Yoga Retreat in Beautiful Swiss Mountains

September 10-13 in Lenzerheide, Swizerland

I'm very much looking forward to this special retreat. Every time I stayed or taught in Switzerland has always felt special to me.

Tattva Bodha

In this retreat we'll be studying the vedantic text "Tattva Bodha". It summarizes the philosophy of Oneness called advaita vedanta.

Also this text is deep in explaining the basic concepts of vedanta it's also very accessible to new readers. Come with us and you will be moved by the implacable logic and clarity which are a hallmark of Sri Sankara's texts

Hatha Yoga

Of course there will be a regular schedule of hatha yoga classes and deep meditations besides the lectures on vedanta

All details about the retreat and how to sign up can be found at Mandala Yoga.

OM OM OM

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Become a World Recognized Yoga Expert

Many of this blog's readers are very experienced yoga practitioners and/or teachers. We all like to share the knowledge we have accumulated over the years.

Good Q&A Site

There is a new platform tapping into the expertise scattered all over the Internet and offering a "Questions and Answers" format.

The name of that platform is Stock Exchange and I have used their programming site for at least a couple years now. It's so great that I decided to use the open platform to start a Yoga site.

This site will not belong to anybody. It will be a true community and the most prominent yogis and yoginis will be the ones who contribute the most with their good questions and accurate answers. The site's clever system of "reputation" and "badges" will take care of that.

What Can You Do Now?

Before the site goes live and open to the whole public it needs to gather momentum.

The first step involves gathering experts such as yourself.

Determine the Scope of that Yoga Site

Here are the steps you can take and the things you can do to help the site get going and establish yourself as an active expert:

1. Go to the home page of the launching pad
2. Get your own username and login
3. Click on the "Follow it!" button
4. Use 5 votes for questions you feel will be very appropriate and right on target for the site.
5. Use your 5 votes to determine which yoga questions should NOT be accepted on the site and should be declined by the community.
6. Propose your own 5 questions. Right now we need questions which are more or less about yoga but are still good examples of off-topic questions. Questions which are overly argumentative, don't have a clear answer, are troll-like, negative or offensive.
7. Leave comments on the existing questions to discuss why they should or should not be considered good questions. Please note that we are not answering the questions yet. That will come at a later phase. This phase is only about determining which questions are a good fit.
8. You can also learn about this whole system by checking out the FAQ page.
9. Another good teaching tool is to look at the more active existing proposed sites.

Keep the Conversation Going

Doing the above is already good but we want to develop a true team of experts which will be active on an ongoing basis.

Take a few minutes every day to check out new questions and comments and keep leaving comments and adjusting your votes.

Spread the Message

If you have a blog or Twitter/Facebook account you can link to this post or to the Yoga Q&A site. The more active members join, the better.

You can do the same for any forums or blogs you like to visit or yoga magazines you enjoy reading.

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Yoga Sitting Postures

There are two types of yoga postures - or asanas. The cultural poses and the sitting postures. The former are well known and constitute the most popular aspect of modern yoga as it has disseminated around the world. The latter are actually more important from the standpoint of spiritual growth. They are primarily used for pranayama and meditation, as well as other practices such as japa (mantra repetition).

Since kriya yoga pranayama and deep meditation constitute the core practices of pragmatic yoga it is important that we find a posture we are very comfortable with.

The Traditional Approach

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Maharishi

The asana (posture) should be steady and comfortable.

Yoga Sutras - 2.46

Steady

There should be an effortless stillness. Think of a candle flame in a windless environment. It will convey the idea of lightness and poise which are both found in our meditation posture. The other fitting association is that of a rock. Let your sitting posture borrow its steadiness quality from it.

Comfortable & Easy

In the sitting asana the yogi starts transcending the body within a few minutes. That is to say the body awareness vanishes much like when we are falling asleep. Did you ever try to feel your legs or arms just before falling asleep? It's as if they were gone. Well, the same thing takes place within a few minutes of sitting in the right posture as our awareness shifts from the physical body to the astral body..

As you get established in the astral body awareness many experiences connected with it manifest on their own volition.

You have found your posture when, during the whole duration of your practice, you feel that you could sit there forever. Naturally it is not the case, there comes a point where the posture becomes a strain but let that point come after your session is done with.

Bhagavad Gita

To the previous attributes the Bhagavad Gita adds the concept of an erect back, properly aligned with the neck and head. The whole spine should be in its natural position which is to say that of an elongated 'S'.

Let him firmly hold his body, head and neck erect and perfectly still, gazing at the tip of his nose, without looking around.

Bhagavad Gita - 6.13

The theory behind this is that when the spine is in its natural position the spinal cord and sushumna nadi will be freed and the prana/shakti flow between the root chakra, muladhara, and the third eye center, ajna, will take place with maximum efficiency.

The Gita gives us also much advice about the optimum environment for serious meditation practice: location, room, and the seat. The advice about location and room is full of common sense especially as it pertains to ancient India.

Proper Meditation Seat

The teaching about the seat is of particular interest and little understood by many yogis. It involves using a thin cloth, some kusha grass, and an animal skin. Some yogis used a deer skin, others that of a tiger.

In a clean spot, having established a firm seat of his own, neither too high nor too low, made of a cloth, a skin and kusha grass, one over the other, ...

Bhagavad Gita - 6.11

To get this out of the way, no, the munis of yore were not hunting animals just to get a nice meditation pillow. They would usually use the skin of an animal already dead by natural causes or killed by the kshatriyas, soldiers/police, in order to protect the population.

This concept of killing tigers is obviously politically incorrect at the beginning of this 21st century but in order to understand this you need to project yourself in India a few centuries back living in a tiny village surrounded by a thick jungle and the occasional attack of a tiger killing villagers, adults or children alike, for an easy breakfast. Humans make for easy prey so that was the tiger equivalent of fast food. Once you'd have a few relatives and friends disappear in such fashion you'd feel okay about keeping the tiger population under control. Times are different now and, just to make sure, I'm NOT advocating hunting of any kind nowadays, much less of near extinct species.

Anyhow the above advice aims at creating an electric insulation with the ground. Psychically, as the kundalini power awakens, we want it to travel up the spine. Ancient yogis were usually practicing outdoors or in little huts with dirt on the floor.

For ordinary activities it's very healthy to walk barefoot on the ground, grass, or wet sand at the beach. Doing so makes an energetic connection with the ground and it's great for vitality and inner balance. Much recommendeded if you have the opportunity.

The advice is however different for pranayama and meditation.

Most modern electric devices have a grounding, the third one, wire which connects to the grounding prong on your electric outlet. That ground wire goes through your house all the way down to the ground. The purpose is, in case of power surge, to get rid of the extra power for sake of safety as that extra surge would most likely fry the delicate components of your beloved computer or other gadget/appliance.

The purpose of pranayama and meditation is to awaken and direct upwards as much prana/shakti as is presently safe and the last thing we want is for that formidable power, which is very much of the nature of electricity, to go into the ground and be lost.

The Four Classical Asanas

There are four classical sitting postures.

• Sukhasana - the easy posture
• Siddhasana - the Perfect pose
• Svastikasana - where cross in the form of the ancient Hindu svastika symbol
• Padhmasana - the lotus pose. You also have the half lotus which is a variant of this one.

These four have been described at length on many web sites. We'll revisit them further down this post.

The Modern Pragmatic Approach

We want to learn from the tradition and adapt it to our modern situation. Main differences that come to mind are our modern dwellings which are already very much insulated from the ground and the rest of nature as well as the lack of hip flexibility found in most modern yogis due to the fact that most of us have used chairs and armchairs for most of our life whereas ancient yogis spent their whole life sitting on the floor and/or squatting.

Unless meditating outside we can safely ignore the conductivity/insulation issue and focus intently on finding the sitting posture that will bring us the most benefits.

Steady & Comfortable, Yes! Straight, May Be!

While steadiness and easiness are essential it turns out that although it's nice to have a perfectly straight back, it does not matter that much practically speaking.

The yogic literature is pretty much unequivocal in advocating a perfectly straight position and yet photos of meditation masters, ancient and modern, tell us a very different story.

I have been meditating for so many years with a straight back that this is definitely my preference and although I like to sometimes use the softer variations listed below, either out of necessity (in trains or planes for example) or for the sake of change and experimenting, it personally never feels completely right.

Nevertheless let us go through a number of possibilities to help the readers find their own preferred posture. We'll start with the gentler variations culminating with the ultimate sitting posture. At this juncture you might want to guess what is the best asana for meditation.

Legs extended

There are definite energetic benefits in sitting with the legs crossed and therefore I strongly suggest you try your very best to adopt a posture of this kind. Besides the strong energetic benefits that will come with sitting with legs crossed from the beginning it will help one develop the flexibility necessary to eventually practice the most efficient of all postures in terms of kundalini awakening.

This being said the yogis with injured knees or hips will go far in the practice even with the legs extended and feet flat on the floor. I do use such variations while practicing in public transportation vehicles and guess what, both the energetic benefits of kundalini rising and the mental quietness of meditation are being experienced to some degree.

With Back Support

So our first variation, the easiest of all, will be to sit on a sofa or armchair leaning back with the feet flat on the floor.

Similar would be to sit in a regular chair while leaning back or in one of those modern 'yogic chairs' with straight legs.

Without Back Support

If possible it's preferable to keep a straight back using one's back muscles as opposed to external props.

One can use a regular chair paying attention to not lean back against the support. It helps sitting on the edge of the chair to help tilt the pelvis forward. Even easier is to use some modern ergonomic chairs with forward tilted seat. The back will be straight naturally.

Cross-legged Postures

With Back Support

Again starting with the easiest variation, one might want to sit in one's bed leaning against the head board or the wall. Sounds too good to be true but it works so don't feel self-conscious. Try it out at least. Upon waking, you might want to answer nature's calls and going back to bed, sit up and start your practice right away.

A bit less decadent looking, and as efficient, is to sit and lean back on a sofa or large armchair.

Sitting on the floor you can use a "yogic chair" to lean against.

In the first two variations the legs will fit comfortably on their soft base while the latter one is bit more spartan.

On those rare, or not so rare, days when you don't feel like doing your sitting practice, go ahead and sit on the sofa and relax with your eyes closed. It takes zero effort. Everybody can do that for 1 or 2 minutes. Start breathing deeper if you feel so inclined. Then the spinal breathing will come by itself and before you know it you will transition into a meditation which might turn out much deeper than you thought it would be.

Without Back Support

Necessity of a Pillow

Since the first priority is to sit steadily and comfortably most meditators will need to sit on a pillow or blanket. In my many years frequenting ashrams of all kinds I have met VERY few yogis, Indian or Westerners, who could sit straight, naturally without elevating their pelvis.

Here the Westerners seem to have an advantage as our Indian friends are culturally repulsed to using a wimpy pillow and most of them end up sitting with terrible postures.

So, to achieve your optimum posture, feel free to experiment with the variety of seats such as pillows or folded blankets. There are so many choices nowadays in terms of shape, materials, etc. that we are truly blessed to live in such a world of abundance and choice. Some pillows are very soft, some very hard. You can also find a variety of 'filling' materials, many of those will espouse the shape of your behind as if you were sitting on the sand.

Some meditators will need to sit on a very high pillow so that the posture feels right. That's fine. After weeks, months, or years of practice one might feel the natural tendency to use a thinner pillow, decreasing the height gradually as it feels right. Going down to zero height is not the goal though. Many of us will never get there.

Be open minded about the selection of your 'ishta' asana.

Following are some suggested sitting postures.

Sukhasana - The Easy Pose

This is the 'natural' sitting posture for many yoga novices. Its name comes from the fact that it puts the least strain on the legs. It's recommended for practitioners who have knee conditions, stiff hips, and/or thick legs. The feet are more or less situated below the opposite knees.

Unfortunately, due to the position of the pelvis, this asana puts more strain on the back and it's therefore difficult for most to sit straight comfortably. This posture typically requires a higher pillow to sit on.

Based on observation the great majority of meditators and pranayama practitioners will adopt the following posture.

Modified Siddhasana

This is an easy variation of siddhasana. To adopt it:

1. sit with legs outstretched in a 'V' form
2. fold one leg in front of you in order to bring the heel in the central axis of your body. The foot is resting right in front of your pubis. Don't worry if your heel does not rest in the central axis.
3. fold the second leg so that the foot will end up in front of the first food. If the heel is also on the central axis of the body it's good but it's okay if it's not.
4. Rest your hands on your knees or thighs

Traditionally the left leg should be bent first but some yogis have a better body alignment with the right leg crossed first in which case they should adopt the latter variation.

In this posture the back is naturally straight.

Again this is the most popular posture and is highly recommended.

The Real Siddhasana

I have named the previous posture 'modified' siddhasana as it lacks an important feature which makes siddhasana the most desirable sitting posture of all. Most casual yogis will think of the lotus pose as the the supreme posture but the majority of yoga and meditation masters hold siddhasana in higher regard.

When perfection is attained through siddhasana, what is the use of practicing many other asanas? When the flow op prana is stabilized, the breath stops spontaneously and a mindless state arises by itself.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika - 1.41

The reason is that this posture is directly stimulating the muladhara chakra, thus awakening the kundalini shakti and thus turbo charging one's meditation and other practices.

This is achieved by sitting on the heel of the first crossed leg. The more weight, or pressure, you put on the heel the stronger the kundalini stimulation.

The point of the body resting on the heel should be the one just below the muladhara chakra. It's approximately half way between the genitals and the anus, at about the central point of the pelvic floor.

Because of the raw potency of this posture you might want to wait until you are established in your daily meditation practice for at least a few months before you experiment with siddhasana.

Super Duper Siddhasana

Well, guess what, the previous one was still not the true siddhasana. In its purest form, in addition to sitting on the first heel, the second heel comes on top of the first foot and applies pressure on the pubic bone. This stimulates the svasdhitana chakra and provides even more of an energetic stimulation.

This one is harder for men than women for reasons which will become obvious upon the first attempt.

Other Postures

What about the other postures you ask. You can also adopt them if they are the right fit for you.

Svastikasana

It takes extreme hip, knee, and ankle flexibility and I have only met a couple people able to do it even for a short time.

Padmasana - The Lotus Pose

Most yogis who can do this posture cannot hold it comfortably for a long time. The biggest problem with it is that so many meditators I know have worked on doing the lotus pose and ended up damaging their knees irreversibly. It's just not worth it.

The main danger is the unnatural strain on knee ligaments. Please be wise, patient, and gentle if you adopt this posture or work on it.

The main advantages of padmasana are a thorough upward redirect of the blood flow as well as extreme steadiness.

This posture is most recommended for practices such as bhastrika pranayama.

Again keep in mind that real siddhasana is arguably more beneficial spiritually speaking.

The Half lotus

Much easier to do and hold than the full lotus this posture brings you lots of steadiness and is easy on the back as well. It does not seem to have the destructive effect on the knee joints that the full lotus has.

Vajrasana

Popular in zen circles this posture is not much used in the yoga tradition as it lack the energetic benefits associated with the cross-legged positions.

Also it does not contribute to preparing the legs to eventually do siddhasana on the heel. Not recommended for pranayama or meditation but it can be incorporated to one's routine of cultural asanans for the sake of flexibility.

The great thing about this posture is that the spine will be naturally in its optimum form so you can use this posture to bring about the awareness of the your spinal column ideal position which your can later duplicate in whichever cross-legged postures you adopt.

To adopt this posture you either sit on your heels with the knees in front of you. You can also place a pillow between your feet or use a 'meditation bench' to sit on while your feet are tucked under the bench.

Conclusion

I'd like to think this little presentation is comprehensive enough to empower you to find your own posture which will propel your sitting practices to unimaginable heights.

Om Adi Shaktyai Namah!

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Pragmatic Yoga Course in Germany

I'm happy to announce that I'll be teaching another "Pragmatic Yoga Experience" 2-week course in the Summer of 2011.

This one will take place at the Yoga Vidya ashram in Bad Meinberg, Germany in July 10-24, '11.

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Breatharian Yogi Held Up to Scientific Scrutiny

As science marches forward at a frenetic space it has looked at countless aspects of the ancient yogic teachings. Many of these teachings have been validated by the process while some have been disproved without any doubts.

Amrita, the nectar of immortality

Many scriptures refer to the sweet ambrosia, or nectar of immortality, which can be accessed through practices such as kechari mudra.

The teachings state that in ordinary folks this cool nectar is dripping and end up being burned up in the digestive fire in one's belly. When preserved and tapped by the yogi it tastes like a sweet nectar and can be the source of youth distributed in the whole body.

As far as I know this aspect of the teachings has no parallel in our modern understanding of physiology.

As explained in this article this old sadhu not only claims that he hasn't eaten or drunk anything in 70 or so years but that he can do it because since he was very young a Goddess has been pouring ambrosia through his crown chakra.

This provides some food for thought - no pun intended.

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Pragmatic Yoga New Home

Om Namah Sivaya, all info on pragmatic yoga will now be centralized on its official web site.

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Spinal Breathing

In yoga it is understood that 'God', Spirit, or the supreme reality has two components which can't be separated. These two are Consciousness and Power. By nature Consciousness is static whereas Power is dynamic. In the tantric tradition they are referred to symbolically as siva and shakti.

Spiritual Growth Practically Speaking

Looking at it on the individual level the static consciousness manifests as a deep inner silence and direct connection to the true Self while the dynamic power as the awakening of the infinite power within us called kundalini shakti.

Advancing on the yogic path is very simple. Just cultivate daily the power of kundalini and the experience of inner silence.

