Rajarshi Raghabananda Nayak

Rajarshi Raghabananda Nayak (28 August 1938 – 31 October 2015) was an Indian writer and lecturer who studied Kriya Yoga in the lineage of Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda, and Paramahansa Hariharananda.

Nayak was born in Fatehpur village, Bhadrak district, Odisha, India. He completed a master's degree in Odia from Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal. He later received a Doctor of Literature degree from Utkal University, Odisha. Nayak began his academic career in 1960 as a lecturer at Visva-Bharati University. He later served as head of the Department of Odia at Gangadhar Meher College (Autonomous) in Sambalpur, Odisha, retiring from there in 1996.

In early 1964, Nayak met Paramahansa Hariharananda and subsequently learned Kriya Yoga from him in 1965.^[1]

Nayak participated in a study by the Menninger Foundation of Topeka, Kansas, U.S., where his physiological responses during meditation, including his brain's alpha waves, were analysed. Results from this study appeared in Biofeedback: Yoga for the West^[2] and were also included in Beyond Biofeedback^[3] by Elmer and Alice Green.^[4]

From 1992 to 2008, Nayak served as the president of the Hariharananda Kriya Yoga Mission, located in Gopalmal, Sambalpur, Odisha.^[1] The Mission was founded in 1992 by his spiritual teacher, Paramahansa Hariharananda. Nayak received training in advanced Kriya techniques at Karar Ashram, Puri, and was conferred the title of Acharya ('teacher') in 1974. He authored several books in both Oriya and English^[5] on topics related to yoga and spirituality.