Download Video Swami Mp4
Brooke Fuerst
The meaning of the Sanskrit root of the word swami is "[he who is] one with his self" (swa stands for "self"),[3] and can roughly be translated as "he/she who knows and is master of himself/herself".[1] The term is often attributed to someone who has achieved mastery of a particular yogic system or demonstrated profound devotion (bhakti) to one or more Hindu gods.[1] The Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology as:[4]
In modern Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Swami is also one of the 108 names for a sannyasi given in Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati's Gaudiya Kanthahara, along with Goswami, also traditionally used as an honorific title.[5]
Swami is also the surname of the Bairagi caste in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. In Bengali, the word (pronounced [ˈʃami]), while carrying its original meaning, also has the meaning of "husband" in another context. The word also means "husband" in Malay, in which it is spelled suami,[6] and in Khmer, Assamese and Odiya. The Thai word for "husband", sami (สามี) or swami (สวามี) is a cognate word.
The swami was born in India on December 26, 1893. In 1914, after graduating from Calcutta University, he joined the Ramakrishna Order of India and was initiated by Swami Brahmananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.
In his later years after passing on the duty of running the communities to Nayaswamis Jyotish and Devi, Swami Kriyananda traveled extensively between Italy, India, and America sharing Yogananda's teachings and initiating thousands into Kriya Yoga, Yogananda's main technique for attaining Self-Realization.
In 2009 Kriyananda founded the Nayaswami Order, similar in some ways to the Swami order of India, however it permits women and those with spouses and children to enter the order, as long as they are experienced meditators and deeply committed to God.Swami Kriyananda passed away on April 21, 2013 at one of Ananda's communities near Assisi, Italy, surrounded by his spiritual family. He will be missed, but his legacy will live on.
In his will, he named Nayaswami Jyotish as his spiritual successor. Nayaswami Jyotish and his wife Nayaswami Devi currently serve as Ananda's spiritual directors and have carried on Swami Kriyananda's work of traveling, lecturing, and helping to guide Ananda's communities worldwide.