YogaLife Spring-Summer 2012

$5 Canada $3.50 US £2.50 UK 3.70 € Europe Spring/Summer 2012

S E R V E • L O V E • G I V E • P U R I F Y • M E D I T A T E • R E A L I Z E

Celebrating40 YEARSof Sivananda YogaVedanta Centres in Europe

Yoga Life Spring 2012 India PRINT_Yoga Life 11/06/2012 12:17 Page 1

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Swami Sivananda1887 – 1963

Swami Vishnudevananda1927 – 1993

Teachers’ Training Course• 29 June – 27 July 2012 (International course)• 29 July – 26 August 2012 (in French only)• 5 April – 4 Mai 2013 (in French only)• 5 May – 2 June 2013 (in English and Dutch)• 28 June – 26 July 2013 (International course)• 28 July – 25 August 2013 (in French only)

Advanced Teachers’ Training Course• June 29 – July 27, 2012 (International course)

Sadhana Intensive• August 4 – 19, 2012 (International)

Diploma Courses• Yoga Psychology and Mental Health

With Dr Uma Krishnamurti: July 28 – August 3, 2012• How to Design Healing Spaces with Vastu Shastra

With Olga Sokolova: August 10 – 12, 2012• Yoga as Medicine

With Timothy McCall, MD: 5 August 20 – 26, 2012

Yoga Vacations all year round

Further Training Courses for Yoga Teachers• TTC Refresher: June 19 – 25, 2012



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EDITOR’S LETTER

2012 – here we are. In the midst of all sorts of predictions,excitement and worry as the world as we have known it forthe last few centuries seems to fall apart, yoga feels like a“sheltering monastery” (see article of Swami Swaroopananda):it gives us a sense of stability, connection to the sourcewithin and a different perspective on the transformation of the world.

The message of the Bhagavad Gita, to do our contributionto this world but remain unaffected by it, is more modernthan ever (see the article on the Gita).

We need to focus on connecting to the Self within, takeresponsibilities for our thoughts and actions rather thancreate suffering for ourselves by trying to please the worldand generate endless karma (see Swami Vishnudevananda’sarticle on Karma and reincarnation).

To remain balanced in this challenging world, we need to stay connected to the source of energy within and learnhow to recharge: you can improve your skills in this practiceby connecting to your solar plexus. See the article of SwamiSivadasananda on this topic.

Harmony in our environment is also of great help to restorea sense of inner wellbeing: the article on the science of Vastu –Indian architecture, or the art of placement, will inspire youto become aware of the energy flow in your home and howlearn ways to improve it.

Finally, it is a great joy to announce that the Sivanandaorganization is developing its activities in Australia: we willbe conducting a Teachers’ Training course there in 2013 andwill hopefully soon open a centre in Sydney or Melbourne.

It is a time to connect, practice together and encourage one another in staying strong in our spiritual practice.

May the blessings of Swami Sivananda and SwamiVishnudevananda be with us all.

May we be humble instruments in their hands to helpspread the light of yoga in the world.

Om Shanti,The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, London

Swami Sivananda (1887 – 1963)The spiritual strength behind the SivanandaYoga Vedanta Centres, Swami Sivananda’steachings are a synthesis of all the formaldoctrines of yoga. Author of more than 300 books on yoga, Swami Sivananda was a medical doctor before renouncing worldly lifefor the spiritual path. He founded the Divine LifeSociety and the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy,Rishikesh, Himalayas. His main message was:

Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realise. In 1957 he sent one of hisforemost disciples, Swami Vishnudevananda to the West to spread the ideals of yoga. Swami Sivananda entered Mahasamadhi on July 14th 1963.

Swami Vishnudevananda (1927 – 1993)Born in South India in 1927, SwamiVishnudevananda entered the ashram of Swami Sivananda at the age of 18. A world famous authority on Hatha and Raja Yoga, Swami Vishnudevananda founded the International Sivananda Yoga VedantaCentres in 1957 and was author of The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga,Meditation and Mantras, Karma and Disease

and a commentary on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Swami Vishnudevanandaentered Mahasamadhi on November 9th, 1993.

HEADQUARTERSSIVANANDA ASHRAM YOGA CAMPEighth Avenue, Val Morin, Quebec, Canada JOT 2ROTel: +1 819 322 3226email: [email protected]

With ashrams and centres located around the world see page 68 for addresses

The Executive Board of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres is comprised of senior disciples of Swami Vishnudevananda, personally chosen and trainedby him to direct the organisation after his departure. Each of them has hadmany years’ experience in teaching all aspects of yoga. They are renowned for their devotion to Swami Vishnudevananda and Swami Sivananda and fortheir profound knowledge and inspirational teaching and guidance, wisdomimparted to many thousands of students throughout the world.

Swami MahadevanandaSwami SwaroopanandaSrinivasan

Swami DurganandaSwami SivadasanandaSwami Kailasananda

The Executive Board

International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres

Welcome

Est 1957

Swami Mahadevananda Swami Durgananda

Swami Swaroopananda Swami KailasanandaSwami Sivadasananda

Srinivasan

The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, founded by Swami Vishnudevananda is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to propagate the teachings of yoga and vedanta as a means of achieving physical, mental and spiritual well-being and Self-realisation.

Cover2012 marks a milestone 40 Years ofSivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Europe.

The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre inVienna was founded in 1972 by SwamiVishnudevananda and was the firstSivananda Yoga Centre in Europe. Sincethen 10 Centres and 2 Ashrams havebeen established helping many people to find health and inner peace throughSwami Vishnudevananda’s 5 points of Yoga.

$5 Canada $3.50 US £2.50 UK 3.70 € Europe Spring/Summer 2012

SERVE • LOVE • GIVE • PURIFY • MEDITATE • REALIZE

Celebrating40 YEARSof Sivananda YogaVedanta Centres in Europe


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CONTENTS

8 Excerpts from Philosophy of DreamsBy Swami Sivananda

12 Lasting Peace through SatsangBy Swami Vishnudevananda

17 Precepts for Practice, Precepts for TeachingBy Swami Durgananda

22 Becoming a Sheltering Monastery By Swami Swaroopananda

28 The Solar Plexus – A Gateway to Consciously Balancingyour Nervous System By Swami Sivadasananda

32 Sivananda Bliss in Thailand’s Bamboo ForestsA report on the Teachers’ Training Course 2011 in Thailand

35 The Bhagavad Gita, What for? By Charles Poncet

36 Yoga Asana ChartAn ideal aid for home practice.

38 Yoga in AustraliaBy Swami Bhagavatananda

42 The Six Systems of Indian PhilosophyBy Professor Pandey, retired professor of Indian philosophy from Vrindavan, North India.

46 Serving Time: Prison Yoga Outreach Project

48 Yogic Vegetarian RecipesCooking with Fresh Green Herbs

50 Conversations on Vaastu ShastraBy Olga Mandodari

54 Sadhana Intensive ReportBy Swami Vasudevananda

57 Sivananda Ashram and Centre NewsUpdates on new developments in Ashrams and Centres around the world.

58 The Yogic way to Selfless Love By Swami Sitaramananda

60 The Art of Science – Performing Arts and their functionin India By Rajyashree Ramesh

62 Poems from the Autobiography of Swami Sivananda

64 The Power of Vedic Rituals

68 Sivananda Ashram and Centre AddressesA listing of Sivananda Ashrams, Centres and teachers worldwide

SIVANANDA

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he mind creates the dream out of the materials suppliedby the experiences of the waking state. The dreamcreatures spring up from the bed of Samskaras or impressions in the subconscious mind. Indigestion

also causes dreams. The Taijasa is the dreamer. It is the wakingpersonality that creates the dream personality. The dreampersonality exists as the object of the waking personality and is real only as such.

The waking and dreaming states do not exist independentlyside by side as real units.

Why do we dream? Various answers have been given to this question. Dreams are nothing but a reflection of ourwaking experience in a new form.

According to Sigmund Freud all dreams without any exceptionare wish-fulfillment. The physical stimulus alone is not responsiblefor the production of dreams. The dream mechanism is veryintricate. The wishes are of an immoral nature. They arerevolting to the moral self, which exercises a control on theirappearance. Therefore, the wishes appear in disguised forms to evade the moral censor. Very few dreams present the wishesas they really are. Dreams are partial gratification of the wishes.They relieve mental tension and thus enable us to enjoy repose.They are safety valves to strong impulsions. You will know youranimal-self in dream.

The objects which manifest during the dreaming state areoften not different in many respects from those which oneperceives during his waking state. During the dreaming state

he talks with members of his family and friends, eats the samefood, beholds rivers, mountains, motor cars, gardens, streets,oceans, temples, works in the office, answers question papers in the examination hall, and fights and quarrels with otherpeople. This shows that man does not abandon the results of his past relations with objects when he falls asleep.

The person who experiences the three states, viz., Jagrat or waking-state, Svapna or dreaming state, and Sushupti or deep-sleep state is called Visva in the waking state, Taijasa in the dreaming state and Prajna in the deep sleep state. Whenone gets up from sleep, it is Visva who remembers the experienceof Prajna in deep sleep and says, “I slept soundly. I do notknow anything.” Otherwise remembrance of the enjoyment in deep sleep is not possible.

The reactions to dreams differ according to mental disposition,temperament and diet of the person. All dreams last for mereseconds. Within ten seconds you will experience dreams whereinthe events of several years happen. Some have dreamsoccasionally, while some others experience dreams daily. Theycan never have sleep without dreams.

The sun is the source and the temporary resting place of itsrays. The rays emanate from the sun and spread in all directionsat sunrise. They enter back into the sun at sunset, losethemselves there and come out again at the next sunrise. Evenso the states of wakefulness and dreaming come out from thestate of deep sleep and re-enter it and lose themselves there to follow the same course again.

SWAMI SIVANANDA – PHILOSOPHY OF DREAMS

Chuang Tze, a Chinese Philosopher, once dreamt that he was a butterfly. On waking, he said to himself, “Now, am I a man dreaming that I am a butterfly, or am I a butterfly thinking that I am a man?”

Excerpts from

By Swami Sivananda

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Whatever appears in the dream world is the reproduction of the waking world. It is not only the reproduction of the objectsseen, experienced or dealt with in the present life, but it may be the reproduction of objects seen, experienced or dealt within any former life in the present world. Therefore the dreamworld cannot be said to be independent of the waking world.

The objects that are seen in the state of wakefulness arealways seen outside the body. It is, therefore, external to thedreamer, while the dream world is always internal to thedreamer. That is the only difference between them.

During the dream state the whole wakeful world loses itselfin the dream state. Therefore, it is not possible to find thedistinctive features that would help the dreamer to distinguishthe waking world from the dream world.

Scientists and Western philosophers draw their conclusionsfrom the observations of their waking experience. Whereas the Vedantins utilise the experiences of the three states viz.,waking, dream and deep sleep and then draw their conclusions.Hence the latter’s conclusions are true, correct, perfect, full andintegral, while those of the former are partial and one sided.

The individual soul does not know that he is dreamingduring his dream state and is not conscious of himself as he isbound by the Gunas of Prakriti. He passively beholds the creationsof his dream mind passing before him as an effect of theworkings of the impressions (Samskaras) of his waking state.

It is possible for a dreamer to remain cognisant during hisdream state of the fact that he is dreaming. Learn to be thewitness of your thoughts in the waking state. You can beconscious in the dream state that you are dreaming. You canalter, stop or create your own thoughts in the dream stateindependently. You will be able to keep awake in the dreamstate. If the thoughts of the waking state are controlled, youcan also control the dream thoughts.

Profound wisdom comes through reflection on dreams. No one has known himself truly who has not studied hisdreams. The study of dreams shows how mysterious our soul is.Dreams reveal to us that aspect of our nature which transcendsrational knowledge. Every dream presentation has a meaning. A dream is like a letter written in an unknown language.

Many riddles of life are solved through hints from dreams.Dreams indicate which way the spiritual life of a man isflowing. One may receive proper advice for self-correctionthrough dreams. One may know how to act in a particularsituation through dreams. The dreams point out a pathunknown to the waking consciousness. Saints and sages appearin dreams during times of difficulty and point out the way.

The Vedantins study very deeply and carefully the states of dreams and deep sleep and logically prove that the wakingstate is as unreal as the dream state. They declare that the onlydifference between the two states is that the waking state is a long dream, Deergha Svapna. So long as the dreamerdreams, dream-objects are real. When he wakes up the dreamworld becomes false. When one attains illumination or knowledgeof Brahman, this wakeful world becomes as unreal as thedream world. The real truth is that nobody sleeps, dreams or wakes up, because there is no reality in these states.

Transcend the three states and rest in the fourth state of Turiya, the eternal bliss of Brahman, Satchidananda Svaroopa.

Dream Philosophy Certain Karmas are also worked out in dreams. A King experienceda dream in which he acts the part of a beggar and suffers thepangs of starvation. Certain evil Karmas of the King are purgedout in this experience.

If a man is not able to become a king on account of the evilinfluence of some planets, he plays the part of a king in hisdream. His strong desire materialises in the dream state.

One derives more pleasure in dreams than in the wakingstate when he experiences pleasant dreams, because the mindworks more freely in dreams. When a strong desire is notgratified in the waking state, you obtain its gratification in dreams.The mind has more freedom in the dreaming state. The mind is then like a furious elephant let loose.

One dreams many things that are never to be experiencedin this life such as,“He dreams he is flying in the air.”

A dream is not an entirely new experience, because mostoften it is the memory of past experiences.

In the waking state the light of the self is mixed up with the functions of the organs, intellect, mind, external lights etc.In dreams the self becomes distinct and isolated as the organsdo not act and lights such as the sun that help them are absent.

The dreamer is not affected by whatever result of the goodand evil he sees in the dream state. No one regards himself a sinner on account of the sins committed in dreams. People whohave heard of them do not condemn or shun them. Hence he is not touched by them.

An action is done by contact of the body and the senses,

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“Scientists and Western philosophers drawtheir conclusions from the observations of their waking experience. Whereas theVedantins utilise the experiences of the threestates viz., waking, dream and deep sleepand then draw their conclusions.”


which have form with something else that has form. We neversee a formless thing being active. The Self is formless, thereforeit is not attached. As this Self is unattached, it is untouched by what it beholds in dreams. Hence we cannot ascribe activity to it, as activity proceeds from the contact of the body and theorgans. There is no contact for the Self, because this infinite Selfis unattached. Therefore it is immortal.

Dreams are due to mental impressions (Vasanas) received in the waking state. The consciousness in a dream depends on the previous knowledge acquired in the wakeful state.

The dreams have the purpose of either cheering or saddeningand frightening the sleeper, so as to requite him for his goodand evil deeds.

Even in the state of dream the instruments of the self arenot altogether at rest, because scripture states that even then it is connected with Buddhi (intellect). “Having become a dream, together with Buddhi it passes beyond this world.”

Dreams, though of a strange and illusory nature, are a goodindex of the high or low spiritual and moral condition of thedreamer. He, who has a pure heart and untainted character, willnever get impure dreams. An aspirant who is ever meditatingwill dream of his Sadhana and his object of meditation. He willworship the Lord and recite His name and Mantra even in dreamthrough the force of Samskara.

Waking as a Dream In both states – waking and dreaming – objects are “Perceived”,i.e., are associated with subject-object relationships. This is thesimilarity between the two.

The only difference between the two states is that theobjects in dreams are perceived in the space within the body,whereas in the waking condition they are seen in the spaceoutside the body. The fact of “being seen”and their consequentillusoriness are common to both states.

The illusion of both the states is established by their “beingseen” as “object”, other than the self, thus creating a differencein existence. Anything that is “perceived” is unreal, for perceptionpresupposes relation and relation is non-eternal, for the relationsof the waking state are contradicted by those of dream and viceversa. As duality is unreal, all objects must be unreal.

As long as the dream lasts, waking is unreal; as long as wakinglasts, the dream is unreal. The reality of the one is dependent on the reality of the other. But dream is proved to be unreal;hence waking is also unreal.

Dream-relations are contradicted by waking-relations.Waking relations are contradicted by Super-consciousnesswhich is uncontradicted. Non-contradiction is the test of reality.

That which persists forever is real. That which does not andwhich has a beginning and an end is unreal. Dreaming andwaking have both a beginning and an end. But it may becontested that one thing exists as the cause of the other in the

beginning. But as causality itself is baseless, a thing cannotexist as the cause of another. That which has a beginning andan end is changeable and hence non-eternal and unreal, forchange implies non-existence in the beginning or at an end.Hence all perceived objects are unreal.

As the objects of the waking state do not work in dreams,they are unreal. As the objects of the dream do not work in thewaking state, they are unreal. Hence everything is unreal. Onewho eats a belly-full during the waking state feels hungry in thedream state and vice versa. Things are real only in their ownrealms but not always. That which is not always real is unreal,for reality is everlasting.

The perception of an object is unreal, because objects arecreations of the mind. An object has a particular form, becausethe mind believes it to be so. In fact, the objects of both thedreaming and the waking states are unreal. An object lasts onlyas long as the particular mental condition cognising the objectlasts. When there is a different mental condition altogether, theobjects also change. Hence all objects are unreal.

Both in the dream and in the waking state, the internalperceptions are unreal and the objects of external perceptionappear to be real.

If in the waking state we make a distinction of real and unreal,in dreams we also do the same thing. In dreams also objects ofinternal cognition, are unreal. Dreaming is as real as the wakingstate. But since dreaming is proved to be unreal, waking mustalso be unreal. Dreaming is unreal only from the standpoint of waking, and equally so is waking to the dreamer. From thestandpoint of True Wisdom, waking is as unreal as dreaming.

Pascal is right when he asserts that if the same dreamcomes to us every night we should be just as much occupied by it as by the things which we see every day. To quote hiswords, “If an artisan were certain that he would dream everynight for fully 12 hours that he was a king, I believe that hewould be just as happy as a king who dreams every night for12 hours that he is an artisan”.

Raja Janaka’s Dream Raja Janaka ruled over the country of Videha. He was oncereclining on a sofa. It was the middle of the day in the hotmonth of June. He had a short nap for a few seconds. Hedreamt that a rival king with a large army had invaded hiscountry and slew his soldiers and ministers. He was driven outof his palace barefoot and without any clothes covering him.

Janaka found himself roaming about in a jungle. He wasthirsty and hungry. He reached a small town where he beggedfor food. No one paid any attention to his entreaties. He reacheda place where some people were distributing food to the beggars.Each beggar had an earthen bowl to receive rice water. Janakahad no bowl and so they turned him out to bring back a bowl.He went in search of a vessel. He requested other beggars to lend him a bowl, but none would part with his own bowl. At last Janaka found a broken piece of bowl. Now he ran to thespot where rice water was being distributed but all the foodstuffhad already been given out.

Raja Janaka was very tired on account of travelling, hungerand thirst and heat of the summer. He stretched himself outnear a fireplace where foodstuff had been cooked. Here someonetook pity on Janaka and gave him some rice water which was

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“So long as the dreamer dreams, dream-objects are real. When he wakes up the dream world becomes false. When one attains illumination or knowledgeof Brahman, this wakeful world becomes as unreal as the dream world. ”


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left at the bottom of a vessel. Janaka took it with intense joyand just as he put it to his lips, two large bulls tumbled fightingover him. The bowl was broken to pieces. The Raja woke up ingreat fear.

Janaka was trembling violently. He was in a great dilemmaas to which of his two states was real. All the time he wasdreaming, he never thought it was an illusion and that themisery of hunger and thirst and his other troubles were unreal.

The queen asked Janaka, “O Lord! What is the matter withyou?” The only words which Janaka spoke were, “Which is real,this or that?” From that time he left all his work and becamesilent. He uttered nothing but the above words.

The ministers thought that Janaka was suffering from somedisease. It was announced by them that anyone who cured theRaja will be richly rewarded and those who fail to cure the Rajawill be made life prisoners. Great physicians and specialistsbegan to pour in and tried their luck, but no one could answerthe Raja’s query. Hundreds of Brahmins well versed in thescience of curing diseases were put in the state prison.

Among the prisoners was the father of the great sageAshtavakra. When Ashtavakra was a boy of only ten years, he was told by his mother that his father was a state prisonerbecause he had failed to cure Raja Janaka. Ashtavakra at oncestarted out to see Janaka. He asked the Raja if he desired to hear the answer to his questions either in a few words as the question itself was put, or in as much detail as his dreamexperience could be explained. Janaka did not wish to have hishumiliating dream repeated in presence of a big gathering and

consented to receiving a brief answer. Ashtavakra then whispered into Janaka’s ear, “Neither

this nor that is real.” Raja Janaka at once became joyful. His confusion was removed.

Raja Janaka then asked Ashtavakra, “What is real?” Thereupon there was a long dialogue between him and the sage.This is recorded in the well-known book, “Ashtavakra Gita,”which is very useful for all seekers after Truth.

In dreams the Samskaras of your previous births, which areimbedded in your Karana Sarira (causal body), will assumeforms and become dream pictures.

You dream that you are a king. You enjoy various kinds of royal pleasures. As soon as you wake up, everything vanishes.But you do not feel the loss because you know that the dreamcreatures are all false. Even in the waking consciousness, if youare well established in the idea that the world is a false illusion,you will not get any pain.

When you know the real Tattva (Brahman) the wakingconsciousness will also become quite false like a dream. Wakeup and realise! my child.

There is a temperamental difference. Some rarely havedreams. A Jnani who has knowledge of the Self will have no dreams.

During dreams you see splendid, effulgent light. Where doesit come from? From Atman. The light that is present in thedream clearly indicates that Atman is self-luminous (SvayamJyoti, Sva Prakasa). n


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More information:http://www.sivananda.eu/en/[email protected]


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e are celebrating what? Today we arecelebrating what? Not VE Day. Not victory.We are celebrating ‘Defeat Day’, ‘DD’,because victory comes only when you have

control over your own inner enemy and when you conquer theinner battle. That is the day that is called Victory Day. When areyou going to conquer your inner enemy, and who are your innerenemies? There are five big enemies. Their leader is called themind, and his five generals are the five senses: sight, hearing,taste, smell and touch. These five generals take the army intosensual pleasures. The cause of war is because we are unableto control and conquer these inner enemies.

Today, just before I came to Satsang, I saw a newsreelabout the Victory Day celebration by the Russians and I sawthem marching: left, right, left, right, left right. Of course, theAmericans are also marching, so also the British, the French andso on and so on. But do you know, whether you are German,British, Russian, American, believer, or non-believer, death ispainful to all of you, whatever you are called, whatever labelyou give: German, American, or Russian. Because you put alabel on someone do you think that their pain is not less? Doyou think that death is less painful for a German mothercompared to a Russian or American mother or a British mother?Death is painful to all. Twenty million Russians died in the war.

SWAMI VISHNUDEVANANDA – LASTING PEACE THROUGH SATSANG

On the 8th May 1985 SwamiVishnudevananda gave a Satsangat the Sivananda Yoga VedantaCentre in London. It was a dayof great celebration throughoutEurope and the United States aspeople commemorated VE Day,Victory in Europe, marking theend of WWII in Europe.

This is an edited version of Swamiji’s talk.

Lasting Peace through Satsang“A true understanding of Dharma alone can bring peace to the world.”– Swami Sivananda

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After the newsreel I saw the street parade and people werecelebrating. What are you celebrating? Twenty million people,thirty million people died; six million Jews went to the gaschambers. We have not learned to conquer the inner enemy. It doesn’t matter how many times you celebrate Victory Day, VE Day, the coming days are going to be extremely difficultbecause there will be no-one to celebrate Victory Day. There will be neither victor nor vanquished, there will be only one vast burial ground. The whole planet will be a burial ground.You all came from earth to earth and ashes to ashes.

