University professor who has become a ‘superstar’ swami

Press, 18 April 1980, Page 13

University professor who has become a ‘superstar’ swami

Bv

AMANDA SAMUEL

Arriving for an interview half an hour late in a silver BMW, Swami Shankarananda looked more like a superstar than a humble servant. Dressed in traditional flowing orange swami garb, the red third eye in the middle of his forehead, and flanked by young male admirers, he grinned warmly. He is in Christchurch for a week as part of a three-month tour of Australia and New Zealand at the invitation of Siddhu yoga followers, and will hold a two-day workshop at this week-end. Swami Shankarananda, aged 38, was content t.o be Russell Kruckman, professor of English literature at Indiana University in the United Staes, until he was 27. One day, while his wife read to him from a magazine, he found his mind drifting to an ecstatic state. He had heard about Siddhu yoga and meditation, and ashed a friend to introduce him to it so that he could find that blissful state again. He and his wife went to India and sought out guru Muktananda Paramahamsa, the guiding light and inspiration of Siddhu yoga devotees throughout the world. There they experienced Kundalini — “the awakening of a spiritual force which has been slumbering.” Mr Kruckman, who said he had always been a “seeker,” stayed with his guru for six years, after which he was asked if he wanted to become a swami. That meant he had to become a monk, shave his head, and say goodbye to his wife, because swamis cannot be married or have children. His wife did not mind, because she had. already been asked to be a swami herself and had accepted. Russell Kruckman then became Swami Shankarananda, which means joy of God. There will be more name changes before he is through. Swami Shankarananda said that if he was good he would be reincarnated several times as a swami until he was perfect and phased himself out. , • If he did something bad, such as becoming vain, he could be reincarnated as a rat. Muktananda says there is an elephant on his ashram who is a fallen swami . . . “He ■ is a very nice elephant.” If the elephant

behaves itself, Shankarananda said he would probably get the chance to come back as a swami. But, he added, Muktananda was probably joking anyway because he was very humurous. He wears a heavy gold watch. Western spectacles, and leather shoes, and oddly enough for somebody who has found inner peace, bites his fingernails. “There is a stereotype of the placid guru. 1 have found my beautiful inner self but outwardly I am not much different than I used to be. I have always bitten my fingernails — I just do it for the hell of it.”

To find his inner self, S w a mi Shankarananda went to bizarre lengths.

He studied Raja yoga, which necessitated swallowing a 24ft piece of cloth to clean his stomach and putting string up his nose to clean the nostrils. He said that many of his former colleagues and people in the Western world seemed to have indulged in ail of life’s pleasures and found that there was still a spiritual deficiency in their lives. By chanting “Om Namah Shivaya (I bow to the self)” over and over again anyone can focus on their inner self and find their soul. But according to Shankarananda, you have to meet a guru before you can experience the awakening or become a swami.

Swamis are committed 24 hours a day to teaching meditation and yoga. Swami Shankarananda is the director of the Siddhu Yoga Meditation Centre of Los Angeles. He has written several books on Siddhu yoga, has appeared on television, and edits a monthly magazine, “Siddhu Path.” For all that he is paid $3O a month. But to yogis the mantra they chant is their money. A dollar note is only a piece of paper, but it has the official Government sanction, so is valuable. The mantra is only words, but they are special. They come from above — or should that be within?