Initiation
Upon his return to India in 1924, he visited Varanasi, Nashik, and then Rishikesh, where he met his Guru, Vishwānanda Saraswati. It was Vishwānanda who initiated him into the Sannyasa order, and gave him his monastic name. However, since Sivānanda spent only a few hours with Vishwānanda, the full Viraja Homa ceremonies were performed later by Vishnudevānanda, the Mandaleswara of Sri Kailas Ashram . After initiation, Sivānanda settled in Rishikesh, and immersed himself in intense spiritual practices. Sivānanda performed austerities for many years but he also continued to nurse the sick. With some money from his insurance policy that had matured, he started a charitable dispensary at Lakshman Jhula in 1927, serving pilgrims, holy men and the poor using his medical expertise.
Read more about this topic: Sivananda Saraswati
Famous quotes containing the word initiation:
“The difficult and risky task of meeting and mastering the new—whether it be the settlement of new lands or the initiation of new ways of life—is not undertaken by the vanguard of society but by its rear. It is the misfits, failures, fugitives, outcasts and their like who are among the first to grapple with the new.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“Until the end of the Middle Ages, and in many cases afterwards too, in order to obtain initiation in a trade of any sort whatever—whether that of courtier, soldier, administrator, merchant or workman—a boy did not amass the knowledge necessary to ply that trade before entering it, but threw himself into it; he then acquired the necessary knowledge.”
—Philippe Ariés (20th century)