Yoga Life Winter 2015 WEB

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Autumn/Winter 2015
Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

A SPECIAL REPORT Page 26 38
Also in this issue
Mental Processes
in Yoga
Swami Durgananda
Unity of Existence
Swami Sivananda
Nerve Impulse and Prana

Impulse in your Daily Practice
Swami Sivadasananda
SERVE LOVE GIVE PURIFY MEDITATE REALIZE
20th MAHASAMADHI ANNIVERSARY
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EDITORS LETTER
International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres

Swami Sivananda (1887 1963)
Swami Vishnudevananda (1927 1993)
The spiritual strength behind the Sivananda

Yoga Vedanta Centres, Swami Sivanandas
teachings are a synthesis of all the formal
doctrines of yoga. Author of more than
300 books on yoga, Swami Sivananda was
a medical doctor before renouncing worldly life
for the spiritual path. He founded the Divine Life
Society and the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy,
Rishikesh, Himalayas. His main message was:
Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realise. In 1957 he sent one of his
foremost disciples, Swami Vishnudevananda to the West to spread the ideals
of yoga. Swami Sivananda entered Mahasamadhi on July 14th 1963.
Born in South India in 1927, Swami

Vishnudevananda entered the ashram
of Swami Sivananda at the age of 18.
A world famous authority on Hatha and
Raja Yoga, Swami Vishnudevananda founded
the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta
Centres in 1957 and was author of
The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga,
Meditation and Mantras, Karma and Disease
and a commentary on the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Swami Vishnudevananda
entered Mahasamadhi on November 9th, 1993.
The Executive Board

The Executive Board of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres is comprised
of senior disciples of Swami Vishnudevananda, personally chosen and trained
by him to direct the organisation after his departure. Each of them has had
many years experience in teaching all aspects of yoga. They are renowned
for their devotion to Swami Vishnudevananda and Swami Sivananda and for
their profound knowledge and inspirational teaching and guidance, wisdom
imparted to many thousands of students throughout the world.
We welcome Swami Sitaramananda, Acharya for our West Coast
and Asian Centres, as a new member on the Executive Board.
Swami Durgananda
Swami Swaroopananda
Srinivasan
Swami Sivadasananda
Swami Kailasananda
Swami Sitaramananda
Swami Durgananda
Swami Swaroopananda
Srinivasan
Swami Sivadasananda
Swami Kailasananda
Swami Sitaramananda
Welcome
2015 has been a landmark in the planetary
awareness about the benefits of yoga: the
celebration of the first International Yoga Day on
June 21, an initiative of prime Minister Narendra
Modi endorsed by the United Nations, has indeed
given yoga a new platform in the world.
It was celebrated by millions of enthusiastic
practitioners, and people of all countries became
increasingly aware that yoga is not just about
flexibility, but is a life-style aiming at inner and
outer peace. The words of the Indian Prime Minister
Yoga embodies unity of mind and body, thought
and action, restraint and fulfilment, harmony
between man and nature, a holistic approach
to health and wellbeing, echo the teachings of
Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda,
who worked tirelessly throughout their lives to
promote the true spirit of yoga. They taught that

Yoga does not only bring individual health and
wellbeing, but that it reconnects us with our true
self. It carries a powerful message of unity and
peace. It offers clear and practical solutions to help
overcome the consciousness crisis the world is
going through.
The Sivananda Centres participated in the celebration worldwide, from Tokyo to San Francisco,
Buenos Aires to London. This issues main article
features a report on this wonderful celebration.
May Yoga help each and all to expand
and remove the barriers that separate us from
one another.
Om Shanti,
SIVANANDA ASHRAM YOGA CAMP

Eighth Avenue, Val Morin, Quebec, Canada JOT 2RO
Tel: +1 819 322 3226
email: [email protected]
With ashrams and centres located around the world see page 60 for addresses
International Day of Yoga:

Swami Keshavananda
teaches a free yoga class
to 600 people at Londons
South Bank in the heart
of the City
The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, London
HEADQUARTERS
Est 1957
Cover
The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, founded by Swami Vishnudevananda

is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to propagate the teachings of yoga
and vedanta as a means of achieving physical, mental and spiritual well-being and
Self-realisation.
CONTENTS
SIVANANDA
6
6
8
13
Unity of Existence By Swami Sivananda
Sri Akhandeswara Mahadev Temple Installation Festival

Sivananda Kutir, Netala, Himalayas
The Young Swamiji
18
Nerve Impulse and Prana Impulse in your Daily Practice
22
24
26
The Failure of Preventive Medicine By Dr. Gerhard Brand, MD
40
How the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres

help the Community through its Charitable Works
42
Staff Refresher, 2015 A Special Report by Swami Gokulananda
48
51
52
54
56
58
60
62
68
18
Mental Processes in Yoga By Swami Durgananda
14
46
14
Recollections of Swami Vishnudevanandas Childhood. By Kamala Devi

By Swami Sivadasananda
The Diaphragm An Amazing Muscle By Swami Rajeshwarananda

The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres Celebrate
the first International Day of Yoga A Special Report
26
The Joy of Watching an Ashram Grow

The blossoming of the Ashram de Yoga Sivananda in Orleans, France
By Swami Bhagavatananda
A Funny Thing Happened to me on the Way Home

From the Yoga Class By Ken Whiteley
Going up to Vishnu Peak
A challenging journey to the Om Namo Narayanaya Mantra Bank at Gangotri,
in the Himalayas. By Swami Shivabhaktananda
Peace Dj Vu A personal experience of the Advanced Teachers Training Course

in Rudraprayag, India. By Sivani
Developments at Madurai Ashram, South India
42
Night Blindness Understanding the significance of night in our lives, health,

and spirituality. By Rubin R. Naiman
Spiritual Humour
The Lives of Saints Mahatma Gandhi By Swami Sivananda
A Divine Yogic Feast Vegetarian Recipes by Chris Cooper
Prison Yoga Outreach Programme The Sivananda Yoga Teachers
Training Course Goes to Prison
72
Sivananda Ashram and Centre News
76
Sivananda Ashram and Centre Addresses
Updates on new developments in Ashrams and Centres around the world
A listing of Sivananda Ashrams, Centres and teachers worldwide
62
UNITY OF EXISTENCE
Unity of Existence
By Swami Sivananda
In this extract from Sivanandas Gospel of Divine Life, Swami Sivananda
makes the ultimate declaration of peace the Unity of Existence.
Learn to live as members of a single family. Champion the ideal of one humanity.
Live in peace in the world. All are children of God. The whole world is a family
of God. Feel this, realise this and be happy.
Where is a true and lasting peace to be found?
ne Soul abides in all. There is one humanity and

one brotherhood. There is one Brahman-hood.
None is high, none is low, all are equal. Vain are
all distinctions. The man-made barriers should
be ruthlessly broken down. Then alone will there be peace.
There is only one caste: the caste of humanity. There is only
one religion: the religion of love. There is only one commandment:
the commandment of truthfulness. There is only one law: the
law of cause and effect. There is only one God: the omnipresent,
omnipotent and omniscient Lord. There is only one language:
the language of the heart or the language of silence.
All life is one. The world is one home. All are members
of one human family. All creation is an organic whole. No man
is independent of that whole. Man makes himself miserable
by getting himself separated from others, and separation is
death. Unity is eternal life. Cultivate cosmic love. Recognise the
worth of others. Destroy all barriers the racial, religious and
natural prejudices that separate man from man. Recognise the
non-dual Principle, the immortal essence within all creatures.
Protect animals and let all life be sacred. Then this world will be
a paradise of beauty. It will be a haven of peace and tranquillity.

When one Brahman dwells in all living beings, why do you
hate others? Why do you sneer and frown at others? Why do
you use harsh words? Why do you try to rule and dominate
over others? Why do you exploit others? Why are you intolerant?
Is this not the height of folly? Is this not sheer ignorance?
Learn to live as members of a single family. Champion the
ideal of one humanity. Live in peace in the world. All are
children of God. The whole world is a family of God. Feel this,
realise this and be happy.
Behold the One-in-all and the all-in-One. Feel: I am the
all, and I am in all. Feel: All bodies are mine. The whole
world is my body, my sweet home. I work in all and through all
hands. I eat through all mouths. I am the immortal Self in all.
Repeat Om mentally. Feel the oneness of life or unity of consciousness, when you play football or tennis, when you drink or eat,
when you talk or sing, when you sit or walk when you bathe or
dress, when you write a letter, when you do work in the office,
when you answer the calls of nature. Spiritualise all your
actions, movements, thoughts and feelings. Transmute them into
Yoga. Then everything will become worship of the Lord. n
UNITY OF EXISTENCE
There is only one religion:

the religion of love
Swami Sivananda
MENTAL PROCESSES IN YOGA
Mental Processes
in
YOGA
By Swami
Durgananda
"How can I keep up my regular yoga practice if I live in

a big city, amongst all possible circumstances of daily
life, with very little time for yoga?"
he mental capacity for yoga sadhana or spiritual

practice requires preparation in daily life. Swami
Vishnudevanandas guide for spiritual practice
consists of the five points: proper exercise, proper
breathing, proper relaxation, proper diet, positive thinking and
meditation. All of them ultimately lead to spiritual practice:
concentration is developed in the yoga asanas and becomes
even deeper in pranayama. Finding the right kind of relaxation
is absolutely necessary in this day and age if you want to keep
your inner balance. Spiritual development is further enhanced
by applying even a few principles of pure diet. The last of the
five points is explicitly mental: positive thinking and meditation.
In this perspective, time for yoga is a mental process.
The yoga postures and breathing exercises keep the body
sufficiently fit for mental work. Swami Sivananda says that
this mental work requires a cool head, emotional balance and
a strong and healthy body. On the other hand, yoga practitioners
who actually have physical ailments often do not appear as sick,
and do not feel as bad as the severity of their disease would
suggest; this is the power of the yogic attitude. A yogi is a person
who is aware of the mental activities and knows how to direct
them. There is no mental repression in this process, as the
thoughts are actually being redirected.
Constantly giving in to the tendency of the senses weakens
the will power. The practice of asanas and pranayama builds up
the necessary energy to resist this pulling of the senses. Simple
tapas or austerities protect the mind and can be integrated
easily into daily life: one day without sugar or without a newspaper or other media. The mind may try to resist and say: I want it
now. But due to your own rational decision, the mind will not
get it. Viveka, the power of discrimination, kept the upper hand.
This results in a quiet state, away from the non-stop chase
of I want to possess this and I want to enjoy that. As one
desire is fulfilled, the next one comes up, and this happens
faster than the speed of light, which is 300,000 kilometres per
second. The mind moves faster than the speed of light.
We know that we are creating our future with our thoughts:
what I am now corresponds to what I thought in the past, and
in the future I will be what I am thinking now. So there is hope
that things can change. Hate may change, greed may change.
In this process of transformation there is no repression. New
synapses are formed in the brain as new thoughts are repeatedly
being affirmed. A new mode of thinking is created. Science is
now able to detect thought patterns and major mental trends
in the brain. Patanjali Maharishi, who formulated the principles
of raja yoga, called these thoughts samskaras, thoughts which
repeat themselves and form strong impressions. Both raja yoga
and modern science affirm that these impressions can be changed.
However it requires a great amount of mental work.
Another aspect of this mental work is a gradual awareness
of your sensory perceptions. You become aware that everything
you see, hear, smell, taste and touch is a relative impression.
These impressions are finite. This awareness changes the way
we look at the world around us. Also disease, physical impairments and aging will look different. The same is true for beauty
and personal talents. The way we look at them changes. You
virtually take a bird's eye view, you do not remain stuck in any
sensory impression.
When we come to understand that everything that surrounds
us exists in exactly the same way within ourselves, that is what

the masters call real thinking or cosmic thinking. Nature
constantly changes: the planets, the Milky Way, the explosions,
etc. The body undergoes the same changes. Outside we call
it natural disasters, and inside these can be diseases.
This type of thinking stimulates the reflection on what
is infinite and what is finite, what is true and what is not true,
what is permanent and what is impermanent. One begins to
observe ones own habits, for example, from where the anger
arises, and you wonder how it can be overcome. One comes to
the conclusion that new habits are necessary. Master Sivananda
speaks of wrong and right action. If the quality of the action
is recognised, then new tendencies can replace the old habits.
Wrong thoughts are those which drag us down: fear, jealousy,
envy, greed, etc. Right thoughts, however, are full of joy and
serenity. Negative action may have closed up certain mental
A yogi is a person who is aware

of the mental activities and knows
how to direct them.
functions, but it is possible to reopen them. Negative actions
or thought currents are those which do not lead to a more
open, healthy worldview. Suppose, for example, there is fear
of spiders. One can train oneself to overcome this phobia,
by welcoming the spider when it shows up. The mental function
must undergo training so that we can experience inner peace.
It is possible to meet the spider peacefully rather than crushing
it. The same goes for colleagues and other people whom you
may not particularly like: you can deal with them peacefully
rather than crush them. This is Yoga in daily life: you may not
be able to choose the people around you. And even if it all
started in a positive way, the controlled and gracious behaviour
that was shown at the recruitment interview may change then
when there is time pressure, fatigue and work overload. As it
may not be possible to simply move away from the situation,
it requires mental training to keep your balance, which in turn
needs energy, and that energy can be drawn from the practice
of asanas and pranayama.
The mind learns not to immediately respond to everything,
not immediately to be angry, not to fall immediately into the
Me and Mine thought: Why me? Why does this happen
always to ME? And I, I, I .... That is what distinguishes great
yogis. It does not really matter how long they can stand on the
head or hold their breath, live without food or are able to
control certain body functions. Circus artists may do this even
better, but that is not the real thing. One recognises the Yogi
by the equanimity, the serenity and the fresh attitude towards
situations and people. He does not say, "I already know this,
it is always the same problem", and then proceed according
to his own mental habits. Habitual thought patterns veil the
intuition and make it difficult to pursue new paths in an
enthusiastic way.
Meaningful austerity includes doing good to someone else,
giving the most precious thing we have, and that is our time.
Love takes time. Health takes time. Serving people takes time.
Really doing a favour takes time. A really good gift for example,
needs a lot of time until we find what the other person can

really use and what makes him or her happy. It is a very efficient
exercise in austerity to devote time to someone else. In this way
the egoism, which veils the intuition, is reduced. If we still think
that we have no time for Yoga, then it is even more austerity
to give this apparently non-existent time to others.
It requires mental training to keep your

balance, which in turn needs energy,
and that energy can be drawn from the
practice of asanas and pranayama.
Another remarkable exercise of spiritual practice consists
in taking a few minutes to see the relativity of things and their
finite nature. It is the choice of seeing the glass half full or half
empty. If intuition is covered by egoism, then the glass will
always be half empty because greed has taken the upper
hand and always wants more and more for oneself. But once
you have determined that the car in the garage is not the basis
for your happiness, you have taken a major step.
Yoga is a science, because we experiment with ourselves.
Therefore it has nothing to do with religion, but rather with
an attitude not to resign oneself to negative thinking and to
cultivate the power for personal change instead. It all happens
only on the mental plane. Outwardly the same things may
happen as before: you get sick, you lose the job, etc., but the
way you deal with it has changed, by the yogic thinking, which
was developed step-by-step. This is one of the most important
aspects of the yoga practice and does not require time. All it
needs is strength.
It is said that the seekers of self-realisation find intuitive
knowledge of who we really are and what is really going on
in this universe. These intuitive revelations are the source
of the yogic scriptures: the Vedas, the various Upanishads
or the Bhagavad Gita. They tell us that we have a great potential,
that there is great wisdom within us, and that this great bliss,
ananda, may be experienced. That is the overwhelming
message of the scriptures: Yoga can be experienced.
However, it requires a change of lifestyle, a transformation
of habits. Actually the entire way of life has to be reviewed.
Those who deal exclusively with the things which can be
experienced by the senses, are veiled by the Unreal, by Maya,
the illusion of life. Those who look beyond these things, turn
to the Higher, the Divine. The inner path begins when the
question arises: Who am I? What is the meaning of all this?
It is really all about personal practice. Swami Vishnudevananda
often told a joke which contains a lot of truth: I am posting a
sign next to my bed or in the bathroom which says: Tomorrow
I will practice asanas. Each time you read it, it says tomorrow.
We get entangled in many worldly concerns and it becomes
difficult to untie the knot. Only practice helps. The longer we
practice with sincerity, the easier it becomes to open the knot.
This condition of the human mind regarding this situation has
hardly changed over the centuries. So many spiritual practices
have already been offered and so many really fantastic masters
have walked on this earth, but if the respective era is over, it is
only history. In this regard, Swami Sivananda clearly emphasised:
Do not make a religion out of me, be practitioners.
Getting oneself entangled in this way happens again and
again, so there is no need to feel inferior and think that you are
10
the only one to whom this happens. The whole of humanity

gets itself entangled again and again. We live in this world in
order to learn not to get ourselves entangled, and to recognise
the entanglement and how to get out of it. In this respect the
objects of the world serve as a training ground. The objects
exist in order to learn how to renounce them. This is the inner
path, the necessity of the inner practice.
Many practitioners do recognise the entanglement, but do
not understand that this is a recurring normality. Therefore they
say I'm not yet ready for this. It is recommended to be gentle
with oneself when the entanglement comes up again, to look
ahead and not to fall into apathy and lethargy, to become sleepy
and disinterested with regard to the question Who am I?.
Swami Vishnudevananda often said that many people are
actually in a permanent state of sleep with open eyes. It is true
that often life situations lead to apathy and disinterest. One is
only interested in ones own area, quickly closes the door and
thinks: Let them all do what they want. We are lacking
strength and this sleepiness is often enhanced by dietary habits,
alcohol and the lifestyle in general. The time available to
actually educate oneself and to be awake is quite short in one
lifetime. During the four week yoga Teachers Training course
one can see how much one is capable of achieving in a short
period of time. This has to be experienced directly. Theoretical
study of books cannot give this knowledge. Yoga provides an
experience that you did not know before, and this experience
is based on ones own practice.
It is about the experience of real happiness that is independent
of external things. It is good to remember this, so that yoga is
not used exclusively on the material level, for example, to look
slimmer, to be more successful or to be more relaxed. When
it is seen that this inner happiness cannot be equated with
money and success, then one is ready to make changes in life
by making it a bit simpler.
With this the confidence in the Sadhana will grow. With
practice comes experience. This goes beyond belief. You do not
believe that yoga is good for you, you know it. This makes you
more awake and younger. It may take a while until you have
found your path and the right teaching lineage. Therefore Swami
Sivananda says that perseverance is especially important.
The five points defined by Swami Vishnudevananda appear
simple and below the intellectual capacities of even a beginner
student. But it may actually take years until you come to understand that these five points contain a profound wisdom. It may
well happen that one gives up the practice too early, because
one does not want to hear or read always the same instructions.
There is a lack of perseverance to wait and allow something
to develop. The teachings have to become interwoven with daily
life and that happens only through persistent practice. There
is no way around it. n
Taken from lectures given by Swami Durgananda in February

2015 at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Vienna,
Berlin and Reith near Kitzbhel, Tyrol, Austria.
Swami Durgananda is Yoga Acharya (spiritual director)
of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Europe.
e-mail: [email protected]
Fascinating India
THE QUALITIES OF NATURE
Rudraprayag, Himalayas 2016
Swami Sivananda
18871963
Swami
Vishnudevananda
19271993
International Sivananda
Teachers Training Courses
20 February 20 March 2016
22 October 20 November 2016
Sadhana Intensive
Advanced hatha yoga practice following
the instructions of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika
India Himalaya Pilgrimage

Yoga Sadhana at the Source of Ancient Wisdom
Delhi Rudraprayag Badrinath Rishikesh Haridwar Delhi
Kedarnath Badrinath
Sivananda Kutir, Uttarkashi Himalayas
International Sivananda
Advanced Yoga Teachers
Training Course
20 February 20 March 2016
SIVANANDA YOGA VEDANTA RETREAT HOUSE

Founder: Swami Vishnudevananda. Est 1957
www.sivananda.eu Contact: [email protected]
Rudraprayag
Delhi
11
SWAMI SIVANANDA
SWAMI
VISHNUDEVANANDA
Sivananda Yoga Retreat House

Reith near Kitzbhel, Tyrol, Austria
YEAR ROUND YOGA VACATIONS

Free choice of arrival and departure dates.
WIDE CHOICE OF SEMINARS
All programmes in English and German
INTERNATIONAL SIVANANDA
YOGA TEACHERS TRAINING
COURSES
Courses in English and German

30 April 29 May 2016, Reith
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since 1957
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YOGA & STRESS MANAGEMENT
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INNER BALANCE
Sivananda Yoga Seminarhaus, Reith bei Kitzbhel

Founder: Swami Vishnudevananda, est. 1957
Bichlach 40, Reith near Kitzbhel, Tyrol, Austria
Booking: [email protected]
Tel: + 43 5356 / 6 74 04
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Landhotel Gut Sonnberghof ****
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TEMPLE INSTALLATION REPORT
Sri Akhandeswara Mahadev Temple
INSTALLATION FESTIVAL
Sivananda Kutir, Netala
27th April 3rd May, 2015
Early Spring was a time of tremendous energy and activity

at the Sivananda Kutir ashram in Netala with TTC going
on alongside the preparations for the Installation Festival
of the Sri Akhandeswara Mahadev Temple.
The auspicious morning of the installation began with a puja
conducted by four priests from Kerala and four local brahmins. Over
the next week countless pujas and fire rituals were offered both inside
and outside the temple throughout the days and evenings. A temporary
puja area was constructed in front of the temple in the dining hall,
beautifully decorated with plants, banana trees, temple umbrellas,
fresh marigold garlands and flowers throughout. The Ashram was
colourfully decorated with festive lights and decorations, and the new
temple was completely filled with hundreds of fresh marigold garlands.
Srinivasanji, Prahladji and visiting staff from our Ashrams and
Centres in India and guests from south India: Mr & Mrs Mamallan
from Trivandrum, Dr. V. Narayanasamy and his wife, daughter, son-inlaw and granddaughter from Madurai, Mr Ananta Krishnan and
Lalitha Amma from Palakkad, Vishnu from Toronto and Durairaj from
Chennai were all on hand for the festival. The TTC concluded with a
beautiful graduation satsang led by Prahladji and an inspirational talk
by Srinivasanji. Many of the new teachers chose to stay on after the
ceremony to enjoy the festivities.
Bells rang, conches were sounded

and traditional temple music could
be heard throughout the village
Local village Devatas from both Siror and Netala were also invited
to offer puja to Sri Akhandeswara Mahadev and they were each given
beautiful South Indian temple umbrellas know as muthukudas. During
one special puja, bells rang, conches were sounded and traditional
temple music could be heard throughout the village as a mother
cow and her calf were led to the temple for darshan. More than
100 sadhus were in attendance, including Swami Janardananda,
Swami Hariomananda and Swami Govindananda who sat and
chanted Rama Namam, bhajans and arati at the evening Bhandara.
An offering of dakshina was given to each of them.
The auspicious concluding ceremony took place with Prahladji
and the priests rollingup their dhotis and climbing on scaffolding to
the top of the temple to offer Kalasa puja. Flowers and water prasad
were showered upon all. The sounds of Om Namah Sivaya, bells and
Panchavadyam music filled the air and all were in awe of the beautiful
vision of Sri Akhandeswara Mahadevs garlands and elegant silver face.
The evening concluded with puja and arati.
This was a unique, high energy event full of meaningful rituals with
the majestic Himalayas above Mother Ganga at Swamijis Mahasamadhi
place receiving the blessings of all who attended the ceremony.
The beautiful, colourful south Indian temple now soars high for all
to see and many locals stop on the bridge to offer their prayers and
see this magnificent addition to their village. The temple is open daily
from 6.30am 12 noon and 4 6.30pm for the public darshan.
Om Namah Sivaya!
Sri Akhandeswara Mahadeva Swamine Namaha!
From Top left to right: Sri Akhandeswara Temple, Bhandara,

The Sivananda Kutir Ashram next to the River Ganges.
Inside the Temple Sri Akhandeswara Mahadev
13
THE YOUNG SWAMIJI

Nemarra High School photo.
Circled: The young Swamiji
aged about twelve.
Swamiji had to walk three
miles and sometimes swim
across the Gayatri River
to reach school
14
THE YOUNG SWAMIJI
The Young Swamiji