To do so we apply ourselves to the practice of 2 yogas which constitute the core foundation of our sadhana (spiritual practice).

1. Spinal Breathing to awaken the kundalini
2. Meditation to cultivate the experience of inner silence

Kriya Yoga Pranayama

The practice of meditation will be covered in another post so now we'll focus on the practice of spinal breathing. There are several yogic systems to awaken the kundalini power: hatha yoga is a popular branch of kundalini yoga but there are several others.

Paramahansa Yogananda popularized the kriya yoga approach at the beginning of the 20th century and of course this rich tradition has many methods and variations. Spinal breathing is such a variation which turns out to be very simple but also extremely potent and efficacious.

Here is my take on it which is directly influenced by Yogani's.

Why don't you take a few minutes to try out this simple practice in the next few days?

Spinal Breathing Technique

In essence you want to sit still, relax, breathe deeper than normal and visualize the subtle breath going up and down your spine in coordination with your breathing.

Sitting posture

As mentioned in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali one's sitting posture should be steady and comfortable. If the spine is very straight it is a plus but don't fret about it if it's not possible yet.

If you have very stiff legs and back or any health issues that warrant this you can practice on a chair with your feet flat on the floor.

There are advantages to having a cross-legged position so if you can do so please go ahead and proceed with the following suggestions.

The 'softer' approach is to just sit up on your bed the back leaning against the head board. The legs are comfortably crossed on the softness of the mattress.

This can also been done in a sofa. Legs crossed and back leaning on the back rest. One can also sit against the wall or in those modern 'yogic' chairs.

If you can, and this is my preferred recommendation, sit on the floor on a pillow with the back, neck, and head perfectly erect. Personally I have sat with a straight back for so many years that it feels wrong to lean against anything. I did want to present the other options though. Better practice in these sub-optimal postures comfortably than in a strict posture in discomfort.

If you want to know more about the sitting options consult the post on "yoga sitting postures".

Relaxation

It is a central concept of kriya yoga that relaxation gives rise to concentration. When concentrating or meditating too many yogis try 'too hard' creating inner tensions sometimes leading to headaches and other ailments.

The type of concentration we are looking for could be better called absorption. Think in terms of reading a book. Most people have found themselves, at some point in their life, in a high state of concentration while reading a book. When this happened to you did you try to focus really hard? Most likely not. You started with a line, then a few. This led to a page, and 2, and more. You slowly got caught up in the story or material presented in the book and before you knew it you had achieved partial pratyahara and a deep state of concentration.

Anywho, just take a few moments in your sitting posture to settle in stillness and to relax your face, shoulders, back, arms, and legs. Special emphasis on the jaws, tongue, eyes, and eyebrows.

Then follow with interest the motion of the breath and of the energy.

Deep & Slow Breathing

Now comes the time to breathe deeper. Not as deep as in hatha yoga pranayama but do take some full yogic breaths. First fill up the abdomen, then the chest. On the exhale start emptying the chest and then the abdomen. Do this a few times until it feels right and you are fully comfortable and relaxed.

Both inhalation and exhalation should take place through the nose. Make sure you breathe slowly enough so that very little noise is created by the breath.

The Mind Follows Shakti

You should then proceed to follow the journey of the subtle breath up and down your spine. Do this for a few minutes and then you are done for this session.

Here is a brief explanation of this visualization. The term visualization is a bit misleading because it implies a purely visual process. While many yogis will see a light along this path with their inner eye many also experience the movement of shakti in the form of vibration, tingling, heat, pleasant ecstasy, and/or several other ways. The main practice though is to travel up and down with one's awareness.

During the inhalation we move up along the spine. The starting point is the lowest chakra, muladhara chakra. There is a long explanation as to where this is exactly but here is the shortcut. Imagine you are sitting on a bicycle. Start from the point where you have most weight and go up inside about 1 to 3 inches (2 to 8 centimeters). This point is usually higher in women and sometimes further back as well.

Move backward and slightly up (or down) to catch the beginning of the spinal cord. Then move up inside the spinal cord all the way to the neck and keep moving upward until you reach the middle of the brain. At that point make a sharp turn forward to end up in the third eye located right between the eyebrows, not too high on the forehead.

Now it's time to start exhaling and move back and down to return back to the root center.

It might take a few rounds or even a few sessions of practice before you feel comfortable. Remember to relax body and mind as you do this.

At first you might not have any direct experience of the motion of the subtle life force. Or you might only experience it in a couple places. You will have to use your imagination to travel up and down. With practice you will have full awareness of the pathway from muladhara to ajna. When this is achieved even less effort is required during the practice.

You have to find your own path. Each yogi and yogini finds their own proper trace. Some perceive the muladhara as lower or higher, placed more forward or backward. As you move from there most are tempted to go up towards the other spine but it's often helpful to go backwards to reach wherever the swadhishthana chakra is.

The red and blue colors indicate different possible variations and the black dotted line indicate a trace following major pathways of the physical nervous system.

On the MRI above you can see corresponding areas of nervous system in the physical body. The spinal breathing works both on the physical and astral levels.

Twice a Day if Possible

Instead of thinking of the kundalini awakening as a volcano-like sudden surge of power in your lower back you might want to think of it as gradual process of creating and strengthening an energetic conductivity going from the root chakra to the third eye.

This will harmonize the 'raw' energies naturally located in the pelvis and help them ascend to the higher chakras, the brain and the rest of your body. This new power will then be available to fuel all your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. The stronger the psychic connection between these polarities and the richer your life. More theoretical details will come in the future as the focus of this post is to provide a practical guidance.

For this daily cultivation to take place substantially you need to practice daily. Either once a day or twice a day. Surprisingly it is actually easier to stick to a 2-a-day routine than a single daily session. This is because it takes more than half a day to exhaust the spiritual power accumulated in any one session. Thus you can still feel the shakti playing in your psychic and nervous system and reap faster and more benefits as soon as you start. You also feel more inclined to sit again.

Once you are accustomed to the technique it just take half a minute to a minute to get ready and start doing the visualization. Your sessions can then last between 5 and 10 minutes. You can use a clock if you want to be precise about it but I personally like to do it as long as it feels right without going too long. My practice improved significantly after I quit timing myself.

Best is to do one practice in the morning and one in the end of the afternoon. Some prefer later in the evening for the second session. I like the end of the afternoon because it energizes you for dinner, social activities, and/or various obligations.

In my experience this is the very best preparation for meditation so you can also make a habit of practicing this just before you meditate.

If this is new to you I suggest you give it a try for the next few days or couple weeks. Then you look back and determine whether it's worthwhile continuing.

I wish you a fruitful and blissful practice. Om Om!

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Pragmatic Yoga Influences

While I like to think of pragmatic yoga as my own way to convey the teachings and as an expression of my ever changing spiritual path I'm fully aware that I have not invented anything. Like most folks I have been and am currently influenced by countless great people of the past and the present.

While it would take a book just to mention all the people that I'm trying to emulate in some way or the other there are a few major influential teachers to whom I owe everything.

Swami Vishnu-devananda

After a brief foray into the kriya yoga tradition of Paramahamsa Yogananada I met Swami Vishnu-devananada at the end of a month-long yoga teachers training course taking place in Kerala, South India, in January 1987.

As powerful and transformative as the course was, my first meeting with this great Master during the last few days of the course exceeded that by turning out to be life-changing in so many ways.

That meeting led me to join the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers as a staff member the following year and for the next 12 years I remained immersed full time in the models presented by Swami Vishnuji. This constitute the core of my training and the foundation of my yogic life.

Every other influence which have come before or after that period only comes as a supplement to Swamiji's approach and not as a replacement.

Swami Sivananda

Swami Vishnu-devananda, like many genuine yoga masters, did not teach and serve in his own name. Everything he did, including naming the organization he founded, he did in the name of his own guru, i.e., Swami Sivananda Saraswati of Rishikesh. Swami Sivananda was one of the few yogis of the 20th century who contributed the most to the worldwide spreading of yoga.

Learning from Swami Vishnuji meant learning Swami Sivananda's approach sometimes summarized as the yoga of synthesis or integral yoga. Swami Vishnu's way would just put more emphasis on the tantric practices of hatha yoga as well as the purifying practice of service or karma yoga.

A very prolific writer and teacher Swami Sivananda authored over 200 books and saw to it that many of his close disciples blossom into great masters themselves.

Even my very first yoga teacher, André Van Lysebeth of Belgium, was a direct student of Swami Sivananda.

Adi Sankara

Although yoga is a very practical discipline it stands on the shoulders of the rich philosophical foundation of the Srutis, or Vedas. The Vedas are the authoritative body of scriptures giving rise to what is now called Hinduism. At the end of these vedas came the small but extremely meaningful Upanishads.

The Upanishads lay the philosophical foundation behind all yogic teachings. Over the centuries many schools of interpretation came out of these teachings. Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnu-devananda embraced the pure non-dualistic views of Adi Sankara.

Sankara's commentaries of the principal Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras argue that advaita, or non-dualism, is the highest understanding of the Upanishads and life in general. Using clear thinking, uncompromising logic, and a fearless attitude Sankara defeated all other schools of thoughts via his commentaries and in countless debates.

The concept of Oneness pervading all expressions of diversity is a popular one nowadays and we can trace this to Adi Sankara himself.

Sukadev

While I was in the SYVC organization I was fortunate enough to be there during the last 6 years of Swami Vishnu-devanandaji's life. This gave me ample opportunities to have satsang with him which was a true blessing.

My karma was to not receive the direct training from him but, as luck has it, I was trained by many of his senior disciples and swamis. I learned a ton from many of them but my favorite of them all was Sukadev.

His dynamic approach to yoga teaching and to the practice of karma yoga inspired me a great deal and I even was called once a 'little Sukadev'. LOL.

Anywho Sukadev is a great yoga teacher in too many ways to list here but if you want to see by yourself what I'm talking about just visit the extraordinary Bad Meinberg Yoga Vidya ashram.

Swami Satyananda

Talking and thinking in high philosophical terms is all fine and dandy but it does the aspirant no good if the yogi or yogini can't make it come true in his or her daily life. Jnana yoga is supposed to achieve this but it's just not working for most who adopt this path. We'll develop on this in an upcoming post.

Come to the rescue the practicality of tantra which manipulates one's life force and awaken one's inner power called kundalini.

Just like Swami Vishnu-devananda, Swami Satyananda was a great master of kundalini yoga but while Swami Vishnuji was primarily using the traditional tools of hatha yoga Swami Satya also perfected the kundalini branch of kriya yoga. Besides his perfect mastery of this art and science all in one, he was expert at guiding thirsty aspirants through his crystal clear writings. Among his many written works you owe it to yourself to check out 'yoga nidra' and 'kundalini tantra'. These two books are chock-full of theoretical insights and easy practices to understand your mind and tap your inner potential.

I started incorporating some of these kriya yoga practices to my sadhana a few years ago and it has propelled my yoga to new heights which I was starting to doubt I would ever reach.

Yogani

Yogani is a kundalini master who is unconventional to say the least. He's American and decided to spread the teachings to the masses while remaining anonymous. He started Internet lessons via a Yahoo group several years ago and the quality of his 'advanced yoga practices' lessons is such that the word of mouth did the rest.

Having studied yoga from many masters and groups he has synthesized and simplified the kundalini teachings in the most pragmatic way possible. His is a path to get maximum spiritual results for the minimum required amount of efforts. His writings are unpretentious, full of common sense, and represent to my mind the true scientific approach which is a hallmark of modern Western civilization and yes, the USA.

Many like to attach the 'science' or 'scientific' monikers to yoga but few walk the walk the way Yogani does.

Who Am I?

Whenever I say in this blog 'I', 'we', or 'pragmatic yoga' I never imply or pretend that any of the material presented is new or original. It borrows from the great teachers above and many more.

For those who object learning from teachers not belonging to one's main lineage on the basis of principle I would just say that this is not very pragmatic and I would rather prioritize making more and faster spiritual progress over following dogmas blindly. Does it take courage and create discomfort? Absolutely. Is it worth it? You bet!

Your comments are welcome on Facebook.

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Sleep As Much As You Need

This goes against yogic conventional wisdom but my experience of the last year or so confirms the ideas espoused in this article.

At first you might have to overcome the guilt created by society and yogic peer pressure.

I have 'practiced' this for a while now. What you need to do, as often as possible, is to not use an alarm clock and just get up after you fully awoke naturally.

During sleep the brain and nervous system are creating and especially strengthening neural pathways conductive to improve memory and boost creativity among many other advantages.

Spending some time in bed to do some thinking, just like some great thinkers, is perfectly alright too.

Comments on Facebook.

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English-Spanish Interpreter

I'm looking for a live interpreter for a 2-week program I will be giving on the Spanish Atlantic coast in the gorgeous village of Mondariz-Balneario. This course, the Pragmatic Yoga Experience, will take place in August 2011.

Qualifications

If you'd like to be part of this wonderful experience you need the following qualifications:

• Excellent command of the English language
• Excellent command of the Spanish language. Being a native speaker is a plus.
• Being a yoga practitioner is a plus. Being a yoga teacher is even better

Conditions

For this karma yoga you'll get free accommodations at the hotel where the course will take place and we'll take care of your transportation to/from Mondariz as well.

Should you be interested please leave a comment on Facebook.

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Pragmatic Yoga - What's in a Name

Over a week ago I polled my Facebook friends about the 'Pragmatic Yoga' designation.

I got some great feedback and the least we can say is that it generated a lot of different reactions, including quite some negative ones. Nonetheless I decided to go ahead with this name and this post explains why.

Bad Marketing

When a 'regular' company or person does name research they then pick the most popular name. Here I'm going with it even though the reaction is not that good and that's because it's the best fit for what I want to do.

My quest in the last few years is to be true to myself and embrace my different interests in life. Since then I feel I've made lots of progress on the path and that's very exciting.

What is Pragmatic Yoga?

Yoga is a spiritual path. Yoga means union and refers to the union of the individual (jivatman) self with the cosmic Self (paramatman). It takes resources to move towards that goal; time and efforts. Pragmatic spirituality is about maximizing these limited means to advance as quickly as possible on the path.

Find your own Path

The best yoga approach for me is not the best for you and your best is not the optimal method for anybody else. Pragmatic spirituality aims at helping each aspirant find what works best for them.

To do this we want to use the experience of masters and yogis by following the wonderful ancient tradition of yoga and the word of the guru. But what if we get stuck at some point, why not try different ways which traditionalists disapprove of on principle or by omission?

Many claim that yoga is a science but would not dare to approach the path with typical scientific openness and the necessary readiness to question oneself and one's ways.

It does not have to be hard

You can choose to approach meditation, which is the chief practice of yoga, as if it is impossible or extremely difficult. You can also choose to approach it as if it is easy. For me the latter works much better and I want to share this approach and many other insights that came to me in the last few years.

The Pragmatic Yoga Experience

I'm now developing a 2-week course which I will be offering in August 2011 in Spain via my good friends at the Yoga Center Madrid and I hope there will be other courses as well in locations which are dear to me.

This post is the first of many about this new direction I'm taking. Stay tuned if you want to know more. More posts coming to this space and a brand new web site will be setup soon as well.

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AYA Bickendorf Is Settling In

Howdy all!

The ashram is taking shape, the energy in the meditation hall is building up, and some renovations are already taking place.

Thinking of organizing a weekend satsang soon for those interested and living in the area.

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Swami Satyananda's Mahasamadhi

Death of a Great Master

Today, December 6th, '09, Swami Satyananda Saraswati passed away. He was one of the greatest living yoga masters and a disciple of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh.

He died in Rikhia, India. He was a very well rounded master of yoga disciplines such as hatha yoga, kundalini yoga, yoga nidra, and much more.

Author of the Best Yoga Books

He was arguably the best yoga book author in the world. His numerous writings on a wide variety of yogic and tantric topics are defined by his unique clarity and precision in his explanations.

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Notes Application

I've been working on a cool project. If you are a student of yoga or a student of life and if you like to take notes of facts and ideas, this could be very helpful.

Unless notebooks which you never look back at, this internet app can give you access to any note in one second through a super duper search engine. It's in private beta so if you want to try it out, send me a Facebook message.

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Moving to Germany

Getting closer to students

My current ashram in Slovakia is just perfect. Perfect conditions for sadhana. So what's the problem? Well, most of my students live in Western Europe and inthe US and it's very difficult for them to get here from those locations.

By the Grace of God a new ashram opportunity arose for AYA and as a result I will be moving to Bickendorf (near Bitburg, near Wittlich, near Luxembourg) at the beginning of February.

This should make it much easier for yogis and friends to visit me. So what's the problem now?

Your Help is Needed

My getting closer will allow many yogis to visit me more conveniently and with fewer expenses. Furthermore you might remember that this ashram is a bit different than most. While sadhakas are accepted upon invitation only, there are no fees for staying at the ashram, no matter how long one wishes to do so.

Some yogis and yoginis decide to leave a donation before they leave, but it's up to them.

If you would like to contribute to this effort by sharing some of the costs of moving to the new house and equipping the new ashram, please consider using the PayPal button below and share any amounts you would like to. Even a few dollars will be appreciated. Not more than a million dollars though! I might do crazy things with that much money ;-)

The Advaita Yoga Ashrama is a registered not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation so if you live in the US you'll pay less taxes as a result of your donation.

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Modern Yoga. It's Not All Bad

I am sometimes asked about how I feel about the modern transformation of yoga as it has spread throughout the world. Oftentimes the question includes a reference to the commercialization of yoga or its new emphasis on fitness.

While many 'traditionalists' tend to feel alarmed and may be threatened by the evolution which has taken place in the last 100 years or so I think that a lot of it has actually been for the better.

