In the nineteenth century, India, under British domination, was forced to confront Western culture and the need to expand beyond its borders. Some spiritual masters entrusted their chosen disciples with the mission of spreading their teachings in America and Europe. This marked the beginning of a new chapter in India's spiritual history, known as Neo-Hinduism. This movement reimagined India's cultural traditions, calling for ascetics to engage with society rather than retreat into the forest. One such figure was Sri Satchitananda, the master of Swami Ji, who was the mentor of Walter Thirak Ruta. Sri Satchitananda chose to live among people in the challenging conditions of city life, demonstrating that spiritual practices can thrive in seemingly non-spiritual environments.
Swami Ji lived his life inspired by tradition, adhering for forty years to the vow of Muni, the silent ascetic who "sacrifices" speech for sanctifying silence. His disciple, Walter Thirak Ruta, dedicated his first book to his master. This book is a genuine "logbook," – spontaneous and immediate, bearing witness to a journey of transformation. It is not academic or preachy but offers detailed descriptions of āsanas, supported by images, interspersed with reflections, quotations, parables, and notes. Throughout the book, there is a constant reminder to recognize the inner attitude reflected in physical postures, which lead beyond mere exercise.
In this context, the use of mantras is fundamental, and the purification process through shatkarmas, dietary mindfulness, and fasting is indispensable. The book includes practical guidance, illustrated with drawings and photos that are not intended for aesthetic purposes but are as meaningful as those once collected in family albums. This gives the book a simple, familiar tone. It is a gift, according to the author, who is convinced that the path of spiritual ascent is meaningful only when shared.
In this interview Walter Thirak Ruta talks about his life and purpose:
Rodolphe Milliat once said: “After the departure of Sri Chandra Swami Udasin on the last Maha Shiva Ratri we will witness a new age of yoga: you will certainly find Swamins, but not always in India and neither Indian. All those great yogis of the past century, that managed to be references for Indian and foreign students at the same time, left after spreading the values of yoga all over the world.”
The background of an Indian yoga student is not the same as that of a foreign one. For the former, tradition is a heritage that supports a lifestyle of wisdom, for the latter, studying yoga is discovering a new paradigm to interpret their own life.
Nevertheless, for both of them the goal is the same: everyone wishes to find a guide to pursue the path and become a testimony of the ātman.
From Ruth Huber’s notebook we can read how Sri Sri Sri Satchidananda Yogi explained the relation to a master, to the yoga texts and to one’s own experience, during a yoga seminar in Switzerland.
Walter says, Swamiji “told us” one day:
Experience is a master. Guru means “reminder”.
Then, on the last day of that week spent with him, he added that there are three sources of authority:
1 The word of the Guru
2 The Yogaśāstras
3 Your own experience
You can always verify 1 by 2 and 2 by 3.
Sri Sri Sri Satchidananda Yogi underlines the importance of our own experience not because it is a certain source of right information, but because it is only by living the word of the Guru and the teachings of the Yogaśāstras that you can double check your comprehension of both of them. If you never practice them you will only believe you posses this knowledge, but a deep root within you will be lacking. A tree without deep roots cannot withstand a strong wind, it cannot find water during a drought.
Experience will be the mirror of your own understanding for everyone of you.
The deeper the process of understanding goes within you, the more the life you live will be an example of living close to the “Self”, for yourself and for all fellow people around you.
It is not who you are in this life that is so important, if you can sustain your own roles in this life from the inner power within you. In order to discover this power, and to keep humble, yoga is for you, o dear soul, on the path of accomplishment!
Whenever you happen to lose your path, remember to ask yourself: “are we human beings in search of a spiritual life or are we souls in the experience of a worldly life?”
Sometimes the answer will arise from the the word of the Guru or from the Yogaśāstras;
other times it will emerge from the silence of your soul.
Both of them will find confirmation of their goodness in the correspondences echoing in your everyday life.
Asked about the teachings from a silent Yogi on Yogic techniques and wisdom, Shri Walter talks about his guru Sri Sri Sri Satchidananda Yogi.
India has ascribed the origins of her culture to a series of enlightened seers who lived in close contact with Nature, generally in the forests or on the mountains. The forest has always been considered a place rich in energy, simultaneously the testing ground and source of great inspiration and it is in those very forests that the ashramas were created over the course of the centuries, hermitages where people looking for spirituality met to share the experience, sustained by the faith / belief that there was another dimension beyond the terrestrial, that there were objectives that outstripped those of human beings and that it was possible to pursue them. The ashramas were not only centers of cultural transmission but also real laboratories of community life, marked by mutual respect and peace,where closeness to Nature created serene and paradisiacal oases.
There have been many descriptions in Sanskrit literature and the one by Kalidasa, the great
poet and dramatist who lived in the IVth century AD, is particularly touching; it describes the hermitage where Shakuntala dwelt - the leading figure in a story that would see her become the brideof a great king and mother of the progenitor of India’s main ruling dynasty: “The leaves bent their heads respectfully to the wind, the plants offered their fruits in adoration. The rice was scattered in the yard to dry together with the bananas, the myrobalan fruits, the cloves and the jujube. The earth in the forest seemed to whisper with the assiduous study of the brahmins’ children. By dint oflistening, vociferous parrots joined in the repetition of the holy formulae and the junglefowl ate thefood offered to the divinity. Nearby, the swans, too, came out of the water to eat the rice offerings whilst the stags gently licked the wise men’s children. Every thing declared constantly that there wasno separation between human beings, plants and animals.”
Says Marilia Albanese of Walter
I have known Walter for many years and seen him transform constantly, in a way clearly visible
from the outside, too, and this new appearance seemed to me to fully express what was happening
inside him. It was not a sort of exotic or eccentric disguise but an expression of authenticity: unable
to be anything but that. Satya has the same root as the verb “to be” and thus “is that which is”. A being who is aware, a being transforming, a being that becomes “being there,” presence of spirit. In his external changes, too, Walter’s path seemed the mark of a hard-won inner transformation, because simply becoming what one is, is an extremely difficult operation. Every time we find ourselves before the adverb “simply”, we are facing something very demanding and very painful.
It must be difficult to follow a silent Master and to take up his legacy, having to assume the
responsibility of conveyance from Master to disciple, guru sishya parampara, going on in silence.
Tradition relies on the word, a word that becomes life, but where there is no word and we must rely
on interpretation of the silence, what fears lie in wait: fear of the intoxication of omnipotence, of
assuming roles that we are not entitled to. It is a solitary path, without support or blessing, but once
we accept the fact that being a Master does not mean fame, wealth, celebrity, but assuming a pledge
to truth, first and foremost with yourself and then with others, then, in the silence and the solitude,
the inner Master speaks.