Siddha Yoga History

Siddha Yoga was founded by Swami Nityananda, who is now known as Bhagawan Nityananda. It all started when, Swami Nityananda visited Ganeshpuri, a hamlet about 82 km from Mumbai, in 1936. He lived there in a small hut constructed for him by the caretakers of the Shiva temple. With time, the number of his disciples increased and the small hut transformed into an ashram. One of his regular visitors was Yogi Swami Muktananda.

Swami Nityananda gave swami Muktananda the shaktipat transmission. After nine years of consistent dwelling for truth, he finally attained enlightenment or God realization. After the death of swami Nityananda in 1961, Muktananda continued the process of shaktipat and spread it to different parts of the world. This made him a well known figure world wide and he even found reference in one of the articles of Time magazine, in 1976. Under his supervision the ashram of Ganeshpuri, further expanded and came to be known as Gurudev Siddha Peeth.

One of his young female devotees, named Malti Shetty accompanied Swami Muktananda on his world tours and was given the title of Gurumayi Chidvilasananda in 1982. Moreover, she and her brother Subhash Shetty, now known as Swami Mahamandaleshwar Nityananda, were announced as the co-gurus of Siddha Yoga. Swami Muktananda died in 1982. Later, due to some controversy Swami Mahamandaleshwar Nityananda stepped down from his post and started his own group, known as Shanti Mandir, leaving Gurumayi as the sole guru of the Siddha Yoga.