Sivananda World News: The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashrams

Om Namah Sivaya, Greetings from the Headquarters. January began with New Years Eve starting with the 8PM Satsang, with the usual meditation session, followed by a talent show, which brought children, guests and staff alike to share their talents, and then a Puja for Lord Krishna accompanied by soul touching chants. Minutes before 12:00 hits, Prahlad with his intense and powerful voice filled the Krishna Temple with the sacred mantra Om Namo Narayanaya and the whole crew followed him. This is how we welcomed 2017 by chanting the peace mantra, praying and focusing on spreading peace all over the world.

During mid-January we had a fairly quiet week with five guests present at the Camp. Guests were given coaching sessions, question and answer meetings, a relaxation workshop, and walks. Satsangs were held alternately by different staff including Bharata in Samadhi Estates. We had our regular silent walks to the lake, which is always beautiful with its pristine white cover. A group of the Camp went down to Montreal Sivananda Centre for Gita’s surprise party. It was a lot of fun. Meanwhile that weekend was dedicated to theme “relaxation” and was conducted by Baghirati, who had already spent a week at the Camp. She led a Wednesday 8am yoga class and offered a deep relaxation session. During a Saturday morning Satsang, she summed up The Five Points of Yoga and introduced the weekend theme by explaining the importance and benefits of proper relaxation. She also offered 2 workshops and a lecture on relaxation. 27 people attended the program. A shipment arrived from India with the new steam chambers for the Ayurveda building. We were looking forward to the developments of the Ayurvedic Centre this summer! As usual, the Camp staff kept busy with various tasks: snow shoveling on Ganesha platform and around the Ashram grounds, typing transcripts from Swami Vishnu, advertising and communication, painting and flooring the rooms in the registration building and scanning pictures from the archives. Other Camp activities and maintenance went as usual. Atmaswaroopa left us temporarily to join Toronto Sivananda Centre. We are blessed to be carrying Swami Vishnu’s mission! Om Shanti.

http://www.sivananda.org/camp

Namah Sivaya to all. The end of 2016 saw the Yoga Ayurveda Cultural Program continuing.  Uma, our photographer returned just in time to take photos of many of the programs.  Guests learnt about Ayurveda from Dr Vishnu in two workshops and about Vedic Maths from Mr Haridas in another two.  Whilst in the evening, Monday’s program involved a hike up Kalipara Hill for the annual Puja up there.  Other evenings covered tabla flute fusion, Kalaripyattu (Kerala martial arts) and Baul tradition devotional chanting. 2016 ended with a Puja with lots of chanting at 6 am for Swamiji’s birthday, a Bharatnatyam dance workshop at 2 pm with concert by Lakshya and company in the evening Satsang. Indeed it was a very busy day, as some guests also provided a lively African dance workshop at noon with drumming and vocal backing. And as per the Ashram tradition guests were given herbal coffee (kashyam) and a bonfire with fireworks and music (sattvic devotional music) by the lakeside, until about 11.30 pm when all returned to the Siva Hall for Om Namo Narayanaya chanting, a little meditation into the New Year when the first message of 2017 was read from Sivananda Upanishads followed by final prayers and Arati. Of course, Prasad appeared in the form of a New Year’s cake.  We will miss Shibin who transferred to Trivandrum and Sanju who transferred to Dwarka, Delhi.  We were sad to say goodbye and thank you to Haridas, Gauri Devi and Parvathi for their karma yoga efforts. We were happy to welcome Gauri Chaitanya who arrived to take care of Swami Sitaramananda. The monthly medical camp took place with 780 patients being seen by the doctors. In the meantime, 31 Japanese AWC students continued their studies under Dr Vishnu, discovering Ayurvedic cooking and the preparation of oils in addition to practicing some massage on each other and of course the theory. They travelled on day off to Kanya Kumari.

