school in order to obtain the remainder of his
education from the world itself. At 19, without
money or a destination, he took a train to Cal-
cutta (Kolkata).
Political tensions and mass violence had bro-
ken out in India at the time, and refugees were
flooding into West Bengal by the thousands.
During this time Rama worked for an aviation
company in Calcutta; when offered a partnership
in the company, he decided to leave and instead
volunteer his services to help the refugees. Dur-
ing this time he lived on a railway platform some-
where close to the border of India and East Bengal
(now Bangladesh). He soon became the leader of
the entire volunteer effort, working more than
20 hours per day. A year later, as the inflow of
refugees began to subside, Rama moved back to
Calcutta. Here he turned down a government
position in order to work for the rehabilitation
of refugees.
Rama chose to live alone on the fringes of
Calcutta in an ASHRAM, where he learned classi-
cal music, sitar, religious studies, and prayer. In
the contemplative atmosphere he began to have
visions. His MEDITATION, YOGA, and PUJA practices
increased, and soon he knew where his life’s work
was leading him. He lived in silence for close to a
decade, focused on the goal of God realization. In
those years he made many pilgrimages through-
out India, but his “awakening” is attributed to the
time he spent in a temple village near the source
of the GANGES River.
In 1958, Rama was initiated into Vidyut San-
nyas (lightninglike monasticism) in BADRINATH in
the HIMALAYAS and given the name Swami Amar
Jyoti (eternal light). Now he was ready to com-
municate to the world. He founded his first center,
Jyoti Ashram, in Pune, in the state of Maharash-
tra close to his mother’s home. In 1961 he was
invited to the United States by a devotee; on this
trip he gained a degree of popularity. In 1974, he
set up the Sacred Mountain Ashram near Boulder,
Colorado. A few years later he established the
Desert Ashram in Tucson, Arizona, under Truth
Consciousness, a nonprofit organization created
to disseminate Swami Amar Jyoti’s teachings. He
continued to travel and teach until his death on
June 13, 2001.
Jyoti Ashram is a pilgrimage site. It contains
a memorial temple housing the remains of the
swami.Further reading: Swami Amar Jyoti, Immortal Light: The
Blissful Life and Wisdom of Swami Amar Jyoti (Boulder,
Colo.: Truth Consciousness, 2004);———, Spirit of
Himalaya: The Story of a Truth Seeker (Boulder, Colo.:
Truth Consciousness, 2001).Jyotipriya See TYBERG, JUDITH M.
Jyotirmayananda Saraswati, Swami
(1931– ) advaita teacher and educator
Swami Jyotirmayananda Saraswati founded the
Yoga Research Foundation.
Born in Dumari Buzurg on February 3,
1931, in the state of Bihar, the boy who would
become Swami Jyotirmayananda was a calm,
reflective, and successful student. He studied at
the Science College of Patna, where he first met
Swami SIVANANDA of Rishikesh. He traveled to
the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, where his
GURU, Sivananda, put him to work teaching oth-
ers. In February 1953, he took the vow of SAN-
NYAS (renunciation) from Sivananda and began
to teach at the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy
as a professor of religion. He became the editor
of the Hindi journal of the Divine Life Society,
Yoga-Vedanta.
In 1962, after many requests, he traveled to
the West, staying two years in Puerto Rico, where
he founded the Sanatan Dharma Mandir. In 1969
he opened his center in Miami, Florida, where heK 216 Jyotipriya