Reflections on Swami Satyananda Saraswati

I found this photograph of Swamiji online.  I love it because it's feels so upclose, like you're right there with him.  And his eyes are so kind and wise.  Like he is your favorite grandfather with all the knowledge in the world.

He is the one you feel safe with, and you love to be at his feet.  You feel protected there.  Like nothing can harm you.  You sit there contentedly soaking in the stories of ancient rishis and devas.  Sitting next to him chanting Sanskrit is your favorite place in the entire world to be.

 He is your Beloved Guru.  He is a Seer, a Sage, a Risi.  He is Shiva and He is Brahma.

Watching him on Shivaratri 2012, even being in the same room with him was just amazing.  A truly life-changing experience.  There was so much love coming off of both Maa and Swami.  Just radiating off of them in continuous waves. 

Swamiji was, as one devotee put it, "On fire."  His chanting was so electrified. Him and Maa were putting it out all out there, givin' it everything they got.  That's what it seemed like to me at least.  Sanskrit infused with the power of realization, the sincerity of one-pointed focus, and inner absorption in the infinity and sanctity of Love.  They were cosmic radio transmitters - transmitting vibrations into the most subtle regions of our minds, bodies, and souls in order to wake us up.

To watch him seated on his asana chanting the scriptures at the fire - the 1000 names of Shiva, the Rudrashtadhyayi, Om namah shivaya - was to watch Brahma seated on the lotus of peace.  Absorbed into the cosmic reality.  Expounding the scriptures with with the innate authority of the One who is the source of scripture.

Some months later I listened to Swami describe what it is that he says during the saṅkalpa part of the pujas (where you hold a flower with your left hand, cover it with your right, and state who you are, where you are, and what you're doing).  There's a part in the saṅkalpa where you say your name and your sadhu family name (gotra).  When Swamiji performs worship he says "Satyananda gotra ca Bhavesh gotra" (ca is the Sanskrit word for "and").

He said that he began to add in Bhavesh gotra when he was inititated into Sannyas, and that that part of his lineage traces back to Brahma.

To learn more about Swamiji, visit www.shreemaa.org/meet-swami-satyananda-saraswati/