What victory is there? God doesn’t understand this puttingon of labels so that you can destroy another person. You put‘British’, ‘American’, ‘German’, and now you can kill, you have a licence to kill? This is the situation because you don’tunderstand the purpose of life.

Satsang means ‘association with the wise people’. Wisepeople talk about what? Non-wise people think about what?Suppose you are at a social party now, what would you betalking about? ‘Ah, look at the mink coat, look at the hairstyle,look at the nice, beautiful rings and the earrings etc. and oh,

yes, and he’s having an affair with her, and she is running withanother man, and she is divorced...’ These are the thoughts youare going to have every day. That is called ‘asang’. You neverhave any benefit out of it. This type of scandal, back-biting, idletalk, can you get any peace out of it? So, Satsang is to remindyou, Man, don’t worry about others. Even if there is a WorldWar and the world is going to vaporise, you are Immortal.There is no death or birth for you. Arise, awake! Arise, awake!Stop not till you reach that Immortal Self which Thou Art. That Immortal Self doesn’t have any birth or death: that is onlyfor the body.

Satsang is to remind you, do not just think of your money,bank balance etc. This lifetime is only for a very short time, for one hundred years. But what will happen after a hundredyears? Even if there is no World War III, what will happen?Still you have to die and then, can you go with your wife, canyou take your wife with you? Your children with you? Money?Bank balance? All the ornaments and earrings and the goldwatch etc.? You can’t even take a MasterCard there! Even yourAmerican Express card has no use. You can’t take money. Youcan only go as you came: you came naked and you go naked.You are not even allowed to take this physical body becauseit belongs to the earth, plants, vegetables or bacteria that will

turn it back. When you leave this place again in a short time Satsang

will make you ready to face the last thought. The last thoughtdetermines that both your astral life and also your futureincarnation will be happy. It determines what kind of incarnationyou are going to have. We believe in reincarnation, not that lifeis going to end after this particular lifespan and then there’s

nothing much to worry about: we can die and everything is over for us. It is not.

When you go to sleep tonight what will happen? There is no tomorrow for you? You forget your wife; family; children;money; and bank balance for the whole night and then, whenyou wake up, things will start all over again. So death is onlylike a deep sleep or a dream and you have to come back again.What kind of life you have in the future is determined by thelast thought, and the last thought is determined by the sumtotal of the thoughts of what you are doing in everyday life, and the cream of the thought will come to the top at the lastmoment. It is not only yogis who have been saying this forthousands of years. Before you die you get a complete playbackof your past lives, your past incarnations, everything, includingin this life, in a very short time, like fast playback on television.And so just before you are born, just before you come out ofyour mother’s womb, there is a fast playback of your past life.

This has been confirmed by recent research of people whohave drowned or died accidently and have been resuscitated inhospital. They all say that just before they died they had a fastplayback and they had been received by some of their relativesor friends on the other side. Such stories of people who diedand crossed the border but did not completely reach the otherside and came back, are described in the book Life After Lifeby Raymond Moody. Invariably, the experience of people whodie and who are subsequently resuscitated after they leave thisplanet Earth or from this consciousness is that they are notafraid to die anymore because they see that there is a freeworld there. They are not yogis. They can be believers, non-believers, Christians, or non-Christians. Many of them are reallyunhappy to come back. This is their story. A man said he wasin part of the hospital, he had a heart attack, he was resuscitated,and he was telling his doctors, ‘Please don’t bring me back! I am OK! I am OK! Please leave me alone’ and they wouldn’tleave him, they brought him back and he was not happy at all,he was very angry with the doctors who brought him back. It is just like a man who has escaped from prison and then theywant to put him back in the dungeon, his body, full of cancer

etc. Always, invariably. Now, the question is, if we all leave thisplanet Earth today or tomorrow what type of last thought willthere be?

Now I will tell you a small story from a Purana, from one of our ancient epics. There was a great Brahmin, a priest born in the Brahmin caste. He did lots of pranayamas,sandhyavandanas and Gayatri morning, day and eveningaccording to the tradition. He led a very spiritual life, but whenhe grew up he fell in love with a prostitute, and started drinkingand forgot all his Brahminic actions. He had several childrenwith this woman and the last boy, the youngest boy, was called‘Narayana’. Now this Brahmin was lying on his death-bed and suddenly he saw some frightening figures. There was

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“Now, the question is, if we all leave thisplanet Earth today or tomorrow what typeof last thought will there be?”

“Arise, awake! Stop not till you reach that Immortal Self which Thou Art. That Immortal Self doesn’t have any birth or death: that is only for the body.”


a conversation between this Brahmin and the horrible astralentities that came to take his body away to the other planes.He was terrified, and like any father, any loving father, he didn’twant to see this son who was playing outside in the gardenfrightened, and so he shouted, ‘Narayana, come here!Narayana, come! Narayana, come!’ Suddenly, the story shows,this figure, demonical figure, was about to take his life awaywhen the attendants of Lord Narayana, with four hands andbeautiful smiling faces came to help him. Now the attendantsof Yama, the demonical type of people, said, ‘How come youare here? We are the people to take these people away to theplace where they suffer. Who are you?’ They said, ‘We are theattendants of Narayana’. So they said, ‘You have no rights overthis man.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Well, you don’t know the truth. You cango and ask your Lord Yama.’ ‘But we have never had any typeof challenge by anybody. Who are you?’ They said, ‘This man is not under your control because he repeated the words,“Narayana, come”.’ ‘Oh no, he was talking to his child whowas playing outside, “Narayana come inside, Narayana come”.’‘It doesn’t matter, the moment he repeats that word at the lastmoment, his thought is on Narayana and he cannot comeunder your influence, he can only go to the higher planes, thehigher dimensions, and he is under our control now’. So thiswent on. And then the attendants sent him to Narayana.

So in this story, what the attendants are explaining, is thatthis man, repeating, ‘Narayana, come here’ also could havecalled, ‘My son, come here’. As the father is very attached tothe son he could call ‘Narayana, my son, come inside!’ but hedid not call, ‘My son’ he said, ‘Narayana, come’. Though hecalled the son’s name because in earlier days he did intensepractice, then suddenly, he fell from this path when he was an

adult, but still from his earlier life, the intense pranayama andmantra he repeated, the mantra is still in his mind, his sub -conscious mind, that is why he called, ‘Narayana, come here’,otherwise he would have called, ‘My son, come here’ and thatwould have been completely different.

According to yoga psychology your last thought determineswhat your future thoughts are, so whatever thoughts you arecreating through Satsang, repeating Om Namo Narayanaya, Om Namah Sivaya, Hari Rama etc. these thoughts will becomevery powerful and create new grooves in your subconsciousmind, and the last thought will be of Narayana or Krishna or whichever mantra you are repeating. That is why we haveSatsang and ask you to repeat God’s name. It is not to convertyou to any ‘ism’ but to make your thought very powerful;otherwise your last thought will be ... money! ‘Ah, the stockmarket investment’, then you will be born as a teller, a bankteller and you can count millions and millions of dollarsmorning till evening!

So, whatever position you are in now, whatever existenceyou are having now, these things were already determined by

you in your past lives. Which country you are going to be bornin, Britain or England or Germany, how you are going to die,whether you are going to a concentration camp or you aregoing to die on the battlefield, all this is determined by yourpast karma and past experiences. Whatever you are doing nowwill create and determine your future life. Even if the bombs aregoing to fall down, if your mind is so strong, identified with theAtman, the Self, the Immortal Self, then there is neither fear nor death. Your body will die but you are identifying with the Atman, like Narayana, ‘I am That I am’. There is no birth or death.

So that is the purpose of Satsang. Satsang is to remind usthat death is there, whether through World War III or by naturalcauses. Some of you may not even reach your home tonight.What guarantee is there that we will reach our homes safely?What guarantee is there that we will see tomorrow morning?There is no guarantee for anything, but Satsang says, yes, thereis one guarantee, you always think of the Immortal Self, ThouArt, meditate within, bring the extrovert mind to be introvert,bring all the external senses, the generals, into the Self andidentify I Am, Aham Brahmasmi or Om Namo Narayanaya, I amNarayana, I am Krishna, I am Rama, and make that thoughtpowerful and strong, and stronger and stronger and then, at the last moment, when the time comes for you, you inhale,exhale, and pull the energy up, otherwise, you will be just likethe man with the plastic heart. He was in a very criticalcondition with a blood clot and as soon as he came out of theanaesthesia from getting the new plastic heart he was asked,‘What do you want?’ What did he say? ‘I want a glass of beer.’That is the first thing he asked for. That’s called ‘old desire’.Then he moved next to the hospital where they rented a beautiful apartment with twenty-four hour nursing attentionand he went fishing. He’s got a new heart, he is dying, and he went fishing. He doesn’t understand: he himself is hookedhere, and he thinks he is going to hook another fish.

In my boyhood village in Kerala there are lots of paddyfields, rice fields, and the rice fields are full of water and lots of frogs and water snakes. The water snakes don’t bite generally,but even if they do bite there is no poison. The main diet of the water snakes is frog. Now, if a snake catches a frog, thesnake’s mouth is small, the frog is bigger, so the front portion of the frog is still outside. Because there are no teeth the frogdoesn’t get injured and he will go on crying. It takes so long:slowly, slowly it will go on, swallowing little by little, little bylittle and the frog is slowly going, it takes about half an hour,forty-five minutes before the whole frog will go and still he isalive and well because he is not injured, there is no injury andso the frog is slowly going, disappearing into the mouth. Now,if a fly passes by he will stick his tongue out and try to catchthat fly and have one more last meal before losing the game.

We are just like that. Little by little ... one more ... one more.I will catch my fish and enjoy my fish before my heart stopsbeating. You think that life is only for running the heart for afew more minutes, a few more months, but no matter howmany hearts you get, how many lungs you get you still have to leave this planet Earth. Are you prepared for that? What are

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“According to yoga psychology your lastthought determines what your futurethoughts are.”


you thinking at the last moment? Your money, your heart, yourliver, your spleen? What are you thinking?

That is the purpose of Satsang. Satsang is to remind you,no, do not think of all these things, this is all just temporary.Things came to you because of your karma, but you have toleave everything here. So these are the things that you mustunderstand. Satsang is the teaching of the wise.

We also need to think while living how we should live, andhow we must bring our energy to higher levels, to the highercentres, so that at the last moment when we die we can alsoleave and die with our own consciousness. If we take theenergy upward more consciously and bring it to the highercentres, we are released from this physical body. We escapefrom this physical body to the higher dimensions. According

to your evolution you go to the third dimension, fourth dimension,fifth dimension or even to the seventh dimension if you are veryhighly evolved. Otherwise people with fear, with no idea, theywill go to the first and second heaven and there they sufferterribly, because they do not know how to use their thought. In Satsang we are also teaching you how to use your thoughtfrom the very beginning. It is called, ‘Go within’. The purpose ofSilence or meditation is to bring your energy level within: notoutward, extrovert, but introvert.

I will tell you some stories that explain what ‘extrovert’ and‘introvert’ mean. ‘Extrovert’ means that the senses go outwardto the sensual pastures like wild horses, and ‘introvert’ meansbringing those wild horses to the centre, to the soul. That iscalled, ‘meditation’. Through meditation you can bring thesenses inward and you will have happiness while living on thisplanet and also happiness hereafter.

The first story is about a man who is seated under a tree in a desert. The tree gives him shade and a little cool breeze.All around he is surrounded by white sand. As the sun startsrising on the horizon, he begins to get thirsty and as the sungets higher and higher he gets more and more dehydrated andthirsty for water. Still he sits under the shade. Suddenly, as histhirst increases, his desire for water becomes important for hisvery existence. He sees in the white sandy area a beautiful,shimmering lake. Waves. Ripples. What is that? A mirage! If you haven’t seen a mirage you would know what it is like. It is literally like a lake or a sea. I have seen that. That whitesand is not white sand any longer; it is a lake, full of water andwaves. Now he has seen with his perception that there is water,but, by intellectual analysis he knows that there can’t be anywater, there is only sand. But his perception, his eyes, he seesthis beautiful, shimmering lake. So the question is, ‘Shall I go, or shall I not go?’ The intellect says, ‘Don’t go. You are sittingunder the shade. When you go there you will get dehydratedand die in the desert.’ But the perception says, ‘There is water’.Now, which one are you are going to follow? Are you going tobelieve your perception, or your reasoning? Do you get up and

go for the water, or do you sit? Generally, your perception is more powerful than your reasoning.

You know this world is full of sorrow because you areaccustomed to living by sight, smell, and taste: all of the fivesenses you believe, all of the time. You think your senses arereal, so, ‘Intellect, you keep quiet. Let me go. It is only fifteenminutes there. If I walk fifteen minutes I can find the water. If there is no water I always can come back. Only fifteen minutes!’So you got up, tie your head in a cloth and slowly walk forfifteen minutes. And in the fifteen minutes where is the water?Still fifteen minutes away! And you turn back towards theshade. The shade is fifteen minutes this way. Now, which waydo you go? That way or this way? You say, ‘O.K. Let me tryonce more’, so you start running now, faster, and after fifteenminutes still the water is fifteen minutes away. Now the shadeis thirty minutes away. Now you start running, running, runningtoward the water and the shade is getting further and furtherand further away, until you dehydrate and die.

This example is literally an example of how you are livingnow. In the West you think that all happiness is somewhereoutside. If you have a good house, a good palace, a good airconditioner, and a good car then you are going to be happy.You created everything. The more you create the more you wantand you are moving away from the Self, Atman. You neverthought that happiness is within you. You think that it is alloutside. So you run away, run away, thinking that everything is outside and now, like the man who is going to die in thedesert, we are going to destroy the whole world thinking thatwe can save the world. This is the situation of our life. So thereare two things, perception and intellect.

In Satsang, we make you think. There is no happinessoutside. If there is happiness, it is coming from within. The dogwho is chewing a dry bone and is having beautiful juicy bloodcoming out of it thinks, ‘Oh, it is coming from the dry bone’ butit is coming from his own palate. In the same way, we thinkthat happiness is coming from the outside, but everything is from within. So Man, Satsang says, ‘Don’t go outside. Don’taccept this perception. Use your intellect, your reasoning andanalyse it’. That is what Satsang is doing. Satsang is trying to remind you again and again, go within and make your mindone-pointed and strong.

The last story is about a hunter who went hunting, and afterhunting was tired and sat under the shade of a tree to eat hislunch. He was about to open and enjoy his lunch and suddenly,in a nearby bush, there was a lion. The lion was also hungry,and he saw this hunter seated comfortably. He thought, ‘Ahhh,


“The purpose of Silence or meditation is tobring your energy level within: not outward,extrovert, but introvert.”

“In Satsang, we make you think. There is nohappiness outside. If there is happiness, it is coming from within.”

“Satsang is trying to remind you again and again, go within and make your mindone-pointed and strong.”

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there’s my lunch’. He was about to jump on to the hunter butthe hunter saw him, ‘My God! I must escape, but there’s notime to run anywhere’. Luckily, he was sitting near a big well.He jumped into the well to save himself from the lion’s mouthbut when he looked, the well was dry and there was a bigpython lying at the bottom of it. The python was also hungry.Now the hunter has a choice: he can be lunch for the lion, or lunch for the python. Which one do you prefer? Anyhow, the choice is not so good!

Luckily there was a creeper, a vine on thewalls of the well, so he caught hold of thecreeper and was hanging in between it so thelion wouldn’t reach him and the pythonwouldn’t catch him. Temporarily, he washappy, but as he was hanging there, two ratscame from a hole when they saw that the vinewas moving. One was a black rat and one wasa white rat, and they started gnawing the vinewhile he was just hanging there. But suddenlyhe also saw nearby, within reach, there was abeautiful beehive full of honey and, of course,lots of bees too. Now he’s thinking, ‘There’slots of honey here, why can’t I enjoy this honey?’ So he lentover, to get the honey andnaturally, the bees are not goingto let him have a happy honeylunch so they start stinging allover his body, thousands of them, and the rats are gnawingand the lion is looking from the top, and the python is lookingfrom the bottom, and he is enjoying the honey. Well, he mustbe a very stupid hunter, don’t you think?

This story illustrates all of us. We are like the hunter. The lionrepresents old age. Old age is chasing us constantly. Look at mygrey hair. When I came to America in 1957 I didn’t have onegrey hair. Old age is chasing constantly, pushing, pushing. Andthe python represents death. He chases all of us towards death.And the vine on which you are hanging represents your lifespan of one hundred years. And the black rat represents thenight, and the white rat represents the day, and the day hasbeen chewed off from your lifespan. Now the night rat hasstarted chewing already. You are not aware of it. Even in thistime, as I was talking, a few more hairs are turning grey. Is ithappening? Or has it stopped? No more grey hairs? It has allended? My nose is changing? I have more wrinkles? A bit morefat? So, this body is changing little by little, little by little. That is called ‘old age’. You are not aware of it. Well, do you thinkthis is only happening to Swami Vishnu? You’ve forgotten thatthis happening to you also! At this very moment it is happeningto you! Old age is chasing you every moment. And then thosehoney bees and the honey. Honey is the sensual pleasures. You can get a little bit, but when you try to have those sensualpleasures they don’t want you to enjoy it.You go into a bar to have that beer and you have to pay taxes. And then if youhave a big house, you have to pay a bigger tax and with morerooms, more bedrooms and bathrooms there is more cleaning.

So you are being bombarded: the tax, insurance, this man, thatman, terrorism and so on, constantly bombarded. Thousands of bees are stinging, politicians and so forth, and the honey is a little bit of those pleasures, like caviar and vodka, that youwant to enjoy. Eventually the black rat and white rat cut thevine and you go to the bottom and you die. This is whathappens. Our life is constantly moving.

So Man, Satsang is to remind you don’t run, run, run; youwill never reach anywhere. Stay wherever you are, go within,

and get your strength from within. Not in yourbank balance, your money, wife, children, home,family, beauty, strength or power. Everythingwill collapse. Everything is moving away fromyou, but still you think that it is going to cometo you. Money cannot bring you health, strength,power, or anything. Everything moves away.So Satsang is to remind you at this time everyday to spend some time in cogitation andmeditation for your inner development. It doesn’t matter who you are or what youare: attend Satsang to remind you that deathis waiting, otherwise you will forget this.

If you don’t come to Satsangto be reminded again andagain the subconscious mindwill be overpowered withweeds, like in a garden, andyour last thought will be only

weeds. So, come to Satsang whenever there is an opportunity,move with people who are wise, sing God’s name, repeat God’sname and move on, and bring your mind from extrovert to introvert through meditation.

For that we also need other things to bring the mind inward,like asana and pranayama, the eight steps of Raja Yoga: yama,niyama, asana, pranayama, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.People try to reach samadhi only through meditation. That is just like going on to the last step climbing a staircase. If you want to reach the top before going to step one you willfall down. So do not think that mediation will come easilybecause you close your eyes or you go to your guru and yourguru has got a specific kind of formula that by hitting you, yourKundalini will awaken and go to a higher level. It is your effort.In each life go on increasing your level of consciousness.Depending on which chakra you are able to awaken you will be born in the next plane. If you die when the third chakra is awakened, then you will go to the third plane; the fourthchakra; the fourth plane. Each of the planes corresponds to thechakra in the physical body. Many people only know how touse their first and second chakra, their sensual and sexualorgans. They only go to the first and second planes. That isdifferent from yogis; yogis want to go to the higher planes.

Satsang will increase your awareness of the higherdimensions, the higher planes and higher chakras and you canbe a God-realised soul or Self-realised soul in this very lifeaccording to our timeless teachings. n

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“So Man, Satsang is to remind you don’t run,run, run; you will never reach anywhere.Stay wherever you are, go within, and get

your strength from within.”


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PRECEPTS FOR PRACTICE, PRECEPTS FOR TEACHING

e are the resultof manygenerationswhich moved

away from the laws of nature.Look at the way our ancestors and our family lived: great-grandmother, grandmother andmother, many of them movedaway from nature. Therefore, wethink it is normal. It has brought us physical and mental problems.Many have complaints about eyes,teeth, gums, joints or stomach.People say, “I don’t know why I am so sluggish, why I amdepressed.” These things happenbecause we have moved away from nature. Not just our body,but also the bodies which created this present body, what wenow call genes.

When we are out of touch with nature, we lose our innerbalance, our centre, our emotional balance, our balance of bodyawareness. We do not have the quality of life we would like to have, and so we lose contact with our atman (the inner Self),and with shanti (peace). Separation from the Self happenswhen we do not accept the laws of nature. This is the rootcause of all our suffering.

Look at nature, understand nature around you as well asthe nature within you. Then you will connect back to the atman.

Slowly, suffering will cease, like fogmoving away from the shore.Nature moves quietly. Diseasescome quietly; at first you don’tnotice them. Also, well-being is soquiet that you soon forget howbad you used to feel. Pain isforgotten very quickly, otherwisewomen wouldn’t have secondbabies. They forget the pains.

Yoga helps you to reconnect in different ways, depending onyour personality. There are differentpaths – there is bhakti yoga,karma yoga, jnana yoga, and raja yoga. By slowly integrating these systems,

the practice takes you from jiva, (individual consciousness,believing I am this and that), back to the inner Self. That is howyoga works, it unites jiva with atman, the immortal Self.

Three great blessings in lifeTo follow the path of yoga, you need three great blessings in life. First you have to recognize that there is somethingimbalanced in you, that you have moved away from the Self.More and more people are becoming aware of this. Those whohave a full tummy, a roof over their head, and clothes to wear,they are beginning to think. Those who still have to look fortheir shelter and their food don’t have time to think in this way.

W

Precepts for Practice,Precepts forTeaching

By Swami DurganandaFrom a lecture given at the graduation of an International Sivananda Yoga

Teachers’ Training Course in Vrindavan, North India, and from excerpts of a teachers’ workshop at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Madrid.

“There is nothing more elevating and sublime than to be a witness to the living divine Presence in all beings, and to strive to awaken

that consciousness in others, too.” – Swami Sivananda


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Secondly, you need the opportunity to bring yourself back tobalance. These opportunities do not come by themselves – youneed time, financial stability, and good health. Then the searchcan start. Looking at today’s world, there are not many peoplewho have that opportunity, who have the time, the funds andthe health to go on this search. Either there are no funds or there is no time, or they have certain ties in the world which do not allow them to go away for any amount of time. We havethese conversations with many people who would like toparticipate in the Yoga Teachers’ Training Course (TTC). Theysay: “I just cannot leave my dad for four weeks”, or “my bosswon’t let me go for four weeks.”

Finally, after you recognize that something inside is notbalanced, and once you have made space in your life to lookfor the lost balance, you need the teachings. There are manywisdom teachings available to us. Each person is different andthus some teachings are not acceptable for us, they don’t fit us.We keep looking until we find a teacher whom we can trustand from whom we can accept training in the techniques, therules and the regulations of yoga. To have all these conditionsin one place is a great blessing and very rare.

Those who come to the Yoga Teachers’ Training Courseaccept to follow for four weeks the teachings of the twomasters who guide us in this ancient tradition of merging jivawith atman. It immerses them in the teachings and gives a solidfoundation of how to live yoga and how to teach yoga to others.Below are some precepts for the yoga teacher; many of thesecan be helpful to any person who has chosen to follow thepath of yoga.

