Raja Yoga usually refers to the system of yoga that is described in the Yoga Sutras of Sage Patanjali. In this ancient text Sage Patanjali describes eight stages of yoga which are known collectively as Raja Yoga.

Raja Yoga is a comprehensive yoga system which deals with the refinement of human behaviour and personality through the practice of the yamas (restraint) and niyamas (disciplines); attainment of physical health and vitality through asanas (postures) and pranayamas (pranic breathing techniques); management of mental and emotional conflicts and development of awareness and concentration through pratyahara (sensory withdrawal) and dharana (concentration); and developing the creative aspect of consciousness for transcendental awareness through dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption in the universal identity).

The term Hatha Yoga has been commonly used to describe the practice of asana (postures). The syllable ha denotes the pranic (vital) force governing the physical body and tha denotes the chitta (mental) force thus making Hatha Yoga a catalyst to an awakening of the two energies that govern our lives. More correctly the techniques described in Hatha Yoga harmonise and purify the body systems and focus the mind in preparation for more advanced chakra and kundalini practices.

The Hatha Yoga system includes asana along with the six shatkarmas (physical and mental detox techniques), mudras and bandhas (psycho-physiological energy release techniques) and pranic awakening practices. Fine tuning of the human personality at increasingly subtle levels leads to higher states of awareness and meditation.

Hatha Yoga has been described in several classic texts, notably Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Gherand Samhita.

Karma Yoga is a system which develops immunity to the reactive and negative components of an action. This awareness of action leads to a greater ability to manage mental associations in the form of desires, ambitions, ego and other personality complexes.

The aim of Karma Yoga is to gain freedom from the bondage of karma which restricts and inhibits dynamic, creative and constructive expression in life. In the Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna has emphasised the need for action as a means to become truly human and attain divine grace.

Karma Yoga is a sadhana and not a practice. The state of Karma Yoga can be attained through seva (selfless involvement in all activities), the spirit of which can be imbibed under the guidance of a competent master.

Bhakti Yoga is the path of channelling the emotions and feelings to realise the transcendental and divine nature inherent in every human being. Many people describe this as the yoga of devotion and give it a religious bent, however, it is through Bhakti Yoga that it becomes possible to experience the unity of all life.

The stages of Bhakti Yoga can be classified as follows: (1) meditation, to realise and channel emotional energy, (2) mantras and kirtans, to open the heart, (3) identification with the source of inspiration and life, God, (4) experiencing transcendental human qualities in daily life.

The validity and depth of Bhakti Yoga can only be understood by realising the experiences of union that masters have had over the course of their lives. The Bhakti Yoga Sagar series describes this process of the human journey towards divinity in a clear and concise form.

Gyana Yoga is the process of converting intellectual knowledge into practical wisdom. It is a discovery of human dharma in relation to nature and the universe. Jnana Yoga is described by tradition as a means to obtain the highest meditative state and inner knowledge.

Gyana literally means 'knowledge', but in the context of yoga it means the process of meditative awareness which leads to illuminative wisdom. It is not a method by which we try to find rational answers to eternal questions, rather it is a part of meditation leading to self-enquiry and self-realisation.

Some of the components of Gyana Yoga are:(1) not believing but realising, (2) self-awareness leading to self-analysis, (3) experiencing knowledge, (4) realising the personal nature, (5) developing intuitive wisdom, (6) experiencing inner unity.

Satyananda Yoga is a system of yoga developed by Swami Satyananda Saraswati and his lineage, which incorporates practices derived from ancient and traditional sources. Satyananda Yoga uses practices in a traditional way, asanas (postures) to balance the body and mind through the physical body, pranayama (breathing practices) to work on the energy body (equated with Ki or Chi in other systems), and meditation to calm and focus the mind. It also takes a broader outlook by teaching and encouraging yogic lifestyles, not only for renunciates but also for householders and lay practitioners.

