Satyananda Giri () (17 November 1896 – 2 August 1971), is the monastic name of Manamohan Mazumder, an

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n monk and a monastic disciple of

Kriya Yoga ''Kriyā'' (Sanskrit: क्रिया, 'action, deed, effort') is a "completed action", technique or practice within a yoga discipline meant to achieve a specific result. Kriya or Kriya Yoga may also refer to: * Kriya Yoga in the Yoga Sutras of ...

guru

Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri (also written Sriyuktesvara, Sri Yukteshwar) (Devanagari: ) (10 May 1855 – 9 March 1936) is the monastic name of Priya Nath Karar (also spelled as Priya Nath Karada and Preonath Karar), an Indian monk and yogi, and ...

. He was a close childhood friend of, and brother-disciple to,

Paramahansa Yogananda Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893March 7, 1952) was an Indian and American Hindu monk, yoga, yogi and guru who introduced millions to meditation and Kriya Yoga school, Kriya Yoga through his organization, Self ...

. In his later monastic life, he served as the leader of several yoga training institutions in east India.

Early years

Acharya Swami Satyananda Giri (family name Manamohan Mazumder) was born to Mohinimohan Mazumder and Tarabasini Devi at Malkha Nagar of Bikrampore, undivided Bengal, currently Bangladesh, on 17 November 1896. Later, his father Mohinimohan studied at the Government Art College of Calcutta and the family moved to Calcutta. Mohinimohan was one of the founding fathers of Calcutta Deaf and Dumb School. As a result, the Mazumder family used to live on the school premises. Across from the school is Garpar Road, where

(family name Mukunda Lal Ghosh) used to live with his parents. Satyananda met Yogananda when he was 11 years and Yogananda was 14 years old. They were boyhood friends, brother disciples and colleagues, and they sometimes meditated together for an entire night at a time. Mohinimohan had seven children; Satyananda was the eldest. Then there was: Nripendramohan Mazumder (Mukul), Khirodmohan Mazumder, Saileshmohan Mazumder (Suddhananda Giri), Nalinimohan Mazumder (Nanimohan, a journalist), Gopimohan Mazumder, the youngest son and Sarjubala, the only daughter (disciple of

Swami Abhedananda Swami Abhedananda (2 October 1866 – 8 September 1939), born Kaliprasad Chandra, was a direct disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of Ramakrishna Vedanta Math. Swami Vivekananda sent him to the West to ...

who was the disciple of

Ramakrishna Ramakrishna (18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886——— —), also called Ramakrishna Paramahansa (; ; ), born Ramakrishna Chattopadhay,M's original Bengali diary page 661, Saturday, 13 February 1886''More About Ramakrishna'' by Swami Prab ...

). Satyananda studied at the Mitra Institution of Calcutta, and he knew Bengali, Sanskrit, Hindi, English and Oriya which he learned while he was living at Puri with his Guru

. He graduated with a B.A. with honors in Philosophy from the University of Calcutta. He then entered into ''Giri'' branch of the

Swami Swami (; ; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in Hinduism is an honorific title given to an Asceticism#Hinduism, ascetic who has chosen the Sannyasa, path of renunciation (''sanyāsa''), or has been initiated into a religious monastic order of Vaishnavas ...

Order, of which his guru Sri Yukteswar was also a part. One of his school classmates and a close friend was Ananda Mohan Lahiri, the bachelor grandson of

Lahiri Mahasaya Shyama Charan Lahiri (30 September 1828 – 26 September 1895), best known as Lahiri Mahasaya, was an Indian yoga, yogi and guru who founded the Kriya Yoga (Yoga school), Kriya Yoga school. He was a disciple of Mahavatar Babaji. Lahiri Mahas ...

. They later worked together at Yogananda's Ranchi school.

Teacher of yoga

Satyananda was a disciple of

. Yogananda began a school with seven children at Dihika, a small country site in Bengal, India. A year later in 1918, Sir Manindra Chandra Nundy funded the school, and it was moved to Ranchi, India. Yogananda called the school Brahmacharya Vidyalaya. Satyananda joined the Ranchi Brahmacharya School which Yogananda started and his close friends, Dhirananda and Satyananda, supported. In 1920, Yogananda left to spread Kriya Yoga to the United States and then Yogananda called Dhirananda in 1922 to come to help. At Yogananda's request, Satyananda became the Principal and Secretary and ran the school from 1922 to 1942. During his tenure as director of the school, the Maharaja’s estate went into bankruptcy. He could not help anymore like before. Teachers of the school resolved to ask help from Yogananda and accordingly Satyananda wrote to him for help, but he was himself in financial trouble in the USA. Satyananda donated his salaries of the entire period (twenty years) and saved Ranchi School. Often he called Ranchi his blood-built institution. Yukteswar Giri trained Satyananda at his Puri Karar Ashram in 1919 when they lived together and subsequently appointed him as the "leader of the East". He also appointed Satyananda at his Puri Karar Ashram as the "Ashram Swami" (the monk of the hermitage) for the Puri Karar Ashram. Satyananda lived in the hermitages at the Karar Ashram, Puri (from 1919 to 1921), at Ranchi (from 1922 to 1941), and at Sevayatan (from 1943 to 1971). He had more than three thousand devotees in India and abroad, but his three disciples were Brahamachari Yogadananda (since deceased), Manabendra Of Guwahati (Assam) and Kalyan Sengupta (presently practising at Calcutta High Court).

Bibliography

He wrote the following biographies in Bengali: #''Yogiraj Sri Sri Shyama Charan

'', #''Hangsa Swami Kebalananda Maharaj'', #''Swami Yukteswar Giri'' (Reminiscences – ''Smritikona''), #''Yogananda Sanga'' (As I Saw and Understood Paramahansa Yogananda), #''Dibyajivan'' (Bengali version of his guru’s book ''

The Holy Science ''The Holy Science'' is a book written by Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri in 1894 under the title ''Kaivalya Darsanam''. Sri Yukteswar states that he wrote ''The Holy Science'' at the request of Mahavatar Babaji. The book compares parallel passages fro ...

'')

References

*Swami Satyananda. ''Biography of a Yogi''. 2nd Edition. Sanskrit Classics, 2002.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Giri, Satyananda Indian Hindu monks Founders of new religious movements 1896 births 1971 deaths 20th-century Bengalis Bengali Hindus Bengali writers Paramahansa Yogananda University of Calcutta alumni 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian biographers 20th-century Indian translators Indian religious writers Indian spiritual writers Indian Hindu saints Bengali Hindu saints Indian Hindu religious leaders 20th-century Indian monks Indian yoga gurus Scholars from West Bengal