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Dr. Raghabananda Nayak (28 August 1938 - 31 October 2016) was a writer in Oriya and was a lecturer for many years in unspecified Indian Universities. He was a Kriya Yoga spiritual master of Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda and Paramahansa Hariharananda's lineage.
Dr. Nayak was born in Fatehpur Village of district Bhadrak, Odisha, India. He obtained his master's degree in Oriya from Vishwa Bharati University, Shantiniketan, India. Later he got his D. Litt. from Utkal University, Odisha. He had been appointed first as a lecturer at Vishwa Bharati University in 1960. For many years he headed the Dept. of Oriya at Gangadhar Meher College (Autonomous) in Sambalpur, Odisha from which he retired in 1996.[ citation needed ]
He came in contact with Paramahansa Hariharananda in early 1964 and learnt Kriya Yoga (a particular type of yoga taught by him) from him in 1965. According to his own personal account he experienced the state of samadhi, the highest state of mind that yoga practitioners aspire as an ultimate goal, on the very day of his initiation.[ citation needed ]
The Menninger Foundation of Topeka, Kansas, USA, had the opportunity of taking him as a subject of study and analyze alpha waves in the state of meditation. The results of this study along with a video has also been shown in a documentary film named "Biofeedback: Yoga for the West". [1] Subsequently, this study had appeared in a science book named "Beyond Biofeedback" [2] by Dr. Elmer [3] and Alice Green.
He was the President of the Hariharananda Kriya Yoga Mission, Gopalmal, Sambalpur, Odisha, India from 1992 to 2008. [4] This was founded by his master Paramahansa Hariharananda in the year 1992. He learnt from him at Karar Ashram in Puri what Hariharananda considered to be the higher kriyas according to the kriya yoga tradition and was given the title of Acharya (teacher) in 1974. Since then he is initiating people interested in this type of yoga and preparing acharyas of the Kriya Yoga order, as well as writing several books in Oriya and English [5] about yoga and spiritual matters. According to his own account in the year 1992 his spiritual master conferred him the title of Rajarshi. At present he is the President of Hariharananda Kriya Yoga Mission, Banabira. And he is guiding the seekers of Kriya Yoga at his home in Sambalpur regularly in the mornings and evenings.
Paramahansa Yogananda was an Indian-American Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) / Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) of India – the only one he created to disseminate his teachings. A chief disciple of the yoga guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri, he was sent by his lineage to spread the teachings of yoga to the West. He immigrated to the US at the age of 27 to prove the unity between Eastern and Western religions and to preach a balance between Western material growth and Indian spirituality. His long-standing influence in the American yoga movement, and especially the yoga culture of Los Angeles, led him to be considered by yoga experts as the "Father of Yoga in the West". He lived his last 32 years in the US.
Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri is the monastic name of Priya Nath Karar, an Indian monk and yogi, and the guru of Paramahansa Yogananda and Swami Satyananda Giri. Born in Serampore, West Bengal, Sri Yukteswar was a Kriya yogi, a Jyotishi, a scholar of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, an educator, author, and astronomer. He was a disciple of Lahiri Mahasaya of Varanasi and a member of the Giri branch of the Swami order. As a guru, he had two ashrams, one in Serampore and another in Puri, Odisha, between which he alternated his residence throughout the year as he trained disciples.
Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) is a worldwide religious organization founded in 1920 by Paramahansa Yogananda, the Indian guru who authored Autobiography of a Yogi. Before coming to the United States, Yogananda began his spiritual work in India in 1917 and named it Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS). He came to the West in 1920 and in 1925 established SRF's headquarters at Mount Washington, Los Angeles, California. Before his return visit to India in 1935, he legally incorporated SRF in the United States, designating it as the only organization to carry on his work – to care for and disseminate his teachings.
Kriya Yoga is a yoga system which consists of a number of levels of pranayama, mantra, and mudra, intended to rapidly accelerate spiritual development and engender a profound state of tranquility and God-communion. It is described by its practitioners as an ancient yoga system revived in modern times by Lahiri Mahasaya, who claimed to be initiated by a guru, Mahavatar Babaji, circa 1861 in the Himalayas. Kriya Yoga was brought to international awareness by Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a Yogi and through Yogananda's introductions of the practice to the West from 1920.
Bargarh is one of the major towns of Western Odisha and a municipality in Bargarh district in the state of Odisha in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Bargarh District and is one of the most important towns of Odisha because it is known as the "rice bowl of Odisha" due to its intense rice production, it is a agroindustrial hub and is also known as "city of handloom" because sambalpuri sari originated from here."Dhanujatra" of Bargarh is world famous and is known as the "world's largest open theatre". Bargarh was awarded with the "fastest moving city" award under the 50k-100k category in Swachh Sarbekhyan 2022 in the east zone.
Paramahamsa, also spelled paramahansa or paramhansa, is a Sanskrit religio-theological title of honour applied to Hindu spiritual teachers who have become enlightened. The title literally means "supreme swan". The swan is equally at home on land and on water; similarly, the true sage is equally at home in the realms of matter and of spirit. To be in divine ecstasy and simultaneously to be actively wakeful is the paramahamsa state; the 'royal swan' of the soul floats in the cosmic ocean, beholding both its body and the ocean as manifestations of the same Spirit. The word 'Paramahamsa' signifies one who is Awakened in all realms. Paramahamsa is the highest level of spiritual development in which a union with ultimate reality has been attained by a sannyasi.
