Biography

Malti Shetty was the oldest daughter of a Mumbai restaurateur, who with his wife were devotees of Swami Muktananda in the 1950s. Malti was brought the first time to the Gurudev Siddha Peeth ashram at Ganeshpuri when she was five years old. During her childhood, her parents brought her, her sister, and two brothers to the ashram on weekends.

After she had been initiated by Muktananda through shaktipat at age fourteen, Malti would move to the ashram as a formal disciple and yoga student. Muktananda soon made her his official English language translator and she accompanied him on his three world tours.

In May 3, 1982, Malti Shetty was initiated as a sannyasin into the Saraswati order, taking vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, and acquiring the title and monastic name of Swami Chidvilasananda, (literally, "bliss of the play of consciousness"). She was later to be also called Gurumayi by her devotees. At this time Muktananda formally designated her as one of his successors, along with her brother Subhash Shetty, by this time known as Swami Nityanand.

Swami Chidvilasananda provided a unique description of the spiritual initiation she received from Swami Muktananda in 1982:

All of a sudden, my Guru, my Baba,
Placed his hand on my head.
Streaks of fire exploded from his palm.
The house of my individuality was set ablaze.
Everything I had was burned away.

Muktananda would die a few months later. In 1985, there was a split between the two co-gurus and Swami Chidvilasananda became the sole head of Siddha Yoga.

Swami Chidvilasananda renamed the South Fallsburg, New York ashram Shree Muktananda Ashram, in honor of her Guru, Swami Muktananda. Under Gurumayi's leadership, Siddha Yoga has expanded to include over 600 ashrams and centers around the world. In 1992 she founded the PRASAD Project. In 1997 she founded the Muktabodha Indological Research Institute with its own publishing imprint, Agama Press.

Bibliography

Chidvilasananda, Gurumayi (1989). Kindle My Heart. Prentiss Hall Press.
Chidvilasananda, Gurumayi (1995). Inner Treasures. SYDA Foundation.
Chidvilasananda, Swami (1991). Siddha Yoga Diksha (in Hindi). SYDA Foundation.
Chidvilasananda, Swami (1994). My Lord Loves A Pure Heart. SYDA Foundation.
Chidvilasananda, Swami (1996). The Yoga Of Discipline. SYDA Foundation.
Chidvilasananda, Swami (1996). The Magic Of The Heart. SYDA Foundation.
Chidvilasananda, Swami (1995). Blaze The Trail Of Equipoise. SYDA Foundation.
Chidvilasananda, Swami (1995). Resonate With Stillness. SYDA Foundation.
Chidvilasananda, Gurumayi (1997). "Your True Companion: The Self Within". Hinduism Today Retrieved on 2007-06-14.