Swami Vishnu-devananda (1927-1993) was an accomplished yogi from India sent by his guru (Swami Sivananda — a modern day Himalayan saint and author of over 300 books) to North America in 1957 to spread the methods and teachings of Yoga.
Swami Sivananda in black coat, left and Swami Vishnudevananda in Scorpion pose, right.
After his arrival in San Francisco, he traveled to the East Coast and Canada where he laid the foundation for Classical Yoga teachings with the international Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center (SYVC).
Since his arrival to the West, the SYVC organization now comprises of eight ashrams, over twenty centers and has trained over 47,000 Yoga teachers.
These teachings have spread throughout the Americas, Europe and India and the organization has become “One of the world’s largest schools of Yoga.” (Time Magazine, April 23, 2001.)
Sivananda Yoga is now taught worldwide in places such as Japan, Vietnam, Austria, Colombia, Bahamas, Italy and more.
The Birth of the Yoga Farm
In 1971, Swami Vishnu-devananda returned to California and founded the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm on 40 acres of land located in the Gold Country of the beautiful Sierra Nevada Foothills.
He chose the land not far from San Francisco and Sacramento. on the highways to the Sierra Mountains, Lake Tahoe and Reno Nevada as a retreat place for an alternative way of relaxation and of recharging ourselves in our modern stressful life.
The top of Siva Hill at the Yoga Farm is a beautiful place for silent contemplation and connection with nature.
The picturesque landscape and tranquility draws people from all walks of life. The ashram has purchased throughout the years an additional 40 acres of private land adjacent to the original 40 acres and has become a real refuge not only of worn-out city dwellers but also to native species.
26 kinds of birds, 7 kinds of mammals, especially mule deers , lots of frogs and 12 kinds of “special status wild life species”, and hundreds of different species of plants call the Yoga Farm property their home (as per biological research report Jan. 2004).
A black-tailed deer grazes in front of one of the cabins.A bullfrog wades in the water of the pond at the Yoga Farm.
The “Yoga Farm” as Swami Vishnu-devananda nicknamed it, remained his favorite place for personal retreat and is where he wrote the significant book, Meditation and Mantra’.
Swami Vishnu’s Legacy Continues
For almost 20 years the ashram has remained in its original state, a farm house and pond surrounded by rolling hills, majestic oaks and saturated with the songs of wildlife.
Yoga has now entered the mainstream being taught in schools, work places and its benefits are more widely known. Time Magazine quotes that there are 15 millions of Americans (Time Magazine, April 2001.) practicing Yoga.
Their cover stories on Yoga, meditation and healthy diet brought out public awareness of time tested alternatives to health and peace of mind. (Tune Magazine, January and Aug. 4, 2003).
Yogis meditate on a log underneath the majestic oak trees.
Classical yoga recognizes the total person as a body-mind-spirit system and is presented in a simple fire points system as taught by Swami Vishnu-devananda and the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers since 1959: Proper exercise, proper breathing, proper relaxation, proper diet, positive thinking and meditation.
Adapting these points into daily life will help one discover their full potential physically, mentally and spiritually. Yoga practitioners become more and more aware of the deeper and subtler aspects of classical yogic teachings, and seek a retreat where they can practice and further educate themselves.
The Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm responds to this need by keeping a pure atmosphere where people can come and find their Divine Self. It is a spiritual, non-sectarian, non-profit organization completely run by dedicated Yoga teachers who continue to teach selflessly — as their predecessors yogis have done in the past – this original, integral system of a complete Yogic lifestyle on a daily basis.
Yoga Farm guests and staff enjoy an organic vegetarian meal outside.
Keeping Up with the Modern Demand for Yoga
The ashram has been continually renovated over the past 25 years to better accommodate the demand for Yoga, meditation and immersion in Nature. The accommodations – cabins on the hills – are simple and comfortable, keeping to the spirit of “simple living, high thinking”.
The vegetarian meals are fantastic. The Yoga classes are for beginners and advanced, offered indoors and outdoors depending on the weather. The daily chants and satsangs inspire and soothe the soul. Many courses, workshops and intensives with celebrated teachers are offered year around.
After over 40 years of service, the Yoga Farm needs your help. The permit for maximum population capacity on the land needs an upgrade to allow the Ashram to grow into a facility that meets the pressing needs of our time.
If you have not done so already, please tap the button below and sign the petition to support the Yoga Farm’s expansion so that more people can be served through the mission of peace, Yoga and Self-realization.
Over 640 petitions have already been signed and we envision 3000 supporting voices by the end of 2019. We believe at least 3000 signed petitions will show enough support for a significant occupancy upgrade for 25 more years to come.
Thank you.
-Swami Sitaramananda
Swami Sitaramananda
Swami Sitaramananda is a senior disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda and acharya of the US West Coast centers and Ashram. View Profile>
“Your inherent nature is joy, ānanda, which is eternal. That is the message of yoga and vedānta.” – Swami Vishnudevananda
The 3 Gunas
Yoga offers us valuable guidance on our journey towards peace of mind. The formula is simple and can be described as a way of working with the three gunas or qualities of nature: 1) break through the tamas; 2) calm down the rajas; and 3) nourish the sattva.
