Sri Swami Satchidananda
Woodstock Festival, 1969
The History of Integral Yoga
Forty years ago, Americans knew almost nothing of Yoga. There were no Hatha classes at the local YMCA. Health food stores contained only bottles of vitamin supplements and photos of body builders. Few understood the meaning of karma. When most people thought of a Yogi, they remembered a popular cartoon man sleeping on a bed of nails. All this changed when Sri Swami Satchidananda arrived on these shores in 1966.
He taught what he termed “Integral Yoga,” a combination of physical and spiritual practices, psychological and philosophical approaches to life. He encouraged selfless service to others that would help anyone discover and maintain the peace and happiness that were, he said, the birthright of all. His message resonated with many people in the 1960s who were looking for something greater and deeper than what they perceived as a superficial, materialistic and unjust society. The talks drew crowds of young seekers.
Sri Gurudev taught classes in Hatha Yoga, led kirtan chants, and gave talks in the living room of a large apartment at 500 West End Avenue. Soon the talks moved to a larger venue, the Universalist Church on Central Park West. In August, 1968, a group of students, mostly young hippies, took up residence in an adjacent apartment so they could immerse themselves in the Yogic lifestyle.
His young followers in New York set their sight on planning and organizing a public lecture for Sri Gurudev to deliver in the world-famous Carnegie Hall. The Hatha demonstration and lecture occurred in January 1969 in the renowned venue to a s standing room only crowd. In August, 1969, Sri Gurudev was invited to give the invocation at the opening of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival . There, he told 400,000 young people there that “The entire world is going to watch this. The entire world is going to know what the American youth can do for humanity.”
Integral Yoga Institutes, teaching centers and ashrams opened in the late 1960s and early 1970s across America. These centers and the IYI’s public talks and retreats, drew thousands of people from all walks of life to the teachings of Sri Gurudev and Integral Yoga. Some were drawn when they simply saw his photograph, others said they had visions of him long before ever actually learning of or meeting him. Many have described the experience of connecting with this teacher in these words, “…and that was it!” Some knew they would dedicate their lives to this Guru and his teachings and many have been with him ever since. Their love for Sri Gurudev was unwavering.
Sri Gurudev was one of the featured speakers at the Holy Man Jam, which was part of the 1970 Whole Earth Festival in Boulder, Colorado. His talk there led to the immediate founding of an Integral Yoga Institute in Boulder. In August of 1970, the first Integral Yoga interfaith retreat was held at Annhurst College in Woodstock, Connecticut, attended by more than 400 people, including two members of the music group the Young Rascals, and singer Laura Nyro, all of whom had become devotees. There were many other multi-day silent retreats like the one in Monticello, New York, in 1973, where hundreds of people came together to learn and live the yogic life and take mantra initiation, dedicating themselves to a path of growth and peace. The retreats offered people a chance to experience ashram life for up to ten days and replicated the daily schedule (including rising early for meditation and experiencing all the different Yoga practices throughout the day) that the Integral Yogis were living in Integral Yoga centers all over the country.
The Integral Yoga Hatha class was for many people their first experience of Yoga. Hundreds of Integral Yoga teachers were trained and they taught thousands of students in all kinds of settings—community centers, schools, prisons, hospitals, churches, drug treatment programs and universities. The spreading of Yoga by Sri Gurudev and his disciples laid the groundwork for the immense popularity today and the widespread acceptance of the ancient science of Yoga.
In 1972, Sri Gurudev spoke to his students about his vision for “Yogaville,” a “Yoga village” where seekers would live together practicing the Yogic teachings, a large community where they could grow their food, educate their children and create an economy based on yogic values and high ideals. The various ashrams in New York and California, by this time, had some industry in the form of bee farms, health food stores and other endeavors. In 1970 Yogaville was established in Pomfret Connecticut. In 1972, Yogaville West was founded in Lake County California, north of San Francisco. Another Yogaville West was formed near Santa Barbara, California.
Sri Gurudev also envisioned a temple dedicated to honoring all of the world’s faiths in one place. He called it LOTUS, the Light Of Truth Universal Shrine. The search began for land for the LOTUS and to accommodate the expanding group of seekers wishing to live in Yogaville.
In the mid 1970s, singer songwriter and Sri Gurudev’s devotee Carole King donated her estate in Connecticut that was called Music Mountain to Integral Yoga. With her blessings, this property was sold and this sale enabled the purchase of 700 acres of land in Virginia. Yogaville was relocated, away from the harsh New England winters to a beautiful rural location on the James River, where the LOTUS would be ultimately built.
Initially there was only a single building on the property and the first few families who arrived in Buckingham County, Virginia, in 1979, lived in it communally. Sri Gurudev soon joined these pioneers and they began clearing land, bringing in trailers where other ashram members would come to live. Sri Gurudev, operating a bulldozer, cut all the original roads. Eventually, more people came to live in Yogaville. Dorms were built, private homes sprang up around the ashram and the community grew to the impressive size it is today.
The centerpiece of Yogaville was to be the LOTUS, a dome-like structure that would replicate the lotus flower. The roots of the lotus are in muddy water but the petals remain dry and pure, just as Yoga enables people to live in the world but not be sullied by the world. On the Guru Poornima weekend in 1986, after years of planning and hard but loving work, LOTUS was dedicated during two days of ceremonies that brought religious leaders from all over the world to Charlottesville and Buckingham, Virginia, to celebrate the world’s first shrine dedicated to harmony and understanding among all faiths.
Thousands of people have traveled to Yogaville to attend programs, become Yoga teachers and simply experience one of the most magical places on earth. There, a sweet and loving community of sincere spiritual seekers perform duties and tasks in the spirit of selfless service and devotion to peace and understanding that their beloved Gurudev patiently and consistently encouraged in them. As Yoga becomes more popular in the United States and the world, Yogaville stands as a shining example of what love can create.
At the beginning of the new millennium, Sri Gurudev, in his weekly satsangs with the people of Yogaville, began to remind them he had taught them everything he could and that it would one day be up to them to continue to run the ashram and spread the teachings. He was invited to India in August of 2002 for a peace conference and on August 19, while in India, he entered Mahasamadhi, which is when a God-realized soul makes a conscious final exit from the body.
In October of 2002, the long-planned rededication of the LOTUS following extensive renovations, became a Memorial Tribute, which culminated in the same ritual that took place in 1986, with blessed water poured over the shrine. A banner was unfurled by the LOTUS that read, “Victory to the Light.” Deep emotions poured forth from the hundreds of students, disciples and admirers who had found, over their years with this holy man from India, the very essence of peace and joy, love and light.
Sri Swami Satchidananda was one of the great Yoga masters of our time. He touched the hearts of millions of people all over the world, from all strata of society. Acknowledged by government and religious leaders including George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Pope Paul and the Dalai Lama, he received numerous awards for his tireless teaching of the ideals of community, peace, and religious and racial understanding.
These ideals have been demonstrated in wise and practical ways by the Integral Yoga community and their beloved Gurudev. Today, in Yogaville, in more than 50 Integral Yoga centers and through thousands of Integral Yoga teachers—the great science of Yoga continues to be passed on to new generations.
The story of how one spiritual master from India came to America and inspired a first few people and then thousands more to try their best to live in peace and joy, love and light is creates a legacy that can serve as a beacon of hope for everyone on the planet.