To this end Satyananda Yoga adopts the attitudes of Jnana Yoga (the path of knowledge), Bhakti Yoga (the path of heart and emotion), Karma Yoga (the path of service) and other yogas which enable the practitioner to frame all aspects of their lives in a way which is conducive to spiritual growth.

The Satyananda approach incorporates the whole person, not just the body. There is an emphasis on awareness and practitioners are encouraged to learn about all aspects of their personality through Yoga. Change is a process that takes place naturally as a consequence of regular practice with full awareness, rather than by forcing the mind and body to the limit and beyond.

We have included descriptions of some common yogas in this website, however, the list is by no means complete and it is recommended to receive the advanced teachings from a competent master.

Asana is defined in Sage Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as 'that position which is comfortable and steady'. The raja yogis, then, practised asanas to develop the ability to sit comfortably in one position for an extended period of time, as necessary for meditation. The hatha yogis, however, found that asanas open the energy channels and psychic centres. They became tools to attain higher awareness, enabling the exploration of the body, breath, mind and subtle states.

Today, asanas are acknowledged to be techniques which place the physical body in positions that cultivate awareness, relaxation, concentration and meditation. An important part of this process is the development of good physical health by stretching, massaging and stimulating the pranic channels and internal organs.
Scientific research has proved that asanas prevent disease, promote health and have curative abilities, therefore many professionals use them to manage psycho-somatic stresses and diseases.

Asanas work on both the body and the mind. These are not separate entities although there is a tendency to think and act as though they are. The gross form of the mind is the body and the subtle form of the body is the mind. Practising asanas integrates and harmonises the two.

Pranayama is generally defined as 'breath control'. Although this interpretation may seem correct in view of the practices involved, it does not convey the full meaning of the term. Prana means 'vital energy' or 'life force', ayama means 'to expand', accordingly pranayama is expansion of the vital energy. This vital energy is responsible for all life experiences including physical and spiritual.
Pranayamas harmonise the pranic body which is a network of nerve channels carrying the vital force to each and every cell and organ infusing them with life and dynamism. Pranayamas are also the preparatory practices for the awakening of the chakras (psychic centres) and aid in the perfection of kriya and kundalini yogas.

RELAXATION - During our lifetime, we accumulate mental, muscular and emotional tensions, and they affect our health. In yoga, the way to release these tensions is through the practice of relaxation, or yoga nidra. This practice induces pratyahara, a state in which the mind is isolated and the senses do not feed the brain with fresh information. When there is complete isolation from the influxes of the senses, the consciousness, the mind and the brain undergo a metamorphosis, a complete transformation. It is as if a new brain, mind and consciousness are being created out of the old brain, mind and consciousness. All mental, muscular and emotional tensions are immediately relaxed.

MEDITATION - Meditation expands awareness and develops calmness, serenity and focus, ultimately leading to a deeper understanding of our inner nature. Meditation also has much to offer as a tool for enhancing concentration, willpower and resistance to stress. It allows us to ride the waves of life without being disturbed by them. In Satyananda Yoga, meditation techniques are taught very systematically, and over a course of sessions may cover body awareness, breath awareness, inner observation and mantra (sound).
We often tend to think that meditation is a process of spiritual enlightenment or greater spiritual understanding, but meditation is a very big subject. In English, the word 'meditation' represents a state of mental attention; it is not a means of attaining tranquillity but a method of becoming more attentive internally. We can even say that mental attention equals meditation. When you become attentive internally, you are forced to become a witness to what is transpiring in your inner personality. If I ask you to observe your thoughts, what are you doing? You are not in a deep meditative state when you are observing your thoughts, rather you have become alert and aware of a mental process.

Yoga says that nobody in this world has been able to experience meditation. We only experience different or varying degrees of concentration, focus and alertness, but nobody can experience meditation because it is a state of mind beyond the realm of time, space and object. So we do not meditate. We try to understand what we are feeling in the realm of emotions and intellect, and the social influences on our personality.