By Kamala Devi
What was he like, the young Swamiji?
He was, his mother said, a very adamant fellow.
By all accounts, the striking personality of the young Swamiji was clear
to all from his very earliest years.
It had three distinct strands: a resolute and fearless determination,
a capacity to discriminate between genuine religious observance and
superstition, and a deep and abiding compassion for all living beings.
What was the background to this striking personality?
Background
Swami Vishnudevananda was born Swami Kuttan Nair in
Kaninmangalam, near Nemmara, in the Native State of Cochin
(now Kerala) in 1927, a son of the famous warrior caste of
Kerala, the Nairs. The Nairs are an ancient and extraordinary
caste. Although customs and traditions differ within various Nair
communities, they had their own marital customs (sambandham),
their own form of matrilineal inheritance (marumakkathayam),
their own art of warfare (kalarippayattu), their own war goddess
(Bhadrakali), their own cult of ancestor worship, and their own
art form, kathakali (dance drama). In swordsmanship and suicide
squads (chavers) they were similar to the Samurai of Japan.
In feudal times the Nairs formed the chief militia in Kerala, and
travellers were as struck by their valour and military prowess
as they were fascinated by the customs and traditions which
distinguished them from other Keralites. Early writers described
them as exceedingly haughty, proud and bold.
The Nairs lived in matrilineal joint families known as tarawads.
They generally lived away from the towns in detached houses
with large compounds and good gardens. The plan and other
details of the structure of Nair houses were determined in strict
conformity with the principles of the ancient Hindu science of
architecture based on astrology (vastu).
The tarawad or marumakkathayam family consisted in theory
of all persons who could trace their descent in the female line
from a single ancestress, and a single house could sometimes
contain a hundred people, spanning three or four generations.
Swamijis tarawad, or traditional family home, was known
as Valia Peechankurichy Veedu: Peechankurichy being the
name of the house, valia meaning big and veedu meaning
house. It had five rooms on the ground floor, six rooms on the
first floor and open space on the third floor for storing grain.
There were also two halls on the first floor and two halls on the
ground floor. All four sides had long sit-outs which were approximately one hundred feet by fifteen feet to accommodate any
number of people during feasts and festivities. Guests coming
from far off villages slept in these courtyards on mats and
pillows provided by the family.
The family had three parcels of land totalling five hundred

acres (five thousand paras) as well as two plantations (gardens)
adjacent to some rivers. Here they grew coconuts, mangoes and
other fruits.
As a child Swamiji loved bhakti stories

like Kabirdas. He also loved to go for
Temple celebrations.
Swamijis father, Sri Chatthu Panicker, was said to have been
a first class farmer and one of the important agriculturists in the
area. The local people often spoke of the effort he put into his
farming. He would take the bullocks to the field at 3am and
immediately begin ploughing. As the bullocks had to come from
far away they would have started
out at midnight or one am. A great
deal of effort was put into the
land and it was universally
admired as being very beautiful.
It was from his father that
Swamiji first acquired his highlydeveloped sense of discipline.
Swamijis mother was Srimati
Devaki Amma (later Swami
Sivasarananda), the daughter
Swami Vishnudevanandas
of Srimati Cheechu Amma
mother, Devaki Amma, who later
of Valia Peechankurichy Veedu became Swami Sivasharanananda
and Sri Padmanabha Shastry,
a revered Sanskrit scholar and Veda pandit attached to the
Palace of the Maharaja of Cochin. Swamijis mother was very
pious. All felt that Devaki Amma had the full characteristics of
her father and that Swami must have had his blessings as well.
There was a pond near the house and a Subramania Shestram
nearby. The land near the Temple belonged to Swamijis father
and Devaki Amma would go there and pray every day for at least
one or two hours. Everyone in the family thought that that was
why no one had any diseases among their near and dear ones.
15
THE YOUNG SWAMIJI

As a child Swamiji loved bhakti stories like Kabirdas. He also
loved to go for Utsavam (Temple celebrations) to see the chariot
being pulled and he loved to take friends to go and see it as well.
Determination
It was his powerful determination that Swamijis mother was
referring to when she described him as a very adamant fellow.
Illustrating with an incident from his infancy Mataji told of how
once the young Swami Kuttan had refused to eat until some
of the food on his plate was removed. There was too much, he
had said, take some away. Mataji explained that the dog could
have what was left, and instructed him to eat. Again he refused:
there was too much food, and some should be removed. Mataji,
in her own words, beat him on the leg until his leg swelled.
Still he would not eat, nor did he cry. It became clear that
beating was useless. Mataji relented and removed some of the
food. Swami ate, and Mataji resolved never to beat him again.
Hand in hand with this resolute determination came a remarkable fearlessness. Swamijis cousin, Sri Achuthan recalled:
In his younger days Swami had no fear at all. There was a
mango tree near the house where we lived. If you climbed right
to the top you could see our house from the top of that tree.
Once he saw me when I was climbing down. I told him that I
had climbed up to try and pick some mangoes. He asked Did
you get any? I told him No, I didnt manage to get any. They
are a bit too high to reach.
So Swami climbed up and the branch broke and the stick he
used to collect the mangoes also broke. When the branch broke
he fell down to the ground after getting hit by other branches
on the way to the ground. He broke his arm. It became a huge
event and everyone gathered around. My father was very good
with medicines. He had some medicinal oils that he got from
Mysore. There was a toddy shop nearby and that man was good
at tying splints. So he came and with my dad applied oils and
using a white cloth tied a splint. Swami did not cry. Not a drop
of tears fell from his eyes. In spite of so much pain he did not cry.
From birth Swamis diet consisted of milk, fruits, sweets and
ghee. He refused to drink coffee and tea, and did not like
strong spices or salt. If some butter was added he would eat
rice. He would eat idli and dosa. He was golden in colour. One
day Kunji Amma, a neighbour, looking at Mataji with Swami
Kuttan on her lap enquired whether she was the childs mother,
and what food he was being given. The child was looking
beautiful, Kunji Amma said, while Mataji looked like his servant.
Chovvari (sago payasam) and milk Mataji replied.
In his early years Swami Kuttan lived in Kumaramputhoor
farm, his fathers farm at Pallavur. Because the local school was
three miles away Swamijis mother engaged a tutor to teach
him at home. One day his fathers nephew, Balan, took the
young boy to his primary school in Thalloor to attend Navaratri
Puja. The next day he ran to go to school. Mataji recalled: I did
not permit, as he had to walk three miles and I thought to let
him complete one more year. But he ran again and I chased
him and brought him back. Again he ran and thereafter he
attended school regularly. He started going to school by himself
at the age of five. After passing 4th class he started attending
school at Nemmara from Pallavoor crossing the Gayatri River
and streams. If there is water in the river someone would help
him to cross. He had no fear even while young.
16
The tank near the Subramanya Temple in Kanninmanglam where

Swamiji bathed, and chased the boys catching fish
The paddy fields which once formed part of Swamijis family land
Discrimination
He did not like talking ill of others. One day when we ladies
were chatting he shouted, Mother! Mother! loudly and when
asked what he wants he advised us not to talk ill of others.
He will only tell the truth. When the shopkeeper returned
the balance once with more money after the purchase of provisions,
Swami asked that the excess amount be returned immediately.
He would not ask for money to visit the cinema. Only books
and fees he will ask. He is studying along with rich family
children. They may eat from hotels, but Swami is satisfied with
what I give. He will not demand anything from me.
He was not fond of show or make-up. His dress was simple.
It was not because he could not afford, but he had no desire
for costly costumes. He was fond of books. If he took up a book
he wouldnt leave it until it was finished.
Compassion
When the woman sweeping the courtyard was sick, Swami
applied oil and massaged her legs.
He would not harm animals, nor permit others to harm
them. Whenever he took a bath in the tank, if he found friends
catching fish, he would catch them and bring them home. He
would advise them not to do it, and he would pay money not
to kill. He would not allow anyone to harm even ants and flies.
Swamijis elder sister Lakshmi Kutty was advised not to eat
fish and meat and also not to conduct adharma poojas with
animal sacrifice; only oothama poojas to be conducted for the
gods. No animal was to be harmed or killed.
When Swami was in the army Balan was laid up with TB.
Swami came back from the Punjab on leave and kept Balans
head on his lap and looked after him until death, reciting Gods
name. Earlier, when he was studying, his uncle Murukandi was
in hospital. He looked after his uncle the whole night. He helped
other patients also. He looked after them until death. He was
not at all afraid. In his younger days he had no fear at all. n
Kamala Devi runs an affiliated Sivananda Yoga Centre in Katoomba,
NSW, Australia. She is a long time disciple of Swamiji Vishnudevananda and
has helped a lot with the organisation of the archives of Swamijis work.
Sivananda Teachers Training Course

August 15 September 10, 2016
Course language: English and Spanish
Enjoy sunshine, health, inner learning and spiritual fellowship.

The tiny picturesque village Aluenda is located at 900 m above sea level, nestled in the Sierra de Vicor
How to get there:

Flight plus high speed train:
Madrid (1hr) or Barcelona (2hrs).
Aluenda
Yoga Vacation
17 August 11 September 2015
Free choice of dates
Barcelona
Madrid
Spain
Balearic
Sea
Teaching language: Spanish
CENTRO DE YOGA SIVANANDA VEDANTA MADRID Founder: Swami Vishnudevananda C/ Eraso 4, 28028 Madrid, Spain
Phone +34 91 361 51 50 E-mail: [email protected] www.sivananda.org/madrid www.sivananda.eu
17
NERVE IMPULSE AND PRANA IMPULSE
Nerve Impulse and

Prana Impulse in your
Daily Practice
By Swami Sivadasananda
Nerve impulses are clearly defined; they start in a specific

place and travel in one direction to another specific place.
Nerve impulses can be categorised into:
Motor impulses (to muscles for example), which can
be controlled voluntarily. Motor nerve impulses allow you
to enter, remain or come out from an asana.
Sensory impulses, which cannot all be perceived, depending
on the level of wakefulness and awareness. In the asanas the
main sensory impulse is the sense of touch. When you actually
feel your muscles and joints, this is called proprioception.
Sympathetic impulses, which create the fight and flight
or stress scenario.
Parasympathetic impulses, which help the body to rest
and relax.
It is said that a direct control of the so-called involuntary
nerve impulses (sympathetic and parasympathetic) is not
possible. But the outcome of asana and pranayama practice
18
is an effective balance between these two impulses. Yoga practice

is both stimulating (sympathetic) and relaxing (parasympathetic).
The word prana means life energy. Just like the physical
nerve impulses, prana refers to active control and to the
awareness of perceptions. At the time when the word prana
was created, the modern scientific observations of the nerve
impulses were not available. But obviously the functions of motor,
sensory, sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve impulses were
all well known to the hatha yogis. How otherwise could they
devise such a sophisticated exercise system which balances all
the functions of the nervous system?
Based on these considerations, one could say that the prana
impulses include all nerve impulses. What would then be a
main difference between prana impulse and nerve impulse?
Nerve impulses are controlled either by conscious awareness
and will or by the subconscious mind.
The level of prana impulses, which is different from the nerve
impulses, can be controlled by both: the physical breath and mental
processes such as visualisation, concentration and will power.
Final Relaxation
(Savasana)
A Simple Example
When you lift one leg in Savasana, this movement is possible
due to motor nerve impulses causing the contraction in various
leg muscles. When you suddenly drop the leg, this is due to the
sudden stopping of these nerve impulses.
Incidentally you also inhale while lifting, hold the breath
while the leg is up, and exhale when the leg is dropped. This
aspect can be considered the prana impulse.
Which impulse is experienced more clearly in this liftingand-dropping-exercise, the nerve impulse or the prana impulse?
As both of them happen simultaneously it is difficult to tell
them apart.
If you modify the exercise, the difference becomes quite obvious:
Adaptation No. 1
Inhale and lift the leg. Then exhale, but continue keeping the leg
up. Only when you have completed the exhalation, drop the leg.
Here you first released the breath, which is the prana
impulse, and then later you stopped the motor nerve impulse
to the leg muscles, which caused the leg to drop.
Isnt it surprising how much your motor capacity of holding
the leg up against the gravity was weakened, once you had
exhaled? This shows the difference between prana impulse
and nerve impulse and how much the nerve impulse depends
on the prana impulse.
Adaptation No. 2
Inhale and lift the leg. Keep holding the breath. Drop the leg
without exhaling. Exhale only once you clearly feel the leg on
the floor.
You first released the motor nerve impulse to the leg muscles,
and then you released the respiratory impulse, which is the
prana impulse.
It is surprising to see that the major sensation of release
was only felt when you released the breath, the prana impulse.
Connection between the nerve impulse

and the prana impulse
How is it possible that the motor nerve impulse which makes
the diaphragm contract (inhalation) and relax (exhalation), can
create the prana impulse, which allows very different levels
of control and sensation in all body parts?
A possible answer is that the phrenic nerve which supplies
the motor impulses from the brain to the diaphragm has a ramification to the solar plexus. The solar plexus has a wide range
of functions from sensory to sympathetic and parasympathetic.
What is difficult to explain in terms of the nervous system is
how the effect of this prana impulse can either be very local or
wide spread in the body, depending on the mental visualisation.
Importance of the prana impulse

in your practice session
Swami Vishnudevananda advises a specific order for your
practice session
Pranayama (breathing exercises)
Surya Namaskar (sun salute)
12 Basic Asanas with a choice of variations (there are around
100 variations to choose from), with a short relaxation after
each asana
Final relaxation with autosuggestion
19

Surya Namaskar
Alternate Nostril
Breathing
(Anuloma Viloma)
Pranayama allows
you to connect
consciously to the
prana impulse
Pranayama
It is advisable to begin with pranayama, as it allows you to
connect again consciously to the prana impulse. The various
exercises create a wave of relaxation with the exhalation, a wave
of energy with the inhalation and lead to mental control
of prana (concentration) when you hold the breath. All these
impulses are experienced while the body is remaining calm
and motionless in the meditative sitting pose.
In the sun salute respiratory and muscle control happen

simultaneously.
For example, when moving into position 2 (which is identical
to position 11), your muscle effort increases as you are stretching
the hands and the arms upwards, then lift the shoulder girdle,
and control your leg muscles positioning the weight on your
heels. The further you move into the pose the stronger will
be the muscle work.
At the same time you are inhaling. The longer and further
you reach upwards and backwards, the longer and deeper
should be your effort to inhale, which is done by the diaphragm
and the various respiratory muscles of the chest. The moment
you release the position, you also release the breath and start
to exhale.
This connection between the power of the breath and the
power of muscle control can be felt in all the 12 poses of the
sun salute. You can discover it quite easily with the following
approach:
1 Start with four sun salutes (4 x 12 movements) and try to make
only an intermediate muscle effort. Remain a bit below your
maximum capacity of movement.
2 Now practice two sun salutes with exactly the same muscle
effort, but reducing the depth of your breaths to a minimum.
You will see how the same muscle effort results in a clearly
inferior depth of movement.
3 Finally practice two sun salutes with a maximum depth and
length of breath, while maintaining the same muscle effort.
By contrast, your muscle control will feel like riding on top
of an added energy wave the prana impulse.
Sun salute ensures that the mastery of the prana impulse
which was gained from the pranayama exercises, is combined
with the motor nerve impulses which allow the muscle control.
Asanas
Sun Salutation
(Surya Namaskar)
position 2
Muscle effort
increases as you are
stretching the hands
and the arms
upwards
20
Patanjali Maharishi states in the Raja Yoga Sutras, that the

asana should be held firmly and comfortably at the same time,
while the practitioner should focus on relaxation and meditate
on the Infinite. In order to remain in the asana there needs to
be a fine tuning of the muscle tone. This is comparatively easier
in headstand, shoulderstand, plough, fish, sitting forward bend,
spinal twist and standing forward bend.
Only the steadiness of the pose can be seen by the outer
appearance. All the other aspects mentioned by Patanjali
Maharishi can only be felt subjectively, and the best way
to reach the perception is to focus on the breath:
Each inhalation brings strength and firmness.
Each exhalation brings relaxation and comfort.
A first step towards the meditation on the Infinite is to focus
on the expansion of energy. As you continue observing the
rhythmical interplay of inhalation/exhalation firmness/comfort,
this local energy imprint can expand into a more expanded
awareness of vital energy, sometimes flowing from the limbs
to the spine and up to the head, sometimes from the abdomen
out to all body parts, sometimes moving in a circular way

throughout the body. Each posture will show you its particular
energy patterns. You only need to watch the polarity of
inhalation and exhalation in relation to your body perception.
Sirsasana
(Headstand)
In order to remain in
the asana there needs
to be a fine tuning
of the muscle tone
plexus, which in turn increases proprioception or feeling all body

parts from within the body.
The deepest level of physical relaxation depends on the
combination of conscious abdominal breathing and autosuggestion. When you focus on any part of the body with
gentle breathing, you can feel each muscle in great detail, but
the deepest level of relaxation comes when you actually do not
feel the muscles any more at all. It is as if you had lost this part
of the body. As the process of autosuggestion continues from
the feet up to the head, this process of losing sensation of the
body through deep relaxation continues. However, it does not
feel like you are losing something, because the relaxation
reduces the unnecessary amount of prana, which is spent in the
body contraction. The deeper you relax, the more deeply you
recharge your pranic battery.
Meditation pose
after final
relaxation
First you may
sense some
physical pulsations
in various muscles
in the legs, pelvis
and along your
spine
Final Relaxation (Savasana)

The deepest level of physical relaxation depends
on the combination of conscious abdominal
breathing and autosuggestion
Final Relaxation
Here the conscious motor control is becoming very subtle. Deep
muscle relaxation requires a greatly reduced flow of motor
impulses to the muscles. This results in a very low muscle tone.
Sensory awareness is stimulated by conscious abdominal
breathing. This stimulates the sensory impulses in the solar
When the 15 minutes of final relaxation are completed you

may sit quietly in any meditation pose for some time. First you
may sense some physical pulsations in various muscles in the
legs, pelvis and along your spine. This is due to the increased
motor impulses, which reactivate the muscle tone needed to
keep the body upright. If you sit for a few minutes longer, you
can focus again on the breath: watch the change of breath,
when the inhalation joins the exhalation and when the exhalation
joins the inhalation. These are the moments when the prana
impulses flow. You may now be able to feel the prana as a clearly
different sensation than the nerve impulses flowing to your
skeletal muscles.
Finally try to bring the awareness of the prana impulse to the
third eye centre between your eyebrows (Ajna Chakra). Here is
the connection between prana impulse and the thought waves,
through which the practice of meditation moves from the physical
level to the mental level.
Swami Sivadasananda
Yoga Acharya and a senior student of Swami Vishnudevananda, teaches
workshops throughout the Sivananda Centres in Europe and Teachers
Training Courses worldwide. email: [email protected]
21
DIET AND NUTRITION
The Failure
of Preventive
Medicine
By Dr. Gerhard Brand, MD,
Munich, Germany
We seem to be losing the fight against obesity, because pills dont
make anyone any healthier, at best they enable people to live a bit
longer with their disease.
he onset of the global obesity epidemic and the global

explosion of diabetes is based on the most fundamental misconception in the history of mankind about
proper nutrition. A hundred years ago in the United
States of America, the quintessential country of affluence and
immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, sugar consumption
was 3 kg (6.6 lbs.) per capita per year and obesity was virtually
nonexistent. Three quarters of a century later the per capita
sugar consumption has increased to 75 kg (165 lbs.) per year
and obesity affects more than a third of the population.
On behalf of the government,which has the peoples
mandate to promote good health for all, researchers and
nutritionists developed a new nutritional concept which they
hastily announced to an astonished world whose residents
were already burdened by their increased body weight. The
concept was that fat makes you fat and eating easily digestible
carbohydrates five times a day makes you slim and healthy. Up
until this point food corporations had already been very successful
with their slogan: Dont just sit around eat something,
paving the way for this new dogma to herald the worldwide
success of the fast food culture and finger food consumption.
The treatment of diet-related diseases

in Germany now takes up one third of
all health sector costs
The age-old adage: Chew well and digest well was quickly
ignored as well as the crucial insights of the great nutritionist and
physician Dr. Franz Xaver Mayr that the fast in fast food leads to
too much and too much leads to too often, because we start to
22
feel hungry again too soon. An unhealthy diet composed of the

wrong foods and their hazardous effects on acid base balance,
together with the habit of eating at the wrong time, contributed
to this imbalance.
This resulted in an unprecedented nutritional disaster in countries
with a western diet and the development of hitherto largely unknown morbid obesity. The European study Aspire which ran
from 1995 to 2007 shows that both medical professionals and
patients increasingly rely on pills and hospital treatments to deal
with this global health issue without addressing a change in lifestyle
and eating habits. Adherence to drug prescription guidelines increases,
for example cholesterol-lowering drugs with dubious and sometimes considerable side effects are prescribed twice as often today
as they were 12 years ago. The same goes for anticoagulants, betablockers and other blood pressure lowering agents. Nevertheless,
there is no improvement in hypertension which still affects 60%
of the population. According to a big German public health insurance
company (Barmer Ersatzkasse) the treatment of diet-related diseases
in Germany now takes up one third of all health sector costs, about
80 billion euros per year in a total budget of 240 billion euros.
As we have seen, prescriptions alone dont solve the problem.
We seem to be losing the fight against obesity, because pills
dont make anyone any healthier, at best they enable people to
live a bit longer with their disease. It would be too easy to once
again blame the doctors and especially the chronically ill and
thus incurably ill patients for this dilemma, because we only cure
the symptoms and not the cause. Thus we find ourselves in the
same seemingly hopeless situation as Goethes sorcerers
apprentice: From the spirits that I called Sir, deliver me!
Our situation, however, may not be that hopeless.
DIET AND NUTRITION

The Solution
There is an ancient doctrine, time tested for 2,500 years, that
your food shall be your medicine and your medicine shall be
your food (Hippocrates, 460 372 BC, the forefather of modern,
scientific medicine). In order to lose weight we must eat the
right food ie: proper carbohydrates, proper fats, and proper
protein. Carbohydrates to provide proper energy, fat to give
proper reserves and proteins for an optimal hormonal balance.
Here are a few lines on the yogic

approach to diet:
Only a proper diet can reduce obesity

and prevent the threat of a global catastrophe in countries with a western diet
Conclusion
Only a proper diet can reduce obesity and prevent the threat
of a global catastrophe in countries with a western diet. Most
importantly we need to provide people with correct information
on the relationship between health and disease. We are bombarded by the media with completely irrelevant and even
sometimes grotesquely inaccurate information on this issue.
Furthermore polls show that obese college students, for
example, do inform themselves about healthy eating, but
prolong its implementation due to lack of practicality. And
although they may already be late in addressing their problem,
its never too late to start. n
The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres express their gratitude
to Dr Gerhard Brand for sharing his medical insight on the
topic of nutrition.
Let the yogi eat moderately and abstemiously; otherwise,

however clever, he cannot gain success. Siva Samhita
Yogis are aware of and try to live by this ancient wisdom:

there is a relationship between physical and mental wellbeing and diet. Yogis eat to live and do not live to eat. The
goal is a pure and natural diet, wholesome, well-balanced,
easy to digest, supplying the body with a maximum of
nutrients and energy.
In Swami Sivanandas words: Eat moderately what

you know by experience is agreeable to you and what
is digestible. Simple diet is the best.
Dr. Gerhard Brand MD. email: [email protected]
23
THE DIAPHRAGM
The Diaphragm
An Amazing Muscle
By Swami Rajeshwarananda
When practising or teaching the abdominal breath it is common for many of us to take
for granted the mechanism, yet not quite fully understanding the process involved.
The diaphragm has been variously described

as a muscle shaped like a double dome,
a parachute and a jellyfish!
24
THE DIAPHRAGM
Inhalation
Exhalation
During inhalation
the diaphragm
contracts
and moves
downwards.
During exhalation
it relaxes and
moves back up.
bdominal breathing is also known as deep

diaphragmatic breathing and it is the diaphragm
that takes centre stage here. What exactly is this
muscle and what does it do?
The diaphragm has been variously described
as a muscle shaped like a double dome, a parachute, a jellyfish,
a cupola and so on. Just like other muscles in the body it is
fibrous, non-rigid, contracts and stretches, and because of its suppleness takes the form of the organs with which it comes into
contact. At the top of the dome the tissue contains a mass
of collagen fibres which together make up the central tendon.
Where is the diaphragm in the body?