The Bihar School of Yoga is a modern school of yoga founded and developed by Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati in Munger, Bihar, India, in 1963. The system of yoga taught at the Bihar School of Yoga is recognized worldwide as Bihar Yoga or the Satyananda Yoga tradition. In 2019, the Bihar School of Yoga was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Outstanding Contribution Towards Promotion and Development of Yoga.
Roy Eugene Davis was an American spiritual teacher and author who "established the Georgia-based Center for Spiritual Awareness in 1972". Previously he had founded New Life Worldwide Inc. In 1967, he began publishing Truth Journal Magazine which has now been in continuous publication for 44 years. By 1970 he had authored nine books. Davis continued to teach in the Kriya Yoga tradition for more than 60 years.
Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS) is a non-profit, nonsectarian spiritual organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1917 and is a part of the Self-Realization Fellowship which was founded in 1920 to care for and disseminate his teachings. The current president of the SRF/YSS is Brother Chidananda. Paramahansa Yogananda is most noted for his 1946 book Autobiography of a Yogi which became an international bestseller and featured in the 100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century by HarperCollins.
Hariharananda Giri, was an Indian yogi and guru who taught in India as well as in western countries. He was born as Rabindranath Bhattacharya in Nadia district, West Bengal. He was the head of the Kriya Yoga Institute, United States, and founder worldwide Kriya Yoga Centers. According to some sources, Hariharananda was a direct disciple of Yukteswar Giri.
Haidakhan Babaji, simply called Babaji by his students and devotees, was a religious teacher who appeared near the village of Haidakhan in northern India (Uttarakhand) and taught publicly from 1970 until his death in 1984. He has a following in the Western world, and two ashrams in India.
Saraswati P. Venkataraman Sastri , hieratically titled H.H. JagadguruShankaracharya Swami Bharatikrishna Tirtha (1884–1960), was Shankaracharya and officiating pontiff of Dwaraka Math, and then the 143rd Shankaracharya and supreme pontiff of Govardhana Math in Puri in the Indian state of Odisha, from 1925 through 1960. He is particularly known for his book Vedic Mathematics, being the first Sankaracarya in history to visit the West, and for his connection with nationalist aspirations, thus earning him the title 'Father Of The Vedic Maths'.
Satyananda Giri, is the monastic name of Manamohan Mazumder, an Indian monk and a monastic disciple of Kriya Yoga guru Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri. He was a close childhood friend of, and brother-disciple to, Paramahansa Yogananda. In his later monastic life, he served as the leader of several yoga training institutions in east India.
Kripalvananda, also known as Swami Sri Kripalvanand or Bapuji, was a renowned master of kundalini yoga and the namesake of the Kripalu Center, Kripalu Yoga style and Kripalvananda Yoga Institute, as well as a significant influence on Kriya Yoga in the United States.
Swami Nigamananda Paramahansa was an Indian yogi, guru and mystic in Eastern India. He is associated with the Shakta tradition and a spiritual master of vedanta, tantra, yoga and prema or bhakti. His followers referred him as Thakura.
Marshall Govindan is a Kriya Yogi, author, scholar and publisher of literary works related to classical Yoga and Tantra and teacher of Kriya Yoga. He is the President of Babaji's Kriya Yoga and Publications, Inc., and the President of Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Archaryas, a lay order of more than 25 Kriya Yoga teachers operating in more than 20 countries, and ashrams in St. Etienne de Bolton, Quebec, Bangalore, India, Colombo, and Sri Lanka.
Shri Paramhans Swami Advaitanand Ji Maharaj, also known as Shri Paramhans Dayal Maharaj Ji, was born in Chhapra City, India. Shri is known as the "First Spiritual Master" of the Shri Paramhans Advait Mat, while also initiated the "Second Master" and Shri Swami Swarupanand Ji Maharaj in the early 1900s.
Swami Mukundananda is a spiritual leader, Vedic scholar, author, and a teacher of spirituality, yoga and meditation from India. He is a senior disciple of Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj and the founder of the yogic system called Jagadguru Kripaluji Yog, widely known as JKYog. A proponent of the path of bhakti, Swami Mukundananda is a sannyasi (monk), who has a technical and management background which complements his spiritual knowledge.
Sri Sri Yogiraj Swami Keshavananda Brahmachari (1830-1942) was a Kriya Yogi and master of the Tantras from West Bengal. He was an important disciple of Sri Shyamacharan Lahiri who is popularly known as Lahiri Mahasaya and was well known for his austere Yogic practices through which he had attained the highest degree of enlightenment within his lifetime. He spent a significant part of his lifetime in the Himalayas while being engaged in Yogic practices.
Brahma Abadhuta Sri Guru Dayanidhi Paramahansa was an Indian sadguru, yogi, mystic and a Hindu spiritual leader well known in India. He was associated with the shakti school and viewed as a perfect spiritual master of gyan, yoga and prema or bhakti. His followers idealized him as their worshipped and beloved thakura (ठाकुर).