As for most topics I don't feel I belong to just one side of this debate. I value the ancient Indian tradition of yoga immensely. However I want to present in this essay the arguments in favor of the modern development.-

First let's recapitulate the common complaints I have been hearing over the years:

• It's all about money. Commercialization of yoga kills its spirit.
• Yoga is not physical fitness, it's about spirituality.
• Touchy feely new-agey

I'll first address these issues and then present the counter arguments.

Yoga$ Chitta Vritti Nirodhah

I actually do feel uncomfortable with the way yoga is often presented. Individuals or companies using yoga to fulfill their greed irks me. They will often distort the teachings to come to their selfish ends. But again if they do get an audience which relates to them and is happy to hand over loads of money, more power to them.

The plus side is that modern business understanding and practices have greatly contributed to the expansion of yoga, with its countless benefits, to the whole world and to the masses. When I first practiced yoga in the early eighties and taught it in the late eighties yogis were marginalized. While there is a thrill of specialness to being at the fringe of society I rejoice in witnessing nods of approval while telling somebody what 'I do' in life.

Yoga used to be little known and most folks even had a negative view of this whole thing. It's all over now.

The Fitness Trend

My view is that most practitioners focusing on the fitness dimension of yoga does not take away from the other aspects. Also a number of these practitioners will later explore other aspects of yoga after getting familiar with the purely physical dimension of it.

Think about it in mathematical terms.

Hypothesis 1 - the old way

Warning! These numbers are not accurate. I just made them up to make a point.

• Total practitioners of yoga: 100,000
• Meditation/philosophy adepts: 90,000
• Fitness yogis: 10,000

An impressive 90% of Spiritual Yogis, a figure that will rejoice the purists

Hypothesis 2 - modern situation

• Total practitioners of yoga: 50,000,000
• Meditation/philosophy adepts: 2,500,000
• Fitness yogis: 47,500,000

Only 5% of yogis have the spiritual bend. 'What a shame' will lament the purists.

Yes but it's 27 times as many people! Nothing is lost there at all.

New Age Yoga

Along many of my friends and colleagues I have often 'taken shots' at the confusion filled mumbo jumbo coming out of the modern new age cultural movement associated with yoga and many other disciplines.

I now realize that the so-called 'New Age' movement is much more than that as it also includes a new sensitivity on health, moral, ethical, and spiritual grounds.

Many of the points made below were gained as a direct consequence of the new age mentality.

Why Yoga Is Evolving in a Good Way

As fashionable as it is to complain about the ills of modern society I would not, if given the choice, switch to any era of the past, golden age or not.

Life is good these days, although not for everybody for sure. Most readers of this essay, and the author as well, live a privileged, comfortable, healthy, safe life which we owe to our modern times.

"Yes, but", you ask, "has yoga not been tainted, weakened, and devalued? Do we not get a poorer version of this sacred tradition in this materialistic society?"

No.

Let me present some of the modern improvements.

• Openness
• Ethics
• Tolerance
• Science & Pragmatism

Openness & Secrecy

Let's assume you lived in India a few hundred years ago and wanted to learn hatha yoga. First you need to find a guru. That guru needs to accept you before you can join his ashram and give you the training. In the majority of cases your chances would be close to nil if any of the following were true:

• You are not a Hindu
• You do not belong to the highest brahmin caste
• You are a woman
• The guru does not like you for some reason you will never know

Hatha Yoga, belonging to the tantric tradition, enables one to tap into tremendous spiritual and psychic power in the form of the kundalini shakti. Of course any power that can be beneficial has the potential to be destructive as well. This is the reason invoked for keeping these teachings under utmost secrecy. To such extent that very few would be exposed to it.

Consider this excerpt from the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the foremost hatha yoga scripture.

Very typical and occurring more than once. One amongst many interpretations is that by talking too much about a practice and by divulging it its power is diluted.

Lack of literacy and education in ancient India and the prevalence of Sanskrit as the language of choice in yogic literature contributed a great deal to keeping many would be yogis out of the loop. Sanskrit is a live language but an acquired one, not one anybody learns as one's mother tongue. And yes the very few exceptions do confirm this rule.

Additionally all scriptures and writings kept an intended vagueness and fuzziness in the laying of the instructions to ensure the individuals could not really learn from them without a live guru anyway. This is often interpreted as a good thing and a sign of wisdom.

The Sharing of Knowledge

Modern culture, greatly based on science, posits that knowledge must be shared to benefit as many individuals as possible as well as society at large.

It all started with some great masters of the 19th/20th century such as Swami Vivekananada, Swami Sivananda, BKS Iyengar, etc. who led the way by breaking the secrecy status quo and revealing the hatha yoga vidya and other aspects of the teachings to the world at large freely and openly.

This contributed to a global dissemination of yoga. Modern practitioners and masters started writing manuals and books exerting to lay out the details as precisely and accurately as possible. Brilliant examples of this include the books by Indian masters BKS Iyengar and Swami Satyananada Saraswati as well as Belgian author André Van Lysebeth.

This early trend has only been amplified with the publication of massive amounts of literature in hundreds of languages and by the production of yoga instruction in audio and video forms. The technology changes (TV programs, cassette tapes, LP's, audio CD's, MP3's, VHS tapes, CD-Rom's, DVD's, Cloud hosting such as YouTube, etc..) but the trend towards the sharing and openness of knowledge keeps on accelerating.

The Internet Breaks All The Rules

During the early expansion of yoga some esoteric practices such as kriya yoga and other tantric practices were still kept secret but the internet, the great knowledge disseminator, has done away with all this. It's pretty much all out there now. Some modern teachers such as Yogani and his tens of thousands of disciples demonstrate that you can give it all away with precise and serious instructions and trust folks to use their common sense to avoid pitfalls and dangers.

Secret mantras and techniques which would command astronomical fees and cult like followings in the past, based on secrecy, are all available to anybody having half decent skills at using Google and other search engines.

I do not doubt for a moment that this democratization of knowledge is a good thing and a great service to humanity. Now each individual has the ability to research all the possibilities for personal development, try out different methods and go in great depth in any given field.

Do books, DVD's, and the internet replace having a live teacher? No, absolutely not. But they can lead many more keen students to find the teacher which they need and feel comfortable with.

The genie of knowledge is out of the bottle and it's not going back in!

Ethics

A crucial attribute of our modern culture is transparency. Any society can talk a good game about non-violence when parents and school teachers are beating up kids, priests are sexually abusing children, in-laws are burning murdering young widows, couples are killing babies because of their gender (hint: not because they are male), good folks are lawfully or unlawfully enslaved, etc.

All these problems still exist today but at least they are in the open, not swept under the rug. Did you know that there are more slaves now (2009) than in any other periods of history? Advocacy groups are fighting for the victims, laws are changed, solutions tried to be found. Do we live in a perfect world? No, but at least we don't pretend we do!

What does this have to do with yoga? Everything. For example most of us learned about ahimsa (non-violence) via yoga and/or Mahatma Gandhi.

Modern Western civilization is raising awareness of a deeper and subtler understanding of ahimsa. Example: the awareness that suffering to any animal is in clear violation of ahimsa. It's fundamental and at the heart of Indian culture you say? I respond that this may be the case in theory but, in practice, I'd rather be an American dog or a Swiss cow than their Indian homologues.

Extreme, horrible examples such as industrial animal testing, the Michael Vick dog fighting scandal and the existence of corridas only strengthen my point in light of the growing outrage that these medieval behaviors generate.

The Group & The Individual

Another essential development of modern ethics is the shift from a group centered culture to one revolving around the rights of the individual. Often this is argued to be a negative thing but when the group is higher than the individual it can be considered perfectly righteous to sacrifice any one or millions of individuals for the benefit of the group.

When the individual, nay every individual, is more important than the group solutions have to be found that benefit both group and all individuals. This applies to countries, religions, and organizations of all sizes.

An organization is an organism and it will oftentimes, to protect itself and just like any other organism, destroy any threatening foreign agents, be them inside or outside itself. In the case of religious and spiritual groups 'foreign agents' means people. Accepted behaviors of the past are shunned nowadays.

Throughout the ages religions have tended to protect the higher classes by exhorting lower class folks to be humble, meek, and subservient.

Modern yoga does not go along with that tendency. Yoga is supposed to empower the individual and does so whenever taught properly. Yoga should lead to freedom on all levels and modern yoga is not afraid to declare so.

Tolerance

Belonging to the Sivananda tradition of Saraswati swamis I feel very fortunate to follow the teachings of advaita vedanta in the school of Sankaracharya. It was presented to us by Swami Vishnu-devanandaji with a universal outlook and inherent tolerance to other spiritual paths and religions of the world.

By the way it's easier to be tolerant of a different religion located across the world than one situated just next door.

The quote above is meant as a joke. I could not find of a good setup for it but I can't let it go.

But most advaitins, just like dvaitins and members of all religions, like to think that their path is the best, the highest. These advaitins oftentimes condescend to be tolerant of other traditions saying that "There are different paths for different people. Advaita is like university and dualist paths are like kindergarten." LOL. What a joke! How can one be so insulting about other masters and fellow yogis with a straight face and feel good about oneself.

Of course Sankara himself had this "us against the world" attitude although I believe it's in part because of the tradition of commentary writing which stipulates that you need to demonstrate the validity of your arguments by showing the logic of your arguments and the fallacy of the other schools' tenets.

The 'E' Word

In modern or ancient discourse the word 'evil' is habitually used to make a strong emotional point which is not backed by much reason at all.

I'm deeply disturbed by the insistence of many vedantins, including great ones of the past, to praise Sankara for his greatest 'accomplishment': Kicking the Buddhists and their 'evil' doctrine out of India.

Leave aside for a moment the fact that most modern Indologists reject this theory as a fantasy and that some eminent ones go as far as saying that advaita vedanta borrows a great deal from buddhism, what is supposed to be so evil about buddhism?

Is it the eight-fold path? Is it teaching that desire is the cause of one's suffering and one should exert to eradicate desire to gain control over the mind and reach enlightenment? Is it the obsessive compulsion to develop as much compassion as possible? Is it the peaceful ways which are a hallmark of buddhist societies and communities everywhere? I just don't get it.

Oh no, wait, it's because the Buddha, trying to go back to the fundamental basics and essentials of spirituality refused to accept the omniscience and unfailingness of the vedas. That would and did weaken the power of the 'Man'. No one will ever get away with that.

What's New?

Not that much I'm afraid but many modern yogis hold as sacred principle that all religions are different paths leading to the same direction. Often going as far as saying that all religions are one and the same. I do disagree with the latter extreme viewpoint.

I think all religions and spiritual paths are about the same thing, eventually reaching the same goal, using different techniques, theoretical models, and terminology. I think, though, that some paths are more efficient than others, better at some aspects of spirituality and while many of those paths contain similarities they also have a great number of differences which we should not ignore for the sake of truth and clarity.

Different paths and traditions fit different people. What is the best path for me might not be for you and vice versa.

I suspect most of the readers will agree with that last sentence and that is a sign that there is a great deal of tolerance among modern yogis. Intolerant folks and groups say "My path, my group is the only and highest way to reach the goal. All others are deluded, will go to hell, etc."

Pragmatic Yoga

I like to think as my approach to yoga to be pragmatic.

On one hand countless yogis and masters came before us, made all types of experiments and drew some conclusions as to what works and what does not work. It would be foolish to ignore this body of knowledge and try to reinvent the spiritual wheel.

Because of this I'm a big advocate of the vedic tradition.

But on the other hand, at the end of the day, does the tradition come for the sake of helping us reach the state of freedom in the most efficiently possible way or is tradition the immovable end in and of itself which cannot be questioned, ever?

I think you know where I'm going with this. I prefer the former.

Some centuries ago and before that you would typically be born in a part of the world, be exposed to one brand or sub-brand of spirituality and be stuck with it for the rest of your life. The holy texts going with it were your texts, the final truth as far as you are concerned, and that's it. Never question. It's the word of God. If you follow anything else you'll be damned to hell forever ... Blah blah blah.

But guess what! The modern era of transportation and communication has made the world much smaller than it used to be. You can compare the different holy texts of different areas, different cultures, and different times of history. You can compare the different faiths.

Although it's politically incorrect to do it, it's highly beneficial to compare the strengths and weaknesses of all religions and faiths. At least the ones you are most familiar with. Trying to avoid making sweeping, stereotypical statements about teachings we don't know anything about is a good idea.

Practice This Now

Here is a quick exercise which you may want to take.

There are 3 questions. You have to think fast and write or enunciate your answers as quickly as possible. If the answers don't come fast that means you did not think enough about this. Doing the exercise slowly should be very helpful.

1. What are the 5 biggest weaknesses or pitfalls of your main spiritual or religious tradition?
2. What are the 5 biggest weaknesses or pitfalls of your main spiritual group or organization?
3. What are the 5 biggest weaknesses or pitfalls of your personal approach to yoga or spirituality?

... Keep reading once you are done ...

That was painful, right? I know. It helps develop tolerance though.

To make you feel better I'll suggest the following exercise which is similar.

1. What are the 5 biggest strengths or advantages of your main spiritual or religious tradition?
2. What are the 5 biggest strengths or advantages of your main spiritual group or organization?
3. What are the 5 biggest strengths or advantages of your personal approach to yoga or spirituality?

Similar exercises can be done for other faiths and other groups.

Conclusion

I don't have any. These are a few thoughts on modern and ancient yoga. I hope it will provide you with some food for thought and I look forward to hear your contributions to the topic.

Your comments are welcome on my Facebook wall. You will need to friend me first if you haven't already.

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Weekend Retreat in Australia

I'm posting this in the name of Prema (Maria Steiner)

The first weekend of September I organised and taught a Yoga & Meditation weekend in a very green part of Australia (not all is desert or beaches). We had a good weekend at the Gunnebah Retreat near Murwillumbah in northern NSW. Surrounded by lush subtropical gardens, in a secluded environment, it is ideal for an intensive yoga get-away.

Nine keen students participated in the daily program of meditation, mantra repetition, chanting, asana, pranayama, lecture and vegetarian cooking classes. Following the five points of yoga as taught and introduced by Swami Vishnu-Devananda: proper exercise (asana), breathing (pranayama), relaxation (savasana), vegetarian diet, positive thinking and meditation (dhyana).

The topic of the weekend was Yoga & Peace; also finding inner peace through the practice of yoga.

We did likita japa (writing of a mantra) and filled a few pages with peace mantras “om namo narayanaya” and “loka samasta sukhino bhavantu” for the Om Namo Narayanaya Bank on the summit of Vishnu Peak in the Himalayas.

Another highlight was the practice of Tratak a concentration exercise. Steady gazing at a lit candle and then visualizing the image of the flame in the third eye centre. This exercise may cause tears to flow but these will cleanse the eyes (kriya). Tratak is an excellent preparation for meditation.

The vegetarian cooking class and meals are always popular. Students like to be a bit practical with their hands, besides all the theory and sitting cross-legged for a long time, and learn new recipes. Get some tips on how to become vegetarian and change the diet and meals at home. Plus it is nice to prepare the meals at the Retreat as a “family”.

For me as a teacher it is always nice to organise and teach an intensive Yoga Retreat. It is inspiring to see the enthusiasm of students wanting to learn and know more about yoga than just the weekly hatha-yoga class. And since I’m a yoga student as well I’m always learning something new through the books and my teachers while preparing for the Retreat.

Om namo narayanaya !!

Prema Maria

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Life, Death & Yoga

Here is a highly recommended post on the natural transition to death.

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Updated My Travel Itinerary

Om Namah Sivaya!

Today I've updated my traveling schedule. It goes all the way to November 2010. The events for Spring '10 should come shortly.

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Spring Teaching Tour

At last a new post. Those of you who did subscribe to the RSS feed must be happy that you did not have to check this page for new posts every couple days.

European Tour

In the last few weeks I gave some intensive weekends in Speyer, Frankfurt, and Zurich. I just arrived in Amsterdam where I'll teach thing weekend a program on meditation and I'll be next week in Madrid for an advaita weekend.

More news coming soon.

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Cheap Flights to Poprad

Today & Tomorrow Only

As you might know one of the best ways to come to Levoča from Western Europe or the US is to take a direct flight from London to Poprad.

SkyEurope is offering some special deals just today and tomorrow for these flights.

You Snooze, You Lose

In the last couple years I have been working hard at encouraging yogis to use an RSS feed reader such as Google Reader. Unfortunately few have done it and are missing a powerful way to use the web enabling one to save time while keeping abreast of more sites such as this blog. If you see this post too late then you know what to do for the future.

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Sannyas Initiation Anniversary

Om Sri Sankaracharyaya Namah

It's been 17 years today that I've become a swami. I feel very grateful for this, having found my path and way.

Adi Sankara.

May the next 17 years be full of intense sadhana ind dispassion and the combination of yoga/tantra/advaita bring mosha ASAP!

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Happy Thanksgiving ...

... to all yogi friends in the US and elsewhere. Let us all take this day to look within and think about all the good things and opportunities that were presented to us in this lifetime and this last year and experience gratitude.

Let us also take some time to reflect on the billions of souls who are sharing this planet with us but are unfortunately experiencing untold sufferings. Let us send them joy, peace, and bliss.

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Religion & Spirituality

Here is what I think:

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Levoča Web Pages

I have just created a new section on the web site for the Levoča ashram.

It includes the traveling details on how to get there.

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The Warning

In this last post about my move to Slovakia I had promised a warning about the new AYA ashram. The reason for this is that this ashram is not working quite like the SYVC and Yoga Vidya ashrams and I would not want anybody to feel misled and have a negative experience after going through the trouble of visiting.

