Swami Rudrananda

Swami Rudrananda (born Albert Rudolph in 1928) was one of Muktananda’s first American followers, and also probably one of the first to leave. He went to India in 1958 and meet Nityananda of Ganeshpuri. When he returned, Nityananda had died and Rudolph spent time with Muktananda resulting in his receiving sannyas in 1965. Rudrananda did most of the leg work and planning to support Muktananda’s first trip to the US in 1970. In his article Spiritual Cannibalism (you may download it in Windows .DOC format from www.internetyoga.com for some unknown reason, it is not available at the Nityananda Institute) he talks about his leaving Muktananda:

“I began to understand that the quantity of food I ate was to give me the energy I needed to fight the tensions that had accumulated in this life. And after separating from Baba, the teacher I had studied with for many years, I needed to work harder to replace the energy I had received from him – At the same time I found that the releasing of tension opened in me a joyousness that allowed God to enter my being. A teacher in no way is a replacement for God and I found that the person with whom I had studied was so obsessed with his being God, or more than God, that I could not respect and sustain the relationship. Anybody who teaches by tension is an insecure human being. A teacher should give love and free people from tension so that they can open to God.”

Rudrananda, who died in 1973 in a plane crash, was succeeded by Swami Chetanananda, who also received sannyas from Muktananda.