Muktananda (16 May 1908 2 October 1982) is the monastic name of the Siddha Yogaguru who

was the founder of the Siddha Yoga spiritual path. Muktananda was a disciple and the
successor of Bhagavan Nityananda.[1] He wrote a number of books on the subjects of Kundalini
Shakti, Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism, including a spiritual autobiography entitled The Play
of Consciousness.

Contents
[hide]

1Biography
2Opinion
3Bibliography
4References
5External links

Biography[edit]
Muktananda was born in 1908 near Mangalore in Karnataka State, India, into a well-off family. His
birth name was Krishna Rau.[2] At 15 he encountered Bhagavan Nityananda, a
wandering avadhoot who profoundly changed his life.[2] After this encounter, Krishna left home
and began his search for the experience of God.[3] He studied under Siddharudha Swami
at Hubli, where he learned Sanskrit, Vedantaand all branches of yoga, and took the initiation
of sannyasa in the Sarasvati order of the Dashanami Sampradaya,[4] taking the name of Swami
Muktananda. After Siddharudha's death, Muktananda began wandering India on foot, studying
with many different saints and gurus.
After more than 20 years of searching through the subcontinent of India, in 1947 Muktananda
went to Ganeshpuri to receive the darshanof Bhagavan Nityananda, the renowned saint who had
originally inspired Muktananda's search for God. He received shaktipat initiationfrom him in the
early morning of 15 August of that year. Muktananda often said that his spiritual journey
didn't truly begin until he receivedshaktipat from the holy man Bhagavan Nityananda. According
to his description, it was a profound and sublime experience. [5]
August 15, 1947 Nityananda stood facing me directly. He looked into my eyes
again. Watching carefully, I saw a ray of light entering me from his pupils. It felt hot
like burning fever. Its light was dazzling, like that of a high-powered bulb. As that
ray emanating from Bhagavan Nityananda's pupils penetrated mine, I was thrilled
with amazement, joy, and fear. I was beholding its color and chanting Guru Om. It
was a full unbroken beam of divine radiance. Its color kept changing from molten
gold to saffron to a shade deeper than the blue of a shining star. I stood utterly
transfixed. He sat down and said in his aphoristic fashion, "All mantras... one.
Each... from Om. Om Namah Shivaya Om... should think, Shivo'ham, I am Shiva...
Shiva-Shiva...Shivo'ham...should be internal repetition. Internal...superior to
external".[5]

Muktananda spent the next nine years living and meditating in a little hut in Yeola. He wrote
about his sadhana and kundalini-related meditation experiences, in his autobiography - published
in abridged form in 1970 as GURU, by Harper & Row, and in full as Play of Consciousness, in
India in 1971, and in the U.S. in 1974. In 1956, Bhagawan Nityananda acknowledged the
culmination of Muktananda's spiritual journey, and gave him a small piece of land at
Ganeshpuri, near Bombay, instructing Muktananda to create an ashram there.[6]
Between 1956 and 1982, when he died, Muktananda taught the path he founded and named:
the Siddha Yoga path. Central to his teachings were:

"See God in each other."Swami Muktananda [7]

"Honor your Self. Worship your Self. Meditate on your Self. God dwells within you as you."

Swami Muktananda [7] Muktananda often gave a shorter version of this teaching: "God dwells
within you as you." [8]