An American meditation master and abbot of Nityananda Institute and Rudrananda Ashram, Swami Chetanananda serves as spiritual teacher, mentor, and beloved guide to students throughout the world. Born and educated in the Midwest, he trained under Swami Rudrananda until Rudi passed away in 1973. He was initiated into the Saraswati Order in 1978 in Ganeshpuri, India, with Swami Muktananda presiding. In addition, he is a lineage holder in the Shi-je tradition of Padampa Sangye and the practices of the Longchen Nyingthig tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.
Swamiji, as his students call him, has traveled extensively, exploring the religious practices of many cultures. From 1980 to 1986, he had contact with Swami Laksmanjoo in Srinigar, studying Kashmir Shaivism. In 1983, he embraced the ancient Kashmir Shaivite practice of Trika Yoga, the philosophical framework in which the practice of kundalini yoga is the vehicle for realization. Trika Yoga sees every ethnic and lifestyle possibility as equal. It does not give renunciation a role in spiritual development, emphasizing rather a commitment to the positives as a means for developing discrimination.
Swami Chetanananda is widely recognized as an authority on Trika Yoga meditation and the philosophy and ancient tantric practices of Kashmir Shaivism. In profoundly simple and direct language, Swamiji makes the ancient wisdom of yoga and the sophisticated understanding of Kashmir Shaivism accessible to Westerners.
Photos, talks and interviews with Swami Chetanananda (www.chetanananda.org)
Articles by Swami Chetanananda (www.chetanananda.com)
Products from Swami Chetanananda
Books
- The Breath of God
- Choose to Be Happy
- Dynamic Stillness, Part One
- Dynamic Stillness, Part Two
- Open Heart, Open Mind
- The Open Moment
- Songs from the Center of the Well
- There Is No Other
- Will I Be the Hero of My Own Life?