Grandhotel at foothills of High Tatras

Meant for Doing Personal Sadhana

The main thing to know is that there are no yoga classes here in Levoča. I lead two satsangs per day, each time with silent meditation, some with chanting, and at least one lecture/common study per day.

Outside this program the visitors have plenty of free time to do their personal yoga practice, alone or with other visitors. Other practices are aratis and pujas which need to be done in different rooms of the ashram. You will be instructed on how to perform those if you don't know already and carry on by yourself.

There will soon be a good number of quality yoga books and scriptures available for all to read and study.

My plan is to keep the karma yoga shores to a minimum, simply focusing on cleaning and cooking. Should you want to do more, there are tasks associated with this web site which can be done while in Levoča or in the comfort of your own home.

The House

Even though the house is newly renovated and comfortable as shown in the previous post's photos, I just moved in and it's not yet totally equipped. Please expect the following:

• There are no curtains yet on the windows
• There is very little furniture at this point. I hope to get some bunk beds before Christmas. Worst case scenario, you'd have to sleep on futon mattresses on the floor.
• Some of the finishing touches to the house will be done in the Spring such as light fixtures, power outlets, door handles and things like this.

You will most likely be 2 per room, up to 4 if many come for this Chirstmas retreat, and possibly alone if you are lucky and few people show. Maximum capacity this year is 10 including me but there are many other options in town in pensions, hotels of different standing from very inexpensive to 4 stars!

Map of the High Tatras - Enlarge

Free Time & Excursions

The area is rich with places to visit and things to do such as hiking, skiing, sauna, etc...

The problem is that I'm new here, don't yet speak the local language, and don't have a car. That means I'm not sure yet how to go about doing the possible activities although I've already worked out the public transportation to nearby towns Spišská Nová Ves and Poprad, the latter being the gateway to the beautiful High Tatra mountains.

This Christmas, at least one student will come by car so that could make it easier to visit the area but nothing is guaranteed.

The Food

The downside is that it's very hard to find bio products in Levoča, especially as far as produce is concerned. Otherwise the food here is fantastic! :-) Good yogic, sattvic, vegetarian diet cooked by Westerners for Westerners. Let us know your specific tastes at the beginning of the stay and it will all be customized.

A Good Experience

I think if you come with the right expectations you will have a very pleasant stay and an uplifting yoga experience. If you already expressed interest in coming this Christmas please feel free to email me again to let me know whether you are still planning to come after reading this.

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Differences Between Yogis & Shaolin Temple Adepts

Let's start off with this headstand picture. Their technique is sloppy, this has got to hurt the neck, and one should not use the wall. Very bad!

Shaolin adepts doing headstand without the hands and leaning against a wall

Ok, now the technique is VERY impressive. Still supposed to hurt the neck. Must be strengthening on some level though. As in the previous photo he's standing on hard floor without a mat or anything. Very impressive skillwise.

Shaolin practitioner doing headstand without the hands

Now that's too much. Our way to meditate is much gentler. I don't even get it. Why in the world would anybody do something like this? ...

Shaolin monk in meditating posture, hanging by the head

... Oh I see, in order to be able to walk on walls. Most yogis I know can't do that for sure.

Shaolin adept walking on side of wall

All comments are meant to be taken in good fun. The Shaolin tradition is very honorable and to be respected.

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My Move to Slovakia

Location Location Location

I reached Levoča (English speakers should pronounce 'levocha') on Saturday afternoon. Levoča is a beautiful, historic city located in Central Europe in the Eastern Part of Slovakia. Should you be interested you can learn more at the town's web site.

I got lucky and since I have been here the weather has been beautiful and warm breaking temparture records for the season. It makes it easier getting acclimated.

The Ashram

As explained in previous posts we got lucky enough to set this ashram in this beautiful old house which has just been renovated, mixing the charm of a historical building with the comforts and convenience of modern construction technology and savvy.

Here are a few photos taken before unpacking the few things I took with me. I don't have a wide lens so these pictures don't truly do justice to the rooms.

The meditation room

A bedroom

Hangout area in kitchen

Stairways from 2nd floor

Bathroom

The way up to my room at the 4th floor. That floor is not visible from front of the house photo.

There is a little ski station just a few miles from town. Much bigger ones are in the high Tatra mountains about 20-25 miles from the ashram.

And the Award for Best Karma Yogi Goes To ...

... everybody. It's not Oscar night but I still feel the strong urge to thank every one I know, all those who have helped me ever, especially in the last 8 years since I've left SYVC, leading to this new important phase in my life.

I won't give names in order to not forget anybody except for two:

• Eva/Daya Devi from Luxembourg for being the main instrument of the ashram finding its new home
• Sita Chaitanya for being the rock on which AYA stands
• Everybody else please don't feel bad I have not mentioned you. You all count a lot in my heart. All contributions are very much appreciated and I pray hard that God gives you back ten-fold what you shared with me and AYA in the form of donations, hard work, hosting, friendship, love, fun, laughter, and much more

Christmas Retreat & Other Emails

Since this previous post several of you have emailed me regarding coming to the ashram for this Christmas.

I have a pile of about 20 emails to reply to. Your answer will come soon. So far everybody who asked me to come in those emails is welcome to visit. Stay tuned to this blog for details and confirmations as well as, ahem, a warning. LOL

Om Namah Sivaya!

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First Reservation for Levoča

I'm still in Luxembourg and gave a mantra initiation to a student last night. She told me that she wanted to reserve her space to visit the Levoča ashram over Christmas. We booked the dates.

Christmas Retreat

There are a couple other advanced yogis who announced their intention to come for Christmas so it could turn out to be a mini-retreat.

Once I'm in Slovakia I will start working on the web pages for the ashram laying out all relevant details.

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Nothing is Impossible

When you feel overwhelmed there is nothing like watching this video!

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Slovakia Ashram

I will be moving to Levoča, Slovakia on November 1st. It's coming up really fast now and I'm so looking forward to settle down there.

I'm in the process of organizing the shipping of my belongings - mostly books and clothes - from Austin TX, Geneva, Bad Meinberg, Liestal CH, and Le Havre France.

Partial view from my future room

One of my new luxuries will be to have all of my books in one place and ready for me to refer to.

Since I haven't worked on learning Slovak yet the big challenge will be to get some type of conversational basics of the language.

The ashram should be equipped to receive visitors sometimes in December. Web pages will then be created to announce the details.

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Action & Noise

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Creationism

The thing about creationism is that it's so insane that you really can't argue against it. The following stat published by gullible.info though puts it into perspective.

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Laughing Yoga

For some reason I have not felt inclined at all to practice the hot trend called laughing yoga. This video does nothing to change my mind.

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Swami Govindanandaji's New Blog

Swami Govindaji has started a blog and I've subscribed to it.

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Swami Sivananda's Birthday

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya!

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Self-transformation

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This is Where AYA's New Ashram Will Be

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Border Yoga Across the US/Mexico Fence

This nice article tells of the yoga classes being held across the disgraceful fence/wall dividing the US and Mexico - keeps on reminding me of the Berlin wall.

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Intensive Teaching Summer

Om Namah Sivaya!

I have just completed my intensive teaching Summer. It primarily took place at the Yoga Vidya ashram in Bad Meinberg with a week at the Westerwald's asram as well.

The programs were as follows:

• Advanced teachers training course based on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika scripture - 40 plus yoga teachers coming for an intensive with the right frame of mind.
• Asana Intensive week - 2 3-hour yoga classes per day. The title says it all
• The secret of mind control weekend - Every year I tell the secret, every year I have to find a new secret ;-)
• Four-week Yoga teachers training course in English. Just like the course offered by SYVC.
• Yoga & Meditation intensive week
• Sanskrit Introduction week - almost 20 students who were both enthusiastic and gifted. By the end of the week, as promised, they could read mantras and chant a chapter of the gita with extreme ease. It's like they all had a past life in India or something.
• and finally ... an evening workshop in Cologne Sunday night.

It was very inspiring for me to teach all this. If you'd like to do something both good and pleasant (shreya and preya), I will be teaching the same programs next year.

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Announcing Sita's New Blog

Om Namah Sivaya!

We haven't yet announced that Sita has started her own new blog a little while ago.

I'm subscribed to it and I recommend it.

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The Key to Longevity

The science of aging is a big topic these days. Of course, as usual, society prefers to go about the complicated and expensive way. It has been demonstrated many times over with experiments on mice and rats that a low calorie, one meal a day diet is unfailing in its results leading to optimum longevity.

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Advanced Hatha Yoga Video

Here is quite an amazing video clip of a hatha yogi with a pretty decent commentary on yoga.

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Good Definition of Hatha Yoga

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Travels to Yoga Vidya

Just recently I came back from a three week visit to Haus Yoga Vidya in Bad Meinberg, Germany. My main reason for going was to attend some yoga courses led by Swami Atma, and boost my yoga practice. Here are some photos and thoughts about the trip.

Frankfurt

My first and last nights in Germany were spent at the very nice Yoga Vidya center in Frankfurt. Maheshwara and Krishnapriya were generous and gracious hosts. I much appreciated the expert guidance on navigating the German train system from staff member Tarpan, and the excellent food and conversation with Maksim.

Maheshwara and Krishnapriya

Haus Yoga Vidya, Bad Meinberg

The next day I travelled by train to Bad Meinberg. The yoga center there is untraditional in the sense that from the outside it looks like a hotel, but on the inside functions as a very efficient and most excellent ashram.

Haus Yoga Vidya front entrance

The center is quite comfortable and the spiritual energy is very high. The staff were all extremely nice and helpful. The food was delicious, lots of variety and tons of different options accommodating all kinds of vegetarian diets.

Located around the center are lots of hiking and nature trails.

nature trail

The setting is mostly rural which you can see from the upper floors of the center.

view from the 7th floor

And really they are quite surrounded by a peaceful and traditional farming community.

cows by the road

Hatha Yoga Pradipika

The main course I attended while I was at Yoga Vidya was the Hatha Yoga Pradipika Advanced Teacher Training Course. The advanced pranayama techniques portion of the course was expertly led by Sukadev, the main teacher at Yoga Vidya. The lecture portion of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika text was led by Swami Atma.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika lecture with Swami Atma in Sivananda Saal

Altogether there were about 50 students in the class, and so we used the main hall where they also do satsang. The course was translated into english and german by Reinard depending on which teacher was speaking. I learned a lot more than I expected and had a wonderful time making new friends as we traversed through the rigorous schedule.

Students attending the center are also assigned an hour or so of karma yoga per day. This is selfless service helping out the ashram with the goal being to help purify the aspirant. My karma yoga this time was straightening the Sivananda Saal with Jagadamba.

After the Hatha Yoga Pradipika course ended, I also took an asana intensive led by Swami Atma and translated by Klaus. After that I attended a weekend intensive on the Secrets of the Mind, also led by Swami Atma and translated by Klaus.

Satsang

One of the main events at an ashram is satsang. These are held twice a day and include meditation, chanting, lecture and arati. Every Saturday night Yoga Vidya has an extra-long satsang where there is a lot of chanting and special guest speakers.

Sukadev in satsang

One interesting thing for me was seeing someone play a tambura. This is a traditional Indian instrument that you sometimes see pictured with Swami Sivananda. I had never seen one before in person, and there was more than one person at Yoga Vidya who could play it.

staff member playing at satsang

The Yoga Vidya center is the largest in Europe, and at the big Saturday night satsangs there may be as many as 400 people attending.

Swami Atma speaking in satsang

English Teacher Training Course

The all-english Teacher Training Course began towards the end of my stay. This is a month long program where the students learn how to become yoga teachers. This year there are about 20 students going through the program. The main teachings are being given by Swami Atma, assisted by the very knowledgeable Bhavani.

Swami Atma and Bhavani in the Sahasrara Raum where the TTC is held

I was able to attend the first couple of days of this program before leaving.

Puja for Mahasamadhi

The night before I left was a big puja celebrating the Mahasamadhi of Swami Sivananda. This is the anniversary of the day in which Swami Sivananda left his body, and is typically celebrated with a worship ceremony called a puja.

The puja was led by Sukadev and all guests and staff members were able to participate if they wanted.

puja setup for the Mahasamadhi of Swami Sivananda

Recommendation

Overall I had a fabulous time on my trip. I definitely recommend visiting there if you would like to seriously boost your yoga practice. Yoga Vidya is currently making a big effort to reach out internationally and they offer more and more courses in english and spanish. If you want to go but feel intimidated because you don't speak german, there are so many helpful German people who speak english that I never felt lost or out of place.

Thank You

Finally a big thank you to Sukadev and Suguna who went out of their way to make my stay at Yoga Vidya special. Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya!

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Beautiful Sand Mandala

Enlarge

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Journey Into Your Own Heart

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The Way to Happiness Can Be Counter-intuitive

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How to Become Powerful & Peaceful

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Famous Vegetarians

I feel ambiguous about this because I haven't checked whether this list is accurate but here it goes.

The list includes
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry David Thoreau
• Martin Luther
• Vincent Van Gogh
• Carl Lewis
and many, many more

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Karma Yoga Baby

You've got to train them young ;-)

See more

A bit the ideal of karma yoga. Combining fun and useful work without the feeling of agency.

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Psychological & Spiritual Health

In other words play the game of life in your own terms. Too many people waste their life trying to fit in and just follow the masses and the system.

The system is just there to take your money, not for your own good.

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Christianity & Atheism

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Flexible Little Yogini

Here is a yoga link that all will enjoy. Very spectacular demonstration by a young yogini.

Thanks to Bhagavati for submitting it.

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Apples and Vedanta

In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Swami Muktibhodhananda, gives a unique explanation of how to think of the jiva, or individual soul, in relation to the whole, or Brahman.

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Smiling In The Rain

Today I took the bike to my university and on my way back it started to rain - just very lightly, so I didn't care. But then it got more and I started to get this "Oh no, I'm getting all wet"-feeling.

This was the moment the drops started to become thicker and suddenly I heard a small splashing noise when they hit my forehead. I cannot remember that I consciously heard this anytime before and found this small sound so amazing that I started to smile. And I was hoping it would continue to rain so that I can hear this small splashing noise and feel it on my forehead a little bit longer. And I continued my way home smiling and thanking the rain for this experience.

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Seven Blunders of the World According to Gandhi

This list is very thoughtful. The work of an original thinker.

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Quote on War

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Comparing the Paths of Action & Renunciation

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On this Day the Adventure Began

Today marks the 20th anniversary of my leaving France to become a full-time staff member in the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers.

My original commitment was for one to two years but it soon became obvious that I'd stay much longer than that. I ended up staying over 12 years. Twelve years of intense training in the different aspects of yoga, especially karma yoga.

I still see myself in the plane from Paris to Montreal. I did not speak a word of English. I had taken TTC the year before. I was as enthusiastic a yoga student as you can be and was very aware that I needed to learn much. Heartfelt thanks to all swamis and senior staff members who taught me so much.

I'm so happy I got to do this. No regrets whatsoever. Would do it again in a moment. I'm still as far to the goal as I was then though. So much work remains to be done.

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How to Become Happy & Peaceful

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Growing Your Willpower

Swami Vishnu-devananda

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Get Rid of the Ego

Swami Vishnu-devananda

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Vedanta and the Ultimate Reality

... and Happy Birthday, Swami Atma, 4-22-08.

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Worship with Flowers

Swami Vishnu-devananda

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Quote on God plus Photo

Swami Vishnu-devananda

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Life in God

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Swami Vishnu and His Peace Plane

As I was editing some photos of our guru Swami Vishnu-devananda, I found this rather fun photograph which I really liked. It shows Swami Vishnu doing a headstand on the wing of his Peace Plane which he flew to many countries in the 70's distributing flowers and leaflets to promote world peace.

Swami Vishnu's teaching was that world peace could only happen when people first found peace within themselves. While the above photo is in fun, his mission was quite serious and important. In spite of all the continuing problems in the world today, we can be thankful that Swami Vishnu's peace mission lives on in the hearts of all the students who have taken his yoga teacher's training program.

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The Energy Made Me Do It

The Gist for Busy & Impatient Yogis

In the vedic path and religion in general great emphasis is put on being good in thought, speech and action, oftentimes leading to guilt and split of personality - a split between one's aspirations and one's day to day nature.

Tantra says: forget about morality, do lots of yoga with the right attitude and that will lead to being a more moral and ethical person. We say here: practice on both fronts.

You Are Not a Bad Person

This essay aims at exploring the relationship of the moral and ethical precepts of yoga (yamas and niyamas) with the theory of tantra. Obviously the title of this page is a play on the famous saying ...

This playful remark is often dismissed as a poor excuse for one's defects but it may hold the key to successful self-transformation and a better understanding of oneself.

Invoking the devil, an outside entity, is an easy cop-out to personal responsibility, however, why do so many new year's resolutions not last until January 15th? Many of us can relate to making conscious resolves to perform or not perform a given action and soon after not keeping up to that resolve, defeated, as it were, by an outside force.

The recurring theme of Advaita Vedanta is that our true Self is pure consciousness and taking the physical body and mind for the Self is a pure case of mistaken identity. This spiritual truth, just like many scientific facts, is counter intuitive but it is very useful as it leads to the realization that some parts of our own minds are independent of us and function on their own volition.

In the excellent book 'Yoga Nidra' Swami Satyananda tells of teaching deep relaxation to jail inmates. After only a few one-a-week sessions a substantial drop in fights and violent behavior was observed.

