The Yoga Masters
SWAMI SIVANANDA (1887-1963)
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Swami Sivananda was born into a devout Brahmin family in South India on September 8, 1887. He was a lively child, who, even at an early age, showed signs of great compassion. He had serious migivings about the caste system, which was strictly upheld at the time and as an adolescent he defied convention by taking fencing lessons from an "untouchable", an action quite unthinkable at that time. He excelled at school and become a medical doctor at the age of twenty-three. In 1913 he travelled to Malaysia where he ran two hospitals connected to the rubber plantations which were manned by thousands of Indian workers. |
After ten years of dedicated service to the sick and poor, he left both Malayasia and his comfortable middle-class existence and became a wandering mendicant following the spiritual tradition of India. A year later he took holy orders and became a monk. His sincerity, his generosity, his humility and his unalloyed compassion and joy drew around him many sincere men and women looking for guidance in lives beset with problems and pain. Swami Sivananda founded the Divine Life Society in 1939 and established his ashram on the banks of the holy River Ganges in Rishikesh, North India.
From that time until his death, Swami Sivananda spent his life teaching and serving in any way he was able. He was a prodigious writer – the author of over three hundred books – and an inspiring and bold speaker. He was a giant of a man, physically, mentally and spiritually, guiding many thousands the world over to live a rich and fulfilled life through the ancient teachings of yoga. His legacy is still felt strongly today through the flourishing Divine Life Society in Rishikesh and the many organisations that his disciples developed both in India and in the West. Swami Sivananda left his body on July 14 1963. He is acknowledged as one of the great modern-day saints of India.
Swami Sivananda formulated the message of Divine Life thus:
“Love. Serve. Give. Purify. Meditate. Realise. Be good. Do good.
Be compassionate. Ask yourself “Who am I?” Know thy Self and be free.”
SWAMI Vishnudevananda (1927-1993)
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In 1957 Swami Vishnudevananda set out from the foothills of the Himalayas to carry out the bidding of his teacher Swami Sivananda. His instructions were to spread the teachings of yoga in the West. For thirty-seven years he worked tirelessly as a dedicated spritual teacher, travelling around the world establishing centres and ashrams where this work could be accomplished.
Swami Vishnudevananda was born Swamy Kuttan Nair on December
31 1927 in the South Indian state of Kerala. After school he
joined the Engineering Corps of the Indian Army. |
One day while on duty he
found a pamphlet in a bin – its subject was the truth of spiritual
practice and its author was Swami Sivananda. Swamy Kuttan Nair was
so impressed that he took leave to visit Swami Sivananda, one of
the great saints of modern times, in his ashram. After his discharge
from the army, he became a schoolteacher for a short while, but in
1947 he left behind his life to follow his calling and enter the
Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh. Within a year, he had been ordained
a monk and given the name Swami Vishnudevananda. He lived at the
Sivananda Ashram for ten years, during which time he was appointed
as the first Professor of Hatha Yoga at the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy.
He also held a number of other positions, including that of personal
secretary to Swami Sivananda.
He left India in 1957 and arrived on the West Coast of the United
States of America, where it soon became apparent to him that people
were so caught up in the whirlwind of their lives that they knew
neither how to relax nor how to live healthily. Swami Vishnudevananda
devised the concept of the Yoga Vacation and set about creating places
where people could have a complete rest of body, mind and spirit.
He founded several ashrams and centres based on an integrated approach
to yoga. Used in the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres today, this encompassed
the four main paths of yoga, raja, karma, bhakti and jnana yoga,
and the five points of yoga – proper exercise, proper breathing,
proper relaxation, proper diet, and positive thinking and meditation.
In 1969 he founded the True World Order to create unity and understanding
between the peoples of the world. He developed the unique Sivananda
Yoga Teachers' Training Course with the aim of bringing harmony in
the world by teaching the basics of yoga discipline. In 1971 Swami
Vishnudevananda made headlines by flying around the world in his
small two-seater plane dropping flowers and leaflets for peace over
trouble-spots of the world. Named “The Flying Swami” he crossed man-made
borders and war zones, including Belfast (1971), Suez (1971), West
Pakistan (1971) and the Berlin Wall from West to East (1983). He
sponsored numerous festivals, conferences, symposiums and world tours
all calling for world peace and international understanding.
In addition to working tirelessly for world peace and being an inspiring teacher Swami Vishnudevananda is renowned for his books, The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga and Meditation and Mantras. Swami Vishnudevananda left his body on November 9 1993, his legacy - a worldwide organisation dedicated to propagating the ancient and timeless wisdom of yoga.
An open letter to Yoga teachers, from SWAMI Vishnudevananda
Swami Vishnudevananda urged aspiring yoga teachers, before embarking on a teachers' training course or on any course of yoga, to ask the following questions of their prospective teacher.
Which guru does the teacher follow and to which tradition does he belong? Has the yoga teacher received initiation from his teacher and was he sent to spread the teachings?
A traditional teacher follows one of the six schools of Indian philosophy, each of which was developed by a particular sage. These sages had disciples who were the first in a chain of guru-disciples who continued the line of each of the systems.
For example RamaKrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Sivananda, and Ramana Maharishi, all considered modern-day saints in India each had their own gurus and now each have their disciples/students who pass on the wisdom of their master to their students.
