Learning to Work Through Challenges: Tapas (Self-Discipline)

“God knows your breaking point. You simply don’t know your own strength.” –Swami Satchidananda How many times have you been a safe container for those you care about?  What did it look like? What did it feel like? Challenging oneself to be...

The Yoga of Suffering: Its Philosophy and Practice

In our current environment we see suffering everywhere as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. How do we understand suffering and work with suffering from a yogic point of view? What do the Yoga Sutras have to teach us about suffering? This article will discuss the...

Raja Yoga Teaching of the Month: Tapas

In this monthly series on the Yamas and Niyamas, Swami Karunananda offers wisdom and reflections on applying these foundational principles of Yoga in daily life. This month’s focus is on Tapas, austerity. Sutra 2.43:  “By austerity, impurities of body and senses are...

Patanjali’s Words: Kriya Yoga

Rev. Jaganath, Integral Yoga Minister and Raja Yoga master teacher, has spent a lifetime delving into the deepest layers of meaning in Patanjali’s words within the Yoga Sutras. Our series leaps ahead to Chapter 2 to its very first sutra. In sutra 2.1, Patanjali...

Raja Yoga: Questions and Answers

Sri Swami Satchidananda was one of the earliest teachers of Raja Yoga in the West. On November 21, 1966, in New York, he lectured on this topic and answered these questions about the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The second sutra gives the aim of Yoga in a nutshell:...