Sivananda Saraswati, founder of the Divine Life Society, who ordained him into the sannyasa in 1949 and gave him the name Swami Satchidananda Saraswati. The name Satcitananda () is a compound of three Sanskrit words, , and , meaning essence, consciousness and bliss, respectively. The expression describes the nature of Brahman. In all, he studied under Sivananda for 17 years. Along with Vishnudevananda, he became one of Sivananda's best-known missionaries. During the early 1950s and into the 1960s, Satchidananda and Satchidananda Saraswati jointly headed the Trincomalee Thapovanam, one of Sivananda's ashrams in the hill country of Sri Lanka. His devotees opened Satchidananda Thapovanam in Kandy in October 1955. Here, Satchidananda taught yoga, conceived and implemented innovative interfaith approaches to traditional Hindu festivals, and modernised the ancient mode of living that renunciates had followed for many years. For instance, he drove a car to teach throughout Sri Lanka, wore a watch to be on time, and actively engaged the questions of seekers. These modernisations were ridiculed by some in the orthodoxy, but he felt the changes to be necessary natural extensions and serving tools for betterment in his spiritual yogic work. He loved flying airplanes and helicopters. Coming to America and Woodstock Filmmaker Conrad Rooks paid for Satchidananda to fly to New York in 1966, and artist Peter Max, who had been working with Rooks, introduced him to his many friends; Satchidananda eventually stayed for five months. In August 1969, Satchidananda flew in to the Woodstock music festival by helicopter directly to the stage, arriving in orange robes, long hair, and flowing beard, and sitting down in lotus position to speak. He gave the opening address, giving a nod to Vivekananda's 1893 speech in Chicago by greeting the crowd with "Brothers and Sisters of America", telling the crowd that music was "the celestial sound that controls the whole universe", and leading chanting of "Hari Om ... Rama Rama". He was received rapturously by the crowd. In 1970, he opened a branch of his Integral Yoga Institute, on 770 Dolores Street, San Francisco. In 1973, Columbia Records produced a vinyl double LP Swami Satchidananda that featured a kirtan and a talk (not at Woodstock) by Satchidananda based on questions asked by students. The back cover illustration showed a photograph of the swami at Woodstock. The album was re-released in digital format as: Swami Satchidananda: The Woodstock Years. Satchidananda became a US citizen