1976: Onstage on this Date

C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder (his family name) was born in southern India in 1914. As a young man, Ramaswamy worked in his family’s motorcycle import business. After his wife died only five years into their marriage, Ramaswamy left his two young children with his mother and embarked on a long spiritual pilgrimage through India. After years of wandering as an ascetic sadhu, begging for his food and studying with one teacher after another, he found a holy man named Swami Sivananda, who became his guru. In 1949, Ramaswamy was given the monastic name Satchidananda.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Satchidananda was a hugely popular spiritual teacher across India. In 1965, the German-American artist Peter Max invited Satchidananda to visit New York. Max recalled the conversation. “Swami, America needs you very, very much. It would be really nice if you could come to America.” ‘America needs me?’ he asked. I told him that the youth were experimenting with drugs to expand their consciousness and the whole country was undergoing great change. His teachings of yoga were what we needed. Then the Swami told me, ‘Okay, if there’s a need, I’ll come.’”

In the 1960s, the average American knew little to nothing about yoga and meditation. A weekly PBS television show, called Yoga for Health with Richard Hittleman, started airing in 1961. But yoga only started to become widely known when the counterculture and New Age movements started to explore new lifestyles and world views – especially Eastern spirituality – in the late 1960s. As the “Woodstock Guru,” Swami Satchidananda played an important role in introducing yoga and meditation into Western popular culture.