Satyananda’s work entered the United States
prior to his world tour. First, Llewellyn Publica-
tions in St. Paul, Minnesota, published a major
work by Swami Anandakapila (aka John Mum-
ford), who had been a major supporter and stu-
dent of Satyananda in Australia. The publication
of Sexual Occultism became the springboard of
Mumford’s 1976 tour to teach tantra and pro-
mote its study. Not long afterward, a New York
publisher released Yoga, Tantra and Meditation by
Janakananda Saraswati, a teacher of Satyananda’s
work in Scandinavia.
Meanwhile, in 1965, students and disciples of
Satyananda began to migrate to the United States,
taking their teachings with them from India. The
new immigrants formed small gatherings. In the
1980s, Swami Niranjannan Saraswati (b. 1960)
began to organize ASHRAMS for the International
Yoga Fellowship in the United States. On October
28, 1980, he formed Satyanandan Ashrams USA
as an affiliate of the mother organization in India.
Niranjananda stayed in America to help build
the work. In the summer of 1982, the American
group was visited by Swami Amritananda, a major
female leader in the fellowship. Her trip was fol-
lowed not long afterward by Satyananda’s first
tour of North America.
By the time of Satyananda’s American tour,
he had long since developed his idea to include
a complete system of tantric yoga, which begins
with awakening of the KUNDALINI energy and
includes sexual intercourse as a means of blending
the male and female energies. Bliss is the ultimate
reward for successful disciples of the so-called
left-hand path.
The International Yoga Fellowship is reported
to be one of the largest organizations teaching
yoga. It is not always easy to find practitioners in
the West, as most members live quietly in ethnic
communities, but there may be tens of thousands
of people affiliated in North America. Interna-
tional headquarters remain at the Bihar School of
Yoga in Bihar, India, where the fellowship’s jour-
nal, Yoga, is published.
Further reading: John Mumford, (Swami Ananda-
kapila), Sexual Occultism (St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn,
1975); Swami Janakananda Saraswati, Yoga, Tantra and
Meditation (New York: Ballantine Books, 1975); Swami
Satyananda Saraswati, Sure Ways to Self-Realization
(Mungyar: Bihar School of Yoga, 1982); ———, Teach-
ings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati (Mungyar, Bihar:
Bihar School of Yoga, 1981).Isha Upanishad
The Isha Upanishad appears in the White Yajur
VEDA; it constitutes the Veda’s last chapter (unlike
most Upanishads, which are found within the
BRAHMANAS of the Veda). Isha literally means
“lord” or “ruler,” and the Upanishad clearly has
theistic overtones. It is a short Upanishad of only
18 stanzas.
The Isha opens with a stanza describing the
world as “indwelt by the Lord” (ishavasya).
Stanza 5, frequently quoted, describes the BRAH-
MAN or ultimate reality: “It moves. It moves not.
It is far and it is near. It is within all this; it
is outside all this.” This attempts to show the
incomprehensible infinitude of the ultimate.
Also quoted often is verse 11, which states that
the path of ritual and the path of knowledge of
brahman are complementary. The cryptic verses
9, 12, 13, and 14, which speak of the relation-
ship between higher knowledge and ignorance,
have been frequently explicated by the classical
commentators.Further reading: Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad (Pon-
dicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1965); S. Radhakrish-
nan, ed. and trans., The Principal Upanishads (Atlantic
Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1992).Isherwood, Christopher (1904–1986)
British novelist and Western Hindu pioneer
Christopher William Bradshaw-Isherwood, a
prominent Anglo-American novelist and early
gay activist, was also an outspoken apologist forK 202 Isha Upanishad