Peace Award. He was also the recipient of several
honorary doctorates and honorary titles.
Satchidananda’s teaching centers around the
principle “Truth Is One, Paths Are Many.” He
sponsored many interfaith symposia, retreats, and
worship services around the world. In 1986, he
created a center dedicated to the light of all faiths
and to world peace, called the Light of Truth Uni-
versal Shrine (LOTUS), located at Satchidananda
Ashram at Yogaville in Virginia. Yogaville serves as
the international headquarters of the Integral Yoga
Institutes and Centers.
He died on August 19, 2002, in his native
Tamil Nadu, South India.
Further reading: Sita Wiener, Swami Satchidananda: His
Biography (San Francisco: Straight Arrow, 1970).
sat-chit-ananda (sacchidananda)
Sat-chit-ananda is a philosophical term used in
VEDANTA and other Hindu systems; it describes
the ultimate reality or the ultimate character of a
god or goddess.
In Vedanta, words can convey only a conven-
tional description of the brahman or ultimate reality,
which is beyond any characterizing or characteris-
tics. Nevertheless, the combination of sat (Being as
an ultimate category), chit (unlimited conscious-
ness), and ananda (unlimited bliss) is often used
to describe the ultimate. Those who achieve the
highest level in YOGA, who realize oneness with
the ultimate, are believed to be capable of knowing
these categories beyond the words. Therefore, many
realized SWAMIS use this appellation for themselves.
The use of these terms to identify the supreme
BRAHMAN began in the UPANISHADS (c. 600 B.C.E.);
it became a common practice as later Vedanta
developed.
Further reading: Troy Wilson Organ, The One: East
and West (Lanham: University Press of America, 1991);
Swami Sachchidanand, My Experiences. Translated by P.
J. Soni. (Ahmedabad: Gurjar Prakashan, 1989).
Sati
Sati is the first wife of SHIVA, later reincarnated as
PARVATI or Uma. She is the daughter of the sage
DAKSHA, himself the son of BRAHMA. Brahma was
concerned that the human universe would not
come about if Shiva did not take a wife, so he com-
pelled Daksha to produce a daughter, Sati, who
was a form of the Great Goddess. He arranged to
have her marry Shiva. To seduce Shiva, who was
devoted to asceticism and did not want to marry,
Sati practiced austerities and won his attention.
They were quickly married with Brahma serving
as the marriage priest.
Daksha was not happy to have Shiva as his
son-in-law. He held a great Vedic sacrifice and
pointedly did not invite his daughter and son-
in-law. When Sati complained to her father, he
upbraided her. There are two versions of the suc-
ceeding events. In one, she immolated herself in a
fire. The later Hindu practice of a widow’s immo-
lating herself on her husband’s funeral pyre took
on the name of sati (suttee).
In the second version, Daksha had been under
a curse, that if he were to show disrespect to his
daughter, she would die; when he upbraided her
she simply fell to the ground dead. Shiva rushed
to the site of the sacrifice, killed Daksha, and
destroyed the entire ritual sacrifice ground. Both
Daksha and the sacrifice were later restored in
some versions—but not Sati. Shiva lifted Sati’s
body and mournfully began to carry it about
India. Since a dead body is considered highly
polluting, Lord VISHNU followed Shiva, gradu-
ally cutting off pieces of Sati as they went along.
Everywhere a piece of her fell, a shrine was estab-
lished to the Great Goddess. These are variously
said to number 54, 108, or some other number.sati (suttee) widow self-immolation
Sati, the practice of burning widows on their hus-
bands’ funeral pyres (as had happened with the
goddess Sati), developed in post-Vedic India, as
the rights of women, especially widows, greatlyK 388 sat-chit-ananda