Swami Satyananda Saraswati
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- See also other gurus called Swami Satyananda
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Swami Satyananda Saraswati (born 1923), is a yoga master and guru in both his native India and the West.
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[edit] History
In 1943 at nineteen, Swami Satyananda came to live and take sannyasa from Swami Sivananda at Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh. There he served in different departments at the Ashram for over 12 years. He edited the ashram's Hindi journal, wrote various articles and composed poems in both Hindi and Sanskrit. He wrote a translation and commentary in the English language of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Swami Sivananda. Upon leaving the ashram, he wandered through India, Afghanistan, Nepal, Burma and Ceylon for the next 8 years, extending his knowledge of spiritual practices. He eventually found his way to Munger, Bihar. After establishing himself there, in 1963 he founded the International Yoga Fellowship and the Bihar School of Yoga a year later. He taught yoga globally for the next twenty years and authored a number of books. In 1988, he retired from active involvement in yoga teaching and handed active work of his Ashram to his disciple Swami Niranjanananda. He now lives as a Paramahamsa Sannyasin performing higher spiritual and vedic sadhanas.
[edit] Teachings
Swami Satyananda's teachings emphasize Integral Yoga with a strong emphasis on Tantra[1]. Integral Yoga, not synonymous with Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, looks upon the many different traditional yogic practices developed in India over centuries with equal vision, acknowledging the validity of all of their methods for spiritual development. His system of tantric yoga involves the practice of:
- Kundalini Yoga, in the tradition following Swami Sivananda's explanation (which differs from Kundalini Yoga as taught by Harbhajan Singh Yogi). Kundalini Yoga is the yoga of the evolutionary energy of the universe.
- Kriya Yoga, in the form of Tapas, Svadhyaya and Ishvarapranidhana. Tapas is the practice of austerities. Svadhyaya is study of spiritual literature and also repetition of a personal mantra. Ishvarapranidhana is self-surrender to the Lord and doing all actions as an offering unto the Lord.
- Mantra Yoga, the repetition of sacred sounds.
- Laya Yoga, the practice of a state of absorption on an object of meditation.
- The advanced stages of the Eight Limbs of Yoga as codified by Patanjali: Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.
These teachings are propagated inside India as the Bihar Yoga system and outside India as the Satyananda Yoga tradition.