It lies between the thoracic (chest) cavity and the abdominal
cavity. In fact it separates these two cavities and at the same
time connects them to each other. One can think of the
diaphragm as acting like double-sided tape. On the upper
side the thoracic cavity or thorax the lungs are attached via
the pleura, (a thin sheet of tissue surrounding the lungs) and
the heart via the pericardium (a sac of smooth membrane
enclosing the heart). On the lower side the abdominal
cavity the diaphragm attaches to the stomach and the liver
via the peritoneum, (a membrane that covers many of the
abdominal organs). The muscle is also in direct contact with the
kidneys, spleen, pancreas and parts of the large intestine.
At its base the diaphragm is attached to the skeleton at the
lower rib cage and to the spine in the lumbar region, around
waist level. The top of the muscle (the central tendon) reaches
the height of the fourth or fifth rib.
Dorling Kindersley Limited
What exactly does the diaphragm do and

what is its role in the breathing mechanism?
Most of us believe that the breathing mechanism starts with
the inhalation of air. This is not accurate. Initially the body
registers its need for air and nerve impulses pass to the
diaphragm instructing it to contract. When the diaphragm
contracts it loses its bowl-like shape and flattens moving
downwards, pulling the lungs in the same direction (remember
the lungs are attached to the diaphragm) creating a vacuum in
the lungs. In order to maintain equal pressure inside the lungs
and outside of the body, inhalation is initiated. As the lungs
expand with the intake of breath they push down on the
diaphragm. As the diaphragm moves downward it exerts
pressure on the abdominal organs. These are unable to compress
and so balloon outwards, giving the impression that it is the
abdomen that is breathing. If the stomach is full or the lungs
are not elastic enough the inhalation will be inhibited.
In exhalation the relaxation of the respiratory muscles
decreases the chest cavity, deflates the lungs and the top of the
diaphragm (central tendon) is drawn upward by the contraction.
The relaxation of the diaphragm back to its dome shape allows
the abdomen to return to its original position.
The advantages of abdominal breathing are many and it is
these that make the diaphragm such an amazing muscle. Abdominal
breathing is the most efficient method for achieving maximum
movement of air (both inhalation and exhalation) with the least
expenditure of muscle energy. The diaphragm moves internal
organs, which in the case of the abdominal organs helps to
eliminate constipation. Tension in the shoulders is reduced as these
are not used in the breathing process. By the movement of the
diaphragm over the aorta and vena cava more blood is brought
to the heart increasing circulation in the heart and around the
body. The lymphatic system is stimulated by the movement of the
diaphragm increasing the strength of immunity within the body.
Abdominal breathing is not just breathing

Its advantages are far reaching and for these we can thank
the diaphragm for its tireless work!! n
Swami Rajeshwarananda is the director of the Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Centre in Rome. email: [email protected]
25
SPECIAL REPORT: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF YOGA
The Sivananda Yoga

Vedanta Centres
Celebrate the
first International
Day of Yoga
26
Worldwide Recognition of Yoga

On 11 December 2014, recognising the universal appeal of Yoga, the United Nations
passed a resolution proclaiming 21 June as International Yoga Day. The aim was to
raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing yoga.
Indian Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi, proposed the initial idea with the words: Yoga is an invaluable gift of Indias
ancient tradition. This tradition is 5,000 years old. It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and
fulfilment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but
to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature
The above message echoes that of Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda who made it their lifes mission
to disseminate the timeless wisdom of Yoga and Vedanta. In 1969, Swami Vishnudevananda conducted the first Yoga
Teachers Training Course in the West with the purpose of training future world leaders and responsible citizens in Yogic
disciplines. With the benefits of yoga now being recognised on such a global scale it is truly inspiring that Swami Vishnus
vision is now starting to become a reality.
Over the preceding pages we print reports from our different Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams on their
celebrations for this special day.
27
LONDON, UK
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre
Health is wealth. Peace of mind is happiness. Yoga shows the way. Swami Vishnudevananda
Such was the truth in Swamijis words, which the entire world came out
to experience today, the 21st of June 2015: the first International Day
of Yoga. A movement to good health and peace of mind which all
came through Yoga.
Thanks to the initiative of the Indian Prime Minister, the United
Nations had earlier decided that the time for international recognition
of the great tradition of Yoga had indeed arrived. This momentous
decision of the world community has the potential to change the world
into a healthier place physically, mentally and spiritually.
Here in London, it was a special day for us at the Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Centre. Early in the morning, we gathered at the Indian High
Commission where the High Commissioner inaugurated the Day by
lighting a ceremonial lamp. A recorded video message from the Prime
Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, and another message from the
British Prime Minister, David Cameron were broadcast. The Indian PM
in his message emphasised the need for inner peace and happiness
for each individual, and how Yoga can help achieve that elusive peace
of mind and soul.
This was followed by a 15 minute asana demonstration by the
Sivananda Yogis, with Raghunath Manet playing the veena which
complemented the asanas and lent a sense of great calmness and
serenity to the prevailing atmosphere. The session was attended
by a large audience which appeared to be truly absorbing the divine
environment as they participated in the asanas.
The scene then shifted to the South Bank Pier where karma yogis
decorated the Sivananda cruise boat with colourful bunting, balloons
and banners commemorating the special day. This was organised and
executed under the supervision of Swami Kailasananda, Swami
Jyotirmayananda and Swami Keshavananda. Just as the decorations
were completed and the boat ride from South Bank to Putney
commenced, Big Ben (which adjoins Londons Houses of Parliament)
struck its majestic gong, as if to wish us luck! As the boat approached
28
Putney Pier, a long queue of yogis was waiting to come aboard and join
the celebrations.
The boat looked mesmerising, angelic and divine. As the people
boarded the boat and took their seats, the celebrations commenced
with meditation and satsang. The sacred atmosphere created by the
chanting of Jaya Ganesha while sailing on the Thames was overwhelming. The sun was at its brilliant best as if Swami Sivananda and
Swami Vishnudevananda were smiling and bestowing upon us their
love and blessings! The satsang came to an end with the chanting of
Arati. As the boat reached the South Bank Pier in the heart of the city,
the Indian High Commissioner came aboard and delivered an inspiring
address. The celebrations continued up to the Bernie Spain Gardens
on the banks of the Thames where a host of people were waiting
to receive Yoga lessons.
It was a beautiful sight, close to 600 yogis practicing yoga in a
public Sivananda class taught by Swami Keshavananda in the green
gardens with the golden sun shining bright in the blue sky. The Masters
were with all of us and were bestowing upon each one of us their
blessings, wisdom and joy.
After the class we headed back to the boat to begin our return
journey to the Sivananda Yoga Centre. Ragunath Manet entertained us
with a beautiful veena concert and a magnificent Bharata Natyam dance
performance. The day only got more divine with the concluding satsang
at the Centre which was a tribute to the peace missions of Swami
Vishnudevananda. As the celebrations were coming to a conclusion,
one was reminded of another saying by Swami Sivananda, STRIVE,
STRIVE, STRIVE. This is the sacred mantra to success in everything.
The First International Yoga Day was a great learning experience
for all of us, the Sivananda family and everyone around us. As Master
has said strive and strive, there is a long road ahead to take Yoga to the
whole world. Today was the beginning of this beautiful journey and we
could feel the enlightenment ourselves.
MADRID, SPAIN
With the support of the Indian Embassy and 12 local yoga schools, the International Day
of Yoga in Madrid was a wonderful event. Similar celebrations took place in over fifty cities
throughout Spain, including Granada, at the affiliated Sivananda Centre, and Barcelona with
the support of the Sivananda Satsang Group.
The event in Plaza de Coln in Madrid began with an open air master Yoga class and an
address by Mr. Vikram Misri, the Ambassador of India and Mrs. Manuela Carmena, the new
mayor of Madrid. The mayor visited the Sivananda stand and received information about our
programmes. Over 1,500 people participated in the asana and pranayama class organised by the
Government of India which was shown on a big video screen. Afterwards, the Sivananda Yoga
Centre conducted a 30 minute traditional asana and pranayama session parallel to other yoga
schools. Over 60 teachers and karma yogis from the Madrid Centre participated in the class.
In the afternoon, the Ambassador of India and representatives of different yoga schools
including the Sivananda Yoga Centre participated in a conference to discuss the various
aspects of Yoga (health, consciousness and spirituality).
The International Yoga Day Celebration made a very important impact in the media,
opening the news on several television news programmes.
MONTREAL, CANADA
At the Montreal Centre we began the International Yoga Day festivities with a wonderful
Satsang and Yoga Class with Swami Shivabhaktananda. This gave a good grounding for the
day and Swamiji explained the significance of International Yoga day. Many teachers, karma
yogis and students from the centre congregated, as well as staff and guests from the Ashram.
A strong sense of community and purpose was felt by those participating. It continued with a
breakfast and gathering, where people had the opportunity to connect with one another.
Prahlada led the walk up Mont Royal, where some Asana Demos were performed, both
of which created interest by people passing. The group were on hand to distribute flyers and
magazines to those who were curious; they were feeling inspired to spread the message of
yoga!! Eventually we settled at a peaceful area by the lake where the group began to chant,
later Prahlada shared some stories about Swami Vishnudevananda. It gave a good insight to
Swamiji and his mission. There was much joy and smiles expressed about the event from
those who participated, and they appreciated being involved in something meaningful. It was
an encouraging day and the vibration was high. There was a great sincerity amongst the ever
growing community. We are ever thankful for Master and Swamiji Vishnus grace.
29
MADURAI, INDIA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Meenakshi Ashram
and Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre
The first celebration of the International Day of Yoga was jointly organised
by Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Meenakshi Ashram and Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Centre at Madurai.
Our celebrations were three-fold, encompassing three different groups:
1. People who are eagerly looking upon yoga as a means to prepare
themselves to meet the everyday challenges of life and also to keep them
physically fit; 2. Police who are intensely trained both physically and
mentally, who are serving at the India-Tibet Border; and finally 3. At the
Ashram with a group of children and senior citizens.
The first part of the event opened at 6am in Sundaram park known
by the locals as Walkers Club. The ceremony was inaugurated by the
Deputy Commissioner of Police of Madurai city in the distinguished

presence of Dr. V. Narayanasamy, Trustee and other VIPs. About 150 people
took part to learn and explore the practice of asanas. At its conclusion
a specially released organisational edition of the Yoga Day brochure was
distributed to the public along with Ashram and Centre pamphlets.
The second part of the event was presented to a strong group of
India-Tibet Border Police at their camp. A large team of 300 policemen
went through the practice of 12 basic postures with absolute sincerity.
Both sessions were taught by Yashpal with the assistance of Ashram and
Centre staff. After accepting their hospitality, we moved on to Meenakshi
Ashram for the last part of the celebration which was a kids special.
Following a formal inaugural ceremony at 4.30pm by prominent
Administrative Officials of the city, our yoga kids from the neighbouring
village and school children from Madurai showcased some challenging
asanas with such ease and confidence that they received wide applause.
After the conclusion of the programme, high tea and dinner were served
for about 200 people in the Ashram premises. We hope and wish that the
beginning of this celebration will globally mark the true purpose of Yoga,
uniting ones own outer self to their inner self, uniting minds, cultures
and civilization, a 'True World Order' giving rise to universal peace and
harmony as envisioned by Swamiji.
REITH, TYROL, AUSTRIA

The first International Yoga Day was celebrated in the Sivananda Yoga Retreat House on 21st of June 2015. For the morning yoga class, 30 guests
came from the area as well as from Germany, England, Scotland, Israel and Canada. The majority of the population of Reith village came to celebrate
the event. After a snack the participants joined the lecture with Swami Vidyananda on the cross-cultural message of yoga followed by an asana
demonstration with detailed information on the 12 basic postures.
In the afternoon, the programme continued at the event hall of Reith village. New visitors came to listen to the lecture of Swami Ramapriyananda
about the latest research on yoga and medicine. The lecture was followed by another free yoga class with 30 participants. The day ended with a casual
get together with lovingly prepared vegetarian snacks and tea.
30
SAN FRANCISCO, USA

MahendraSingh.com
Unity in Diversity in San Francisco!

We celebrated the International Yoga Day in San Francisco grandly and
took the opportunity to remind the public, as well as ourselves, of the
historical moment when Swamiji set foot in America in 1957 via San
Francisco. A Google search shows 176 Yoga studios in San Francisco,
so it seemed a big celebration was in order.
Our original plan to celebrate independently with a procession
in the street, asanas in Golden Gate Park and afternoon and evening
programmes at the new Centre on Vicente Street changed into a collaborative effort of seven Yoga organisations (Art of Living, Ashtanga, Isha,
Iyengar, Sivananda, YANA and Yoga Bharati) under the auspices of the
Consul General of India. SYVC was acknowledged to be one of the
most serious and old Yoga organisations in the City, providing Yoga
service non-stop for 30 years.
Preparation was intense for the last month before the event, with
weekly meetings and conference calls increasing to every day meetings
in the final week. We had to apply the principles that Yoga stands for:
Unity in diversity; Adapt, Adjust, Accommodate. It was an opportunity
for all concerned to display tolerance, love and respect. From an event
planned for Golden Gate Park, we expanded to Marina Green Park,
a large windy field near the water with the Golden Gate Bridge in the
background to accommodate the anticipated 5,000 attendees. The final
count is unknown, but the organisers estimated it to be over 2,000
people, a large portion were members of the Yoga organisations. To that
effect, it was like preaching to the converted.
Swami Sitaramananda came to the event in a convoy of three vans
and two cars from the Yoga Farm with a total of 46 people, comprised
of ATTC students and ashram staff. Enthusiastic karma yogis from both
San Francisco and the Yoga Farm manned one of the entry booths,
wearing t-shirts specially designed for the occasion.
At exactly 10.30am, a giant LED screen broadcast the opening video
message from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A proclamation
from the mayor was read. The prescribed protocol was then led from
the stage. A sea of people followed along avidly. This was followed by
a tightly scheduled programme, including the lighting of a lamp by the
Finance Minister of India, Shri Arun Jaitley, who also said a few words.
So many Yoga groups demonstrated and practiced sun salutation
sequences that, miraculously, the sun was forced to come out from
behind the clouds and fog to the delight of all. Indeed, the coldest winter
I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco! (attributed to Mark Twain).
The Yoga Farm choreographed a beautiful performance of a
Sivananda Yoga class. On one side of the stage, the 12 basic postures
were demonstrated and on the other, variations of the basic poses.
Swami Sitaramananda talked about how, 20 years ago, there were only
three Yoga schools in San Francisco, compared to the proliferation of
Yoga studios today. She presented the classical approach to Hatha Yoga
the relationship between asanas and prana, prana to thought, positive
thoughts to meditation and meditation to self-realization. She finished
MahendraSingh.com
with a short, guided meditation. All this in the allotted 12 minutes!

At 2pm Grammy Nominee, Jai Uttal, engaged the crowd in Kirtan
to end the celebration.
Everyone felt the sacredness of this historical day, with Yoga being
publicly acknowledged as a healthy, helpful practice, capable of bringing
Peace and Health to the world.
By mid-afternoon, we returned to the new San Francisco Centre for
a more intimate programme for 60 attendees. The large Yoga Hall came
alive with the group of students from the Ashram and the students and
supporters of the Centre, so happy to have their own Sivananda Yoga
Centre again after eight months of absence from the SF Yoga scene.
(SYVC was located in a three-story Victorian building by Golden Gate
Park for 27 years until our recent relocation to a new building of our
own in a very good neighbourhood, one block from Stern Grove Park
and a five-minute drive to the Pacific Ocean.)
Swami Sitaramananda, who was the constant source of inspiration
bringing Master and Swamijis spirit to the California population and
the greater West coast side of the American continent, spoke at the
satsang. Komilla Sutton, a Vedic astrologer and longtime friend of the
organisation, talked about the greatness of Jupiter, the Guru. Gopi Kallayil,
originally from the small village hometown of Swami Vishnudevananda
in Kerala, talked of the growth of yoga classes at Google offices. He
was marveling that from this tiny village, almost out of time and space,
untouched by modern civilization and technology, came a giant of the
stature of Swami Vishnudevananda, who literally, even now, continues
to change the lives of so many. GS Sachdev and his wife, Saroj, were in
attendance, as were other people who knew Swamiji a long time Tara
Durga Devi and Chandra. Benoy Behl, a filmmaker from New Delhi, was
also there, very busy interviewing and capturing the event for his new
movie about Sivananda Yoga: Unity in Diversity.
In the Ashram in Grass Valley, International Yoga Day was celebrated
quietly with an Open House and free classes, while almost all staff and
students were in San Francisco.
May Yoga practitioners and leaders carry on lighting the flame
of love and light and make this world a better place where all
can blossom.
31
NASSAU, BAHAMAS
Sivananda Yoga Retreat
A beautiful, blue sky greeted us on June 21st in the Bahamas, after our meditation walk
before sunrise on the beach.
At the request of the High Commission of India, Kingston, Jamaica, Sivananda Ashram
Yoga Retreat Bahamas and the State Bank of India, Nassau partnered to host a special event
in honour of INTERNATIONAL DAY OF YOGA.
The days special activities began at 8am, with 2 hours of Surya Namaskar, led by our
priest, Krishna Namboodiri, who invoked continual chanting while doing the asanas.
Seventy five guests were greeted at the Nassau Dock by senior staff member, Pranava,
and then transported by boats to Paradise Island. The local guests were then escorted to the
main platform to join vacation guests, karma yogis and staff for the welcome by senior staff
member, Rukmini. A huge banner hung from the rafters denoting the historic day and we
listened to a few opening remarks by our partner and CEO of the State Bank of India, Puneet
Narain. A meaningful talk followed by Swami Brahmananda, Yoga and a Healthy Lifestyle,
with demonstrations by senior staff member, Krishna Das.
Childrens activities, snacks and a special childrens yoga class took place while the adults
were led in a traditional yoga class. Children and parents united for a vegetarian feast
prepared with love, by our wonderful chef, Ambika and her crew of karma yogis. After some
ice cream, tours were given, providing a glance into the history and future vision for the
Ashram. It was a great day of yoga and community spirit! Special thanks to Minakshi and
Mary for their organisation and production of the event.
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL

On June 21st we celebrated the first International Yoga Day with the great
Yogic community in Tel-Aviv. The event was sponsored and organised by the
Indian embassy and the Tel-Aviv municipality.
The Day started with three yoga classes from different schools and
styles. We conducted the third class which had the highest attendance
of over 100 people, and was directed by Shankara Chaitanya and assisted
by many of our teachers. The day continued with lectures on Ayurveda,
Classical Indian Dance & Singing concerts and an address by the Indian
32
ambassador to Israel. In the Centre many new and old time students
came to join the yoga classes freely offered, and also for the evening
satsang dedicated to the subject of Inspired Living through Yoga.
The energy was very uplifting all through the day, and we thank our
Masters for being great pioneers in starting this great movement of
disseminating the knowledge of yoga far and wide, a movement that
reached such global dimensions.
ROME, ITALY
We had a very successful yoga class in the park. Our purpose
to have a yoga class for all was achieved, as we had pregnant
women, seniors and many of our students came with friends and
family to share the yoga experience. Everyone enjoyed the class
and the atmosphere.
In the evening we held a satsang and finished with dinner
for everyone. We had many teachers and students who happily
participated in this special meeting. It was a very festive evening.
All our students, teachers and new comers were given a special
booklet.
The evening before the International Yoga Day, we had an
amazing concert with Oscar Bonelli. He performed spiritual
chanting and music from various traditions. Many new people
came and all participated wholeheartedly.
CHENNAI, INDIA
International Yoga Day Programme in Chennai

5.30am 8am: 108 Sun Salutations
The arrival of 12 visiting teachers and 60 guests was officially registered.
The session started with breathing practice (kapalabati and anuloma
viloma) led by Subbarao. At 6am the beginning of 108 rounds of Surya
Namaskar practice was announced. The Sun Salutation practice was
conducted by nine teachers (Subburao, Karthyayini, Prabutha, Rekha,
Usha, Saravanan, Rani, Honey Rani, Gopan) each leading 12 rounds
of surya namaskar. Between the practice refreshments and drinks were
provided to participants. After completion of 108 rounds guests were
served the traditional south Indian breakfast consisting of idli, pongal,
sambar and coconut chutney on the terrace with a beautiful sea view.
9am 11am: Yoga Class Beginners/ Intermediate
The yoga class started with a lecture led by Hariharan and assisted
by Honey Rani, Rani and Vaidyanathan about yoga, including an
explanation of the 5 points of Sivananda yoga and a demonstration
given of the basic asanas of the Sivananda sequence. After the lecture,
guests were asked to proceed to the Ganesha hall for an intermediate
yoga class or to Radha Krishna hall for the beginners class. The beginners
class was led by Hariharan and assisted by Honey Rani and attended
by 47 guests. The intermediate class was taught by Vaidyanathan and
assisted by Rani and Saravanan and attended by 29 guests. After the
yoga classes all the guests were offered refreshments with snacks and
informed about the upcoming programme of the day.
4pm 5.30pm: Open Yoga Class Beginners/Intermediate

The Open Beginners yoga class started with an introduction to Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Centre, yoga philosophy and demonstration of the basic
Sivananda yoga asana sequence led by Saravanan and assisted by Pradeep.
The total number of participants exceeded 70. The Open Intermediate
class was taught by Sivapad and the total number of registered guests
was 15.
6pm 7.30pm: Satsang/ Talk
The Satsang session started with a guided meditation by Sivapad, and
continued with daily chants. The session concluded with a talk by Wing
Commander E.A. Murthy who shared his personal experience of yoga
practice. The session was attended by more than 90 people and was
concluded with arathi. At the end of the programme traditional South
Indian food was served for the guests.
33
SOUTH AMERICA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia,
Chile, Colombia and Uruguay
Our Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia and Uruguay celebrated this World Yoga Day with great
enthusiasm.
Although the day was very wintery in the southern-most countries,
students, teachers and people eager to know the benefits of Yoga,
participated in different events organised by local Yoga Centres and the
Embassy of India.
Columbia
Montevideo, Uruguay
The Montevideo Centre celebrated with a full week of yoga classes,
meditation and special talks open for everybody. On Sunday we joined
the local celebration organised by the Indian Consulate. The programme
was at the Sheraton Hotel in a very pleasant neighbourhood of Montevideo
close to the seashore.
About 250 people participated. Kanti Devi had translated a book
on Swami Sivananda to offer free to all those taking part.
Teachers and close students of the Centres supported the activities
with their presence and gave active karma yoga during the week and
especially on Sunday, The International Day of Yoga.
This was a very positive opportunity for people from all over the world
to join together in Celebrating Yoga. Gratitude, humility and a great spirit
of sharing was very present and we are already getting ready for next year!
Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, Bolivia
Sao Paulo,
Brazil
Valparaiso, Chile
Buenos Aires, Argentina

We had a wonderful International Yoga Day celebration in Buenos Aires.
We held a schedule with open classes and meditations throughout the
week. The main celebration organised by the Indian Embassy in Buenos
Aires was shared with many Yoga Centres. We set up a stand where
participants could get information about all the Sivananda Yoga Centres
and Ashrams.
The Indian Ambassador lit a lamp at the opening ceremony to start
the event. This was followed by a video message from Indias Prime
Minister, Narendra Modi, which was projected onto a large screen. The
programmed activities then started and there was good attendance
throughout the event, which commenced at 11am and ended at 5pm.
There were two main venues: A big stage, from where yoga classes
were led, and an auditorium in which brief talks and videos about yoga,
were conducted. Swami Premananda taught part of a yoga class together
34
with two teachers from other Yoga Centres on the main stage. In the Auditorium Swami Dayananda gave a brief talk about Swami Vishnudevanandas
five points of yoga.
Kanti Devi sent from Uruguay the book, Yoga for the West, translated by
her and printed for this Yoga Day as a tribute to the Masters. The book was
given as a gift to attendees.
People enthusiastically participated in all the activities despite the cold
weather. The attendance at the celebrations throughout the day was about
1,500 people. 28 yoga teachers from the Buenos Aires Centre helped run
the event which concluded with the Indian Ambassador, government
authorities and representatives of the different Yoga Centres chanting
together the Saha Navavatu Mantra.
We ended the day with our usual Sunday Satsang in the Centre thanking
our Masters for their knowledge and guidance in this wonderful path of yoga.
NEW DELHI, INDIA

