Namaste

Let me first introduce my self. My Name is Venu and I was very close with Swami S. since the year of 2003. I was also addressed as a trustee of Samvit Sagar Trust between May 2008 and February 2012. I am running an intl. Yoga School and retreat house in Germany and since 2004 we brought every year a group of 40 people to Swami S. ashram in Tiruvannamalai for running a Yoga Teachers Training Course, were Swami S. was teaching Self-Knowledge.

In the month of January 2012 we came to know a very shocking information about Swami S., so that I decided to cut off any contact with Swami as well as resigned to be a trustee.

I am very sorry and have to say to all the students, friends and other open minded people I/we have brought to the ashram of Swami S.... “I apologize and please excuse me, I was not aware about his lifestyle and lies!”

But first for those who don’t know what is a Swami / Samnyasi

The samnyasi lives a celibate life without possessions. The true samnyasi (renunciate or ascetic) does not identify with any form of division or multiplicity. The Sanskrit word samnyasi comes from samnyasyati, meaning he renounces. Sam means together, ni means down, and asyati means he throws. He or she throws down any personal identity whatsoever, including not only those related to physical objects, but also to nationality, religion, work or family identities.

A Swami takes vows of poverty and celibacy. He receives a new name with the title Swami.

Traditionally in the Swami Order, which goes back to four or five thousand years, one wears saffron robes, the color of the rising sun (or fire), as a being of light, for wherever one stands one should be then a source of illumination to others.  Any material objects or finances one owns are kept in trust for the service of others. Service and worship become identical. The three basic rules of the Swami order parallel the ones of the Benedictine order: poverty, chastity, and obedience.