Satyananda Yoga Nidra was devised by Swami Satyananda Saraswati from traditional Tantric practices and has had a major impact on the world of yoga. Satyananda Yoga Nidra is a pratyahara technique in which the distractions of the mind are contained and the mind is allowed to relax. This practice has had a profound transformative effect on practitioners.

People feel that they are relaxing when they collapse in an easy chair with a cup of tea or coffee, a drink or a cigarette and read a newspaper or switch on the television. But this, in fact, is merely sensory diversion. Twentieth century research into sleep has proven that even entering into this traditional haven will rarely banish stress. True relaxation is an experience far beyond all this. For absolute relaxation one must remain aware. This is Satyananda Yoga Nidra, the state of dynamic sleep.

Satyananda Yoga Nidra is a systematic method of inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. During the practice, one appears to be asleep, but the consciousness is functioning at a deeper level of awareness.

Antar mouna literally means 'inner silence'. It is a technique by which we can observe the conscious activities of the mind in the form of thought observation. The techniques of yoga nidra and antar mouna combined deal with the superficial human mind. Yoga says that there are two kinds of mind, the manifest, the superficial and the unmanifest, the real. We experience the superficial, manifest mind in all its glory. The ego is the final state of experience of the manifest mind and this ego is the negative ego. So we shall try to look at the components of the manifest mind and the negative ego when we practise yoga nidra and antar mouna.
Antar mouna is designed to allow us to do that because developing a sense of self is an antidote to the pain, to dealing with this kind of contracted and somehow distorted energetic process that goes on inside. A sense of self is very grounding and calming. We feel a greater sense of safety and trust the more we develop it. What we are trying to do is develop a greater stability in that experience, so that it becomes more available to us for longer periods of time. So the first stages of antar mouna are simply passive, learning to witness outside sounds or sensations, learning to witness thoughts without getting engaged in suppression of thoughts or involvement in the process. These are the two main states, grabbing onto a thought and pushing it away. Of course, the awareness is the antidote to ignorance.
Antar mouna is one of the most important techniques that we can learn in order to maintain the path, in order to maintain an awareness of duality and polarity, and to be able to hold the negative as well as the positive experiences.

Ajapa japa meditation helps one to withdraw the senses and awaken self-awareness. It removes the impurities of the mind. A burning lamp cannot give full illumination if its glass is covered in smoke. Only when the glass is cleaned will the lamp shine fully. Similarly, the light or the power of the atman is within us, but it does not manifest itself in our daily life because of the hindrances of the thought process, the vagaries, dissipations and distractions of the mind.
Ajapa japa is a complete method of mental training. In order to attain success, you must begin right from the first stage of meditation and gradually go to the last. Out of these six practices, you can conveniently practise the first four stages at home every day without difficulty. The fifth stage is a bit difficult in the sense that it requires greater power of imagination and concentration. It will take you some time to master it, but once you do, the sixth stage will also become much easier to practice.

Chidakasha dharana is a very sacred and secret technique of tantra. It leads to the state of meditation and tranquillity of mind. It also balances the emotions and creates equilibrium in the physical body. Chidakasha dharana is concentration and contemplation on the inner space which is neither physiological nor psychological.

TRATAKA - The word trataka means to gaze steadily. Trataka is gazing without blinking at an object placed directly in front of the eyes. At the time of practising trataka, the eyeballs should remain steady and the eyelids should not flicker. No object except the one on which trataka is to be performed should be seen, and the mind should not wander hither and thither but be merged in observation of the object.
Trataka is of two kinds: internal and external. Internal trataka is called dharana or concentration because in this practice the eyes are closed and the mind concentrated upon some subtle element within. External trataka means fixing the eyes on some object outside. Trataka on any object can be performed during the day or night.

Mudras can be described as psychic, emotional, devotional and aesthetic gestures or attitudes which link individual pranic force with universal or cosmic force. Bandhas aim to lock prana in particular areas of the body and redirect it for the purpose of spiritual awakening. The physiological and psychological effects of mudras and bandhas have been examined and systematised.