During mid-January we offered the premier screening of the film, Sivananda Yoga – Health, Peace & Unity produced by Benoy Behl in association with the Yoga Farm to commemorate the 60 years of Swami Vishnudevananda’s world teaching. The film was well received by all. Sri Ananthapadmanabhan gave a highly charged veena concert which had everyone up for a standing ovation by the end. We celebrated Anoja (Sri Lanka) and Chandra (Iran) birthdays with Japanese food including miso soup, sushi, tempura and special rice and vegetables, made by the Japanese students for 100 staff and students. Some staff were able to attend traditional Kerala Indian weddings of the children of our paid staff, Lathakumari and Prasana. We wish them the best for the future. We welcomed Dr Ghanshyam (Ayurveda) who stayed for a week to assist the TTC A&P classes. Uma travelled to Sri Lanka for a new visa. Vinod and Bhavna have gone to Madurai to attend ATTC. May the Grace of God and the Masters keep us blessing all. Pranams to all the Sivananda Family.

http://www.sivananda.org/neyyardam

Om Namo Narayanaya – Greetings from Uttar Kashi. For early January improvement works in the Ashram continued at a reasonable pace.  The Ganga dorm is in the finishing stages – just the new doors and windows to be fitted.  In the Bhagirathi dorm, the roof is being plastered and floor and bathroom tiling has commenced. Plumbers are also doing some work.  An old staff room next to the bridge pillar has been raised to the ground and is now being rebuilt; the slab roof will be poured in the coming week.  Staff are cleaning up other areas of the Ashram where works have been completed.  It helps keep them warm on these wintry days we are having. At night the temperature is dropping to minus 1, but the snow is on the mountain peaks only.  As the Ashram is closed, there is no celebration of Christmas here or even New Year!   However a bandhara feast was joyfully provided for all the workers in the Ashram (about 50) on the occasion of Swami Vishnudevananda’s birthday.  May Swamiji and Master’s blessings bring peace and happiness to all in 2017. Pranams to all. Om.

http://www.sivananda.org/uttarkashi

Om Namo Narayanaya. For early January the Ashram began with hopes running high for the upcoming events of the year. The ongoing fasting program students moved onto their final week now seemingly confident compared to the previous week. They were taken out on a Day Trip on Tuesday to take in the local sights of Madurai City.

They were made to undergo gradual transition from their fasting and detox diet to the regular one in a scientific manner. On Friday all the students were graduated during which they were given the chance to discuss about their experience of the program with other guests. All of them described about the initial hurdles they had to face and the ultimate feeling of well being being experienced by them. We bade farewell to Narayana and his family, thanking them whole heartedly for the well organised conduction of the program. Preparations were going on  in full swing for the upcoming Sadhana Intensive program. Prahlada ji came from Canada to teach and guide the course participants. We also welcomed Swami Shivabhaktananda ji who reached here on Saturday. Students who had enrolled for the program started arriving from Friday. Some of our staffs also signed up for the course.  On Sunday 43 students were initiated into the course by Swami Hariomananda ji and Swami Shivabhaktananda ji. Students during their introduction mentioned that  what they expect is indepth know how about the Yogic practices along with satiation of curiosity about the program. Sandeep left for Neyyar Dam Ashram to be a part of January TTC commencing on Sunday.Yoga vacation program continued with moderate number of guests who are well benefiting from their daily schedule of activities. We pray to our Masters, for their blessings and guidance all throughout. Om.

www.sivananda.org/madurai

Om Namah Sivaya! By New Year’s Eve of 2017, the Ashram was fully-booked. Many karma yogis visited the celebration plus 7 longer term karma yogis. A feast was enjoyed! In the evening Satsang Radhakrishnan Namboodri led a Guru Puja in celebration of Swami Vishnu’s birthday, followed by a violin performance by Galina. Prem Sadasivananda and Dileep Kumar led energized chanting until close to midnight where prayers for world peace were then offered. Prasad, birthday cake and a New Year’s message from the Sivananda Upanishad were distributed to all. The first day of 2017 welcomed us with glorious sunshine and blue sky. After the very busy welcome to the New Year, the Ashram gradually quietened down. The staff busied themselves with clearing up after the celebrations and catching up on housekeeping and other tasks.  Srinivasan and Saraswati departed for the Bahamas, where Srinivasan taught for a month. Swami Satyapremananda also left for a month retreat in India. Ambika, Sophie, Mirabai, and Vibhuti departed too, while two new karma yogis, Narayana and Gabriel arrived. Swami Paramananda presented an inspiring introductory program on meditation to the weekend guests. The winter weather insured that walks in the woods and the weekend sauna were also enjoyed.

