It would be easy to dismiss the question by saying: "Yes, after a prolonged period of intense austerities and meditation while I was living in Swarg Ashram, during which I had the darshan of a number of maharishis and their blessings, the Lord appeared before me in...
In 1971, Michael Grosso had an extraordinary experience in Greenwich Village, New York, that led him to realize he needed to balance his overly intellectual life with music. Michael had just spent the last several years obtaining a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia...
On September 8, 2023, we celebrate the 136th Jayanthi (Birth Anniversary) of Sri Swami Sivananda, the Guru of Sri Swami Satchidananda. In honor of this occasion, we offer this video during which Swami Satchidananda is asked to explain this well-known teaching of his...
The Fourfold Sadhana of Jnana Yoga consists of viveka, vairagya, shadshampat or sixfold virtues and mumukshutva or strong yearning for liberation. Viveka dawns in one who, through the grace of God, has done virtuous actions in their previous births as offerings unto...
In the early 1970s, I was in the dance department at the University of California, Berkeley, and right when I passed from my apartment to the campus, there was the Integral Yoga Institute. I went in there, long story short, to take a Yoga class. The postures were...
Rev. Shankar Fern believes that the workplace is the schoolhouse for evolving ourselves as spiritual beings. In this article, he highlights some of the key teachings of Swami Satchidananda that he has applied during the past three decades as a successful business...
All our various spiritual practices should bring some benefit right away to the body, mind and to our society. Don’t think that if you practice for a long time and there’s no benefit that suddenly, after twenty years, peace will come to you! Instead, you should feel...
Let us try to understand that large-hearted person who as it were, at one stroke showered unutterable good fortune on all the seekers. Gurudev [Sri Swami Sivanandaji] was a person on whom honor, homage, tribute, high praise, veneration, respect, etc., were no burden....
In this episode, Avi Gordon speaks with Robert Sankara Moses, who has taught Yoga and Advaita Vedanta for 50 years. Born in South Africa, in 1972 he discovered Yoga in the tradition of Sri Swami Sivananda (Swami Satchidananda's Guru). He served in the International...
Yoga is a path of liberation, and liberation has to begin in the here and now of our daily lives. We have to liberate ourselves from our own self-made prisons. These are prisons of attachments, concepts and habits, and the compelling forces of mechanical reactions and...
During Guru Poornima in 2021, we specially honor Swami Yogananda Sarasvati, who was initiated into the Holy Order of Sannyasa fifty years ago in 1971 by his Guru, Sri Swami Satchidananda in Kandy, Sri Lanka. He was the first westerner to be initiated by Swami...
When I was in my 20s, I used to go to the New York Integral Yoga Institute on 13th Street and buy books and tapes and great things. And then I took a shiatsu class there with a great bunch of spiritual people for 20 weeks and we were all different, but we all got...
The yogi’s emergency response practice has three pillars: Breathe. Be calm. Smile. As we envision all the possible scenarios for the US presidential election on November 3rd, one thing is for sure: there will be a lot of emotion! Already we have fear verging on panic...
September 8, 2020 was the 133rd Jayanthi (Birth Anniversary) of H. H. Sri Swami Sivananda Maharaj (the Guru of Sri Swami Satchidananda). This auspicious occasion included a special puja in the reception area of Sivananda Hall at Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville, offered...
Sri Swami Sivananda (the Guru of Integral Yoga founder Sri Swami Satchidananda) said that our suffering brings out the essence in us, just as an herb releases its fragrance when crushed. Gold is exposed only by removing a mountain of soil. Diamonds are formed through...
Through venerating our Guru, our lineage and traditions, we are connecting with the principle of Guru-tattva. This is summarized in Śrīgurustotram: akhaṇḍamaṇḍalākāraṁ vyāptaṁ yena carācaram tatpadaṁ darśitaṁ yena tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ Salutations to that Guru, who...