Posted on: Saturday, August 24, 2002

Faith Briefs

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Integral Yoga leader dies

Sri Swami Satchidananda, who advocated respect for all faiths and founded Yogaville in rural Virginia, died Monday in India.

Satchidananda was 87. He died of heart disease.

The founder of the Integral Yoga Institutes came to the United States in 1966 on the invitation of artist Peter Max and filmmaker Conrad Rooks. Integral Yoga, as taught by Satchidananda, combines methods of Yoga, including Hatha Yoga, service, meditation and prayer.

Satchidananda's teachings were embraced by young Americans during the 1960s. In 1969, he opened the Woodstock festival with an appeal for American youth "to help the whole world with spirituality."

In 1979, he established the Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville based on his teachings, including nonviolence. He visited Hawai'i on several occasions.

Satchidananda was ordained as a monk in 1949 by Sri Swami Sivananda Maharaj, founder of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, India.

Orlando facility based on Bible

ORLANDO, Fla. — A $12 million, 18,000-square-foot tourist attraction that traces the holy writings of Judaism and Christianity opens to the public Monday at The Holy Land Experience.

Its organizer, the Rev. Marvin Rosenthal, has a mission: to present the Bible in an entertaining way.

Modeled after a Byzantine basilica, the Scriptorium is a two-story, copper-colored building. Inside, 13 "stations" trace the arduous evolution of sacred writings from divine inspiration to mass production.

Items on display will include Babylonian cuneiform, Egyptian papyrus stalks and ancient biblical scrolls. There will be exhibits of fragments of Gutenberg's Bible and John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress," displayed in a re-creation of Bunyan's jail cell. Another exhibit is a bloodstained "Matthew's Bible," believed to have been owned by an English martyr.

All are from the collection of the late Robert Van Kampen, who made his fortune on Wall Street.