Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category

Dear Friends,  Students and Teachers,

I have been wanting to start a dialogue on yoga and all of life’s related issues.  I hope to reconnect with you that have spent some time at 7 Centers, done a training (or several) or whose paths have crossed with mine through travels.

Little did I know that my first letter would be about Satyananda, a great spiritual teacher, who took his Maha Sammadhi December 5th.

Many of you know the importance this man has played in the spiritual direction of this yoga center. For those who don’t, the yoga teacher trainings here are based on the teachings that Paramahansa Swami Satyananda Saraswati has given and we have received guidance and inspiration from him while learning what it means to really Live.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati
1923 – 2009

“It has been said that Paramahamsaji called Swami Satsangi
at 11:30 PM and told her that it was time to go.  He was sitting in padmasana (lotus pose) doing  japa (mantra chanting) and left his body at midnight with a smile on his face. This great yoga master and Guru will be missed in his physical form, but his light will continue to shine, inspiring his disciples and followers with the many teachings he has so generously bestowed upon us.”

Anandasagar and I took jignasu initiation with Swami Niranjanananda in 1994 and had an unexpected darshan with Swami Satyandananda at that time. We took our initiation seriously and regarded our sojourn to Bihar as a great blessing. In 2001, after we went to the Maha Kumba Mela, we traveled to Mungyr, Bihar where took our second initiation and received the same names and mantra. When we created the first teacher training, it was and still is based upon the manual The Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya by Satyananda. It was during the first training that I connected with Satyananda as the guru on the inner planes for the first time. It is a story we have told often at our teacher training orientations. We found ourselves in an ongoing drama that first training – learning to navigate within the intensity of emotions and purifications that started happening with our students as a result of the yoga practices we were leading.

After a third crisis this particular day – I was prompted by Anandasagar go into meditation and ask Satyananda for assistance since he was our inspiration and this was His training.


So I sat down, closed my eyes and requested his help.  He appeared.


His first, rather wry comment was,  “It looks like you have a sinking ship…”.


His second comment was that since we didn’t have an ashram facility, that we needed to create the “invisible” ashram –which meant that the students would need to agree to the same protocols expected in ashrams…vows of celibacy, no intoxicants, no gossiping… so that there was a strong container for the transformation of personal fixed patterns.

We all made it through the first training – students and teachers and then began incorporating the understanding of a container that Satyananda had given.

And so, the “Invisible Ashram” was born…At first it was a short booklet explaining the concept. Then it became a letter to prospective students to understand what they were embarking on and the reasons for rules and disciplines during training.  We have found it to be the key in the success of a transformational process that creates a strong foundation for great yoga practitioners and teachers.

There is always a sense of loss when the physical presence of a loved one is gone, however in the truest sense of reality, there is no such thing as death.

We honor this great being that served with such dedication in bringing the deepest teachings of yoga to those that were hungry and didn’t know it.

I speak for all his students, we are ever grateful…. Sraddhasagar