Bandhas are a series of powerful locks designed to unlock blockages of energy in the body. Moolbandha contracts an area around mooladhara chakra in the perineal area. Uddiyana bandha involves a contraction of the abdominal area. Jalandhara bandha involves a contraction of the throat. Mahabandha is a combination of all three locks.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Sannyasi Vigyanamurti (Danny Hawley, USA)

Modern authority on and exponent of yoga and tantra, founder of the International Yoga Fellowship, Bihar School of Yoga, Sivananda Math, Yoga Research Foundation and Paramahamsa Alakh Bara, and author of over eighty books on yoga, tantra and spirituality, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, disciple of Swami Sivananda Saraswati, undertook the mission of spreading yoga throughout the world to people regardless of their race, nationality, religion, caste, gender, age, or type of personality.

Early life and founding of mission

Swami Satyananda was born on July 26th, 1923, near Almora, Uttar Pradesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas. As a youth he was classically educated and studied Sanskrit, the Vedas and the Upanishads. After several spontaneous spiritual experiences, which began at age five, and an initiation by a tantric guru at age eighteen, he decided to leave home in 1943 in order to seek a spiritual master. He met his yogic guru, Swami Sivananda Saraswati, at Rishikesh in 1943, and lived with him for twelve years. Swami Sivananda described him as a ‘versatile genius’ who ‘did the work of four people’. Swami Sivananda gave him the name Satyananda and initiated him as a sannyasin (renunciant) of the Dashnama sannyasa order, on the banks of the river Ganga on September 12, 1947.

Swami Sivananda gave Swami Satyananda a twofold mission in life: (i) to become the means of elevating the deeply rooted sufferings of mankind by spreading yoga ‘from door to door and shore to shore’, and (ii) to become one with the highest reality. In one of his letters Swami Sivananda referred to Swami Satyananda as ‘a pillar of his mission’.

Swami Sivananda foresaw that Swami Satyananda’s life would involve twenty year cycles. Swami Satyananda was born in 1923 and for twenty years he was a student and seeker. He met Swami Sivananda in 1943 and for twenty years he lived as a disciple and a mendicant. He founded the Bihar School of Yoga in 1963 and for twenty years he was a teacher and administrator. He resigned as administrator in 1983, renouncing all that he had built and went on to the cosmic level.

Swami Satyananda left Rishikesh in 1956 and lived as a wandering mendicant (parivrajaka) for eight years. Travelling throughout South Asia, he met with saints, yogis and tantrics, and formulated and adapted yogic techniques for modern lifestyles. In 1963, while visiting Munger, Bihar, on the banks of the Ganga, he experienced the supreme bliss of the highest state of consciousness and had the revelation that he should create a global fraternity of yoga. He realized his mission to be the elevation of human consciousness by bringing to light and disseminating the science of yoga.

The teachings of Swami Satyananda

Swami Satyananda taught that the attainment of the state of enlightenment is the goal of human existence, and that the most direct path to this goal is yoga and meditation. He emphasized an integral system of yoga, incorporating components of all the yogas, but giving more importance to tantric yoga. He defined tantra as the science of expansion of consciousness and liberation of energy. His system of tantric yoga involved the practices of hatha yoga, kundalini yoga, kriya yoga, mantra yoga, laya yoga and the meditative stages of raja yoga, namely pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.

Swami Satyananda discerned in the ancient tantras the powerful techniques of nyasa, which he then decoded, translated and adapted to suit the needs of the modern individual. This became the practice of Yoga Nidra, a core teaching of the Bihar School of Yoga since the 1960s, and now readily accessible to all. From the vedic tradition he adapted the components of bhakti yoga, karma yoga and jnana yoga, and developed a comprehensive system of meditation in order to make it easily understood and practised by all types of people. He was the first person to bring the yogic side of tantra to the forefront and to explain the concepts of tantra so as to be applicable to the needs of modern society.

