Muktananda's Birthday

May 16 2025 (solar anniversary)

Happy Birthday, Baba

by Swami Nirmalananda 

Please join me in a great celebration, the anniversary of the day of Swami Muktananda's birth. This is the day that a great being was born into this world, a child with a destiny to know God and to serve by giving that to the world. He was a Jagadguru, a World Guru, who traveled the world and touched so many. 

His greatness is not found in the many he touched, but in the inner realms he explored under his Guru's guidance, and the generosity with which he gave it to all comers. His was an unprecedented mission, taking the mystical initiation to those who had never even heard of it, nor had they done the preparation. I am among the many lucky ones who sat at His feet and was forever changed as a result.

He was born on the full moon in May 1908. His birth was a great blessing for his parents, who had appealed to a passing yogi for blessings as they had been unable to conceive a child. The sadhu gave a mantra to the wife, who repeated the mantra to prepare for her pregnancy, as well as during her pregnancy and delivery, and even to her newborn child. Baba was born on the wings of the mantra that Bhagavan Nityananda later gave him, the mantra that Baba gave to us.

He was born on a full moon, and He left this world on a full moon, auspicious times for an auspicious being. Thus, we celebrate Muktananda's lunar birth anniversary as well as His solar birth anniversary. Swami Nirmalananda says, "It takes two celebrations to even begin to describe his greatness and revel in his life and presence."