructions to the visitors. When the Yoga-Vedanta Forest University (now known as the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy) was established in 1948, Sri Gurudev paid him a fitting tribute by appointing him Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Raja Yoga. During his first year he inspired the students with his brilliant exposition of Maharishi Patanjali's Yoga-Sutras.
It was also in the first year of his stay at the Ashram that he wrote his magnum opus 'Light Fountain', an immortal biography of Sri Gurudev. Sri Gurudev himself once remarked: "Sivananda will pass away, but 'Light Fountain' will live".
In spite of his multifarious activities and intense Sadhana, he founded, under the guidance of Gurudev, the Yoga Museum in 1947, in which the entire philosophy of Vedanta and all the processes of Yoga Sadhana are depicted in the form of pictures and illustrations.
Towards the end of 1948, Gurudev nominated him as the General Secretary of The Divine Life Society. The great responsibility of the organization fell on his shoulders. From that very moment he spiritualized all his activities by his presence, counsel and wise leadership. He exhorted all to raise their consciousness to the level of the Divine.
On Guru Purnima day, the 10th of July, 1949, he was initiated into the holy order of Sannyasa by Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj. He now became known as Swami Chidananda, a name which connotes : "one who is in the highest consciousness and bliss".
In November 1959 Swami Chidanandaji embarked on an extensive tour of America, being sent by Gurudev as his personal representative to broadcast the message of Divine Life. He returned in March 1962.
In August 1963, after the Mahasamadhi of the Master, he was elected as President of the Divine Life Society. After election, he strove to hold aloft the banner of renunciation, dedicated service, love and spiritual idealism, not only within the set-up of the widespread organization of the Society, but in the hearts of countless seekers throughout the world, who were all too eager to seek his advice, help and guidance.
Sri Swami Chidanandaji has toured the length and breadth of India, Malaysia and South Africa to serve the devotees of the Society.
Again in 1968, Sri Swami Chidanandaji undertook the Global Tour at the kind request of numerous disciples and devotees of holy Master Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj and visited all countries of the world. Wherever he went devotees received him cordially and listened to him with rapt attention.
Sri Swami Chidanandaji, right from the beginning is working and serving the Divine Cause of Sri Gurudev's Mission tirelessly and spreading his Divine Life Message far and wide not only in Bharatavarsha (India) but also in countries outside.
On 24th September, 1976 the Headquarters of The Divine Life Society Shivanandanagar (Rishikesh) as well as all Branches of the Society celebrated his 60th Birthday Anniversary (Shashtyabdapurti).
