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To many people all over the world Swami Satyananda Saraswati brought freedom: freedom from rules and constraints, rituals and dogma, family pressures and personal traumas.

About ten years ago I caught Swamiji on his own as he strode around the Akhara in his loin cloth and wooden sandals, surveying the activities of the morning. I asked him whether, if one gets old, decrepit and alone, he thought it would be alright to ‘finish it off’, or end one’s life.

Before I could finish my sentence he knew what I was going to say, and cut me short: “No! No! Happy life! Healthy life!” he said, and strode on.

Many years before I asked him, why is it more difficult to feel inspired when one is no longer living in the mother ashram? “Because you have to create your own atmosphere”, he said.

Swamiji’s answers were meant directly for the person asking them. No matter how simple, his words would strike home as if one had answered the question oneself, and often became the impetus for action or change.

I first came to know of Swamiji in Belfast when I was 24 through Swami Atmananda, and I joined the ashram there.

She wrote to Swamiji about me, and he wrote back saying my name would be Kriyamurti, and that I should learn kirtan, typing and correspondence, household management, to teach yoga and to be of service to others.