Adi Shankara : Adi Shankaracharya was born in the early 9th century AD at Kaladi in Kerala.
Amritapuri Originally known as Sudhamani, Ma Amritapuri or Mata Amritanandamayi, was born in the Kollam district of Kerala on September 27th, 1953
Guru Raghavendra Sri Guru Raghavendra Thirtha was born in 1595 AD in southern India to humble parents, who gave him the name of Venkatanatha as an acknowledgement of their devotion to Lord Venkateswara.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba : Sai Baba was born at Puttaparthi, a remote village in southern India, on November 23, 1926. As a child he performed many miracles and at the age of 13 underwent a miraculous transformation, after he was bitten by a scorpion.
Jayatiirtha : Swami Jayathirtha was a famous exponent of the Tattvavada (logical exposition) of the Dwaita philosophy. He lived near Pandharpur in the present-day Maharashtra in the 14 th Century AD and wrote a commentary on the Isa Upanishad to explain the approach of the Dwaita (duality) School towards the Nature of Reality and counter the theory proposed by Sri Adi Shankaracharya, the propagator of the Adwaita (non duality) philosophy.
Sri Ananda Thirtha: He was the founder of the Tattvavada School which was later made popular by the efforts of such eminent men as Swami Jayathirtha . He is considered by many as an incarnation of Sri Madhavacharya himself, the founder of the Dwaita School.
Krsna Balaram Swamiji: Mahant Sri Krsna Balaram Swamiji was born in Vrindavan, in a family of eminent scholars, who were well versed in the Yajurveda.
Neem Karoli Baba Originally named as Lakshmi Narayan, and known by many other names, Neem Karoli Baba was born at Akbarpur in presentday UP, probably around 1900 AD.
Paramahansa Yogananda: Paramahansa Yogananda was born on January 5, 1893, in Gorakhpur, India. His original name was Mukunda Lal Ghosh. He hailed from a well-to-do Bengali family.
Ramana Maharshi: Known popularly as Arunachala Swami and referred as Bhagawan by his ardent devotees, Ramana Maharshi can be rightfully regarded as the spiritual southern twin of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, but with a message of his own that is rooted in the age old Hindu traditions of jnana marg (the path of knowledge) in contrast to the bhaktimarg (devotional approach) of the latter. He was born on December 30, 1879 at Tiruchuli, a small village, about thirty miles from Madurai, in Tamilnadu.
Sant Morari Bapu: Sant Morari Bapu was born in 1946, in Gujarath in a large family of six brothers and two sisters. He was a child prodigy who started learning the great epic Ramayana at the early age of five from his grandfather.
Shri Avichaldasji : He is the head of the Sat Kaival Sampradaya and is the seventh Acharya in the line.
Swami Prabhupada Born in a family of Vaishanvites, Abhaya Charan De, who was to later become Swami Prabhupada for millions of followers, developed deep devotion to RadhaKrishna at a very young age. At the age of 28 he became a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Goswami Maharaj, who belonged to the tradition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, which traces its origin directly to Lord Krishna himself.
Swami Rama Tirtha Gossain Tirtha Rama was born in 1873 in a small village in the district of Gujranwala, Punjab, India. From an early child hood he was inclined to listening recitations from the holy scriptures.
Saint Arunagirinathar: Saint Arunagiri, an ardent devotee of Murugan, lived in the 15th century and composed many important religious texts which reflect his philosophy of love and compassion.
Vadiraja Tirtha : Sri Vadiraja Tirtha belonged to the Vaishnava Sampradaya of the Madhva Sect. In importance, he is considered to be next only to Swami Ananda Thirtha by the followers of the Madhva sect. He said to have lived for 112 years, between 1480 and 1600, in the present day Karnataka.
Variyar Swamigal: His original name was Thiru Muruga Kirupanandha Variyar but he became popular as Variyar Swamigal. Born in 1906 he lived up to 1993.
Vasudev Anand Saraswati Born in 1854 AD, Sri Vasudeva Shastri, who was later to be known to his followers as Sri Vasudevanand Saraswathi, led an ordinary householder's life before he turned completely to spiritual life. As a householder, he led a rather difficult life, owing to the disputes between his wife and mother.
Swami Krishnananda Born in South Kanara District in an orthodox Shivaralli Brahmin Family, and known originally as Subbaraya, Swami Krishnananda developed deep interest in the study of Sanskrit and the Vedic scriptures and showed his religious bent of mind at an early age.
The Alvars : Alvars were great devotees of Lord Vishnu. According to tradition, there were 12 Alvars, namely Poykai, Bhutam, Pey, Tirumazhisai, Nammalvar, Periyalvar, Andal, Kulasekharan, Madhurakavi, Tondar-adi-podi, Tiruppaan and Tirumangai,.
Sri Ramanujacharya: Sri Ramanujacharya who lived between 1017 and 1137 was one of the foremost exponents of the Vishishtadwaita (qualified dualism) philosophy, which was based on the premise that God and soul were separate entities as opposed to Shankara's philosophy of Advaita (Non duality).
Madhavacharya Born in a small village near Udipi in present day Karnakatak about 760 years ago, Sri Madhavacharya propagated Dwait philosophy, which is also known as Tattvavada. Intelligent beyond his age and deeply religious from an early childhood, young Madhva was initiated into Sanayasa at the young age of 11 by a saint at Udipi.
