Yoga is a disciplined adventure of self-discovery
The basic practices of yoga include slow gentle exercise, deep rhythmic breathing, profound relaxation, mental concentration and positive thinking with a meditative attitude. The experience can be sweet and blissful when you embark on your intention to put the theoretical knowledge into practice in your daily life.
About the Founders
Swami Sivananda (1887 – 1963), the spiritual strength behind the Sivananda yoga Vedanta Centers, Swami Sivananda’s teachings are a synthesis of all the formal doctrines of yoga. He wrote over three hundred books and publications, and trained many exceptional teachers in yoga and Vedante – among them, Swami Vishnu-devananda, whom he sent to spread the teachings of Yoga in the West.
Swami Vishnu-devananda (1927 – 1993) lived and trained with Swami Sivananda for 12 years. In 1957 he came to the west, where he founded the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and built up a network of ashrams and yoga centers in North America, Europe and around the world. As a world-renowned master of Hatha and Raja Yoga he helped many people through his teachings and inspired many more through his books: The complete Illustrated Book of Yoga, Meditation and Mantras and The New Book of Yoga. Swami Vishnu-devananda actively worked for World Peace. During his numerous peace missions he flew his small airplane to troubled spots around the world, “bombarding” them with flowers and peace pamphlets.
The International Sivananda Yoga Organization has so far trained over 20,000 Yoga teachers of various religious faiths and cultures and has helped millions of people to find inner peace through the practice of Yoga and Meditation.
The International Sivananda Yoga Organization is one of the largest Yoga institutions in the world. Sivananda Yoga emphasizes the exacting practice of Yoga postures, breathing exercises, relaxation, vegetarian diet, the study of the scriptures and as as meditation, and can even lead to a change in one’s lifestyle.’ Time Magazine, Cover Story, April 2001.
Swami Sivananda Quotes
Serve
The first step in the spiritual path is selfless service of humanity. Selfless service is the watchword along the road to salvation. Service always elevates and makes you divine. Service purifies, redeems and energizes. To live life through service is to be intimate with life’s innermost secret. To serve humanity is to be in union with the Cosmic Consciousness. Therefore selflessly serve humanity with sincerity.
Love
Love is truth and love is God. It is the highest expression of the soul force. Love is the hope of this world. Wherever there is love, there is peace and wherever there is peace, there is joy. Set to work therefore and spread this gospel of cosmic love throughout the whole world. Let the message of love reach the hearts of all and awaken love and brotherhood in the bosom of humanity. Let all the world be encircled with a heart of love.
Give
Give to the poor, the sick, the helpless and the forlorn. Give to the orphans, the decrepit, and the blind. If you give, the whole wealth of the world will be yours. This is the secret of abundance and divine life. Therefore, give, give, give. You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give. Give in plenty, you will enjoy peace and prosperity. You can experience an indescribable thrill of divine ecstasy and spiritual bliss. This will give you tremendous inner strength. Radiate thoughts of good-will and share what you have with others. Disseminate spiritual knowledge to one and all. Use material wealth, knowledge, spiritual wisdom that you possess, as a divine trust for the benefit of His children. Prayer takes you halfway to God, fasting to the door of Hi Supereme Abode, and charity procures your admission.
Purify
Purity of mind bestows calmness, cheerfulness, one-pointedness, victory over snses, and fitness to attain God-realization. The mind must be purified by the practice of virtues, self-control, and devotion to God. When the mind is purified, it becomes your friend, because it wears out the shell that covers the Truth and enables you to realize It. What greater undertaking lies before you than purifyingyour life of all enmity, impurity, hatred, lust, and filling it with love, goodness, peace and purity?
Meditate
Meditation is the only way for attaining immortality and eternal bliss. Meditation destroys all causes of sorrow and pain. Regular meditation makes the mind calm and steady and opens the avenues of intuitional knowledge. When you enter the silence throught deep meditation, the outside world and all your troubles will drop away. You will enjoy Supreme Peace. In this silence is Light of lights. In this silence is real strength and joy. Shut out the doors of the senses. Still the thoughts and emotions. Sit motionless and calm in the early morning hours. Have a receptive attitude. Be along the the Lord, commune with Him. Enjoy the abiding peace in Silence. Meditate regularly and attain Self-realization.
Realize
Live not to satisfy your palate and the senses, but live to Realize the Self within. No vision of truth or no vision of God is possible without annihilating the ego. The Goal of life is God-Realization. Attain this through study, joyful singing, worship and meditation. Realize. Be free.
Be good
Goodness is the greatest virtue. Goodness implies kindness, benevolence and morality. Cultivate good habits. Entertain good, sublime, divine thoughts. The whole of ethics and conduct is contained in this. To be good is divine. If you want to be good, see what is good, hear what is good, think what is good, do what is good, speak what is good, read what is good, write what is good, eat what is good, drink what is good.
Do good
A good deed is never lost. It purifies the heart and leads to the descent of Divine light and the dawn of divine grace. Every good deed is a grain of seed for immortality or eternal life. Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all people you can, in every place you can, at all times you can, with all zeal, strength, love, heart and interest you can, as long as ever you can. Your nature must be to do good. Doing good and bringing happiness to others brings goodness and happiness to you.
Be kind
Cultivate kindness. Kindness is a healing balm. It soothes suffering. A kind peck, a kind word, a kind act – all cost nothing, but bring to others happiness which money cannot buy. Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the speechless understand. Kindness is a direct passport to the kingdom of Eternal Bliss.
Be compassionate
Open your heart to compassion. Understand the sufferings of others and be ever ready to help them. The whole world is one family. All are children of God. The whole world is your abode, share what you have with others. A compassionate heart is the abode of God.
