Swami Khecaranatha

Born in Illinois in 1951, Swami Khecaranatha met his teacher Swami Rudrananda ("Rudi") in 1971 and moved into his Indiana ashram in 1972, where he was recognized as a teacher later that year; after Rudi's death in 1973 he studied for roughly twenty years with Swami Chetanananda. In 2002 he took sannyasa vows and was given the name Khecaranatha by Swami Ma Yoga Shakti in the Saraswati Order; his teaching lineage traces through Bhagavan Nityananda and Rudi within the Anuttara Trika tradition of Kashmiri Shaivism.

He founded Heart of Consciousness in Berkeley, California in 2001 and now teaches from his Nityakash retreat center on Maui, offering weekly transmission classes plus periodic retreats and immersions, including an in-person "Surrender to Love" bhajan retreat in Richmond, California in October 2026.