What Matters Most: Self-realization or Spiritual Activism?

By Swami Ramananda In this pair of articles, Swami Ramananda and Claudia Huddleston explore the issue of spiritual activism as a form of Karma Yoga. For a long time, both these yogis have manifested their spiritual practice in the world. Recently they participated in...

Higher Education, Medical Yoga, and the Legacy of Integral Yoga

An Interview with Rev. M. Mala Cunningham, Ph.D., by Laura Sevika Douglass, Ph.D. In this interview, Dr. Cunningham discusses the growing field of Medical Yoga and the new, groundbreaking course she’s developed for the University of Virginia: “Foundations of Medical...

Practice, Practice, Practice

By Karuna Karen Kreps, RYT 500 The curtain had not yet opened in New York City’s Carnegie Hall for the sold-out lecture on Yoga by Swami Satchidananda, when I and three other young Yoga teachers stepped out from behind the velvet drapes onto the lip of the iconic...

Managing Your Mood with Yoga

By Amy Weintraub, M.F.A., E-RYT 500 My Journey I took my last antidepressant in 1989. Through the 1980s, I wore depression like a suit of armor, but you can’t exercise in a suit of armor, much less practice Yoga. I had meditated since receiving a mantra in 1970 and...

Let it Go, Let it Go . . .

By Sri Swami Satchidananda Very often we see people living in fear: “Will I get it or not? If I get it, how can I hold on to it? That is not a natural way of living. Why? Because you’re attached to the result, to the reward. That brings all the problems. If you get...

Sthira Sukham Asanam

By Kali Morse and Rashmi Galliano In The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book II: sutra 46, Patanjali describes asana as having two components: sthira—steady, sukham—comfortable. Swami Satchidananda’s commentary on this sutra tells us that “We need the strength of steel,...