Somebody who acts in an over aggressive manner will often be met by a "what's his problem anyway?" reaction. This expression intuits that inner tensions and unease will lead to psychotic actions and that a well adjusted being won't indulge in such conduct. Managing stress and tensions through deep relaxation is a subject worth exploring on its own and is a major factor to the topic at hand but I want to focus here on the energetic side of the equation. This leads to the tantric view on spirituality.

What's Tantra Again?

Because of the general misconception it's always better to start with saying what tantra is not. Tantra is not primarily about sex and how to get a better sex life.

Tantra is a very ancient Indian spiritual tradition which is primarily concerned with the power aspect of the Divine. Consciousness (Shiva) is the static, male aspect of divinity and power (Shakti) is its dynamic, female counterpart.

This shakti is expressed as different Goddesses when thought of as outside ourselves and as the Kundalini Shakti when looked at within.

Tantra is a very practical way of spirituality. To oversimplify you could say that it's all about harnessing, awakening, and controlling prana and shakti .

Morality According to the Tantric & Vedic Traditions

Vedic Scriptures & Most Religions

Religious traditions lay out moral and ethical guidelines which usually manifest into hard rules and edicts. For example among the yamas is ahimsa which is the universal principle of non-violence. An application of this principle is the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill'.

Very good. Most agree that killing somebody is bad. In practice things get a lot more complicated but that will be the subject of a different essay.

Similarly we are taught not to steal, and this for obvious reasons. Now imagine that I have the samskara (deeply engrained habit) of stealing things from folks and stores - which I don't by the way ;-) .

Wanting to be a good yogi or Christian I try with all my might to not indulge in this bad habit but again and again I end up committing theft. This will create a strong feeling of guilt as well as shame if uncovered.

Now all of a sudden the non-stealing precept is creating a lot of inner tensions and may end up working against my spiritual evolution. At the very least it's not very helpful and at worst it's physically, psychologically, and spiritually damaging.

Please note that to be fruitful yoga sadhana needs to have a strong emphasis on purification, not just awakening, and that the lofty spiritual aim of life should be entertained in the mind throughout the whole practice in order to bear fruit. Otherwise the practice could lead to strengthening of lower desires and attachments leading to unrighteous character and behavior.

So what is one to do?

Morality in Tantra

Here the emphasis is to do much practice and invest little time and energy on the theory and philosophy although there are of course very sophisticated theoretical and philosophical tantric systems. Also one should be aware of the moral and ethical teachings but doesn't need to actively live up to them.

The idea is to awaken the inner powers and to channel all energies and forces upward and toward the higher chakras, thus freeing the mind from lower desires and tendencies. This will help loosen up attachment to old actions and habits and increase the practitioner's free will thereby leading to a more righteous behavior, in line with the yamas and niyamas.

So what's better, Vedanta or Tantra?

The Solution

All religious traditions tend to include practices which help sublimate lower energies in order to enable one to reach the spiritual heights extolled and exemplified by their prophets and mystics. This article contends that if you had to choose, just practicing tantric methods such as hatha yoga will be preferable but it's best to combine both approaches with, for most people, an emphasis on tantra.

This is the approach taken in our tradition of Sivananda Yoga.

Advaita Vedanta with Tantra

In the Sivananda tradition we use advaita vedanta as the guiding light to our spiritual life but we use yogic and tantric practices such as yoga asanas, pranayama, mantras, etc. to purify, awaken, and sublimate prana and shakti.

Many yogis have integrated these concepts into their spiritual life but not always being consciously aware of this process, hence this article.

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Balance of Mind

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Face All Obstacles

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Where to Find Peace

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Dive into the Heart

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Man is God

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Become Divine

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Sivananda Yoga

There are Different Yogas?!?

Oh yeah! Many different yogas exist. To avoid any confusion it's best to define what we mean by yogas. Yoga means union and refers to a mystical state where one is experiencing perfect merging of the individual consciousness (Jivaatman) with the Cosmic Consciousness (Paramatman). It defines the goal of spirituality. But yoga also refers to any technique bringing the practitioner to that goal.

Yogas as Paths

Truthfully there are at least thousands of such yoga techniques. They can be practiced individually or in combination. These yogas have been classified into four paths or margas. Some examples of these yogas are dhyana yoga (meditation), hatha yoga (physical and energetic path through postures, breathing, etc.), karma yoga (yoga of action), and japa yoga (repetition o a mantra)

Yogas as Traditions or Schools

The tradition of yoga is at least several thousand years old and has been transmitted through the millenia via the system of direct transmission from a guru (teacher and master) to a student. The succession of a given line of teacher to student to student is called a Guruparampara. Throughout India countless such lineages exist, all presenting a different mix of practices, theoretical teachings and philosophies.

Since the 20th century the world has associated the word yoga with the wonderful practice called hatha yoga. Different systems have evolved into different traditions and for the sake of simplicity they have been labeled as Iyengar yoga, ashtanga yoga, Sivananda yoga, etc.

So What is Sivananda Yoga Then?

It refers to yoga as taught by the great Master Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. Sivananda yoga is somewhat of a misnomer because Swami Sivananda never intended to create a new brand of yoga and because he did not invent anything new.

He was an incredible Master resulting in a great number of followers from all around the world but also, and this is very unusual, a few dozens of his close disciples became advanced masters and gurus themselves. Many of them are listed in the dedication page of the excellent book 'Meditation & Mantras' by Swami Vishnu-devananda. These Yogis went all around the world spreading the teachings.

Sivananda Yoga as Hatha Yoga

When most folks talk about Sivananda Yoga they mean the typical yoga class involving 12 basic postures, two breathing exercises, and a deep final relaxation. The 12-posture sequence is also called the Rishikesh series as it originates in the region of that little town in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Characteristics of Sivananda yoga also include:
• Mantra/prayers at beginning and end of yoga classes
• Longer holding of postures
• Pranayamas at the beginning or end of class
• An overall awareness and focus on breathing and the pranic dimensions of the practice

Sivananda Yoga as an Integral Path

Swami Sivananda was at once an orthodox and a revolutionary. His bold contributions - bold in those days, things we take for granted by now - include opening up yoga to the whole world by making English the official language in his ashram and in the writing of his 200+ books. He also liberally taught and initiated students of all castes, countries, and creeds - men and women alike.

If you could summarize his teachings and influence in a few words, they would be 'the revival of the yoga of synthesis'. Most paths and lineages tend to specialize in a limited number of practices belonging to one or two of the four paths. His genius was to recognize that all aspirants can benefit from a well-rounded daily sadhana containing jnana, bhakti, raja, and karma yoga while putting the most time and energy in their discipline of predilection.

Sivananda Yoga as an Organization

To make matters a tad more complicated Swami Vishu-devananda, out of devotion and respect to his Gurudev, named the organization that he setup in the 1960's "Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers" (SYVC). This has been one of the most visible groups representing the great Master. To anyone belonging to this group in any capacity 'Sivananda' or 'Sivananda Yoga' became synonymous with SYVC to the point that SYVC owns the copyright for the term!

Here I feel the need to mention a few Sivananda influenced groups which are also very significant.

First of all and most important is the Divine Life Society which is headquartered in Rishikesh. Swami Sivananda founded this group which has branches worldwide. Their web site offers free downloads of many of the books by Swami Sivananda in pdf or html formats. Other organizations include:

• Integral Yoga Institute founded by Swami Satchidananda
• Advaita Yoga Ashrama, owner of this web site and which is an offshoot of SYVC
• Yoga Vidya, extremely dynamic group based in Germany and founded by my beloved teacher Sukadev. These days I do a lot of my teaching there.
• Bihar School of Yoga founded by Swami Satyananda and run by Swami Niranjananda. Special mention to their books and publications. Outstanding in every way. To get you started feel free to try Yoga Nidra and Kundalini Tantra
• Keep in mind there are many, many more ...

Conclusion

I hope this short essay brought clarity to the subject and that it will contribute to the most important thing as far as your spiritual progress is concerned ...

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On Resting in the Self

Explanation below is from the "Avadhuta Gita of Dattatreya" with commentary by Swami Ashokananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math:

Yoga - practice of concentration. The yogi who is enlightened has gone beyond the need for it.

Absence, etc. - because he is in the state of eternal yoga, or Self-realization.

Enjoyment, etc. - enjoyment of relative life. Absence of such enjoyment would imply self-restraint and self-abnegation. The enlightened one is beyond both.

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Sadhana to Eliminate Negative Thinking

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On Positive Thinking

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On Being a Wise Aspirant

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On Yoga and the Mind

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Poem by Swami Sivananda

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Become a Radiant Yogi

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Emotionally Healthy Spirituality

What is Emotionally Healthy Spirituality?

Emotionally healthy spirituality is a universal approach to spiritual and religious life. It advocates a way of life where one can come closer to God while respecting one's needs, tendencies, and temperament.

What is Spirituality?

Spirituality is a path and a lifestyle which aims at bringing one closer to the 'Spirit'. Spirit should not be mistaken as anything which is not physical. Rather the Spirit is what is often referred to as 'God' or 'Soul'. The Soul is the divine spark which shines within each of us.

Love and compassion in action

Difference between Religion and Spirituality

Religion and spirituality have similarities but are not the same thing. Their common ground is to enable one to come closer to God.

Religion

Religion aims primarily at bringing God to regular folks and thus to enrich their life and give it a higher purpose and meaning. The focus is usually on practices and traditions inherited at birth. Most religions discourage indulging in practices belonging to other religions. One usually needs to abandon their own faith if they wish to convert to a new one. The goal of religion is to add a divine dimension to one's life and thus obtain happiness here and hereafter - in this world and in heaven.

Many like to argue that religion may have created more evil than good on this planet. Others tend to think of religion in negative terms and spirituality in positive terms. I firmly disagree with these opinions. Both religion and spirituality can tremendously benefit whoever is using these great tools for a better life. Of course they can also be misused and create untold sufferings in this world. Overall they bring more good than evil.

Spirituality

Spirituality is concerned with becoming one with God or the true Self in a very pragmatic way. If a method works then the spiritual aspirant will use it no matter what tradition it belongs to. For eons the mystics have been like scientists testing out techniques of all kinds, discarding the inefficient ones and keeping all practices that led them closer to God or the Self. Spirituality is more concerned with mysticism and less with traditions and rituals although mystics practice rituals for a definite purpose. The spiritual aspirant wants to experience union with God first and get worldly happiness second. The goal is not to be happy here and to go to heaven but to become one with God in this life and hereafter.

Forgiveness and cheerfulness in face of incredible adversity

How about the Emotions?

There is an inherent danger in religious and spiritual life to sacrifice so much for the sake of God so as to deny our physical, energetic, sensorial, and psychological needs. This can lead to repression of our basic desires and emotions leading to an inner conflict and a - mild or strong - form of schizophrenia.

Repression & Expression

Here is a dilemma. The spiritual aspirant needs to transcend his lower self and lower needs to embrace the glory of his Spirit. In so attempting, many a religious person suppresses their desires and various emotions. This creates untold tensions in the depth of the unconscious.

Modern western psychology is well aware of this and many want to avoid this pitfall. The knee-jerk reaction will be to express all their feelings, positive and negative all alike. Let's say one feels anger mounting and building up. The mistaken aspirant will express it in a fit in a poor attempt to get rid of the excess energy contained in this emotion. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is about finding a better solution, which is ...

Sublimation

The process of sublimation - in the spiritual context - is to take the tremendous energy belonging to our lower nature and manifesting in all types of desires, tendencies, and emotions, and transforming it into a higher type of power which will fuel our spiritual life. Lower emotions and desires such as sexual impulses are not looked at as obstacles anymore but as the very foundation of our spiritual life.

The obvious question here is: How to we do that? There are two avenues to that purpose which are 'spiritual practices' and a 'refinement of our lifestyle'. They should be practiced in concert. They eventually merge into one.

Self abnegation and renunciation

Spiritual Practices

One can beat around the bush for ever but spiritual growth is a direct outcome of practice and discipline. The more one invests in prayer, meditation, rituals, and other disciplines advocated by their tradition, the faster and the farther one will advance in one's spiritual quest. A subtle, esoteric process is triggered and the energy usually dwelling in lower regions of the mind is transmuted into a subtler form which now pushes the practitioner's mind and consciousness upwards. This is very much like the naturally downward flowing water will naturally be transformed into a more potent, upward moving power when placed in contact with heat. The water in its new form of steam has now the power to propel a whole train and much more.

Refinement of Lifestyle

In order to not create any imbalance and repression of the emotions and desires, one needs to embrace the totality of one's being. There should not be any shame or guilt beyond a small, healthy dose. Let's open a parenthesis here to acknowledge that guilt can help one become aware of one's errors and lead to correcting them. Too much of it though will lead to inner conflicts and tensions which will slow down one's spiritual advancement.

Recognize Your Desires & Emotions Through Introspection

The first step is to develop the habit to be more introspective. Throughout the day do observe your thoughts, emotions, reactions, innermost desires and activities. You can optionally keep up a spiritual diary or journal to that effect.

With practice you'll become better at it and you should also see the causality of thoughts. You will recognize common though patterns. For example you will find that the same thoughts always occur when you are in a certain location, situation, or around certain people. You will also note that oftentimes a thought is always preceded by similar ones. If you want to address a certain desire or negative emotional state you will be more successful at it if you can interrupt or redirect the process at its budding manifestation.

Pure love, simplicity, and generosity

Gradual Transformation

Be kind to yourself. Don't try to change yourself all at once. As you go on with the introspection you will become acutely aware of certain actions and feelings which will stand out as more harmful than others. Look at them and don't deny these desires but devise other healthier outlets for these tendencies. It's all about replacing thoughts and actions with similar ones which are more in tune with your spiritual aspirations.

The golden principle is that a negative quality or emotion can be best dealt with by developing the opposite positive quality. Good is stronger than evil. If for example you find yourself being too cheap, meditate on the quality of generosity. Visualize and analyze the downsides of miserliness and the advantages of generosity and magnanimity. Bring to your consciousness great examples, either famous ones or people close to you. Draw this quality from them and thank them for it. Emotions and feelings all come in such dual pairs: fear & courage; sadness & cheerfulness; greed & contentment; etc...

The gist is to not dwell so much on the negatives but to focus on positivity.

This should also be applied to actions. Substitute any actions you are not happy with with better alternates which will fulfill the same psychological needs. For example if you find yourself doing a lot of backbiting, replace the fault finding with the keen observation of other people's good qualities and virtues and replace the backbiting by making a point of discussing other folks' great character traits. If somebody tries to suck you into the old negative speech, stay quiet, try to change topic, don't feed the negativity in any way. Walk away if necessary. After a little practice backbiters will find you boring and positive thinkers will be drawn to you and this will thus create a new speech dynamic.

The Fascinating Journey

This post is just scratching the surface. The main principles have been laid out but more examples could have been given. It's up to you now to change your religious and spiritual approach. Above all remember that emotionally healthy spirituality is and should be fun and enjoyable. A sign of an emotionally healthy spiritual person is that he or she looks happy, relaxed and radiates love. Everybody wants to be around such a person. There must be a mix of determination to reach the spiritual goal with the tenderness and softness of love and compassion as well as a tangible, communicative joy.

May we all be in that state.

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Photos of Swami Sivananda & Swami Vishnu-devananda

Recently I had the great fortune of sorting through some old paperwork and getting to see some photos and prints of Master Sivananda and Swami Vishnu-devananda. For the time being I have them spread across my desk to look at when I am at my computer.

Anyway, I find them very inspiring and so I wanted to share a few with you. Some you may have already seen other places.

Swami Sivananda and the River Ganga

Master's feet

Master and Swamiji and the Ganga, 1948

Swami Sivananda statue in Val Morin, Canada

Swami Vishnu lecturing late 1980's

classic photo of Swami Vishnu meditating

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On the Benefits of Meditation

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On Finding the Lord

Sri Anandamayi Ma, 20th century Bengali Saint

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Recipe for Happiness

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On Means and Ends

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On Happiness and Contentment

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On The Active Practice of Virtue

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On What is the Ego

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On Thinking of Life as a Movie

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On Silence

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International Teacher's Training Course Every Summer in Germany

Om namah shivaya!

I recently got some photos of this year's Teacher's Training Course with Swami Atma. It took place at the Yoga Vidya Ashram in Bad Meinberg, Germany. It was the third International Teacher's Training Course completely in English, there is one every summer with Swamiji since 2005. Apart of Swamiji who lead the course and took care of the yoga philosophy part and most of the theory, there were Ganga and Bhavani. Ganga taught the Hatha Yoga classes and the teaching theory. Bhavani assisted during the classes and our first experiences with teaching yoga by ourselves in small groups.

We were 22 people who came from all over the world. We had participants from Chile, Mexico, India and South Africa. There were many different reasons for taking that course. Some just wanted to learn more about yoga philosophy and have an intensive experience by diving into yoga for four weeks. Most really knew where they would teach afterwards, some didn't.

Mareike Getting Her Certificate

For everyone of us it was a really interesting and intensive new experience. Living yoga apart of your daily life for four weeks shows you very much about yourself. There is time to reflect where you want to go in life and what life is all about. We all learned very much and gained depth in our yoga practice. Some got a spiritual name and mantra initiation. By doing this we confirmed for ourselves that this yoga path is our way and that we want to go on following it at home and for the rest of our lives.

We learned very much for our own practice. Apart of that we studied the philosophy and the Kriyas which are cleansing techniques. Ganga taught us how a yoga class should be structured and what to pay attention for while teaching yoga to students. And there was so much more, it would be too much to write about all this here.