Swami Satyananda devised two yogic approaches to help people to attain total health and to develop balanced integrated personalities. The first approach involved understanding the mind, psyche and spirit through the practices of raja yoga, overcoming obstacles in life through jnana yoga, and going deeper into spiritual practices through kriya yoga, kundalini yoga, nada yoga, swara yoga, mantra yoga and other yogas.

The second approach was the development of a lifestyle in which people could attain the ability to observe and to live life differently by incorporating yoga. Swami Satyananda also revived the ashram and sannyasa traditions in order to provide proper teaching and training in the yogic lifestyle, emphasizing that everyone had the spiritual right to become a sannyasin at some period in his or her life. Through sannyasa he inspired many people to integrate yoga into their lifestyles. He developed and propagated the yogic lifestyle as a form of therapy, a way to achieve a balanced expression in life, and a means to attain inner peace.

Since, in Swami Satyananda’s view, yoga was applicable to everyone, he represented it in a practical, scientific way in order to make it universally accessible. To help people according to their individual needs and to enable them to gain a personal experience of the yogic process, he gave individualized sets of yogic practices (sadhanas) to different people. To help people to develop and to integrate their understanding and experience of the human body, mind and spirit, he taught all three dimensions of yoga: physiological, psychological and spiritual. In the words of a disciple, “Due to his inspired teachings, the depth and the power of the yogic practices became known.”

The Satyananda Yoga/Bihar Yoga movement

Swami Satyananda set out to make yoga available to all categories of people everywhere. He prophesized, “Yoga is going to emerge as a mighty world culture. It will change the course of world events.” As first steps in his mission, he founded the International Yoga Fellowship Movement in 1956, established the Bihar School of Yoga in 1963, and began the publication of Yoga magazine in English and Yoga Vidya in Hindi in 1964. At the Bihar School of Yoga in Munger, he began systematic yogic training of sannyasins and lay people, accepting both males and females of all ages, nationalities and beliefs. As the school and its programs outgrew its original location due to increasing demands for yogic training, a larger site, on a nearby hill overlooking the Ganga, was acquired in 1978. Naming this place Ganga Darshan, Swami Satyananda developed it over the next ten years into a large yoga complex with extensive residential and teaching facilities for the propagation of yoga internationally.

From 1963 to 1983, Swami Satyananda worked tirelessly. He regularly sponsored and conducted national and international yoga conventions, and toured extensively throughout India and the world to popularize yoga. Conducting regular yoga teacher training courses begin-ning in 1968, he trained an international core of sannyasins to translate and transmit the techniques of yoga for different cultures. He sent them to teach yoga classes and to conduct seminars and conventions throughout India, Australia, Europe, Africa, South Asia, and North and South America. They established many Satyananda Yoga ashrams, schools, and centres around the world. In 1984 Swami Satyananda founded Sivananda Math, a charitable organization, to uplift the underprivileged and downtrodden rural sectors. In 1987 the Bihar School of Yoga undertook a project through the Department of Education to train government schoolteachers to teach yoga in public schools. In the following years, the Bihar School of Yoga organized yoga programs for soldiers in the Indian army, for Indian Railway workers and for prisoners in jails throughout the state of Bihar.

Swami Satyananda sought the integration of yoga with other disciplines, including science, medicine and the arts. In 1970 he opened the International Yoga Research Library at Munger, and in 1973 began to initiate medical doctors into sannyasa. In 1984 he founded the Yoga Research Foundation to work with doctors, scientists, hospitals and medical colleges in order to carry out and to correlate scientific research world-wide. The aim of this research was to investigate scientifically and to document the therapeutic and mind-expanding benefits of yoga techniques. Research was planned and undertaken on common disorders such as asthma, diabetes, digestive ailments, obesity, arthritis, hypertension and cardiovascular management. By 1986 medical doctor sannyasins had opened yoga therapy centres in Australia. In 1994 the Bihar government sponsored the Yoga Research Foundation to work on the integration of yogic techniques into the syllabus for all the medical colleges in the state.

