Introduction

Yoga, with its roots in India, is a living tradition, with many organisations throughout the world dedicated to disseminating its ancient wisdom teachings. The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre is one of these, with a worldwide reputation for its high standard of teaching methods, adopted as a model by many other organisations and teachers.

Yoga is a broad and wide-ranging science encompassing many different paths, teaching methods and approaches. The four main paths of yoga, as traditionally practised in India are raja yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and jnana yoga. (The practice of yoga postures (asanas) are considered to be one of the limbs, and as such an integral part, of the path of raja yoga.) Practice in all these paths is a prerequisite for a traditional yoga teacher.

During the first half of the twentieth century many of the great yoga masters of India recognised that the West was in need of, and ready for, the universal science of yoga. Swami Sivananda, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Auro-bindo and Paramahamsa Yogananda and their disciples were among the main proponents of yoga in the West. Although he never left India, Swami Sivananda influenced many thousands of people throughout the world through his writings (over 300 titles published) and drew many to travel to India to study yoga with him in Rishikesh near the foothills of the Himalayas. His prodigious correspondence served as personal tuition to those who were unable to travel. Many of the well-known teachers and authors of yoga in the West have studied directly under Swami Sivananda or one of his close disciples and it is because of their work that we see such a growth in yoga today. The practice of yoga in the West started to flourish when Swami Sivananda sent one of his closest disciples, Swami Vishnudevananda, to the United States of America in 1957. His mission was to disseminate a system of teaching that integrated the four main paths of yoga. In 1959 Swami Vishnudevananda founded the first of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in America and in the 1970s founded the first of many in Europe. With many thousands of yoga teachers worldwide trained since 1969, the organisation is considered to be one of the few in the world which upholds the practice of all aspects of the classical teachings of integral yoga.

The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre is now considered the largest yoga organisation in the world with eight ashrams, and over thirty city centres and many more affiliated centres around the world. The European sector keeps close contact with teachers and traditions in India through its ashrams and centres there and encourages dialogue with other organisations. The training programmes are continuously linked to study centres in India and other international centres.

Our teaching comprises as follows:

•  raja and hatha yoga, viz asanas, pranayama, kriyas, mudras, bandhas, concentration and meditation, and the study and practice of the classical raja yoga text The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
•  bhakti yoga, viz. mantra chanting, pujas, and other devotional practices
•  karma yoga (selfless service) through the voluntary work of all its staff members and students.
•  jnana yoga based on the classical Vedanta philosophy of the sage Sankaracharya
•  the study of the Bhagavad Gita, considered to be of paramount importance in attaining an understanding of the above paths.

The teaching is not only academic in its approach, but contains a strong emphasis on practical experience. Swami Sivananda's dictum ‘an ounce of practice is worth tons of theory' is strictly adhered to. Many of the teachers dedicate their lives to the study and practise of yoga, living within the organisation as renunciants or swamis.

YOGA AS DIRECT EXPERIENCE

THE SIVANANDA YOGA TEACHERS' TRAINING COURSE (TTC)

In 1969 Swami Vishnudevananda taught the first Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training Course (TTC) in the West, a continuation of the courses of the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy of the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh in India. He was the first in theWest to develop a training programme for yoga teachers. He did this not only with the vision to develop yoga professionals, but also to give sincere aspirants the skills of personal discipline and to develop the students into instruments of peace.

During four weeks of intensive training (401 classes of instruction of 45 minutes each) the student receives a thorough exposure to all aspects of the practice, theory and philosophy of yoga, and a direct experience of an expansion of consciousness. The Course is a profound personal experience, based on the ancient gurukula teaching system, integrating the student's daily life into the yoga training. The student is exposed to and partakes of the all-encompassing experience of yoga, an experience they, as a teacher, can subsequently bequeath to their students.

The direct contact with experienced teachers highlights the student's own limited consciousness and is afforded the utmost importance during the course. The TTC is taught by the yoga acharyas who were nominated by Swami Vishnudevananda, and initiated successors of Swami Sivananda. After successful completion of the training course, the participants receive the diploma of the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy in Rishikesh in the Himalayas, and the Headquarters of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Val Morin, Canada. The title given for a TTC graduate is that of Yogi Siromani , meaning Crown Jewel of Yoga; for a graduate of the Advanced Teachers' Training Course (ATTC) the title is Yoga Acharya , meaning Yoga Master.

The training courses have been running continuously worldwide since 1969. The atmosphere at the places of training is marked by universal respect and caring towards the pure yoga teaching, teachers and students. In the quiet and stillness of the Ashram, the student has the opportunity to open him or herself to the practice of yoga. Men and women come from all over the world to participate in the training, which is given in English with simultaneous translation into European languages, as well as Hebrew, Japanese, Hindi and Malayalam. The training course is further supported by guest speakers internationally renowned in fields related to yoga.

PREREQUISITES FOR TRAINING

It is expected that the aspirant should have acquainted himself with the basic yoga asanas and principles of yoga philosophy before enrolling for the Course. Regular sessions giving information and preparing the student for the Course are held in our Centres worldwide.

The practice of yoga, and in particular the teaching of yoga requires a high degree of self-discipline and purity. The regulated life in an Ashram supports this through:

•  Abstention from consuming meat, fish, eggs, garlic, onions, alcohol, nicotine, and drugs.
•  Mandatory attendance at all classes and events
•  Obedience to instructions by teachers
•  Adherence to the rules and regulations of the Ashram for the purpose of practising a spiritual way of life.

Failure to follow the Ashram rules may result in expulsion from the course.