Group Chanting In The Last Satsang After Four Weeks

There will be a TTC like this one from July 13 to August 10 this year. If you're interested, you can find informations at the Ashram's web page. Some of us wrote their opinion about the TTC at the Ashram's forum. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

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On Faith

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On Control of the Mind

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On Love

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On Imagination

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How to Make Others Happy

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On Cheerfulness

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On Faith and Dharma

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Good Advice

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Who is a Sage?

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True Spiritual Mother

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On Who is Liberated

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On Dharma

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On Meditation and Duty

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On Self-realisation

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On God and the Self

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On Karma Yoga

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Quote on the Present

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On Being Fearless

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On Solitude

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On Taking Care of What is Essential

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How to Be Peaceful and Happy

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Quote on the Spiritual Benefits of Yoga

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Sins & Punishment

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Importance of the Right Perspective

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Quote on Physical Benefits of Yoga

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Quote on Yoga

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On Self-control

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Flower Shower Zen Koan

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On the Self

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Advanced Young Hatha Yogini

Here is a treat for everyone.

Thanks to Bhagavati for sending us a video of this 9-year old girl who can REALLY do asanas.

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On Love

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On the Dangers of Open Mindedness

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Ego & Devotion

This funny joke serves as a perfect introduction to the program I'll be giving tomorrow. I'll teach a yoga class, and a satsang. The theme of the lecture will be "Ego".

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On the Greatness of Meditation

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On Worry

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On Work

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Alexandra David-Neel, An Early Western Mystic

We are very lucky living in 2008. At least this is true for those of us being spiritual aspirants in Eastern traditions. Thanks to the work of the pioneers who brought these teachings to the West there is wealth of information and teachers to learn from.

But it was not always the case and there were few Western aspirants who had the true spirit of adventure and went to get the teachings where they were.

One such adventurer was French yogini Alexandra David-Neel who became a mystic in Tibet. She knew early that she wanted to travel.

I recommend reading the short online biography of this fearless yogini.

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On Finding Happiness

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The Gist of Ethics

Leave it to Swami Sivananda to extract the essence of the teachings with utmost simplicity.

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On the Importance of Spiritual Life

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Smart Humans Might Be More Ancient Than Thought

An interesting ongoing development is the relationship between the ancient teachings of yoga and modern science. Many yogis like to point out all the ancient assertions which are validated by modern science but my skeptical (meaning scientific) mind is also looking at all the discrepancies.

The biggest one is the timeline of history given by the yoga masters compared to the works done by different schools of scholars. In a nutshell the yogis and mystics believe there were advance civilizations way before what science and scholars believe.

As an aside I formulated the former sentence in this way on purpose. One thing that always cracks me up is when scientists or pseudo-scientists talk about ancient or foreign cultures they always phrase it as 'they believed' or 'they believe' and usually contrast these statements with 'now we know'. Semantic bias.

An interesting point is that science's timeline as far as early humans is concerned changes periodically and usually by pushing back all the dates.

This article from news scientist is such an example. Very ancient beads were discovered and scientists are drawing conclusions from that.

I recommend you read the whole article.

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Every-Minute Zen

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Do Good

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Quote on Beauty

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On Peace

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On Truth

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Spiritual Self-enrichment

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The Ultimate Message - Realise:

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Just Give Smiles

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On Different Types of Love & God

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Puja Workshop in Luxembourg

Doing some cleanup and reorganizing of photos on my hard disk I found these pics taken about 3 weeks ago in Luxembourg.

The Centre de Yoga La Source organized a Weekend Intensive on Bhakti Yoga. The teaching was very gratifying as most students attending had not had much exposure to these wonderful practices. It all culminated in a participatory puja workshop on Sunday afternoon.

Below are a few pics.

We took the whole afternoon. Everybody helped setup and participated throughout the ritual. Lots of explanations were given.

Next is an 'action' picture!

Offering of jyoti or light.

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Jaya Ambe Kirtan at Yoga Vidya Ashram

In his latest e-newsletter Sukadev linked to a kirtan taped in satsang titled: Jaya Ambe. Go there and click the 'play' button to get some shakti and inspiration.

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Official Launch of the Free Online Spiritual Diary

In the last few weeks we have been putting together a free online spiritual diary. I have been doing the coding and a few dedicated yogis have been kind enough to use it every day and iron out the bugs. Thanks to all the yogi beta testers.

If you want to check it out, go to the diary's explanation page and feel free to try it out.

Back in 1990 when I was running the SYVC Chicago center, I had published a print version booklet of Swami Sivananda's diary. It 6 months worth of tables and was a pretty good tool but of course since it was in a book form I had to determine beforehand which practices most people would use and monitor.

Over the years I have made for myself and used some Excel Spreadsheet based diaries as well as a couple database driven ones. All this culminated in creating a diary which has the full flexibility of a database system with a power of calculating one's statistics on the fly.

I pray this free service will enable many sincere aspirants to improve and stick to their sadhana.

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Quote

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Being Present

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Quote

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On Asanas And Perfection

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On Oneness

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Diwali, Swami Vishnu-devanandaji's Mahasamadhi & Yoga Kongress

I'm about to leave the Yoga Vidya ashram in Bad Meinberg where I have stayed a week and had a wonderful stay as usual.

The occasion was the annual Yoga Kongress (conference) touching the topics of yoga, meditation and peace.

It was my first time being and teaching at this conference. Altogether there were about 500 folks in the ashram including the staff. The attendees had up to 11 or 12 consecutive yoga classes or lectures to choose from in some time slots. Very exhilarating with many Ph. D.s and bright speakers in action.

I got to speak the first evening about Swamiji and how his life was a merging of yoga, meditation and peace.

At the beginning of the weekend we had a puja since it was Diwali and it coincided this year with Swamiji's mahasamadhi, so it was all very auspicious.

On Saturday afternoon I gave a talk on the 'secret of mind control' which was very well attended even though there were 10 other attractive lectures at the same time.

In conclusion it was a very good experience and I'm really glad I came. The weather was quite cold and miserable this week but this morning we had the first 'real' snow and it's kind of white on the roofs, cars and fields but not on the roads.

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Different Aspects of Truth

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Amma About Fighting For Peace

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Navaratri-Worship To The Divine Mother

Om Shri Durgayai Namah

Today is the fourth day of Navaratri. Navaratri means literally "nine nights

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On Principles

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Spiritual Churning of Truth

This a poem by Swami Sivananda.

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Spiritual Growth

Vishwanath told a nice story in Satsang at the Yoga Vidya Ashram in Bad Meinberg this morning. It is a story about spiritual growth, about the small steps you have to take.

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The Butcher's Wisdom

Here is an interesting Zen story of a Zen practitioner who attained enlightenment through the teachings he got from his butcher.

Wisdom is everywhere, or can be at least.

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10 Rules for Being Human

These ten rules are very well known but worth the post for those who never saw them. Common sense wisdom that gives you some perspective. Totally in accordance with Yoga.

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Can't Connect :-(

The last two weeks have been very hectic for me. Traveling a lot, staying outside ashrams and yoga centers, and sadly not being able to connect reliably and consistently to the Internet.

So if you are waiting for some e-mail answers or some blog posts please stay put until mid next week.

In the meantime thanks to Sita and Lalita for publishing interesting posts until I get back in touch. I'll conclude with an inspiring quote by Master Sivananda

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The Persuasions of Self-Experience

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On Thoughts and Circumstance

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Power of Endurance

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Let Go, Let God

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Into The Silence

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The Value of Organic Food

This story from bbc.co.uk is interesting on a number of levels.

First it demonstrates quite conclusively that organic food has some definite health advantages.

Then it becomes almost comical. There is obvious bias of both the scientists and the BBC writer to not acknowledge that organic food is superior. In order to get to their ends they just ignore logical thinking altogether in a maddening way.

Here is the excerpt starting with the bold heading 'conflicting evidence':

So here is the thinking process of the article:

• Scientists have proven that their are more flavonoids in organic food
• It's proven that flavonoids can reduce high blood pressure and lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.
• Flavonoids have also been linked with reduced rates of some types of cancer and dementia.
• Studies so far do not show connection between organic diet and better health.
• That's a conflict of evidence.

There is no conflict at all. They should just start new studies right away to make that connection which is more than likely and strongly encourage folks to eat organic food.

Instead, just to make sure that the status quo is not threatened, they come up with the following:

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Jesus Is Not a Religion

Seen on a bumper sticker ...

This is the fate of founders of religions and spiritual groups that their followers rarely live up to the teachings they have promoted.

Swami Sivananda would often say that yoga is not about converting anyone but helping the Christian be a better Christian, the Jew a better jew, the Muslim a better Muslim, the Hindu a better Hindu and so on.

These words are echoed by the Dalai Lama who has written and said the same about Buddhism.

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Zen Yoga

I have been reading more about Zen lately. Fascinating tradition. So many simple and beautiful stories about the spiritual path.

This first story is also very much quoted by yogis. It's called 'The Cup of Tea'.

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Quote of Perseverance

Or as Swami Sivananda put it 'every failure is a stepping stone to success'.

The rajasic mind in this rajasic modern world wants some immediate results and this applies to yoga and spirituality as well.

Unfortunately the quest to moksha is a lifelong process so the qualities of endurance and forbearance are very needed and one should acquire that steadiness which is born of sattva.

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How We Could Look At The World

This is a speech of Swami Sivananda which he gave on his tour through India and the countries around it in 1950. He spoke to people in Sri Lanka which was already relatively westernized in comparison to India. In my view, it applies to us western people as well.

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My Religion - Poem by Swami Sivananda

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Free Books by Swami Sivananda

Om namah shivaya!

My name is Lalita Devi, I'm one of the two newest AYA affiliated teachers and a student of Swami Atma. I live in Witten which is in the Ruhr Area in Germany. From now on you will find some blog posts published by me once in a while, hope you enjoy it! Om shantih!

It was always most important for Swami Sivananda to spread the yoga teachings. Therefore he distributed the books he wrote to everyone for free, he shipped them all over the world. When his disciples told him one day that the Ashram will run out of money soon, he just answered: "There is no way we will stop distributing books and pamphlets to interested people, even if we have to stop buying food!"

The Divine Life Society which was founded by Swami Sivananda still acts in this tradition. On their homepage you can find many books written by Swami Sivananda to download and print them for free.

Swami Sivananda

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Alpen Muesli

Muesli is this Germanic breakfast which is both delicious and nutritious. Really good for you. There are different types of Muesli. Most famous is Bircher Muesli created by Swiss nutritionist Dr. Bircher-Benner. Variations of it include the Alpen Muesli.

You can make your own by using a muesli grinder. When I was at the Frankfurt Yoga Vidya Center at the beginning of the Summer I saw one such grinder for the first time. Below is the photo.

Happy yogini Maryia making muesli with grinder. It does not show of photo but you have to work quite hard at it.

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Trust Versus Mistrust

So many ways to illustrate the yogic teachings that say that the world is nothing but our own mental projection. We project all types of things and see the world just that way.

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Yoga Of Synthesis & Swami Vishnu-devananda

During this Summer of teaching Sukadev recorded a few lectures. He's publishing some podcasts of lectures about yoga, vedanta and more. Most of them are primarily in German so not so suitable for the majority of readers of this blog.

But here is a lecture I gave about Swami Vishu-devanandaji. It's in English obviously but also translated by my good friend Klaus.

It's a long lecture. Listen to it if you feel so inclined.

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It's Impossible

This is an essential part of yogic sadhana to become acutely aware of the power of thought. Entertaining the "it's impossible" thought will block one to many opportunities in life and prevent one in fulfilling one's potential

If you enjoyed this post please help spread the word by linking to it from your web site or blog. The easiest is to copy and paste the code below:

<p>Why you should never say <a href="http://yoga108.org/blog/posts/545-its-impossible">It's impossible</a>.</p>

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AYA Location Map

I have just modified the locations page in two ways. Firstly I added our two new affiliates to the world map and secondly I embedded the interactive map itself on the page, very much like below:

View Larger Map

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Everyone's Goal And Destination

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On Bhakti & Advaita

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On Singing Kirtan

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The Real & The Unreal

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Hatha Yoga Pradipika Advanced Teachers Training

Om Namah Sivaya!

Lord Siva, the first and original hatha yoga teacher

For the third consecutive year I'm teaching at this time of the year this advanced course in Bad Meinberg.

It's a nine-day course and the topic is 'Hatha Yoga Pradipika'. During every lecture we are going through the whole tantric scripture, verse by verse.

The course started last night and there are 45 students, counting the Yoga Vidya staff members attending the course full time. Everyone has extensive experience with yoga, having taken many programs and trainings and most are teaching yoga already.

So it's an ideal set-up and I feel blessed to be part of this.

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Shankaracharya on Pranayama

Pranayama and Advaita Vedanta

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Einstein on Thinking Freely

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Yoga Class in Times Square

This cool pic was sent in by Misha.

Enlarge

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Philosophy of the Word Radha

In the book "Bhakti and Sankirtan", by Swami Sivananda, he mentions that there is a lot of philosophy contained within the name Radha, which is kind of interesting and which he goes on to describe as follows.

To begin, you should imagine that there is a blackboard in front of you. On the blackboard is drawn a circle and around the circle the letters R-a-dh-a are written. Something like the drawing here.

Starting at the top left and going around the circle to the right you have the word Radha. Most people already know that Radha is the consort of Lord Krishna and an incarnation of the goddess Lakshmi. The name Radha means fortunate, or successful. Radha represents the ultimate form of love and devotion towards Lord Krishna.

Next, starting at the top right and going around the circle you get the Sanskrit word Adhara. Adhara means prop, as in support or substratum. In other words, if you worship Lord Krishna as the support or substratum of the Universe, He will quickly free you from the cycle of births and deaths.

Now starting from the lower right corner you get Dhara. Dhara means flow. In other words, if you worship Lord Krishna from your heart, as a continuous flow of oil or water poured from one vessel to another, you will get liberation or Mukti. The idea is to meditate on Lord Krishna all the time.

Finally, starting from the lower left corner is the word Aradh, i.e. Aradhya, which means worship. If you do Aradhana or worship of Lord Krishna, singing his name with proper mental attitude, love, and faith, you will receive His darshan (vision) and be liberated.

Radha with her beloved Krishna

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya!

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The Prerequisite of a Perfect Life

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On Self-Realization

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On The Dangers of Pranayama

This reminds me of my teacher Sukadev who used to say, may be still says it, when asked whether there are dangers in practicing pranayama that there are dangers in not practicing pranayama.

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Testing The Purity of Honey

In this kali yuga you can't take anything for granted. Turns out it's very easy to buy honey which is actually not honey but honey mixed with additives of all kinds.

If you'd like to only eat 'real' honey, then check out how to verify the purity of honey.

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On The Om Mantra

Short Commentary

The omkara is the sound manifestation of the highest consciousness or highest light called brahman.

The mantra exerts us to repeat it in order for our mind to be absorbed and merge into that brahman of the upanishads.

For more results one should repeat it on three levels:

• Verbally: to let the sound resonate and work its magic on the conscious level
• In a whispering fashion: to affect the subconscious mind
• Mentally: to transform the super-conscious mind

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Seitan is not Satan

I had to blog about this article since Seitan has been my favorite high-protein food for at least a couple years now.

Although it's not as easy to find as tofu in the health food store, it's worth the quest. Also if you make it yourself, it's VERY inexpensive. You just need to buy wheat gluten.

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Ghettos, Apartheid, Slavery! Nowadays? Try India

Most of us Western yogis tend to idealize and romanticize India. This 11-minute video shows another side of India which most people are not aware of: the untouchables.

Untouchables are outside the caste system.

This touches to one of the differences between Yoga and Hinduism. While the caste system is deeply entrenched in the Hindu religion, most Indian yoga masters have transcended it and rejected it.

Watch it. It's hard but worth it.

This video was submitted by Misha.

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On Yoga Practice & Fighting Diabetes

This article relates the efforts of Professor Vipin Mishra of GSVM Medical College, Kanpur of prescribing yoga practice to his diabetes patients.

Benefits are described.

Plus much more in the article

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Effects of Yoga Practice on Pregnancy

This article presents a research done in India relating yoga practice to pregnancy.

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Peace Memorial Day

Om Namo Narayanaya

Today is the Memorial Day holiday in the US. While it's laudable to honor the fellows who give/gave their life in a righteous war to defend their country and countrymen, this type of holidays and celebrations usually serve to promote and encourage humankind's biggest source of man-made suffering: the declaring and fighting of unrighteous wars motivated by greed, hatred, religious fanaticism, ignorance, racism, ambition for power and much more.

Blessed Are The Peace Makers

Let us take the time today to honor the peace makers, those who went to great lengths and great risks and at the price of personal sacrifices to contribute to a better world. Let's remember and send positive thoughts and prayers to:

• Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence
• Jesus Christ and all prophets of peace who inspired millions to lift themselves closer to God and further away from violence, hatred etc.
• Swami Vishnu-devananda who risked his life many times on his peace missions around the world trying to help humankind come to its senses
• The peace pilgrims. She talked the talk a little but walk the walk all the way.
• All men and women of peace, famous or not, known or unknown, who contribute or have contributed to make this world a more peaceful place.

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Yoga Elevates Your GABA

It's explained in this article that some Boston University researchers studied the effects of yoga on the brain.

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On Inspiring Others - Message to Yoga Teachers

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On Kundalini Shakti

We have just posted a new page to the AYA web site about the Kundalini power and Her rising.

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On Salty Diet & Health

Here is the result of two studies that link the consumption of salt with higher risk of heart attacks or strokes.

Always good to see when scientific research validates the yogic teachings.

Please see the fiull article.