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Nataraja Centre
Raising Yoga Awareness in and around Delhi

with the First World Yoga Day
An invigorating early morning breeze and cloudy skies together with
a lush green neighbourhood park in south Delhi, became the canvas for
staging the first International Day of Yoga celebrations, on the 21st of
June 2015, by the Sivananda Nataraja Vedanta Centre of New Delhi.
More than 40 of the Centres enthusiastic teachers, staff members and
volunteers gathered at the crack of dawn at a local park to organise
and prepare for the event ahead.
Separate sections within the park had previously been designated
as possible settings for the various Yoga classes and these were duly
earmarked before the entry of the participants. Thus dedicated areas
were allocated for three Open Classes, three Beginners Classes, one
Senior Citizens Class and one Surya Namaskar Class. Over 120 eager
participants of all ages joined in the event and sought introduction
to Sivananda Yoga. Each participant was given a specially designed
Sivananda Yoga booklet along with a Yoga Day commemorative T-shirt.
Karma Yogis, donors and volunteers had made ample arrangements for
water and fruit to be available for all participants at the venue.
After over 50 years of promoting Yoga in the West and helping
to rekindle the interest in Yoga in India, the International Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Centres were honoured to collaborate with the Indian
Government to take this promotion to the next step with the first
UN sponsored International Yoga Day.
Almost a couple of months before the Yoga Day, the Nataraja
Centre began concerted efforts in reaching out to larger segments
of society both within the Delhi National Capital Region as well as in

other parts of Northern India. The latter was evident in dedicated Yoga
training camps for employees of public sector enterprises in Delhi,
Jammu City (in J & K State) and Chamba (in Uttarakhand State).
Moreover, increased awareness of Yoga with Children was seen in the
well attended Annual Kids Camp conducted in the Centre during June
2015. The higher level of participation this year by children was a gratifying
sign of steps taken in a positive direction.
Dissemination of information and knowledge of our ancient Yoga
practices and the messages of our Masters was made possible through
a series of media interviews, both in print and on television as a run up
to the Yoga Day event and thereafter. Specifically, some television news
reports and documentaries, included interviews with senior teachers at
the Delhi Sivananda Nataraja Vedanta Centre. Some of the TV channels
even filmed extensively at the centre showcasing Yoga open classes in
progress. The reports and documentaries were aired by both global and
national TV channels including Discovery, BBC, NDTV, CNN IBN and
Al Jazeera. The latter actually filmed the live Yoga demonstrations by
Sivananda Centre teachers at the Park on International Yoga Day, which
was later broadcast.
The Centres teachers and staff members proactively participated
in the flagship events and programmes conducted by the government
and several leading organisations before and on 21st June 2015. At these
events the Centres staff and teachers had an opportunity to interact
with other Yoga practitioners and schools of Yoga and share the teachings
of our Masters Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda.
MUNICH, GERMANY
The Centres annual yoga and music festival was well attended with asana workshops, lectures and teachings from the yoga scriptures together with
Indian music. A highlight were two lectures by Swami Durgananda on Necessity of Spiritual Practice. The festival ended on the International Day
of Yoga with a special programme Health is Wealth, Peace of Mind is Happiness which also involved the nearby Technical University .
35
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
Initiated by the Indian Embassy and supported by the leading local yoga schools, about 300
participants came to a morning programme in a park in central Vienna. After a brief address
by the Ambassador of India, there were two sessions of asanas, pranayama and a short
meditation. The Vienna Centre was present with 30 inspired students, karma yogis and
teachers who shared both the yoga practice and enthusiastic conversations. The Sivananda
International Yoga Day Magazine was also shared with a multi-national crowd from different
yoga schools. In the afternoon the Centre offered an open house with new and young
participants including a cooking workshop, asana demonstration and a free trial class.
A special guest was the Indian Chief of Mission who participated in the introduction
to meditation. The day ended with a peaceful satsang and a lecture inspired by Swami
Durganandas words in honour of India as the Motherland of Yoga.
UTTARKASHI, HIMALAYAS
Sivananda Kutir
In the morning, on the invitation of the Principal, DIG Sri J P Yadavji, we visited the Indo
Tibetan Border Police Training Facility at Mandanda near Uttarkashi. He graciously welcomed
the teachers, staff and students of our Ashram. Thereafter, we conducted a Yoga Class for
approximately 300 Jawans and officers of ITBP.
The programme was conducted as per the protocol sent by the Government for the event.
All our students, staff and teachers participated in conducting and assisting the class and on
its completion, the Principal thanked us for visiting the camp and successfully conducting the
Yoga programme. He also invited us to his residence to receive some refreshments. In the
evening, we visited the Tapovan Kutir Ashram in Uttarkashi. The Yoga community at Uttarkashi
had organised a demonstration, talk and video show for local people.
Three of our students also demonstrated Asanas to the attending Swamis, yogis and
public. After a video show on Indias great yogis and some light refreshments, we returned
to the Ashram.
36
KERALA, INDIA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, Trivandrum
and Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Neyyar Dam
The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, Trivandrum and the Sivananda

Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Neyyar Dam hosted a series of
events in the lead-up to International Yoga Day. The aim of these events
was to create awareness of yoga and the teachings of our gurus and
our efforts appear to have successful. We received a lot of attention
from both local and national media as well as members of the community
and are thrilled to have received so many invitations from such a wide
variety of groups. Some of the highlights during the last few weeks
have included:
Mathrubhumi (local TV show); a discussion on yoga and the
relevance of Surya Namaskar
A.I.R. (All India Radio); 90 minute yoga demonstration and discussion
at Vylopilly Hall, Trivandrum which was broadcast live over the radio
India Today, CNBC, CNN, BBC, The Hindu, Doordarshan (local
TV station); coverage included photo shoots, interviews and filming
of asana classes and ashram life
The International Day of Yoga events began early and were spread
out over various locations. At the Ashram in Neyyar Dam we had our
regular Sunday morning silent walk and held morning classes. After
brunch, all the staff and guests boarded a bus to the Trivandrum Centre
to participate in the events being held there.
Our programme at the Trivandrum Centre began at 5am with
a Ganapathy Homa and Sivananda chants. This was followed by more
chanting with Saundarya Lahari of Adi Shankara by Sri. Kailasji & group.
Several talks were given throughout the day including: Healthy Living
by Dr. Gopinathan Pillai; Life Style Disease Management by Dr. Trishna;
Yoga and Healthy Diet by Dr. Leena; and Yoga Sastra: Bhagavad Gita in
Daily Life by Dr. K.U. Devadas. We also held a Quiz Competition on Yoga
prepared by Sri Praveen Das.
A variety of yoga classes and a kriya workshop were held at the
Trivandrum Centre throughout the day. We also conducted several
classes outside the Centre including:
Kerala State Police, Chandrashekaran Nair Stadium, yoga demonstration for over 350 police officers, presided over by the Director
General of Police
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO Inertial Systems Unit, State Bank
of India, and NSS School: classes were held for employees and students.
A delicious lunch was served in the afternoon and the Centre was
positively buzzing with activity. Over 350 people attended the days
events and each participant received a copy of the Sivananda
International Yoga Day magazine along with a certificate of attendance.
We completed the days events with satsang and a special Cultural
Programme classical bhajans sung by Vital Vinod. After arati and
prasad an evening meal was served and then the Neyyar Dam group
boarded the bus and headed back to the Ashram. Thank you to all the
volunteers, students and the more than 50 staff from both the
Trivandrum Centre and the Neyyar Dam Ashram for their attendance,
participation and lively spirit.
The events of the past few weeks have created a lot of positive
energy and enthusiasm among our community. It is our hope that we
can continue to spread the knowledge of yoga and the teachings of
our gurus to those around us, and in doing so achieve the vision of a
world living in peace. Lets keep the momentum going until next year!
TOKYO, JAPAN
The Tokyo Centre celebrated International Day of Yoga with Swami Dharmananda from the Yoga Farm who was visiting us for 2 weeks in June. We had
a full schedule of free classes as well as a tea and snacksmid-day open house with students asking many questions about Yoga life and practice.
Swami Dharmananda led the evening satsang speaking about the International Day of Yoga, the lives of Master and Swamiji and Swamjis mission
to the West and the foundation of his teaching, the Five Points of Yoga. It was a wonderful day at the Centre, full of energy and inspiring for all.
37
BERLIN, GERMANY
The Centre prepared in the morning for this special day. Decorations were put up and several delicious snacks were prepared with the help of dedicated
Karma Yogis. We received the students at 2pm for a little peace session in our garden, where we released balloons carrying peace messages.
Everybody wrote mantras on a little postcard which was then attached to a balloon. Once out in the garden we chanted Om Namo Narayanaya and
sent off the balloons full of peace mantras and good wishes for humanity. This was followed by a slide show on Swami Vishnudevanandas peace
missions. Three parallel asana classes for beginners, intermediate and advanced students were all well visited. Snacks were served after the class and
the day concluded with more mantra chanting of Om Namo Narayanaya followed by a powerful Satsang. The booklet printed for the event was well
accepted by all students, everybody left the Centre inspired, thankful and happy.
CHENGDU, CHINA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in India
The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in India were honoured to participate in the First India-China (Chengdu) International Yoga Festival organised
by the Consulate General of India, Guangzhou, with support from the Chinese local government. The five day event culminated on 21st June, the
International Day of Yoga. Nineteen yoga teachers from India were present, including some from the Ashtanga (Mysore style), Kaivalyadham,
Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Isha Hatha Yoga and India Yoga institutions.
Apart from educating the public about the benefits of Yoga, the festival was intended to emphasize the central place of India in the history of Yoga
as suggested by the festival motto Taking Yoga back to its roots. During the opening ceremony, H.E. Ashok K. Kantha, the Ambassador of India to
China referred to the large and growing popularity of Yoga in China and how it resonated with Chinas own traditions like Tai Chi. He hoped that the
practice of Yoga would help to build friendly ties between India and China.
The SYVC programme included daily talks on the 5 Points of Yoga followed by a basic class. Additionally the event included panel discussions, press
interviews and promotional demonstrations such as yoga and Tai Chi and Panda yoga! The SYVC team consisted of Nataraj, Kalyani and Anisha as well
as three Chinese TTC graduates: Sivani, Vidyadevi and Jyothi. Sivani provided simultaneous Chinese translation. Due to popular interest we even held
two bhajan sessions with the students. The participants were very encouraged by the news of the forthcoming September TTC in Dujiangyan and the
October opening of the new SYVC Centre in Chengdu.
38
SIVANANDA YOGA VEDANTA CENTRES CHARITABLE WORKS
International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres
Helping the Community Through
Charitable Works
Providing free Ayurvedic Medical Camps at Sivananda Dhanwantari Ashram, Neyyar Dam and free medical help and assistance
at our Madurai Ashram
40
SIVANANDA YOGA VEDANTA CENTRES CHARITABLE WORKS

Free Monthly Ayurvedic Medical Camp
at Neyyar Dam Ashram, Kerala, India
Our in-house Ayurvedic Doctor P. R. Vishnu, along with another

6 10 well known Ayurvedic doctors, treat 1,100 1,500 patients
a month at our medical camp. Diagnostic consultations and
treatment methods are prescribed to the patients along with
free medication for up to one month. Patients are also served
free food, courtesy of the Ashram, on the day of their visit.
People come from Kerala and other states to take advantage
of this charitable venture run at the Sivananda Institute of Health,
which was founded by Swami Vishnudevananda at the Neyyar
Dam Ashram. This initiative costs approximately 10K US dollars
a month and is completely funded by the income generated
through our Yoga Vacation and Teachers Training Courses.
Free Medical Camps at our Ashram

in Uttarkashi, Himalayas
Since1998 we have been conducting a free weekly medical
camp at our Sivananda Kutir, Netala, Uttarkashi. A local doctor,
Dr. Chandok, provides consultations and free medicines every
Sunday for the nearby villagers.
Support and Yoga Teachings

in Chiang Rai, Thailand
Employment for Ashram Area Residents
Childrens Yoga Camp in Chiang Rai area, Northern Thailand

A few of the many houses donated to the locally employed
Ashram Staff over the last few years
The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams employ as

many as 100 residents of the impoverished area at their Ashrams
and Centres in India. Over the years, we have built houses for these
employees and help fund repairs and maintenance of the existing
homes. We also help them by providing monthly medical allowances
and financial help for their children to receive an education.
Rural Medical/Mobile Hospitals initiative

in Madurai, Tamil Nadu
Our Madurai ashram has
teamed up with a local
medical doctor and our Trustee
Dr. V. Narayanasamy, who is
the owner of three very large,
established hospitals in Madurai.
He was instrumental in finding
the land and helping us to
open the Madurai Ashram. For
the past two years, we have
been providing free medical assistance for the needy with the
help of two nurses as well as an ambulance for emergency
calls. We are presently working to establish rural hospitals and
mobile hospitals with qualified doctors and nurses to provide
medical help for the Madurai area villagers.
For the past few years Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres

International have teamed up with Khun Da, owner of Phu Chai
Sai Mountain Resort (in Chiang Rai area, Northern Thailand) to
support the local hill tribes community. This is an impoverished
area of Thailand where there are many challenges, including
lack of health care, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, difficult
school access and almost no employment opportunities. Khun
Da provides health care, education, and exclusively trains and
employs members of the tribes. Support and employment at the
resort is the only chance of survival for most of the families.
Saraswati has been guiding local hill tribe children and
teenagers in learning Swamijis teachings, and has conducted
several successful Childrens Yoga Camps in Thailand. She is
slowly introducing the most unfortunate children of the tribes
who come from very difficult family backgrounds, to understand
and embrace the values yoga and meditation offer. Several
teenagers are currently expressing a strong interest in taking
the Teachers Training Course.
Can You Help?

We are looking for private individual and/or
corporate donors to help each month so that the
ashram funds can be used to make even more
initiatives of this type a reality around the world.
For further information email: [email protected]
41
SPECIAL REPORT: STAFF REFRESHER, 2015
Staff Refresher, 2015

By Swami Gokulananda
The Idea the objective
Some years ago the TTC Refresher appeared on the Sivananda
scene: A one week course to inspire teachers to deepen their
practice and fine tune their teaching skills. Every year it was
a big success, teachers enjoyed the week and came back
inspired. What seems to be as important as improving teaching
skills is the feeling of unity. As many teachers live far from
a Sivananda Yoga centre there is a deep need to reconnect,
to do Sadhana together, and to refresh and get new inspiration.
Why not do the same thing for the Swamis and staff? Their
needs seem to be not so different from the teachers and
students. The Staff Refresher was born.
The vision
Three weeks, 17th April to 7th May 2015, Sivananda Ashram in
Orleans. All Swamis, Brahmacharis, and main staff were invited
to participate in collective Sadhana, to deepen the teaching skills,
go one step further in managing Centres and Ashrams, and last
but not least: rest, relax, recharge, reconnect and refresh.
Preparation
When I first heard about it, I was enthusiastic and a bit skeptical
at the same time. How would we organise the Centres with all
their duties? How would we find people to help? Were we to
leave the Centres in Gods hands? It seemed to be a big challenge.
Finally, however, everything came together as if it was Gods will:
the response from teachers and students was very positive and
many people offered help. Some centres were cared for by
teachers, some had younger staff staying behind to take on the
challenge of running the Centres, tackling new tasks, and
experiencing more responsibility. Teaching plans were adapted,
tasks handed over, staff and karma yogis trained on accounts,
teaching plans, boutique organisation, and other tasks they had
never done before. The remaining staff were as excited as the
departing staff and, by the grace of the masters, we all could
make our way to Orleans.
Arrival
Our meeting point was the Sivananda Yoga Centre in Paris.
It was a joyful atmosphere with people arriving one after
another throughout the day, and the Centre became more and
more orange and yellow! Many of us had not met for quite
a while and we were happy to see each other again. By the
evening, everybody had arrived and we travelled together
to the Sivananda Ashram in Orleans on an organised bus. The
bus ride seemed to include a tour through Paris, we saw the
Eiffel Tower and many other sights in the sunset and despite
many traffic jams and several hours on the road, we finally
reached Neuville aux Bois. Once in the Ashram, we had a warm
42
welcome with dinner and hot showers. I could hardly believe

that we had all made it.
How to refresh?
The first day was smooth. The schedule was set: Karma Yoga
was distributed; time for Sadhana, lectures, and workshops was
defined. An exciting, and packed, schedule included Vedanta,
social media, anatomy, and asana correction. The next morning
we started with a Homa in the temple with the two priests,
who were with us during these three weeks. The weather was
splendid and the mood was very good. It still seemed a bit like
a dream come true. It felt like coming home.
It was beautiful to witness the depth

of teaching experience present, and see
how powerful it was to bring all this
knowledge together
Trainings and activities were manifold
The day started with morning Satsang. We took turns to lead the
Satsang with a short reading from the book Sadhana by Swami
Sivananda. This was followed, between 8am and 10am, by
Asana correction workshops. The objective was to look into the
12 basic postures and the sun salutation, and see how Swami
Vishnudevananda would teach these postures. It was beautiful
to witness the depth of teaching experience present, and see
how powerful it was to bring all this knowledge together. It felt
good to have time to look into details, ask questions, and clear
doubts. Pictures and notes were taken to put all the information
together as a future guideline for teaching.
The main lecture was at lunchtime. There were several
topics, each lasting 3 or 4 sessions. One of the first topics was
social media. How do we use all these new media Facebook,
twitter, you tube, skype, slack, and many more in an
intelligent and sattvic way and not get distracted by them?
Are printed brochures still needed or is the modern way of
communication only virtual? How do we communicate better
with each other, and how do we share ideas, pictures, and
documents? How do we work in teams while in different
locations? How do we put into practice Unity in Diversity in
terms of the corporate identity of the Sivananda Organisation?
Swami Durganandas lectures brought us back to the
spiritual dimension of doing all this: not to get lost in the
hyperactivity of social media, running Centres, teaching and
taking care of students. Not to burn out but to be intelligent
with self-management, keep up the Sadhana, practice what
we teach Asanas, Japa, Mouna, Svadhyaya and be creative
with the yogic teaching. Never forget the goal, why you joined
the Sivananda organisation. Swamijis inspiring stories from the
STAFF REFRESHER, 2015: SPECIAL REPORT
43
SPECIAL REPORT: STAFF REFRESHER, 2015

pioneering times of the Sivananda Yoga Centres in Europe in the
seventies made it clear that it was not easier at that time than
nowadays. Most importantly, never lose the connection to the
energy of the masters by doing your own Sadhana, to counteract
negative emotions, keep connected with each other, give help
to staff in distress, and remember how to recharge. It seemed
all so simple and evident. However, back to everyday life in the
Centres, far from the Ashram, the challenge is to not get lost
in emotions and everyday tasks, to keep up the connection and
practice, and remember everything from the Refresher week.
Three full days were spent with Anne Debreilly, an anatomy
specialist and student of Blandine Calais Germain, a wellknown Anatomy teacher in France. Anne shared with us her
immense knowledge about the spine. She brought with her
several skeletons of the spinal column, a bag full of vertebras,
herniated discs in plastic and many handouts to get us deep
inside the design and operation of the spinal column.
Theoretical lectures, group work, and hands on workshops
gave us a deeper insight into the function of the human body.
We could connect this newly gained knowledge to our morning
Asana correction workshops and it was beautiful to see how
it all came together. I got a slight glimpse of how deep the
quote from Swami Vishnudevananda Nobody knows the
power of Asanas really goes.
The Vedanta lectures were mostly held in the evening
Satsangs. They started with Viveka Chudamani with Swami
Kashimuktananda for about ten days. We studied the five
Koshas in much detail to renounce them all in the end by the
practice of Neti Neti. Many cross connections were made to
other scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads
and it was obvious to see that the same truth is explained
in different ways in the various scriptures. The translation and
explanation of the Sanskrit terms was helpful to understand
the full meaning of several philosophical concepts. People
with analytical minds love Vedanta, everything is logical and
it sharpens the mind to reflect upon the different concepts. But
nevertheless the only way out of ignorance is knowledge from
within. The challenge is to focus on Sadhana and Karma Yoga
to clean the mind and prepare it for the knowledge of the
Absolute to dawn. How deep Swami Sivanandas simple
approach of integral yoga is!
In the second part of the Vedanta course, the philosophy
lectures in the evening Satsangs were held by Deera Chaitanya,
a student of one of Swami Sivanandas disciples, from India
and now living in the United States. He started his lectures on
the Bhagavad Gita but covered much more than that. It was an
overall teaching about the key aspects of yoga philosophy and
the four Yoga paths. It was very beautiful to have Vedanta
lectures taught by a person of Indian origin and to see the
different approach to yogic concepts. The word God, often
problematic with western minds, is so natural in the Asian
context. Even when talking about Vedanta the Bhakti aspect
is always there in a very natural way.
Common collective asana practice was also part of the
programme. Our Asana class was in the afternoon at 4pm and
we took turns in teaching. It was nice to take classes together,
it was inspiring to see how much we enjoy to take classes, something which Swamis very often dont do due to lack of time.
Especially not at 4pm. Sometimes I felt like I was back in TTC!
44
More highlights
Sudha, a staff member from the Paris Centre, became Sudha
Chaitanya. In a beautiful Homa led by the two priests, she
committed to the path of renunciation. It is beautiful to see
that the Sannyas tradition is kept alive and is something
beyond time and space.
Every evening, the priest, Yagneshwara, tried his best to
teach a small but inspired group how to chant the Narayana
Suktam and the Devi Suktam, the classical mantras which are
chanted during the pujas. It was done in the classical way,
repeating word by word and line by line for many days. It was
not easy and it became again very obvious to me that studying
yogic knowledge needs time, endurance and patience. It never
goes fast, but it goes deep.
Charles Poncet, a long time disciple from Geneva, gave a joyful
and informative take on the topic How to deal with Lawyers;
and Ram, Director from the affiliated Centre in Hamburg, talked
about Art and the power of images and pictures, encouraging
us to be more creative in the design of posters and flyers.
Ragunath Manet, a veena player, and Bharata Natyam, a dancer,
came from Paris for two days to introduce us to Indian classical
music and dance. The veena concert was beautiful and relaxing.
Despite two weeks of rain we also had some sports activities.
We played some basketball, and the Volleyball net was put up
but rain washed away our hope to be able to play. We will try
again next year!
Teaching happens when you do not expect

It was a blessing to be with the European Acharyas for three
weeks. The true meaning of Gurukula became very obvious.
To live together, to share experiences, and to spend time
together opens up the possibility of teaching beyond classrooms,
spontaneously and unexpectedly. This is the beauty of the
Sivananda Organisation learning, getting inspired, and understanding happens anytime and anywhere.
For Yogis there is no one to thank is a quote from one
of Swami Vishnudevanandas lectures. But it is human to be
thankful, and we are. To the Acharyas for making this happen,
to the Ashram Staff for hosting us, and to the Ashram kitchen
team for feeding us. By the grace of the masters all went well
at home in the different centres, we had another warm welcome
on our return home, and now it is up to us all individually to put
into practice the knowledge and inspiration we gained. I hope
and pray we do.
The date for the next staff refresher is already fixed! n
Swami Gokulananda is the director of the Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Centre in Berlin. email: [email protected]
Ashram de Yoga
Sivananda Loire Valley, France
Swami Sivananda
(18871963)
Swami Vishnudevananda
(19271993)
Yoga Vacations and Teachers Training in France 2016

Teachers Training Course:
May 18 June 15, (in French)
July 1 July 29, (in English, French,
Spanish and Dutch)
July 31 August 28, (in French)

November 22 December 20, (in French)
Advanced Teachers Training Course:

July 1 July 29 (in French, English, Spanish)
Sadhana Intensive:
August 13 27 (French, English, Spanish, German)
Certificate Courses 2015
Yoga
Accessible Yoga with Jivana Heyman
Vacations
The Yoga of Sleep with Dr. Rubin Naiman
allforYear
Yoga and meditation
anxiety
and trauma with Molly
Birkholm
Round
Special Christmas
and New Year Programme
December 23, 2015 January 1, 2016
Further Training Courses for

Sivananda Yoga Teachers
The Meditation Experience

with Swami Kailasananda
TTC Refresher Course: June 22 28

How to teach meditation and mantra chanting
How to teach yoga to children
Healthy cooking and healthy living
with Ayurveda with Swami Bhagavatananda How to teach yoga to seniors
How Yoga works with Dr. Cordula Interthal Yoga and pregnancy
Precision in the Asanas
Ashram de Yoga Sivananda

26 impasse du Bignon, 45170 Neuville aux bois, France Tel: +33 (0)2 38 91 88 82
Email: [email protected] www.sivananda.org/orleans www.sivananda.eu
ASHRAM DE YOGA SIVANANDA, FRANCE
The Joy
of Watching
an Ashram
Grow
By Swami Bhagavatananda
Anyone who ever had the blessing of taking care of a child knows the pure joy and soul-deep
satisfaction felt when the beautiful but helpless little baby grows gradually into a strong, healthy
and happy being through the love and care poured into it.
s it turns out, it is similarly rewarding watching an

Ashram one of Swami Vishnudevanandas beloved
mind babies being born and grow from baby steps
into a solid shelter and support for many spiritual seekers through
the love and blessings of Swamiji, supported by the inspired service
of many helpers who serve as instruments to make it happen.
We have the blessing to see it unfolding in the Ashram de
Yoga Sivananda in Orleans, France. Inaugurated in 2003, the
Ashram started as a charming park with lovely old trees and some,
well, not so lovely old buildings. Mind you, we insist on calling it a
quaint chteau and resent any statement referring to its early days
as a heap of crumbling walls!
Since then, under the able guidance of Swami Durgananda
and Swami Kailasananda, so many things have improved. Buildings
have been renovated and enlarged, new additions and facilities
have been added. The grounds have been cleared and part of it
transformed into a colourful flower and vegetable garden, enthusiastically guarded (with doubtful success) against the multitudes
of rabbits who vastly outnumber the human Ashram inmates.
Through the Masters blessings, more and more souls get
inspired each year to spend time at the Ashram, with a peak last
46
summer that stretched the Ashram beyond its capacity for three
whole months. Because, even if the Ashram has left its baby
steps behind, it is still far from being fully fledged, and neither
accommodation nor indoor teaching spaces are sufficient.
Now, what do you do when there are more people wanting to
live the yogic life than can be accommodated? Following good old
yogic tradition we coped as best as we could, according to Swami
Sivanandas teaching to adapt, adjust and accommodate. In the
rooms, beds were added wherever beds could be squeezed in; in
the campsite, tents were added wherever tents could be squeezed
in; and beds were added to tents wherever they could be squeezed in!
Chief strategy of our logistics during the main season is praying
for decent weather to use outdoor teaching spaces. Whenever the
universe fails to cooperate, Asana classes follow Swamijis principle
of bumper to bumper.
Since the kitchen was feeding a number of people double the
amount of its originally planned capacity, we upgraded our appliances,
growing them both in size and technology, and transformed the
kitchen storage into an improvised cold room with the help
of a portable Aircon.
ASHRAM DE YOGA SIVANANDA, FRANCE
How can we improve for the future?

