Author: Sraddha
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
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Shraddha,
Thank you for posting this and letting us know that he has moved on. He is an integral part of the Centers’ lineage, and therefore my own, and it makes me happy to know that you have written this in his honor.
Katie
Swami Satyananda is definitely an integral part of our lineage and I am thankful for his books and teachings which have touched me deeply. I am also grateful that he helped Sraddha develop the invisible ashram concept at 7 Centers. This ashram experience was important to my time there and definitely created a sacred place for me to learn and grow.
Kristin
thanks, Katie for writing in. Jeff took pictures of the memorial altar I set up for him and posted them on Facebook. Sraddha
Shraddha,
So good to hear from you even if it is just through this form of technology. I am both sad and happy about Swamiji. When I was thinking about going to a yoga teacher training back in 2000. I had a vision of an Indian man coming into my apartment and speaking to me and encouraging me to do what I needed to do. He was happy and very persistant. I am sure now that this dream was a vision of Satyananda. Shortly thereafter, I went to 7 Centers and I started my formal studies in yoga. I love the Center so much and send great joy as it continues to grow and prosper. You are always in my heart and prayers.
Much love,
Ana
Sankalpa of Paramahansa Satyananda
I am an invisible child of a thousand faces of love,
That floats over the swirling sea of life,
Surrounded by the meadows of the winged shepherds,
Where divine love and beauty,
The stillness of midnight summer’s warmth pervades.
Life often cuts at my body and mind
And though blood may be seen passing,
And a cry might be heard,
Do not be deceived that sorrow could dwell within my being
Or suffering within my soul.
There will never be a storm
That can wash the path from my feet,
The direction from my heart,
The light from my eyes,
Or the purpose from this life.
I know that I am untouchable to the forces
As long as I have a direction, an aim, a goal:
To serve, to love, and to give.
Strength lies in the magnification of the secret qualities
Of my own personality, my own character
And though I am only a messenger,
I am me.
Let me decorate many hearts
And paint a thousand faces with colours of inspiration
And soft, silent sounds of value.
Let me be like a child,
Run barefoot through the forest
Of laughing and crying people,
Giving flowers of imagination and wonder,
That God gives free.
Shall I fall on bended knees,
And wait for someone to bless me
With happiness and a life of golden dreams?
No, I shall run into the desert of life with my arms open,
Sometimes falling, sometimes stumbling,
But always picking myself up,
A thousand times if necessary,
Sometimes happy.
Often life will burn me,
Often life will caress me tenderly
And many of my days will be haunted
With complications and obstacles,
And there will be moments so beautiful
That my soul will weep in ecstasy.
I shall be a witness,
But never shall I run
Or turn from life, from me.
Never shall I forsake myself
Or the timeless lessons I have taught myself,
Nor shall I let the value
Of divine inspiration and being be lost.
My rainbow-covered bubble will carry me
Further than beyond the horizon’s settings,
Forever to serve, to love, and to live
As a sannyasin.
~Swami Satyananda Saraswati
(Source)http://svasti.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/sankalpa-of-paramahansa-satyananda/
“High On Waves” – Beloved Satyam
The hamsa has flown away,
Soaring high with its wings spread
Across the infinite sky.
It is searching for its ultimate abode
Since many yugas.
Knowledge it has received in abundance
From the jnanis of the world,
Grace and blessings of the divine, too.
Still, today it is restlessly flapping
Its wings in search.
Looking down at its own creation
Of the three worlds
Etched across the horizon,
Yes, it is flying high,
And flying ceaselessly in search,
Witnessing the world down below as leela.
Alone all alone, in the infinite sky,
My soul is flying to unite with its beloved.
http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1993/esep93/high593.shtml
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