In 1995 Bihar Yoga Bharati was founded at Ganga Darshan as an Institute for Advanced Studies in Yogic Science. In 2000 Bihar Yoga Bharati was recognized by the government of India as a deemed university, and became the first yoga university in the world, offering post-graduate degrees in the faculties of Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Psychology and Applied Yogic Science. By 2000 Bihar Yoga Bharati had established the first Satyananda Yoga Academy in Australia, and the European Satyananda Yoga Academy was created in May 2004.

New mission and message

In 1983 Swami Satyananda appointed Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati as his spiritual successor and president of Bihar School of Yoga, and then began a gradual withdrawal from the teaching and administering of his international yoga movement. In 1988 he left the ashram at Munger to follow the path of renunciation of mission, disciples, and establishment (kshetra sannyasa). He undertook a walking pilgrimage to the spiritual places of power (siddha tirthas) of India, taking with him no personal belongings and accepting no assistance from any of the ashrams or institutions he had founded. In 1989, at Trayambakeshwar, he received from God a mandate for a new mission, to progress toward the cosmic dimension by means of unbroken remembrance and repetition of the Lord’s name with every breath. In 1990 he proceeded to the location which the Lord had revealed to him and began a life of seclusion and intensive spiritual practice. He established the Sri Panch Dashnam Paramahamsa Alakh Bara for this purpose at Rikhiadham, in Deoghar, Bihar. For twelve years he remained in isolation, constantly performing his spiritual practice. During this period he also performed the ‘five-fire’ rite of purification (panchagni tapasya) from the ancient Vedic tradition.

In 1991, Swami Satyananda received another divine mandate, regarding which he said, “I have heard the voice of God and he said: Love your neighbours. Help them as I have helped you. Christ heard it; I also hear it. I am not a second Christ, nor a pontiff or preacher. I am a servant of God.” Seeking to strike a balance between the personal aspect of spiritual liberation and the social aspect of helping others, he gave Swami Niranjanananda a new task for Sivananda Math: service to and improvement of the living conditions of the tribal people in thousands of villages surrounding Rikhiadham. This included financing and constructing homes for the homeless, providing means of employment, education and medical treatment, and teaching yogic practices, meditation, truth, non-violence, and values in order to raise the spiritual consciousness of the people.

In 1994 Swami Satyananda gave his followers a new message, of love and devotion to God (bhakti yoga). He taught that the purpose of human life is to realize God through love and to serve God by helping humanity. The first way to achieve this purpose is to remember God’s name through mantra repetition or singing (kirtan), and the second way is through giving help and support to others. He asserted that the ultimate yoga is recognition of the divine in everyone, seeing others in oneself and oneself in others. A natural expression of dedication to God is service to the poor and removal of distress from the lives of others. Swami Satyananda’s prophesy was that while hatha yoga and raja yoga were the panacea of the twentieth century, devotion to God and bhakti yoga would be the panacea of the twenty-first. He declared that in the twenty-first century, yoga must expand beyond the limits of personal practice to a path of giving and sharing, encompassing devotion, dedication and participation in human emancipation.

In 2001, Swami Satyananda inaugurated the great coronation sacrifice (Rajasooya Yajna), which would allow for the presence and participation of his followers. This sacrifice is to be conducted only by a conqueror (chakravartin), who by custom must declare what he has conquered. Swami Satyananda described his conquest as ‘fixing the flag of yoga in all corners of the world’. The speciality of the Rajasooya Yajna is perfection in the art of giving, on both the material and spiritual levels. Swami Satyananda’s message for his followers in 2002 echoes the main motto of his own guru, Swami Sivananda: ”Give, give, give, as much as you can.” He advised, “Rather than trying to purify yourself by doing this and that, say, ‘God, what do you want me to do?’ And do it. You leave it to Him and He will do it. Try this trick and everything will change in your life.”