Swami Krishnananda

Pujya Swami Krishnanandaji Maharaj was a beloved disciple of Gurudev Swami Sivananda Saraswati. He was the General Secretary of Divine Life Society and Sivanandashram, Rishikesh for almost 5 decades starting in the 1950’s. During this period he has guided, counselled and inspired countless seekers of Truth who visited the Ashram.

Born in 1922 in Karnataka, Swami Krishnananda evinced a keen interest in the study of Sanskrit and the scriptures from his childhood. He studied the entire Bhagavad Gita, the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Upanishads. Even at the young age of 22, he developed an intense longing for a life of seclusion and renunciation. He left home, went to Rishikesh and met his Guru, Pujya Swami Sivananda. Since then he has stayed at the Ashram and pursued tireless Sadhana and shone as a Jivanmukta.

Swamiji was an adept in all systems of philosophy and possessed a sharp intellect. His teachings and writings reveal the great depth of adhyatmic enquiry he conducted. He has expounded on all scriptures not merely as a scholar but from his own personal experience. He has authored around 50 books which constitute the invaluable legacy he has left behind to the entire spiritual world. To read his books, the majority of which are the outcome of his extempore unpremeditated discourses, is to set oneself in tune with the Ultimate Reality.

Swamiji’s kind enquiry of my whereabouts and his advice to me - “make self-engineering also a subject in your engineering course” when I had his darshan in December 1996 at Rishikesh, will be with me for the rest of my life.