Swami Rama (; 1925 – 13 November 1996) was an Indian
yoga guru
Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms, whether religious or not. The role implies being well-known and having a large following; in contrast to the old guru-shishya tradition, the modern ...
.
He moved to America in 1969, initially teaching yoga at the
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
, and founding the
Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy
The Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy is an international non-profit organization, which promotes yoga and holistic health through yoga retreats, residential programs, health products and services, media publications including ''Yo ...
in Illinois in 1971; its headquarters moved to its current location in
Honesdale, Pennsylvania
Honesdale is a borough in and the county seat of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough's population was 4,458 at the time of the 2020 census.
Honesdale is located northeast of Scranton in a rural area that provides many recrea ...
in 1977. He became famous for his ability to control his body in
yoga nidra
Yoga nidra ( sa, योग निद्रा, ) or yogic sleep in modern usage is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, typically induced by a guided meditation.
A state called yoga nidra is mentioned in the Upanishads and the ...
, writing many books including the autobiographical ''Living with Himalayan Masters''. From the 1970s onwards, there were persistent allegations of
sexual abuse of his followers;
in 1997 a woman won a lawsuit against him for multiple sexual assaults.
Early life
Swami Rama was born Brij Kiśore Dhasmana or Brij Kiśore Kumar,
to a northern Indian
Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
family in the village of Toli in the
Garhwal Himalaya
The Garhwal Himalayas are mountain ranges located in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.
Geology
This range is also a part of Himalaya Sivalik Hills, the outer most hills of the Himalaya located in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Major peaks ...
s. He claimed that he was raised somewhere in the monasteries and holy caves of the Himalayas by his personal guru or master Sri Madhavananda Bharati.
He further claimed to have gained degree-level qualifications from an Indian school of homeopathic medicine, the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...
,
Utrecht University
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...
, and finally the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
.
The official biography states that when he was 28 he became the
Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya ( sa, शङ्कराचार्य, , "Adi Shankara, Shankara-''acharya''") is a religious title used by the heads of amnaya monasteries called mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Hinduism. The title derives from Adi ...
or spiritual leader at Karvirpitham, part of
Sringeri Sharada Peetham in
Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
, South India, demonstrating extensive knowledge of ancient texts to qualify, and holding the position from 1949 to 1952.
However, in 1987 two of his closest followers left his Himalayan Institute when they learnt that part of his official biography had been "fabricated"; further, Vanessa Webber of the
Cult Awareness Network
The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was an anti-cult organization created by deprogrammer Ted Patrick that provided information on groups that it considered to be cults, as well as support and referrals to deprogrammers.
It was founded in the wak ...
has stated that his academic background could not be verified.
In 1969 he went to the United States, where he gave lectures in temples and churches, and taught Hatha yoga in
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
s and in private homes. Concerned that the YMCA had presented yoga as one of its physical fitness programs, he included some philosophy and meditation in his classes.
Himalayan Institute
In 1966, he founded the original
Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy
The Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy is an international non-profit organization, which promotes yoga and holistic health through yoga retreats, residential programs, health products and services, media publications including ''Yo ...
in
Kanpur
Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...
, India; this was followed by an institute in
Glenview, Illinois
Glenview is an incorporated village located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, approximately 15 miles northwest of the Chicago Loop. Per the 2020 census, the population was 48,705. The current Village President is Michael Jenny.
Geography ...
in 1971; it is now headquartered in
Honesdale, Pennsylvania
Honesdale is a borough in and the county seat of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough's population was 4,458 at the time of the 2020 census.
Honesdale is located northeast of Scranton in a rural area that provides many recrea ...
, purchased in 1977. The institute has branches in the United States, Europe, and India.
Swami Rama founded other teaching and service organizations, including a large medical facility, in
Dehradun
Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...
in
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
in the north of India, to serve millions of poor people in the nearby mountains who had little access to health care.
Yoga nidra
Swami Rama's abilities in
yoga nidra
Yoga nidra ( sa, योग निद्रा, ) or yogic sleep in modern usage is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, typically induced by a guided meditation.
A state called yoga nidra is mentioned in the Upanishads and the ...