Our plan is to focus on three main projects:
1. The construction of a new building which will include two large
teaching rooms, eleven en suite single rooms, and dormitory spaces.
2. Building a real home for the Ashram temple. Although the temple is
strong with beautiful Murtis and well taken care of year-round by south
Indian priests, it is housed in a tent structure and gets very cold and
drafty during the winter months. In addition to giving it sound walls we
also want to enlarge the temple, adding a temple kitchen, a flower room
and bathroom facilities for priests and visitors
3. Building an all-year-round dining hall. Like the temple it is currently
a tent structure and therefore not very comfortable on rainy or cool days
even in the summer season; and in winter the food has to be carried across
the Ashram to an Asana hall.
An Ashram belongs to the seekers who come to it to experience the yogic
life-style and take refuge from the harshness of the world. Our vision is to
turn the Ashram into a haven of beauty and peace (which it is in many ways
already) to inspire all who come to return home with fresh energy and
determination to live a yogic, peaceful and contented life.
We invite you to join us in the effort to turn these projects into reality.
If you would like to contribute in any way, by giving your time or by
sending a financial contribution, this would be greatly appreciated.
We thank you very much for your generosity and for taking part in the
peace mission of Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda.
Swami Bhagavatananda is the co-director of the Ashram

de Yoga Sivananda in France. email: [email protected]
47
LET MY LIFE BE A PRAYER
A Funny
Thing
Happened
to me on the
Way Home
From the
Yoga Class
By Ken Whiteley
Call nothing your own. Even this body is not yours.
Rejoice in the soul or Atman within.
Swami Sivananda
Little did I realise how I would come to directly experience this quote!
n Friday, Sept. 9, 2011 I had just taught the

morning asana class at the Sivananda Yoga
Vedanta Centre on Harbord St. in Toronto. The
previous June I had finally completed my yoga
Teacher Training after twenty years of involvement with the
Sivananda Yoga organisation and I had been feeling great.
I rode my bicycle home and then I had to move a bunch
of heavy sound baffles to prepare my space for a rehearsal.
In two days I was to close the Sudbury Jazz Festival (about
4 hours N.W. of Toronto) with an 8 person gospel concert.
After the rehearsal, I had to gather up all my instruments
because I was performing two concert sets that evening for
the Vegetarian Food Fair in Toronto. I started to feel unnaturally
tired. By the time I had finished the first set at the Food Fair
I was exhausted, but I made it through, packed up and went
home for an early bedtime. I wasnt just tired something
definitely didnt feel right, but it wasnt like an infection or cold.
In the middle of the night I started coughing up some
blood, so first thing in the morning I called 911 and went
48
by ambulance to the emergency department. When I got there,

they X-rayed my lungs which showed that fluid was beginning
to build up in them. The doctor told me that I would not be
going to Sudbury on Sunday, so I spent the next few hours
arranging with all my musicians, singers and the organisers
of the event so the show could go on without me. That evening
I moved upstairs to a ward of the hospital.
By three in the morning I was really starting to feel terrible.
I walked down to the nurses station and told them. Little did
I know that would be the last time I would walk unassisted for
almost 30 days. By five in the morning I was hooked up to
a bunch of machines monitoring my body and surrounded by
people. They said, Were taking you to intensive care, right now!.
What happened next becomes somewhat blurry for me.
I have many vivid memories of that next 11 days, but what
I was experiencing and the objective reality around me were
not always the same thing. I remember telling a doctor who
was telling me they were going to intubate me to please be
very careful as I was a singer and I still wanted to be able to
LET MY LIFE BE A PRAYER

sing. I remember feeling like one of the nurses had weighed
me down, when in fact they had strapped my arms so that
I wouldnt disturb the intravenous system they had set up.
I could hear my wifes voice, but I wasnt able to communicate
out loud to tell her I wanted to be released. I could hear a good
friend of mine singing to me (he was in the room singing) and
I wondered why he was singing one of my songs on the radio.
Other experiences I definitely perceived as out of body
Ken giving a concert at Sivananda

Ashram, Val Morin, Canada
Throughout this whole experience

I actually felt incredibly lucky. I had
the immediate love of my family and
the support of many friends. I had
had a life saving medical intervention
and not died. The gurus had been
present with me throughout. I felt that
Gods grace never left me.
experiences. I experienced going to a small African Canadian
church in Nova Scotia where there was to be a rehearsal for my
funeral. The next year when I was on tour there, I tracked down
the church. Although Id never seen it before, the setting was
just like my hospital experience: a small bay, a lone pine tree, a
gravel road and on the other side, a small white church. Inside,
the church in Birchtown, N.S. was much smaller than what I
remembered, but I felt it was the same place. Perhaps even
more striking was that I felt the hospital had been visited by
Swami Vishnu and he had conferred on it a status in his True
World Order. My perception of the space kept changing, but
throughout I could see the large pictures of Swami Sivananda
on one side and Swami Vishnudevananda on the other and
in between them some swirling colour that was sometimes
a dancing Siva and other times a beneficent Saraswati.
After nine days in the hospital a new doctor became in
charge of my case. I was on life support and getting worse.
Fortunately she ordered new tests and they revealed that I had
a torn mitral valve in my heart. I was wheeled underground
across the street to the hospital where they did open heart
surgery and on Sept. 22 they operated and were actually able
to repair the torn flap in my heart. (On another bright note,
while I was opened up they were able to see that my arteries
were very clear, with no sign of plaque another testament
to my years of vegetarianism and daily yoga practice.)
Finally four days after my surgery I knew where I was.
I could barely move by myself, I had tubes all over me and the
only sadhana I could do was to rest in dharma, trusting in
the universe. It felt to me that it had been much longer than
two and a half weeks since I had first entered the hospital.
Somehow though, throughout the whole time there, I felt
incredibly supported. Family and friends had been right there
the whole time. There were many communities praying for me.
Almost all of the hospital staff were great. The hospital physiotherapist began working with me. I told her I was a yoga teacher
as well as a musician. As she later said to me, The idea isnt
just to be able to function when you get out of here, but to be
at least as good as before you came in.
It wasnt until I got out of intensive care and moved up to
the regular cardiac ward that I realised in what bad shape I really
was. I still had a feeding tube through my nose and I had
become concerned about my steady diet of genetically modified
soy with vitamins as my only source of nutrition. However when
I asked for a pencil and paper to write a note to the hospital
dietician, I found I couldnt even write. I had been asking for
several days for someone to bring in my smallest guitar and
when they did I found out that I couldnt even hold it!
But now I had the actual picture of the gurus in front of my
bed as well as a healing Buddha my brother had brought in and
an image of the Last Supper. Although I still couldnt walk, I was
now able to prop myself up in the hospital bed. I began getting
up at 6am and doing my meditation. I couldnt do asanas, but
I could still practice bhakti and I began chanting and singing
spiritual songs after my meditation. Between 6.30am and
7.30am all the nurses were on a shift change so I was undisturbed.
I was diligent with my exercises and the physiotherapist
worked with me every day. I regained a lot of the movement
of my arm, I was relearning to walk and before I could go home
I had to accomplish going up and down stairs. Finally after forty
days in the hospital I was sent home.
It felt so good to be where it was quiet and where I could
eat organic food again. I had cancelled all my work for the rest
of the year so I was able to focus on healing. A great physiotherapist came to the house and he knew that my goal was to
be able to do the sun salutations and stand on my head again.
Shortly after Christmas I accomplished that goal. I made my
first singing appearance at the Toronto Centre for the annual
Christmas party. When I finally got in to see the cardiologist
he said to me, You are, in three and a half months, where
Id expect someone to be in six months to a year.
Throughout this whole experience I actually felt incredibly
lucky. I had the immediate love of my family and the support
of many friends. I had had a life saving medical intervention and
not died. The gurus had been present with me throughout. I felt
that Gods grace never left me. The one time I actually cried tears
was near the end of my hospital stay and I could finally play my
guitar again. I was singing a song that I had written a number
of years earlier and suddenly the words were much more profound
to me:
Our time upon this planet is surely but a span,

And things are bound to happen which we cannot understand.
So in both joy and sorrow, I take Your outstretched hand,
And let my life be prayer
49
50
OM NAMO NARAYANAYA MANTRA BANK
Going up to Vishnu Peak

Om Namo Narayanaya
By Swami Shivabhaktananda
In a natural rock cave, on the summit of Vishnu Peak in the Himalayas, is the Om Namo Narayanaya Mantra Bank,
a repository for thousands of sheets of Om Namo Narayanaya mantras written by peace-loving devotees from
around the world. It was established by Swami Vishnudevananda in 1987 as part of his ongoing mission for World
Peace. A large crystal stored with the mantras transmits this powerful peace thought-energy like radio waves
throughout the world. In May 2015, an expedition set out from Gangotri to make a new bank deposit.
ur expedition party consisted of: Ivan,
Ishwara, Swami Shivabhaktananda,
Vyasa, Vinod, Krishna, and Prema,
accompanied by a guide, and two
porters to carry the mantras. The
expedition to ascend Vishnu Peak
proved to be intense and much harder than any
of us imagined.
Early in the morning, we set off towards the
peak; the beginning of the trail was pleasant,
meandering through forest. However, that did not
last for long, and soon we were faced with what
was really ahead of us climbing! It soon became
apparent that the journey was not going to be
suitable for Vyasa, and we encouraged him not to
pursue going forward as things were getting harder
by the minute. He acknowledged our concerns
and carefully made his way back. Those of us who
remained then continued on our way up, crossing
small glaciers, forests, and thick shrubs.
After five hours of climbing, we could finally
see the Vishnu Peak more clearly ahead and
above us. At this point we decided to leave all of
our things behind and tackle the last part of our
journey carrying as little as possible to speed up
a bit time was pressing, especially as we knew
the way down would not be easy either. Prema
and Vinod were tired and decided not to proceed
any further, which enabled the rest of us to move
a bit faster. Not only were the sun and hunger
proving to be obstacles by this point, but mainly
the lack of oxygen, as we were already over
4,000 metres high. Headaches and nausea kept
cropping up and made things even harder.
After another two hours, we finally got to the
upper part of the mountain. Our happiness was
soon to be checked, however, when we asked the
guide where the cave with the mantras was: he
did not know. We walked around for the next few
hours, searching for the cave with the little energy
we had left, but could not find the right place. Our
guide had been to the top of the mountain a few
days before our expedition set out, with Deepak,
the owner of an adventure shop in Gangotri, who
has been staff in New Delhi for a few months.
The team ready for the climb
Sivananda Guha, the starting point for the ascent
The beginning of the trail was pleasant in the forest

but that did not last too long!
They had reached the top of the mountain and
had found something like a shrine, so we were
confident that they had found the cave. Sadly,
though, for our expedition it was to remain elusive.
We all sat together and came to the conclusion that it would be best to find another safe
place and leave the mantras there on the peak.
Chanting Om Namo Narayanaya with the last of
our breath and mixed feelings of accomplishment
and failure towards our initial intention, we
deposited the mantras under a beautiful square
rock that looked like a hut, installed a small
Vishnu statue that we had brought from Gangotri
and had used to do Pujas in Swamijis cave, did
arati, and started making our way down the
mountain. It took us another seven hours to get
down, testing the patience, endurance and faith
of everyone, including the guide and porters.
When night fell we were on our last stretch
and by nine in the evening we found ourselves
safely back in the Guha, having bid farewell
to Krishna, Prema, the guide, and the porters.
It had been a strenuous day and all we wanted
was to sleep and overcome the pain in the body
and the discomfort of having been at altitude.
The next day was Mother Gangas birthday,
an auspicious day of rest and festivity which we
all enjoyed. For the occasion, we offered a special
bandhara in the name of the organisation at the

Krishna annakshetra, where we were taking
biksha daily for the Sadhus. We were blessed with
the presence of more than 100 sadhus that came
to partake of homemade samosas, gulab jamun,
paneer pakoras, fresh mangoes and some other
treats prepared by the kshetra.
After our adventure to the peak, we spoke
to Swami Hariomanandaji who was in Gangotri
for the festivities, and he gave us better information about the cave and its location. He also
mentioned a guide that had been there with him.
Within the coming year, Deepak has been tasked
with finding out exactly where the cave is so that,
when we attempt this trip again in the future, our
goal will be successfully accomplished. n
In May 2016, Swami Shivabhaktananda will be
leading a Himalayan Pilgrimage to Chardham
Yatra and Vishnu Peak. Dates to be announced.
Swami Shivabhaktananda
is the director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga
Camp, Val Morin, Canada
51
PEACE DJ VU
PEACE DJ VU
By Sivani
After 30 days of hard work during the Advanced Teachers
Training Course (ATTC) in Rudraprayag, the words Unity in Diversity
made complete sense to me. Everything did.
s a child I loved to paint using all possible colours to

capture, on a piece of cardboard, my favourite things:
the sky, the sun, the clouds, the mountains, the
rainbow and all flowers. The theme of my little works
of art changed over the years. First, I used to paint a house with
a fireplace (despite the fact that I was born in a city whose climate,
year-round, is 30 degrees Celsius). Then, I started painting my
family and, finally, at the end of my artistic career, I made
a series of paintings about the peace of the world. These scenes,
except for some subtle variations, were always the same: beautiful
and happy girls from different countries, dressed in the
costumes of their regions, and holding hands
as a symbol of union. My dream from childhood
materialised over 30 years later, one evening in Rudraprayag (India),

when I had forgotten that it was my souls deepest desire, and
when I had terminated my love for art.
It was six oclock in the afternoon and I was starving. The ATTC
was coming to its end and I felt exhausted. While I was walking
toward the terrace of the Monal Resort, where our meals were
served, I thought: I hope my colleagues will not start reciting
mantras now because if I dont eat something in the next minute,
Im going to faint. What I feared, happened. As soon as I got to
the line and took my plate and spoon, some people started to hold
hands, forming a circle. First, there were five. Then, ten. And within
seconds there were nearly 40 students, smiling and holding hands,
ready to pray next to the buffet (that smelled and looked delicious).
The Kartic Swami Temple
52
PEACE DJ VU
As a child I made a series of paintings about the peace of the world:

beautiful and happy girls from different countries, dressed in the
costumes of their regions, and holding hands as a symbol of union.
Just to be polite, but without much conviction, I joined the

group. And there the magic occurred: men and women, students
of the TTC and the ATTC, between 18 and 60 years old, people
from Germany, Austria, France, Italy, England, Switzerland, the
Netherlands, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Romania, Russia, Morocco,
Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Canada, United States, Mexico, Guatemala,
Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. All of us together, holding our
hands with love, intention and intensity, while those who knew
the prayer from the Bhagavad Gita recited:
Brahmaar panam Brahma Havir

Brahmaa gnau Brahma naa Hutam
Brahmaiva Tena Gantavyam
Brahma Karma Samaadhinahaa
The process of eating is Brahman. The act of offering is Brahman.
The offering itself is Brahman. The gastric fire by which the food
is consumed is also Brahman. He alone attains Brahman who,
in all actions, is fully absorbed in Brahman.
Then we all joined saying:
OM bolo sat guru sivananda maharaja ki JAI!!!
Om bolo sri Vishnudevananda maharaja ki JAI!!!
That JAI, lifting our arms while still holding our hands, in a
single voice, in one cry; just that one second crystallised 30 days
of experiences and learning for me and gave sense to everything:
Tat Tvam Asi, sutras, neurotransmitters, Sat Chit Ananda, serotonin,
cortisol, 12 pairs of cranial nerves, synapse purusha, the mahavakyas,
kaivalya, samadhi. There, wearing our yellow and white uniforms
(instead of traditional costumes), we all were one, we all were
Brahman, we all were God, like the waves of an ocean, but
grounded in the Earth and with our hearts opened. There and
then I experienced the feeling of the Absolute. In a second, I saw
my whole life like it was a movie and it all, finally, made sense.
In a second, I felt the OM in each one of my cells. I had never
before felt so much love within.
Around us, the mountains, the sky, the sun, the flowers, we,
I, God. For the first time I felt the unity with everyone and everything, and I understood, more than 30 years later, that desire
which has always dwelt in my soul. This, what I perceived as
emptiness, was my need for unity. This, the unity, my reason for
being; my purpose in this life. And because nothing is a coincidence,
there I also understood that Sivanandas organisation had come
into my life for me to be part of Swami Vishnudevanandas
Holding hands and chanting the meal prayer during ATTC.

For me, this moment represents the peace of the world,
in real life.
dream: to build peace in the world through the practice of yoga.

There, next to the Ganges River and the Himalayas, I felt for
the first time that I was where I wanted to be, where I needed
to be and I was so intensely happy then that even now, months
later, I still am so.
We are much more than yoga students

and teachers. We are instruments of
peace because we have experienced
the feeling of unity.
Not until that moment did I understand the goal of the
Sivananda Organisation, as Swamiji conceived it. It is much more
than providing yoga courses. We are much more than yoga students
and teachers. We are instruments of peace because we have
experienced the feeling of unity. I know that each one of us, now
that we are back in our home countries, will have a deep sense
of our responsibility to share with the world that state in which
body, mind, and soul are one more than giving information and
techniques. Thats yoga and thats my first step towards peace
in the world.
And because nothing is a coincidence, there I also understood
that the Sivananda organisation had come into my life for me to
be part of Swami Vishnudevanandas dream: to build peace in the
world through the practice of yoga.n
To meditate and sing next to the Ganges River

is a very inspiring experience
53
MADURAI ASHRAM, SOUTH INDIA

The growth of an Ashram is
exciting for both staff and regular
visitors to watch unfold
Developments
at
Madurai Ashram
TAMIL NADU, SOUTH INDIA
Since the opening of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Meenakshi Ashram, 20km North of Madurai City in Tamil Nadu,
South India, only three permanent buildings have been built. These were built last year and are Shanti Nivas (the
first building of 2 staff rooms and a kitchen), Ganga Kutir accommodating the reception, office, boutique, six special
guest rooms and two long dormitories, and thirdly Yamuna Kutir, a permanent ladies dormitory. Ganga Kutir is
topped by a temporary dormitory made with coconut leaf walls and roof. Satsangs and yoga classes were held for
years under the coconut leaf roof above Yamuna Kutir. Idyllic surroundings for our Yoga practice, except for a minor
road which is busy at the wrong time of day! However, since January this year, the Ashram inmates have been
meditating and practicing away from the road in a specially designed space in the middle of the Ashram.
Swami Vishnudevananda Satsang Hall

The Swami Vishnudevananda Satsang Hall was so named by
Swami Durgananda on 17th January 2015 following a beautiful
puja to purify and give the hall an auspicious start. With the
presence of Swami Kailasananda, Swami Sivadasananda, Swami
Rajeswariananda from Neyyar Dam, Swami Keshavananda from
Europe, Swami Shivabhaktananda and Prahlada from Canada,
plus our own Swami Satchidananda, director Anoop and all the
staff, guests, students, Trustees and all the India branch directors
it was an energetic puja and inauguration satsang. Swami
Durgananda honoured all present, particularly our Trustees
Dr. V. Narayanasamy, Ananthakrishnan and Lalitamma, for
keeping a watchful eye on the project. Special thanks went
to the brains behind the satsang hall project, the temple shelter,
landscaping and agricultural works, Ravi Kumar, Anjaiah, Thulasi
and Pramila of the Dual Group along with all their associates.
We must not forget Bharatiraja, the site engineer who was
on site day in and day out attending to all the details.
54
Though modern in design, the satsang hall fits into the

traditional rustic surroundings of the Ashram due to its simplicity.
With open sides, natural light and fresh air can be fully appreciated
as also can the excellent views. The northern side gives a view
of the Ashrams pond area, the adjacent forests, distant hills and
a full expanse of sky. Students comment that the energy of the
MADURAI ASHRAM, SOUTH INDIA
Above: The Ashram Temple
landscape as viewed in the inverted panorama of sirsasana can

be briefly off-balancing in the initial seconds of the posture!
The hall was given a formal public inaugural ceremony on the
18th January with the attendance of many VIPs invited from the
village and Madurai City by Trustee, Dr. V. Narayanasamy. After
the speeches a grand feast was provided with the help of
outside caterers. That same evening the hall began hosting its
first course, the ATTC, beginning with the initiation of 79 students.
The large stage is currently graced by a kindly donated five
foot wooden Nataraja statue flanked by pictures of Master and
Swamiji. In the future the plan is to have 2 3 foot traditional
stone statues of Master and Swamiji as well as of a number of
deities including Devi Meenakshi as appropriate to the Ashrams
name. At the main entrance both inside and out are pairs of
paintings of Swamiji and Master. Reghu, who has done much
artistic work at the Neyyar Dam Ashram, has also made an
excellent job in painting the famous Kurukshetra scene from the
Bhagavad Gita on one side of the new satsang hall. We look
forward to viewing further paintings planned for the other walls.
Finally there are two pedestals at the main entrance awaiting
brass statues of Master and Swamiji.
The Ashram Temple

The Ashram temple was also developed this year. Since the
installation of the Sri Mahakali Temple in March 2012 donations
were gratefully received for further traditional shrines. On the
29th January 2015, priests from Kerala installed Ganapathi to
the left of the main shrine, Linganaga to the right, Navagraha
and Kalabhairava in front, and finally Sri Mahakalis vehicle, the
lion, directly in front of her door. With Swami Gayatriananda,
Swami Rajeswariananda, Swami Satchidananda, Swami
Keshavananda, Swami Sivabhaktananda, Prahlada and other
senior staff present for the function, as well as many special
guests, it was fortunate that there were many pots of water
to carry, enabling all to have the blessing of participating.
Special guests included Swami Govindananda, Swami
Swaroopananda (DLS Madurai), Dr. V. Narayanasamy and his
wife, Mamallan and family, Ravi Kumar and Pramila, Swami
Padmananda, Vijayamma and family from Trivandrum, various
local VIPs and last but not least Tagor the special architect
responsible for both these temples and the new one at Netala
Ashram. After the kumbhabhishekam, everyone enjoyed the
prasad and feast full of joy on this wonderful occasion.
Landscaping and Agricultural Projects

