YOGI SRI SRI SRI SATCHIDANANDA, WHOSE PREVIOUS NAME WAS ACCHUDHARAMAYA, WAS BORN IN VISHAKAPATAM INTO A VERY POOR FAMILY. HE WAS A TAILOR BY PROFESSION. ONE DAY, WHILE HE WAS SEWING, A LARGE PAIR OF SCISSORS FELL ONTO HIS LEG, LEAVING A DEEP WOUND. HE WENT TO THE HOSPITAL WHERE THEY FAILED TO CURE HIM. THE PEOPLE IN THE VILLAGE OF RAJAYAPETTA THEN TOLD HIM TO GO TO A NATUROPATHY HOSPITAL. HE WENT THERE AND WAS QUICKLY CURED. IN THAT PLACE THEY ALSO TAUGHT YOGA AND THE YOUNG MAN BECAME SO INTERESTED IN THE SUBJECT, THAT HE DECIDE TO STAY THERE. HE NEVER RETURNED TO THE VILLAGE, AND STAYED TO FOLLOW THE TEACHINGS OF GURU RAGhAVENDRA. AFTER A FEW YEARS, A RESIDENT OF RAJAYAPETTA WAS ELECTED AS MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT IN DELHI AND CALLED SATCHIDANANDA TO TEACH. At that time HE KNEW 128 YOGASANA which he TAUGHT and practiced. HE LATER MOVED TO MADRAS WHERE HE TAUGHT AT THE LOCAL COMMUNITY IN A SMALL ASHRAM. LATER, THE PEOPLE THERE INVITED HIM TO A BIGGER PLACE WHERE A HUNDRED PEOPLE A DAY WOULD COME AND HE BEGAN TO CELEBRATE THE PUJA. ONE DAY A FRENCH TRAVELLER ASKED TO BECOME THE MASTER’S STUDENT AND INVITED HIM TO TEACH IN FRANCE. AFTER THIS, HE VISITED MANY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, for 4-6 months a year.
SRI SRI SRI SATCHIDANANDA YOGI GAVE UP HIS SOUL TO GOD DURING THE FULL MOON OF SEPTEMBER, PREPARING himself BY FASTING for THIS JOURNEY of reintegration WITH THE ABSOLUTE. WE CELEBRATE THIS REMARKABLE TEACHER WHO HAS CONTINUED TO GIVE SO MANY OF US ASPIRING YOGI TEACHINGS FOR LIFE. NOW FROM THE SPACE OF THE SPIRIT, NO LONGER CONSTRAINED BY THE PHYSICAL BODY, SWAMIJI IS EVEN CLOSER AND ILLUMINATES THE PATH.
In the nineteenth century, India, almost completely dominated by the English, was forced to confront the Western culture and the need to get out of its borders. Some masters entrusted to some disciples chosen as their successors the task of transmission in America and Europe. A new chapter of the spiritual history of India opened, a revisitation of its own culture that took the name of Neoinduism, in which the ascetics of the ashrama were called to social commitment: no longer in the forest, but inside the society. It was the case of Sri Sri Sri Satcitananda, of Swami ji, Walter Thirak Ruta’s Master, who made, at the time, the choice to engage among men, in the difficult conditions of city life, to testify that certain spiritual choices can very well be lived and made to grow even in non-spiritual contexts or, better, in contexts that do not appear as such. Swami ji decided to live his life, however, taking inspiration from the tradition, making a vow to which he remained faithful for forty years: the vow of muni, the silent ascetic who "sacrifices" the word for the silence that sanctifies it.
Walter Thirak Ruta, his disciple and continuer of tradition, wanted to dedicate to the Maestro his first book, a true "logbook", not at all academic or preachy, but spontaneous and immediate, testimony of a journey of transformation. The detailed descriptions of the āsanas supported by images alternate with considerations, quotations, small parables and notes, with the constant recall to recognize in the physical posture an inner attitude that leads beyond. The use of mantras in this context becomes fundamental. Indispensable is the purification process carried out through shatkarma, food attention and fasting, whose indications are interspersed with drawings and photos far from any aesthetic intent, but as significant as those that once were collected in family albums. And this is the tone of the book: simple and familiar; a gift, in the intention of the author, convinced that the path of ascent makes sense only if shared.
Marilia Albanese - March 2014
Review to Dio è felicità, Walter Thirak Ruta, Scuola Yoga Pramiti, Ventimiglia, 2013, 311 pp