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Jyoti, Swami Amar 215 J birth and rebirth but remains alive. Most Shaivite Jnanasambanthar See SAMBANTHAR. traditions, and the VEDANTA of SHANKARA, accept the possibility of jivanmukti (living liberation). Other Hindu traditions, such as VAISHNAVISM, do jnana yoga See BHAGAVAD GITA. not accept the concept; they insist that full libera- tion occurs only at death. Neither Jains nor Sikhs believe in jivanmukti. jnanedriya See SAMKHYA. Historically, many of the earlier philosophies of India, such as SAMKHYA, had no place for the idea. A strict reading of YOGA SUTRA would not Jnaneshvara (1275–1296) poet-saint allow for it either. Jnaneshvara was a Vaishnavite (see VAISHNAVISM) poet-saint from Maharashtra, who wrote hymns Further reading: Andrew O. Fort, Jivanmukti in Transfor- of praise to VITHOBA and RUKMINI, the Maha- mation: Embodied Liberation in advaita and Neo-Vedanta rashtran forms of KRISHNA and RADHA who are (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998). worshipped at Pandharpur. He is most famous for his commentary on the BHAGAVAD GITA writ- ten in old Marathi, a beloved and revered text jivatman See VEDANTA. in Maharashtra. It is said that Jnaneshvara died at the age of 22, at Alandi on the Krishna River. This is now an important pilgrimage site; his jnana shrine is visited there at the time of the poet’s Jnana (from the root jna, “to know”) literally death in November. means “knowledge” but is better translated as “gnosis” or “realization.” Specifically, it is the Further reading: P. V. Bobde, trans., Garland of Divine knowledge of the unity between the highest real- Flowers: Selected Devotional Lyrics of Saint Jnanesvara ity, or BRAHMAN, and the individual self, or JIVATMAN. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987); Manu Subedar, The role of jnana is developed in the philosophy trans., Gita, the Mother: Commentary by Dhyaneshwar of the UPANISHADS and most clearly outlined in the Maharaj (New Delhi: Kalyani, 1972). ADVAITA (non-dualist) philosophy of SHANKARA. Much thought and writing have focused on the nature of jnana in Indian tradition. Some see Jyoti, Swami Amar (1928–2001) Indian guru it as a cognitive function: once one understands and ashram founder the truth of the unity of brahman and the self Swami Amar Jyoti was a humanitarian activist, intellectually, that is enough. Others require a who founded Jyoti Ashram, Sacred Mountain realization of a mystic sort. VEDANTA has often Ashram, the Desert Ashram, and the Truth Con- been characterized as interested only in gaining sciousness movement. Born in northwest India jnana, but it has many paths that stress BHAKTI on May 6, 1928, in a small town close to the or devotion as the first step on the path toward banks of the Indus River, Swami Amar Jyoti was the ultimate. Jnana yoga is one of the three major named Rama by his parents. As a child he was yogas mentioned in the BHAGAVAD GITA. interested in science, math, writing, cycling, drama, and sports. The partition of India in 1947 Further reading: S. N. Dasgupta, History of Indian interrupted his college education, causing him Philosophy, vols. 1 and 2 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, to transfer to a university in Bombay (Mumbai). 1975). Just a few months prior to his graduation he left 001-518_hindu_a-z.indd 215 12/14/06 9:28:50 AM K 216 Jyotipriya school in order to obtain the remainder of his Colorado. A few years later he established the education from the world itself. At 19, without Desert Ashram in Tucson, Arizona, under Truth money or a destination, he took a train to Cal- Consciousness, a nonprofit organization created cutta (Kolkata). to disseminate Swami Amar Jyoti’s teachings. He Political tensions and mass violence had bro- continued to travel and teach until his death on ken out in India at the time, and refugees were June 13, 2001. flooding into West Bengal by the thousands. Jyoti Ashram is a pilgrimage site. It contains During this time Rama worked for an aviation a memorial temple housing the remains of the company in Calcutta; when offered a partnership swami. in the company, he decided to leave and instead volunteer his services to help the refugees. Dur- Further reading: Swami Amar Jyoti, Immortal Light: The ing this time he lived on a railway platform some- Blissful Life and Wisdom of Swami Amar Jyoti (Boulder, where close to the border of India and East Bengal Colo.: Truth Consciousness, 2004);———, Spirit of (now Bangladesh). He soon became the leader of Himalaya: The Story of a Truth Seeker (Boulder, Colo.: the entire volunteer effort, working more than Truth Consciousness, 2001). 