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Does Arsenic Taste Like Chicken?

Actually chickens do taste like arsenic.

Another Reason To Go Vegetarian

This article explains, as you would expect, that arsenic is not good for you.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Swami Vivekananda's Address

And here is another inspiring spiritual video.

For those who don't know, Swami Vivekananda was the first yogi to go out to the Western World and presents the spiritual teachings of yoga.

He somehow got invited in-extremis at the 1892 Parlement of Religion held at the Art Institute of Chicago, IL in the US. There he made a very strong impression on everybody's mind and soon became the crowd's favorite. Every day of the convention his lectures were scheduled at the end of each session to keep everyone in.

His first speech became known as "Swami Vivekananda's Address" and is part of the legend and history of yoga.

The only downside to this clip is that it turns out it's not the actual voice of Swami Vivekananda that we hear.

Watch the video

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Pada Puja Video

This video of a pada puja is a rare document. Close disciples of Swami Sivananda perform a puja, a ritual worship which is one of the bhakti yoga practices, to Swami Sivananda. To his feet actually. It's an ancient devotional tradition to worship the lotus feet of God or Guru.

Thanks to Bhagavati for pointing us to this video.

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Happy Birthday x 2

There are two notable birthdays to celebrate today, April 22.

Sri Sankaracharya

Today is the Jayanti, or Hindu celebration of the birthday of Sri Sankaracharya, according to the spiritual calendar of the Divine Life Society.

Adi Sankara.

Among a number of other things which were all quite notable, Adi Sankara is the exponent of the great philosophy of advaita vedanta and the organizer of the ten Swami orders, whose lineage can be traced through the years directly to Swami Sivananda. You can read more of the highlights of his life and philosophy here.

Om Sri Sankaracharyaya Namah!

Swami Atma

Today is also the actual birthday of our own beloved teacher, Swami Atma. Happy Birthday Swamiji!!! Hope you have many, many more birthdays and years of wonderful sadhana and spiritual illumination.

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday to You-ou, Happy Birthday to You … and many mooorrre.

For anyone who would like to send a birthday greeting to Swami Atma go here.

PS. Nicole-Shakti and Sandra-Sarada wish you Happy Birthday.

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On TTC Formulas

I got same interesting feedback from a number of people regarding my previous post about the different TTC formulas.

Here is an e-mail I got and wanted to share. I formatted the bold characters

And to Bad Meinberg she came and here is the photo taken at satsang to prove it.

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AYA Locations Map

You can now see all the AYA locations in one convenient map

Click to access dynamic map

I'm also working on a more ambitious map which will show all the places I have taught yoga at. Or at least most of them, the ones I can remember.

Kudos to Google Maps for giving us such an easy tool, free of charge, to create our own maps.

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On Dharma

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Free Yoga Day in Australia

This Wednesday the 14th will be the national free yoga day in Australia.

Maria, our affiliate teacher down under, is going to be part of this event.

There have been 'free yoga days' every year in Austin as well for the past several years, also observed by the majority of teachers in that area. It's usually takes place in the US on Memorial Day.

See the official Free Yoga Day web site.

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On the Different TTC Formulas

The Basic Question

I have been thinking about this for a while. Actually it's been in my mind for like 15 to 20 years. So here it is.

What's better: A Yoga teacher's training course that lasts 2 years, meeting once a week, with an occasional weekend intensive or a 1-month live-in intensive?

Obviously there are many other formulas, most of them being variations of these two and some of them being very extreme. Yoga Vidya also runs a number of combinations mixing these two.

Please note that these remarks apply more particularly to trainings in the Sivananda tradition.

teaching workshop on 'yoga for pregnancy' during TTC

The Four-Week Intensive Course

Well, to start with, I'm very biased in favor of this formula. I took this type of training back in 1987 in India and felt I benefited so much from it that I used to not even consider the alternative a suitable path as all.

The 'Pros'

The spirit behind this formula is that it's not so much about training the students to teach as it is about training them to become a 'yogi' or a 'yogini'. It's quite different. Swami Vishnu-devanandaji thought only a genuine yogi, who practices the yogic lifestyle on a daily basis can be truly qualified to teach this sacred science.

And this does not just mean doing the asanas with the bhava of exercising one's muscles and increasing one's flexibility but also to be on the path of Self-realization with earnestness and devotion. This is what this formula is all about:

• Gurukula System - One is immersed in the ashram life for one full month and from 5:30 am until 10:30 pm.
• Developing a solid practice - the two yoga classes ensure one will make solid progress.
• Breakthrough guaranteed on many levels - In such an environment one is exposed to one's weaknesses and usually finds the key to overcoming them.
• Integrating yogas - In this live-in experiment one become acutely aware of the relationship between all yoga practices belonging to the four paths. This includes: yoga asanasa, pranayama, diet, yoga theory, philosophy, meditation, kirtan, kriyas and much more. Of course that is also explained in a two-year training but it is experienced first-hand in this formula.
• Great if you want to experience lots of new feelings and experiences in a short time.

The 'Cons'

• Not enough time to integrate the teaching. Whenever the students get into the groove, it's almost over.
• Learning techniques not as polished to say the least. The students don't get a chance to practice their teaching long enough. Graduates are often kind of rough around the edges when it comes to pure technique. This is supposed to be compensated by teaching from a very good place from within for reasons explained above.
• Finding the time - it can be hard to find 4 consectutive weeks to dedicate to the training according to one's family, social or professional responsabilities.

The Two-year Training

Here the focus is not so much on the students becoming yogis but on them becoming skilled at teaching hatha yoga.

The 'Pros'

• Lots of time to learn proper hatha yoga techniques - many become more adept at being anatomically correct in their practice and teaching.
• Lots more time to practice teaching - this helps improve the technique in correcting the students during class.
• More time to assimilate the intellectual concepts - regarding the yoga theory and vedanta philosophy as well as the new spiritual experiences and feelings.
• Easier to fit in one's schedule for folks who can't take a full month off, away from everything and everyone.

The 'Cons'

• Practice of asanas and theory + philosophy are more separated. - students don't perceive as much the importance of the spiritual dimension of yoga, which is a real shame.
• More Teachers don't become sadhakas
• longer commitment - one has to stay focused on this training for a full two years. But this could also be looked at as a plus.

Conclusions

This post feels like a work in progress and I will probably add things in the future. Feel free to e-mail me with your thoughts if you would like to contribute to this article.

Both formulas work for different people. The main thing is to practice hard and to teach with the right spirit of sharing these wonderful teachings with others.

Graduating from both these courses is only the beginning of the adventure and all of us should always exert to learn yoga in more depth. And that does not mean taking a million workshops of all styles and from all teachers out there. But that's another topic for another post.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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People Here Take Their Water Seriously

The Background

Although the tap water in Germany is one of the best in the world, almost nobody in this country drinks it. About everyone buys bottled water. So water quality is predominant in one's consciousness.

No surprise then that yogis would push the envelope one (several ?!) notch further.

The H2OM Bar at Yoga Vidya Westerwald

Of course there are water bottles around but on top of that they installed several types of water filters. The two herbal tea pots are there as well for good measure.

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Vegetarians Are Smarter, Says Study

That's a study we won't complain about. Who are we to argue with scientists?

Please read the whole article.

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On Serenity

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Another Take on Global Warming

This is my second post pointing to a study or article that recognizes that the best thing people could do for the planet and to combat the greenhouse effect would be to become vegetarian.

This whole article is very well written.

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Past Life Memory

This is a very compelling story and a strong argument in favor of the theory of reincarnation.

Please read the whole story

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Creative Yoga Advertising

Congratulations to the folks who thought up this very creative ad.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Interesting Fact

Published and fact-checked by Gullible Info.

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An Inspiring Nun

What an interesting karma this nun has had so far.

Following a very worldly start, she turned to spirituality.

Mother Dolores, now at 67

And she has come back to Hollywood lately, but still as a nun, to promote her cause.

Please read the fun article.

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Mahatma Gandhi Video

For no particular reason I felt like showing you this authentic video of Mahatma Gandhi.

Watch this authentic video.

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Swami Saradanandaji's 60th Birthday

During the 7-month publishing interruption, I have collected a number of interesting links.

Understandingly some of these posts come quite late but I think there are worthwhile anyway.

For yogis the 60th birthday is particularly significant because the planets, since the higher applications of jyotish aka vedic astrology is regarded highly by yogis and sages, are aligned in a very similar fashion than at one's birth time.

Swami Saradanandaji was the focus of a traditional Jubilee celebration. Very interesting. A facet of yoga most are not familiar with.

In India during the celebrations

Feel free to see the online photo album

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

The Atman means the true spiritual Self.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Advanced Yoga Practice

QUESTION put to Swami Sivananda:
What is the technique of concentration on the 18 parts of the body as advised by Sage Yajnavalkya for the purpose of attaining Pratyahara? Please explain fully.

ANSWER by the Master:
The technique of concentration as given by Sage Yajnavalkya involves a process of withdrawing the mind and Prana gradually and step by step from one part of the body to another, starting from the two big toes of the feet and progressing upward by a series of successive acts of such concentration-cum-withdrawal, through the several occult centers of the body, leading finally to the crown of the head.
By this process, the mind and Prana are totally drawn away from the entire body and finally centered in the top of the head where the practitioner dives into deep meditation.
The 18 parts mentioned by Sage Yajnavalkya are given below:
1. The great toes
2. The ankles
3. The middles of the shanks
4. The parts above the shanks and below the knees
5. The centers of the knees
6. The centers of the thighs
7. The anus
8. The center of the body, just below the waist
9. The genitals

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Dog Yoga

Om Namo Narayanaya

Please read the whole story here.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

For those unfamiliar with yogic philosophy, discrimination refers to the quality of discerning between truth and untruth.

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Yoga Vacation in Spain

This morning we are flying from Basel, Switzerland to Malaga, Spain.

That will be my first time at the Casa El Morisco and our first retreat there.

I'm very much looking forward to it. It will pretty much be yoga, meditation, swimming and sun bathing.

I might not be able to connect to the net for the week.

Om Namo Narayanaya.

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Sivananda Daily Readings and website link

At www.sivanandaonline.org they have a nice website which contains lots of information including a spiritual calendar of the Hindu holidays and festivals, and audio and visual files of Swami Sivananda. You can also subscribe to get the "Sivananda Daily Readings" via email.

Here is the Sivananda Daily Reading for today which is about prayer:

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Silent Meditation in Texas

We are about to leave from Austin to start the silent meditation retreat week

I'm of course VERY MUCH looking forward to this.

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Prepare To Be Amazed

I had heard about these experiments for a long time but I had never witnessed any before.

You need the sound turned on to watch this video.

These are salt patterns crystallized by sounds.

Found it at digg.com.

I think this video alone is worth the trouble of being subscribed to this blog. Unfortunately I was unable to do a screen capture. To see the results please go to the site.

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Yogic Diet Question

Here is an excellent question from Sarada from Austin:

Question:
What is worse yogically, alcohol or meat?

Answer:
Wow. that's a good question
I'd have to say alcohol.
Meat is worse ethically but alcohol is worse morally.
Both are tamasic but meat has some nutritional value.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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On Becoming an Advanced Meditator

QUESTION put to Swami Sivananda: I am not able to practice meditation for more than ten minutes. After that my mind begins to wander on sensual objects.

ANSWER by the Master: When you develop Ruchi or taste for Dhyana and Japa, you will be able to sit longer for Japa and meditation. Before going to bed, also in the morning at 4 o'clock, and before taking meal at noon, you should do Japa and meditation. Just as you take tea three or four times a day, so also, you should do Japa three or four times a day. Do not worry if the mind wanders. By gradual practice, it will come under your control. Do Kirtan when the mind wanders much. Do Nama-smaran while walking and working also-- Sri Ram, Sri Ram.

If you are not able to sit in Padmasan for long, you can sit on a sofa and do Japa and meditation. It is not necessary that you should sit in Padmasan.

Give up onions and garlic completely. Give it up entirely. Do not prepare it at all at home. If you try to reduce it, one day you will take a little, another day you will be tempted to take a good quantity! A cigarette addict who wants to reduce cigarettes, takes a very few cigarettes on some days, but on some other days he smokes heavily, with a vengeance as it were, and more than compensates for the quantity foregone by him previously. Therefore, give up onions completely.

If you give nice cotton seeds and oil-cakes to your cow, it will cease to graze in your neighbour's fields, it will give up its wandering habit in search of grass and herbs. Now your mind is running after Rasagulla and Peda which it has tasted. But if you give the mind the bliss of Japa and meditation, it will no more run after worldly objects. When you develop Ruchi for Japa and meditation, the mind will give up its wandering habit.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

What's interesting about this quote is how it closely resembles this other quote.

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Hatha Yoga Pradipika CD

At last the .mp3 cd has been released.

Last year in June I taught an advanced teachers training course at the Yoga Vidya ashram in Bad Meinberg. The theme was the 'hatha yoga pradipika' and we went through every verse of that fascinating scripture.

A student, by the way great thanks to Maheshwari, taped all but a couple of the lectures I gave, for her own use.

After a while some students asked her for a copy of the recordings as well. It looked liked it would be quite a project but I did not realize the extent of it at that point. Therefore I suggested that we, at AYA, would compile them into .mp3 files and release them for a modest price.

But as it turned out: 'Oh la la!'

It was a huge undertaking and poor Sita in Austin got fully busy with this project. So a million thanks to her. In the meantime she had to oversee construction of her house and open a yoga center there.

Besides compiling the files, Sita did quite a bit of audio cleanup to make the lectures more pleasant to listen to.

Here is the cd. Nice jacket too :-) 799 minutes of talks!

So now the cd is out and available in our online store.

Students of the course get a 'HUGE' discount, as promised. To get the discount enter the coupon code in the shopping cart. I think all students of the course will be able to guess the German word which is the code. If not please e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

And by the way listening to this cd could constitute a very good preparation for those taking the course this year.

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Do Not Have Any Other Gods Before Me ...

Well in modern days people worship many different types of "gods" and I find the following picture amusing.

I think this what was meant by this commandment.

Please!!! a statue to a ball player. Better than generals I guess.

Please read the whole story here.

As an aside and regarding the 10 commandments, many yoga students have a big aversion to bow to an altar by virtue of this commandment. I think this one is the easiest commandment to be absolutely strict about. Just think about it.

I never met a student who made the same fuss about 'don't envy your neighbour', 'don't steal' or 'don't commit adultery'!

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About Lip Yoga

By this Swami Sivananda means that we should put our spirituality into action.

Real yogis don't talk about karma yoga but do it.

They don't pretend to be compassionate but show it in action.

They don't talk over and over again about Brahman being real and the world unreal but they 'walk the walk'.

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A Good Summary Of The Yogic Path

Question to Swami Sivananda:
In all matters with which it is connected, science gives us a precise account of how a particular thing is constructed and how it grows.

We are also given the successive signs that mark the growth. Are there, in the practice of Yoga, any definite indication to measure the aspirant's progress--for instance, some experiences that he would have after, say, three months of practice, others which he would come upon after a year, and so on?

Answer by Master:
Various Yogas give various experiences. The practice of Pranayam and Hatha Yogic Kriyas, for instance, would give a graded series of psychic experiences. Seeing all kinds of ethereal lights and hearing certain Anahata sounds belong to this category.

Here, the sages who have propounded these Yogas have given very definite stages of spiritual experience. As the Kundalini passes from Chakra to Chakra, the Yogi has certain definite, verifiable experiences. That is because each Chakra governs a particular Tattva, and its mastery, therefore, gives specific experiences.

Similarly, in Tantrik Sadhana also, they have been able to give a definite chart of spiritual experiences. Each Sadhana has its own particular Siddhi; and therefore, the experiences of all Sadhaks following a particular Sadhana are invariably the same.
But, these are all lower experiences of an inferior type.

They are psychic experiences which need not necessarily denote the aspirant's spiritual progress. Even the Bhakta's experiences of horripilation, shedding of tears, etc., though they are not so perfectly graded as those of the Hatha Yoga practitioner, do not necessarily indicate spiritual progress.

When you enter the domain of the Spirit, you come into the sphere of the Infinite. Infinite are the Yogas and infinite are the experiences too. Each man's Yoga is his own. For, he has brought his own Samskaras and Vasanas and he strives in his own way to reach the goal. These two, interacting on each other, give him his various experiences.

For instance, as he approaches the transcendental, infinite, immortal Self, the aspirant would enjoy great inner peace and indescribable happiness. He is not easily affected by what goes on around him. Not only this, he is able to radiate peace and happiness to all those who come into contact with him. He becomes good and radiates goodness.

This is the most important sign of spiritual progress. God is perfect goodness. The aspirant who progresses towards the realization of God, therefore, grows in goodness. His evil qualities slowly vanish and are replaced by sublime virtues. If this most essential element is not there, then all other visions and sounds are practically useless.

By his mere presence the advanced Yogi is able to inspire people to lead a good life, free from hatred and malice. His heart is filled with cosmic love, and therefore, he serves all spontaneously and selflessly. These are all real signs of spiritual progress.
But, beyond all these, is the ultimate experience.

That is indescribable. Peace and happiness, undisturbed tranquillity of mind-- these are all great signs of progress, but they do not constitute the goal. The goal is to become God. You must become one with God. This is achieved through ceaseless practice of meditation after establishing oneself in virtue and goodness. That supreme experience, when the Yogi feels he is one with God, no words can describe.

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MTTC Testimonial

Just added a glowing testimonial about the MTTC course.

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Muscle Beach ...

... is another name for Venice Beach.

Enlarge

I preferred taking a photo in the morning when nobody was working out. The light was still very pretty and the moon was showing.

