Siddha Yoga

Siddha Yoga is a new religious movement that is based in part on Hindu spiritual traditions. According to the organization itself:

History

Bhagawan Nityananda was viewed by many devotees as a Siddha Guru or Avadhut. He first visited Ganeshpuri, a village located 82 kilometers north of Mumbai in 1936. In Ganeshpuri, Nityananda lived in a small hut built for him by the caretakers of the local Shiva temple. As visitors and devotees of Nityananda increased in number, the hut expanded into an ashram. A frequent visitor to Nityananda's ashram was a wandering yogi named Swami Muktananda. In his autobiography, The Play of Consciousness published by the SYDA Foundation, Muktananda claims that on August 15, 1947, Nityananda gave him Shaktipat transmission. According to the same source, Swami Muktananda attained God-realization or mukti after nine more years of sadhana and discipleship.

Nityananda died in 1961. Muktananda continued the shaktipat tradition by passing on initiation to many people in India and other countries. It was through his widespread extension of the little known Shaktipat experience that Muktananda became a well-known figure. Among his teachings, Muktananda expressed his view of what the Guru really is: one who awakens the inner shakti Kundalini through shaktipat. Muktananda's fame as a Guru increased to the point of being made the subject of a Time magazine article in 1976.

Under Swami Muktananda's leadership, the ashram at Ganeshpuri grew substantially and became known as Gurudev Siddha Peeth. As Siddha Yoga expanded beyond India, Swami Muktananda established a large ashram in the Catskills area north of New York City. He named this ashram after his guru, Nityananda. One of Muktananda's devotees was a young Hindu woman named Malti Shetty, who came from Mumbai. She accompanied Muktananda on his world tours and was given the role of his English-language interpreter. In May, 1982, Swami Muktananda installed Malti Shetty — now known as Gurumayi Chidvilasananda — and her brother Subhash Shetty — now known as Mahamandaleshwar Swami Nityanand, as co-Gurus and spiritual leaders of Siddha Yoga. Swami Muktananda died on October 2, 1982 (in India, the passing on of a Saint or Siddha is often referred to as mahasamadhi).

In 1983 William Rodarmor made public the accusations of some former members that the Siddha Yoga leadership engaged in abusive behavior at odds with its teachings and wider accepted norms. He did so in an article in CoEvolution Quarterly of winter 1983. Swami Nityananda stepped down in 1985 amid controversy about breaking his vows. He has since started his own group, Shanti Mandir. Chidvilasananda continued in her appointed role and has been the sole leader and guru of Siddha Yoga since then. In 1992 she founded the PRASAD Project. Lis Harris repeated and extended Rodarmor's allegations in The New Yorker of November 14, 1994. The 'Leaving Siddha Yoga' website was started in July 1996 to provide information about alleged problems in Siddha Yoga. In 1997 Chidvilasananda founded the Muktabodha Institute with its own publishing imprint, Agama Press. Sarah Caldwell stated in 2001, in the academic journal Nova Religio, that Muktananda was both an enlightened teacher and a secret practitioner of an esoteric form of Tantric sexual yoga.

Practices

The main practices of Siddha Yoga include meditation, chanting, seva, dakshina, satsang and darshan. The form of meditation practiced is silent with attention focused on a mantra and/or on the flow of breath. The mantra most often used for meditation is the mantra Om Namah Shivaya. Students chant Sanskrit mantras which can either be Nama Sankirtana (chants that consist of short Sanskrit phrases, typically names of God) or swadhyaya (chanting of longer texts). The texts include the Guru Gita, morning and evening Arati, Shree Rudram, and the Kundalini Stavaha. Students practice seva through volunteer work at either an ashram or a center in their city. Seva can also mean any service done as an offering to God. Dakshina is a financial offering or gift to the Guru. Traditionally, when students seek the teachings or blessings of a saint, they make an offering of dakshina. The practice of giving dakshina is an expression of appreciation for what has been received on the spiritual path. Satsang refers to group meetings or programs, usually held weekly, at the ashrams and Siddha Yoga meditation centers. Satsang includes talks, meditation and chanting. Darshan means to experience the presence of the Guru, either in person or symbolically through prostration at the Guru's chair or picture and the touching of the Guru's sandals.

Holy days

Siddha Yoga celebrates two common Indian religious holidays Maha Shivaratri (celebrated in February) and Guru Purnima (celebrated on the first full moon in July). They also celebrate the birthdays of Muktananda and Chidvilasananda and Muktananda's divya diksha day (the day he received initiation). They also observe the anniversaries of Muktananda's and Bhagawan Nityanandas deaths.

Scriptures

The Siddha Yoga literature states that it draws many of its teachings from the texts of Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism and the poets of India. From Vedanta it mentions the Upanishads, the Vedas, the Viveka Chudamani and the Yoga Vasishtha. From Kashmir Shaivism it mentions the Shiva sutras, the Prataybhijnahridayam, the Spanda Karikas and Vijnana Bhairava. In addition the literature states that many of the teachings of Siddha Yoga are contained in the Bhagavad Gita, the Jnaneshwari, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Bhakti Sutras, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Guru Gita.