Move like a riverYoga has to become part of your life now. For this, you have to learn to flow like water around the rocks. When the water in a brook encounters a rock, it doesn’t say, “Hey! Let’s stophere: there is a rock”. It simply goes around the rock. At thesame time it remembers its goal and always continues to flowtowards the ocean. You also have a goal – you want to be a yoga teacher. Sometimes you may have a specific plan whatto teach in a class, and then there is someone in the class whois a difficult person or cannot follow, and you have to changeyour plan. Maybe you don’t reach your goal for that class. Justlet it be, don’t give in to a bad, irritated mood. Don’t give yourmental pain to others.

Teaching yoga has its rulesWe have received certain rules from Swami Vishnudevananda,which he gave to the Sivananda Organization. For example, we base each asana class on the twelve basic postures. We haveto learn to be very disciplined in our timing, and not spend toomuch time on one asana. Make sure that you have the sequencein place. It’s better to practice one asana for a shorter time andbe able to practice all the twelve postures, than holding oneasana for a long time. The asanas work on the chakras. They arestimulated by each asana. Then the energy is pulled up to thesahasrara chakra (the energy center at the top of the head). This is how it works, and this is why Swami Vishnudevananda’smethod is so successful. He is a recognized yogi. He assured us that the effect of these twelve asanas expand to everycorner of the nadis (subtle energy channels). Once you are

practicing them for a longer time you will feel that. You also feelit when you leave out one asana – the energy is not complete.Swami Vishnudevananda was very strict about this.

Another thing Swamiji emphasized is that you do not do theasanas along with the students. I know that in some institutionsit’s done, but in the International Sivananda Centres andAshrams it is not done, because then you cannot correct thepeople verbally anymore. Verbal corrections are very important,for instance when you teach surya namaskar. This is notpossible if you practice the surya namaskar yourself while youteach it. If the students are not guided verbally, they fall intothe same old habits as they do when practicing at home. Thetoes are not aligned properly, the hands are not flat on theground, the head position is not correct, etc. Everything fallsback into the old sloppiness. The dharma (duty) of the teacher is to catch the sloppiness of the students in the class. Some of them just come once or twice a week, and they need the corrections. Maybe they think that they don’t need thecorrections. Let them think what they want to think. Your dharmais to correct them properly.

When you teach kaphalabhati or anuloma viloma and whenyou do asanas like the fish, the lungs are very open. Then weshould have the windows open. Imagine what stale air comesout. It’s an amazing thing. Whenever I am at a center, I knowwhen there is a trial class, when people come for the first timeto find out what yoga is. I smell it. Most people have a shortand superficial breath with a very limited exchange of air. Whenthey start doing asanas, their lungs open up, and all that staleair is left in the room. Please remember to open the windows,even when it’s cold. In some countries where we have centersit’s sometimes minus 15 degrees Celcius, but still you open thewindows for a moment, and then you close them again.

The more you teach, the easier it will be for you to find theright timing of the asanas. When you’re not yet so experienced,you get hooked on one asana or one person. Just as it is notgood to adjust the timing to the slowest person in class, it’salso not good to always follow the fastest one. Take the average.If you have many beginners in your class, put them on one side.Then you can help them more easily.

Cultivate this detailed attention, be regular, smile, be verycheerful and be uncomplicated. Try to walk the middle path.

Apply all 5 points for proper energy flowStart applying the five points which Swami Vishnudevanandaconstantly reinforced. Besides proper exercise, proper breathingand proper relaxation, positive thinking and meditation, youshould also emphasize food. If your own diet is sattvic (pure),the energy within your astral body will flow properly. When youcorrect somebody, this pure energy will be transferred to theother body. Correcting an asana, is not just physically adjustingsomebody – the energy within your astral body is flowing to the other body. Then it becomes easier for the students to adjust themselves to what you’re suggesting. SwamiVishnudevananda could have a hundred people in one roomand put most of us in the headstand. It was the energy, it wasthe thought power, it was that purity which he had assimilatedin his body through proper food, through the proper thinking,through his own sadhana (spiritual practice).

Of course you don’t need to develop this to the extent


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to put a hundred people into the headstand. But you candevelop it for the fifteen or twenty people you’re teaching.Prepare yourself. Then this clarity will be passed on to the otherperson. The students feel it. That is the austerity, or tapas, whichyou are doing, to teach yoga as charity for humanity. This charityis possible if the austerity is in place. The austerity is for yourselfand the charity is for others. If you are teaching tomorrow, seethat you are rested, that you only eat healthy things withoutfilling the stomach too much. Have a proper bowel movementso you feel clean. Then you can give a good class. The strongeryour thoughts, the more you will attract the students; they wantto come to you. Very often, the simplest and humblest teachershave the most students while those who know everything and have flamboyant ways do not really attract the students. Be humble, don’t show off, be simple and share.

Teaching AutosuggestionSwami Vishnudevananda was a master in teaching auto suggestion.He would announce the autosuggestion very thoroughly. It wasa logical sequence, you just had to follow it. He would startfrom the feet and slowly work the way up to the head. He wouldsay each autosuggestion three times: I relax the feet, I relax thefeet, my feet are relaxed. He was not speaking to himself, hewas speaking it for you. So you could lie there and hear it as ifyou’re speaking to yourself. My feet are relaxed. After relaxingthe limbs, the back and the head, autosuggestion is given to theinner organs: heart, liver, kidneys, etc. Through the power of thought all these inner organs relax also. The teacher sits and concentrates with the students. You go with the studentsthrough all the inner organs. It is a very powerful technique.Mental and spiritual relaxation follow.

Finally, there is silence. The teacher sits in silence and does Japa(mantra repetition). After some minutes you chant OM very softly.Everybody sits up and you close with the final prayer. This completesthis master class, which we learned from Swami Vishnudevananda.

Cultivate purity and allow the light of yoga to shineRemember that by taking good, pure, sattvic food, your moodwill also be up, your energy level will be higher, and yourthoughts will be more sublime. Cultivate good humour, which is pure and coming from inside. Then all the cells of the bodyget uplifted, and then you, as a teacher, will be a living examplefor yoga. It’s not just what you know, it’s what you’re reflectingthrough your clothes, your face, your gestures, your voice andyour attitude. It must not be a put-on-attitude – people feelthis. It has to be real. If you put yourself aside, the light of Yogacomes through. And if you do this for many months, manyyears, you become that light. Swamiji would tell us: Like a freshyellow flower attracts the bees, so also that peace of Yoga willattract the students. You are actually ambassadors of peace.

Negative emotions will be transformedThen confusion, depression and other negative emotions will betransformed, as all the cells of your body will be slowly transformed.Remember all the three bodies. Besides the physical body there

are the astral and the causal bodies. We think we are the physicalbody, but the physical body is just a reflection of the astral body,which is composed of the vital, mental and intellectual sheath.And again that astral body is a reflection of the causal body.

Changes on a subtler level in classYour words, as well as your thoughts, should always bringstudents to the idea that yoga is not just physical, but alsoenergetic. As you bring the attention more to the subtler level,competition will become less. You can say sentences like: ‘It doesn’t matter how far you go into the posture, what’simportant is how you breathe in the asana, and how relaxedyou are in that posture’. Everybody will then reach their ownasana for that particular moment. If they push too hard andstruggle, the result will be competition and aggression. The egowill be bigger than before. People find it difficult to look at theirown human side. We should try to make the students look attheir human side. This relaxes the atmosphere. Then they willfeel better after the class. They hardly notice you after the class.They go out like they were in heaven. They may even forget toput on their shoes. Then you know you’re giving a good class.

No place for competitionThere should be no competition among the students, nor amongthe teachers. Be humble if you have achieved something andknow that if you practice you will achieve more. It’s a naturallaw. If the seed in the earth is well nourished, the tree willgrow. Avoid competition, then there will be less fear, fear of being judged. Repeat your mantra, teach, do your dharma.Gradually confidence, faith and cheerfulness will vibrate in everypart of the body. Due to the challenges of life the energy getsblocked. During the asana session energies are unblockedagain. Energies block, unblock, block, unblock… have younoticed it? Can you say, I will be unblocked forever? As long as you live there will be changes in energy. This helps us toaccept the fact that life is one big challenge. Some people thinkwhen they start yoga that there will be no more challenges in life, everything will go smoothly. This is a very tamasic, lazyattitude. It’s not accepting life as it is. Life is one challenge.

When you start teaching, be a friendto the studentsWe have one very devoted student from Bombay, an elderly lady,she is seventy four. She comes to Austria and we teach herpranayama, gentle anuloma viloma, without any retention. Shepracticed that for one year. Now she has started sitali. Sometimesshe calls us and says: “You know, sitali is very difficult. Eventhough I practiced it in Austria for a week, I have forgotten howto do it; please can you show me again?” In these situationswe must be a friend to the students, not a teacher. If you are afriend to your students they will accept the difficulties in theirpractice. So I said to that lady: “Don’t worry, practice anulomaviloma and next time we meet, we will go to the next step.”

Applying common senseActively accepting life and at the same time trying to keep up a

“Your words, as well your thoughts, should always bring students to the ideathat yoga is not just physical, but also energetic.”


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sadhana schedule is a challenge. If you try to do kapalabhatievery day, 45min of anuloma viloma, fast once a week andmeditate half an hour every day, and sing Jaya Ganesha, yousimply may lose your job, just like when you eat too much youwill get indigestion. Your friends, husband or wife will say: “I told you, you are not the same, you were really brain-washed, I warned you, now you see where this has broughtyou. Before we got along and now I’m not even allowed tosmoke my cigarette. I want to go with you to a nice restaurant,and you say you don’t like the smell there – before you lovedit!” Don’t make such mistakes. You have to serve your lovedones. They also have to serve you a little bit. You can ask them:“Please can you smoke on the balcony?” If she or he feels youare giving a little bit, then there will be some acceptance on theother side: “Go with you to the fish restaurant? Yes, I would liketo go, but let’s go to a nice Italian restaurant, then you haveyour dish and I can have pasta and vegetables.”

I know of a man whose wife was doing yoga. She was notsmoking, and he and she agreed amongst themselves thatevery time he wanted to smoke a cigarette he would go out on the balcony. In the summer this is ok, but in the winter it is a cold affair. Having a cigarette and cold back, standing on the balcony, is not so nice. It’s much nicer to sit in acomfortable chair, maybe watching the news, and puff on thecigarette, but they had made an agreement. Finally smoking onthe balcony in the winter became so uncomfortable, that thisman stopped smoking altogether. Adaptability with each otheris necessary. Not just adaptability of giving up smoking, but theadaptability of giving the other person a chance to adaptgradually. It’s love. It’s giving. Again, it is also an austerity.

Don’t be rigidRigidity is to be avoided. Nobody is bad because he eats fishand is smoking. We used to do it ourselves, maybe you are stilldoing it. Don’t judge, just work on yourself. Otherwise you willnot fit in society anymore. Today vegetarianism is more widelyaccepted, smoking in public places and at work is prohibited in many countries and alcohol is becoming less fashionable. It takes time to understand the psyche of your surroundings andto understand yourself also. Avoid extreme attitudes, thesemake life unnecessarily difficult.

If you remember the universal law of love, then you will befine. You will find the strength to be patient and compassionate.Instead of looking at the mistakes of others, we must learn to see how much love they actually have. Everyone has love, we were all born of love. Atman and love are the same. In mostpeople, love is coloured or camouflaged. Once you learn aboutsomeone’s upbringing, you may start to understand why theyhave to cover up many things. When you talk about theirchildhood you understand why they are the way they are. When you teach yoga, don’t think everybody is like you. Manydifferent people and situations exist in this world, so patience,compassion and understanding are needed. Be like a friend, notlike a teacher. In yoga it is very difficult to separate one fromanother, because yoga is so personal.

Avoid judgements According to the universal law of cause and effect, whateveryou think will come back to you. Often people say: “Oh! I don’t

get along with that person.” Particularly in offices people getvery tired of seeing each other for eight hours. Sometimes yourwork colleagues are also your family members. There can bedifficulties. Maybe you’re thinking negatively about that person.Maybe you don’t like how the other person drinks, talks on thephone or walks. Find out what it is and let it go. If you’rechanging your attitude towards a person, the relationship willchange. Many people have done this after talking to us aboutyoga, and it has really changed their relationships withcolleagues at work.

A lesson learnedThe first time I saw Swami Vishnudevananda wasat a lecture in California. There were about fifty

people. I was sitting in the back and wanted to see whoSwami Vishnudevananda was. Everybody was sitting. Butin a corner of the room there was a man standing on hishead during the whole lecture. He looked a little rough,his clothes were not very fresh and the headstand wasnot very straight. Yet he managed to remain in theheadstand for a whole hour. And Swamiji didn’t sayanything. I was wondering: “Why does he not saysomething?” My mind was quite negative. The fact that I kept repeating this thought did not change the situation.The man was still in the headstand and the lecture wasgoing on. I missed most of the lecture, as I was so muchinvolved in judging the situation of this man remaining in the headstand.

When the lecture was over, the man came down fromthe headstand and went to see Swamiji. Swamiji rightaway introduced him to the audience. He had learnedyoga while in prison in San Francisco, by studying the Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga by SwamiVishnudevananda. He actually taught himself theheadstand. He was now out of jail and wanted to showhow much he had learned. As a sign of gratitude heremained in the headstand throughout the lecture.

You never know how one thing relates to another.When we think about something, when we saysomething, or rather our thinking wants to say something,we must be careful and not judge. I learned a big firstlesson that day. I saw that I had no compassion, that I was completelyjudgemental. My mind was negative towards somethingwhich I thought was not correct. Yet in the context of theconnection between this man and Swamiji, it wasperfectly correct. This happened almost 40 years ago. I have never forgotten it.

The Power of proper thinkingHow do we preserve our energies? As you go through the TTCexperience, and learn the asanas and the pranayama, you knowthat the aim of yoga is peace, or shanti. The most importantpeace is mental peace. Thoughts can travel. Whatever you thinkwill reach other people, it will reach the universe, and it willbounce back to you. Thoughts have a great power. You, asteachers, must be very aware of your thoughts, particularly

“

”


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when you’re teaching: not just what you say, but also what youthink. Whatever you have been thinking for months and yearsmakes up your present thoughts. First is the thought, then it expresses itself as an action, and then the action leads to a reaction. Be very careful of what you think, and how youare acting. Your thought creates a vibratory level all around you. The dynamic force of a positive thought will shape you into a very influential teacher, not only in yoga, but in othersubjects also.

A good teacher is not necessarily somebody who can repeatby heart what’s written in the book, but rather somebody whohas reflected on the words within through personal spiritualpractice. Mantra repetition and prayers help to live the truespirit of yoga: peace of mind, bliss, happiness. SwamiVishnudevananda put it all in a beautiful slogan: “Health iswealth, peace of mind is happiness, yoga shows the way.”

Being a yoga practitioner is the key to teaching Please don’t be like a tape recorder, don’t be somebody whojust passes on knowledge in words. Be a practitioner. Being a practitioner, you can be a very simple teacher. Some of youare very shy or you used to be shy when you started to teach.Maybe you are limited in the language or you don’t pronouncethe Sanskrit very well in the Gajananam prayer. Simply read it off. At the beginning, I used to read from a sheet of paper.Everybody can do this. That doesn’t mean you are a bad teacher– if you have yoga inside, you have a peaceful vibration, thestudents will accept that.

The vibratory level makes a good teacher The vibratory level of your being is very important. If you’repracticing, if you have compassion for yourself, you will alsohave compassion for others if they are not performing the waythat the book shows. Being compassionate with the students,teaching them by sharing what you are practicing yourself,these are very positive thoughts. It is this positive vibratory levelwhich makes a good teacher. The stronger the thought, thesooner it will bear fruit, both within yourself as well as in theclass. Teaching yoga is definitely not an academic situation,where you know a lot and you present your knowledge. Thereare people who have a good memory, they can read somethingand repeat it immediately. Some know all the Sanskrit slokas(verses) by heart or remember the benefits of the asanas from A to Z. All this is good. But the effect of the class depends moreon the vibratory level of the mind of the teacher, not onacademic capacities.

Japa before teaching calms and opens the mindIf you practice 15 – 20 minutes of Japa (mantra repetition)before teaching, it helps you to detach from all previous impressions,it calms the mind. When you meet the students with that energy,the class will be soft like butter. It’s almost as if somebody isspeaking for you. You are not the doer. You are actually beingused, a medium, so to speak. It is a very beautiful experience.

Everybody has their things to work onWork on your character, for instance jealousy. It’s so common

in society. People are jealous of your house, your car, or yourjob. They are jealous of what you do and what you have. Inyoga, jealousy should not be allowed because we are all equal.Everybody has something to work on, whether it is thecharacter, something physical, or mental. There is work foreverybody. Students who have been practicing for some time,will need more advanced exercises. Those who are just startingcan be inspired and supported by those who are moreadvanced. There should be compassion, no jealousy.

Mental growth is the most important goal Mental growth is the most important goal in yoga. Physicalgrowth will follow, but mental growth is more important. Somepeople are very healthy, and their practice is very good, all themuscles and joints function well. But if they are depressed, after

a while the body will show it. Later on they may have diseasesdue to a lack of certain hormones, which they stop producingproperly because of depression. Watch your mental healthconstantly, your body will benefit tremendously, along with the help of asanas and pranayama.

The common goal is peace Many volunteers run the Sivananda Yoga Centers worldwide,and the only thing all these people have in common is yoga.We have different languages, nationalities, likes and dislikes,and we’re all coming from different walks of life. Some havegone to university, some have PhDs, some haven’t even finishedhigh school… and we all live together! Not only is this an art,it is really a way to become ambassadors of peace. SwamiVishnudevananda would say: “The common goal is Peace.”Amongst the staff, cleanliness is a common goal, doing theasanas together, sitting together in meditation, the mentalcleanliness. The common work of service is actually quitesimple. You don’t need degrees for what we do: you learnyoga, you speak a little bit about yoga, you teach asanas, allthis is very simple. But what is not so simple is to put aside yourown raga-dvesa, your likes and dislikes, as well as the egowhich makes you think: “I’m not good, I don’t know if I canteach well enough.” Teaching has nothing to do with that. Theego is either tamasic, which means it doesn’t believe in itself, orit is so rajasic that it thinks it is better than anybody else. Bothare harmful for the development of the yogi.

Thank you very much for coming to this Sivananda teachinginstitution. Thank you for giving us your trust. The Swamis dotheir very best to share their experience of yoga with you. May you all go into the world and be shining lights of yoga. n

Swami Durgananda is Yoga Acharya (spiritual director) of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Europe.e-mail: [email protected]

“ Mental growth is the mostimportant goal in yoga. Physicalgrowth will follow, but mental growth is more important.”


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BECOMING A SHELTERING MONASTERY

Everywhere across thecontinents, humanity and ourplanet Earth are experiencingunprecedented trauma. Many aspirants worry thatour entire world seems readyto collapse. If we are tosurvive the negative forces

of terrorism, economic and social turmoil, dramaticclimate change, natural disasters and escalatingwar – what can we do?

any years ago, Swami Vishnudevananda, thefounder of the Sivananda International Vedantaorganization, the largest yoga organization inthe world today, foresaw this cataclysmic time

we are experiencing at the beginning of the 21st Century. In 1969, as he sat in deep meditation in our ashram in theBahamas, he experienced a powerful vision that the wholeplanet Earth was engulfed in fire forcing everyone to flee. As everyone tried to escape the fire, they broke loose of theirself-made barriers: physical barriers, mental barriers, spiritualbarriers, gender barriers, religious barriers, and racial barriers. All those limitations that people artificially restrict themselves withsuddenly became meaningless in the presence of that disaster.

Swami Vishnudevananda awoke from this vision tremblingfor he thought that a great calamity was imminent. Then hehad a sudden insight. Swamiji realized that by transcendingtheir barriers to escape this fire, humanity could actuallybecome united. For in this tragedy, people of all nations, races,classes and religions fled side by side. They did not notice theirdifferences. They were of one mind together. In the face of acommon threat, humanity would finally learn to join together.Once all barriers are broken, Swamiji said, mankind can beunited. Even though the vision itself was frightening andterrifying, it pointed out the opportunity for humanity to changeand move on to a greater and brighter future. This vision revealeda new mission to Swami Vishnudevananda: the pursuit of peace.He responded by creating the Sivananda organization under the banner of the T.W.O. (True World Order) whose purpose is to promote unity in diversity.

“Swami Vishudevananda taught that in order for humanity to realize thiswonderful new future, people mustlearn the practice of peace”.

It became Swamiji’s mission and the mission of the T.W.O. fromthen on to spread the practice of yoga world wide to ensure a bright future. Swami Vishundevananda reminded us near hisdeath, “A time will come when this vision of fire will manifest.At that time, yogis and yoga teachers will become essential to help humanity.”

Swami Vishudevananda taught that in order for humanity to realize this wonderful new future, people must learn thepractice of peace. The world would need new kinds of leaderswho would embody peace, pacifism and help end war and alldivisions between nations.

A fundamental principle he taught is that we cannot give to others what we do not possess ourselves. Unless you knowpeace, you cannot give peace to others. Swami Vishnudevanandataught that the key to external peace is inner peace. Once innerpeace is found, it can be shared with others.

“He taught that the key to external peaceis inner peace. Once inner peace isfound, it can be shared with others”.

He gathered around him sincere aspirants from all walks of life, cultures and religions. First he taught them yoga and thentrained them to teach yoga to others. This was the beginning of the formal Sivananda Teacher Training Course (TTC) initiatedby Swami Vishnudevananda over forty years ago. He said, “I amgoing to sow the seed of peace in my students’ hearts. Theiryoga practice will water the seed of inner peace. Then that seedwill sprout. They will have a direct experience of inner peacefirst and then they will go out into the world and share it withthousands.” As soon as he trained yogis, he immediately sentthem out into the world on this mission. He visualized a newgeneration of leaders graduating from the TTC who wouldtransmit the meaning of peace sending it out like a wave to soothe a world ravaged by war, destruction and suffering.

Swami Vishnudevananda compared yoga teachers to peaceambassadors and new leaders. He was not only referring to trained yoga teachers but any aspirant who sincerely studiesyoga. He foretold how people would approach yogis withquestions and find comfort, guidance and protection in theteachings that yogis give them. What people need most duringthese times is spiritual protection. Swamiji foresaw that yogisand yoga teachers would generate a lot of change in our world.He predicted that in 20 or 30 years time, when his visionmanifests, millions and millions of people will be practicingyoga everywhere.

Swamiji’s vision of many millions practicing yoga is happeningtoday. It is now acknowledged that yoga is the fifth largest

Becoming a ShelteringMonastery By Swami Swaroopananda

M


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“Through the knowledge of yoga, all doubt, all conflict and all darkness that engulfs us within and without can be removed and we can attain a reality of happiness,peace, harmony and light.”


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religious movement in the world with about 500 millionpractitioners worldwide. If I ask someone who practices yoga if it has affected their life, will they answer positively or negatively?Would they think they have become a better person, morepeaceful, less destructive to themselves and to others throughyoga? If you ask yogis these questions, you will hear affirmativeanswers: “Yes, yoga helped me – yoga improved my life. I became calmer. I became less violent. My motivation to helpother people increased.” The core teachings of asana,pranayama, savasana, sattvic food, meditation and positivethinking create an inner storehouse of peace. This accomplish -ment evolved from Swamiji’s creation of the Yoga TeacherTraining Course. It was the first instrument to shape a newgeneration of leaders to help humanity endure during theperiod when his vision manifested on the planet.

