Bhagawan Nityananda is renowned in western and southern India as one of the great modern saints. Also known as Bade Baba (elder Baba), he was the Guru of Swami Muktananda, who often said Bhagawan was a janma Siddha, a born Siddha or perfected yogi.

In his early years, Bhagawan Nityananda lived in seclusion in remote areas of Southern India. In later years he came to settle in the village of Ganeshpuri, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was there that he bestowed shaktipat on Swami Muktananda, who was later called Baba. Several years before he passed away, Bhagawan Nityananda instructed Baba to build an ashram a few miles from his own residence. This ashram is now known as Gurudev Siddha Peeth.

 Nityananda lived between 1896 and 1961.  He was found as an infant in a jungle in India by a woman collecting firewood who was attracted to a heavily wooded area by the loud cawing of crows.  She had her own family, so she took up the infant and gave him to her friend who had a barren daughter. The daughter was a servant in the home of a high caste Brahman lawyer, Ishwar Iyer. She named the baby Ram (a synonym for God). As an infant, Nityananda was troubled by a serious ailment and was miraculously cured in a very strange manner. His adopted mother took the sick child for a walk and soon saw a dark skinned foreigner carrying a large bag slung over his shoulder.

Thinking maybe he could help she explained the problem and as if the mysterious stranger had been waiting for just this moment, he took out a packet from his bag and told her to mix the contents with the flesh of a freshly killed crow that had been fried in ghee (clarified butter). She was also to rub the blood of the crow all over Ram's skin. Just then a plantation worker whom she had never seen before appeared with a dead crow which he gave over to the mother.

The mother was overjoyed but when she tried to thank the two strangers they had disappeared. She carefully followed the instructions and within days the ailing child regained full health. However the skin of Ram which at birth had been a light tan, was turned permanently a dark bluish brown by the crow's blood. This same color is comparable to the color often ascribed to Krishna who is said to have been the color of a thunder cloud. In later years, if any devotee pressed Nityananda for details of his birth or childhood, he only said cryptically that a crow came and a crow left. As the young Ram grew into childhood, Mr Iyer, the lawyer for whom the mother worked grew very attached to him. The foster mother died when Ram was six, and Mr Iyer adopted him into the family. The devout Mr Iyer felt a spiritual attraction to Ram and took him on his pilgrimages to the Krishna temple. On these trips Ram would often explain abstruse metaphysical points to the amazed elder Iyer. A well known astrologer told him that, as shown in Mr. Iyer's chart, the boy was an incarnate personality and thus it was a great blessing for him to be in Ram's company.

When Ram was ten years old, Mr Iyer took him to the holy city of Benares. There Ram asserted that he was leaving the household. Though Mr Iyer pleaded tearfully with him he would not change his mind. Before going though he conferred on Mr. Iyer a divine vision and promised they would meet again. Ram wandered widely around the North of India and the Himalayas for six years. Several sources indicate that he was known in the Himalayas as a great Kundalini Yogi. The Kundalini is the Serpent Power of the Mother aspect coiled up in the Muladhar chakra situated at the base of the spine in each person. In a spiritually advanced individual the awakened Kundalini energy rises up along the spinal column piercing the chakras and conferring new powers and states of consciousness as it rises until full Samadhi is attained on its reaching the highest chakra at the crown of the head. 

 As he grew older and approached the close of his life he thought constantly of the boy. At this time, quite unexpectedly, Ram turned up at his house, knowing Mr. Iyer's end was near and thus keeping a promise to see him once again.{

mosimage} Mr. Iyer was ecstatic and kept repeating "Nityananda! Nityananda!" (endless bliss). After this incident Ram became known as Nityananda. The young Nityananda (then 16) took Mr Iyer to the city of Udipi for the darshan of Krishna and the Ananteshwar temple. Later Nityananda remarked that he had been present at the construction of the temple of Ananteshwar approximately 400 years earlier.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Iyer became gravely ill. As he lay with his head on Nityananda's lap he expressed a desire to have a vision of the Sun God Bharga which he had worshiped his entire life. Bharga is the divinity whose outward expression is the sun of our solar system. Nityananda granted his request and Mr. Iyer merged into the ocean of spirit.

Nityananda was an avadhut. An avadhut is a great mystic who has risen above body-consciousness, duality and conventional standards. The term is described in one text as one who is free from the consciousness of the ego, roaming free like a child over the face of the earth. An avadhut does not identify with the body, mind or emotions. Such a person is said to be pure consciousness in human form.

In Nityananda's own words:  "Avadhuts know that birth and death are illusions of the body.  They are no more identified with the body than ordinary people are with their garments.
Avadhuts have no sense of "I."
They see everything as projections of the Self,
Viewing all with equal pleasure.

No matter where they wander, they have no sense of duality.
If food is available, they eat-but they do not ask for food.
Those who offer them poison and those who offer them milk are the same.
Those who beat them and those who love them are the same.
Avadhuts recognize the universe as father, mother, family.
They contain the entire universe and the universe is merged in them."                              ~ Sutra 109, from The Sky of the Heart 

From his presence, miracles of healing, of understanding, of the bestowal of peace and joy flowed. The credit for these things he gave to God and to the faith and devotion of the seeker. He would say, "Everything that happens, happens automatically by the will of God." Therefore, everything was possible. Miracles occurred naturally around him because of his continuous state of perfect Self-realization. He was always in union with the inner Self, and the need for this union was at the heart of his teaching. Like ancient sages from many traditions, he said that anyone who merges the individual into the universal is enlightened.

 For more detail about Nityananda's life, see Nityananda: In Divine Presence, a collection of stories about Nityananda collected by Captain M.U. Hatengdi, one of his principal devotees, and Swami Chetanananda, and published by Rudra Press, the publishing division of Nityananda Institute.