What is SatyanandaYoga?
Swami Satyananda Saraswati was a great visionary whose mission has been the development of an integrated yoga system which incorporates practical philosophy and a wholistic lifestyle.
Swami Satyananda brought to light ancient yogic teachings from sacred scriptures and lost traditions. He framed them in a modern language which incorporates both traditional and scientific understandings.
If the head, the heart and the hands do not function in harmony, there is restlessness in life. This restlessness may be on the mental, emotional, physical or spiritual level. Though its manifestation is legion, it always results in the shattering of inner peace.
Yoga practices developed by Swami Satyananda Saraswati and the Bihar School of Yoga aim to harmonise all levels of human life and experience through practical means.
This system is known as Satyananda Yoga® and the Yoga Vision site further elucidates the teachings and training offered by the tradition. www.yogavision.net
The Lineage of Satyananda Yoga
Swami Sivananda was a spiritual visionary of the 20th Century and an inspiration for the Satyananda tradition. He was born in Tamil Nadu, India in 1887. In 1924, Swami Sivananda renounced his longstanding medical practice in Malayasia and went to Rishikesh where he was initiated into Dashnami Sannyasa by Swami Vishwananda Saraswati. Inspired to bring yoga to the masses, Swami Sivananda tirelessly toured throughout India, inspiring people to practice yoga and lead a divine life. He founded the Divine Life Society at Rishikesh in 1936, the Sivananda Ayurvedic Pharmacy in 1945, the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy in 1948 and the Sivananda Eye Hospital in 1957. During his lifetime Swami Sivananda guided thousands of disciples and aspirants all over the world and authored over 200 books.
Swami Satyananda Saraswati remains a spiritual guide to tens of thousands and the founder of the Satyananda Yoga tradition. He was born in 1923. At the age of nineteen he came to live and take sannyasa from his guru Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. There he tirelessly served in the ashram for over 12 years. Upon leaving, he wandered through India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Burma and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for the next 8 years, extending his knowledge of spiritual practices. He eventually found his way to Munger, Bihar. In 1963 he founded the International Yoga Fellowship Movement and the Bihar School of Yoga a year later. He travelled around the world for the next twenty years teaching yoga, following the mandate given to him by Swami Sivananda to spread yoga, ‘from shore to shore and door to door.’ He also authored over 80 books on Yoga, Tantra and Spirituality. In 1988, he retired from active involvement in yoga teaching and handed over all he had created to his disciple Swami Niranjanananda. From then until the time that he parted his body on 5th December 2009, he lived in seclusion in his ashram in Jharkhand, India, where he continued to inspire others to support the local community and improve their quality of life through the organisation he founded in memory of his guru, ‘Sivananda Math’.
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati is a modern master of yoga, whose understanding spans both the scientific Western culture and the mystical wisdom of the East. Swami Niranjanananda was born in 1960 in Rajnandgaon, Madhya Pradesh, India. He is considered by his followers to be a yogi from birth. He began his training at Bihar School of Yoga in India at the age of four. Beginning in 1971, at the age of eleven, he toured extensively in Europe, America and Australia. In 1983 he returned to India and was appointed the Preceptor of Bihar School of Yoga. For the next eleven years, he spearheaded the research and development activities at Bihar School of Yoga, Sivananda Math and the Yoga Research Foundation. In 1990, he was initiated in the tradition of Paramahansa and in 1993 he was designated as the successor to Paramahansa Satyananda. In 1994, he established Bihar Yoga Bharati an institute for higher studies in the field of Yoga. Swami Niranjanananda exemplifies the harmony and fortitude of a yogi and he inspires all who encounter him.
For more information about Satyananda Yoga see www.yogavision.net
