Only one who has conquered the four corners of the world can perform the Rajasooya Yajna. Empires can be acquired in two ways. One is by means of the sword and the other is by winning over people’s hearts. The seers and sages are duty bound to win over the world. Adi Guru Shankaracharya was credited with conquering the world 1,500 years ago, as was Swami Vivekananda. In the same way Swami Satyananda of Rikhia is also a world conqueror. From 1964 until 1983, I conquered people’s hearts and made them my own.
I have been successful in spreading and establishing the power of yoga throughout the world. My ashrams are dotted all over the Christian world. No one ever challenged the theory and practice of yoga that I propounded, because I possess something very valuable, which is the blessings of my guru. Every disciple who lives with a guru will leave the ashram or gurukul one day, and after going out they will have to repay their debt.
Swami Sivananda did not ask me for money. He asked me to repay my debt by teaching yoga and making it popular all over the world. The yoga victory campaign began in Munger in 1964 and over a period of twenty years the flag of yogic victory was unfurled in all the important cities of the world. By 1983 the seeds of yoga had been sown all over the world. I had prepared the seedlings and planted trees too. I had prepared a host of sannyasins to shoulder the responsibility. Today yoga has been recognised and included as a subject in the syllabuses of universities, medical colleges, research centres, psychological institutions, jails and national and multinational companies. Now yoga is a universally accepted world culture.
The first university of yoga in the world has been started in Munger. Although yoga is the oldest heritage of the world, there was no proper university in the world to promote yogic studies and research. Bihar Yoga Bharati is not an ordinary university. Students from around the globe come to study yogic science there. As far as yoga is concerned we are one nation, and this is the message that we have been able to spread throughout the world.
Wouldn’t you call it a victory over the world? This is not the age of the sword, this is the age of intellect, the age of the expansion of mental horizons. It is for this reason that I am sowing the seed of the Rajasooya Yajna. I remained silent for many years. I came to Rikhia to cast off this mortal coil. I underwent a fiery ordeal. Then I decided to sow the seeds of yajna. The age of the sword is over. Now, in Kali Yuga, one has to conquer the world through the power of scriptural knowledge, through humility, not with pride and force. The sword is silenced by love. This is the teaching of the saints and sages.