The six systems of philosophy are:
• Purva Mimamsa, founded by Jaimini
• Uttara Mimamsa, or the non-dualistic philosophy of Vedanta, founded by Maharishi Vyasa, and structured by the Sage Shankaracharya. Swami Sivananda, Swami Vishnudevananda and the teachers of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre follow this school of philosophy
• Sankhya, by Kapila Rishi
• Yoga, by Patanjali Maharishi
• Vaiseshika, by Kanada Rishi
• Nyaya, founded by Gautama Rishi
Transmission of spiritual knowledge
Spiritual knowledge is acquired by means of the guru-parampara tradition, i.e. a tradition in which the knowledge is handed down from guru to disciple. In the same way one person gives an apple to another, so also spiritual power is transmitted from one to another. This method of transmitting spiritual power is termed sakti-sankar . In sakti-sankar a particular spiritual vibration of the guru is actually transferred to the mind of a disciple whom the guru considers fit for the knowledge. It is a hidden, mystic science passed from guru to disciple. Lord Jesus, through touch, transmitted his spiritual power to some of his disciples. Lord Krishna touched the blind eyes of Surda and his inner sight was awakened. However the student should not be satisfied only with the transmission of power from the guru. This initiation is the match required to start the fire. The student keeps the fire burning through his own sadhana (spiritual practice), otherwise the fire will die. He struggles hard in sadhana to achieve perfection.
The great Indian saint Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886), who could neither read nor write, initiated the learned scholar Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), who whereupon attained the superconscious state. However, Swami Vivekananda had to struggle for seven years after being touched before reaching perfection. He subsequently became a great torchbearer of yoga and vedanta both in India and the West. Swami Sivananda practised intense sadhana on the banks of the Ganges for several years after his initiation. Similarly Swami Vishnudevananda practised intense sadhana for ten years before leaving India for the West.
Within one year Swami Sivananda initiated Swami Vishnudevananda into sannyas and gave him the titles Yoga Raj (King of Yoga) and Professor of Hatha Yoga. Although Swami Vishnudevananda was only 18 years old, Swami Sivananda allowed him to develop a disciplined system for teaching hatha yoga. There was no physical teaching, but a spiritual initiation. Swami Sivananda touched Swami Vishnudevananda's forehead and revived the memory of his knowledge of yoga from his previous life. Consequently Swami Vishnudevananda was sent to the West in 1957 to spread the teachings of yoga. This is the tradition of yoga, a great and noble spiritual tradition, now in danger of being polluted by the commercial concerns of those individuals who wish to market yoga through professional yoga associations.
The Function of Diplomas
A guru can hand out titles and diplomas at will. Diplomas can be given to students who appear suited, but are in fact of no value if the student does not practise what he has been taught. A diploma serves to encourage the student and must never be used for commercial aims. Swami Sivananda endowed many diplomas and titles in order to encourage his students to use their talents for the good of mankind, without payment.
In this spirit the diplomas, which are handed out at the conclusion of the Sivananda Teachers' Training Course should not be used as a means of finding employment such as with a diploma in medicine or law. It is rather a diploma in the sense of a spiritual blessing of the guru. The title of the Sivananda Teachers' Training Course diploma is Yoga Siromani , or the Crown Jewel of Yoga. The title of the Advanced Teachers' Training diploma is Yoga Acharya or Master of Yoga.
To what extent is the yoga teacher practising yoga in his daily life?
Yoga is a way of life, not an academic hypothesis. In order to be a true teacher, the teacher must himself practise daily, bring order and discipline into his life and abstain from drugs, alcohol, meat, fish, eggs, coffee, tea, garlic and onions. Otherwise, as in the story told by Jesus, he becomes like the Pharisee in the temple who privately broke all the moral laws that he had publicly proclaimed should be adhered to.
How does the Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training Course compare with a “Three-year Training Course”
The training courses can be compared on the basis of length of study and quality of training.
Length of Study
The Sivananda Teachers' Training consists of 401 training periods concentrated into four weeks. The yogic way of life is condensed into a residential four-week training course, in the same manner as Lord Krishna taught his student Arjuna, when he condensed the spiritual wisdom of the entire Bhagavad Gita into a few hours' instruction on the battlefield. The student is totally immersed in yoga from early morn till late in the evening. This intensity of training in a supportive and spiritual atmosphere allows for profound learning to occur on a far deeper level than can be attained in part-time courses.
The “Three-year Training Course” equals 3.5 training periods of teacher-student contact per week, or seven training periods every two weeks, altogether 535 training periods in three years. This is assuming that students and teachers attend all training sessions. This dispersed instruction does not demand a regulated and disciplined yogic life from the student, as instruction takes place intermittently over an extended period of time, nor does it offer a professional training of three years such as is found in college or university, a training implied in its title.
Quality of the training
Only by continuous training, in the positive atmosphere of an Ashram, can yoga as a living science be taught. The Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training is a practical all-encompassing experience of yoga, accompanied by its own course book and teachers' manual. The four-week course is modelled on that of the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy of Swami Sivananda in Rishikesh. The ancient hatha yoga tradition has been formalised according to the instructions, and with the blessing, of the great saint Swami Sivananda.
It is by Swami Sivananda's grace that many thousands have taken the intensive Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training Course at Sivananda Ashrams around the world. It is not known how many of these people are formally teaching at present. More important is the fact that they have been taught to incorporate a spiritual and traditional yoga practice into their own lives. A yoga teacher should be a yoga practitioner, not merely a preacher. The teacher who practises is like a radiant rose, and will attract students like bees to honey. He who does not practise is without energy or prana, and will retain students for a short time only.
A teacher of a “three-year course” should be questioned closely as to his teacher's background and teaching methods, the amount of time spent in training with his own teacher, and his own system of teaching yoga. In additon the ethical and moral practices of the teacher should be ascertained.
In the yoga tradition a student is expected to study with one teacher only. To combine different systems according to whim or convenience is considered antithetical to the teachings. A yoga system takes a lifetime to master. The guru-parampara or guru-disciple lineage is of paramount importance to ensure the teachings remain pure.
