Yoga Siddha Research Project

Contributors

DR. T.N. GANAPATHY, Director, The Yoga Siddha Research Center, was Post-Graduate Professor & Head, Department of Philosophy, RKM Vivekananda College, Chennai. At present he is a visiting professor at the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, (Deemed University), Prasanthi Nilayam, Andhra Pradesh. He has participated in a number of national and international seminars and conferences. His publications include: Perspectives of Theism and Absolutism in Indian Philosophy (ed. 1978), Mahavakyas (1982), Bertrand Russell's Philosophy of Sense-Data (1984), The Philosophy of the Tamil Siddhas (1993), The Yoga of Siddha Boganathar (2003).

DR. T.B. SIDDHALINGAIAH, formerly Professor of Saiva Siddhanta and Director, Institute of Correspondence Education, M.K. University, Madurai, is a specialist in Saivism, Tamil language and literature. He has many publications including: Origin and Development of Saiva Siddhanta (1979); Samudaya Beedhi (1986); Meyyunarvu Malargal (1993). He was a member of the Advisory Committee of International Scholars, British Saiva Siddhanta Center, London and a member of the General Council and Tamil Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1988-93.

DR. PREMA NANDAKUMAR, has had a first class academic career in Andhra University. Her translations of Subramania Bharati's poems and of the classics, Manimekalai, etc., have won high praise. She has published biographies of Sri Aurobindo, the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Subramania Bharati. Her critical studies include Sri Aurobindo's Savitri: A Study, T.V. Kapali Sastri, In Search of Hinduism, and Kulo-thungan: A Poet of Today and Tomorrow.

DR. P.S. SOMASUNDARAM, formerly Principal of D.G. Vaishnava College, Chennai and C.T.M. College of Arts and Science, Chennai, also held position as Professor and Head of the Department of Tamil in those colleges. His book in English entitled Tirujnanasambandhar-Philosophy and Religion was awarded first prize by the Tamil University, Thanjavur. His other publications include History of Tamil Literature.

DR. S.P. SABHARATHNAM, was a Reader in the Department of Saiva Siddhanta at the University of Madras. He is a Tamil and Sanskrit scholar with expertise in Vedas, Agamas, Vastu and Shilpa Sastras and honored with the titles of Saiva Acharya Ratna and Veda Agama Vastu Shilpa Vaachaspati.

DR. KR. ARUMUGAM, Research Associate, The Yoga Siddha Research Center, Chennai, has post-graduate and doctorate degrees in philosophy and Tamil Literature. He is a General Fellow of the ICPR, New Delhi, his project being The Social Concern of the Tamil Siddhas-A Study. He is a visiting faculty in the Sacred Heart Seminary, Poonamallee, Chennai. He has translated the book Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition from English to Tamil.

SRI T.V. VENKATARAMAN, former Chief Secretary of the State Government of Tamil Nadu, and a scholar of the Tirumandiram. He has been awarded the title of Tirumandiramani by the Dharmapuram Aadheenam, and the title of Tirumandira-c-chemma lby the Tiruvavaduthurai Adheenam.

DR. T.N. RAMACHANDRAN, an advocate by profession, is a great scholar in Tamil and English literature, and has been acknowledged as a reference person by scholars all over the world. Popularly known as Sekkizar-Ad-p-podi. His translation of the Tiruvasagam, is acclaimed as a master piece in English translation. He has translated eleven out of fourteen Meykanda Sastras in English and four out of twelve Tirumarais. The Dharamapuram Adheenam has conferred the title SaivaSiddhanta Kalanidhi on him, and is the Director of the International Institute of Saiva Siddhanta Research, Dharmapuram.

DR. S.N. KANDASWAMY, obtained his Ph.D. from Annamalai University, and has served in various departments of that University and in the University of Malaya. He retired as Professor and Head of the Department of Literature in the Tamil University, Thanjavur. More than fifty of his books have been published, including “The Yoga of Siddha Avvai.” The titles of Siddhanta Kalanidhi, Tamizhakarar, Siddhanta-c-cemmani, were conferred upon him respectively, by the pontiffs of the Saiva Mutts of Dharmapuram, Kunrakkudi and Tiruvavaduthurai, Tamil Nadu.

MARSHALL GOVINDAN SATCHIDANANDA, is the President of Babaji’s Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas, and a disciple of Babaji Nagaraj, the famed Himalayan master and originator of Kriya Yoga, as well as his late disciple, Yogii S.A.A. Ramaiah, (1923-2006). M. G. Satchidananda has practiced Babaji's Kriya Yoga intensively since 1969. He studied and practiced Kriya Yoga in India for five years with Yogi S.A.A. Ramaiah, assisting him in the establishment of 23 yoga centers around the world during an 18 year period as a dedicated. During this period he practiced Kriya Yoga for eight hours per day on average, and as a result attained Self-realization.

While in India he studied the Tamil language and the works of the Tamil Yoga Siddhas. In 1980 he assisted in the collection and publication of the complete writings of Siddhar Boganathar in Tamil. In 1988 he was asked by Babaji Nagaraj, the founder of Kriya Yoga to begin teaching. In 1991, he wrote the best selling book, Babaji and the 18 Siddha Kriya Yoga Tradition, now published in 16 languages. In 1992 he founded Babaji's Kriya Yoga Ashram on a beautiful 80 acre mountain top site in St. Etienne de Bolton, Quebec. He offers classes, seminars and retreats there year round. In 1993, he edited and published the first international English translation of Tirumandiram: a Classic of Yoga and Tantra.

In 1995 he retired from a 25 year career as an economist and later a systems auditor to devote himself full time to teaching and publishing in the field of Yoga. Since 1992, he has travelled extensively throughout the world guiding about many Kriya Yoga study groups in over 20 countries, ashrams in Canada and Bangalore, India, and a lay order of teachers of Kriya Yoga: Babaji's Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas, a non-profit educational charity, incorporated in the USA, Canada, India and Sri Lanka. It’s twenty five Acharyas, expert teachers, reside in a dozen different countries. Since 1989 he has personally initiated over 14,000 persons in Babaji's Kriya Yoga in a series of intensive sessions and retreats.

In October 1999 he was blessed with the darshan of Babaji Nagaraj near his ashram in Badrinath, Himalayas. He 2003, he was again blessed with His darshan, at Val d’Aosta, in the Italian Alps, and given the name “Satchidananda.”

From 2000 to 2001, he completed the writing of, and publication of Kriya Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Siddhas, in several European languages. Since 2000, he has co-sponsored with Dr. Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D., a team of scholars in a large scale research project engaged in the preservation, transcription, translation and publication of the whole of the literature related to the Yoga of the 18 Siddhas. In 2006 he completed The Wisdom of Jesus and the Yoga Siddhas, now published in five foreign languages.

He is a 1970 graduate of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Master’s degree in 1976 from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

DURGA AHLUND, has been practicing and studying Yoga since 1967, and teaching Yoga since 1984. She teaches Hatha Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Kriya Yoga and also practices as a Yoga therapist. She is the author of Babaji’s Kriya Yoga: Deepening Your Practice, The Grace of Babaji’s Kriya Yoga, The Yoga Toolbox: An Everyday Guide for Shaping Your Life, and the video, Kriya Hatha Yoga: Self-realization through Action with Awareness. She was a contributing editor to all of the publications produced by the Yoga Siddha Research Project. She was inducted into Babaji’s Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas in Bangalore, India in January 2003. She is married to Marshall Govindan Satchidananda.