Guru Lineage

The Guru Lineage starts with Lord Shiva who gave the knowledge of Sri Vidya to Lord
Dattatreya. Lord Dattatreya is revered as the Adi-Guru (First Teacher) of the Adinath
Sampradaya of the Nathas, the first "Lord of Yoga" with mastery of Tantra (techniques). To this
monastic movement belongs Srilasri Swaprakasananda Theertha Avadhootha, who initiated Sri
Amritananda Natha Saraswathi. Guru Sri Karunamaya was initiated by Sri Amritananda Natha
Saraswathi.

Parameshti Guru: Srilasri Swaprakasananda

theertha avadhootha
Fondly known to his disciples as Gurugarau, Srilasri Swaprakasananda theertha avadhootha was
born in 1915 in a small village, Vidurbarthi in Andhra Pradesh. Hailing from the Dattatreya
lineage, Sri Swaprakasananda had not received any formal education, yet with the Mother's
Blessings, has vast knowledge of the Vedas and Sastras and is well versed in Sanskrit.

Sri Gurugaru came in contact with some of India's finest spiritual gurus during his twentieth
year. He received Dhiksha from Sri Poornananda Yogi, a disciple of the tibetian guru, Maru
Maharishi. He was introduced to SriVidya upasana by Sri Kesari Kameswara Rao of the
Madhvacharya sampradaya. In his 32nd year, Sri Gurugaru received Dhiksha in the mahavidyas
of Sri Rajarajeswari, Vanadurga and Saptasathi Chandi. He attained Poorna dhiksha fromSri
Gnanananda Saraswathi of Anakapalli.

He travelled the length and breadth of India to enhance his spiritual knowledge. By the time he
was 40 years old, he had mastered the 64 tantras, from Orissa and Rajamandri. At 43, he had
learnt 70 million mantras from the teachings of 18 peetams and many gurus. He spent a few
years in Kasi contemplating and analysing the source of the mantras he had learnt. He was
greatly aided by Sri Dakshinamurthi Paramahamsa of Lalithanagar, Vishakapatnam.

In addition to the siddhis he had already received, he became a vedic scholar at the age of 58
with the grace of Chintamani Mahavidyeswari.

By 1980, in his 65th year, Sri Gurugaru felt the urge to renounce the material world and take up
sanyas. To this end, he travelled to the Sri Bhadrakali Mahapeetam at Haridhwar's Saptarishi
sarovar. Sanyasa dhiksha was showered on him by Srilasri Kalyanananda Bharathi theertha
Maharaj. Years later, with his Guru's blessings, Sri Gurugaru took up the Avadhootha Ashrama.

Parama Guru: Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswati

Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswathi was born in Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, the first child of
Sri Narasimha Rao and Srimati Lakshminarasamma. Guruji, as he is fondly referred to, started
his spiritual quest at a very young age. Blessed with divine experiences early in his childhood,his
young mind was teeming with questions, searching for the truth. The stage was set for his
spiritual inclination that was to intensify later in life.

In the course of time, his interest turned to science. He graduated from the Andhra University
with a masters in Nuclear physics and received his doctorate from the University of Bombay,
while working at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Guruji spent 23 years at TIFR,
involved in research. In the final years there, he was working on a defense project for the air
defense. But his spiritually inclined conscience was not comfortable with the destructive nature
of his research.

In the meantime, in 1977, Guruji visited the Balaji temple in Hydarabad. He went in and
prostrated before the Lord. He felt an extreme thrill pass through his body; and Guruji had his
first intitiation from Balaji, that is Balatripurasundari. This proved to be the turning point in his
life. After deep thought, he decided to look into the spiritual aspects a little deeper and devote
time to work for the upliftment of soceity. He received Sri Vidya Poorna Dhiksha from Sri
Swaprakashananda Natha Thirtha Avadhutha of Anakapalli. And he was showered with the
Grace of Devi Saraswathi and given the dhiksha name of Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswathi.

Involved in defense research at TIFR, his mind was in search of the truth within himself. It was
at this juncture that he was offered a position of Professor of Physics at the Lusaka University in
Zambia. Realising that this was an opportunity to take a fresh look at one's self, he accepted a
two year contract to work in Zambia.

Guruji returned to India in 1981. He resigned from TIFR and settled down in Vishakapatnam,
into Sri Vidya upasana and worship of the Devi. He slowly started working on means to help
improve the standard of living of his fellow men.
In 1983, during Devi yagna, Guruji was approached by the brothers of the Putrevu family, with a
request to build a temple for the divine Mother. In addition to the three acres of land that they
had donated, Guruji bought the adjoining ten acres and it was registered as land for the Devi
temple. Having acquired the land, Guruji was looking for divine guidance, a sign of approval to
commence construction of the temple.

