Ajay Kumar at 17:51, 12 August 2023

2023-08-12T17:51:55Z

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{{Short description|Guru (or spiritual head) of the Siddha Yoga path}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
| image =
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Gurumayi Chidvilasananda in 1984.
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1955|6|24}}
| birth_place = [[Mangalore]], [[India]]<ref name="siddhayoga1">{{cite web|url=http://www.siddhayoga.org/gurumayi-chidvilasananda/life-and-legacy/a-talk |title=A Talk about Gurumayi's Life and Legacy |publisher=[[SYDA Foundation]] |date=2017-06-01 |accessdate=2019-08-27}}</ref>
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = [[Modern yoga gurus|Guru]], head of [[Siddha Yoga]]
| predecessor = [[Muktananda]]
| notable_works = ''Kindle My Heart'' (1989)
| parents =
}}
'''Gurumayi Chidvilasananda''' (or Gurumayi or '''Swami Chidvilasananda'''), born Malti Shetty on 24 June 1955, is the [[Modern yoga gurus|guru]] or spiritual head of the [[Siddha Yoga]] path, with [[ashram]]s in India [[Gurudev Siddha Peeth|at Ganeshpuri]] and the Western world, with [[Shree Muktananda Ashram|the headquarters of the SYDA foundation in South Fallsburg, New York]].

Gurumayi received spiritual initiation ([[shaktipat]]) from her guru, [[Muktananda|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 South 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''.

== Life and career ==

=== Early life ===

Gurumayi Chidvilasananda was born near [[Mangalore]], [[India]] on 24 June 1955.<ref name="siddhayoga1"/> 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.<ref>Douglas Brooks, Swami Durgananda, Paul E. Muller-Ortega, Constantina Rhodes Bailly, S.P. Sabharathnam. ''Meditation Revolution: a History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga lineage''. (Agama Press) 1997, p.62</ref>

She received spiritual initiation (''[[shaktipat]]'') from Muktananda at age fourteen<ref>Meditation Revolution, p.64</ref> and moved to the ashram as a formal disciple and [[yoga]] student.<ref name="Pechilis 2004">{{cite book |last=Pechilis |first=Karen |chapter=Gurumayi, the Play of Shakti and Guru |title=The Graceful Guru: Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |pages=219–243 |isbn=0-19-514538-0}}</ref> At age twenty, Swami Muktananda made her his official English language translator and she accompanied him on his second and third world tours.<ref name="Meditation Revolution 1997">Douglas Brooks, Swami Durgananda, Paul E. Muller-Ortega, Constantina Rhodes Bailly, S.P. Sabharathnam. ''Meditation Revolution: a History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga lineage''. (Agama Press) 1997, p.99. This records Gurumayi as starting as translator for Muktananda at the age of 20. She translated for Muktananda on his second and third world tours.</ref><ref name="Caldwell 2001">{{cite journal |last=Caldwell |first=Sarah |title=The Heart of the Secret: A Personal and Scholarly Encounter with Shakta Tantrism in Siddha Yoga |journal=[[Nova Religio]] |year=2001 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=9–51 |doi=10.1525/nr.2001.5.1.9}} Note that Caldwell gives the age of Gurumayi's shaktipat as thirteen, not fourteen as stated by Pechilis.</ref>

=== Succession ===
{{further|Siddha Yoga}}

On 3 May 1982, Gurumayi was initiated as a [[sannyasin]] into the [[Dashanami Sampradaya|Saraswati order]] of monks, taking vows of [[Voluntary poverty|poverty]], celibacy and obedience, and acquiring the title and monastic name of [[Swami]] Chidvilasananda, (and later, Gurumayi; the two names being [[Sanskrit]] for "immersed in the Guru" and "bliss of the play of consciousness").<ref>{{cite book |last=Johnsen |first=Linda |title=Daughters of the Goddess: The Women Saints of India |year=1994 |isbn=0-936663-09-X |publisher=Yes International Publishers |authorlink=Linda Johnsen |page=73}}</ref> 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.<ref>Meditation Revolution, p.115</ref>