During mid-January Satsangs moved to the Annapurna room to make the Temple available for painting. It became beautifully refreshed. Swami Paramananda traveled to New York City and then on to Chicago, where he taught a meditation course and led a Satsang, hip-opening workshop and teachers’ meeting at the Centre. We welcomed Jayanta and Mukti Devi, to host the well-attended weekend vegetarian cooking workshop and Satsangs. We all enjoyed the meal the participants had prepared. Narayan returned for 3 months of karma yoga. A new work-study also arrived to the Ashram. The staff are well. Pranams to all from the beautiful Catskills Mountains! Om.

Om Namah Sivaya. On New Year’s Eve we had a 45 student yoga class, taught by Ananta Chaitanya, which was much appreciated followed by a New Years Eve feast, prepared by Karuna Devi, Rudra and karma yogis. At Satsang we had an enlivening concert with Habib Khan who was joined by two professional tabla players. This was followed by a birthday Puja for Swami Vishnudevananda and 2017 new year predictions by Sadasiva.  We then chanted Om Namo Narayanaya and sat in silent meditation as the clock hit midnight.  We had celebratory refreshments and snacks to finish the celebrations. The next morning we were joined on Skype with Swami Sitaramananda from Vietnam who interpreted to staff messages from Sivananda Upanishads. We felt the blessings of Master and Swamiji. For early January the Ashram had the Juice Fasting Retreat led by Swami Jnaneshwariananda and Keshava.  Students drank delicious juices three times a day and had workshops with Swamiji on the benefits of fasting. We had the Ayurveda Massage Rejuvenation Retreat with Ambika and a Positive Thinking Weekend, with Ananta Chaitanya. The guests very much enjoyed their weekend stays at the Ashram and went home revitalized with positivity. We also experience a weather phenomenon called an “atmospheric river” that dumped 12 – 17 inches of rain in the Sierra Nevadas causing mudslides in many areas that were just having forest fires a few months earlier. The Ashram remained a safe haven and welcomed the water to the land. Swami Jnana headed to San Francisco Centre for a weekend of city teaching. Meanwhile, the Ashram was very happy to welcome back Sundaram and Chandrika from their time away.

During mid-January we had an inspiring Bhagavad Gita course taught by Swami Jnaneshwariananda. Swamiji covered all 18 chapters in 10 hours of teaching time and everyone was given a deeper understanding and knowledge of the sacred scripture. In the evenings we watched the Mahabharata movie and enjoyed the scenes and the acting. We had a course called Dharma of Family and Marriage, taught by Tara Durga Devi and Chandranatha, long time devotees of Sivananda since the 1970s. The students were inspired to learn from their personal experiences of how to bring yoga into a householder life and learned from many funny personal examples of how to make relationship work. We also had a Beginners Weekend Intensive, taught by Amrita, who covered the Five Points of Yoga. We said farewell to Tarini who flew to India for a Pancha Karma retreat, returning in March. We also said bye to John who helped as a karma yogi for a few weeks. We welcomed former staff Nandini for a week long visit and especially enjoyed her classical Indian cooking. We also welcomed Yashoda as staff who will soon fly to Vietnam for TTC.  Michelle received mantra initiation and now has the spiritual name Uma. We all felt the grace of Master and Swamiji this month. Om Namah Sivaya to all Blessed Selves from the Yoga Farm.

