Question: How can we have our sitting meditation remain with us throughout the rest of our day? Swami Satchidananda: If your meditation doesn’t extend into your daily activities then there is something wrong with your meditation; you’re not meditating properly. What...
A few years ago, as I approached my 68th birthday, I begin typing words to describe what it feels like to age with Yoga as my support system. You see, I now have been practicing the art of Yoga for over five decades. It has always been the backdrop of virtually every...
In this exclusive excerpt from her book Yoga Mind — Journey Beyond the Physical, 30 Days to Enhance your Practice and Revolutionize Your Life From the Inside Out , Suzanne Saraswati Colón shares the inspiration that led her to become an Integral Yoga teacher, apply...
While the practice of Yoga has spread all over the world, it is generally understood to be movements done on a mat, which greatly limits how it is practiced. A more complete understanding of Yoga is to see it as a way of life rather than just a set of movements....
Heike Amma Farkas, Integral Yoga Germany director, reflects on what her years of teaching and training Yoga teachers has taught her to care about. I don’t care, how long you have been practicing Yoga I want to know, how calm is your mind When your child cries, your...
Swami Rama Tirtha (photo left), a mathematician and a contemporary of Swami Vivekananda, made an equation about contentment: Peace is always based on your desire and contentment; your wants, and don’t wants. If your want increases, the peace goes down. If your want...
Yoga is something that you live. If you want to be a yogi you should be a yogi always, not just while you are standing on your head. If you are a yogi only when you stand on your head, then what are you when you walk on your feet? If you are a Yoga teacher, you are...
Question: What is success and failure? Swami Satchidananda: There’s no need for failure in the worldly sense. If you really work hard, if you know the way, if you gather enough strength, nothing is impossible to achieve. But remember: that, even if you have the whole...
When I think of what it means to really live Yoga, I recall a special visit in late December, in the mid-1970s. I was serving as director of the San Francisco Integral Yoga Institute, and Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) was coming to California for the celebration...
The Saturday my husband, died was a perfect fall day. The sky was a clear, deep blue and it was warm enough for just a sweater. After coffee and our morning NPR, Tattwan and I decided to put off the normal weekend house cleaning and chores and instead walked into...
In the world today, most people approach the study of Yoga through the asanas (physical postures). And for many schools, that’s where the study of Yoga ends. People want to be healthy and have a trim physique. One may ask, why do you want a trim physique? In some...
Yoga is something that you live. If you want to be a Yogi you should be a Yogi always, not just while you are standing on your head. If you are a Yogi only when you stand on your head, then what are you when you walk on your feet? If you are a Yoga teacher, you are...
In this interview, Brother Chidananda, a long time Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) monk (who now is president of SRF), discusses what it means to be successful on one’s spiritual path. Integral Yoga Magazine (IYM): How would you define success? Brother Chidananda...
. . . Reduce your wants. Be honest in your dealings. Earn at the sweat of your brow. Control the indriyas and the mind. Develop noble qualities. Take recourse to the company of wise men. Remember God. Sing His Name. Feel His presence. Think aright. Speak truth and act...
Perhaps best known for her role as Serena Southerlyn on Law & Order, Elisabeth Röhm is also an advocate for human rights, health and education, serving as a Red Cross ambassador, among other service roles. She may be less renowned as a yogini, but in this...
Karen Karuna Kreps met Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev ) in 1967, while she was in high school. She wanted to become his secretary, but her parents wanted her to go to college and have a career. Sri Gurudev told her to go to college and then decide what to do. She...