Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center - Yoga Your Home Practice Companion

Yoga is a centuries-old guide to healthy living developed by ancient Indian sages. With its unique blend of physical exercises, psychological insight, and philosophy, it can help you to bring your body, mind, and spirit into better balance. Yoga takes a holistic approach to life, enabling you to experience complete equilibrium inside and out.

For centuries, yoga was open only to people who were ready to search for a teacher in India, and traditionally it only appealed to those willing to forego the life of a householder, renouncing the world and living in seclusion. H.H. Swami Sivananda (18871963) and Swami Vishnudevananda (19271993) were among the first of the Indian yoga masters to make yoga accessible to anyone, no matter their background, age, or status, or where in the world they lived. In doing so, they helped to bring yoga to the West.

Sri Swami Sivananda was a practising doctor who was eager to do all he could to relieve human misery. In a search to ease his patients physical and mental discomfort, he decided to look within himself. He began his quest by becoming a swami a wandering monk and after long years of secluded practice in the Himalayas, he attained mastery in yoga and meditation. Swami Sivananda went on to found the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, in the Himalayas. Here, he trained students from many countries and various religions in a synthesis of the , encompassing Hatha and Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Jnana Yoga. He also wrote more than 200 books in English explaining the most complex aspects of yoga in simple, practical terms.

Swami Vishnudevananda was a close disciple of Swami Sivananda and an adept in the practice of . In 1957, Swami Sivananda commanded him to, Go to the West, people are waiting. With no means of support other than his faith and a remarkable energy, Swami Vishnudevananda travelled to North America, Europe, and many other parts of the world, where he became a pioneer in yoga, spreading the teachings of his master.

Swami Vishnudevananda founded the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres at the heart of many of the worlds capital cities. Here, people are able to learn yoga as they go about their daily lives. Swami Vishnudevananda also established several ashrams (yoga retreats) in beautiful natural settings around the globe, from the forested mountains of Canada to Paradise Island in the Bahamas. He promoted yoga vacation programmes, which offer people an opportunity to learn the yogic disciplines while enjoying a healthy and relaxing holiday.

After experiencing a vision during meditation, Swami Vishnudevananda felt compelled to start up a campaign for world peace, which became known as T.W.O., True World Order. It adopted the mottos, United we live divided we perish and Cross man-made borders with flowers and love, not with bombs and guns. Swami Vishnudevananda learnt how to pilot a small plane and flew over many of the worlds conflict zones, showering them with flowers and leaflets promoting the universal love taught by all the worlds great religions. Two memorable flights took him over the Suez canal during the Sinai War in 1971 and over the Berlin Wall from West Germany to East Germany in 1983.

A JOURNEY BEGINS

Shortly before his departure to the West, Swami Vishnudevananda stands beside his master, Swami Sivananda.

As part of his vision of yoga for world peace, Swami Vishnudevananda taught the first yoga teachers training course in the West, in 1969. As well as offering a broad study of yoga philosophy, psychology, and teaching techniques, the four-week residential programme focused on an intense personal practice of yoga and meditation. It is even more popular today than during Swami Vishnudevanandas lifetime. Since the training course was founded, more than 25,000 graduates from all walks of life and every continent have taken the yoga teachings of Swami Vishnudevananda and Swami Sivananda back into their own communities.

The defining feature of this approach to yoga is its simplicity: regardless of age, physique, and walk of life, anyone can benefit from this step-by-step guide to asana (exercise), pranayama (breathing), relaxation, diet, positive thinking, and meditation. These key teachings are outlined in the chapters of this book to help you, too, to experience this ancient way of bringing balance into every aspect of your life.

TRAINING THE TEACHERS

An asana class during a teachers training course in Nassau, The Bahamas. Swami Vishnudevananda works with a student.

PIONEERING WORK

Swami Vishnudevananda was one of the first Indian master yogis to spread the teaching of yoga across the western world.

Yoga is a science perfected by the ancient seers of India, not of India merely, but of humanity as a whole. It is an exact science. It is a perfect, practical system of self-culture.

Swami Sivananda

What is yoga?

Traditionally, there are four paths of yoga. Although each of them is a complete discipline in itself, it is best not to follow one path only. Combining the four practices helps the emotional, intellectual, and physical aspects of your life to develop in harmony.

The four paths of yoga

Of the four yogic paths, in the West only one is generally well-known and widely practised the physical and mind-focusing path of Hatha and Raja Yoga, which includes postures and breathing exercises.

HATHA AND RAJA YOGA IN ACTION

This path includes the practice of asanas. Each asana requires a specific balance of posture, breathing, and relaxation.