Sivananda Saraswati

Swami Sivananda Saraswati ( born September 8, 1887 in Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu, † July 14, 1963, birth name: Kuppuswami ) was a renowned yoga master and teacher of Vedanta. Swami is a Hindu honorific meaning " master."

Life

Sivananda was born into an orthodox Brahmin family originally. He attended the Medical College in Thanjavur. After years of working as a doctor in Malaya (Malaysia ), he dedicated his life to yoga and its dissemination.

Sivananda had met several religions in Malaysia, such as Christianity, Islam and the Chinese Buddhism. In 1923 he left Malaysia for an extended pilgrimage to India to take. After a stay in Varanasi he left for Rishikesh, where he met his guru, Swami Vishwananda Saraswati. This Sivananda received his initiation as a sannyasin in the Hindu religious as well as his monastic name.

In 1936 he founded the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh and the Divine Life Society. In 1948 he called the "Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy" to life. In more than 200 books he dealt with the teachings of Hinduism, Yoga and Vedanta. His teachings are mainly related to yoga and devotional Hinduism, but they are based on the idea of ​​the unity of all religions based. Sivananda taught the " yoga of synthesis " of Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga unites. Among his students Swami Krishnananda, Swami Chidananda, Swami Omkarananda, Swami Satyananda and Swami Vishnu-devananda, one of the pioneers of Yoga in the West and in the year of his arrival in California on behalf of his master, the nonprofit organization founded Sivananda Yoga Vedanta.

Among the European students of Swami Sivananda, who helped to spread through their own writings yoga in Europe, were André van Lysebeth, Boris Sakharov and emigrated to Canada German Swami Sivananda Radha.

Works (selection)

  • The power of thought. Gaia Books, ISBN 3-922477-94-1
  • Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. Explanatory text and commentary by Swami Sivananda. Gaia Books, ISBN 3-922477-06-2
  • Hatha Yoga. The safe way to good health, long life and awakening of the higher powers. Henry Schwab, ISBN 3-7964-0097-3
  • Divine knowledge. Gaia Books, ISBN 3-922477-00-3
  • Sadhana. A textbook with techniques for spiritual perfection. Gaia Books, 1998, ISBN 3-922477-07-0
Karma-Yoga Satyananda Saraswati Integrated Authority File
732512
de