Some essential yoga teachings of Swami Visnudevanandawere based on two verses from The Hatha Yoga Pradipika. The first of these verses tells us that the compassionate YogiSwatmarama, author of The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, offers thelight of Hatha Vidya for those sunk in the “darkness of conflictingsects”. There are many philosophical views in the world, manyparadigms, many worldviews with conflicting sects fighting oneanother. Ordinary people who want to attain peace and harmonyare bewildered by the multiplicity of opinions and conflicting sects.Through the knowledge of yoga, all doubt, all conflict and alldarkness that engulfs us within and without can be removed andwe can attain a reality of happiness, peace, harmony and light.

The second verse teaches that Hatha Yoga serves as a “shelteringmonastery” for those who are scorched by the three fires ofsuffering: the suffering of the body and the mind that comesfrom within us; the suffering that is brought to us by otherbeings; and the suffering that is brought to us by natural forceslike hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis,floods, and fires. Swami Vishnudevananda taught that yoga is like a sheltering monastery where we can find refuge fromthe scorching fire ignited by these three types of suffering. It is a place where people can find comfort. Swamiji would saythat each one of us must become that sheltering monasterywhere others can have protection and guidance. This is the truemission of the graduates of the Yoga Teacher Training Course.

Observing what is happening right now in the world, itseems that Swamiji’s vision is materializing in front of our eyes.The fire that he spoke of is all around us and it is spreading.People are bewildered and don’t know what to do; they areseeking answers and need help. Worldwide, there is a need forshelter, food, livelihood and clean water. All of us crave healthand healing. But the ultimate quality we really need in suchturbulent times is spiritual shelter and inner strength. If there is inner strength, then there is a possibility we can successfullyovercome this critical juncture in the life of humanity. Otherwise,if people only receive food, shelter, water and medicine, theymay not have enough inner strength to endure what humanityis going through right now.

What was Swami Vishnudevananda’s final conclusion abouthis vision? Is the world heading for disaster or is there a differentscenario? Towards the end of his life, Swamiji concluded thatthe visionary fire was not a negative fire. It was a sacred fire. In its presence, humanity would unite and march toward a glorious future. According to Swami Vishnudevananda, our

future is bright. In fact, there is a transformation taking placeright now and it’s a wonderful and positive transformation. We are not going toward some terrible destruction; we are notsurrendering to a hellish type of existence. Rather, we are in themidst of a transformation that will prepare us for a new future.

Transformations are chaotic by nature. When we evolvefrom one state to another, we enter chaos. There will be muchturmoil before change can occur. If we resist transformation, we will suffer more. If we understand it for what it truly is andwe do what is advisable, we will enter a wonderful future for all humanity. Although this transformation is beyond the powerof any human to stop, Swami Vishnudevananda assured us thathumanity is not helpless. We are key and essential partnerswithin this transformation. We should be active, participate,contribute and be involved in positive action.

“Swami Vishnudevananda taught us to be a ‘sheltering monastery’,offering strength to others through the teachings of yoga”.

There are many who worry during these difficult times; theyfocus on the turmoil itself. One of the principles that SwamiVishnudevananda taught us was the principle of positive thinking.Not foolish positive thinking but reasonable positive thinking.Things are happening on the planet that are of a positive naturetoo and that have never happened before in our history. Yogismust remain positive and strong. We must always remember thatSwami Vishnudevananda taught us to be a “sheltering monastery”,offering strength to others through the teachings of yoga.

So what can we as individuals do? First of all, we can keepour Self connected to the seed of inner peace and good withinus by our daily yoga practice. Then, we can share our knowledgewith others, teaching by our example. In our humble way, wecan help by offering this wonderful knowledge to others. It willgive people inner strength. It will give them hope and a clearervision of their world and their own role in it. So it becomesextraordinarily important to teach yoga.

It is essential to teach yoga and spread its message worldwide.As a trained yoga teacher, you can have a great impact. Even if you are not a graduate of a yoga teacher training course, as a yoga practitioner you are a yoga teacher by example.

Whether you are a yoga teacher or not, understand thatyour existence is very meaningful and important for humanity.Whether you believe it or not, you will start to see more andmore people coming to you to ask for spiritual shelter, help,advice and support. Your centeredness will be an anchor formany. Yogis are not the only ones who can offer this help. All peaceful people, aspirants who have knowledge, trainingand power can offer spiritual support. If we are to survive thesescorching fires of suffering predicted by Swami Vishnudevananda,we must become an essential shelter or monastery for others in this very moment. n


Swami Swaroopananda is a senior disciple of SwamiVishnudevananda and is Acharya (spiritual director) of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres on the west coast of America and Israel. He is also director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in Nassau, Bahamas.

og.


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YOGAVEDANTAMEENAKSHI ASHRAM


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A


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THE SOLAR PLEXUS

low and rhythmicalabdominal breathing is part of every yogasession. Each time you

breathe using the diaphragm,your solar plexus is beingstimulated. This article aims toexplain how the solar plexus canfunction as a gateway to gainingconscious control over theautonomic nervous system.

S

The Solar PlexusA Gateway to Consciously Balancing your Nervous System

By Swami Sivadasananda

The solar plexus, or celiacplexus, is a complex networkof nerves located in front of

the abdominal aorta, behindthe stomach, on the level of

the first lumbar vertebra.


The sympathetic andparasympathetic nervoussystemsThe sympathetic and parasympatheticnervous systems are the two branches of the autonomic nervous system, whichregulates all involuntary body functions.The sympathetic nervous system elicitsthe fight or flight response of the body in order to cope with stress. The solarplexus acts as a relay station for theabdominal section of the sympatheticnervous system, connecting it withorgans, blood vessels and glands in theabdominal area.

Sympathetic nerve impulses which arerelayed by the solar plexus promote:

• Inhibition of peristalsis (digestivemovement) and inhibition of secretionof gastric juices

• Conversion of glycogen to glucose in the liver (blood sugar balance)

• Secretion of adrenalin andnoradrenalin in the adrenal glands (increases stress and affects behaviour,motivation and attention).

The parasympathetic nervous system stimulates “rest and repair” throughoutthe body. The vagus nerve is one of itsmajor components. The solar plexus alsoacts as a relay station for the lowerbranches of the vagus nerve, supplyingparasympathetic impulses to theintestines, the kidneys and the spleen.

(This relay action is not shown in thedrawing above.)

The solar plexus also communicatessensory information from the abdominalarea back to the central nervous system.During the final relaxation at the end ofa yoga session, this sensory informationconsiderably deepens body awareness.

THE SOLAR PLEXUS

Conscious control of the solar plexusThe solar plexus includes a number of smaller plexuses: hepatic plexus,splenic plexus, gastric plexus, pancreaticplexus, and adrenal plexus.

The hepatic plexus, the largest offsetfrom the solar plexus, receives filamentsfrom the right phrenic nerve. The phrenicnerve provides the only motor supplyto the diaphragm.

Only the impulses of the left and rightphrenic nerves allow this movement ofthe diaphragm. The connection of theright phrenic nerve to the celiac plexus suggests an influence of the move mentsof the diaphragm on the functions of thesolar plexus (and thus the autonomicnervous system) and vice versa.

This is an indication that consciousdiaphragmatic breathing as practiced in asanas and pranayama, might have a voluntary influence on the solar plexus.Self-observation shows that this influencetends to balance the “fight and flight”activity of the sympathetic nervoussystem with the “rest and repair”activityof the parasympathetic system.

Visualizing the connection of thephrenic nerve via the diaphragm to thesolar plexus can help in understanding how conscious abdominal breathing is a major tool in achieving:

• Improved digestion and absorption of nutrients.

• Improved blood sugar balance.• A balanced adrenalin secretion, which

in turn helps to balance the fight andflight response as well as regulatingbehaviour, motivation and attention.

• Improved sensitivity for the abdom inal organs.

Figure A Figure B

Inhalation Exhalation

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Parasympathetic System Sympathetic System

Contracts pupils Dilates pupils

GanglionStimulates flow

of saliva

Inhibits flowof saliva

Constrictsbronchi

Slows heartbeat

Stimulates digestion

Stimulatessecretion of

digestive juices

Contracts bladder

Dilates bronchi

Accelerates heartbeat

Secretion of stresshormones

Inhibitsdigestion

Release of extrablood sugar

Inhibits bladder contraction

Chain ofsympathetic ganglia

Vaguenerve

Medullaoblongata

A. During inhalation the diaphragm contracts and moves downwards.B. During exhalation it relaxes and moves back up.


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THE SOLAR PLEXUS

Yoga teaches that we are in essencepure Spirit or Consciousness, whichexpresses itself through three bodies –the physical, the astral, and the causalbody. The astral body contains 72,000nadis, or subtle energy channels. Sevenchakras, or networks of nadis, arefound along the sushumna nadi, themain energy channel located in thespinal cord. Each chakra of the astralbody corresponds to a nerve plexus in the physical body. The solar plexus is the physical counterpart of themanipura chakra. Through the practiceof asanas and pranayama, as well asother Hatha Yoga practices, the twomain energy currents of the astralbody, prana and apana or ha (sun) andtha (moon), converge and unite in themanipura chakra (ha-tha-yoga). In thephysical body, this union can be com -pared to balancing the sympathetic andparasympathetic nervous systems.

Prana, nadis and chakras are subtlein nature. Therefore one may doubt thatthey actually exist. Visualizing the

impulses of the phrenic nerve travellingthrough the solar plexus to yourdiaphragm can help you to deepen your sensitivity for the solar plexus. By focusing on these physiologicalchanges, you may become aware of the more subtle life force, or prana,which operates “behind” or actually“within” the impulses of the nervous system.

Breath retention in pranayamaWhen we hold the breath, it appears thatthe activity of the respiratory system hasstopped: after inhalation, the diaphragmremains contracted, keeping the lungsfilled with air. Yet this contraction of thediaphragm is only possible through a constant flow of impulses along thephrenic nerve. Each impulse which travelsthrough the right phrenic nerve is linkedto the solar plexus, which in turn has a direct influence on the autonomicnervous system. From the perspective of the nervous system, breath retention is very dynamic.

Breath retention is an essential partof pranayamas such as alternate nostrilbreathing (anuloma viloma) and lungpurification (kapalabhati). Manypranayama practitioners experiencewarmth, magnetism, lightness andexpansion of energy in the abdomenduring breath retention. Throughrelaxation, visualization and concen -tration, these sensations can be guidedalong the spine to the third eye (ajnachakra) between the eyebrows, evokingan elevating experience of mental clarityand expanded consciousness. Thesesensations can be understood both as activities of the solar plexus and thenervous system, and as movement ofprana (subtle life energy) in the nadis and chakras of the astral body.

From unconscious to conscious Yoga aims at quality more than quantity.The quality consists in becoming moreaware, more conscious of all changes in body and mind, and being able tobring them into a harmonious balance.The conscious control which yogicbreathing produces in the autonomicnervous system via the solar plexus opensa gateway to consciousness. Every newbreath is a chance for a new awareness.n

Swami SivadasanandaIs a long time disciple of SwamiVishnudevananda and the director of the Sivananda Yoga VedantaCentre in Madrid. He is also YogaAcharya for the Sivananda YogaCentres in Europe and S.America.

e-mail: [email protected]

Solar Plexus and Manipura Chakra

Illustration showingthe seven Chakraswith Nadis

Manipura Chakra, the Astralcounterpart of the Solar Plexus


June 19 – 25, 2012

T T C R E F R E S H E RFurther Training for Sivananda Yoga Teachers

ASHRAM DE YOGA SIVANANDALoire Valley, France

Deepen your vision, expand your knowledge,fine-tune your skillsWith Swami Durgananda, Swami Sivadasananda, Swami Kailasananda, Swami Atmaramanandaand many swamis and teachers from the Sivananda Centres

Donation for the 5 days all included: Tent space: 60 €, Shared room: 110 €, Double room: 160 €

Fresh Inspiration!

Ashram de Yoga SivanandaFounder: Swami Vishnudevananda. Est.1957.

www.sivananda.org/orleans • www.sivananda.eu


3232

THAILAND TEACHER TRAINING COURSE 2011

igh in the mountains of Thailand, far North of Bangkok city,sits a jewel of a sanctuary, perched high on a hill amongstthe cascading, lush greenery of the Chiang Rai province.

The serenity of the place takes your breath away with its beauty andstillness. Some 420 meters above sea level, we find ourselves amidstbamboo forests, organic terraced vegetable gardens, water lily ponds,luxury cottages, tree jasmine and tropical orchids which together createa silent, ecological blend with nature. This bamboo-themed oasis, the Phu Chaisai Resort and Spa, was the location of the 2nd annualSivananda Thailand Teacher Training Course (TTC), in October.

HTeacher Training Course 2011


The TTC welcomed 71 students from allover the world including Thailand, Japan,the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium,Australia, Canada, the United States,Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and India.The TTC teachers and support staff camefrom Canada, India, Malaysia, Japan,Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand. SwamiMahadevananda and Prahlada arrived to head the event. On the first day, thecourse initiation ceremony was held inthe new bamboo sala, built especially byPhu Chaisai Resort for the TTC program.Swami Mahadevananda, Prahlada andspecial guest Khun Da, the owner of theresort, presided over the event.

Since the inaugural Thailand TTC in 2010, our host, Khun Da, has visitedSwami Mahadevananda in two locations:at Yoga Camp/Organization Headquartersin Canada, and at Dhanwantari Ashram,Neyyar Dam, in Kerala, India. From theseexperiences, Khun Da has developed a close affinity with the logistics andrhythm of the Sivananda OrganizationAshram life, leading to more opportunityfor Khun Da to participate in the 2011course and enhance the experience of the TTC students.

The students settled quickly into theresort facilities and the TTC program,making new friends and enjoying the beautiful natural setting of the tropical gardens. Immediately, SwamiMahadevananda inspired students with his thought-provoking Satsangs and vedanta lectures, discussing theparadigm of today’s “western” societyand its stereotypical views. Meanwhile,Prahlada delivered the introduction toteaching asanas, with students showingprecision and confidence in their ownasana practice. Prahlada also kept the

students focused with the Bhagavad Gitaclasses, simplifying the verses andteaching how to apply these lessons to their daily lives. From the BhagavadGita, Prahlad shifted to the Anatomy and Physiology lectures, where studentsshowed much interest in learning andasked many in-depth questions duringthe study nights. Vijay (from Delhi) andAnjeli (from Yoga Camp) taught theasana practical classes.

Practicing pranayama in the sereneatmosphere of the mountains filled thestudents with more prana each day. Theharmony with nature was evoked duringmany beautiful silent walks with thescenery of undulating hills and pockets of mist in the bamboo forests. The firstsilent walk was through giant bambooforests and ponds with water lilies.Another walk, led by Khun Da, was to the picturesque tea plantation nearbywhere students had the memorableexperience of picking tea leaves at sunrise. There were excursions into theforests after overnight rains, experiencingthe fresh smells of wet soil and washedleaves. Another time, Prahlada ledeveryone on a magical pre-dawn silentwalk to Khun Da’s house. On the roof of her hilltop mud house, students sat fora silent meditation and Satsang. The sunrose, lighting up the entire landscape ofhills, river valley, forest and farmland, allframed by a rainbow. Following theSatsang, rain appeared so the pranayamaclass was quickly relocated to insideKhun Da’s house. Later SwamiMahadevanandaji joined the group and took everyone to his house for a surprise ice cream party. It was a morningto remember.

As a long-standing tradition of Swami

Vishnudevananda’s, bonfires wereoccasionally lit, with locally-grownpopcorn and hot chocolate drinks, andstudents quickly offered their talents of singing and dancing to enhance the experience.

Days off comprised of excitingadventures away from the resort, or a rest by the resort’s pool or massagetable. On the first day off, most studentsopted to take the local tour, organized bythe resort. The first stop was the famousMae Fah Luang Gardens at Doi Tung,former home of the Thai King’s mother.Next was the Golden Triangle – a famousyellow sandbar in the middle of theMekong River, forming the border ofThailand with Burma and Laos. The OpiumMuseum displayed the region’s turbulenthistory. Another option was an overnighttrip to nearby Chiang Mia and the TigerKingdom, where students could pet thetigers, followed by a visit to an ElephantShow for elephant rides, elephantfootball and to view the talentedelephants painting scenic watercolours!

One morning, Kriyas were taughtwith some students having success on their first attempt at Vastra Dhauti.

The talent shows were enjoyed by all,with lovely singing from the TTC studentsand a very entertaining Japanese comedydance. A group of guest students from a local university came to perform gracefulThai dances and lively percussion sessions.

As the students became familiar withthe chanting, the Satsangs were noticeablyfilled with prana, culminating with thefirst Sunday prayers ending in applause.It was noted that during the TTC, theUniversal Prayer had been presented in a total of 13 languages.

One evening after Satsang, students


33


34


watched the video of Swami Vishnu -devananda and his Peace Missions. This beautiful video naturally beckonedstudents to connect even more closelywith Master and Swamiji.

During the TTC, Swami Mahadevanandajihad a vision to bring children to the PhuChaisai Resort for a Sivananda Yoga KidsCamp. Khun Da, inspired by her Summer2011 visit to Canada and the annualYoga Kids Camp, agreed with Swamiji’svision. Together, Swami Mahadevanandaand Khun Da developed the first stepstowards inviting both local Hill Tribechildren and international students livingin Thailand to participate in yoga.Saraswati arrived from Canada to look at the suitability and feasibility of theidea. She visited local villages and sawgreat potential for the Sivananda YogaOrganization to enrich the lives of thelocal Hill Tribe children. Spontaneously,the Hill Tribe children gathered andarrived to Phu Chaisai for their yogaexperience. Saraswati taught the TTCstudents how to teach children of allages, with the class filled with localchildren. It was a fun event for all, fillingthe class with big smiles, joyful laughter,and giggles. Before Saraswati departedback to Canada, Khun Da spent a lot oftime with her and the Thai teachers,planning a future Kids Camp for the localchildren. We thanked Saraswati for herinspirational teaching of the Kids Yogaportion of the TTC, and for creatinginterest in a future Kids Camp. The TTCstudents were inspired to come back

again and help at the next Kids Camp at Phu Chaisai. Swami Vishnudevananda’senergy was felt as the glorious seed was planted for future Kids Camps and Family Camps at this beautifulsanctuary in Thailand.

During the TTC news arrived ofthe excessive flooding throughoutThailand due to the storms.Manjunath performed a powerfulMaha Mrityunjaya Homa, whilemany prayers were sent to thepeople of Bangkok and other areas of Thailand affected by the floods.

Mantra Initiation was offered duringthe last week of TTC. Twenty-threestudents took Mantras in a specialceremony presided over by SwamiMahadevananda. The students eachoffered traditional Thai-style Kratongbaskets, made from banana trunks andpandanus leaf, decorated with flowersand fruit. Forty-eight students tookspiritual names which were readilypracticed around the Ashram. Manjunathconducted a Durga Puja with beautifulrose petals.

A celebration not to be missed wasDeepawali – the Festival of Lights, anevent held in Thailand, as well as Indiaand other neighboring countries. Khun Daand the resort staff were very helpful inassisting with decorations at Phu Chaisai.Manjunath conducted a beautifulceremony in honour of the GoddessLakshmi. Everyone felt the power of this auspicious night of newbeginnings. A wonderful fireworks

display completed the evening.Other highlights of this high prana

month included one evening when Khun Dainvited people from the local tribe, theAkha tribe, to visit and perform. Famousfor their richly coloured handi crafts, these

tribes originated from Tibet andSouthern China. Children fromthe local tribe performed a sound and light show,depicting traditional village life.

Inspiring videos of the YogaCamp Headquarters and Neyyar Dam

were also shown one evening, whichattracted students to join theOrganization as Karma yogis or staff.

All students passed the exam, muchto their relief. After a post-examrelaxation, the whole group enjoyed a Thai feast provided by the Phu ChaisaiResort. The Graduation Ceremony wasfull of energy, with all students graduating.Their Siromani certificates werepresented by Swami Mahadevanandaand Prahlada. Khun Da gave an inspiringappreciation talk to the congregation. In turn, the energetic group of studentspresented stellar performances in theirlively talent show. The next day afterGraduation the students departed withhigh prana and shining faces.

Everyone was deeply moved by theone-month TTC experience, the teachingsof Master and Guruji, the presence of Swami Mahadevananda and Prahlada, plus the rest of the TTC teachers and staff. n

The Life and Teachings of Swami Vishnudevananda in audio files…

Swami Vishnudevananda’s life was dedicated to teaching Yoga. His classes, lectures and satsangs were carried by great sincerity and inspiration. The atmosphere was charged withauthoritative first hand knowledge, which addressed the essential points in a very straightforward and clear way. Swamiji’s presence emanated a special blend of discipline and humour,which deeply touched the lives of thousands of people. Thanks to the untiring volunteer work done at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp Headquarters in Val Morin, Canada, over 3000recordings have now been transferred from cassette tapes to mp3-format. This impressive archive constitutes a most precious legacy of Swami Vishnudevananda, this great pioneer of Yogaof the 20th century, who served his students by actually living with them.

If you would like to help review additional recordings, so we can make more available on the internet, please sendan email to [email protected]

Over 300 talks by Swami Vishnudevananda are now available at http://audioarchive.sivananda.euThe talks can be selected by topic and many have translation into other languages.

‘LISTEN AND TAKE NOTES’ KARMA YOGA PROJECT

The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres


35

THE BHAGAVAD GITA, WHAT FOR?

t was the summer of 1973 in ValMorin, Canada. The Americaninvolvement in the Vietnam warhad terminated in the spring, every

week Richard Nixon seemed more andmore embroiled in the Watergatescandal and Swami Vishnudevanandawas teaching the fifth Sivananda TTC to a group of some 80 youngsters,mostly from the US, Canada or the UK.There were three foreigners: one Finn,one Spaniard and one Swiss, me.

As a healthy 25 year old, my maininterests were predictable: improving thepractice of asanas and acquainting myself with the attractiveyoung yoginis in the TTC who did not seem to mind a Frenchaccent at all. Both proved to be no disappoint ment and arefondly remembered. Swamiji was shaping us like clay, teachingeverything himself: a lecture in the morning, then the asanasclass, then the main lesson ranging from anatomy to Vedanta,then asanas again and finally another lecture in the evening. He knew how to keep us busy all day with one exception:teaching the “Gita class”. That job had been given to amarvelous Indian musician and singer, Sant Keshavadas, whosetalent was way beyond our grasp. He quit after a week or so,probably disgusted by our attitude: youngsters in those dayskept trying to figure things out, to no avail of course, but wethought we were infinitely smart. The next teacher was anIndian gentleman doing his best, but his delivery was monotonousand with a class at noon, well, you know what I mean: every -body kept dozing off. He too quit (understandably) and after a while, the swimming pool seemed to be the place where we would congress at noon, supposedly to “read the Gita”. In short, it was a disaster.

In those days yoga was exotic and remained largely alien to mainstream western schools of thought. The Sivanandaapproach was that one had to sit down, shut up and listen to a teacher – not an obvious choice for self-conscious“intellectuals”. We didn’t really buy it and tended to grab thefew books available, on the assumption – ubiquitous at thetime – that westerners were much more qualified to explainIndian philosophy than the Indians themselves. Being a voraciousreader, I had been on a heavy diet of whatever we could access:Ram Dass’ Be Here Now was naturally a must, but so wereMircea Eliade’s Yoga Immortality and Freedom – an obscureand difficult work I should say; Carl Jung’s musings on Easternphilosophy were arduous enough and sometimes boring, but hewas a Swiss after all, so what could one expect ? To get a tasteof exotic ideas and inspiration, there were Paul Brunton’s A Search in Secret India, Arthur Osborne’s Ramana Maharshiand the Path of Self Knowledge and other romantic books.