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;<ref name="Brooks 1997">S.P. Sabharathnam Douglas Brooks. ''Meditation Revolution: A History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga Lineage''.  Agama Press, 1997. page 115. {{ISBN|978-0-9654096-0-5}}</ref> according to his 1986 interview in ''[[Hinduism Today]]'', he left by his own choice, admitting to having sex with several devotees, deciding to cease to be a Siddha Yoga [[sannyasi]] but wishing his sister well as sole guru.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[Hinduism Today]] |title=Former SYDA Co-Guru Explains |date=January 1986 |url=http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=358 |accessdate=7 November 2011}}</ref> A different version of the events was reported later, that there had been a battle for succession,<ref name="Pechilis 2004"/><ref name="Syman 2010">{{cite book |last=Syman |first=Stefanie |title=The Subtle Body: the Story of Yoga in America |title-link=The Subtle Body |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-374-53284-0 |oclc=456171421 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/subtlebodystoryo0000syma/page/285 285–289]}}</ref><ref name="Beck 2017">{{cite journal |last1=Beck |first1=Julie |title=This Article Won't Change Your Mind |journal=The Atlantic |date=13 March 2017 |url=https://danielshawlcsw.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/This-Article-Won%e2%80%99t-Change-Your-Mind-The-Atlantic.pdf |access-date=22 August 2021}}</ref> in which Gurumayi "denounced and deposed" her brother "for allegedly participating in [[antinomian]] sexual rituals".<ref name="Jain 2014"/><ref name="Wessinger 1993">{{cite book |last=Wessinger |first=Catherine |chapter=Woman guru, woman roshi: the legitimation of female religious leadership in Hindu and Buddhist groups in America |title=Women's leadership in marginal religions: Explorations outside the Mainstream |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=1993 |pages=125–146 |url=https://www.academia.edu/download/34207356/Wessinger-Woman_Guru__Woman_Roshi.pdf |isbn=978-0-25206-332-9 |quote=Swami Nityananda was compelled to withdraw from the position in 1985 due to charges that he had repeatedly broken his vow of celibacy}}{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Swami Chidvilasananda stated that she punished him for his misconduct by letting the women he slept with hit him with a stick; eye-witnesses reported that he was bruised.<ref name="Jain 2014"/><ref name="Caldwell 2001"/>

Purity{{what?|date=July 2022}} 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"{{sfn|Pechilis|2004|pp=219-243}} 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.{{sfn|Pechilis|2004|pp=219-243}}

The scholars Jeffrey Kripal<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kripal |first=Jeffrey J. |title=Inside-Out, Outside-In. Existential Place and Academic Practice in the Study of North American Guru-Traditions |journal=Religious Studies Review |date=1999 |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=233–238}}</ref> and Sarah Caldwell{{sfn|Caldwell|2001}} write that the 1997 book ''Meditation Revolution'',<ref name="Brooks 1997"/> which includes five recognized scholars among its six authors, essentially legitimizes, systematizes, and canonizes Gurumayi Chidvilasanda's Siddha Yoga lineage. They state that this would be unexceptionable if presented as from devotees, but is problematic given their presentation of themselves as scholarly historians of religion.{{sfn|Jain|2014}}

=== Guru ===
{{further|Modern yoga gurus}}

In the 1980s and 1990s, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda gave lectures and conducted Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensives in India, United States, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Mexico. Through Shaktipat Intensives, participants are said to receive Shaktipat initiation (the awakening of Kundalini energy that, according to Indian scriptural tradition, resides within each person) and to deepen their practice of Siddha Yoga meditation.<ref name="S.P. Sabharathnam Douglas Brooks 1997. pages 135-152">S.P. Sabharathnam Douglas Brooks. ''Meditation Revolution: A History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga Lineage''. Agama Press, 1997. pages 135-152. {{ISBN|978-0-9654096-0-5}}</ref> From 1989 to 2019, the SYDA Foundation - the organization that "protects, preserves, and facilitates the dissemination of the Siddha Yoga teachings" - sponsored the Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensive given globally.<ref name="S.P. Sabharathnam Douglas Brooks 1997. pages 135-152"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.siddhayoga.org/calendar |title=Calendar for Siddha Yoga Study and Practice in 2021 |accessdate=6 October 2021}}</ref>

In 1992, Gurumayi's humanitarian initiative, the PRASAD Project, was incorporated in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.prasad.org/about-prasad/index.php |title=PRASAD Project |accessdate=18 March 2007|url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070421045938/http://www.prasad.org/about-prasad/index.php |archivedate=21 April 2007 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The project is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo/|title=Department of Economic and Social Affairs – Non-Governmental Organizations Section|accessdate=16 November 2008}}</ref> It assists "people to achieve lives of self-reliance and dignity by offering programs of health, education and sustainable community development in India, dental care in the United States and eye care in Mexico."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.prasad.org/what-we-do |title=About Us |accessdate=18 November 2014}}</ref> In the treatment of cataracts, PRASAD de Mexico has "performed free eye surgery on 26,087 adults and children."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.prasad.org/what-we-do/eye-care |title=PRASAD Eye Care Programs, Mexico |accessdate=18 November 2014}}</ref>

In 1997, Gurumayi founded the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute with its own publishing [[imprint (trade name)|imprint]], Agama Press.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.muktabodha.org |title=Muktabodha Webpage |accessdate=18 March 2007}}</ref> The mission of Muktabodha, based on Gurumayi’s original intention for the organization in 1997, is "to preserve endangered texts from the religious and philosophical traditions of classical India and make them accessible for study and scholarship worldwide."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.muktabodha.org |title=Muktabodha Webpage |accessdate=18 November 2014}}</ref>