Nimbarkaracharya Nimbarkara was an exponent of Dwaita Adwaita or Bhedabhed philosophy, according to which the soul, the world and God are not only different from each other (since the first two have qualities and capacities compared to God who has none) but also are one and the same (since the first two cannot exist without the latter and in a way are dependent upon Him).
J. Krishnamurthy: J.Krishnamurthy was born at Madnapalle in Andhra Pradesh on 11 May 1895. At the age of 14, when he was in Madras, he happened to come into contact with Annie Besant, who recognized his spiritual evolution and adopted him.
Ramakrishna Paramhansa Born as Gadhadhar Chatterjee in 1836 in the present day West Bengal, Ramakrishna was attracted to spiritual life as a very young boy. His spiritual life took a turn when he was appointed as a temple priest of the Dakshneswar temple.
Swami Sivananda: Swami Sivananda was born in a Saivite family in 1877 at Pattamadai in Tamilnadu. His original name was Kuppuswami. He studied medicine and worked in Malaysia for sometime as a doctor before he turned to spiritual life. He met his spiritual guru in the holy town of Rishikesh, who initiated him into spiritual life and gave him the name of Swami Siviananda Saraswathi.
Acharya Rajneesh: Popularly known as Osho to his followers, Acharya Rajneesh, was one of the most controversial, but very interesting Gurus of modern India. Born on December 11, 1933 at Kuchwada in Madhya Pradesh in a Jain business family, he received enlightenment at the age of 21 in 1953.
Swami Vivekananda: His original name was Narendra. He was born on January 12, 1863 in Calcutta. As a child he was very courageous, inquisitive and also mischievous. He was also compassionate to the poor and the needy. When he was in college, young Narendra was driven by a great curiosity to search for God.
Sri Aurobindo: Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on August 15,1872. His father, K.D.G was an atheist who wanted to bring up his son on the ideals of western culture. So he sent young Aurobindo to England at the age of seven.
Siva Yogaswami Sri Yogaswami was born in Sri Lanka in May 1872. Originally known as Sadasivan, he led a normal life till 1905, when he met his Guru with whom he stayed till the latter passed away in 1911.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami For more than five decades, Satguru Sivya Subramanyaswami, popularly known as Gurudeva, worked relentlessly promoting the cause of Hinduism and spreading Siva consciousness in all the five continents.
Sri Sri Ravishankar was born on May 13, 1956 in Papanasam, Tamil Nadu, India. Stories say that at the age of 4, Ravi could recite the whole Bhagavad Gita, and showed a gift for study of the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Vedas.
VARDHAMAANA MAHAAVEERA:
Vardhamana Mahaveera was the twenty fourth Thirthankara among the Jains, who attained Keval Jnana (enlightenment). Though he was brought up as a prince, married and had a daughter, his real interest lay in the quest of salvation.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA:
Buddha also renounced his kingdom, his wife and son and took to the life of an ascetic in search of an answer to the problem of suffering in the world. After austere penance for several years he attained enlightenment. From that time he came to be known as Buddha.
3.Women Saints of India
The Mother of Pondicherry.
Mirabai.
Lal Ded. Sri Sharada Devi.
Hazrat Babajan.
Devi Vanamali
The Mystic Poets of Maharashtra
There was a resplendent galaxy of poet saints in Maharashtra from the 13th to the 17th Century, from Jnandev (1275-'96) down to Turkaram (1608-'90). Altogether this was a time of great national vitality, covering the Maratha struggle for independence of the Moghul Empire and its final achievement under Shivaji. On the whole, however, the poet-saints showed no concern with such matters.
They were a strong, rugged, outspoken dynasty drawn from all social classes. Jnandev was a Brahmin, but there were also Namdev, a tailor; Gora, a potter; Savanta, a gardener; Chokha, a sweeper; and Tukaram, a tradesman. There were women too among them: Jnandev's sister Muktabai, Namdev's servant Jani, Chokha's wife Soyara. Their outstanding quality is a beautiful fusing of bhakti (devotion) with Jnana (knowledge). They worshipped and merged into Oneness with the God they worshipped. This is especially prominent in Tukaram. He declares for instance, "When I meditate on the Lord of Pandhari the body becomes transformed together with the mind. Where is there room for speech then? My I-ness is become Hari (God). With the mind merging in Divine Conciousness all creation looks divine. Tukaram says: 'how shall I put it? All at once I became lost in God-conciousness." And again, "The glory of the bhaktas is known only to themselves. It is hard for others to understand. In order to increase the happiness of love in this world they display duality without actually dividing. This is understood only by those who have experienced Unity through faith."
Eknath,Samartha Ramdas
The next great figure in this dynasty, Tukaram, (1608-'50) was a peasant trader by profession but ranks as the crown of Maratha sainthood after Jnaneshwara. The woman poet Bahinabai speaks of him as the steeple or pinnacle of the edifice whose foundation Jnaneshwara had laid. Rameshwar, a contemporary disciple, declaired that " in jnana, bhakti and vairagya (dispassion) there was no one to match Tukaram". Even today his songs sway our emotions as they did his contemporaries
