Sivananda

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Sivananda (center) with students

Swami Sivananda Saraswati (born September 8, 1887 in Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu ; † July 14, 1963 , real name: Kuppuswami ) was a well-known Indian yoga master and teacher of Vedanta . Swami is a Hindu honorary title and means "master".

Life

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

Sivananda had got to know several religions in Malaysia, such as Christianity , Islam and Chinese Buddhism . In 1923 he left Malaysia for an extensive pilgrimage to India . After a stay in Varanasi he left for Rishikesh , where he met his guru Swami Vishwananda Saraswati. Through this Sivananda received his initiation as a sannyasin in the Hindu order and also his monastic name.

In 1936 he founded the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh and the Divine Life Society . In 1948 he founded the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy. In over 200 books he dealt with the teachings of Hinduism, Yoga and Vedanta. His teachings relate mainly to yoga and devotional Hinduism, but they are based on the idea of ​​the unity of all religions. This is how he wrote the universal or all-encompassing prayer that those practicing in his tradition recite regularly, especially during Satsang. Sivananda taught the "Yoga of Synthesis" which combines Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga , Jnana Yoga , Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga . His students include Swami Krishnananda , Swami Chidananda , Swami Omkarananda , Swami Satyananda and Swami Vishnudevananda , who is one of the pioneers of yoga in the West and who founded the non-profit Sivananda Yoga Vedanta organization on his master's behalf in the year of his arrival in California .

The European students of Swami Sivananda who helped spread yoga in Europe through their own writings included André van Lysebeth , Boris Sakharov and the German Swami Sivananda Radha, who emigrated to Canada . In the German-speaking area, Swami Vishnudevananda founded yoga centers in Vienna (1972), Munich (1974) and Berlin (1991).

Works (selection)

  • The power of thought. Mangalam Books, ISBN 3-922477-94-1
  • Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. Explanatory text and commentary by Swami Sivananda. Mangalam Books, ISBN 3-922477-06-2
  • Hatha yoga. The sure way to good health, long life and awakening of the higher forces. Heinrich Schwab Verlag, ISBN 3-7964-0097-3
  • Divine knowledge. Mangalam Books, ISBN 3-922477-00-3
  • Sadhana. A textbook on techniques for spiritual perfection. Mangalam Books, 1998, ISBN 3-922477-07-0

literature

  • Sivananda - a modern saint. Narrated and collected by his closest students. Yoga Vidya Publishing House. Horn-Bad Meinberg 2007, ISBN 3-931854-63-9

Web links

Commons : Sivananda Saraswati  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikibooks: Swami Sivananda  - learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. http://www.sivananda.eu/de/meditation/die-vier-yogapfade/das-universelle-gebet.html
  2. ↑ cf. Karl Elberg: Swami Sivananda - From someone who set out to give away happiness , 2nd edition, ISBN 3-935925-76-x , p. 169
  3. ↑ cf. http://www.yoga-vidya.de/yoga-buch/sivananda/goetter-und-goettinnen/15-gebete-des-sivananda-ashrams.html
personal data
SURNAME Sivananda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kuppuswami
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Yoga master
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1963