Landscaping and agricultural
projects are a major area
of work for the ashram. In a
part of the country where it
rarely rains except in excess
during the monsoon, creating
a green paradise is a challenge.
However, there is a good
supply of under ground water
here and an incredible length of pipe for a drip irrigation system
covering the whole Ashram has been generously donated along
with many trees and plants. Now softly lit winding stone pathways, pass through pergolas with granite benches, alongside
pretty flower gardens, lotus ponds, fountains and water falls
to reach the satsang hall; all perfect to relax and prepare the
mind for meditation. Many new sattvic trees have joined
the existing rows of mango trees; Swamis Durgananda,
Sivadasananda and Kailasananda helped to plant some of these.
Most recently a big effort was made to cultivate two acres of
vegetables, fruits, herbs, greens and coconut trees. There is
regular gardening karma yoga to keep out the weeds; but what
a joy to pick your own chikkus, mangoes and bananas and
to have garden fresh tomatoes, spinach, coriander etc.
New Accommodation
New accommodation is the next exciting area of work. Plans
have been drawn up to construct a permanent first floor
accommodation of 32 dormitory beds, 3 double rooms and
7 single rooms on Ganga Kutir. It is planned for there to be
a balcony all around the accommodation, to allow the guests
plenty of fresh air and a wonderful view, either of the Ashram
on one side or the distant Palani hills around Kodaikanal on
the other.
So plenty is happening at Madurai Ashram. If you

havent visited yet, do come for some first hand experience. Or if its a long time since your last visit, then
its time to re-acquaint yourself, enjoy the developments and get involved. We look forward to your visit.
www.sivananda.org/madurai
[email protected]
55
NIGHT BLINDNESS
Night Blindness
By Rubin R. Naiman
We suffer today from serious complications
of psychospiritual night blindness a far-reaching
failure to understand the significance of night
in our lives, health, and spirituality.
ver the past century, civilised nights have grown significantly shorter. A culture
of zealous industrialisation has polluted the night environment with excessive
and pernicious artificial illumination. Blinded by this light, the intervening darkness
demonised. It would seem that even as adults, we are afraid of the dark.
And we are losing sleep over it. Inundated by day, we suffer by night from an
unprecedented epidemic of sleep disorders that take a substantial toll on our health, well-being,
and productivity. Our negation of night is further complicated by widespread damage to our
dream life a literal and figurative loss of our dreams. Like sleep loss, dream loss affects virtually
all aspects of our lives, especially our personal sense of spirituality. A less obvious but equally
serious casualty of our night blindness is common proclivity for weary and mindless morning
awakenings that have subtle but disturbing repercussions on the quality of our daily lives.
Disordered sleep, suppressed dreams, and disturbed awakening all tangle together into
a dense obstruction of awareness. By day, we experience ourselves and the world around us
through a depleted and dulled sensorium. Our very consciousness is damaged and downsized.
We lose sight of the bigger picture, our peripheral vision, our imagination. Far too many of us
live in a kind of foggy bubble a chronic, low-grade, and insidious daze. But, somehow, we
manage to conjure sufficient energy to maintain our relentless drive.
The global energy crisis seems to have a curious internal representation: a personal energy
crisis. Our chronic depletion results in an insatiable hunger for personal energy. To compensate
for our sleep and dream-deprived daze and maintain our frenetic drive, we reflexively spike
our waking hours with counterfeit energies. We are a society of energy addicts, with lifestyles
designed to provide us with quick fixes of caffeine and sugar on demand. Or, more subtly, as
we will see, with overstimulating information and excessive light at night. Unfortunately, such
energy spikes inevitably backfire with jittery withdrawals. Our desperate need for rest, then, is
56
NIGHT BLINDNESS
met only with a sputtering restlessness that conceals an underlying exhaustion. Beyond damaging our waking consciousness,
the use of counterfeit energies further damages our nights
by disrupting natures essential rhythm of activity and rest.
But we can take something for it. Evening appears to be the
most common period of substance and medication use in our
world. We consume vast amounts of alcohol, marijuana, antidepressants, sleeping pills, and tranquilizers to modulate our
restless waking energies, and, even more so, to blunt our uneasy
encounter with dusk and darkness. These substances may help
us temporarily negotiate our discomfort with night, but only at
a terrible cost. Many of us routinely view the night only through
bleary eyes.
Unfortunately, what is called sleep medicine that branch
of the health sciences specialised to treat sleep disorders
offers little help with our night blindness. By tightly framing
night, sleep, and dreams as strictly objective and scientific
phenomena, sleep specialists drain these experiences of
anything personal or subjective, let alone sacred or spiritual.
Sadly, sleep medicine also segregates sleep from her biological
sib, dreaming, consigning the latter to status of unappreciated
stepchild. (It is, after all, sleep medicine, not sleep and dream
medicine.) Most sleep specialists relegate what is left of night
to autonomic mechanisms reducing sleeping and dreaming to
molecular machinations that are about as personally meaningful
as recharging a battery.
Viewed through such a narrow and rigid lens, sleep and
dreams become experiences we believe we can and must manipulate and control. We seek medical and mechanical solutions to
what are essentially lifestyle and consciousness problems. In lieu
of an honest confrontation with our frenetic drive and fear of
darkness, we are offered a tantalising array of designer sleeping
and waking pills. In bed with the pharmaceutical industry, sleep
medicine itself remains in a fitful, dream-deprived sleep.
More than three decades ago Andrew Weil called our
attention to the concept of night-time consciousness. In his book
The Marriage of the Sun and Moon, he explored the innate,
universal human drive to experience nonordinary forms of consciousness. To balance our ordinary waking, daytime, or solar
consciousness, Dr. Weil encouraged us to intentionally open
to a darker, more mysterious night, or lunar consciousness.
Lunar, or night consciousness, encompasses sleep and dreams
but also includes dark or shadowy aspects of waking awareness.
As a culture, we have failed to achieve the necessary
balance between these separate but equally important realms
of consciousness. Like night and day, solar and lunar consciousnesses have become increasingly polarised. Daylight is dominant,
overvalued, and even deified, while darkness is dismissed,
devalued, and often demonised. From divine light to light beer,
things associated with the metaphor of light suggest goodness.
We want to shed light, see the light, and lighten up. Our
associations with metaphoric darkness, on the other hand, are
suggestive of confusion, struggle, immorality, and outright evil.
We want nothing more than to avoid dark times, dark nights
of the soul, and, of course, the dreaded prince of darkness.
Our struggle with night is ultimately a struggle with denied
aspects of our own darkness. Confusing the literal darkness of
night with the metaphoric darkness of life, we blindly project
our feelings about the latter onto the former. We then mitigate
our fear of darkness through the excessive use of evening light,

effectively extending daytimes custody deep into the night and
seriously eroding our night consciousness. Indoors and out, our
nights are lit up beyond reason beyond what necessity and
safety might dictate. Like a frightened child, the planet sleeps
with its lights on.
In the end, sleep and dream disorders are largely symptomatic
of this deeper fear of night and its damaging segregation from
day. In our attempt to excise darkness from our lives, our very
consciousness has been cleaved. With the loss of night, day loses
its partner in the sacred dance of circadian cycles. Adam loses
Eve. Yin is torn from yang. And activity becomes dangerously
devoid of rest. We lose our sense of the basic pulse of night
and day our precious awareness of lifes natural rhythms.
Ultimately, we lose our experience of the lovely, seamless
continuity of consciousness, our sense of oneness.
Night-mindedness
Nyx, the forgotten primordial Greek goddess of night, pictured
on the cover of this book, is calling for resurrection. And there
are unexpected gifts to be found in the dusk and darkness she
brings, if we choose to be more night-minded. Night has been
celebrated and sanctified with rich social and sacred rituals across
cultures and time. Whether it is the initial transition through dusk,
the experience of sleeping and dreaming, or the coming of dawn
and awakening, each phase of night offers sacred and healing
possibilities. And, as we will see, a more honest relationship with
night also offers vital lessons about our need to rest by day.
Perhaps the greatest gift of becoming more night-minded
is the restoration of a kind of night vision a fundamentally
different way of seeing or perceiving. Because sleeping, dreaming,
and awakening are non-ordinary states of consciousness, their
exploration calls for non-ordinary ways of perceiving a kind
of nocturnal lucidity. Nocturnal is a way of seeing in the dark,
a kind of third-eye sightedness. We can clearly see night only
through such a spiritual wide-angle lens. And when applied
to our view of day, this expanded frame restores a sense of the
big picture to our lives. It restores the numinous.
Having survived the Holocaust, my mother learned to distinguish the literal darkness of night from metaphoric darkness
what has been referred to as shadow. Certainly one does not
have to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, or anguish in
any form, to receive the gifts of night. They are available to all.
Night itself is the best sleep medicine. We cannot heal our
sleep and dream disorders without first healing relationship with
night. And in healing night, we discover that night itself is healing.
Darkness is a healing retreat, a carbon filter for the soul. If we
surrender to it, the night will inhale our shadowy fears, offering
precious personal insights in return. Beyond all of the psychological and biomedical complexities associated with it, we come
to discover that sleep itself is a spiritual path, dreaming a means
of walking this path, and awakening its gracious gift. We come
to learn that there is something we can safely place our faith
in even in the dark. n
Rubin R. Naiman is a psychologist and clinical assistant professor
of medicine at the University of Arizonas Health Sciences Centre.
57
THE YOGIC LIGHTER SIDE
The Yogi
and the Pizza
Business with God

A businessman sat in his car in a sweat
because he had an important meeting and
couldn't find a parking place. Looking up
to heaven he said, Lord, take pity on me.
If you find me a parking place I will start
to pray every day and donate all my wealth
to charity. Miraculously, a parking place
appeared. The business man looked up
again and said, Never mind, I found one.
The Yogi walked into the Zen Pizza

Parlour and said: Make me one
with everything. When the Yogi got
the pizza, he gave the proprietor a
$20 bill. The proprietor pocketed the
bill. The Yogi said, Dont I get any
change? The proprietor said,
Change must come from within.
Vow of Silence
God Versus
Nietzsche
Four yogis have taken a vow of silence.

They're sitting in the meditation hall when
one of them says out loud: It is really
nice to be in silence. Then the second
one says: Be quiet! and the third one
says: You are both talking!
Then the last one says, proudly: I am the
only one who has not spoken!
Graffiti on a wall:
God is dead. Nietzsche.
Below that was written:
Nietzsche is dead. God.
Trust in God
A devotee is hiking in the Himalayas. Suddenly he slips and is about
to fall into a ravine but luckily, in the very last moment, he manages
to catch hold of an overhanging rock. While he clings to it, precariously
dangling over the abyss, he feels his strength slowly but steadily
ebbing away. Desperately he looks up to the sky and cries out:
Is there someone up there?
Out of the heavens comes a disembodied voice, Yes my son.
Please tell me, what shall I do? pleads the devotee.
The same Divine Voice booms, Say a prayer, trust in God and let go!
After a few moments of silence the devotee looks up to the heavens
again and cries out: Is there someone else?
Meditation
Two men meet on the street: How are you?
one asks. The other replies: Im fine, thanks.
And hows your son? Is he still unemployed?
Yes, he is. But he is meditating now.
Meditating? Whats that?
I dont know. But its better than sitting
around doing nothing!
Swami Sivanandas Heart

A specialist for internal medicine gave Swami Sivananda a thorough
medical examination. At the end of his check-up he said: You know,
Swamiji, the problem is that you have an enlarged heart.
Swami Sivananda just smiled and replied Ah, this is also considered
a disease nowadays!
58
Devil
Two boys were walking home
from church after hearing a
strong preaching on the devil.
One said to the other, What do
you think about all this Satan
stuff? The other boy replied,
Well, you know how Santa
Claus turned out. Its probably just your dad.
Begging
At the entrance to a Hindu temple there was a beggar always
stretching out his hand, asking and pleading for alms. One day he
stretched out both of his hands. A passer-by asked him: All these
days, you were stretching out only one hand why are you today
stretching out two hands? To which the beggar replied: Hari Om!
Praise God! Business was so good that I opened another branch!
A Prayer for the Day

Dear God, so far today, Ive done all right. I havent gossiped, and
I havent lost my temper. I havent been grumpy, nasty or selfish, and
Im really glad of that! But in a few minutes, God, Im going to get
out of bed, and from then on, Im probably going to need a lot of
help. Thank you! Amen.
TEACHERS TRAINING COURSE

July
July 31
31 -- August
August 28,
28, 2016
2016
in Italy
A wonderful place for spiritual practice, learning and
transformation in the beautiful Italian countryside
Yoga
Yoga Vacation
Vacation
August 2-27, 2016
www.sivananda-yoga-roma.it
tel: +39 06 4549 6529
Yoga Teachers Training Course

in Lithuania
July 2 July 30, 2016
4 weeks of inner and outer learning amongst the green fields
and forests of Lithuania. Taught in Lithuanian and in Russian
www. sivananda.org/vilnius www.sivananda.eu/lt

[email protected]
59
LIVES OF THE SAINTS
Lives of the Saints
Mahatma Gandhi
In this special YogaLife edition dedicated to the International Day of Yoga, we bring you the next in
our series on Lives of the Saints by presenting the life of a modern saint through the eyes one of his
contemporaries, another great saint of modern India, Sri Swami Sivananda. The following article is an
edited version of Mahatma Gandhi from Swami Sivanandas Lives of the Saints.
ohandas
Karamchand
Gandhi, the
youngest son
of Karamchand
Gandhi and Putlibai, was born
on October 2, 1869. His birthplace was Porbander, a small
seaside town in the Kathiawar
peninsula of western India.
His mother was a devout and
religious woman who attended
temple services daily and
never ate before she prayed.
At school in Porbander,
Gandhiji was very shy and
lacked the confidence and
poise necessary to talk to
strangers. But he was
admirably punctual and
obedient, and participated
actively in school games.
In compliance with the
prevailing custom of child
marriage, Mohandas married
at the age of thirteen.
Kasturbai, his illiterate wife,
was simple, persevering, bold
and independent.
A Student of Law
in England
Karamchand Gandhi died
in the year 1885, leaving little
property for his family. In 1887,
Mohandas completed his
matriculation and left for
England to study law. He lived
in London, where he found
the life strange and difficult
to adjust to. Although he
adopted English dress and took
dancing and violin lessons,
he was nevertheless quite
60
In Einstein on Peace scientist, thinker

and peace activist Albert Einstein said,
Generations to come will scarce believe
that such a one as this ever in flesh and
blood walked upon this earth. The one
who Einstein was speaking of was
Mahatma Gandhi.
unsuccessful in conforming
to the British mode of life. His
friends tried to compel him
to eat meat but he abstained,
adhering very rigidly to a
vegetarian diet. He joined
vegetarian clubs and very
soon became a champion of
vegetarianism. In fact it was
in England where Gandhijis
experiments in diet began.
A transformation in
Gandhijis life and character
now began to take place. His
heart ached deeply for religion.
He was inspired by meetings
with Madame Blavatsky and
Annie Besant. He read their
books on Theosophy and read
the Bible. He was impressed
by the similarity of the
teachings of the Sermon on
the Mount and the Gita. He
began reading the Gita only
during his second year in
London, and in it found the
comfort and solace he sought.
Gandhiji studied French,
Latin and science. He was
called to the Bar in 1891,
after which he at once sailed
for India. On his return to his
native land he began to study
Indian Law. At Rajkot he
established a moderately
successful practice. While
there, he was insulted by a
political agent, a British officer
who was prejudiced against
Gandhijis brother. This insult
changed the course of his life,
inspiring him with the desire
to learn something about the
politics of his country.
LIVES OF THE SAINTS

Fight Against Racial Prejudice in South Africa
At this time, Gandhiji accepted an offer from the Meman firm
of Porbander to go to South Africa as their legal representative.
He arrived in Natal in 1893 and was immediately requested to
go to Pretoria where his presence was required. He confronted
difficulty when he entered a first-class compartment on a train
to the Transvaal. At Pietermaritzburg he was ejected from the
train together with all of his luggage. He now resolved to fight
colour prejudice.
The ill-treatment that the Indians received at the hands of
colonialists was abhorrent to Gandhiji, and he was determined
to champion their cause. This led him, in 1894, to found the
Natal Indian Congress. In 1899, on the outbreak of the AngloBoer War, he led the Indian Ambulance Corps of one thousand
members. They engaged in active service and on one occasion
were under attack of heavy fire.
In 1901, Gandhijis health broke down and he returned
to India. After a year or two he was again summoned to South
Africa. While there, in 1901, he founded the newspaper, Indian
Opinion. Five years later, when a native rebellion broke out
in Natal, Gandhiji offered a Stretcher-Bearer Corps. During the
First World War he raised an Ambulance Corps and conducted
a recruiting campaign in Karia.
It was in South Africa that Gandhiji first adopted Satyagraha,
the method of non-violence, to fight the injustice to which Indians
were subjected. The entire Indian community rallied around him
magnificently, for he had readily identified himself with all.
His powerful Satyagraha campaign with which he confronted
the unjust laws of the local government was overwhelmingly
successful. He showed that this soul force, as he called it,
could be universally applied to bring peace and abolish
despotism and ever-growing militarism.
Struggle for Independence

His mission accomplished, Gandhiji arrived in India in 1915.
In 1918, he assumed leadership of the Indian National Congress
and associated himself with the Khilafat movement. He used
the peaceful method of non-co-operation and non-violence for
achieving freedom for his country from the yoke of foreign rule.
The Gandhi movement spread like wild fire. He roused the
masses to political consciousness and proved to them that they
possessed immense soul-force. He was sentenced to six years
imprisonment and was released in February, 1924. In that same
year he became President of the Indian National Congress.
In April 1930, the Salt Satyagraha was started by Gandhiji.
For his breach of the Salt Laws he was interned on the 5th May,
1930. He was released on the 25th January, 1931 in order to
attend the Round Table Conference in London. He was again
arrested in January, 1933 and released in May of the same year.
Gandhijis intense love for his fellow men, his long fasts,
his great sacrifices for his countrys cause, indomitable will,
moral force and deep spiritual life, won for him the hearts
of his countrymen.
In their excessive devotion, love and reverence for him they
bestowed upon him the title of Mahatma, meaning Great
Soul. They addressed him affectionately as Bapuji. It means
beloved father.
The tremendous soul-power of which Gandhiji spoke was
essentially derived from the chanting of Ram-Nam and the
study of the Gita and Ramayana. Not a day passed without a

study of the second chapter of the Gita, in which, Gandhiji felt,
was contained its entire philosophy.
On the 15th of August, 1947, Gandhiji won freedom for
India. Soon after this he was shot three times at point-blank
range by Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a Hindu extremist.
On Gandhijis lips, just before he gave up his last breath,
were the words Hey Ram!
Mahatma Gandhis life is a monument

to the triumph of spirit over flesh,
a living witness to the victory of the
divine over the base nature of man
The Pattern of a Perfect Life
Bharatavarsha, as India is known, has always been a land
of eternal ideals and sublime idealism, and of supermen who
converted these ideals into actuality in their everyday life.
Gandhiji was such an ideal superman. His name has become
synonymous with unbending moral rectitude, heroic allegiance
to truth, and perfect righteousness both in private and public life.
Mahatma Gandhis life is a monument to the triumph of
spirit over flesh, a living witness to the victory of the divine over
the base nature of man. A continuous exercise of self-restraint
and discipline, along with deep prayer and an invincible faith
in the Divine, enabled him to successfully resist all kinds of
temptations, overcome all obstacles and gain full mastery
over himself.
Gandhijis firm and tenacious adherence to the cause of the
poor, the downtrodden Harijans, and the common man of the
Indian village, is indeed worthy of emulation. Through all the
vicissitudes of time and power and fame, he kept before the
vision of the Indian Congress the fundamental purpose for
which it came into being the amelioration of the suffering
of the poor. Uncrowned king of the land, he remained a friend
of the poor; he lived for them, moved among them as one of
them, and served them with all his heart. He saw God in them,
and in their service wore out his body.
As the Father of the Nation in every sense of the term,
Gandhiji brought about a re-orientation in the outlook of the
average Indian, and instilled into him the love of God, his
religion and his motherland, all of which had been eclipsed for
more than a century by the unhealthy influence of Western
culture, manners and language.
Mahatmaji demonstrated how a life of complete detachment
and renunciation may be led while remaining in the thick of
battle. His was a supreme example of one who had completely
annihilated the ego, the little I, and led a divine life in the
world. His life was like that of a lotus leaf in water.
Albert Einstein, the famous scientist who propounded the
theory of relativity, said of Gandhiji: Generations to come will
scarcely believe that such a man in flesh and blood once trod
upon this earth.
May the Mahatmas light of love illuminate the hearts
of nations and individuals! May his dream of world unity
materialise this very day! May his spirit bless us all with the
vision and strength to realise in our everyday life all his lofty
ideals of truth, purity, non-violence and faith in the Divine! n
61
YOGIC VEGETARIAN RECIPES
A Divine Yogic Feast

By Chris Cooper
Chef Chris Cooper is a professionally trained French chef and Nutrition Therapist
specializing in vegetarian and vegan diets. He is passionate about healthy living,
plant based nutrition and has developed recipes around this philosophy.
The recipes are complementary to each other, you could make them during a celebration or singularly as and when you wish.
All are based on a vegan, gluten free diet, and are high in protein, vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, healthy fats, and fibre.
Brown Rice Biryani (Gf, Ve)

This biryani contains a complete protein combination (brown rice + peas). The fennel
seeds will help with digestion, nigella seeds will keep your body cells protected and
rejuvenated, and the amino acid tryptophan, released thanks to the goodness and
properties of the cranberries, helps with serotonin levels and triggers happy feelings.
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
Baked Vegetable Bhaji (Gf, Ve)

Up your vegetable intake by cooking this recipe packed with vitamins and minerals,
which will be well received by friends and family members for any meal of the day.
The chard leaves keep the blood sugar levels in a homeostasis state and the turmeric
possesses anti-inflammatory properties.
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
200g sweet potatoes
150g carrots
500g cauliflower
100g courgettes
20g chard leaves
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground paprika
50g gram flour + extra for dusting
3 tablespoons olive oil
20g fresh coriander
20g fresh parsley
2 tablespoons tamari
Method:
Preheat the oven to 230C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Using a small bowl, prepare the batter by adding the ground cumin, ground
coriander, paprika, gram flour, tamari, the leaves and stalks of the parsley and
coriander finely chopped, and pour in the olive oil .
Cut the cauliflower into tiny florets, finely chop the chard leaves and place them
in a separate large bowl. Peel the potatoes, carrots, and courgettes, slice them into
quarters and blend them in a food processor or chop finely if no food processor is
available and add them with the chard and cauliflower. Transfer the batter onto the
vegetables and with a wooden spoon, mix thoroughly until well combined.
Dust your palms with gram flour, make dough balls and lay them on your tray. Bake
for 20 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or cold.
Leftover suggestion: There will be no leftovers!
62
1tablespoon olive oil

1 cup of brown rice
6 cups of water
30g garden peas
50g green beans
30g cashew nuts
20g cranberries
teaspoon fennel seeds
teaspoon cumin seeds
teaspoon nigella seeds
teaspoon ground turmeric
teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 green chilli (optional)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220 C. Wash the brown rice thoroughly. In a pan, on a low
heat, heat the oil, add the cumin seeds, fennel seeds and nigella seeds, and cook for
5 minutes. Add the ground turmeric and cinnamon, stir well until the spices are well
blended then add the rice, cover with the water and cook for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, place baking paper on a tray and roast the cashew nuts for 8 10
minutes and leave to one side. Cut the green beans into 4 cm length and peel the
fresh garden peas and add them to the rice mixture. Cook the rice mixture for a
further 10 15 minutes until all water has been absorbed and the rice and
vegetables are all soft. In the meantime chop the chilli, if using, (you may wish to
deseed it if sensitive to the seeds heat) and add it to the rice mixture together with
the cranberries and cashew nuts. Mix well and serve immediately.
Leftover suggestion: This recipe can be served hot and eaten cold as a salad.