http://www.sivananda.org/farm

Om Namo Narayanaya, Blessed Selves. To finish 2016 the priest conducted a Puja for Swami Vishnudevananda’s birthday. Everyone offered flower petals. Swami Brahmananda read some inspiring messages from the Vishnudevananda Upadesa and the rest of the evening Gaura Vani gave a Kirtan concert. We welcomed the New Year with joy and devotion in our hearts. The Ashram started 2017 with a special morning Satsang on the beach, where the priest performed a fire ritual to greet the first sunrise of the new year, called Surya Vandanam Puja. Everyone made an offering to the fire and when the sun was first seen, everyone did a few rounds of Surya Namaskar, prostrating in front of the sun. In the evening Gaura Vani and his band, which included two of our own Karma Yogis, continued with a beautiful Kritan concert. Fittingly, Swami Brahmananda gave a talk on New Year’s Resolves, reading from Swami Sivananda’s instructions on resolves. We welcomed Rachel Fiske who presented the topic “Celebrate the Divine Feminine” in a Satsang and multiple workshops. We were very happy to welcome Srinivasan and Swami Shambhudevananda, who were also teaching in the January ATTC. Srinivasan gave a month-long-program on Raja Yoga. We welcomed Tao Porchon-Lynch, who is possibly the oldest Yoga Teacher in the world. With her positive and simple approach she gave very inspiring Satsangs and workshops on “Aging Gracefully through Yoga”. We inaugurated the January TTC and ATTC. Many many students came for the courses, so after they were initiated and changed into their uniform, the Satsang Hall was filled with white and yellow. We wished them a very spiritually productive month! Swami Brahmananda started a new program on “Swami Sivananda on God”, in which he read from the chapter on God from the Bliss Divine. We welcomed Sister Greta Ronningen. She works as a chaplain with incarcerated men, women and girls in Los Angeles. In her program “Journey to Divine Love”, she elaborated on her personal journey to God and the steps we can take to that goal.

During mid-January we warmly welcomed back our Acharya Swami Swaroopananda, Swami Prema Swaroopananda and their assistants Jnaneshwari Chaitanya, Rukmini Chaitanya and Kumari. They will be staying for the season, giving great support to the Ashram on many levels. We held an Interfaith Devotional Singing Festival entitled “On the Wings of Ecstasy”, in which numerous musicians came together to represent many musical traditions. We started the festival with Nawang Kechog, who is one of Tibet’s foremost musicians. In his concert he played beautifully on several flutes. Carrie Grossman and her musicians presented the concert “Nada Shakti: The Power of Sound, Story and Song”, in which they shared some Kirtan with us. The Jewish representative, Aviva Chernick, played and sang devotional songs together with her bass player Justin Gray. Maggie Wheeler and Emile Hassan Dyer brought with them music from all over the world, mainly from indigenous people from Africa and Australia. They included the whole audience in their concert, creating a vocal, interpersonal and internal harmony.Jorge Alfano and his Tabla player Jeff Deen also shared world music, which was inspired by the Japanese, Indian and indigenous people of South and North America. The Sufi representative, Amir Vahab and his musicians, shared beautiful folk music from the Middle East and Central Asia. Silvia Nakkach and Joss Jaffe concluded the festival with South American and Indian songs. Srinivasan continued his teachings on the foundations of Raja Yoga, specifically on the Yamas and Niyamas during the morning Satsangs. May the blessings of Master and Swami ji be with all for the upcoming year. Om.

http://www.sivananda.org/nassau

Om Namah Sivaya. Beginning of January 2017 the special Christmas programs continued into the first week of the New Year. The first highlight was a lecture with Swami Durgananda, Yoga Acharya, on the meditation experience. We were made aware of the common difficulties and experiences in meditation and how one should commit oneself again and again to strive to develop oneself. Inspiring asana workshops continued, ranging from cardiovascular workout to asanas in harmony with the five elements. Swami Mangalananda gave well appreciated lectures on unity in diversity, Vedanta philosophy and meditation. Swami Vasudevananda the lecture series with inspirations for the new year; love – the law of life and inner wisdom-inner peace. The sudden arrival of winter with lots of snow and icy temperatures pleasantly surprised us. All thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful walks in a snow filled landscape amidst the winter silence of nature. The second January week the teachers’ training course went into its last week. The group joined together for a nice talent show that proved great fun for public and participants alike. The beautiful energy of the mantra initiation carried us through the rest of the second week of January. The examination was successful and the lovely graduation ceremony gathered the students for a final and relaxed meeting. After a few days of tidying, clearing and preparing a new TTC group arrived on the 21st of January. Asana classes, lectures and Satsangs are running smoothly and harmoniously. A small guest group is enjoying the positively charged atmosphere and the being closely together with the TTC students. They also show a lot of interest in the lectures on yoga life style and how to integrate different yoga practices into daily life. OM.

