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Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda (also known as Gurumayi or Swami Chidvilasananda), born Malti Shetty on 24 June 1955, is the guru or spiritual head of the Siddha Yoga path, with ashrams and meditation centers in both India (at Ganeshpuri) and the Western world (e.g. in Fallsburg, New York).
The global organization representing her and her teachings is the SYDA Foundation. According to the literature of Siddha Yoga, Gurumayi received spiritual initiation (shaktipat) from her guru, Swami Muktananda, when she was 14, at which time he designated her and her brother Swami Nityananda as his successors. She became a renunciate (sanyassin) in 1982. Muktananda died later that year and she and her brother jointly became the heads of Siddha Yoga. They proceeded to expand the Fallsburg ashram to accommodate large numbers of devotees. In 1985 Nityananda left the Siddha Yoga path.
She has authored several devotional books, starting with the 1989 Kindle My Heart.
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda was born near Mangalore, India on 24 June 1955. She was called Malti as a child and was the eldest of three children to a Mumbai couple who were devotees of Muktananda in the 1950s. Her parents took her to the Gurudev Siddha Peeth ashram at Ganeshpuri for the first time when she was five years old. During her childhood, her parents brought her, her sister and two brothers to the ashram on weekends.
She received spiritual initiation (shaktipat) from Muktananda at age fourteen and moved to the ashram as a formal disciple and yoga student. At age twenty, Swami Muktananda made her his official English language translator and she accompanied him on his second and third world tours.
On 3 May 1982, Gurumayi was initiated as a sannyasin into the Saraswati order of monks, taking vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, and acquiring the monastic name of Swami Chidvilasananda, or bliss of the play of consciousness. She later became popularly known as Gurumayi, meaning absorbed or immersed in the guru. At this time Swami Muktananda formally designated her as one of his successors, along with her younger brother Subhash Shetty, whose monastic name was Swami Nityananda.
Swami Muktananda died in October 1982, after which Gurumayi and Nityananda became joint spiritual heads of the Siddha Yoga path. Nityananda left the Siddha Yoga path in 1985; according to his 1986 interview in Hinduism Today, he left by his own choice, deciding to cease to be a Siddha Yoga sannyasi but wishing his sister well as sole guru.
The personal quality of purity is emphasized in the Siddha Yoga tradition. Pechilis writes that Gurumayi's purity is highlighted to show that she continues the guru tradition, and that she is a suitably pure person to be the spiritual leader of the organization. Pechilis comments that while purity may have been an implicit credential for her predecessor gurus, one point of view is that it became "explicit and greatly emphasized during the succession dispute and is now a primary lens" for understanding Gurumayi's spiritual path. Unusually for female gurus, Pechilis writes, she was not apparently expected to marry at any time. Instead she took sannyasa in the way a male guru would.
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Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda (also known as Gurumayi or Swami Chidvilasananda), born Malti Shetty on 24 June 1955, is the guru or spiritual head of the Siddha Yoga path, with ashrams and meditation centers in both India (at Ganeshpuri) and the Western world (e.g. in Fallsburg, New York).
The global organization representing her and her teachings is the SYDA Foundation. According to the literature of Siddha Yoga, Gurumayi received spiritual initiation (shaktipat) from her guru, Swami Muktananda, when she was 14, at which time he designated her and her brother Swami Nityananda as his successors. She became a renunciate (sanyassin) in 1982. Muktananda died later that year and she and her brother jointly became the heads of Siddha Yoga. They proceeded to expand the Fallsburg ashram to accommodate large numbers of devotees. In 1985 Nityananda left the Siddha Yoga path.
She has authored several devotional books, starting with the 1989 Kindle My Heart.
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda was born near Mangalore, India on 24 June 1955. She was called Malti as a child and was the eldest of three children to a Mumbai couple who were devotees of Muktananda in the 1950s. Her parents took her to the Gurudev Siddha Peeth ashram at Ganeshpuri for the first time when she was five years old. During her childhood, her parents brought her, her sister and two brothers to the ashram on weekends.
She received spiritual initiation (shaktipat) from Muktananda at age fourteen and moved to the ashram as a formal disciple and yoga student. At age twenty, Swami Muktananda made her his official English language translator and she accompanied him on his second and third world tours.
On 3 May 1982, Gurumayi was initiated as a sannyasin into the Saraswati order of monks, taking vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, and acquiring the monastic name of Swami Chidvilasananda, or bliss of the play of consciousness. She later became popularly known as Gurumayi, meaning absorbed or immersed in the guru. At this time Swami Muktananda formally designated her as one of his successors, along with her younger brother Subhash Shetty, whose monastic name was Swami Nityananda.
Swami Muktananda died in October 1982, after which Gurumayi and Nityananda became joint spiritual heads of the Siddha Yoga path. Nityananda left the Siddha Yoga path in 1985; according to his 1986 interview in Hinduism Today, he left by his own choice, deciding to cease to be a Siddha Yoga sannyasi but wishing his sister well as sole guru.
The personal quality of purity is emphasized in the Siddha Yoga tradition. Pechilis writes that Gurumayi's purity is highlighted to show that she continues the guru tradition, and that she is a suitably pure person to be the spiritual leader of the organization. Pechilis comments that while purity may have been an implicit credential for her predecessor gurus, one point of view is that it became "explicit and greatly emphasized during the succession dispute and is now a primary lens" for understanding Gurumayi's spiritual path. Unusually for female gurus, Pechilis writes, she was not apparently expected to marry at any time. Instead she took sannyasa in the way a male guru would.