By then I knew that people I admired had described theGita as a major work in human history. Besides Schopenhauer’sfamous comment about the Upanishads being the passion of his life and the solace of his death – frankly a rather dull

remark, but Schopenhauer was then the favorite of any young man romanticenough to be caught in the Zeitgeistand wondering what the future mayhave in store for him. Albert Einsteinhad said that after pondering abouthow the universe was created andreading the Gita, everything else seemedsuperfluous. Herman Hesse saw it as the revelation of wisdom which enablesphilosophy to blossom into religion;according to Carl Jung, the famousanalogy in the Gita of the tree growingdown and not up (Chapter 15 as I did

not know back then) showed that we are not an earthly but a heavenly plant. Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed that Krishnahad all the attributes of a monotheistic god and those of theUpanishadic absolute and even that misanthrope, fellowhumans hater Henry David Thoreau would praise the BaghavadGita! Such unanimity had to mean that the text was worth an effort.

I tried and I submit that the Gita is similar to Ornytorinchusparadoxus, an Australian wonder, which lays eggs but breast-feeds its progeny, has a duck’s beak but four legs, displays a beaver tail but has a venomous sting, sleeps 14 hours a daybut reacts to the smallest electrical current generated by itsprey. The Gita is liber paradoxus, a paradoxical book, not anintellectual pursuit as such, but neither fully in the realm of mystical musings; devotional in many ways but rigorouslylogical in others. In other words it is hard to categorize.

Think of it as a handbook, perhaps. It contains the “howto” of the various yoga paths and the more one comes intocontact with it, the deeper it seems to become. The idea that a warrior would refuse to fight because he does not wish to killpeople he knows and loves seems pretty straightforward, andthe reader immediately sympathizes with Arjuna’s despondencyon the battlefield, only to see the other main character – nothingless than a God, mind you – give the hero a thorough dressingdown and a brutal reminder that his duty as a soldier is to fightand kill. That has to be the most original and eye catchingintroduction to a philosophical discourse in human history!

Beginners should not read the Gita but simply listen to anintroduction and approach it with the firm assurance thatnobody is asking them to believe anything, then read a coupleof chapters and start thinking. Reactions may vary but the bookis likely to be somewhat heavy going after the second chapter.It is then better set aside for a while, to be taken up againwhenever the mind is tired of the daily Mahabharata. Not a “holy”book in the traditional sense, it is profoundly Hindu in itspresentation of a universe working its ways through variouscycles, yet obviously compatible with whatever Weltanschauungone most easily relates to. It is one of the few pieces of readingthat seem to become more and more relevant as one’s life movesthrough its different cycles, so it would be really self-defeatingto stay away from it when it happens to be available. n

IThe Bhagavad Gita,What for?

By Charles Poncet


36

YOGA ASANA CHART

Yoga Asan

Exhale, palms together.

Inhale, stretch the right leg back,place the knee onthe floor, keep thechin up.

Retain the breath, keep thebody in a straight line, hipsparallel to the floor.

Exhale, push the hips up, and pushthe head in towards the knees.

Inhale, stretch the right leg forwardand place the foot in line with thehands, keep the left knee on theground and the chin up.

Inhale, stretch up andback keeping the armsand legs straight.

Exhale, bring the leftfoot forward so bothfeet are together, keepthe head touching the knees

Exhale, bend forward andplace the hands by the sideof the feet, head touchingthe knees.

Swami Sivananda(1887–1963)

5

6

8

12

Sun

SalutationSurya Namaskar

Repeat 12 times

4

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centreswww.sivananda.org • www.sivananda.eu

“Health is wealth, peace of mind is hapSwami Vishnudev

Inhale, lift the head and chest, keep thehips on the floor, the feet together and the arms slightly bent.

Exhale, drop the knees chestand forehead to the floor.

3

12

10

9

7

Inhale, stretch up and backkeeping the arms and legs straight.

Exhale and place the arms bythe side. For the next round, inposition 4 stretch the left legback first. (Alternate the legsfor each round).

11


37

YOGA ASANA CHART

Swami Vishnudevananda(1927–1993)

Headstand Sirshasana

PloughHalasana

Final RelaxationSavasana

ShoulderstandSarvangasana

Fish Matsyasan

Sitting Forward BendPaschimothanasana

Cobra Bhujangasana

Half LocustArdha Salabhasana

Full LocustSalabhasana

BowDhanurasana

Half Spinal TwistArdha Matsyendrasana

Crow Kakasana

PeacockMayurasana

Standing Forward bendPada Hasthasana

TriangleTrikonasana

• Practice in the morning or evening before meals. • Begin with the Sun Salutation. Synchronise the breath with each movement.• The asanas should be practiced slowly and in a relaxed manner. • Between asanas, relax with six to eight deep breaths in the Corpse pose

to avoid fatigue.• Concentrate your thoughts on each asana and try not to let your mind wander.• After completion of the asanas relax for 10 minutes in the Corpse pose.

1 2 3 4

5 6 7a

7b 8 9 10a

10b 11 12

ana Chart

retch leg back,knee onkeep the

keep thene, hips.

d andthe sideuching

ind is happiness, Yoga shows the way.”Vishnudevananda


38

YOGA IN AUSTRALIA

ne of the most distinctive traits of Swami Sivanandaand Swami Vishnudevananda was that theyperceived the whole world as one family. For them, there was no stranger on this planet.

Therefore, what made them most happy was when they sawthe universal teachings of yoga spread to every corner of theworld, and both dedicated their life and energy to help this to happen.

Through the tireless and lifelong service of SwamiVishnudevananda to teach yoga in the name of his master, theSivananda Centres and Ashrams came into being all over theworld – in Asia, the US, Canada, Europe and South America.

Sivananda Yoga Centres all over the world? Wait a minute,there are indeed some blank spots left on this planet, none ofthem purposely neglected by Swamiji and Master Sivananda,who simply ran out of their span of life. One of these blank

spots is the whole continent of Australia, a huge country filledwith sweet, yoga-enthusiastic people, writing emails to theSivananda Centres such as:

“I am Australian and live in Sydney/Melbourne /Brisbane/Perth and would be very interested in learning traditional,integral yoga as taught by the Sivananda Yoga Centres. As I saw on your webpage that you have Centres in many countries, but cannot afford a long distance flight, I was wondering if there are any Sivananda Centres or Retreatsor Teachers’ Training Courses here in Australia?”

So far, all that could be done was, with a heavy heart, to send a reply in the negative.

O

Yoga in AustraliaBringing Swami Vishnudevananda’s 5 Points of Yoga‘Down Under’!By Swami Bhagavatananda


39

Actually, to say there is no Sivananda Yoga in Australia is notentirely true – there has been quite some activity in the past.

Swami Vishnudevananda himself was in Australia in thefifties for a month on his way from India to the West. He stayedmainly in Perth, but also visited Sydney and Melbourne, andover the years, some Australians became close disciples of Swamiji.

Further, there were two Teachers’ Training Courses inAustralia, in the years 1980 and 1981. Both took place on theGold Coast in Queensland and were taught by close disciples of Swamiji with Swami Vishnudevananda himself being presentfor some time in one of the two courses.

There also existed for some time affiliated Centres in Brisbaneand the Blue Mountains and some Retreats also took place,mainly conducted by Swami Mahadevanandaji.

Over the past years, activities have been mainly kept up byKamala from the Blue Mountains, who knew Swamiji in person,ran an affiliated Centre for many years and is still teachingSivananda Yoga Classes on a regular basis.

Now, in order to continue Swamijis work, Swami Kailasananda,who is the Acharya for Australia, went there in December 2011,accompanied by a small group, to conduct a retreat near Sydneyand programmes in Sydney and Melbourne. The idea was not toonly re-establish activities, but also test the waters for a futureTTC and maybe even a Sivananda Centre in Australia.

The organization of the programmes was done through theLondon Centre and everyone involved got quite excited duringthe progress, feeling like pioneers! We were surprised howextensive the Australian database turned out to be and howmany Sivananda teachers were among them. One of our closeteachers in London helped to find a suitable place for a Retreatone hour south of Sydney while on a family visit to Australia.Other former London teachers, now living in Australia, helpedwith finding locations for the Sydney and Melbourne OpenHouse programmes and organized a team of Karma Yogis whodid a wonderful job with poster and leaflet distribution.

Enrolments for the retreat started pouring in immediately

after we had set up a special webpage, sent out some e-newsletters and started flyer and poster distribution. In theend we had 43 registrations (and one baby), among them manystudents who had done the TTC.

Flying from London to Australia with over 20 hours flighttime, 13 hours of time difference and 2 days of travellingbrought the term “long distance flight” for us to a whole newlevel. Upon arrival in Sydney we were warmly greeted andlovingly hosted by the Sydney Sivananda teachers and spent therest of the day relaxing, taking a stroll along the harbour andtrying to get rid of jetlag and body stiffness caused by the longflight. In the evening we had Satsang with the teachers andKarma Yogis and we could feel Master Sivananda and Swamiji’senergy already manifesting.

The next morning, after Satsang, we took a lovely walkthrough the famous botanical gardens and then got ready forour Open House. We had been able to secure the excellentlocation of the Sydney Park Pavilion, a light and spacious hallsurrounded by beautiful gardens in a well frequented area oftown. We had a good turnout for the evening, both completebeginners as well as people who had in some way been intouch with Sivananda Yoga already. They all enjoyed the Asanaclasses and lecture on Swamiji’s 5 points of Yoga, followed by delicious snacks and tea. We also had set up tables withbrochures and flyers and distributed loads of informationmaterial. Many expressed their joy and gratitude of havingSivananda Yoga coming to Sydney. Again we could strongly feel the blessing and support of the Masters.

The next day, which was a Friday, we left Sydney for theOtford weekend retreat. By car it is one hour south of Sydney,Govinda Valley Spiritual Retreat Centre is situated in a lovelynatural setting of pristine forest and luscious bushland.Amazingly enough, in spite of the setting, the Otford trainstation is just five minutes walking distance away, making theRetreat Centre easy to access.

The staff welcomed us very warmly and served us delicious,

YOGA IN AUSTRALIA

Photo: Govinda Valley Photo: Govinda Valley Photo: Govinda Valley

Photo: Govinda Valley Photo: Govinda Valley


40

YOGA IN AUSTRALIA

lovingly prepared meals throughout the weekend. Govinda Valleyis surrounded by spectacular natural beauty and is a short drivefrom several sparkling beaches. Invitingly illuminated, endowedwith the purity of the forest air, the spacious Yoga hall provedto be a wonderful place for Asana classes, lectures and Satsangs.

Students started to arrive from all over the country (includingTasmania!) and got settled in their rooms or tents, and then theretreat started with an introductory talk and yoga classes forthe different levels. After enjoying a yogic feast for dinner,everyone gathered in the big hall for Satsang. Thanks to Kamala,who basically brought the complete contents of her meditationroom with her, we could decorate the hall beautifully and set upa gorgeous altar. Swami Kailasananda led the Meditation andpowerful Mantra chanting and gave a well appreciated talk onmind control.

Saturday, we had another lovely day and besides the yogaactivities we all enjoyed a walk through the forest and alongthe cliff line providing a gorgeous ocean view. The eucalyptusscented air of the Australian bush and colourful exotic birdsmade us feel we were paying a visit to paradise.

In the evening Swami Kailasananda led a teachers’ meetingwith 19 teachers. Many among the teachers expressed theirheart’s desire to have a Sivananda Centre in their area, retreatson a regular basis and TTC and ATTC in Australia. With greatzeal and enthusiasm, strategies were discussed to set up futureactivities and Karma Yoga projects were allocated such as:

• Looking for suitable places for retreats and TTC• Looking for possible locations for Sivananda Centres

in Sydney and Melbourne and maybe also Brisbane• Setting up a webpage with profiles of active Sivananda

teachers to enable students to find a teacher in their area,with something similar on Facebook

• Forming Satsang groups for Sydney and Melbourne with the intention to meet once a month

Parallel to the teachers’ meeting we held a Mantra talk forthose interested in Mantra initiation and afterwards everyonemet for another inspiring Satsang before a full day came to itsend. All rested for the night, sending a silent prayer of thanksfor the working heaters in the rooms since an unexpected dropin temperature made the nights quite chilly.

On Sunday, we had another gorgeous day of yogic practiceand nature walk and Swami Kailasananda gave Mantrainitiation to four students who felt ready to take that importantstep on their spiritual path. She also blessed in the name of theMasters the sweet baby son of former staff members Madhavaand Shyamala and applied holy powders on his surprised,frowning little forehead. May he be blessed with a gloriousfuture, long life and happiness. Needless to say that the littleone quickly became everybody’s pet during the weekend, beingpassed from one person to the next for a cuddle with the poormother searching through the whole building for her son.

After a final gathering and Arati, warm goodbyes wereexchanged and we returned to Sydney. On the way back, westopped for a beach walk. We made a second halt at the hugeVenkateshwara temple and immediately felt transported toIndia. The temple consists of two spacious separate buildings. In the first one Vishnu, Lakshmi, Andal, Rama and Hanuman are

worshipped, the second one is dedicated to Siva, Parvati,Ganesha, Subramanya and Durga. The temple is richlydecorated and buzzing with pujas and other rituals of worshipperformed by a number of Indian priests.

The following day we paid a visit to Kamala in the BlueMountains, who showed us around that area of spectacularbeauty and also drove us to the place with the best view on thefamous peaks called the “Three Sisters”. Afterwards we went toher beautiful house outside of Katoomba and prayed in hermeditation room and had tea.

The next morning we took a flight to Melbourne, the laststop on our trip. The Melbourne teachers and Karma Yogisreceived us affectionately and with the same hospitality thatjust seems to be part of Australian nature. The VIYETT/HamptonYoga Centre had offered to host our two-day programme andmade its beautiful, large yoga hall available for our activities.We had very well attended asana classes, lectures and Satsang,and everyone enjoyed delicious prasad and tea afterwards.Many students came for personal talks and guidance on theirfurther practice. Some future teachers from a Teachers’ Trainingprogramme at the Centre also participated on both days. Ourheartfelt thanks to the owner and staff of the Hampton Centrewho made the programmes happen so smoothly!

As we had some time during the day, we enjoyed an earlymorning walk and sunbath at one of Melbourne’s beautifulbeaches and drove through town afterwards to search forsuitable areas for a Sivananda Centre.

Time flew by and the next morning we had to leave. SwamiKailasananda flew to India for the EBM meeting and the rest ofthe group returned to Europe. All of us had the feeling that it isthe strong wish of Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevanandato have a TTC and a permanent place in the form of a Centre inAustralia, and work to make it happen continues.

This is the current state of affairs:• A TTC will take place January 12 – February 10, 2013 and

Govinda Valley has been booked for the occasion.• Some teachers are actively searching in Sydney and

Melbourne for a location for a Sivananda Yoga Centre andhave already looked at several interesting places.

• September 2012 there will be a TTC promotion tour withprogrammes in Sydney, Melbourne and Byron Bay as well as another weekend retreat in Govinda Valley.

• Investigations are in progress regarding charity status,certification, work permits for European staff, etc.

• The Sydney and Melbourne Satsang groups are meeting on a regular basis.

• Database, webpage and Facebook are being maintained and extended.

We request everyone to send prayers and positive thoughts to support Swamiji’s mission in Australia. If you would like to actively participate please contact us:

[email protected]/au


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YOGA IN AUSTRALIA

Sivananda Teachers’ Training CourseJanuary 12 – February 10, 2013Govinda Valley, near Sydney, AustraliaA four week intensive residential course covering all aspects of Yoga, just one hour south of Sydneyin the luscious bush land of Otford. Govinda Valley is surrounded by spectacular natural beauty and is a short drive from several sparkling beaches. Tuition Fee: Shared Room 3,650 AUD; Tent space 2,850 AUD.

Yoga VacationJanuary 14 – February 9, 2013 (free choice of dates)Weekend Retreat: September 21 – 23, 2012Special WorkshopsIn Sydney, Melbourne and Byron Bay in September 2012

Sivananda Yoga AustraliaFounder: Swami Vishnudevananda

Phone: +61 (0) 3 9016 0508 [email protected]/auwww.sivananda.eu


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THE SIX SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

here are six systems of Indian philosophy, not more nor less. Before we discuss these 6 systems, it will help us if we understand what Indian philosophy is, and even before

that, what philosophy itself is.Philosophy (philo-sophia, love of wisdom) is the pursuit

of wisdom and as such is superior to any of man’s otherpursuits, including knowledge, and it is more subtle. In everydaylife, manpower, or money-power, shouts. It can’t speak in a lowvoice. Bull-power, or muscle-power, also shouts. Wisdom speaksvery slowly and quietly, but it goes deeper inside the listener.

In the western tradition, philosophy is an intellectual pursuitwhich relies on reason, argument, discussion and debate.Philosophical knowledge has grown from age to age, from the

Greek tradition – Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle – to thecontemporary stage. The philosopher states a belief, and thenthrough logical argument explains how he has penetrated themultifariousness of life to arrive at his conclusion. In this way, a philosopher is a distinguished person who tries to provide thekey to the beginning and the end of the world, to existence andlife itself.

Indian philosophy is much older than its western counterpart,and has a slightly different approach. In the west, philosophy is predominantly an intellectual and rational pursuit based onreason, argument, discussion and debate, Indian philosophy is more intuitive. Intuition is supra-rational, above reason, aboveargument, above debate. It is direct experience, or directperception, for which the special term is realisation.

T

The Six Systems of Indian philosophy

By Professor Pandey


This is not to say that Indian philosophy undervalues reasonand intellectual activity for, of course, philosophy withoutreasoning is inconceivable, it is something else – it may beBhakti (devotion), or religion. It is not philosophy. But there arerealms where empirical knowledge, or knowledge gainedthrough experience, cannot go. For instance, the sense organs– skin, tongue, nose, ears, and eyes – gather our knowledge forus, but can they tell us the identityof that which experiences all thesephenomena? Suppose I have to knowwhat the soul is, what is Brahman,what is the Absolute? Certainlysome other source of knowledge is required, which is where intuition,or realisation, comes in.

Indian philosophy originatesfrom the Rishis (“seers” who wereSelf-realised) and is conveyedthrough the scriptures of the Vedas,Upanishads, Smritis, and Dharma Shastras. They convey thateternal, lasting and absolute reality which is over and above the changing, perishable and transitory world. This is, in short,the beginning, the pursuit and the approach of what we callIndian philosophy.

The six systems of Indian philosophy The six systems of Indian philosophy are said to be orthodoxand theistic because they believe in the authority of the Vedas.The Vedas are divine revelations. Just as the sun shines in themorning, without any engineer, without any technician, it comesout of nothing, shines and gives light, so the Vedas are super -human, beyond human reach, and beyond human intellect. Thatis why their character is revelatory. They are revealed. Revelationmeans something which comes into light out of itself withoutany human mechanism. Other books are written by man, butthe Vedas are superhuman and eternal, they were not written in time, they transcend time. One who has this idea about theVedas is a believer, which is why all 6 systems are theisticalthough 2 of the systems do not believe in God (the Samkhyaand Mimamsa systems). When a believer of the Vedas needsadvice, he will turn to the Vedas. No other testimony, argument,or evidence is needed. This is known as the Vedic authority, the scriptural authority to which all the 6 systems subscribe.

Each of the 6 systems has its own technical name and a separate preceptor at its source. The systems and theirpreceptors are:

1. Nyaya, propounded by Rishi Gautama

2. Vaisheshika, propounded by Rishi Kanada

3. Samkhya, propounded by Kapila

4. Yoga, propounded by Patanjali

5. Purva Mimamsa or Mimamsa, propounded by Jaimini

6. Uttar Mimamsa or Vedanta, propounded byBadarayana (also called Vyasa)

1. Nyaya The Nyaya system is mainly epistemology. Epistemology meansthe theory of knowledge, i.e., what is knowledge, how doesman acquire knowledge, how do we distinguish validknowledge from unsound knowledge? Is man born withknowledge or does he gain it over time?

For instance, say we mistake a rope for a snake in the dark.Because of the dark, we think therope is a snake, but afterwards, whenwe put on the light, it becomesobvious that it is actually a rope.So there is valid and invalidknowledge. Man has senses,intellect and reason; is it possible toknow everything through perceptionand inference? Can we knoweverything or is there somethingwhich is beyond knowledge? We

have access to the scriptures, the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas,the Srimad Bhagavatam, etc, and this is the ultimate place to search for knowledge. Why do you think that man is bornagain after death? A believer would say: because it is writtenin the Gita, in the Bhagavat, in the Vedas etc.

Ultimately, our knowledge is limited unless we have super -human or divine knowledge. The Nyaya system enquires intothe meaning and truth of knowledge, and what is the touchstoneto decide between correct and incorrect knowledge.

2. Vaisheshika The sage propounding Vaisheshika was called Kanada. Kanadaliterally means small particles, and true to his name, it is saidthat Kanada survived on small grains, avoiding heavy meals.

The Vaisheshika system similarly looks at the composition of the world asking what is the substance out of which thispeculiar, vast world has been created, or has emerged? It believes that objects in the world can be analysed into 7 categories (padarthas) and that the tragedy of human life is that we try to identify ourselves with one or other of thesecategories when really we should contrast ourselves with them.For instance, we see a multitude of stars in the night sky, butwe are not one of those stars. What are we then? Who is thisentity which is responsible for experiencing, seeing, or perceivingthis complex and variegated world? Analysing the world into as many objects as possible, trying to know them and trying to know the distinction between those objects and ourselves,this is the business of the Vaisheshika system.

Nyaya and Vaisheshika are supplementary and comple -mentary. They have very intricate, subtle theories of Self andconsciousness, investigating whether man has innate knowledgeor whether it is acquired later on through various means.

3. Samkhya Samkhya subscribes to dualism and is itself a dualistic system.Dualism means that there are two parallel realities: like the tworails of train track, they run close to each other but never collide.One reality is matter (Prakriti) and the other is spirit (Purusha).

The world is the manifestation of Prakriti, and the soul orSelf is Purusha. Our bodies, including the physical body, mind


“Suppose I have to know whatthe soul is, what is Brahman,what is the Absolute?Certainly some other source of knowledge is required,which is where intuition, or realisation, comes in”.

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and thoughts etc, all belong to the material hemisphere of Prakriti.Purusha alone is the Self, the one who sees, the one who looksupon. The great mistake we all make is to identify the Self withthe non-Self. Suppose there is a big mirror showing our reflection.The mirror has nothing to do with the individual whose reflectionappears in the glass. If the individual runs away, the mirror willnot lose anything and if the individual returns the mirror will notgain anything. The mirror is completely disinterested in the individual.

Similarly, Samkhya says that the Self has got entangled withthe material world. This is known as bondage, and explains ourfear of death. Samkhya says that the soul is immortal, it is notborn and will not die. It is only the body which has beencomposed and which will decompose. Why should the soulworry for this bodily existence?

4. Yoga Yoga is the supplementary and complementary system to Samkhya.The sage Patanjali says that there are 8 steps to yoga and, oneby one, the aspirant can ascend to Samadhi, the 8th and finalstage, a trance-like state when one forgets pain and pleasure,the body, sickness, thirst, hunger, sleep and all the functionsthat belong to the lower range of our existence.

