The Laughing Swamis: Australian Sannyasin Disciples of Swami Satyananda Saraswati

In 1895 Swami Vivekananda of the Ramakrishna Mission initiated two Europeans one a womean into the ancient tradition of sannyasa or world-renuciation. This practice was continued in the first part of the twentieth century by Swami Shivananda of Rishikesh. From the late sixties onwards with the sudden expansion of European awareness of Indian Spirituality, a vast hord of “foreign religious heads” have spread through India in incomprehensibly large numbers.

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About the Author(s)

HARRY AVELING Ph.D. (National University of Singapore), also of La Trobe University, served as Visiting Associate Professor of English in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland.