YOGA

Swami Vishnudevananda is a disciple of Sivananda and brought Yoga to the West.  He lived from 1927 – 1993.

What Yoga is according to Swami Sivananda

• Yoga is taking care of body/mind/spirit, not seeking after fitness or beauty, or health.
• Yoga is finding the cause of our suffering and showing the way to get out of it – to be free from it.
• Yoga is a system of education for the body, the mind, the intellect, and the inner spirit.
• Yoga is a way of life.
• Yoga is universal, not sectarian or separate.
• Yoga helps us to go to the root of our suffering, spiritual ignorance (not knowing who we really are).
• Yoga brings individual peace of mind and collective peace.
• Yoga is unity in diversity.
• Yoga is self discipline.
• Yoga is life.
• Yoga is simple life.
• Yoga is moderate life.
• Yoga helps us to deal with stress.
• Yoga helps calm emotions.
• Yoga is a balanced mind, strong and steady.

To learn more about Yoga you can consider signing up for one of our Foundational Yoga courses where you learn the basics of what is yoga.

What is classical Yoga?

What is Sivananda Yoga?

Sivananda Yoga, officially called the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers, teaches classical yoga in 11 ashrams and more then 30 centers around the world.

Sivananda Yoga was founded by Swami Vishnudevananda who was one of the first Indian Yogis to come to the West in the year 1957.  Swamiji took the vast yogic teachings and made them accessible to the Western mind.

Swamiji first published “The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga” in 1960 and spread the teachings of yoga around the world traveling to USA, Canada, Europe, South America, India, Israel and much more.  His main teaching is the 5 points of yoga and the 4 paths of yoga.

4 Paths of Yoga (Synthesis of Yoga)

What kind of Yoga does Swami Sivananda teach?  Swami Sivananda teaches the synthesis of yoga.  He promotes divine life by combining the practice of Karma Yoga (selfless service), Bhakti Yoga (devotional love to God), Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga (systematic control of body, breath, and mind, culminating in meditation), and, last but not least, Jnana Yoga (or Vedanta philosophy), which is the philosophical teachings of the True Nature of the Self and of the Universe.

His teaching is summarized in his most well known slogan: “Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize”

The tenets and practices of these 4 paths of Yoga are further explained in subsequent sections.

It is important to remember however that all the paths lead ultimately to the same destination – to union with Brahman or God – and the lessons of each need to be integrated if true wisdom is to be attained.

Karma Yoga

Karma Yoga – the Yoga of action – is the path chosen primarily by those of an outgoing nature.  It purifies the heart by teaching you to act selflessly, without thought of gain or reward.  By detaching yourself from the fruits of your actions and offering them up to God, you learn to sublimate the ego.

Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti Yoga is the path of devotion, which appeals particularly to those of an emotional nature.  The Bhakti Yogis are motivated chiefly by the power of Love and sees God as the embodiment of Love.

Through prayer, worship and ritual, he surrenders himself to God, channeling and transmuting his emotions into unconditional love or devotion.  Chanting or singing the praises of God form a substantial part of Bhakti Yoga.

Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga is the science of physical and mental control.  It offers a comprehensive method for controlling the waves of thought by tuning our mental and physical energy into spiritual energy.

Jnana Yoga

Jnana Yoga – the Yoga of Knowledge and wisdom – is the most difficult path, requiring tremendous strength of will and of intellect.  Taking the philosophy of Vedanta, the Jnana Yogi uses his intellect to enquire into his own nature, dissolving the veils of ignorance and illusion.

Before practicing Jnana Yoga, the aspirant needs to have integrated the lessons of the other yogic paths – for without selflessness and love of God, and strength of body and mind, the search for Self-realization can become mere speculation.

Integral Development

Even though the practices of the four paths seem to be different in the beginning, they merge eventually into one and the same.  In the same manner, we may climb the mountain from different routes, one person preferring to go rock climbing, the other preferring to take it easy on a long winding road, and another preferring the middle path…but at the end all paths lead to the same mountain top.

All differences merge into the same essence.  Swami Sivananda promotes the integral approach of practicing a little of each path together in daily life, thus exercising our body, head, heart and hands together, integrally, and developing ourselves in all aspects.

Swami Sivananda asserts that we cannot practice any single path of Yoga in isolation.  The truth revealed here is that each branch of Yoga involves all the others.

For example, there is no Karma Yoga without the right attitude which comes from Bhakti.  With the right attitude, whatever work we do can be transmuted into Karma Yoga.  We must integrate all the paths of Yoga, pulling the best from each and integrating them into a personal practice.