Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati, was born in Chandernagore, West Bengal, India, in 1953. She enjoyed a privileged upbringing and modern education, graduating from the Miranda House College in Delhi with English honours. Yet she chose the life of renunciation and the sannyasa path after experiencing a series of inner awakenings which led her to her guru, Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Swami Satyasangananda or as Sri Swami Satyananda would call her, Swami Satsangi, as she became known, was initiated into the Dashnami tradition of sannyasa on 6 July 1982 at Ganga Darshan, Munger. As a sannyasin, she accompanied her guru on his tours in India and around the world for many years. It was her one-pointed focus on Sri Swamiji, and her attentiveness to his needs and her intense desire to serve him that made her a remarkable disciple.
As a true scholar, Swami Satsangi, has great insight into the yogic and tantric traditions as well as modern sciences and philosophies. She is able to expound on a wide variety of ancient teachings from yogic, tantric and vedic texts and make them relevant to modern life.
As a talented writer, she has authored a great number of inspirational books, the most renowned being Tattwa Shuddhi: The Tantric Science of Inner Purification, which describes an essential practice for inner experience based on her own experiences. Other major texts include Sri Vijnana Bhairava Tantra: The Ascent, Karma Sannyasa, Light on the Guru and Disciple Relationship and her latest, The Descent, a commentary on Adi Guru Shankaracharya’s famous poem of divine ecstasy, Sri Saundarya Lahari.
On January 1st 2007, she was appointed as the Peethadhishwari of Rikhiapeeth by Sri Swami Satyananda.
Sri Swami Satyananda describes his disciple:
“Swami Satsangi has a very strong personality. She calls a rose, a rose and a spade a spade. A person who shoulders responsibility should be very strong. Of course after me she will carry on the work of Sivananda Math in Rikhia very well.”
Since 1989 she has been living in Rikhia working tirelessly for the material and spiritual upliftment of the local community continuing her guru’s mission which is the cardinal teachings of Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati, serve, love and give. Her devotion and commitment can be seen in the ongoing work which has occurred in this once remote, most neglected and poverty-stricken area of India. Today it is a bustling and thriving center of spirituality where visitors arrive in large numbers from all over the world to assist in the activities of Sivananda Math which are continuously expanding to assist more and more villages.