In the 60's body builders from all around the world came here to show off their big muscles. All pros were there including the current governor of the state.

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Wise Quote

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They Found the Little Buddha

If you don't know what this post's title refer to you need to first read this post.

They found the young boy who is an intense meditator. He is ok and just wanted to find a quieter place to do his meditation.

They took a video of him. He says again that he wants to do his 6-year meditation and ask people to leave him alone.

Please read the whole story here (previous link was broken so this one goes to a different story).

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Common Question or More Precisely Argument

This question/answer article goes at the core of 'materialism' vs. 'spirituality' beliefs and understanding.

Question put to Swami Sivananda: We should direct all our energies in gaining economic betterment for the masses. If we do not waste time and energy in propagating spiritual ideas, Gita studies and Sankirtan, but devote that energy to the above end, then we shall get economic betterment earlier, after which those who wish can pursue philosophy and religion.

We should develop our material and physical powers and get to the same peak of progress, power and comfort as the Western nations before we can dabble in philosophy and the like.

Answer by Master:
Two types of workers, social and religious, are necessary in this world. Social workers will work in their own fields of activity. Religious workers will carry on special propaganda and dissemination of spiritual knowledge. A carpenter has his own field of work and an electrician has his own field. You cannot ask a carpenter to do the work of an electrician and the electrician to do the work of a carpenter. Social, economic, political and industrial development and constructive work in those directions are very necessary. These should not be ignored.

But, religion only can save people. Without religion, man is nowhere. Even those who work in the other fields cannot turn out good work without disciplining themselves, without having a spiritual basis, without undergoing a religious training, without practicing Ahimsa, Satyam and Brahmacharya. Leaders who are selfish and corrupt spoil the society. They fight for their own superiority and power.

Bread, butter, jam and nice biscuits cannot give you everlasting peace. Comforts are enemies of spiritual life and peace. They pull a man down. After all, man wants very little on this earth. You will think of God only when you are in adversities. What is wanted is spiritual wealth which is inexhaustible.

That work which removes the ignorance of man and gives him happiness can eradicate human sufferings in toto and give him eternal happiness. That work is spiritual propaganda. That work is the dissemination of Bhakti and knowledge of Yoga and Vedanta. It is the crowning glory of human activities. This is the greatest Yajna or Yoga. This is Jnana Yajna, the highest of all Yajnas.

India alone possesses the supreme divine wealth. Even the richest people of the different parts of the world come to the Himalayas to practice Yoga, to seek the guidance of Rishis, seers, Yogis and sages and to acquire this imperishable wealth.

Happiness does not come from wealth. The Western nations are quite restless despite their enormous wealth. From this we can infer that spiritual life alone can give real, everlasting peace and happiness.

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Tofu, Oatmeal Lower Cholesterol

Please read whole story here.

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It's Official: Vegetarian Diet Can Be Balanced :-)

No breaking news here of course and these posts are preaching to the choir but it's nice to know that the yogic diet is becoming more and more mainstream.

Many do need the approval of doctors and authorities to do the right thing.

Please read whole story here.

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Little Buddha - Young Boy Puzzles the World

When I was in France last month I saw this show on TV about the young boy (16 years old) which some are calling 'little buddha' or 'the buddha boy'.

The gist of the story is that this boy, named Ram Bahadur Bomjanw, was fairly ordinary in his early years, although some of his play friends and family members claim he always had a very sweet and compassionate nature, started a continuous meditation a few months ago.

Ram Bahadur Bomjanw

Born in Nepal in a buddhist environment he went to a monastery to receive spiritual teachings. In May 2005 he decided to go to the thick jungle to meditate deeply.

Some people found him and the word spread that he may be the Buddha himself since he was spending all day meditating at the bottom of pipul tree. Furthermore he seemed to not move all day, to never eat and to never drink!!!

Before you know it more people started coming, they cleared the forest made a 50-yard 'no-enter zone' to leave him some peace and quiet and recently thousands and thousands of pilgrims came to visit him.

Obviously there are many skeptics out there. Seeing the show I came out with the impression that he is a genuine, advanced yogi. This is also the opinion of many buddhist monks of the area. They said that he is not buddha but doing tapas (austerities) and that people should just leave him alone doing his meditation.

Only one person really approched him and that's his brother who also said that we should just pray for him to help him reach his goal of enlightenment.

You can read more in this article including this quote:

Then an astonishing turn of event took place. After 8 months of continuous meditation under the tree the boy disappeared, as explained in this article from CNN.com.

He may have just fled the crowds, or being kidnapped or any other scenario. It's everybody's guess. As they say, this news story is developing.

We will keep you posted.

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Brahmacharya Initiation

Yesterday, March 17th '06, Sita took the vows of brahmacharya.

Her name is now Sita Chaitanya. Congratulations to her. May Master Sivananda and Swami Vishu-devananda's blessings be with Sita always.

Being initiated and becoming a brahmachari or brahmacharini makes one officially a student in the field of brahma vidya. One vows to dedicate all energy to the pursuit of Truth and the Absolute. A noble adventure indeed.

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Former Opera Singer Does & Teaches Yoga

So many interesting people teach yoga these days.

80-year young Patricia Byron

Please read whole story here.

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Study finds: Cruciferous Foods Help Prevent Certain Types of Cancer

That's a good one for vegetarians, especially those of us who like cabbage and sauerkraut. Incidentally sauerkraut is probably tamasic food but I have some occasionally.

Please read whole story here.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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On Bone Density & Osteoporosis

Good informative article and practical tips.

Please read whole story here.

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Omega 3 & Vegetarian Diet

In my last trip to France I saw there is a huge pro 'Omega 3' movement as far as diet is concerned.

The media talk about it a lot and many products are advertised as being "high in Omega 3".

The consensus is that few vegetarian foods contain it. As usual the media tend to oversimplify everthing and I realized I don't really understand much about it.

This article provides a good and fairly thorough explanation.

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Karma Yoga but ...

... Incentives welcome.

The science of yoga teaches us that the secret of life and happiness is to act without expectations.

One should surrender the fruits of the actions to God and not be affected by the pairs of opposites such as success/failure, praise/criticism etc.

This being said success and praise feel better than failure and criticism.

In the last few weeks (prior to the MTTC) I have been putting more energy into this blog and I have been looking at the counter's numbers to measure the readership. I must admit that the ever-increasing numbers do act as a motivator. This means two things:

1. I should work on better detaching from the results and the relative popularity of these pages
2. If you would like to boost my motivation you can contribute to increasing the readership by:
• passing the word on to your friends
• if you have a web site or blog, linking to this blog's home page or some individual post(s). That will bring more readers and increase the search engine rankings.

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MTTC Report

The 2005 AYA MTTC (meditation teachers training course) ended yesterday.

It was a success in all aspects. Wonderful experience for all of us who were involved. Following are a few random thoughts and a couple photos to illustrate.

The Location

The Margaret Austin Center
It was our first AYA event in this location and we have been very happy with the place.
It's a haven of peace and quiet located on 40 acres of beautiful land.
The accommodations are very simple, quite rustic but the whole energy is so spiritual there that it's a real treat to stay for any length of time.
They rent to only one group at a time so even though our group was very small this year we had the place for ourselves and we felt very much at home right away.
Located 45 minutes from Houston this part of Texas is quite green and has many trees. Very pleasant.

There is a fairly large meditating labyrinth on the grounds and I made a point to use it everyday. Sadly I must admit I did not have any really powerful, significant or meaningful experience. I know these things really work for many people but it was enjoyable nevertheless.
We enjoy the place so much that we have scheduled a few more programs there, the next ones being a week-long silent meditation retreat on May 26th and a weekend retreat in October.

The Course

Like the first edition this course was an intensive with a lot of practice and even more theory. Much emphasis was placed on training the apprentice teachers to deliver lectures and to be able to explain most concepts in just a few words or a few minutes. They are now feeling very confident in teaching general concepts and important teachings such as the yamas and niyamas.

Left to right: Linda aka Shri Devi; Jamie, Suzanne aka Jagadamba; & Swami Atma

The Students

There were only three students but there were all 3 my favorite type of students: dedicated, open minded, there to learn and practice hard
Furthermore the atmosphere was friendly and I think we all had a good time.

The Teachers & Staff

I was teaching all the lectures, workshops and satsangs and gave a few hatha yoga classes as well.
Sita, who among many things organized the whole course and coordinated the logistics on all levels, taught some yoga classes and cooked some meals. She drove from Austin almost every day back and forth (3 to 4 hours round trip).
Janaki from Houston cooked most of the meals and also taught some yoga classes. She is a great chef and her love of cooking is being felt as you eat.
Hilde, manager of the Margaret Austin Center, cooked a couple delicious meals as well. Thanks to her to welcome us in this parcel of heaven in the heartland of Texas.

Jamie, Shri Devi, Swami Atma, Janaki, Sita & Jagadamba

That was inspiring and enjoyable all at once (good and pleasant). We can't wait for next year's edition.

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Grand Opening

In a previous post Sita announced the grand opening of the new AYA yoga center in Austin.

Today is the first day and this morning was the first class. Four students showed up and enthusiastically took the center's very first class.

Other open classes will take place this week according to the normal weekly schedule and I will be teaching three sessions as well as described in the special events page.

If you live in Austin make sure you come this week and check out the gorgeous new yoga/satsang room.

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Meditation Teachers Training Course

The 9-day intensive is starting tonight at the Margaret Austin Center in Chappel Hill, Texas.

It's my favorite course to teach and I'm looking very much forward to it.

For this blog's readers it means two things:

1. I may not be able to post anything here in the next 10 days
2. Those who live near Chappel Hill (like in the Houston, Austin or Dallas areas) can come visit us for some programs such as satsangs, yoga classes and/or lectures).
   To know when to come and for which programs I suggest you visit the MTTC schedule page. Satsangs are free of charge to the visitors. Yoga classes and lectures/workshop are $10.- each. You can also have meals with us if you wish for $12.- per meal.
   I hope to see you there.
   If you live in faraway lands you may want to attend the upcoming AYA yoga vacation retreat in Spain. If you plan to come make sure you call us at least 24 hours ahead to give us a chance to include you for the meal and to confirm that there is no last-minute change of schedule. Number to call is 512-388-1162.

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Austin Center - Grand Opening Week

AYA Yoga and Meditation Center Austin Center
Grand Opening Week
March 13-19

the actual house where the classes take place

We are pleased to announce the Grand Opening of the AYA Yoga and Meditation Center located in Austin, TX.

In order to open our doors in welcome to as many people as possible, we are offering free asana (postures) classes throughout the whole week of March 13-19.

Times of these free asana classes are as follows:

• Monday, March 13 9-10:30 am
• Monday, March 13 6:30-8:00 pm
• Wednesday, March 15 9-10:30 am
• Wednesday, March 15 6:30-8:00 pm
• Saturday, March 18 10-11:30 am (*)

(*) This class will be followed by a vegetarian lunch, $5, pre-registration required.

Be sure to arrive a few minutes early and do not eat for at least 2 hours before class.

In addition to these free classes, Swami Atma will be teaching a few classes/workshops during this week as well:

• Thursday, March 16 - 6:30-8:15 pm - Advanced Asana Class - $20
• Saturday, March 18 -1:00-4:00 pm - Advanced Hatha Yoga Workshop, Awakening the Kundalini Power - $30
• Sunday, March 19 - 10:00 am - Satsang with Swami Atma - free, donations accepted

For details on these events with Swami Atma please see the upcoming events web page

We hope that many of you will be able to join us in celebrating our Grand Opening.

For more information on the Austin Center and upcoming events, please visit our web pages or call 512-388-1162.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Poem by Swami Sivananda

I'm particularly fond of these poems by Master Sivananda.

He uses them to successfully describe the indescribable state of moksha.

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On Aparigraha - Non-Covetousness

Aparigraha, or non-covetousness, is one of the five yamas which are the universal virtues of yoga.

The true purpose of human life is to find the Eternal, the Real, which we usually call Atman (the True Self) or Brahman (the Absolute Reality or God).

When owing to ignorance the mind is deluded it looks for happiness where it's not.

It runs after countless desires all more silly than the others all ultimately unsatisfying. Many of these desires are related to greed and the constant need to acquire money and things. This clouds our consciousness even more and this is why we need to cultivate aparigraha.

When the aparigraha quality dawns in the mind the pointlesness of acquiring useless objects and money reveals itself and the yogi is naturally drawn to look for the source of real happiness.

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Almonds Are Good For You

This article presents the results from a number of scientific studies made in regard to the effects of adding almonds to one's diet.

Please read whole story here.

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Running a Marathon For a Good Cause

Many of you know Jamie Shiffner. He's a good student of mine and, incidentally, we are working on writing a book together. The book project is nearing the end of first draft but that's not the point of this post.

Unfortunately Jamie had a stroke last year and fortunately he recovered fully and quickly.

In fact he recovered so fast that he's now preparing to run a marathon in support of the American Stroke Association!

That is amazing.

If you would like to help Jamie fight the big killer which is stroke, please go to his page and donate some money. Remember he's going to run 26.2 miles (over 42 kilometers) in your name.

Those who know Jamie know that he's very funny and the descriptive on his web page has of course a very good joke. I won't reveal it here to give you an extra incentive to visit his page.

And by the way, for those who don't know Jamie, the picture on his page in not Jamie's but Tedy Bruschi's who is an American football player who had a stroke a year ago and went back to play pro football less than a year later.

Below is part of the e-mail I got from Jamie:

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Silent Meditation Retreat in May-June

I just uploaded the web pages for upcoming AYA silent meditation retreat taking place from May 26 until June 2nd in Chappel Hill, Texas.

This program will be the perfect opportunity for meditation beginners as well as experienced practitioners to delve deep within and experience the meditative lifestyle.

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On Goodness

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On the Guru/Disciple Relationship

Indian Sadhu

Our Yoga Fora are still going. They are not overly busy, to understate it, but the discussions are picking up little by little.

Today I posted this reply to a nice thread about the guru/disciple relationship:

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Religion Can Learn from Science & Science Can Learn From Religion, Says the Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama talks to journalists who attended a news conference after his speech to the Society for Neuroscience in Washington.

Please read full story here. Highly recommended reading.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Health Advice from ...

... Google !?!

You never know what Google is going to come up with these days and I found this interesting post about health factors in the Official Google Blog.

Please read full post here.

A port crane in Le Havre, my birth place, where I've just arrived yesterday for a short visit

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Using Yoga Techniques as a Complement to Traditional Medicine

A story of a cancer patient using yoga to help her deal with the ordeal.

Please read full story here.

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Quote by Swami Sivananda

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Medical Study: Meditation Lengthens Lifespan

Please read full story here.

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On Cravings & Detachment

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Folic acid could help reduce birth defects

Please read full story here.

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Football Star to Take Advanced Yoga Teachers Training Course

not your typical yoga teacher

For those who don't know Ricky Williams is a major NFL (American Football) star.

In a move that most people, including me, had not understood he took a year off in the middle of his career. It turns out that he enrolled in the Ayurveda College in Nevada City, California.

Since that ayurveda school is located only a few miles from the Sivananda ashram in Grass Valley I knew he was going to go to the Sivananda ashram there.

Well I learned from this 'Sports Illustrated' article that Swami Sita became his guru!
He then took the Sivananda Teachers Training Course, then started playing football again and played quite well, especially at the end of the season.

Now for the off season break he's going for more by taking the Sivananda ATTC in India.

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Advice to Yoga Teachers

QUESTION to Swami Sivananda:
In my work of spreading the knowledge of Yoga, do you have any special advice to give me?

ANSWER by Swami Sivananda:
Side by side with instructions on practical Yogic processes, place always stress upon the great importance of Sadachara, Yama and Niyama. Inspire the students with noble idealism. Spur them on to strive for a life of lofty virtue, active goodness and selflessness. You must stress the need for self-purification and self-mastery. The true inner Yoga is the transformation of the essential nature of man. The lower human nature should gradually give place to an illumined divine nature through a process of spiritualization of the entire being of man. This should be brought home in an effective manner, yet withal with great sympathy, understanding and insight. The aim is to attain divine consciousness.

May we all be worthy of this advice.

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Yoga Is More Effective Than Conventional Exercise For Back Pain, Group Health Study Finds

Not that we are surprised by this or anything but I keep posting those types of articles because I know that many yogis like to read about it when modern science validates our ancient teachings.

Read full article here.

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Meditation Good For Gray Matter, Study Finds

Read full article here.

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Yoga Can Save One's Life ...

... literally!

Read whole story.

Lord Siva. Lord of Yogis.

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Yoga Sutra On Vairagya

This verse defines Raga, that tendency of the mind to be drawn towards the sense objects which have brought us pleasure in the past.

Below is the commentary by Swami Vishnu-devananda

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On Reaching the Final Goal

Gurudev imparting Brahma Vidya to his disciples (from left) Swami Venkatesananda, Swami Krishnananda, Swami Chidananda and Swami Satchidananda.

An argument for less teaching and more practice.

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There is No Better Gift for the Holidays

With the holidays coming up everyone's thinking of what to buy and for some of us, :-) , what to receive as well.

The truth is that many of us have more than we need and our life would benefit most by sharing with the less privileged. A good way to do that is to create a charity gift "wish list".

How does this work? You make a wish list at this site and tell your loved ones of what you want for Christmas/Hannukah.

Link provided by Radha from Hamburg.

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Poem

ULTIMATE YOGI CHRISTMAS

‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, the whole ashram asleep,
Not a yogi was stirring or making a peep;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Sri Lakshmi soon would be there;