http://www.sivananda.org/tyrol

Om Namah Sivaya. In January we had a wonderful TTC with 36 students. The inauguration was guided by Swami Kailasananda. Students are coming mainly from France, but also from Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Argentina, Denmark and Martinique. By the grace of the Masters the TTC is going well. Swami Kailasananda and Swami Bhagavatananda are giving the main lectures. It is a smaller TTC group, therefor we are having a guest program at the Ashram at the same time, the topic of one week was for example “how to increase strength and flexibility”. OM.

http://www.sivananda.org/orleans

Om Namah Sivaya from the Da Lat Ashram. The Ashram was quieter in terms of guest numbers, but not in terms of activity. Most of our New Year guests left, leaving just a small but dedicated group with us. We welcomed Deviyani and Satyadeva, who will be joining staff for some months. Also special guests Niranjan Babu, along with his wife Umarani. Niranjan-ji, who is an expert in Vastu, spent his first hours looking at all the different aspects of the Ashram, making many suggestions for improvement of energy. He led us in a beautiful ceremony to mark the opening of the Ashram. A large square mandala was marked out in rose petal lines in the new Ganesha Hall. Twelve staff members and special guests sat around the edges of the square, the “matajis” all wearing sari and doing Puja for Lord Siva, and six “prabhus”, all wearing dhoti, offering ghee into a small fire. Swami Sitaramananda was in a central position doing Puja also. Each group chanted different mantras for their offerings, creating a complex and wonderfully uplifting sound and energy. Niranjan Babu also led us in a Mahalakshmi Puja later to pray for prosperity of the new Ashram. Work continued on many different projects. A new stage was constructed in the Ganesha Hall which will be used for Satsang when the group at the Ashram is smaller. The walls of the hall have also been painted in vibrant tones according to Vastu, providing an inspiring environment for meditation and Satsang. Staff settled well into the regular routine. A special treat was an extra Christmas celebration, as our Ukrainian staff, Arjuna, and his family prepared a special Ukrainian style feast to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas. Swami Narayanananda left for a short trip to Taiwan, where he attended the opening ceremony of a small Ashram that has been constructed by close student Lakshmi. Swami Pranavananda also left to return to duties at the Ho Chi Minh Centre. Deviyani and Satyadeva went to conduct weekend programs in Ho Chi Minh City. Swami Sitaramananda and Swami Dharmananda traveled to India for TTC at the Neyyar Dam Ashram, leaving just a small group to take care of things for the weekend.

During mid-January we welcomed guests for a week of practice with the theme of Yoga for Stress Relief. Guests attended daily workshops on the beneficial effects of Yoga practice to build up resilience to stress, The topic was also covered in Satsangs. Plenty of practice accompanied the theory. In addition to our regular Satsangs we took advantage of beautiful weather to have two of our meditation sessions outside on the hillside. Guests appreciated the wonderful fresh air and prana of the forest. We made an excursion out to the local Buddhist temple to enjoy Darshan of the Buddha and to spend  time in the beautiful gardens. This was followed by a cable car ride over the hills down into the town, where we ended our excursion with some sweet treats. We welcomed back out first repeat visitor, a Danish guest who missed the Ashram after leaving and decided to come back and spend her final days in Vietnam with us. We started to prepare for the upcoming Lunar New Year “Tet” holiday, when Vietnamese staff will be leaving to spend the festival with their families following the local tradition. We feel every day grateful for Masters and Swamiji’s grace.