SAINT RAJGURU CHOD (Thai เซนต์ครูชด) was modern Siam's pioneer yoga authority. His family name, Hasbamrer (หัศบำเรอ), is derived from Sanskrit Harshavarman and signifies Royal Khmer ancestry.
Saint Chod was born at the turn of the 20th century in the fifth Rattanakosin reign of King Chulalongkorn near the empire's southerly Andaman Sea. In youth, he attended Penang Free School and continued studies in Bombay, India, by Siamese overseas royal-sponsored scholarship. England awaited his arrival.
Upon graduation from Trinity College, Cambridge, Chod stayed in England taking up work as a journalist. He advanced this career in British India. By 1937 he was back in Britain covering stories on the continent as well.
A few years later, due to imminent war and serious personal health concerns, Chod again set sail for India where he received ascetic refuge with Swami Sivananda on the banks of the Ganges river near the town of Rishikesh. It took Chod two years to cure his disorders; he stayed three more years to master yoga's higher forms.
After the war, Chod moved to Bangkok and established himself as a national news editor. He sometimes ran two papers at once while writing internationally for Reuters news agency. He turned his home into a morning yoga center and drove to the newsroom after lunch.
At the strong and healthy age of seventy-five years, Guru Chod retired from journalism altogether and founded his celebrated yoga conservatoire. Though public demand was often unrelenting, he faced these challenges without complaint.
"It's a good occupation for an old man," he said. "I like to be useful."
Patrons and disciples came from all walks of life, but most were from the higher social classes of the kingdom. High-ranking members of the Buddhist clergy also sought the guru's advice. The yoga tantric preceptor was especially admired for initiating members of the Thai royal family. Yogarajguru Chod never spoke openly of such matters, but those around him did. It was common knowledge in those days.
Well into his eighty-eighth year, the guru continued to radiate grace and charm. He was typically surrounded by sparkling college girls, stunning flight attendants, breathtaking models, bankers' wives, industrialists, writers, opera singers and foreign diplomats. Road-tattered Western yoginis showed up as well aglow from extended travels East having heard along the way of a certain living legend. This is probably what kept him teaching so long. "But everyone has to die," Chod asserted, and he certainly gave us all fair warning. True to his prediction, on the eve of his eighty-eighth birthday, he stretched out on the floor and walked right out of there.
