mudra See PANCHA MAKARA.
mudra
Mudra is a technical term used in both YOGA and
Indian dance. In yoga the mudras are particular
hand gestures or bodily attitudes that have spiri-
tual or yogic meaning or purpose. In Indian dance
the mudras are hand gestures accompanied by
particular bodily stances. For example, in BHARATA
NAT YA M, the Indian national dance, mudras are
used to communicate the moods of characters and
their dramatic interactions.
Further reading: Mudras in Symbols: Bharatnatya Man-
ual Primer (Madras: Centre for Promotion of the Tradi-
tional Arts, 1988); Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Asana
Pranayama Mudra Bandha (Bihar: Bihar School of Yoga,
1999).
Muktananda, Swami (1908–1982)
Shaivite guru
Swami Muktananda was an influential teacher
who formulated the Siddha Yoga philosophy and
helped spread it around the world.
Muktananda (his birth name was Krishna)
was born on May 16, 1908, into a prosperous
farming family. His father was the headman of
a village near Mangalore in Karnataka state. His
mother, deeply pious, had prayed for the birth
of a son, and from his earliest years she provided
him with a strong religious foundation. While still
in his teens he had several encounters with the
wandering spiritual adept, Bhagawan NITYANANDA,
who would later become his GURU. At the age of 15
Krishna decided to dedicate his life to attaining a
direct experience of God and adopted one of the
traditional Indian paths to that experience, that of
a wandering SADHU, mendicant.
In the early 1920s, shortly after his travels
began, Krishna went to Hubli in northern Kar-
nataka, to the ASHRAM of Siddharudha Swami,
a renowned VIRASHAIVA yogi. In Siddharudha’s
ashram, he studied VEDANTA, took vows of san-
nyas (renunciation), and received the name Muk-
tananda (the bliss of freedom). In 1930, a year
after Siddharudha’s passing, Swami Muktananda
began an extended period of wandering.
Muktananda once said that he walked across
India three times. He traveled mostly on foot,
carrying only a water bowl and staff as he moved
from one teacher to the next. During this time he
studied all of the major texts of the Hindu scrip-
tural canon; he became adept at HATHA YOGA and
AYURVEDIC medicine, and he met scores of holy
beings. He became a renowned teacher in his own
right, and still he kept searching.
In his spiritual autobiography, Play of Con-
sciousness, Muktananda calls August 15, 1947,Swami Muktananda (1908–1982), Shaivite teacher,
scholar, and founder of Siddha Yoga Dham (© SYDA
Foundation)Muktananda, Swami 295 J