Kripalvananda, Swami Sri

(1913–1981)

   Popular Gujarati yogi and inspiration for kriya yoga

   His Holiness Swami Sri Kripalvananda, whose teachings inspired the popular form of HATHA YOGA known as KRIPALU YOGA, was born in 1913 in Gujarat, India. His childhood was marked by sev-eral attempts to commit suicide, but after his last attempt, he met his GURU, known affectionately as Dadaji, in a visionary experience. He later learned that Dadaji was Lakulish, the 28th incarnation of Lord SHIVA.

   The vision transformed his life and, after eight months, he took initiation into sannyas, renuncia-tion, from Dadaji and was guided by Dadaji for the rest of his life. Dadaji then disappeared until 1952, when Kripalvanandji saw him as a young man. In his later appearances he encouraged Kri-palvananda to develop and continue intense 10-hour-a-day practice of KUNDALINI meditation that he continued for the rest of his life.

   At Kayavarohan, Gujarat, Kripalvananda was inspired to build a temple to Lord Lakulish and to reestablish the town of Kayavarohan as a center of spiritual culture and learning.

   As his own practice matured, Kripalvananda became the guru of two brothers, SHANTI and AMRIT DESAI (b. 1932), both of whom would later go to America and begin organizations teaching the type of kundalini and hatha yoga that inspired Kripalvananda. In 1977, Amrit Desai invited Kri-palvananda to go to America, where he would stay for more than three years. In those years he was a significant influence on the emerging community of KRIYA YOGA in the United States. He returned to India shortly before his death at the end of 1981.

   Further reading: Yogi Amrit Desai and Shri Kripalvana-nda, The Passion of Christ: A Discourse (Lenox, Mass.: Kripalu, 1983); Shri Kripalvanandiji, Krpalupanisad (St. Helena, Calif.: Sanatana Publication Society, 1979); ———, Pilgrimage of Love, Books 1–3 (Lenox, Mass.: Kripalu, 1992); ———, The Stages of Kundalini Yoga (Lenox, Mass.: Kripalu, 1976); Swami Rajarshi Muni, Infinite Grace: The Story of My Spiritual Lineage (Vado-dara: Life Mission Publications, 2002).