Swami Satchidananda Saraswati
Satchidananda Saraswati, born C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder and known as Swami Satchidananda, was an Indian yoga guru and religious teacher, who gained following in the West. He founded his own brand of Integral Yoga, and its Yogaville headquarters in Virginia. He was the author of philosophical and spiritual books and had a core of founding disciples who compiled his translations and updated commentaries on traditional handbooks of yoga such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita for modern readers.
Satchidananda giving an informal talk to students in Yogaville (1982)
Satchidananda (standing) with his Guru, Sivananda Saraswati, Rishikesh, India, 1951
Swami Satchidananda on stage as he opens the 1969 Woodstock Festival
Swami Satchidananda, with Sydney Opera House in background, during a speaking tour of Australia, 1981
Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms, whether religious or not. The role implies being well-known and having a large following; in contrast to the old guru-shishya tradition, the modern guru-follower relationship is not secretive, not exclusive, and does not necessarily involve a tradition. Many such gurus, but not all, teach a form of yoga as exercise; others teach forms which are more devotional or meditational; many teach a combination. Some have been affected by scandals of various kinds.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced The Beatles, and the West, to gurus, mantras, and meditation in the late 1960s.
The guru–shishya tradition involved a long-term, one-to-one relationship between master and pupil. Watercolour, Punjab Hills, India, 1740
Yogendra, an acknowledged pioneer of modern yoga, rejected the traditional guru role in favour of something more modern.