, a
guided meditation whose name means "yogic sleep",
were measured experimentally at the
Menninger Foundation
The Menninger Foundation was founded in 1919 by the Menninger family in Topeka, Kansas. The Menninger Foundation, known locally as Menninger's, consists of a clinic, a sanatorium, and a school of psychiatry, all of which bear the Menninger name. ...
in Topeka, Kansas in 1971.
He was seen to be able to produce different brain waves at will. As he relaxed, he created
alpha wave
Alpha waves, or the alpha rhythm, are neural oscillations in the frequency range of 8–12 Hz likely originating from the synchronous and coherent (in phase or constructive) electrical activity of thalamic pacemaker cells in humans. Historica ...
s by "imagining an empty blue sky with drifting clouds". He then produced the longer
theta wave
Theta waves generate the theta rhythm, a neural oscillation in the brain that underlies various aspects of cognition and behavior, including learning, memory, and spatial navigation in many animals. It can be recorded using various electrophysio ...
s of dreaming sleep, and finally the slow
delta wave
Delta waves are high amplitude neural oscillations with a frequency between 0.5 and 4 hertz. Delta waves, like other brain waves, can be recorded with electroencephalography (EEG) and are usually associated with the deep stage 3 of NREM sleep, ...
s of deep sleep, staying aware throughout and able to describe accurately what had happened in the laboratory although he had been lying in the laboratory "snoring".
In another experiment at the Menninger Foundation, he voluntarily stopped his heart from pumping blood for 17 seconds. He did this by increasing his heart rate to 300 beats per minute so that the
ventricles stopped pumping and the
atria just fluttered. He was further seen to create a temperature differential of 5 degrees Celsius between two areas on the palm of his right hand.
Widely reported in the mainstream media, he acquired a reputation for achieving remarkable psychosomatic states; the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' journalist and author William J. Broad described him as "the star of
autonomic control". The result was a sharp increase of interest in his teachings.
All the same,
he was critical of the tendency for yogis to use supernatural feats to demonstrate their enlightenment, arguing that these only demonstrated the ability to perform a feat.
Writings
Swami Rama authored dozens of books, published in India and America,
which describe the path he took to become a yogi. He discusses the philosophy, practice and benefits of yoga and meditation. In an early co-authored book, ''Yoga and Psychotherapy'' (1976), he presented Hatha Yoga with reference to western psychology. His best known work is ''Living With Himalayan Masters''; the cultural historian
Alistair Shearer
''The Story of Yoga: From Ancient India to the Modern West'' is a cultural history of yoga by Alistair Shearer, published by Hurst in 2020. It narrates how an ancient spiritual practice in India became a global method of exercise, often with n ...
calls it "an influential autobiography".
Sexual abuse
Swami Rama has been
accused and convicted of sexual abuse.
Abuses alleged to have taken place against former students of Swami Rama in Chicago, in Minneapolis, in New York, and in India in the 1970s were documented by Patricia Ann Darling in a chapter of her 1987
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
PhD thesis.
The journalist Katharine Webster stated in ''
Yoga Journal
''Yoga Journal'' is a website and digital journal, formerly a print magazine, on yoga as exercise founded in California in 1975 with the goal of combining the essence of traditional yoga with scientific understanding. It has produced live events ...
'' in 1990 that women had since the early 1970s made claims of sexual abuse against him, and that since the matter had never been investigated, she had spent two years researching it. She heard "numerous former students say they left the
imalayanInstitute because they were sexually exploited by Swami Rama or knew someone who was".
She wrote that their statements, two of which were on file with the
Cult Awareness Network
The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was an anti-cult organization created by deprogrammer Ted Patrick that provided information on groups that it considered to be cults, as well as support and referrals to deprogrammers.
It was founded in the wak ...
in New York, fitted a pattern of what she called "sex in the forbidden zone", with a guru, "coupled with institutional mechanisms of defense and denial".
In 1997, a woman won a lawsuit, first filed in 1994, regarding multiple sexual assault by Swami Rama while she was attending the Himalayan Institute in 1993; she was awarded $1.9 million in damages.
This was one of the first convictions of a yoga guru for unlawful sexual activity with a devotee.
References
Primary
Secondary
Sources
*
*
*, available a
Archive.org
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rama, Swami
Indian yoga gurus
Hindu revivalists
Psychokineticists
1925 births
1996 deaths
Modern yoga pioneers
Modern yoga gurus