- Swami Satyananda Saraswati
:"See also other gurus called Swami Satyananda"Swami Satyananda Saraswati (born 1923), is a
yoga master andguru in both his nativeIndia and the West.History
In 1943 at nineteen, Swami Satyananda came to live and take
sannyasa fromSwami Sivananda at Sivananda Ashram inRishikesh . 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 andCeylon for the next 8 years, extending his knowledge of spiritual practices. He eventually found his way toMunger ,Bihar . After establishing himself there, in 1963 he founded theInternational Yoga Fellowship and theBihar 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 discipleSwami Niranjanananda . He now lives in seclusion as a Paramahamsa Sannyasin performing higher spiritual and vedic sadhanas.Fact|date=September 2008Teachings
Swami Satyananda's teachings emphasize Integral Yoga with a strong emphasis on
Tantra [ [http://www.yogamag.net/archives/2000/ajan00/growth.shtml Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati - The Growth of Satyananda Yoga or Bihar Yoga] ] . Integral Yoga, not synonymous withAurobindo 'sIntegral 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 [http://www.dlshq.org/download/kundalini.htm 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 byPatanjali :Pratyahara ,Dharana ,Dhyana andSamadhi .These teachings are propagated inside India as the
Bihar Yoga system and outside India as theSatyananda Yoga tradition.References
External links
* [http://www.yogavision.net/bsy/about.htm Bihar School of Yoga]
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