The 8 steps are: Yama; Niyama; Asana; Pranayama;Pratyahara; Dharana; Dhyana; and Samadhi – all terms used by Patanjali. Step by step, theaspirant ultimately reaches Samadhi.Samadhi is union with one’s own realbeing. Yoga does not interfere withthe Samkhya theory of existence, itsupplements it by adding the practicalsteps we can take to realise that oursoul is immortal. If one mistakenlyidentifies the Self with nature, whichis inert, unconscious, mind-less matter,then yoga has a methodology to putus back on the right path. Themethodology is known as Ashtangayoga: Ashta means 8, Ashtangameans 8-fold path. It can be understood within a few minutesbut it takes a whole lifetime of actually practising it to master it.Otherwise, when it comes to the crunch, when we are facingdeath, we forget the philosophy and our fear of death takesover. Like a rat is afraid of a cat and a cat is afraid of a dog, sothere is a systematic fear of being hunted by death throughoutcreation. Man has many problems but the last and foremostproblem is death.

When we are born we do not experience pleasure or painbecause we need some amount of knowledge or consciousnessto experience even pleasure. Similarly, we cannot know what deathwill bring us, we can only imagine it. Yoga says that, althoughthe spirit is quite apart from the physical material body, the twoseparate entities have become compromised, and therefore thereal purpose of life is to discriminate between the two. Then fearof death will be eliminated. That is the purpose of yoga, or yoga philosophy.

All of the 6 systems ultimately have the same target –liberation (also known as mukti, or moksha, or salvation). Theyshow the way to move from ignorance to knowledge and breakthe cycle of bondage which causes us to suffer.

5. Purva Mimamsa or Mimamsa Purva Mimamsa, or just Mimamsa, mean the same thing –thorough criticism. The system of Mimamsa subjects evenreligion and ritual to thorough enquiry, asking why we do anynumber of spiritual practices, e.g. circumambulation, visitingtemples and churches to worship, pranayama etc. It asks whatthese practices will yield. Mimamsa is a philosophy whichdiscusses what religion is and what dharma is. It discusseswhat heaven is and how it can be achieved. It enquires aboutexistence, both in its highest and sublimest form, and its lowestform. It holds that all religious performances, all rituals, all duty,all spiritual activities ultimately lead to heaven, and if theopposite path is chosen, it will lead to hell.

Mimamsa also has a great contribution towards the theoryof Pramanas, more than any of the other systems. Pramanasmeans evidence, proof or the tools of argumentation. This is in short the essence of the Mimamsa philosophy propounded by Jaimini.

6. Uttar Mimamsa or Vedanta The last of the 6 systems is known as Uttar Mimamsa orVedanta, propounded by Badarayana (also called Vyasa). Just as Samkhya and Yoga are complementary systems, as are Nyayaand Vaisheshika, so also can Mimamsa and Vedanta be deemed

complementary and supplementarysystems to each other.

Vedanta is the philosophypropounded by the Upanishads.The Upanishads are the cream of the Vedas, coming at theconcluding portion of each of theVedas. Whatever has beendepicted, discussed and conveyedthrough the Upanishads is known as Vedanta. It is a thoroughlymetaphysical, ontological theory,dealing with the nature of ultimatereality and the contrast of this

changing, perishable, mundane world from that absolute,eternal, abiding reality. How can we know which sources willreveal the ultimate reality to us? That has been discussed in Vedanta.

Vedanta has a huge literature, but it’s essential philosophyhas been contained in just 5 sentences. They are known as Mahavakyas.

All the 6 systems of Indian philosophy were initiallyprop ounded in aphoristic sutra and are very cryptic with few words. Since then, they have been discussed in detail by acharyas and scholars. Like mantra, the aphorisms of the 6 systems are short and uncomplicated but they carry greatdepth of meaning. n

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Professor Pandey is a retired professor of Indian philosophy fromVrindavan, North India.

“Samkhya says that the soulis immortal, it is not born and will not die. It is only the body which has been com posed and which willdecompose. Why should thesoul worry for this bodilyexistence? ”



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alvation, liberation,enlightenment,Samadhi: thesewords name

a transcendental state of being. Yoga students are instructed that theexperience of such a state of spiritual attainment is beyond all and anydescription, but its potentialis immediately inferred bylooking into our longing forfreedom and our joy when we have it, even fleetingly. Theultimate goal of yoga practice is moksha, the liberation of thefragmented psyche from the worldly bounds of ignorance andsuffering, to the glory of Self-realization, bliss, and eternalwholeness. Here, in my country of residence, the United Statesof America, the word freedom is imbedded into the nationalpsyche and the civic fundamental philosophies. Society’s historyand mythology, for better and for worse, is framed around acenter point of freedom. The culture strives to define and live upto the ideal of liberty, albeit a different, more immediatelygraspable form of freedom than that of moksha or Samadhi,which have, in a way, no external or apparent qualities. In thename of liberty, individuals, communities, and nations set out inforce to attain freedom, defend it, and secure it at all cost –even, it seems, if the cost is freedom itself.

Ironically, the nation that uses the word ‘freedom’ mostfrequently casts the longest shadow from the brightness of itsunmet ideals. Currently, the United States incarcerates morethan 2.3 million human beings (mostly for nonviolent drugoffenses), amounting to more than 1 in every 100 Americansbeing in prison. The United States has the largest prisonpopulation in the world: although its country’s populationmakes up less than 5% of the global population of 7 billion, it holds 25% of the world’s prisoners.

This supposed land of privilege and freedom often comesinto collision with personal responsibility and integrity.Sometimes this happens intentionally, sometimes accidentally,but always it is through ignorance of the greater social forces,

psychologicalpatterning, and karma.This ignorance bringsabout conditionswhere the individual’srights are sacrificed,lost, or stolen. Theindividual finds himselfwith a relative loss of liberty to experiencethe consequences ofhis plight, and ends upin prison to live a

tragic form of personal dominion in the name of justice andsupposed “rehabilitation”.

“As above so below,” the dictum says, proclaiming that ourexpansive personal interior psyche tends to fructify as the worldin which one dwells; all exterior manifestations are no less thansymbolic mirrors bringing us face-to-face with the darkestcorners of our minds and our edge of learning. The humanpsyche’s tendency to lock away our fears, misjudgments, shame,and the resulting confusion deep into the shadowy recesses ofour subconscious is much the same scenario, magnified by thecollective consciousness. It is shaping, or warping, our communities,society, and culture. By “putting away” individuals into prisonsat alarming rates, they disappear from the public mindscape,but not without the societal consequences similar to the jailedemotions of the individual, where one becomes emotionallynumb. Empathy and intuition die as the underground streams of the individual mind and collective mind do not see light.

The teachings of Yoga tell us that, beneath the illusory veilsof our isolation, insecurities, and instinctual emotions, there is aperfection; the Self. This Self is pure, eternal, and ultimately free.This is who we really are. This greater wisdom, for those of uson “the outside”, can easily be taken for granted, mistaking ourown good fortune as an end in itself. This builds a mental cagethat imprisons the flight of the pure mind and erects a newkind of wall around our hearts, blockading the ability to trulyacknowledge the suffering of others at an existential level, andeven at a grossly obvious apparent level, with millions on theinside of barbed wire, iron bars, stress, and pain.

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PRISON YOGA OUTREACH PROJECT

Serving Time:Prison Yoga Outreach Projectby the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center

“When I first started working on the project, I thought I would be helping and teachingthose inside, but I quickly realized that I hadas much to learn from them. The boundlesswisdom of the yoga teachings were oftencrystallized in the correspondence from ourincarcerated yoga students, people just likeme, searching for an intrinsic peace from theultimate imprisoner of us all – our own egosand minds”.

S


In 1996, Prison Life magazine published an article writtenby an inmate describing the inspiration and joy the "CompleteIllustrated Book of Yoga" (CIBY) by Swami Vishnudevanandahad brought him. A book review mentioned that the book wasavailable to all prisoners at no cost. Within weeks, a deluge of letters from inmates arrived at the Sivananda AshramYogaRanch, upstate New York, requesting copies of the book. Lettercorrespondence with the prisoners began immediately, as did a fundraising program to meet the growing requests for books.Heartfelt letters of gratitude from prisoners proved the initialsuccess of the Project. The correspondence gave them a senseof “belonging”, enabling them to express their feelings andaspirations, and gave them a safe place to ask questions andhave their doubts cleared. This service continues today, mainlyout of the New York and California Ashrams and Centers.

The Prison Yoga Outreach Project is small in its logistics and effort. It is the steady work of just a few karma yogis andthe generosity of donors that keep it steady. But it seems it is time for it to grow. The entire income for the project in 2011 is just over a mere $4,200 and the expenditure was$4,435. A hand to mouth effort that sent out 166 copies ofSwami Vishnudevanada’s Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga, 43 copies of Meditation and Mantras, 45 different books bySwami Sivananda, and over 30 copies of other books createdby the SYVC, which gives a total of 284 books delivered free bymail to the imprisoned. Follow-up letters always follow, full ofgratitude for the relief and knowledge that the books bring, butalso for the realization that someone on “the outside” cares.

Serving the Prison Yoga Outreach Project, a part of theInternational Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, has been an eye-opener for me. Those of us who spend our time working on theproject start the process by opening a hand-written letter fromsomeone on the inside who somehow found our postedoffering in a listing of non-profit support services. They write to us looking for answers; answers to questions we all might be asking: How can I reduce stress? What is the mind? Howcan I find lasting peace and happiness? How can I be free? The difference is these individuals are pondering these lifequestions in a 4x4 cell – a cage.

When I first started working on the project, I thought I would be helping and teaching those inside, but I quicklyrealized that I had as much to learn from them. The boundlesswisdom of the yoga teachings were often crystallized in thecorrespondence from our incarcerated yoga students, peoplejust like me, searching for an intrinsic peace from the ultimateimprisoner of us all – our own egos and minds. These individualswere not placing blame outwardly or searching for band-aidescapism from the conflicts in their minds, what could they hopefor in that? Instead, they had been led, driven, and trapped withno alternative but to turn inward. And these students do turninward, they go deep for good reason, but for no better or more motivating reason than each of us could ask for.

These yoga practitioners, meditators, hatha yogis, bhaktis,and jñanis that live on the inside, locked up in concrete andsteel, inspire me to go deeper: deeper into my commitment to practice for my own salvation, but also deeper into mycommitment to practice for the service of all humanity,including those thrown away into the shadows.

May these few inspiring quotes fromletters awaken your own sense of duty to uplift all beings:

“Hello! I recently received the book you sent me(CIBY). WOW!!! Thank you very much. I didn’t expectsomething so nice.” – T.M. Colorodo.

“I’ve just started reading ‘Mind; Its Mysteries andControl’ . . . its proving to be another fantastic book. I also wanted you to know that the letter you sentwith the book was really appreciated as well. We alltook it as a huge compliment that our progress on theyogic path means so much to all of you who are partof the Prison Outreach Project and the Yoga Centeritself too.” – E.J. Nevada

“I leave here in 18 days. The book has been a greathelp in dealing with my transition back into society.” – D.W. South Carolina

“Dear Friend . . . thank you for sending it to me(CIBY) . . . Also, thank you for writing ‘If you haveany difficulties or questions, please feel free to contactme.’ Prisoners are basically an abandoned group ofpeople. So you offering to help with difficulties andquestions means a lot.” – S.C. Texas

“My paths are becoming clear and I’m ever-guided to cleanse and purify all about. Thank you, Thank you,Thank you. P.S. Is it possible to write to SwamiVishnudevananda? If so, where???” – J.D. California

DonationsChecks can be mailed to:

Sivananda Prison Project1200 Arguello Blvd. San Francisco, CA

Online:www.sfyoga.com (paypal)

Or call (415) 681-2731 (visa, mastercard, discover

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PRISON YOGA OUTREACH PROJECT

PrisonersLetters

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4848

YOGIC VEGETARIAN RECIPES

Fresh green herbs do not only turn the simplest dishes into delicious treats but also supply the body with precious vitamins and anti-oxidants.Enjoy this yogic-vegetarian meal which promotes Sattva (harmony) in body and mind while at the same time fulfilling all dietary needs of the body.

Health benefits of the herbs used in the recipes:Dill: appetizing flavour, stimulates digestion, rich in Folic Acid and Vitamin C.Basil: anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, rich in Iron, Vitamin A, Beta-carotene, Potassium, Copper and Magnesium.Rosemary: anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, antiseptic, very rich in Folic Acid, Riboflavin, Vitamin A.Sage: very rich source of many B-complex groups of vitamins, such as folic acid, thiamin, pyridoxineand riboflavin. Antiseptic. Enhances concentration, attention span and quickens the senses.Parsley: highly anti-oxidant, very rich in Vitamin K, rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Iron.Rucola (also called Arugula or Rocket): anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C,Vitamin K, Folic Acid.Lemon Balm: anti-fatigue, anti-stress, calming, soothing, relaxing.

Cooking with Fresh Green Herbse


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YOGIC VEGETARIAN RECIPES

Creamy Squash Soup with DillIngredients: Serves 2

½ Small squash, seeded, peeled and cubed

2 Small potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 tbsp Oil

1 Pinch salt

1 Pinch pepper

½ tsp Nutmeg

1 bunch Fresh dill, finely chopped

Method:Heat the oil in a pot, add the potatoes and the squash and stir fry for a fewminutes. Add 4 cups of boiling water, salt, pepper and nutmeg, cover and letit simmer until the vegetables are tender. Blend into a creamy soup and addthe dill.

Fragrant Veggies with a Mediterranean SauceIngredients: Serves 2

1 Crown of broccoli

1 Fennel

6 Black olives

2 tbsp Crumbled Feta

2 tsp Oil

1 pinch Black pepper

½ tsp Ground nutmeg

Salt to taste

1 tbsp Sunflower seeds or pine nuts

½ sprig Sage

1 sprig Rosemary

Method:Wash and dice all veggies. Chop the sage and rosemary (discard the hardstem of the rosemary). Heat the oil in a pan, stir fry the veggies for 3 minutes,add a few spoons of water, cover and cook on low flame until the veggies arecooked, but still crunchy (approx. 10 minutes). Put the sunflower seeds orpine nuts, green herbs, salt, pepper and nutmeg with some water into a foodprocessor and blend into a creamy sauce. Mix it with the veggies. Sprinklewith the crumbled Feta cheese and the olives.

Carrot-Rucola (Rocket) SaladIngredients: Serves 2

2 Small carrots

1 handful Rucola (rocket)

1 Pinch salt

2 tsp Olive oil

2 tbsp Lemon juice


Method:Peel and grate the carrots. Wash and tear the rucola. Mix all ingredients together.

Brown Rice with Lime and ParsleyIngredients: Serves 2

1 small cup Brown rice (basmati is best),

1 Pinch salt

1 Lime

½ bunch Parsley (curly is best)

Method:Chop the parsley, leaving a few sprigs whole for garnishing. Wash and drain the rice, add 2 small cups of water and the salt, put a lid on, let it boil and thensimmer on low heat without stirring for about 30 minutes until cooked (if youare using other rice than Basmati cooking time can be up to one hour). Sprinklewith the juice of half the lime and the chopped Parsley. Cut the remaining limeinto wedges and use it along with the whole parsley sprigs for garnishing.

Pureed Butter Beans with fresh BasilIngredients: Serves 2

½ small cup Butter beans

2 tbsp Olive oil

1 dash Lemon juice


1 tsp Salt

4 tbsp Finely chopped basil

Method:Soak the butter beans overnight in water and boil them in fresh water until soft(approx. 1 hour). Blend the beans with some of the water in which they wereboiled and all other ingredients (except the basil) into a creamy puree. Fold inthe chopped basil and garnish with a wedge of lemon and a few basil leaves.This puree also makes a great dip or bread spread.

Raspberry Delight with Lemon BalmIngredients: Serves 2

50 g Mascarpone

150 g Yoghurt (greek style is best),

4 tbsp cream for whipping

4 tbsp raw cane sugar or maple syrup

½ small cup raspberries

1tsp vanilla essence

2 sprigs lemon balm

Method:Whip the cream and set aside. Mix the Mascarpone, yoghurt, sugar andvanilla essence. Mash half of the raspberries and fold the pulp and wholeberries along with the whipped cream into the Yoghurt crème. Garnish eachportion with a dab of whipped cream, a sprig of lemon balm and a raspberry.

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CONVERSATIONS ON VAASTU SHASTRA

I would like to start this second articlewith words of wisdom of an Americanwell-known architect Frank Lloyd Wright(1867 – 1959).

“Form follows function – that hasbeen misunderstood. Form andfunction should be one, joined in a spiritual union”. – Frank Lloyd Wright, 1908

I was talking on the phone to onelandscape architect about business andwent to his website. Then I found theabove quote. I asked my customer, “Didyou place this quote on your website?”He said, “Yes.” I replied to him happilythat it is very true what Frank LloydWright said! I was so thrilled that FrankLloyd Wright “got it right”!

Someone would ask me how much I know about Frank Lloyd Wright. I wouldreply that I know very little but I do knowthat he was a unique thinker and wasnot afraid to follow his great intuition.

We all have wonderful intuition butwe rarely listen to it. Dear readers!

Please don’t be afraid to think “out ofthe box”, don’t hesitate to follow yourdreams and to stand out from the crowd.Don’t hesitate to dive into the Vedas ofthe ancients! You may find that manywell-known scientists, moviemakers,architects, artists, poets and us regularfolks did really dive into the Vedas andthen made our own small or bigdiscoveries, or found explanations to thevery scientific or very private questionsabout life, truth or laws of nature.

For example, a world known psych -ologist Carl Gustav Jung was fond of theVedas. Look at his beautiful mandalas in the book entitled The Red Book.According to Albert Einstein’s niece,Albert Einstein kept on his desk an esoteric book, The Secret Doctrineby H. P. Blavatsky which most likely hadhelped him to understand the Time-Space “reality” of the Universe evendeeper, and so forth.

Wow! These world known peoplecould connect their professional fields to the Vedas and make use of the Vedicknowledge in the modern world of

thinking! Why can’t we? So let’s try again.Frank Lloyd Wright said that "Form

follows function – that has been misunder -stood. Form and function should be one,joined in a spiritual union."

Why is that so? OK. Please get readyto dive really deep!

Function is the intrinsic structure of aform. Function is the quality of the mainidea embedded into the form. Form isthe function. Form and function are one.Yes, they are in a “spiritual union.” Whyis this union spiritual? It is spiritualbecause function has its own energeticconfiguration in the Subtle or SpiritualSpace. This specific configuration is the

CONVERSATIONS ON VAASTU SHASTRAThe Science of Space and TimeA Healing ArchitectureBy Olga Mandodari

Note: This is a continuation of Conversations on Vaastu Shastra. Please see the first article in Spring 2011 edition of YogaLife Magazine.

This article is in memory of my greatTeacher, Padma Bhushan Dr. GanapatiSthapati who left this physical plane on September 6th 2011.

“Let the gods purify me, let men purify me with a prayer.Cleanse me all creatures that exist! May Pavamana makeme pure.“ With this mantra the central hole should be established. – Vastusutra Upanishad


vibration of Divine String(s). (Please seethe first article in the Spring 2011 editionof YogaLife Magazine). When thevibration of the string(s) becomesrhythmic then the subtle form “hardens”and organizes itself as a Mandala ofenergy or the energy grid. The next stepis the manifest of the subtle form(Mandala) into the material world as aliving material form.

What is vibrating? The consciousnessis vibrating. Why is the consciousnessvibrating? It is vibrating with its own ideas,feelings and experiences because it is alive!

This “hardened” form has its ownsound! What is that sound? That sound

is the subtle sound of the mantra – theBija sound! The mantra is the mechanismperforming function of the form.

“The subtle sound of the mantra is the bija (seed-word). Beingunited with it the action of themantra is manifested.”– Vastusutra Upanishad

By chanting a mantra we are turningon the engine of the function. Someonemight say ,“God! This is really complicated”.Yes and no. This is a very natural processwhich was known by ancient saints anddescribed in the Vedas, Upanishads,Shastras and other scriptures. This hadbeen forgotten by our modern civilization.Now we are finally waking up.

For example, the heart pumps blood.So the heart has a very specific form inorder to pump blood in the most efficientway. The form of the heart is the optimalform to perform the pumping function. So Vaastu Shastra refer to different types of energy grids (mandalas) for specificfunctions. According to Vaastu Shastra, a building with an octagonal shape isdynamic and is recommended for examplefor theatres. A building with a roundshape is not recommended for living inbecause it has a very moving, spinningspace – but it is good for market places. It will help retailers to sell their productsfaster and so forth.

When form is not representing truefeelings, experiences and necessaryfunctions then this form suffers andbecomes sick. This is why some buildingsare sick buildings and have “sick buildingsyndrome”. These sick buildings internallysuffer like real beings from their wastedlives like humans suffer on the death bedfrom the realization of life’s unfulfilledpurpose. Buildings are real livingorganisms because they encap sulateconscience Space inside themselves.

“From the North come the twelvedivine forms, thus they say. In thisway according to the differentqualities the one Brahman becomestwelvefold. Just as Surya is the Lordof all lights, according to theirqualities are the (different) gods,and according to their featurestheir forms arise, and from thosethe secondary divinities are derived.This is truth.” – Vastusutra Upanishad

It is not part of a fairytale. It isactually a description of deep cosmicprocesses happening in the space. It is aboutthe Divine Mechanics of the consciousspace. There are twelve different intrinsicqualities evolving from a single source ofthe Living Energy – One Brahman. Thesetwelve qualities are the base for twelveDivine Forms – Gods. When twelve Divine


The diagram above illustrates the quotation from Vastusutra Upanishad and gives us an idea of the roots and causes of the form.

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Forms are organized in the space then the forms acquire theirown specific features, characters, emotions and influences.When twelve Divine Forms are completed in the evolution of the Space then Forms give birth to the secondary Divinities(Sakties) or very specific functions. Divine Forms are inseparablefrom their functions.

“As Visnu bestows liberation, (the Sakti of) liberation is Sri, Prthivi is to be enjoyed in the form of the objectof enjoyment. As from Rudra’s aspect of liberation arises Amba, fromhis attitude of enjoyment Ambika, these two. As from Indra’s action of surrender comes the sacrifice,in his aspect of enjoyment (his Sakti) is Indrani.” – Vastusutra Upanishad

This is the description of the intrinsic processes of the Spaceand its organization. This is the description of the roots offunctions. This is the organics of the Form in a spiritual unionwith its own function – Sakti. Do we really need to know theseprocesses? Do we really need to dig that deep?

Yes, of course we do need to know in-depth the processes.How else can an architect create a healing form for a building if he doesn’t know about the birth of the form, the sacredprocesses behind it.

The architect and designers are like good doctors – theyshould know the philosophy-theory and the anatomy of the spaceorgan ization. A good doctor knows not only the physiology ofthe body but is also aware of the complicated energeticstructure of the whole body-mind-spirit system. A good doctorcures the root of disease first from disturbances in the energyfields and then the physical ailment naturally goes away. It is the same with a good architect who knows about the energeticstructure of the space; thus, he can create a healthy and fullyfunctioning form for the building which will be giving energy to people instead of draining it from them in the trial ofrestoring its own energy field.

If our modern professionals know and understand theseprinciples of Nature then they can definitely create beautiful,healthy and functional buildings and cities! Cities follow thesame rules as buildings do. A building is a cell of an organismcalled the city. The Vaastu rules are the same for the city as forthe building. It is like fractals implemented in nature. Forexample, a leaf of a tree resembles the form of a tree.

The same Divine organic rules are working in a small unit of Living Energy – a house, as well as in the big unit of LivingEnergy – a city.

Vaastu Shastra RulesThere are many very important rules of the Vaastu Shastra.Some are listed below:

• Proper orientation of a house or city with the cardinal directions• Proper proportions of buildings and cities• The unobstructed Brahmasthan of a house or a city• Proper usage of the functionality of the floor plan according

to Vaastu Purusha Mandala • Proper location of doors and windows according to Vaastu

Purusha Mandala and much more.