Serves: 4
Ingredients:
Pumpkin & Spinach Mini Quiches (Gf, Ve)

This recipe is out of this world! It combines the attractive colours of pumpkin and
spinach with complementary Mediterranean flavours, and the crunchiness of a pastry.
Bon apptit!
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
150g gram flour + little extra for dusting
150ml water
2 tablespoons olive oil + little extra for coating
100g pumpkin
200g spinach
20g pumpkin seeds
200g tofu (optional)
10g basil
5g fresh tarragon or thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C. Lightly brush a muffin tray with oil and dust it with some
of the flour to prevent the mixture from sticking. Set aside. Peel and grate the pumpkin.
On a medium heat, heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and sizzle the pumpkin,
cook thoroughly for 10 minutes and add the tofu (if using) and spinach. Once the
vegetables are cooked, set aside. Make the quiche batter by mixing 100g of gram
flour, 100ml of water, 1tbsp of olive oil and the fresh chopped basil and tarragon or
thyme. With the help of a whisk, mix the batter until a smooth texture is obtained.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Put some of the vegetable mixture into each of the
muffin tray compartments and add the batter to of the height of the tray. Sprinkle
the mini quiches with pumpkin seeds.
Bake for 20 30 minutes until the batter is cooked thoroughly. Leave to cool for
10 minutes before removing the mini quiches from the muffin trays.
Leftover suggestion: This recipe can be eaten hot or cold. If you have some batter
leftover, please make some pancakes with it!
*****
1 avocado
200g butternut squash
100g rocket
20g fresh basil
10g fresh rosemary
Zest and juice of 1 lime
50g pecan nuts
20g pine nuts
3 tbsp. hazelnut oil or olive oil
1 tablespoons tamari
3 tablespoons olive oil for roasting
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C. Prepare 2 baking trays with parchment paper. Place the
pine nuts on one of the trays and roast them for about 10 minutes or until they are
golden brown.
Peel the butternut squash, take out the seeds and cube them into 3cm thickness,
coat with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper (optional), add them to the
remaining tray and roast for 15 20 minutes or until soft. Make the dressing with
the zest and lime juice, hazelnut or olive oil, tamari, chopped fresh basil and
rosemary. Cut the avocado into cubes and add them into a large bowl, add the
pecan nuts, cooked and cooled down butternut squash, and rocket. Top the salad
with the dressing and mix well. Serve immediately.
Leftover suggestion: This can make a nice pesto; when the salad is completed and
dressed, blitz all of it together in a food processor or with a blender.
*****
Banana & Coconut Chutney (Gf, Ve)

You need the right accompaniment to your dishes, and this delightful, nutrient dense,
silken chutney will take your taste buds on a wonderful journey. In addition, both
ginger and coriander will help to boost your digestive enzymes.
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons coconut or sunflower oil
1 inch fresh ginger - chopped
20g desiccated coconut
50g raisins
3 ripe bananas
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tin of coconut milk (150ml)
teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground chilli
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon mango powder (opt)
10g fresh coriander leaves
Method:
Roasted Butternut Squash, Avocado

and Rocket Salad (Gf, Ve)
If you are feeling a little fatigued, this nutrient dense salad will rejuvenate your cells.
The avocados are packed with anti-oxidants to keep the white blood cells healthy
and therefore will protect your immune system, and the nuts are high in protein,
essential fats and fibre. A crunchy, creamy and natural sweetness all in one bite!
Rinse the raisins, place them with the desiccated coconut in a large bowl and cover
with water, leave on the side. Pour the oil into a small pan and place it on a medium
heat, add the caraway seeds, stir occasionally and cook until they start to bubble.
Add the chopped ginger and continue cooking on a low heat for 3 minutes. Add the
ground cumin, chilli, cardamom and mango powder (optional) and cook for a further
2 minutes. Add the coconut milk and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the water from
the raisins and desiccated coconut and add to the coconut milk mixture, this does
not need any further cooking. Transfer this mixture into a bowl and leave on the side
to cool down.
Meanwhile, peel the bananas and chop them up into small cubes, juice and zest the
lime and coat the bananas to reduce the oxidation effect. Add them into the cooling
mixture. Chop up the coriander as fine as possible and add this to the chutney and
keep in the fridge until ready for serving. You may prefer to blend the mixture to a
smooth texture according to taste.
Leftover suggestion: This recipe can be served on top of your morning porridge!
63

Oat Spiced Cookies (Gf option, Ve)
A little sweet and healthy treat for everyone! Both nourishing and flavoursome, you
will wish you had tripled this recipe before baking it! Apricots contain lutein and
zeaxanthin which will keep your eyes healthy. Eat in moderation if you wish the
cookies to last a little longer!
Makes 8 10 cookies
Ingredients
150g oats (regular or gluten free)
50g almond or buckwheat flour
teaspoon baking powder
teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon orange blossom
8 dates - chopped
5 dried apricots- chopped
100ml rice milk
Method:
Preheat the oven at
180C. Lay a tray
with baking paper.
In a large bowl,
combine the oats,
baking powder,
nutmeg, cinnamon,
coriander, ginger,
orange zest, orange
blossom and rice
milk. Mix thoroughly
and add the
chopped dates and
apricots. With the
help of two table
spoons, form dough balls and flatten them with the back of the spoon in order
to shape them as cookies. Bake for 15 20 minutes until golden brown. Allow them
to cool down for about an hour in a cool dry place before storing them into a jar.
Leftover suggestion: This recipe can become a granola, after the cooking and
cooling down processes, break the cookies into small pieces, alternatively use the
pulse function on your food processor.
Almond, Cashews and Pecan

Nut Energy Ball (Gf, Ve)
Awaken your taste buds with this blissfully crunchy nutritious recipe which is filled with
anti-oxidant and anti-aging properties (coming from the nuts and seeds) aiding in
repairing and rejuvenating your cells. Keep in a small airtight container and eat as and
when you wish for that energy boost without the after-effect sugar rush and fatigue.
Makes 8 10 energy balls
Ingredients:
150g blanched almonds
30g cashew nuts
20g pecan nuts
20g sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
10 dates
1 teaspoon agave syrup
Method:
Blanch the almonds by boiling a pan with water on high heat. Once the water is
boiling, dip the almonds for 2 minutes, strain and add the almonds to a bowl with
cold water. Leave to stay for 5 minutes, then the skin should come off easily.
Preheat the oven at 200C. Lay baking paper on a tray and add the blanched
almonds and cashew nuts. Roast them for 10 15 minutes until light brown. Add
the sunflower seeds and pecan nuts and roast for a further 10 minutes. Add the nuts
and seed to a food processor; add the ground cinnamon and cardamom. Blend well
until smaller chunks can be seen. Add the dates and continue blending until a paste
has formed. Add the agave syrup and mix well.
Form balls and store them in the fridge to get a crunchier fresher taste.
Alternative suggestion: This mixture can be baked at 120C for 40 minutes on a tray
with baking paper and sliced as a crunchy nut slice.
The Swami Vishnudevananda
Archives Karma Yoga Project

One of our most valuable resources for the
teachings of Sivananda Yoga continues to be
the hundreds of inspiring lectures presented
by Swami Vishnudevananda, recorded from
1969 to 1991. While it is possible to listen
online to the recordings, for the past year a
karma yoga group has been transcribing the
teachings into written form in order to share
them further with all seekers of peace and
joy through yoga.
We are looking to add to this skilled
team of karma yogis. If you are interested in taking on the task of listening
to systematically assigned parts of the archives and transcribing them into
document form, this may be for you to consider, but only if:
You have a good command of the English language and can
type proficiently.
You can dedicate 5 10 hours a week to the project to comply with
a monthly deadline.
You are highly organised and focused.
We specifically welcome those who are writers, editors and journalists
on the Sivananda Yoga path. If chosen, you will be sent the transcription
guidelines along with a timeline for your work. There are approximately
400 recordings. Please note that some of the material may be challenging
due to Swami Vishnus accent but it is all inspirational and a great way to
connect to the teachings at the source.
Please send your request to be a part of the project to Sita at [email protected]
64
45th anniversary } 19712016
2016
SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS
Living Yoga Life
Holidays/New Year: Positive Thinking and Self-Realization

Dec. 24, 2015Jan. 1
Sivaratri Celebrations Mar. 8

Easter: Yoga and Sacred Healing Families welcome Mar. 2528
Memorial Day: Celebration of 45th Anniversary of Teaching Yoga
and Vedic Sciences and G. S. Sachdev concert May 2730
Childrens Yoga Camp June 2030
Guru Purnima July 19
XVIIth Annual Jyotish (Vedic Astrology) Conference July 14
Yoga of Recovery Certification Course Aug. 1121
Labor Day: Hear the Music of Your Soul Sept. 15
Vedanta and Silence Course with Swami Sitaramananda
IN CALIFORNIA
Yoga Teachers Training Course (TTC)
2016 DATES
May 7June 4 t July 9Aug. 6 t Oct. 15 Nov. 16
Sadhana Intensive
June 1023, 2016
Seva Study
Residential Program
Nov. 1320
Monthly
Thanksgiving Classical Yoga Conference Nov. 2427
Visit Swami Vishnus

favorite place for seclusion!
Yoga Vacations
OPEN YEAR-ROUND
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm

Located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains
Founded in 1971
Visit www.sivananda.org/yogafarm for complete

course information and online registration.
14651 Ballantree Lane

Grass Valley, California 95949
530-272-9322
[email protected]
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Prison Yoga Outreach Project
Yoga Teachers Training

Course Goes to Prison
Sivananda TTC Enlightens Inmates at Otisville Federal Corrections Institute
By John Ittner
A robber robs for getting freedom from want though his
movement may be crooked and long-winded. Every movement
of your foot is toward freedom or Sat-chit-ananda.
Swami Sivananda, Bliss Divine
verybody wants to be free. Freedom is mans

birthright, says Swami Sivananda. But what about
the millions of men and women who are in prison,
can they be free while behind bars? Yoga says they
can and The Sivananda Prison Outreach programme is proving
it with the first ever Teachers Training Course given in prison.
The drive from the Sivananda Yoga Ranch Ashram to The
Federal Correctional Institute, Otisville, New York, takes about
half an hour and passes through the lush forest-covered hills
of the southern Catskills. Mahadev Chaitanya now makes the
trip once a week, arriving there at 7am. His mission is to bring
yoga to the prisoners and he recently took me with him to visit
the Institute.
Mahadev Chaitanya, who runs the day-to-day operations
at the Yoga Ranch, and Srinivasan, the long-time Yoga Ranch
director, are showing the inmates at Otisville prison how to
follow a straight path to freedom. The course they are following
is the same as the one designed by Swami Vishnudevananda
and taught to all Sivananda teachers. They are learning Hatha
Yoga, philosophy, anatomy, meditation theory and practice,
chanting, mantras, Bhagavad Gita and nutrition. There is one
difference. Instead of the one month of intensive study between
start and graduation, it will take the inmates about eight
months to complete the course. At the time of my visit they
68
were already six months into the course and it showed. They had
the shiny look about them that comes from practising Yoga.
This programme did not materialise like magic out of thin
air. It all began in 1996 with a letter from an inmate to Prison
Life magazine, who had a copy of Swami Vishnudevanandas
Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. His letter of appreciation was
so influential that hundreds of other inmates were inspired to
write to the Sivananda organisation asking for books. They were
taking a step in the direction of freedom. Intuition told them
that Yoga offered a path that people behind bars could take,
a way to set the spirit free while incarcerated. Its like the verse
in Johnny Cashs Grey Stone Chapel from his Folsom Prison
concert album. Behind the walls of prison my body may be /
but my Lord has set my soul free. The spiritual path has always
been there for prisoners and Yoga is another expression of it.
The Sivananda Prison Outreach Project has continued and
grown over the years. In the first six months of last year about
$3,000 was raised at the Yoga Ranch and 200 books were sent
out to prisons all around the country. During this time classes
have been taught at two prisons. The next step was for the
inmates to become their own teachers.
In February 2015 a proposal to teach the Teachers Training
Course was presented to Otisville Federal Correction Institute and
was accepted, and soon after the classes began. The rationale
Yoga is a system of integral

education, not only of the mind,
but also of the inner spirit.
Swami Sivananda
69
PRISON YOGA OUTREACH PROJECT
The Teachers Training Course curriculum

includes Vedanta Philosophy and Study
of the Bhagavad Gita
outlined in the proposal was powerful, and it can now be a

model for other prisons and ashrams to state their cases for
similar yoga programmes.
It says: With 2.3 million prisoners, the U.S. has the highest
incarceration rate in the world. When wellness and education
programmes aiding rehabilitation are very limited, sharing Yoga
teachings proves to be a very interesting and low-cost alternative The inmates develop an awareness of the body; enhanced
sensitivity toward themselves and empathy toward others,
leading to compassion and in turn to prevention of violence.
There is an interesting story to this that demonstrates the
power of Yoga to generate empathy. Mahadev Chaitanya says
that one of the early problems with the Teachers Training
at Otisville was the tendency for the inmates to always choose
the same partners when they broke into groups for teaching
practice. Prisoners tend to stick with their group and not mix
generally. Sex offenders were shunned in the TTC at first as is
the case in the prison population at large. Inmates did not want
to mix. Mahadev Chaitanya gently encouraged them to treat
each other the same but initially this did not work . This type
of behaviour does not change easily because the underlying
judgments are strongly held. But after only a few days, inmates
came to him and apologised. From then on there was no
problem. This was a big change and I was really surprised when
he told me the outcome. Of course I should have known better.
Yoga is very powerful.
If you took away the gleaming coils of razor wire and the
high chain-link fences that surround it, Otisville prison would
look like a community college with low brick buildings arranged
in a campus-like setting. Built in 1977, it is called a mediumsecurity institution and it is considered a good place to be if you
have to be locked up. The fact that F.C.I. Otisville is open to
having Sivananda Teachers Training shows that it takes the role
of rehabilitation seriously and is not merely a place to separate
convicts from the rest of society.
We arrived a little after 7am on a Thursday and went to the
reception area. At first I was not allowed to enter because I was
wearing grey sweat pants which happened to be the same
colour as the inmates uniform. There was a sign stating that
visitors are forbidden to dress like the inmates, but the problem
was easily solved when I was given a pair of white yoga pants
which I changed into in the bathroom.
Getting into prison was harder than I thought it would be!
70
We were allowed to pass through some big, heavy duty steel

doors. When they shut behind us they made a sound suggesting
something very gloomy like, abandon all hope, ye who enter here.
About a dozen inmate TTC students arrived for satsang
looking sharp and sattvic in their yellow T-shirts and fresh white
yoga pants. If you did not know they were convicted felons, you
would not guess it. They say that clothes make the man and
these prisoners proved the point They not only looked like yogis
in their TTC uniforms, they acted like yogis. Seeing them reminded
Their faces were open, eager, serious

and grateful. I saw some of the highest
wattage smiles that I can remember
ever seeing. I did not expect that either.
me of the opening ceremony at my own Teachers Training at the
Sivananda Ashram in Neyyar Dam, south India, in 2000. We let
go of our egos and joined one another in a quest to find our
true Self. The uniform removed some of the differences between
us and began the process. The yellow and white had power
to unite us and reminded us that we were all in it together.
The prisoners looked really good in their uniforms. I dont
know what I was expecting, but I was surprised. They were
really fit as physical culture is huge in prison and most of them
looked as if they lifted weights. They were a lot more muscular
than most yogis and many of them were tattooed. To a man
they looked tough, but they were not at all intimidating.
This was the only all male TTC I had ever seen. They were
older, and more mature looking but generally did not appear
to be hardened, quite the contrary. Their faces were open, eager,
serious and grateful. I saw some of the highest wattage smiles
that I can remember ever seeing. I did not expect that either.
Mahadev Chaitanya had gone ahead of me while I was
changing and when I entered the gym where the classes took
place, he had already set up the altar with portraits of Swami
Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda. He and I sat in front
on either side of the altar and the inmates were in two rows
facing us. Mahadev Chaitanya took the microphone and with
his gentle, unassuming directness greeted the class and thanked
them for coming. I could see that they could relate to him.
He talked about the TTC graduation in October and said that
Srinivasan would be coming to teach them more about the
PRISON YOGA OUTREACH PROJECT

Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta to prepare them for the final test.
He passed the microphone to me and I introduced myself and
told them that I was here so that I could write about this
ground-breaking prison programme. I couldnt help but say how
yogic they all appeared, how impressed I was by their great
accomplishment, how it showed in their faces and in the
respect they had for the teaching. They had clearly absorbed
the spirit of yoga like sponges absorbed water and were clearly
eager to learn.
I passed the microphone back to Mahadev Chaitanya who
began to chant Om and we all joined in. We meditated for
about 20 minutes in silence except for the loud humming of
fans, the clanking of the weight-lifting machines from a nearby
room and the occasional, incomprehensible (to me at least)
announcement over the PA system. A couple of times I opened
my eyes a tiny bit to see how they were sitting. They were
sitting very still with eyes closed, straight backs, relaxed faces
and full concentration as far as I could tell.
After the meditation we chanted Jaya Ganesha which is the
same whether it is sung in an ashram or in a prison. When
I was passed the microphone, I chanted Vande Gurudev. Then
Mahadev Chaitanya asked if anyone else wanted to lead
a chant. At first there were no takers, but soon a long-haired
inmate, who introduced himself as Dog, came up and sang
one of my favourites, written in English by Swami Sivananda.
Serve. Love. Give. Purify. Meditate. Realize. Be good. Do good.
Be kind. Be compassionate. Inquire who am I. Know thyself and
be free. You will soon attain immortality. Dog had a great
smile and a nice voice for this song of freedom. We broke into
four groups and migrated to the corners of the gym.

My group was taught by an enthusiastic and serious inmate
named Cliff who really knew his stuff. It was hard to imagine
him ever committing a felony. That was true of most of the
inmates, but especially him. His face was unmarked. He looked
... he could have been teaching at any

Sivananda Centre or Ashram, and you
would think, Wow, this guy is good.
His tone was very relaxing and I soon
forgot I was in prison.
young and focused. He could have been teaching at any
Sivananda Centre, or Ashram, and you would think, Wow,
this guy is good. His tone was very relaxing and I soon forgot
I was in prison. My awareness was focused on the postures,
and another kind of freedom showed itself to me in Otisville.
Then it was over and it was time to go. Mahadev Chaitanya
and I passed through the heavy doors on our way out. They
slammed shut behind us with the same heavy sound as when
we entered. Lucky us, we could leave.
But I knew the answer to the question I had asked. The
answer was yes there is freedom in prison and Yoga shows
the way. n
Mahadev Chaitanya is manager of the Sivananda Yoga Ranch and
teaches in the TTC and ATTC worldwide. email: sivanandayogaranch.org
71
ASHRAM AND CENTRE NEWS
Ashram and Centre News

CHENG DU, CHINA
Above: Staff and Karma Yogis. Below: The building where the Centre is situated
After much ground work and

many yoga retreats in China,
we are happy to announce
that China has joined the
Sivananda Yoga community
with the opening of the SYVC
centre in Cheng du, south
west of China, near the
Tibetan border. Chengdu city,
in Sichuan province (famous for its delicious hot food) is the fifth largest
city in China with a metro population of 7.4 million, and is considered
to be the most livable megacity in China. It is a tourist destination with
many ancient temples and monasteries. It is also the home of the
famous giant panda bears! Chengdu was chosen for the Yoga Festival
India-China in June 2015, where Nataraj and Kalyani from the Neyyar
Dam in Ashram India, taught Sivananda Yoga to the large number of
Chinese in attendance, translated by Sivani.
The opening of the first Chinese SYVC Centre in October 2015 follows
the first Teachers Training Course in Chengdu, China, in SeptemberOctober 2015. It was taught by Swami Sitaramananda, Swami
Pranavananda, Ananta Chaitanya and Ganga, hosted and translated
by our two Chinese staff, Sivani and Sundari who are the staff running
the Centre. The Teachers Training Course was offered in a traditional
Buddhist temple in the mountains surrounded by trees that were
thousands of years old!
The new Centre is located on the first floor in a large building of 8 floors
near the central part of the city.
www.sivananda.org/china
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat
72
Ground breaking puja for the new temple
In response to demand, the Yoga Retreat also held its first-ever TTC
in June 2015 and will offer its first-ever TTC in November 2015.
In order to meet the needs of increasing numbers of guests, a design
planning meeting was held in May 2015 to revisit the Ashram Master
Plan. The focus was on new construction projects and upgrades to our
existing facilitys structures and infrastructure over the next five years
to permit increased capacity and enable year-round programming.
Within this context, three new construction projects were identified /
reconfirmed as priorities: the new main temple, kitchen relocation and
upgrade, and a new dormitory. A Vaastu architect completed the design
for the new temple and plans have begun for fundraising. On April 21,
2015 we conducted the Bhoomi Puja (the ground breaking puja) for
the new temple.
On June 21, 2015, the Yoga Retreat collaborated with the High Commission
of India to celebrate the worlds first International Day of Yoga, successfully hosting members of the local community for a yoga class, lecture,
and a vegetarian lunch.
For the fourth year running, Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas
was awarded the distinction by TripAdvisor of a Top Ranked Property
on Paradise Island, Bahamas and received the Certificate of Excellence
for 2015. It has been a busy year at the Ashram in the Bahamas!
www.sivanandabahamas.org
LONDON, UK
Extensive renovations of the
middle house started at the
beginning of July. The building
was completely stripped
down, floor by floor from the
basement to the loft and the
demolition process even
included the removal of the
entire roof. A blank sheet has
thus been provided for the full
transformation of the
premises. This refurbishment project also comprises the enlargement of
the reception and shop area where a lobby will be created for all to sit
and meet. The renovations are progressing very well and the new
reception area will be officially inaugurated during 5 days of festive
celebrations from 2 7 April, 2016.
NASSAU, BAHAMAS
The Yoga Retreat again
experienced high numbers
of guests during the 2015
season. We opened several
new buildings, including the
Saraswati building, adding
eight ocean view rooms to
make a total of 16 beds, and
the Annapurna Devi House,
dedicated to juice fasting,
cleansing and nutrition
programmes.
The new Saraswati Building
The new Saraswati Building
www.sivananda.co.uk

NEW DELHI INDIA
We celebrated the 1st
International Yoga Day on
June 21st with different
activities such as: Open class,
Introductory and Gentle yoga
classes at the park and
Introductory class for Research
institute employees in Delhi
at their work place.
A sponsored T-Shirt and
special booklet were distributed during the Celebration. Reporters from
different electronic media and newspapers visited us for interviews and
we explained the five points of yoga as taught by Swami Vishnudevananda.
We also participated in a Panel discussion on NDTV regarding International Yoga Day.
Starting from May 2015, we are conducting monthly workshops in
Jammu for Power Grid employees at their employer development centre.
The Centre was busy for 15 days with Kids Camp in June. We performed
Guru Pada Pooja on Guru Poornima day. We are making the necessary
preparations to open the new branch in Noida, Sector 50. It will be
open from September 8th 2015 (Swami Sivanandas birthday). We completed the flooring of the entrance starting from the main gate to the
back rooms.
www.sivananda.org/delhi/home.php
NEW YORK, USA

inspiration. After this, many more guest speakers have been infusing our
evening public satsangs with a lot of inspiration on different topics
related to our yogic practices.
www.sivananda.org/ny
REITH, TYROL, AUSTRIA

The summer of 2015 was
exceptionally long and warm
and we spent all our time
outside, be it for yoga classes
and lectures on the cedar
platform, relaxing on the
Ganesha platform, tending to
our ever flourishing garden or
taking silent walks in nature.
The weather also provided the
perfect conditions for our most popular programme, Yoga and Mountain
Magic. Amidst the clear skies, the vast views of the mountains are breathtaking and the mountain meadows were in bloom with an array of colourful
mountain flowers until the end of August.
We were very blessed to learn from several very dedicated and knowledgeable teachers. Most fascinating was the way the ancient and the new
were woven together like a fine tapestry. This included ancient knowledge,
like the vast science of Ayurveda or contemplations from the Raja Yoga
Sutras on what true freedom means. The Bhagavata Saptaha presenting
the teachings of wisdom of the Srimad Bhagavatam encased in elevating
sound structures. The study of Yoga, Mind and Brain then showed that
one can directly change the structure of our brain through yoga practices
of asanas, pranayama and meditation.
If we learned one valuable lesson this summer it is this, that yoga
is a living entity never losing its roots but always willing to grow.
www.sivananda.org/tyrol
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