20 hours per day. A year later, as the inflow of refugees began to subside, Rama moved back to Calcutta. Here he turned down a government Jyotipriya See TYBERG, JUDITH M. position in order to work for the rehabilitation of refugees. Rama chose to live alone on the fringes of Jyotirmayananda Saraswati, Swami Calcutta in an ASHRAM, where he learned classi- (1931– ) advaita teacher and educator cal music, sitar, religious studies, and prayer. In Swami Jyotirmayananda Saraswati founded the the contemplative atmosphere he began to have Yoga Research Foundation. visions. His MEDITATION, YOGA, and PUJA practices Born in Dumari Buzurg on February 3, increased, and soon he knew where his life’s work 1931, in the state of Bihar, the boy who would was leading him. He lived in silence for close to a become Swami Jyotirmayananda was a calm, decade, focused on the goal of God realization. In reflective, and successful student. He studied at those years he made many pilgrimages through- the Science College of Patna, where he first met out India, but his “awakening” is attributed to the Swami SIVANANDA of Rishikesh. He traveled to time he spent in a temple village near the source the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, where his of the GANGES River. GURU, Sivananda, put him to work teaching oth- In 1958, Rama was initiated into Vidyut San- ers. In February 1953, he took the vow of SAN- nyas (lightninglike monasticism) in BADRINATH in NYAS (renunciation) from Sivananda and began the HIMALAYAS and given the name Swami Amar to teach at the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy Jyoti (eternal light). Now he was ready to com- as a professor of religion. He became the editor municate to the world. He founded his first center, of the Hindi journal of the Divine Life Society, Jyoti Ashram, in Pune, in the state of Maharash- Yoga-Vedanta. tra close to his mother’s home. In 1961 he was In 1962, after many requests, he traveled to invited to the United States by a devotee; on this the West, staying two years in Puerto Rico, where trip he gained a degree of popularity. In 1974, he he founded the Sanatan Dharma Mandir. In 1969 set up the Sacred Mountain Ashram near Boulder, he opened his center in Miami, Florida, where he 001-518_hindu_a-z.indd 216 12/14/06 9:28:50 AM Jyotirmayananda Saraswati, Swami 217 J set up a publishing center and the Yoga Research Jyotirmananda teaches and lectures on inte- Foundation. Branches of this organization now gral yoga and sponsors a monthly magazine, Inter- exist throughout the world. In 1985, he founded national Yoga Guide. an ashram near New Delhi that offers yoga classes, publishes the Hindi journal Yoganjali, and assists Further reading: Swami Jyotirmayananda Saraswati, the needy through a medical clinic. The ashram Meditate the Tantric Yoga Way (London: Allen & Unwin, also runs a school for children, the Bal Divya Jyoti 1973); ———, The Art of Positive Thinking (Miami: Public School. Yoga Research Foundation, 1988). 001-518_hindu_a-z.indd 217 12/14/06 9:28:50 AM 001-518_hindu_a-z.indd 218 12/14/06 9:28:51 AM K J: AF Kabir (c. 15th century) medieval Hindi saint-poet pundits but less important for the transmission Kabir, a poor, illiterate man, was one of the great of tradition. saint-poets of northern India. He is revered by Kabir was the disciple of the GURU Ramananda, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs, although his work a famous c. 15th-century teacher. A story tells includes much social and religious criticism of how Kabir, a convert to Islam, tricked this ortho- Islam and Hinduism. dox Hindu into accepting him as a student. Kabir The poet was born in BENARES (Varanasi) into is said to have lain upon the steps that the guru a weaver family who had recently converted to always took in the morning to do his bathing and Islam. As with other poet-saints such as RAM- ablutions in the river. Tripping in the dark over PRASAD and TUKARAM, the actual details of his life the supine Kabir, the guru in fear uttered, “Ram! are not known for certain; it is not even known Ram!” This is, in fact, a MANTRA in and of itself, and which of the poems attributed to him were so the crafty Kabir insisted he must be accepted as authentically his. Indian poet-saints, particularly a disciple since he had heard the guru’s mantra. those who relied upon song to communicate, very (It should be added that Kabir’s understanding of quickly became legendary figures, the possessions the mantra RAMA is not an orthodox one. For him of everyone. More important than the concrete the word did not designate the AVATAR of VISHNU details of these people’s lives or the verses that of that name, but was a divine “name” that leads may be authentically theirs is the collective imagi- one to an undifferentiated ADVAITA (non-dual) nation of them, which makes them part of the consciousness.) cultural consciousness and makes their writings a There exists a story, probably apocryphal and collective possession.

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