In the vicinity of the donated land, there was a small hillock where Guruji would often spend
time in meditation. On the slopes of the hillock, he noticed a formation very similar to that of the
Kamakhya Peetam in Assam. One day, while in meditation he experienced himself lying on the
Peetam, while four others were performing a homam with the flames emanating from his body.
And during purnahuthi, he felt a heavy object being placed on his heart. Awakening from his
meditative state, Guruji was prompted to dig that site. Unearthed from that very spot, he found a
Sri Chakra MahaMeru made of panchaloha. It was later discovered that a huge yaaga had been
performed in that area more than 250 years ago.

Guruji had visions of the Devi as a sixteen year old girl. With Her Blessing's, he built the
Kamakhya Peetam on the hillock and a Siva temple on the peak, in 1984. Construction of the Sri
Meru Nilaya in Devipuram was started in 1985. Built covering an area of 108 square feet, the
temple has 3 levels and stands 54 feet tall. The temple has the idols of all the Devis described in
the Devi Khadgamala Stotra. The temple construction was completed in 1994 and the
kumbhabhishekam celebrated with great pomp and piety. This temple is unique in allowing the
devotees to perform puja to the Devi themselves, without distinction of caste or creed.

With numerous loving disciples all over the world, Guruji and his wife, Srimati Annapurnamba
(lovingly known as Guruji Amma) have dedicated their lives to the service of the people. They
established the Sri Vidya Trust for this purpose.

Sri Amritananda Natha Saraswati attained maha samadhi in 2015.

Sri Guru Karunamaya

Subbarao Kompella was born in 1953, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is the youngest child of
Surya Narayana Murthy and Yasoda. As a young child he was extremely fond of his mother and
spent most of his childhood under her guidance. At age 8 he experienced a vision of the Divine
Mother. He later met his GuruSri Amritanada Saraswati, in 1978, at the age of 25. By the
grace of his guru, his love for his mother blossomed into love for the Divine Mother. The
supportiveness of his wife and the absolute blessings showered by his Guru intensified
his devotion and dedication to Divine Mother.

In 1985, Sri Amritananda Saraswati bestowed real amrit (nectar) upon Subbarao Kompella by
teaching him the great mahayagna knownas Navavarna Puja. As the years went by, Subbarao
Kompella's dedication to Sri Vidya Upasana and his extraordinary love for Mother Divine began
to attract the attention of many, whom he inspired to practice Sri Vidya. He shared the
knowledge imparted by his Guru with others and taught Navavarna Puja to all who
were interested in the Divine Mother.With time his desire to spread the name of the Divine
Mother, Lalitha, and to foster a deeper understanding of Sri Vidya, intensified. In 1995, with the
blessings of his Guru, Subbarao Kompella and his family moved to New Zealand. While there,
Subbarao Kompella began performing pujas for the Indian community there in order to spread
cultural and religious awareness. His unique approach of explaining the deeper meanings of each
mantra attracted hundreds of people from all over the country to experience the rituals.

In 1998, Subbarao Kompella moved to the United States He carried with him an icon of the
Goddess Bhairavi that he brought with him from New Zealand. One morning he awoke to find
that the icon of the Goddess and the area surrounding it were a little sticky. On returning from
work that evening, however, he found the icon drenched in honey. This honey flowed from the
icon steadily for two full days. Seeing this extraordinary sight, he was ecstatic – and his faith in
the Divine Mother has been unerring ever since.

In 2000, he received poorna deeksha from his Guru Sri Amritananda Saraswati and formally
became an ordained monk and took the name, Sri Guru Karunamaya. He was the pontiff of the
Devipuram Temple from 2007 to 2011. He founded Soundarya Lahari Trust in 2000 to spread the
teachings of Sri Vidya and to bring about universal harmony.

He has been practicing Sri Vidya for close to 40 years. His vision is to bring about
transformation in the lives of all human beings by promoting the principles of Sri Vidya, and
setting up Sri Vidya learning centers in Rishikesh, Bangalore and Hyderabad, India.

SRI VIDYA LEARNING CENTER

No. 39, 2nd cross, Sadashivanagar, Armane Nagar, RMV extension

Bengaluru 560 080

Karnataka State

INDIA

Timings: 0530 to 2100 daily

Landline: +91 80 4854 2792

Email: info@srividyacenter.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/soundarya.lahari

For further information please contact:

India: Smt Jyothy Reddy

+91 9676999837

USA: Smt Suchitra Inturi

(248) 202-2943