The reception area received a new face-lift
With the grace of Master and Swamiji the attendance of classes has been
building up well this year. Special classes like deaf yoga, gentle yoga,
pregnancy and advanced asanas keep building up a solid attendance.
This summer season has been very busy at the Centre. Karma yogis have
been working hard on backyard renovations. We continue in our efforts
to freshen up the appearance of the Centre and this year our main focus
has been on our boutique, which has now been re-stocked with many
new items. Our reception area also received a face-lift with the addition
of some comfortable seating which has already proved very popular with
students and visitors.
In the month of July we started to receive a wave of special visitors
coming to stay at the Centre. We first welcomed a big group of senior
staff from the Bahamas led by Swami Swaroopananda. Swamiji gave a
satsang which was as usual full of energy, great humour and a lot of
After 27 years on Arguello

Boulevard in a rented building,
by the grace of guru, the San
Francisco SYVC was blessed to
find a new permanent home
in the Outer Sunset area of San
Francisco, one block from Stern
Grove park, 1.5 miles to the
beach (visible from the front door) and 3 miles from the former location.
The large, 800 square foot main Yoga room and temple with its red oak
floor accommodates all sizes of yoga classes and workshops and offers
a warm ambiance for ceremonies, Satsangs and concerts. During the May
2015 Grand Re-Opening with Swami Vasishtanandas vastu and guru
pujas, Swami Sitaramananda and current director Sankari Chaitanya
reminded us all how this is one of the oldest yoga Centres in this yoga
city and that it is a historical Centre as Swami Vishnudevanandaji set foot
in San Francisco in 1957 to start his mission in the west! All are welcome
to visit. Residential facilities are limited.
www.sivanandasf.org
73

NEYYAR DAM, KERALA, INDIA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram
Since its inception in 1978, Dhanwantari Ashram continues to be the

flagship of the organisation in India. Although the ashram has been
developed to a large extent, numerous renovations are ongoing. The
regular TTC, ATTC, Kids Camp, Ayurveda Wellness Course, Panchakarma
Detoxification, Fasting Detoxification and South India Yatra programmes
attract visitors from all corners of the earth.
www.sivananda.org/neyyardam
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
During springtime we made
some changes to our Asana
rooms on the 1st floor. New
corner altars were installed,
the walls were repainted,
and we rearranged the Asana
pictures of Swami Vishnudevananda. The rooms were
improved considerably by this.
We also implemented a new
automatic heating system
in the Asana rooms, which
hopefully will help save
energy. During summer the
Indian priest Sri Krishna was
at the Centre for 2 months performing daily pujas in the temple room
as well as Poojas for spiritual feasts. The energy of the Centre and
especially of the temple room was greatly uplifted.
www.sivananda.org/vienna
MADURAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

TRIVANDRUM, KERALA, INDIA

The Trivandrum Centre was
established by Swami
Vishnudevananda in 1986 and
it was the first Centre to be
established in India. Over the
years it has gone through
many transformations. Since
the inauguration of the new
building in 2009, student
numbers have steadily increased making it one of the busiest Centres
worldwide. Rajesh and Shinu have recently become the directors.
We look forward to many new developments.
The Madurai Centre was

founded in 2004, two years
after the Meenakshi Ashram.
From humble beginnings it has
blossomed into an attractive
centre occupying two floors
in KK Nagar. The roof terrace
and reception were recently
updated with enclosed tinted
glass panels to protect against
the harsh elements. Under the
capable directorship of Yashpal the Centre is a useful resource for the
city of Madurai.
www.sivananda.org/maduraicentre
www.sivananda.org/trivandrum
CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA
MEDITATION AND MANTRAS

IN VIETNAMESE

Established in 1989, Chennai
centre has always been known
for its friendly and informal
atmosphere. The centre offers
an ideal ambience with
spacious attractive halls in the
quiet suburb of Kottivakkam,
a hundred metres from the
beach front. Director Gopan
always makes students and guests feel at home with a warm smile.
www.sivananda.org/chennai
74
The new translation of Meditation

and Mantras into Vietnamese is now
available at the Hochi Minh Sivananda
Yoga Vedanta Centre.
The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga

is also available in Vietnamese.
HEADING
Teachers Training Course

March 13th April 10th, 2016
June 2nd June 30th, 2016
Sept 7th Oct 5th, 2016
Juice Detoxification
July 14th July 24, 2016
Advanced Teachers Training Course

July 7th August 4th, 2016
Permaculture Design Course

September 7th 21st, 2016
sivanandayogaranch.org 1- 845 - 436 - 6492 [email protected]
75
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp, Val Morin, Quebec, Canada
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat, Nassau Bahamas
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhan
Sivananda Ashram and Centre Addresses

Sivananda Ashram Yoga Camp
673 Eighth avenue, Val Morin
Qubec, J0T 2R0, CANADA
Tel.: +1 819 322 32 26
Fax: +1 819 322 58 76
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.sivananda.org/camp
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch
P.O. Box 195, 500 Budd Road
Woodbourne, NY 12788, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 845 436 64 92
Fax: +1 845 363 46 31
Web: www.sivanandayogaranch.org
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat
P.O. Box N 7550
Paradise Island, Nassau, BAHAMAS
Tel.: 1 416 479 01 99 (from all countries including
the USA and Canada)
Tel.: +1 866 559 51 67 (toll free only from the
USA and Canada)
Tel.: 1 242 363 29 02 (from the Bahamas)
Fax: 1 242 363 37 83
Web: www.sivanandabahamas.org
Sivananda Yoga Dhanwantari Ashram
P.O. Neyyar Dam, Dt. Thiruvananthapuram
Kerala 695 572, INDIA
Mobile: (00.91) 949 563 09 51
Web: www.sivananda.org/neyyardam
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm
14651 Ballantree Lane, Comp. 8
Grass Valley, CA 95949, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 530 272 93 22
Tel. (USA): 1 800 469 9642
Web: www.sivanandayogafarm.org
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Minakshi Ashram
(near Pavana Vilakku Junction)
New Nathan Road, Saramthangi Village
Vellayampatti P.O.
Madurai district 625 503
Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Tel.: +91 98 65 65 53 36
Tel.: +91 98 65 15 53 35
Web: www.sivananda.org/madurai
Sivananda Kutir (near Siror Bridge)
P.O. Netala, Uttara Kashi District
Uttaranchal, Himalayas 249193, INDIA
Tel.: +91 90 12 78 94 28
Tel.: +91 99 27 09 97 26
Web: www.sivananda.org/netala
Bichlach, 40
6370, Reith near Kitzbhel, AUSTRIA
Tel.: +43 (0)53 56 67 404
Fax: +43 (0)53 56 67 4044
Web: www.sivananda.org/tyrol
Ashram de Yoga Sivananda
26 impasse du Bignon,
45170 Neuville aux bois, FRANCE
Tel.: +33 (0)2 38 91 88 82
Fax: +33 (0)2 38 91 18 09
Web: www.sivananda.org/orleans
CENTRES
INDIA
SPAIN
ARGENTINA

A-41, Kailash Colony
New Delhi 110 048, INDIA
Tel.: +91 11 29 23 09 62
Mobile: +91 88 60 95 44 55
Web: www.sivananda.org/delhi/home.php
Centro de Yoga Sivananda Vedanta

Calle Eraso 4
Madrid 28028, SPAIN
Tel.: +34.91 361 51 50
Fax: +34.91 361 51 94
Web: www.sivananda.org/madrid
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dwarka Centre

PSP Pocket, Sector 6
(near DAV school and next to Kamakshi Apts)
Swami Sivananda Marg, Dwarka, INDIA
New Delhi 110 075
Tel.: +91 11 64 56 85 26 or 45 56 60 16
Web: www.sivananda.org/dwarka/home.php
SWITZERLAND
Centro Internacional Yoga Sivananda

Snchez de Bustamante 2372
Capital Federal 1425 Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Tel.: +54 11 48 04 78 13
Fax: +54 11 48 05 42 70
Web: www.sivananda.org/buenosaires
Centro de Yoga Sivananda
Rioja 425
8300 Neuqun, ARGENTINA
Tel.: +54 29 94 42 55 65
Web: www.sivananda.org/neuquen
AUSTRIA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Zentrum
Prinz Eugen Strae 18
1040 Wien, AUSTRIA
Tel.: +43 1 586 34 53 0
Fax: +43 1 586 34 53 40
Web: www.sivananda.org/vienna
BRAZIL
Centro Sivananda de Yoga Vedanta
Rua Santo Antnio 374
Bairro Independncia
Porto Alegre 90 220 - 010 RS, BRAZIL
Tel.: +55 51 30 24 77 17
Web: www.sivananda.org/portoalegre
CANADA
5178, Saint Laurent boulevard
Montreal, Quebec, H2T 1R8, CANADA
Tel.: +1 514 279 35 45
Web: www.sivananda.org/montreal
77 Harbord Street
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1G4, CANADA
Tel.: +1 416 966 96 42
Fax: +1 416 966 13 78
Web: www.sivananda.org/toronto
CHINA
Zhonghuayuan Xiuyuan 30-3-202
5 Tongzilin East Road
Wuhou District, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, CHINA
Tel +86 028-86257086 or +86 189-8064-2709
Email: [email protected]
www.sivanandayogachina.org
FRANCE
Centre Sivananda de Yoga Vedanta
140 rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin
75010 Paris, FRANCE
Tel.: +33 (0)1 40 26 77 49
Fax: +33 (0)1 42 33 51 97
Web: www.sivananda.org/paris
GERMANY
Steinheilstrasse 1
Mnchen 80333, GERMANY
Tel.: +49 089 700 9669 0
Fax: +49 089 700 9669 69
Web: www.sivananda.org/munich
Schmiljanstrasse 24
D-12161 Berlin, GERMANY
Tel: +49.30.8599.9798
Fax: +49.30.8599.9797
Web: www.sivananda.org/berlin
76

TC 37/1927 (5), Airport road,
West Fort P. O.
695 023 Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, INDIA
Tel.: +91.471 245 09 42
Mobile: +91.94 97 00 84 32
Web: www.sivananda.org/trivandrum
3/655 (Plot No. 131) Kaveri Nagar
Kuppam Road Kottivakkam, INDIA
Chennai (Madras) 600 041
Tel.: +91 44 2451 1626 / 2451 2546
Web: www.sivananda.org/chennai
444, K.K. Nagar. East 9th Street
625 020 Madurai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Tel.: +91.452 252 11 70 or 252 26 34
Mobile: +91.909 224 07 02
Web: www.sivananda.org/maduraicentre
C-46, Sector 50
Noida 201304, INDIA
Tel.: +91 96 54 47 20 73
Mobile : +91 88 60 95 44 55
Web: www.sivananda.org/noida/home.php
ISRAEL
6 Lateris Street, ISRAEL
Tel Aviv 64166
Tel.: +972 03 691 67 93
Fax: +972 03 696 39 39
Web: www.sivananda.co.il
ITALY
Centro Yoga Vedanta Sivananda Roma
Via Oreste Tommasini, 7
Roma 00162, ITALY
Tel.: +39 06 45 49 65 29
Mobile: +39 347 426 1345
Web: sivananda-yoga-roma.it
JAPAN
4-15-3 Koenji-kita, Suginami-ku
Tokyo 1660002, JAPAN
Tel.: +81 03 53 56 77 91
Web: www.sivananda.jp
LITHUANIA
ASHRAMS
Sivananda Jogos Vedantos Centras

M.K. Ciurlionio g. 66
Vilnius 03100, LITHUANIA
Tel.: +370 (8) 64 87 28 64
Web: www.sivananda.org/vilnius
Centre Sivananda de Yoga Vedanta

1 rue des Minoteries
Geneva 1205, SWITZERLAND
Tel.: +41 022 328 03 28
Fax: +41 022 328 03 59
Web: www.sivananda.org/geneva
UNITED KINGDOM
45 51 Felsham Road
London SW15 1AZ, UK
Tel.: +44 020 87 80 01 60
Fax: +44 020 87 80 01 28
Web: www.sivananda.co.uk
UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center
1246 West Bryn Mawr
Chicago, IL 60660, U.S.A.
Tel.: (00.1) 773 878 77 71
Web: sivanandachicago.org
243 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 212 255 45 60
Fax: +1 212 727 73 92
Web: www.sivananda.org/ny
1185 Vicente Street
San Francisco, CA 94116, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 415 681 27 31
Web: www.sivanandasf.org
13325 Beach Avenue
Marina del Rey, CA 90292, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 310 822 96 42
Web: www.sivanandala.org
URUGUAY
Asociacin de Yoga Sivananda
Acevedo Daz 1523
Montevideo 11200, URUGUAY
Tel.: +598 24 01 09 29 / 66 85
Fax: +598 24 00 73 88
Web: www.sivananda.org/montevideo
VIETNAM
25 Tran Quy Khoach street, District 1
Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM
Tel.: +84 6680 5427 or +84 6680 5428
Web: www.sivanandayogavietnam.org
34 Suong Nguyet Anh Street
Dalat, VIETNAM
Tel.: +84 63 650 1900
Web: www.sivanandayogavietnam.org
wantari Ashram, Kerala, India
AFFILIATED CENTRES
AUSTRALIA
Sivananda Yoga Centre
The Shellin 40 Ninth Avenue
Katoomba, NSW 2780, AUSTRALIA
Tel.: +61 02 47 82 32 45
Yoga White Lotus Sivananda Tradition
2a Castle Drive
Lennox Head, NSW, AUSTRALIA
Tel.: +61 04 77 94 36 97
Tel.: +61 04 03 83 87 50
www.whitelotusyoga.com
BOLIVIA
Centro de Yoga Sivananda Santa Cruz
Calle Junin 271
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, BOLIVIA
Tel.: +591 333 15 08
Mobile: +591 77 06 04 72
www.sivanandascz.com
BRAZIL
Yoga Hall
Av. Dr. Helio Palermo 2888 Bairro: Jardim Samello
Franca SP CEP: 14401-000, BRAZIL
Tel.: +55 16 30 12 29 88
Web: www.yogahall.zip.net

236, 5th Cross, third block,
HRBR Layout
Bangalore, Karnataka, 560043, INDIA
Tel.: +91 080 57 63 71 44
Mobile: +91 94 48 46 44 48
Arsha Yoga Gurukulam
Double Cutting
Calvarimount Post
Idukki district, Kerala 680 681, INDIA
Tel.: +91 480 284 60 80
www.arshayoga.org
T. Raghavan
Kripa, Kundanmur
Maradu P.O.
Kochi 682304, Kerala, INDIA
Sarath Kumar
Balan K. Nair Road, Asokapuram
Kozhikode, Kerala 673 001, INDIA
Tel.: +91 495 277 17 54
Tel.: +91 495 277 03 84
Mobile: +91 944 695 36 52
CANADA

Laksmi Sadan
College Road
Palakkad, Kerala 678 001, INDIA
Tel.: +91 491 254 51 17
Tel.: +91 491 254 45 49
Yoga Sivananda de l'Outaouais

745 Chemin d'Aylmer
Gatineau (secteur Aylmer)
Qubec, J9H 0B8, CANADA
Tel.: +1 819 684 20 84
www.yoga-aylmer.com

Nedunghattu Kalam
Mankurussi, Mankara
Palakkad, Kerala 678 613, INDIA
Tel.: +91 491 210 75 50
Mobile: +91 944 65 55 44 90
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre Vancouver

1202-2055 Pendrell Street
Vancouver, B.C. V6G 1T9, CANADA
Tel.: +1 604 880 21 09
www.sivanandavancouver.com
INDONESIA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre affiliated

Lakshmi, Sivaram & Sasi
108 Des Berges, CANADA
Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, J7V 9X2
Tel.: +1 450 510 26 56 or 57
CHILE
Centro de Yoga Sivananda
Cinco Norte 1160 Depto. 21
2520000 Via del Mar, CHILE
Tel.: +56 9 97 35 92 30
Tel.: +56 3 23 20 73 02
www.yogasivananda.cl
GERMANY
International Sivananda Yoga Centre
Kleiner Kielort 8
20144 Hamburg, GERMANY
Tel.: +49 040 41 42 45 46
Fax: +49 040 41 42 45 45
www.artyoga.de
INDIA
L-12, 26th Street
Annanagar East
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600102, INDIA
Tel.: +91 44 26 63 09 78
Sivananda Retreat House, Reith near Kitzbhel, Tyrol, Austria
Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm, Grass Valley, California
Bali Yoga and Wellness

Jl Tunjung Mekar 58
Br Peliatan, Kerobakan, Bali, INDONESIA
Tel.: +62 081 23 80 40 46
www.baliyogawellness.com
IRAN
Daneshe Yoga Centre
No 16+1, beside zirak zade st., Aram Alley,
Soleiyman khater St. Hafte Tir
SQ. Tehran, IRAN
Tel.: +98 021 88 304 505
Tel.: +98 021 883 18 189
Fax: +98 021 883 19 054
www.danesheyoga.com
ISRAEL
3 Reuven Street. Jerusalem
Tel.: +972 02 671 48 54, ISRAEL
www.2all.co.il/web/Sites9/yogajerusalem/
8 Amnon and Tamar Street. Apt 1
Herzelia, ISRAEL
Tel.: +972 09 956 10 04
ITALY
SRI LANKA
Sivananda Yoga Firenze

Via de Marsili 1
50125 Firenze, ITALY
Tel.: +39 328 966 05 01
www.yogaincentro.it
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre (Affiliated)

52 Colombo Road
Piliyandala, SRI LANKA
Tel.: +94 75 5 01 82 27
Elbayoga Associazione Yoga Isola d'Elba

Piazza Palestro 11, ITALY
I-57036 Porto Azzurro (Li)
Tel.: +33 92836494 or +33 94020074
JAMAICA
17 Tremaine Road
Kingston 6
West Indies, JAMAICA
Tel: +1876 381 15 04
LEBANON
522 Gouraud Street. Third floor, Apt 3A
Gemayzeh, Beirut, LEBANON
Tel.: +961 1 56 67 70
www.vintob.com/beirutyoga/contactus.html
NEW ZEALAND
145a Tukapa Street
Westown, New Plymouth, 4310, NEW ZEALAND
Tel.: +64 (06) 753 82 34
www.sivanandayoga.co.nz
POLAND
Szkota Jogi Odrobina Dobrej Woli
ul. Zarudawie 11
30-144 Krakw, POLAND
Tel: +48.509.83.85.86
www.yoga.sivananda.org.pl/Home.html
UNITED STATES
Be In Awe Yoga
2220 Rivenoak Ct.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 734 213 0435
www.BeInAweYoga.com
East Aurora Yoga
An affiliated Sivananda Center
43 Pine Street
East Aurora, NY 14052, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 716 319 07 25
www.eayoga.com
Yoga Center of Key Biscayne
971 Crandon blvd, Suite 911
Key Biscayne, FL 33149, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 786 294 01 63
Web: www.yogacenterkb.com
Yoga and Inner Peace
3964 Lake Worth Road
Lake Worth, FL 33461-4054, U.S.A.
Tel.: +1 561 641 88 88
VIETNAM
Sundaris Yoga Studio
Room 3408 - Floor 34th - Diamond Flower Tower
C1 Lot - Hoang Dao Thuy Street - Thanh Xuan
District
Hanoi City, VIETNAM
Tel: +84906226156
Hotline: +84979751757
Email: [email protected]
www.sundariyoga.com.vn
PORTUGAL
de Lisboa
Rua Jose Carlos dos Santos
No. 12 1 Andar
1700-257 Lisbon, PORTUGAL
Tel: +351.21.7971.431
www.sivananda.pt
RUSSIA
Yoga Yamuna Studio
13aya Parkovaya, 27/3
105484 Moscow, RUSSIA
Tel.: +7 (495) 505 04 21
www.yamunastudio.ru
SINGAPORE
Affiliated Singapore
21B (third floor) Bukit Pasoh Road
Singapore 089835
Tel.: +65 90 67 91 00
Tel.: +65 98 38 67 04
www.sivananda.com.sg
More information about

the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta
Ashrams and Centres:
www.sivananda.org
and www.sivananda.eu
SPAIN
Granada-afiliado
Fundador Swami Vishnudevananda
Calle ngel 13
18002 Granada, SPAIN
Tel.: 660288571
www.sivanandagranada.es
77
The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta
Teachers Training Course
Swami Sivananda
(1887 1963)
Swami Vishnudevananda
(1927 1993)
Over 37,000
Yoga Teachers
Certified
since1969
Yoga is a system of integral education, not only of the mind, but also of the inner spirit.
Swami Sivananda
2016 DATES AND LOCATIONS

An intensive four week
immersion in the yogic
way of life:
Open to students of all levels
who have a sincere desire
to learn. Certificate given
upon successful completion
of the course.
Recognized by Yoga Alliance.
In depth study of: Asanas,
Pranayama, Meditation,
Mantras, Vedanta, Bhagavad
Gita, Kriyas, Yogic Diet,
Anatomy & Physiology.
ALUENDA, SPAIN
NEAR VILNIUS, LITHUANIA
August 15 September 10, 2016
RUDRAPRAYAG,
HIMALAYAS, INDIA
BARILOCHE, ARGENTINA
NASSAU, BAHAMAS
February 20 March 20, 2016

October 22 November 20, 2016
March 6 April 3, 2016
January 4 January 31, 2016

March 4 March 31, 2016
April 3 April 30, 2016,
May 3 May 30, 2016
June 2 June 29, 2016
GAROPABA, BRAZIL
NETALA, HIMALAYAS, INDIA
CHENGDU, CHINA
September 24 October 22, 2016
DALAT, VIETNAM
January 6 February 3, 2016
GRASS VALLEY, CA, USA

May 7 June 4, 2016
July 9 August 6, 2016
LONDON, UK
May 28 June 25, 2016
MADURAI, SOUTH INDIA

January 3 31, 2016
November 20 December 18, 2016
www.sivananda.org
www.sivananda.eu
April 3 May 1, 2016

June 12 July 10, 2016
NEYYAR DAM, SOUTH INDIA

January 10 February 7, 2016
ORLEANS, FRANCE
May 18 June 15, 2016
QUEBEC, CANADA
THAILAND
TYROL, AUSTRIA
April 30 May 29, 2016
June 4 July 2, 2016
December 17, 2016 15 January, 2017
USTKA, POLAND
WOODBOURNE, NY, USA

June 2 June 30, 2016

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Yoga Life 2015 Final Single pages_Yoga Life 2014 23/11/2015 13:08 Page 1

$5 Canada $3.50 US 2.50 UK 3.70 Europe

Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

Nerve Impulse and Prana

SERVE LOVE GIVE PURIFY MEDITATE REALIZE

20th MAHASAMADHI ANNIVERSARY

Welcome to Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas.

YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015

GET ONLINE AND BE A PART OF IT

International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres

Swami Vishnudevananda (1927 1993)

The spiritual strength behind the Sivananda

Born in South India in 1927, Swami

The Executive Board

promote the true spirit of yoga. They taught that

SIVANANDA ASHRAM YOGA CAMP

YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015

International Day of Yoga:

The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre, London

The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, founded by Swami Vishnudevananda

Unity of Existence By Swami Sivananda

Sri Akhandeswara Mahadev Temple Installation Festival

The Young Swamiji

Nerve Impulse and Prana Impulse in your Daily Practice

The Failure of Preventive Medicine By Dr. Gerhard Brand, MD

How the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres

Staff Refresher, 2015 A Special Report by Swami Gokulananda

Mental Processes in Yoga By Swami Durgananda

Recollections of Swami Vishnudevanandas Childhood. By Kamala Devi

The Diaphragm An Amazing Muscle By Swami Rajeshwarananda

The Joy of Watching an Ashram Grow

A Funny Thing Happened to me on the Way Home

Peace Dj Vu A personal experience of the Advanced Teachers Training Course

Developments at Madurai Ashram, South India

Night Blindness Understanding the significance of night in our lives, health,

Sivananda Ashram and Centre News

Sivananda Ashram and Centre Addresses

Updates on new developments in Ashrams and Centres around the world

A listing of Sivananda Ashrams, Centres and teachers worldwide

ne Soul abides in all. There is one humanity and

YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015

a paradise of beauty. It will be a haven of peace and tranquillity.

There is only one religion:

YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015

MENTAL PROCESSES IN YOGA

"How can I keep up my regular yoga practice if I live in

YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015

MENTAL PROCESSES IN YOGA

he mental capacity for yoga sadhana or spiritual

us exists in exactly the same way within ourselves, that is what

A yogi is a person who is aware

MENTAL PROCESSES IN YOGA

It requires mental training to keep your

YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015

the only one to whom this happens. The whole of humanity

Taken from lectures given by Swami Durgananda in February

THE QUALITIES OF NATURE

Rudraprayag, Himalayas 2016

India Himalaya Pilgrimage

Sivananda Kutir, Uttarkashi Himalayas