• Make sure you extinguish your candle before you leave the place. A candle or an oil lamp. If the meditation place is clean, but the kitchen isn’t, this uncleanliness will spread out. Keep your home not only clean, but also tidy - an untidy place makes an untidy mind and disturbs the Prana flow. It is better to avoid bringing this kind of energy into your home. Avoid bringing social media, internet, television, non-spiritual reading matter and overstimulating music into that place and don’t chitchat or take your meals there either. There are also abstract mantras with no particular form, but with meaning. There are one or two verses in the Kathopanishad which give the sum and substance of the practice of Yoga, which is also the same Yoga explained in greater detail in the system of Patanjali. Purity is of two kinds, internal purity and external purity. Purity of body through bath, etc., purity of clothes, purity of surroundings like the house and its neighbourhood, constitute external purity. In Yoga, this is called Saucha, purity. Unlike many modern yoga styles, Sivananda yoga greatly emphasizes philosophical teachings, selfless service, spiritual practices, and the physical practice of yoga, providing a truly comprehensive exploration of yoga.

What can I expect from a Sivananda Yoga retreat? This means that students can enjoy courses that incorporate both physical and mental aspects. I also really like the way the school has sequenced the Asana, which is different from most school, but also gives it’s teacher training students a clear reason on why the particular series is followed. Through the medium of the vibration of mantra, the thought is purified and comes to a telepathic state, followed by the transcendental state. It is the main pranayama practice and comes from the science of Hatha Yoga. The Pranayama sessions were my personal favorite, I still practice daily using the Pranayama recordings I have from Sivananda. After more pranayama or breathing techniques, you flow through sun salutations and the foundational 12 poses and then end with another practice of savasana, closing meditation, and chanting. Once body and mind are freed from constant overload they are at ease and perform more efficiently. Being in company of the wise is the easiest and most powerful way to shift our thinking to be more positive. From your altar, positive energy will radiate out into the rest of your home. Maintaining Sattva in your home is not only about removing clutter and dust, but also to uplift and increase the Prana level of your place and allow a free flow of Prana.

Feng Shui and Vastu teach us that even clutter in a non-visible place, like for example a closed cupboard, has a heavy, depressing effect on our physical and mental wellbeing. Even today, the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta centres across the world are very popular centres of learning yoga and Ayurveda, attracting thousands of spiritual aspirants. His teachings have been passed down through his disciples, including Swami Vishnudevananda, who established the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and further popularized Sivananda yoga worldwide. The Sivananda Centres and Ashrams do Arati twice daily, morning and evening. The principle of waving light is always the same, but the mantras can be very different according to which aspect is invoked, for example during the Ganga Arati which is performed along the banks of the Ganges, Mantras praising Ganga are chanted. All over India, Arati is done in temples as highlight of a spiritual ceremony. • If you have a spiritual Master, put a picture of him/her on the altar. • In case, you set up your altar on the floor, put it on a tray or a piece of cloth, What is Sivananda yoga so that your altar items don’t touch the floor directly (this would dissipate the energy). • If you have been initiated into an Ishta- Mantra (mantra dedicated to one specific form of the Divine), you should put that symbol in the centre.

Who Might Like It: Students looking for a comprehensive yoga class with a clear breakdown of different yoga postures would like this form of yoga. Please note that a mantra cannot be created or changed just for you because all mantras came from meditation of ancient sages who had used the mantras to attain highest level of realization, and who handed down this sacred sound formula to you in the present time. Your altar will remind you of your Higher Self and serve as focal point for your meditation. And when you feel exhausted, depressed or hurt by the ways of the world, just sitting in front of your altar will comfort you and fill you with new strength and positivity. He possesses great strength and courage. First brought into America as early as the 1890s by the great yogin and disciple of Shri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, the Hindu representative in the Chicago Parliament of World Religions, Yoga has also been transported in the arms of many other great yogins and formed into stratified schools seeking to propagate Yoga in its great spiritual context. The great Yogi Ramakrishna Paramahamsa trained his disciples to always return everything to the spot from where they took it.