I would like to share from my own experience. Somebodyasked me to evaluate a mini hotel whose owner had died in a car accident. I found that the main door of the ownersliving quarters was in the pada of “death” of the VaastuPurusha Mandala, and the grid of the building had also shifted.The owner had lived fifteen years in the building before theaccident happened. Of course, we can argue that many thingspointed to different correlations but you will be amazed howprecise the ancient teachings are.

It is a big dream of mine to conduct a study of cities basedon the Vaastu Shastra. Evaluation criteria, supported by thefacts derived from the study, would be used to create a manual– a suggestion of true Green Design Rules of Nature for futurecity developments. This work would help to create wellbalanced and happy houses and cities.

Now we can see how crucial design and planning are.Architects, town planners and designers are in charge of thedevelopment of proper architectural forms and images. Properimages lead us to the liberation impacting positively our entirewell-being and vise versa, discordant forms and ill proportionedimages lead us to darkness and depression. If architects, townplanners, designers and other creative people from differentfields don’t know or don’t want to know the importance of thespiritual unity of the function and the form, and that if theyviolate this unity then the suffering of a building or a city willmake people suffer too.

So let’s dig really deep into the Vedas and Shastras andbuild happy cities and houses!


Example 1The image of the house on the left shows a violated rule ofVaastu Shastra – Unobstructed Brahmasthan. The central partof the building, the Brahmasthan which is the concentrationof the Divine Energy, is obstructed by the chimney. Thisbuilding is really sick. It cannot breath and charge its owninhabitants with living energy. This house has a negativeeffect on the lives of the inhabitants.

Example 2The image on the right shows a healthy building where theBrahmasthan is reinforced with a skylight in the form of acupola. This house accepts the Divine Energy freely andcharges itself and also the people who work in this buildingwith living energy. It is a very happy house. It makes peoplehappy too and gives them more inspiration to work betterwith enthusiasm.

Examples of Good and Bad Vaastu Shastra

Example 1 Example 28 4


• It is highly recommended that the house is not at the end ofa street facing towards it. The turbulent energy of the streetwill enter the house bringing chaos.

• It is best to live in a building which is almost aligned withthe cardinal directions of our planet.

• It is not recommended to sleep with your head toward northor south. The energy rises from South to North. It is the line of rising energy.

• It is recommended to sleep along the East-West line becausethis line has a quieting quality of Water. It is best to sleeptoward the East.

• It is not recommended to have in the front of the mainentrance a pool with water such as a pond or fountain or anyother obstructions like large trees, etc. The water feature willabsorb all the living energy which should enter the house.Trees will block the passage of energy into the building.

• Make sure that your main door is not located at the corner of the building. Such a building will loose a lot of energy.

• It is very healthy to have a skylight above your Brahmasthanarea (the center part of the building). It helps Cosmic energyto freely enter your building.

Wishing you all a happy life, a happy city and a happy house! n


Olga Mandodari is a civil engineer and a renowned VaastuShastra practitioner consultant. Born in St Petersburg in Russia andnow living in Washington DC. Olga runs a successful consultancyadvising on how to design and build living spaces with healingproperties. www.mandodari.com

Vaastu Shastra Tips for Home Owners

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SADHANA INTENSIVE REPORT

Sadhana Intensivein Orleans, France, August 2011By Swami Vasudevananda


n early summer I learned that I wouldbe participating in the AugustSadhana Intensive in Orleans. It is a special course and I silently

looked forward to the opportunity. The Sivananda Yoga Center in Munich,where I am serving as a staff member,kept me busy for the weeks approachingthe course and, as is always the case,time passed by very quickly. The date of my departure to Orleans drewnearer. Last projects had to be finished,the monthly accounts had to be sent to our accountant, the last yoga classhad to be taught, and packing had tobe done quickly. The last day before mydeparture was quite intense and endedonly way after midnight.

The next morning I rose at 5am to get the train to Paris. For a couple of years now there has been a fasttrain connection (with the French high-speed train TGV) between Munich and

Paris which takes six hours. It leavesMunich at 6.20am and arrives in Parisat lunch time, 12.30pm. It is, in a way, a door-to-door connection between theSivananda Yoga Centers in Munich andParis because both centers are verynear to the train stations.

Having arrived in Paris, I wentdirectly to the Sivananda Yoga Centerfor lunch. There I met the staff, somestudents and teachers whom I knewfrom my staff-time in Paris, and Isvara and Vasudev – staff from theSivananda Yoga Center in Berlin – whoalready waited to continue the trip to Orleans with me. In the earlyafternoon, the three of us, joined byMahadev, one of the Paris staff, tookour train from Gare d´Austerlitz, theParis railway station for trains going to the South-West of France, to LesAubrais – Orleans. By chance we mettwo other yoginis at the railway station

who were also on their way to do theSadhana Intensive in Orleans.

Finally we arrived at the ashram. It is always a great relief to arrive thereafter the long journey. The first thingyou notice is the very peaceful energyat the ashram. The ashram is in a ruralarea of France, and in fact the Boisd´Orleans is the largest forest area in France. The ashram is in the middleof fields and woods, the next village a few kilometers away. It is a beautifularea for silent walks – walking over thegrass and in the woods, the sun slowlysetting, the only noise to be heard thatof birds flying in the skies.

The ashram area itself has manybeautiful, tall, ancient trees. The mainbuilding is the Chateau – an 18thcentury castle - with a lot of guestrooms, the reception and the boutique.The large meditation room is under theold wooden roof of a side building andhas a very large glass window frontfacing east. During morning satsangsyou can experience the beauty of therising sun. The ashram temple is undera large, permanent tent constructionand for most of the year is cared for by an Indian priest. The main murti is a beautiful white marble Krishna.


I

“During the course we did almostall of the classical pranayamas

and bandhas described in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika”

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The other murtis are inblack granite, South Indianstyle: Lord Ganesha, HolyMother Mookambhika,Sivalingam and the NinePlanets (Navagraha). Thereare two other shrines withmurtis on the ashrampremises: a Hanumanshrine under a group of oldtrees and a Subramaniashrine in front of theChateau. The evening walksone can take in the ashramare very special: the paths in the park areilluminated by little lanterns. When youapproach the Chateau and see the lightfrom the windows – yellow and red fromthe red curtains – you have the feeling of being in an 18th century movie!

The ashram is an ideal place for sucha programme as the Sadhana Intensive:it is very quiet, nature is very pure, the airfresh and clean and the temperaturemoderate and not too hot. In a way ithas many of the qualities that the Indianyogis were seeking in the Himalayas.

The following day we had theinauguration of the Sadhana Intensive.We were a group of 34 yogis from manydifferent countries – France, England,Scotland, Germany, the Netherlands,Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Russia,Canada and Senegal. Quite a few of thegroup had taken the course before. One of us – Madhava from Paris –comes every year! It was the firstSadhana Intensive in Europe in whichstaff members were also participating. Apart from myself there were SwamiKrishnadevananda, director of theLondon centre, Swami Vidyananda fromthe Sivananda Yoga Retreat House inReith, Tyrol, Austria, and Ishwara andVasudev from the Berlin Centre.

Before going to the SadhanaIntensive, the other staff at the Munichcenter had jokingly warned me that themain thing I would do in the two weeksof the course would be holding my nose!We started the practice slowly on the firstday. But the practice increased quicklybringing us to two sessions of three tofour hours each day. We always startedwith 40 minutes of asanas, mainly thebasic postures, to loosen up the body.Afterwards, the pranayama began withKapalabhati. The main practice consistedof many rounds of Anuloma Viloma with

bandhas. During the course we also didalmost all of the classical pranayamasand bandhas described in the HathaYoga Pradipika. The practice for the daywas always presented to us by SwamiKailasananda, acharya and director ofthe ashram, who was the main teacherof the course. She was assisted by SwamiGopalananda and Swami Anantananda.In the beginning, most of us practiced on the large asana platform but overtime many of the participants moved to the garden choosing a suitable treeunder which they did their practice.During the day we came together for onelecture. Swami Kailasananda presentedthe Hatha Yoga Pradipika to us andsometimes we studied the VivekaChudamani and the Srimad Bhagavatam.The food consisted mainly of kicheree(cooked after Swami Vishnu devananda´sown recipe) supplemented by othervegetable dishes. In the mornings wewere served delicious and verynourishing almond milk.

In the second week, a third practicesession was introduced in the evening.We started our daily practice after a shortmorning satsang at around 7am andended the third practice sometimes onlyat 10pm, with of course some breakperiods in between. By the end of thecourse, the practice took me almosttwelve hours to complete. The morning

sessions, when we didasanas towards the risingsun, are unforgettable, andequally unforgettable arethe evening practices, whenwe were warmed by thelast rays of the setting sun.Afterwards, it was beautifulto sit under the stars in themoonlight, sometimeshearing the kirtans fromthe evening satsang (whichwe no longer joined), doingpranayama. All of us were

very impressed to learn that SwamiVishnudevananda´s own practice, whenhe was a young man living in a small hut in the Himalayas, consisted of foursessions of about 14 hours of pranayama.He slept barely more than two or threehours per night.

Time passed by very quickly as always.In the beginning of the course, we foundthe practice quite strenuous (we noticedthat it can be hard work just to sit doingpranayama) but towards the end it startedto flow. In the end, we were all very happyto have had the chance to do this veryspecial course given to us by SwamiVishnudevananda at this equally very specialplace. Some of us were already startingto miss the kicheree at the graduationmeal that the kitchen had lovinglyprepared for us on the last day. n

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Swami Vasudevananda is co-director of the Sivananda Yoga VedantaCentre in Munich.

“The ashram is an idealplace for such a prog -ramme as the SadhanaIntensive: it is very quiet,nature is very pure, the air fresh and cleanand the temp eraturemoderate”

Swami Vishnudevananda stands in front of the small hut where he practised intensepranayama for fourteen hours daily.


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ASHRAM AND CENTRE NEWS

BERLIN, GERMANYSivananda Yoga Vedanta CentreThe main asana hall as well as the boutique gota new look – the asana hall was repainted andgot a new wooden floor. The boutique area wasequipped with a new carpet, new sofas and newtables. Everything looks very shiny and gives thecentre a more modern outlook. The renovationswere finished just in time for the annual specialguest program in January.

Ashram and Centre News

VIENNA, AUSTRIASivananda Yoga Vedanta CentreThe Vienna Centre is glad to have received threenew white marble murthis: On the 20th of JuneLord Ganesha, Sri Lakshmi and Sri Sarasvatiarrived from Jaipur and were immediatelywelcomed with a small puja by the staff. Theirwonderful and powerful shine is the highlight ofeach and every Satsang and they are adored bystudents, teachers and staff alike. A new altar isbeing designed and presumably early next yearthe official installation will take place. Everybodyis already looking forward to this grand event.

PARIS, FRANCESivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre

Interest in yoga is boomingin France. Since the move ofthe Paris centre to its newlocation in 2008, the centrehas seen its student numbersincreasing very steadily.Students enjoy the spaciousand bright recep tion area, a place to meet, read andcontemplate. A yoga festival

organized in November around the release of Swamiji’snewly reprinted French Complete Illustrated Book ofYoga resulted in the busiest day in the history of theParis centre so far with 158 students for the trialclass alone. The book is now selling much betterthan in its photocopy format and is distributed inbookstores, allowing for Swamiji’s message to touchmany more people in French speaking countries.

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre

The Sivananda Yoga Center in Montevideo, Uruguayis 35 years old! We celebrated with a wonderfulYoga Festival. Many teachers, some of them servingat the Center since its inauguration in 1976, likeKanti Devi, Chandra, Karuna and Nirmala, togetherwith more recent but very dedicated yogis such asRamachandra, Vyasa, Madhavi, Rudra and Lalitaoffered a broad program of activities, some of themfree of charge, covering many aspects of yoga, includinga Hindustani music concert by local classical musicians. Radha Chaitanya came from Buenos Aires, Argentinato teach several courses.The celebrations started on Friday, September 31 in the morning with a Puja to the Divine Mother.Later, in the afternoon meditation for peace, a lecture by Kanti Devi, an asana demonstration by the advanced group and a performance by theSivananda choir, including local songs and kirtans.Ramachandra, one of the senior teachers of thecentre, gave an inspiring lecture on the five pointsof Swami Vishnudevananda.Teachers and students were happy and inspired bythe festival celebrating the inauguration of the firstSivananda Yoga Center in Latin America, focal pointfrom which all other centers in the continentgradually developed.

NEYYAR DAM, INDIASivananda Yoga VedantaDhanwantari AshramEye CampOn 25th June, we hosted a free Eye Camp with a medical team from the Aravind Hospital,Tirunelveli. People had their eyes and eye sightchecked and treated. If necessary they were givenglasses or even booked for an eye operation. TheCamp was attended by 342 people and 19 peoplewent to Tirunelveli for cataract surgery. We arevery grateful to Dr Sadasivan and his team for thisexcellent service.

Renovation of Kailash BuildingThe characteristic Kailash building designed byrenowned architect, Lourie Baker, was renovatedwith many improvements. The walls have beenplastered and brightly painted, the floors tiled andnew doors and windows fitted. The guests are veryhappy with the improved accommodation.

NEUQUEN, PATAGONIA,ARGENTINASivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre

On September 8, 2011 the Sivananda Yoga Center in Neuquén, Patagonia was officially inaugurated,with an extensive programme including asana classes,meditation, a Puja for Swami Sivananda and a lectureon yoga as a tool towards inner and world peace byKanti Devi. Swami Premananda inspired us all withhis course on meditation. Teachers and studentsparticipated with enthusiasm. Gauri and Vyasa, whoalso do Karma Yoga in Canada and India, direct theCenter. The beautiful house has been completelyrenovated by Vyasa and many karma yogis. Spacious,luminous rooms, decorated with inspiring imageswelcome newcomers and old students alike to startor deepen their spiritual practice. Best wishes to the youngest official Sivananda YogaCenter in South America!

35 YEARS JUBILEE

INAUGURATION

ORLEANS, FRANCEAshram de Yoga Sivananda

The garden project at theOrleans Ashram is takingshape : We have the visit of Julia and Charles Yelton,specialists in permaculture,who have already helped at several of the SivanandaAshrams. They made a masterplan for the property and hadmany inspiring ideas to move the Ashram towards sustainability. With thehelp of the Ashram gardener and inspired karmayogis, we are starting to implement the plan. Weneed help, both financial and energy wise. If youwould like to be part of this exciting project, pleaseemail us at [email protected]


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hakti Yoga is the branch of yoga that focuses on devotion and devotional practices. God is love and love is God. Bhakti yoga uses our fundamentalemotional relationships and sublimates them into

pure, selfless, divine love. There are 9 traditional ways tosublimate emotions to devotion, overcome egoism, and realizeGod according to the teachings of Bhakti Yoga. These methodscan be applied in our relationships with others:

1. Listen to inspiring divine stories – Develop thecapacity to listen to others without judgment. Be honest in what you say about yourself.

2. Sing God’s glories – Learn to praise others and to lookfor their positive qualities and be appreciative of one’s ownpositive qualities.

3. Remembrance of His name and presencein prayers – Learn to hold people you love in your heart in a prayerful mood, feel the sacredness of relationships. Be detached and forgiving. Be grateful for all people who you interact with in your life.

4. Service with humility – Learn to actively serveeveryone as God whether you like them or not.

5. Worship – Learn to see God in your relationships. Offeryour time and presence, as well as beautiful gifts, as if theyare being offered to God.

6. Prostrations – Learn to give utmost respect to people you encounter or people surrounding you no matter whothey are.

7. Cultivate the feeling of being a servant of God– Learn to develop an attitude of self-sacrifice.

8. Cultivate feelings of friendship for God – Learnto open your heart equally to all, without ulterior motivesand discriminating who is higher or lower than you.

9. Complete self-surrender – Learn to accept all thingshappening to you with equanimity and overcome your ownexpectations or feelings about anything done by yourself or others.

Practice of Bhakti Yoga in daily life: learningabout Self and seeing God through relationships

There are many different types of relationship and, in fact,life is nothing but relationships. Nothing is independent. If youthink you are independent, you are creating problems foryourself because we are constantly in relationships at all times.The yoga of relationships teaches us to understand that we arein this constant complex network of relationships. It alsoteaches us that we need to learn from the emotional patternsthat we usually follow within relationships. It is through thenetwork of relationships that we learn and grow. People inrelationships will serve as mirrors to each other emotionally in various ways so that they reach the core issue ofrelationships, which is the relationship with their own Self.

In Yoga, we aim to stop the cycle of recurring negativeemotional patterns of past relationships by looking within andstarting to develop awareness about oneself. It is about beingself-sufficient – not in an egoistic manner but in a spiritualmanner. We must find ourselves in order to have true relationshipswith other people. The moment that you improve your level of self love, your level of love of other people will also improve.It is automatic. If you hate yourself, you will hate other people.If you’re angry with yourself, you will be angry with other people.If you are disconnected from yourself, then you will also be dis -connected from other people. So there is no point in projectingblame or in trying to correct things externally, you need to correctthings internally. If you find that you are always losing yourself in relationships, it is because you have lost your connection withyour inner self. If you can constantly maintain the relationshipwith yourself, then you will have beautiful relationships externally.

Ideal RelationshipsIn Yoga, an ideal relationship is based on respect, devotion and self-sacrifice.

Respect means you are tuning your mind to the needs of theother person, and that you accept their uniqueness, no matterwhat you think about it. It implies a non-judgmental attitude.

Devotion is about seeing the other person as God, and thatmeans you will treat that person with pure, unreserved love andtrust, and be ready to dedicate your time and efforts to makethem happy.

THE YOGIC WAY TO SELFLESS LOVE

By Swami Sitaramananda

B


Self-sacrifice in relationships implies that you are aware of the ego tendency to be selfish and that you consciously offerup your own needs to serve others, who you consider as God,because you understand that while you are serving him/her youare, in reality, serving your own Self. So self-sacrifice does notmean you are losing something. Instead, you are exchangingyour limited view and your egoistic needs with a more unselfishdesire in order to purify and uplift yourself.

How the mind reproduces impressions of past relationshipsUsually in relationships we reproduce the relationships that wehave already known. Our minds have already been imprintedwith impressions of past relationships. The way in which we viewourselves, and the way we view other people, is seen throughthe prism of those impressions left by past relationships.

The impressions created by the relationship with one’smother and father are especially strong. Those relationshipsbegan when we were young and only our sub-conscious or emotional instinctive minds were operational, so theimpressions made then arevery deep and unquestio -nable. In yoga, it is said thatour karma chooses ourmother and father in this life so that we can learn and grow.

Yogis believe that we carry the joys and sufferings from past lives and from the subconscious minds of our family and ancestors. We carry these on in our own lives and wereproduce them in our own relationships. As an example, a person who grew up in a dysfunctional and very angry familywill likely form a dysfunctional angry family later on, unlesshe/she does a lot of conscious inner work and developsdetachment and awareness of the pattern. Many patterns beginin childhood and then get reproduced. For instance, someonewho was spoilt as a child may struggle to accept blame; ratherthey will place blame externally because they have constantlybeen told that they are perfect. Other scenarios include: youwere loved, or not loved; you were isolated, or constantly putdown, and so on.

Of course, we are all perfect inside but our minds are notperfect. Our minds need to be molded in order for us to be ableto reflect the perfection that is within us. We will have to do a greatdeal of self-inquiry to become independent from past impressionsand to correct the pattern of reproducing past relationships.

Finding the relationship with Love itselfMany of us do not want to acknowledge that our relationshipsare not selfless and we cannot truly find ourselves in relation -ships. We are instead actually learning through our relation -ships – usually in a painful manner – to find ourselves. Thatmeans that we have to recognize there is another level of relationship that goes far beyond relationships with co-workers or romantic partners or friends. It is the highest kind of relationship and the most difficult to get. It is theessential relationship described as pure, selfless love. It is therelationship with Love itself. When you form that relationship,you will be able to feel love everywhere you go and for

everyone you meet at all times. That love will free you and bringyou lasting happiness. It is quite different from other types of relationships because in those relationships there is always a certain amount of fear, which is a negative emotion. It couldbe fear of separation, fear of loss, fear of being alone, fear of other people, fear of being abused, and fear of the otherperson. You have to go through all these different lessons andlearn to trust. If you do not feel the connection with yourselfand are not grounded in your true Self, then you cannot trustand you will not be able to understand other people. You willalways see them as different. If you are young, you do notunderstand the old; if you are male, you do not understand thefemale and vice versa; if you are rich, you do not understandthe poor, and so on.

Why do we have problems in relationships?When you look externally at another person, you are definingyourself through the differences you perceive as existingbetween yourself and them. This is the basis of the feelings of attraction or repulsion we have towards others. This is

because you do not really loveyour true Self, though you maylove external qualities aboutyourself (such as gender, beauty,race, intelligence, etc). In thesame manner, you formrelationships based on the

external appearance of other people. So in reality, theserelationships are just reproductions of your own belief aboutyourself. You might blame other people but if you look backwithin yourself, you can cure the problem from within bystarting to love yourself truly for who you are, and not for theexternal qualities of illusion that you believe yourself to be.

Remedy for problems in relationshipsHealing relationships start with self-love or Love of God. Youhave to start to love your true Self or love God. That means youhave to go through the maze of your mind and emotions andsort out who you are and who you are not. You have to look at what you believe to be true, and examine whether it is trueor not. If you can discard the ideas about yourself that are nottrue and you can understand the core value of yourself that is true, you come to accept and love your true Self. In otherwords, you will stop waiting for someone else to give youpermission to love yourself. So often, we wait for someone elseto make us love ourselves, and usually it is just a chain ofprojections and reproduction of expectations that creates muchconfusion and pain.

In Bhakti Yoga, either we address the partner as a symbolicidealized God (the “Ishta devata” concept of a personallychosen form of God) or we cultivate the ideal relationship byseeing our own Self or God in our inter-relationship with otherpeople in our lives. The same principles apply. The same Loveshines. By seeing God in your own Self or seeing God in others,or a mixture of both, we are all, knowingly or unknowingly, on a journey towards true unity, pure joy and pure bliss. n

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THE YOGIC WAY TO SELFLESS LOVE

Swami Sitaramananda is a senior disciple of Swami Vishnudevanandaand is the director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm in California, USA.

“Devotion is about seeing the otherperson as God, and that means you will treat that person with pure,unreserved love and trust”


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THE ART OF SCIENCE – PERFORMING ARTS AND THEIR FUNCTION IN INDIA

t is common practice in India to use metaphors and symbols tohelp explain the complex nature of life in all its aspects. Not onlycan abstract concepts relate to the physical entities of the world,they are a means to comprehend reality in terms of the relationshipbetween the jivatma and paramatma – the living and the divine

soul – and, as is often the case, in exquisite visual forms. For instance,yantras, temple sculpture and architecture use squares, circles andtriangles in more abstract geometric forms. In the physical disciplines,we see embodied geometric forms. Both the use of abstract symbolsand the practice of physical disciplines are part of a tradition which seesin them the means to attain knowledge of a higher, primordial order.These traditions reveal how the body and mind work in closeassociation, with the ultimate outcome being to transcend both bodyand mind. Then there is no outer knowledge being imbibed, but thetapping of what is already there as a primordial aspect. Thus attainingknowledge is seen as an experiential process.