In 1998, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published an article about Siddha Yoga titled "This year, the jet set is seeking Nirvana."<ref name="Kuczynski 1998">{{cite news |last1=Kuczynski |first1=Alex |title=This year, the jet set is seeking Nirvana |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/07/style/this-year-the-jet-set-is-seeking-nirvana.html |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 7, 1998}}</ref> Celebrities including [[Meg Ryan]], [[Melanie Griffith]], [[Isabella Rossellini]], [[Diana Ross]], [[Lisa Kudrow]], and [[Lulu (singer)|Lulu]] publicly became devotees and frequented the South Fallsburg ashram. Large numbers of devotees also visited during weekends, for short stays, or for longer periods of service.<ref name="Kuczynski 1998"/><ref name="Chaudhuri 2000">{{cite news |last=Chaudhuri |first=Anita |title=Spiritual guides: Gurus: the finishing touch |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/aug/27/life1.lifemagazine2 |access-date=6 October 2021 |work=[[The Observer]] |date=27 August 2000}}</ref>

Between 1989 and 2006, Gurumayi wrote nine books of spiritual discourses, three books of poetry, three books of spiritual stories for children, and recordings in which she chants ''[[mantra]]s''. These were published by the SYDA Foundation,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://siddhayogabookstore.org/books-Gurumayi_Chidvilsananda.aspx |title=Publications > By Author > Gurumayi Chidvilasananda |publisher=Siddha Yoga Bookstore |accessdate=18 July 2020}}</ref> which holds copyright to all Muktananda and Childvilasananda works.<ref>Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Sadhana of the Heart, vol. 1, (South Fallsburg, NY: SYDA Foundation, 2006; second printing 2011), page 16</ref> The titles of her autobiographical books such as ''Ashes at My Guru's Feet'' and ''Growing up with Baba'' emphasize the importance of lineage in Siddha Yoga, placing her as the third of its spiritual masters.{{sfn|Pechilis|2004|pp=219-243}} During this era, the SYDA Foundation, the business entity associated with Siddha Yoga developed "into a multimillion dollar entity" with business-type executives.<ref name="Pechilis 2004"/>

In 2020, in response to the global [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Gurumayi started appearing in frequent live video [[satsangs]] streamed on the Siddha Yoga website.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.siddhayoga.org/teachings/gurumayis-teachings-for-2020/be-in-the-temple/about |title=About 'Be in the Temple' |publisher=SYDA |accessdate=2 October 2021}}</ref>

== Reception ==

The scholar of religion [[Andrea Jain]] states that Gurumayi has adopted "a strategy of denial" that presents Muktananda as essentially perfect, in order to maintain the Siddha Yoga mission. She cites the scholar Douglas Renfrew Brooks's comment that she, like Muktananda, cites the [[Tantras (Hinduism)|Hindu tantric scripture]] ''Kularnava Tantra'' "frequently but selectively".<ref name="Jain 2014">{{cite book |last=Jain |first=Andrea |author-link=Andrea Jain |chapter=Muktananda: Entrepreneurial Godman, Tantric Hero |editor-last1=Singleton |editor-first1=Mark |editor1-link=Mark Singleton (yoga scholar) |editor-last2=Goldberg |editor-first2=Ellen |title=Gurus of Modern Yoga |title-link=Gurus of Modern Yoga |date=2014 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0199938728 |pages=192, 198, 204–207}}</ref>

The scholar Karen Pechilis notes that female celibacy has caused conflict within the families of gurus such as [[Ammachi]] and [[Gauri Ma]], but that it is not reported as an issue in biographies of Chidvilasananda.<ref name="Pechilis 2015">{{cite journal |last=Pechilis |first=Karen |title=Women Gurus in Hinduism |journal=[[Prabuddha Bharata]] |volume=120 |issue=6 |year=2015 |pages=400–409 |url=https://www.esamskriti.com/essays/pdf/15-oct-Women-Gurus-in-Hinduism.pdf}}</ref> Another scholar of religion, Katherine Wessinger, comments that Chidvilasananda's position is "remarkable in that she combines the charisma of her ecstatic love for God (this is apparent when she chants the names of God) with the institutional authority of having been initiated as a ''sannyasin'' and of having been designated guru in a ''parampara'' (lineage of gurus) [her italics]".<ref name="Wessinger 1993"/>

