| Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres | |
|---|---|
 Swami Vishnudevananda teaching the 12 basic asanas of Sivananda Yoga | |
| Founder | Swami Vishnudevananda |
| Established | 1959 |
| Practice emphases | |
| Pranayama,asanas, relaxation, diet,vedanta philosophy, andmeditation | |
| Related schools | |
Sivananda Yoga is a spiritualyoga system founded bySivananda andVishnudevananda; it includes the use ofasanas (yoga postures) but is not limited to them as in systems ofyoga as exercise. Vishnudevananda named this system, as well as the internationalSivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres organisation responsible for propagating its teachings, after his guru, Sivananda.[S 1]
Some other yoga organisations follow Sivananda's teachings, including theDivine Life Society (founded by Sivananda),Bihar School of Yoga,Integral Yoga (Satchidananda) and theChinmaya Mission, but use different names for their yoga systems. Sivananda Yoga is the yoga system of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre organisation, and is based on Sivananda's teachings to synthesise the principles of the four paths of yoga (Yoga of Synthesis) along with the five points of yoga compiled by Vishnudevananda.[S 2] The four classical paths of yoga consist ofKarma Yoga,Bhakti Yoga,Raja Yoga andJnana Yoga.[S 3] These are: Proper Exercise (āsana), Proper Breathing (prāṇāyāma), Proper Relaxation (śavāsana), Proper Diet and Positive Thinking (vedānta) and Meditation (dhyāna).[S 4]
Starting in 2019, the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres have dealt with widespreadallegations of sexual abuse and rape by its founder Vishnudevananda and at least one other high-level leader of the organisation.[1][2]
Swami Sivananda was a "famous"[3] and "widely influential"[4]yoga guru of the 20th century. LikeKrishnamacharya, he taught a system of postural yoga (using asanas).[4] He established the first Sivananda Ashram in 1932. His mission was to serve humanity by sharing his understanding of yoga, and in 1936, he founded theDivine Life Society inRishikesh (in the north of India) to publish and freely distribute spiritual material. To make the teachings more accessible, he developed theYoga of Synthesis, a combination of the formal doctrines of yoga – the four paths of yoga – that he summarised as follows: 'Serve. Love. Give. Purify. Meditate. Realize.'[S 1] In addition, from 1936, he extensively publicised his brand of yoga by printing and circulating pamphlets both across India and in the Western world. This led to the publication of his bookYogic Home Exercises: Easy Course of Physical Culture for Modern Men and Women in English in 1959.[4]
A German yoga practitioner, Boris Sacharow, studied Sivananda yoga from the pamphlets, and opened Germany's first Sivananda yoga school, without ever visiting Rishikesh.[4] Another of Sivananda's pupils,Swami Satyananda Saraswati, founded the influentialBihar School of Yoga in 1964.[5]
In 1959, one of Sivananda's leading pupils,Swami Vishnudevananda, was sent to the West to continue his teachings.[S 1] His mission was "to spread the teachings of yoga and the message of world peace".[S 1] This has since been refined to "practice and teach the ancient yogic knowledge for health, peace,unity in diversity and self-realization."[S 5]
In 1960, Vishnudevananda published his guide to hatha yoga,The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga, illustrated with studio photographs of himself demonstrating each pose.[S 6] The book sold over a million copies by 1989.[6] The Sivananda asana program had "a profound effect"[7] on the development of modernyoga as exercise, which strongly emphasizes asanas.[5]
Vishnudevananda set up Sivananda yoga centres in several countries, and created the Sivanandayoga teacher training course.[4] By 2007, it had trained over 10,000 yoga teachers.[3] By 2012, there were over 80 Sivananda yoga centres,[8] making it one of the world's largest yoga schools.[9] Vishnudevananda was the head of all operations of Sivananda Yoga and the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre from its establishment in 1959 until shortly before his death in 1993, when he transferred control to an executive board.[S 7]
Sivananda yoga states that it is run on the principles of selfless service, or karma yoga.[S 8] It states that its core belief in the need for volunteer workers is that serving others is essential, as it diminishes selfishness and egoism, and brings practitioners closer to understanding the unity underlying all of creation.[S 8][S 9]
The scholar of religion Veronique Altglas writes that Sivananda yoga is a transnational neo-Hindu movement. In her view, it has simplified its teachings and developed new ways of propagating them outside India. The effect is to select from and reinterpret Hindu teachings to make them acceptable to westerners who are individualistic, subjectivist, relativist, and pragmatic in their religious beliefs. Altglas suggests that the success of Sivananda yoga "probably tells us more about religious attitudes in western societies today, than about Hinduism itself."[3]
The historian of modern yogaAndrea Jain writes in her 2015 bookSelling Yoga that Vishnudevananda and other students of Sivananda were among the first to build yoga brands and tomass-market these to a global audience, effectively tying yoga to methods for achievingphysical fitness.[10]
Allegations of sexual abuse and rape of female followers by Vishnudevananda started to become public in 2019 (long after his death) when his assistant Julie Salter posted her testimony aboutsexual abuse committed against her by the guru to Facebook.[11] Since then, other followers have come forward with similar accounts.[12] The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres began but did not complete an investigation into the claims.[S 10] In 2022 an independent "Project SATYA" investigated the claims and published three reports on its findings, with four allegations of sexual abuse against Vishnudevananda, and 31 allegations of sexual abuse and other types of abuse against the ISYVC and its staff, written in first-person narratives by the respective complainants. It found the allegations "credible".[13]
The Sivananda Yoga training system aims to teach an authenticallyVedic system of yoga, in the belief that physical fitness is a byproduct of the discipline and not the goal. The system philosophies are summarised inVishnudevananda's 5 principles, each with their intended purposes:[S 11][8]
Sivananda Yoga identifies a group of twelveasanas as basic.[S 13][8] Emphasis is on mastering these twelve basic āsanas first, from which variations are then added to further deepen into the practice. The twelve asanas follow a precise order, allowing for a systematic balanced engagement of every major part of the body - with the primary intention of allowing the prana, or life force energy, to circulate more freely.[S 14]
A session of hatha yoga typically starts with practitioners resting inśavāsana, continuing onto prāṇāyāma (breathing exercises)kapalabhati andanuloma viloma, followed by 6-8 rounds ofsūrya namaskār, before the standard program of the 12 basic āsanas. A Sivananda hatha yoga session averages between 90 and 120 minutes.[S 15]
These citations to Sivananda Yoga sources are provided to support basic facts about the organisation.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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