At the same time, knowledge is considered either a science (sastra),attained through study and therefore suitable for enquiry about theconcrete and material aspects of life, or an art (kala), attained throughpractice, and thus appropriate for dealing with the abstract or intangibleaspects of life, like the mechanisms of the mind. However, where physicaldisciplines practiced in India are concerned, science and art seem to getintermingled. Yoga, for instance, enables scientific scrutiny, but Danceremains in the domain of the arts. The practice of each of these disciplineshas its own specific function, yet they are both based on the study of theconcrete (the body), as much as the mind, by focus and awareness. Theyare considered to enable experiential knowledge, because here practiceis experiencing, knowing or revealing, and knowing through experiencehas been given utmost importance. They can be both an art and ascience consider ing the above definitions and reveal how scientificscrutiny and experiential knowledge can go hand-in-hand when seekingknowledge of the higher order.

In this article I will reflect upon how the common denominator, which is movement, can be both a sastra and a kala by looking at a performing arts tradition of India, called natya. In this art form, theworld view presented in the Vedas takes a visual form, to be seen andexperienced. However, I believe that what is seen as the outer formpresented by a dancer can have its siddhi, or impact, only when thedancer seeks awareness and experiential knowledge, coming frompractice and above all from within.

Natya and creationI am grateful to the vedic scholar, Sri Viswanadham, for drawing myattention to the primordial quality of knowledge which I present here.Dance is seen as the origin of creation when, in the formless, motionless

state, Siva had the desire to become many forms, causing a rippleaccompanied by sound (nada). This icchashakti or I-consciousness, alsounderstood as bhava or emotion, is thus the source for movement andhas a primordial function in creation. The five elements and the fivesenses that were subsequently created constitute all animate andinanimate life. Creation is thus defined as Siva inhabiting the pura, or body, as purusha, and the blissfully eternal dancer, Nataraja.

The senses gather knowledge of the world, but do not enable us to know what is before them, namely the eternal state. Ourperceptions are based on the movement of the elements in natureabstracted into, for example, the circular movement of water or thetetrahedral shape of fire. In dance, we see both the expression ofemotions and the creating of shapes through movement. The interestingpart here is to understand that these movements are means by whichwe can retrace the path to the primordial state and, by using the sensesin specific ways, experience what was before them. An analysis ofmovement used in dance will help reflect on this function of dance.

In its first chapter, the ancient dance treatise, Natyasastra, bestowsthe practice of the performing arts the status of Veda in their function of giving knowledge, by calling them the Natyaveda. The sage Bharataexplains that Brahma created natya by deriving its four relevant aspects,i.e. text, expression, music and sentiments, from each of the four Vedas.Natya therefore contains the knowledge of the Vedas and can show thepath that they show. It is, however, the study of the practiced form, seeneven today, based on the subsequent chapters that shows how this is brought about. Movement here is studied in perfect detail and in itsvarious functions. While the performing arts are seen as a kala entailingall the four classical art forms of music, literature, sculpture and painting,here is then a sastra, a science behind it.

Knowledge through movement in performing artsNarratives, poems, and plays express content and movement in themselves,and the movement of the limbs in expressing such contents reveals a certain level of understanding of the body by the artist. For example,the hands or face are given great relevance as articulators, based onobservation of the behaviour of people in any given situation. FromNeurosciences today we know that the representation of these parts of the body is significantly large in the brain.

When defining the movement of the feet, sides, chests or even thechin, it is interesting to note how an understanding for the limb whichinitiates movement has been taken into consideration. For example, thefeet are defined as initiating the movement of the legs, and at the sametime influence the entire lower body’s movement.The actual practice ofthese movements reveals how executing movement based on this

Performing Arts and their function in India

The Art of Science –

By Rajyashree Ramesh

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THE ART OF SCIENCE – PERFORMING ARTS AND THEIR FUNCTION IN INDIA

definition reflects the importance given to subtlety. These movementscannot be performed mindlessly. They require focus and concentration.At the same time, when performed with concentration, they enable theexperience of a subtle core – the breath core. Thus through a structuredmovement of the actual limbs, the gross parts so to say, one experiencesthe realms beyond the material. In order to do so, both body and mindare required.

Similarly, the typical stances that are considered the beginning or end of a movement are finely geared to correlate body architectureand space. When, let us say, the hand is brought to a specific positionon the side, front or behind the body, there is a correspondingmovement of the foot to a position that provides not only a beautifulpictorial shape, but also stability. There is thus both counter tensionand clarity of movement. The way these movements are orchestratedshows that they are not just random movements of the limbs, butfollow neuromuscular patterns that connect them. For instance, thereis a deep connectivity between the fingers and the scapula, or betweenthe heels and the head, along which the body organizes its movement.Finally, the hand and foot get connected right through the medialchain of the body. This is modern movement analysis.

However, it is not just a scientific phenomenon which leads to theexecution of such movement. The connectivity patterns experiencedduring movement execution give a feeling of having reached or openedsome core within. Awareness in execution, combined if possible withknowledge of how the body connects, thus enables deeper experiencesand reveals the physical and how it can be used to reach the more subtledimensions of experience. Not in the least, this experience leads to asense of well-being. It also implies that knowledge of the body wasessentially one of experience in the ancient tradition of dance. Knowledgethrough movement practice. Nevertheless, it suggests parallels to thestudy of the kinetics of the body in a modern scientific sense.

Sensing and shapingWhen the body moves along these so-called kinetic chains, it alsocreates shapes, which one perceives as an observer. The movementsexecuted in dance are traditionally taught by the watchful eye of theGuru, not by explaining inner connectivity patterns but by correcting theouter shaping, i.e. by making sure that the limbs are positioned properlyduring the stances (sthanakas), that the movement of the feet is correct(caris), and use of the hands appropriate (hastas). These shapes in Indian dance forms are geometric. For example, one sees the squarein the basic stance called ayata. One sees straight lines in the armmovements and tetrahedrons in how the hands are joined in certainbasic stances. They determine both stability and mobility. The square of the ayata, for example, is experienced as stability. Analytically, it is adeep-seated stance, using the stabilizing mobility provided by the pelvicfloor. It is carried by the centre of gravity situated there and it gives usan understanding of the earth quality of the Muladhara. This is not onlymovement analysis and yogic knowledge, but also reflects the symbolsknown and used since ancient times in India. As mentioned at theoutset, squares, circles and triangles are seen in yantras and principles of the ancient science of architecture. The square and its three-dimensional version, the cube, symbolize earth and thus stability.However, a detailed analysis and reflection upon the deeper meaningbehind it is beyond the scope of this article.

These stances when analyzed this way also reveal parallels to Yogaasanas. In asanas too there is a specific beginning and end positionfor the various limbs, the exact shaping of the body is important, and there is counter-tension, for example, between head and heels in backward bends. Most importantly, there is the experience of thebreath core. While this experience is the focus in the yoga asanas, theprimary function in executing movements in dance is imagistic andexpression based. Yet, as with Yoga, an inner core can be experiencedwhen one draws attention to the inner changes taking place, ratherthan concentrating on the outer impact of a specific movement. In as much, I would say Yoga and dance complement each other.

Emotions and their relevanceTalking about awareness of inner changes, this sensitivity is then thebasis for expressing emotional content, which is the cornerstone of Indian performing arts traditions. The content of any narrative isinterpreted based on the emotional state of a character in a givensituation. Dance has been used over the last several centuries to putinto context the concept of the Jivatma-Paramatma, in other words therelationship between man and the divine. Even here, it is the emotionalcontent of such a relationship that is portrayed: of yearning and thearray of emotions which accompany yearning. From the movementperspective, the refinement of the movement required for suchexpression cannot come from a studied use only, but has to come fromso-called sattvika abhinaya – expression coming from conceptualizingan emotional state. In other words, it comes from empathy, or fromwithin, or through the imitation of behaviour patterns in emotionalstates. Thus, in sattvika abhinaya, it is the placing of oneself in thesituation of another that brings about such an expression. This has beenseen as enabling happiness (sukha) as opposed to sorrow (dukha), thelatter seen as the outcome of actually experiencing emotions. Thepleasure one gets has been termed rasa, or ‘relish’. Thus the portrayal of emotions has the status of transcending the emotions, with the finaloutcome being relish. If this is the function of portraying variouscharacters, what greater benefit than spirituality would one derive fromportraying the divine stories where Rama, Krishna, Siva or Devi arethemselves the characters? Emotions are laid at the feet of the divine,becoming Bhakti Yoga.

At the same time, the movements executed come from the external -ization of inner feelings, or bhava. Bhava is the source of any movementand is related to creation itself as icchasakti, as discussed above. Thus,the kinds of movements seen in emotional expression take us to themore intangible dimensions of reality, in fact to the primordial state.

A final note as to how we human beings have a natural tendencyto depict something. When asked to portray any object, like a tree orbird, participants at workshops at once put their hands together in sucha way that the image of these objects we visualize are shaped.Similarly, when asked to show an emotion like anger or fear, the facepromptly takes a particular more or less ‘distorted’ shape. Interestinglyenough, the observers and the performers alike laugh about it. Werecognize, in shapes and forms, objects and emotions and it leads to delight. Relish or rasa corresponds to bliss, ananda. This then finally is the goal that was set for the practice of performing arts. Also,associating situations and objects by way of thought are surelymechanisms of the mind, which need not be conscious to be effective.Neuroscientists today see it as the workings of the brain. One mayconclude from this that the body and the brain together enable themind. They are the physical entities. The experience derived howevertranscends these and gives us an inclination of the primordial state, of Paramatma, through the experience of rasa.

So, finally, dance here becomes the movement from outward to inward and back outward again, similar to how the mind has beendefined in the Upanishads as taking the senses inward and bringingthem out. All these show several other parallels to modern science as much as to ancient knowledge, a subject much too vast to mentionhere. But this analysis enables one revelation. That the physical discipline,dance, is the expression of natural manifestations as much as studiedmovement. It shows parallels to the practice of Yoga in as much as theexperience enabled in both the disciplines are based on physicalpractice. At the same time, it enables an understanding as to howdance is the art of science and perhaps Yoga can be the science of art?

Rajyashree is a dancer, choreographer and masterteacher of Bharatanatyam with a dancing and teachingcareer in India and Europe spanning four decades. She is also a Yoga practitioner for the last 30 years.


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SPIRITUAL POETRY: SWAMI SIVANANDA

Dawn of New Life

I was tired of this illusory life of sense-pleasures I became quite disgusted with this prison of body. I had Satsanga with Mahatmas And imbibed their nectarine instructions. I crossed the dire forest of love and hatred. I roamed far beyond the world of good and evil I came to the border-land of stupendous silence And caught the splendour of the Soul within All my sorrow is over now My heart is now brimming up with joy Peace has now entered my soul I was suddenly lifted out of my life There was a dawn of new life. I experienced the inner World of Reality The Unseen filled my soul and head. I was bathed in a flood of effulgence ineffable And saw the Lord behind all names and forms And realised that I am the Light.


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SPIRITUAL POETRY: SWAMI SIVANANDA

I Am That I Am

Timeless and spaceless is this goal Painless and sorrowless is this seat Blissful and peaceful is this Abode Changeless and boundless is this Dhama I know that “I am He” I have neither body, mind nor senses I have neither change, nor growth nor death I am the Immortal, All-pervading Brahman. Neither virtue nor sin can touch me Neither pleasure nor pain can affect me Neither likes and dislikes can taint me I am Existence-Absolute, Knowledge-Absolute and Bliss-Absolute. I have neither friends nor enemies I have neither parents nor relatives I have neither home nor country I am that I am. I am that I am. I am never born, I never die I always exist, I am everywhere, I have neither fear of death nor fear of public criticism I am Siva, full of Bliss and Knowledge Chidananda-rupah Sivoham, Sivoham.


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HomaThere are many ways in theVedic tradition to worship achosen deity. Fire ritual (Homa,Yajna) is the most powerful ofthese. Through Agni, the God of fire, selected items are offeredto a chosen deity. Agni banishesillness, expels negativity andprotects us from distress. He isthe mediator between God and

men. Whatever is offered to him, he burns, purifies and accepts.A fire ritual is so powerful that it removes negative vibrationsnot only from the minds of those attending, but also from thearea where the ritual is performed.

Yantra PujaThe second most powerful formof worship is Yantra Puja. A yantra (power diagram) is atantric symbol of cosmic unity.Every yantra has a geometricstructure which represents aparticular configuration of thedivine. The more abstract andprecise the diagram, the greaterthe power of the yantra, and

the use of appropriate mantras (Sanskrit sound syllables) inconjunction with the yantra, further enhances this power. Whenan aspirant attains a high degree of spiritual progress, he isinitiated into the use of a particular yantra. That yantra fullyarouses the aspirant’s inner life-force so that his dedication

THE POWER OF VEDIC RITUALS

Vedic RitualsThe Power of

Every human being requires protection, consecration and refinement. Puja is a traditional Vedic form of worship which enables us to offer ourlives and activities to God, a way to pray that He guides us through thedestiny which ultimately He controls.


to the deity is one with the process of his awakening. Theaspirant experiences a physical, psychological and spiritualopening into the comprehension of the mystery.The yantra’s central point is called a bindu (a triangle, squareor circle) from which the diagram’s form is constructed toencapsulate a particular pattern of energy. To identify whollywith the yantra’s configuration is to realise or to release theinherent forces that each form within the yantra denotes. A yantra makes visible the energy contained within the mantra,and together, yantra and mantra may be said to build form, to conserve form and finally to dissolve form as the aspirantcomprehends its inner meaning and soars beyond it.Each element of a yantra is a multivalent symbol. Every yantrais a sacred enclosure of a chosen deity, an aniconic alternativeto the anthropomorphic image of a deity. While the yantrabears no resemblance to the iconographic image, it retains thesuprasensible vitality of the image and expresses the sense andspirit, the very essence of the deity. The power diagrams allowus to make spiritual journeys to return to the primordial centreand ultimately perceive the unity of self and cosmos.

Murti PujaThe third and most popular formof worship is Murti Puja (idolworship). Vedanta teaches thatGod is the universal spirit, onewith all, and wherever a personof faith wants to see Him, Hewill be there. However, it is hardfor imperfect man to comprehendthis, which is why a holy imagecan be so helpful: the holy

image is a point at which His real presence is available to us forcommune and worship. Like water running through the ground,God is everywhere, but to access Him we need a focal point, awell of faith to make Him available to worship. The great sagesof India adored the holy images for they knew that when theeye of faith reveals that He accepts worship and offerings fromthe devotee, it is a point of real communion with the divine.Murti puja is an effective and necessary aid for the vast majorityof men to gradually rise in the spiritual scale. The divine presenceis made concrete, and prayers and adoration are made meaning -ful to those men who cannot dive into the depths of consciousnessby meditation, introspection and commune with the subtle spiritwithin. A spiritual aspirant is free to choose and worship anyform of deity, incarnation or world teacher. Any religious

symbol, personality or deity accepted as an expression of theSupreme Being with absolute faith, will take an aspirant to therealization of his nature and to the attainment of salvation in Brahman. Salvation is the sure and certain goal of anyonewho attains the purity of mind required for the practice of Bhakti and Jnana. There are many forms of God to choosefrom; the spiritual aspirant is taught to choose one whichsatisfies his spiritual longing and make that the object of hisadoration and love. This is his Ishta-Devata. It may be one ofthe Trimurti or one of the Avatars, for instance, or one of themyriad forms of Shakti. Or it may even be a local or tribal deityrendered concrete to the eye by means of an idol.It is wrong to call Hindu worship of images idolatry. Hinduscriptures do not say that an image is God. According to theUpanishads, “Of Him whose name is Great Glory there can beno image”. The scriptures clearly state that the image or symbolof God (the pratika), is not God, but only a means of makingthe mind dwell on God. They point out that in this kind ofworship, God is the object of worship, and that He is super -imposed onto the pratika temporarily. He is duly evoked, super -imposed and worshipped by means of ritual acts and restoredagain at the end to His true place in the heart. Idol worship is therefore recommended to strengthens one’s devotion. n

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JAMAICASivananda Yoga Centre17 Tremaine RoadKingston 6 Jamaica, WEST INDIESTel: +1.876.381.1504e-mail: [email protected]

LEBANONSivananda Yoga CentreSivananda Yoga Centre522 Couraud Street #3AGemayzeh, Beirut, LEBANONTel: +961.1.566.770e-mail: [email protected]

NEW ZEALANDSivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre145a Tukapa StreetWestown, New Plymouth, NEW ZEALANDTel : +64.6.7538234e-mail: [email protected]

POLANDSivananda Yoga Vedanta Centrumul.Friedleina 20/630-009 Krakow, POLANDTel: +48.12.634.43.83, +48.604.460.166 e-mail: [email protected] www.yoga.krakow.pl

PORTUGALCentro de Yoga Sivananda Vedanta de LisboaRua Jose Carlos dos SantosNo. 12 – 1 Andar1700-257 Lisbon, PORTUGALTel: +351.21.7971.431e-mail: [email protected]

SINGAPORESivananda Yoga Vedanta CentreAffiliated Singapore21B Bukit Pasoh RoadSingapore 089835, SINGAPORETel: +65.9067.9100, +65.9838.6704www.sivananda.com.sg

RUSSIAYoga Yamuna Studio Schelkovskoe shosse, 100105523 MoscowTel: +7 (495) 505-04-21e-mail: [email protected]

SRI LANKASivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre (Affiliated)52 Colombo Road,Piliyandala, Sri LankaTel: +94.75.5.018.227e-mail: [email protected]

UNITED KINGDOMUniversal YogaRedhill House,Red Hill, Camerton, Bath, BA2 0NY, UNITED KINGDOMTel: +44.01761.470.658 e-mail: [email protected]

UKRAINESivananda Yoga CentreValentina NikitinaSadovaya Str 60,95050 Simferopol, Crimea, UKRAINEe-mail: [email protected]

UNITED STATESThe Yoga Center235 Dorris Place, Stockton, CA 95204Tel: +1.209.463.3330e-mail: [email protected]

Vishnudevananda Yoga Vedanta Center1034 Delaware StreetBerkeley, CA 94710, USATel: +1.510.273.2447e-mail: [email protected]

Yoga and Inner Peace3964 Lake Worth RoadLake Worth FL33461-4054, USATel: +1.561.641.8888e-mail: [email protected]

Yoga Warehouse508 SW Flagler Ave.Fort LauderdaleFlorida 33301, USATel: +1.954.525.7726e-mail: [email protected] East Aurora Yoga (Affiliated Sivananda Center)43 Pine StreetEast Aurora, New York 14052, USATel: 716-319-0725e-mail: [email protected]

VIETNAMSivayoga CenterHoa Anh Dao School, My Dinh 1 Apartment, Tu Liem District, Hanoi, VIETNAMPhone: +4.22.60.69.68e-mail: [email protected]

Sivananda Retreat House, Reith near Kitzbühel, Tyrol, AustriaSivananda Ashram Yoga Farm, Grass Valley, Californiadanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Kerala, India


TEACHERS’ TRAINING

INTERNATIONAL SIVANANDA YOGATEACHERS’ TRAINING COURSEWith Internationally recognized certificate.

28 July – 26 August 2012: English, German, Italian1 – 30 September 2012: English, German15 December 2012 – 13 January 2013: English, German4 May – June 2013: German3 – 31 August 2013: English, German, Italian1 – 29 September 2013: English, German

FURTHER YOGA TEACHERS’ TRAININGAccessible Yoga | The Art of Correcting Asanas |Teaching Yoga-The Next Step | Yoga Body Work | Yoga and Anatomy | Yoga for Children I Yoga over 50 | Yoga during Pregnancy

CERTIFICATE COURSES German & English

July 19 – 26: YOGA AND PSYCHOLOGY With Dr. Uma Krishnamurthi, Bangalore, India

NEW: August 6 – 11: YOGA AS MEDICINE With Timothy McCall, MDPlus special Asana and Pranayama classes with Swami Sivadasananda, Yoga Acharya.

August 16 – 19: VASTU SHASTRA – HOW TO DESIGN HEALING SPACES With Olga Mandodari Sokolova, certified Vastu teacher

August 22 – 31: YOGA OF THE HEART*With Nischala Yoga Devi, USA*also in Spanish

4 November – 1 December: HEALTHYCOOKING WITH AYURVEDA With Sanjay and Anjani Kulkarni (MD), Ayurveda-Experts, Pune, India

10 – 17 November: YOGA – YOUR HOME PRACTICE COMPANION How to bring body and mind into balance through Yoga.

17 – 24 November: STUDY OF YOGA SCRIPTURES

SPECIAL PROGRAMMES

With Yoga Acharyas and International Guest Speakers

YOGA PHILOSOPHY AND SATSANGSSwami Durgananda

SPECIAL ASANA WORKSHOPSSwami Sivadasananda and Swami Atmaramananda

EASTERN WISDOM MELODIESSri Venugopal Goswami Vrindavan, North India

VEGETARIANISM IN THE LIGHT OF SCIENCEDr. Annika Waldmann

SOUTH INDIAN TEMPLE CEREMONIES

YEAR ROUND YOGA VACATIONS

Free choice of arrival and departure dates.

WIDE CHOICE OF SEMINARS


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Swami Sivananda1887 – 1963

Swami Vishnudevananda1927 – 1993

International Sivananda YOGA TEACHERS’ TRAINING COURSEand Advanced Yoga Teachers’ Training Course Rudraprayag, Himalayas, IndiaInformation: www.sivananda.eu • Contact: [email protected]

23 February – 24 March, 2013

Sivananda YogaVedanta Retreat HouseFounder: Swami Vishnudevananda

www.sivananda.eu

Sivananda Himalaya PilgrimageYoga Sadhana at the Source of Ancient WisdomDelhi – Haridvar – Rishikesh – Uttarkashi – DelhiCost: approx: 1,190 €Information: www.sivananda.eu •Contact: [email protected]

November 4 – 17, 2012


An intensive four week immersion in the yogic way of life:

Open to students of all levelswho have a sincere desire to learn. Certificate given upon successful completion of the course. Recognized by Yoga Alliance.

In depth study of: Asanas,Pranayama, Meditation,Mantras, Vedanta, BhagavadGita, Kriyas, Yogic Diet, Anatomy & Physiology.

Swami Sivananda(1887 – 1963)

Swami Vishnudevananda(1927 – 1993)

NASSAU, BAHAMASMay 6 – June 2 2012Dec 4 – Dec 31 2012QUEBEC, CANADAJul 1 – Jul 28 2012Nov 11 – Dec 8 2012NEYYAR DAM, SOUTH INDIANov 11 – Dec 9MADURAI, SOUTH INDIAOct 21 – Nov 18 2012Nov 25 – Dec 23 2012THAILANDOct 7 – Nov 2 2012RUDRAPRAYAG, HIMALAYAS, INDIAFeb 23 – Mar 24 2013NETALA, HIMALAYAS, INDIAJune 17 – July 15 2012Sept 30 – Oct 28 2012GRASS VALLEY, CA, USAOct 7 – Nov 3 2012Dec 1 – Dec 30 2012WOODBOURNE, NY, USAMay 30 – June 27 2012Sep 7 – Oct 5 2012TYROL, AUSTRIAJul 28 – Aug 26 2012Sep 1 – Sep 30 2012Dec 15 – Jan 13 2012ORLEANS, FRANCEJun 29 – Jul 27 2012Jul 29 – Aug 26 2012LONDON, ENGLANDMay 26 – Jun 24 2012COLOMBIA, SOUTH AMERICAJul 1 – Jul 29 2012ALUENDA, SPAINAug 16 – Sep 12 2012USTKA, POLANDSept 1 – 30 2012NEAR SYDNEY, AUSTRALIAJan 12 – Feb 10 2013

2012 Dates & Locations

Over 29,000Yoga Teachers

Certifiedsince1969

www.sivananda.org • www.sivananda.eu


Documents

YogaLife Spring-Summer 2012