The guru in [[Elizabeth Gilbert]]'s 2006 memoir ''[[Eat, Pray, Love]]'' has been identified by multiple sources as Chidvilasananda.<ref>{{cite web |title=No ashram for Julia Roberts |url=https://www.rediff.com/movies/report/no-ashram-for-julia-roberts/20090810.htm |work=Rediff.com |access-date=5 October 2021 |date=20 August 2009 |quote=it is widely guessed that she stayed at Gurudev Siddha Peeth at Ganeshpuri (Thane district) in Maharashtra and her guru was Gurumayi Chidvilasananda}}</ref><ref name="Shah 2010">{{cite web |last=Shah |first=Riddhi |url=https://www.salon.com/2010/08/14/eat_pray_love_guru_sex_scandals/|title=The "Eat, Pray, Love" guru's troubling past |work=Salon |date=August 14, 2010 |access-date=August 22, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Stewart |first=Sara |work=New York Post |url=https://nypost.com/2010/08/10/eat-pray-zilch/ |title=Eat, Pray, Zilch |date=August 20, 2010 |access-date=August 22, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Leba 2010">{{cite web |last=Leba |first=Jennifer |title=The Guru Looked Good: Valley Yogi vs. Eat, Pray, Love |url=https://hvmag.com/life-style/the-guru-looked-good-valley-yogi-vs-eat-pray-love/ |website=Hudson Valley |access-date=5 October 2021 |date=12 October 2010}}</ref> There are multiple close parallels: the guru is described as "feminine, multilingual, university-educated"; she resides in the United States; devotees recite the 90-minute-long ''[[Guru Gita]]'' every morning; she followed an Indian swami when a teenager; she worked as his translator before becoming a guru; she was in her 20s when she succeeded him.<ref name="Shah 2010"/>

In 1994, [[The New Yorker]] published an extensive profile of Gurumayi.<ref name="Harris 1994">{{cite magazine |last1=Harris |first1=Lis |title=Oh guru, guru, guru |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/11/14/o-guru-guru-guru |access-date=5 January 2023 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=November 6, 1994}}</ref>

==Shaktipat experience==

Sharing her shaktipat experience, Gurumayi wrote:
"At one point during the pattābhisheka, the ceremony during which Baba Muktananda passed on to me the power of his lineage, he whispered So’ham [I am He] and Aham Brahmāsmi [I am of Brahman] in my ear. I experienced the mantra as an immensely powerful force that rocketed at lightning speed throughout my bloodstream and created an upheaval in my entire system. I instantly transcended body-consciousness and became aware that all distinctions such as inner and outer were false and artificial. Everything was the same; what was within me was also without. My mind became completely blank. There was only the pulsating awareness “I am That” accompanied by great bliss and light.
When my mind again began to function, all I could think was, “What is Baba? Who is this being who looks so ordinary, yet has the capacity to transmit such an experience at will?” I knew beyond a doubt that the mantra was God. I had never experienced a force so mighty, yet at the same time so soothing."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Swami |first1=Chidvilasananda |title=The Science of Hamsa from the Vijnana Bhairava, by Swami Muktananda |journal=SYDA Foundation |date=1992}}</ref>

==Publications==

{{colbegin|colwidth=28em}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi |year=1989 |title=Kindle My Heart |publisher=[[Prentice Hall Press]] |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1990 |title=Ashes at My Guru's Feet |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1991 |title=Siddha Yoga Diksha'' (in Hindi). SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1994 |title=My Lord Loves A Pure Heart |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1995 |title=Inner Treasures |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1995 |title=Blaze The Trail of Equipoise |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Chidvilasananda |first1=Gurumayi|last2=Muktananda |first2=Swami |name-list-style=amp |year=1995 |title=Resonate With Stillness |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1996 |title=The Yoga of Discipline |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1996 |title=The Magic of the Heart |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1997 |title=Enthusiasm |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite journal |journal=[[Hinduism Today]] |title=Your True Companion: The Self Within |first=Gurumayi |last=Chidvilasananda|date=April 1997 |url=http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=4853 |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1998 |title=Remembrance |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=1999 |title=Courage and Contentment |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Chidvilasananda |first=Gurumayi|year=2006 |title=Sadhana of the Heart – Siddha Yoga Messages for the Year Volume 1: 1995–1999 |publisher=SYDA Foundation |author-mask=——— |ref=none}}
{{colend}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{official website|http://www.siddhayoga.org/|Official Siddha Yoga website}}

{{Siddha Yoga}}
{{Modern yoga gurus}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chidvilasananda, Gurumayi}}
[[Category:1955 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century Hindu religious leaders]]
[[Category:21st-century Hindu religious leaders]]
[[Category:Hindu female religious leaders]]
[[Category:Tulu people]]
[[Category:Indian spiritual writers]]
[[Category:Women mystics]]
[[Category:Modern yoga gurus]]

Gurumayi Chidvilasananda - Revision history

Ajay Kumar at 17:51, 12 August 2023