All the objects of this universe contain the three gunas. The gunas operate on the physical, mental, and emotional levels and obscure our true nature, veiling the Light within. We become attached to physical conditions, stuck in stressful thought patterns, and feel unable to free ourselves from repeated negative emotions.
The light of consciousness,
the Atman, reflects through the physical body, the mind and its emotions, just
as a brilliant and pure crystal has no color of its own. When a colored object
is brought near, it reflects the same color and appears to be that color—blue,
red or whatever it may be. In the same way, the Atman is colorless and without
qualities yet is veiled by the physical body and mind.
Yoga
teaches us that we are neither the body nor mind. We are not our thoughts. The
gunas are only veils to our true Divine nature, the Light of Atman.
We must break through tamas
Tamas is resistance to change. The mind seeks stability in the face of constantly changing circumstances (karmas), finding security in addiction to food, alcohol, relationships, and other kinds of behaviors. Without the capacity to discriminate good from bad, we become dependent on external objects and ways of thinking. We may not even like the thing but will choose it anyway out of apathy and ignorance. Tamas veils the Self, providing only a dim view of our true nature. We must make a conscious choice to extract ourselves from Tamas. It takes a good strong kick to move the mind from its tendencies.
We must calm down rajas
Rajas is forceful change. Rajas is ego-driven toward the external, actively engaging the world. Its extreme is to control situations and to meet expectations. One directs their energy outward to effect change that reflects a certain prescribed vision.
Rajas is the energy of action and passion, and of external projection. It singles out an aspect of life that the ego likes and goes towards it to the exclusion of everything else. We become attached to our actions. It is said that fulfilling one desire only reinforces that desire and leads to ten new desires. When these conditions are not met, one falls into disappointment and disillusionment (tamas).
We must nourish sattva
Sattva is wisdom to accept change. We accept that change is in God’s hands and that we do not control change. Sattva is to know that we do not know. Sattva reveals, allowing us to penetrate into the true picture of reality. It is the energy of moving inward and upward, letting go of our attachment to external objects and ever-changing outcomes.
Sattva allows us to see the mind’s tendencies with clarity. With more balance and harmony in our mind, we remain peaceful in the face of difficulty, allowing ourselves to make wise choices rather than reacting to situations beyond our control.
To overcome the egoistic veils of ambition, pride, projections and opinions, desires and expectations, we must nourish sattva through selfless service, devotion, control of the senses and mind, and meditation on the Self. We must learn to detach from external conditions, to question our mind’s thought patterns, and to stop functioning out of habitual conclusions.
Summary
Our journey is to transform ourselves from negative to positive, from restlessness to peace, from darkness to light. Peace of mind is difficult to attain because our minds are always changing. Like the woman who has lost her needle inside of her house, but looks for it outside, we restlessly seek for happiness outside when all the time, the Truth lies within.
Swami Sivananda says, “Fear not. Grieve not. Worry not. Your essential nature is peace. Thou art an embodiment of peace. Know this. Feel this. Realize this.”
Questions for your Self-study
How do you react to change?
Do you try to control your environment? The situation? Others?
Do you find that change causes stress? If so, what aspect of change causes you stress?
What are your Yoga practices to nourish sattva?
You can leave answers to the questions in the comments section below.
Swami Dharmananda is assistant director of the Yoga Farm for many years and is in charge of the karma yoga program. He is a faculty of the Sivananda Institute of Health (SIHY) and is one of the main teachers of Yoga Philosophy and Meditation at the Ashram. He took sannyas vows in 2013 and is keenly interested in yoga psychology and philosophy, presenting the classical teaching in a practical and accessible way to people of all faiths and backgrounds.
Swami Dharmananda is a faculty of the Sivananda Institute of Health (SIHY) and is one of the main teachers of Yoga Philosophy and Meditation at the Ashram.
“Health is Wealth, Peace of Mind is Happiness, Yoga shows the Way”
– Swami Vishnudevananda
Swami Vishnudevananda tells the story of a man who is seated under a tree in a desert. The tree gives him shade and a little cool breeze. All around he is surrounded by white sand.
As the sun starts to rise on the horizon, he starts to get thirsty and becomes more and more dehydrated. Still he sits in the shade of the tree.
Soon, his desire for water becomes important to his very existence. He sees a beautiful, shimmering lake in the distance. Waves. Ripples. What is that?
The senses grasp for something external, but lasting happiness is not found there.
That white sand is full of water and waves. The senses tell him there is cool water. Yet, the intellect knows there can’t be any water, there is only sand.
Happiness comes and goes as quickly as the objects of the world. In our search for happiness, we lose sight of real lasting peace. We suffer for wanting one thing.
We suffer for fear of losing something else. Happiness does not lie in external objects. If happiness were to be found in Paris, then everyone in Paris would be happy!
Do not run toward the sense objects for relief from stress and difficulty. We all have times of trial. It’s how we work through them that shows us who we are – Yoga shows the way.
Learn to detach and recognize the “mirage” the mind has created through our expectations, desire for outcomes, and pre-conceived ideas. Identify your mind’s tendencies.
Counter negative thought patterns with virtues of gratitude, abundance, and contentment. Cultivate equanimity and face life’s challenges with peace.
Turn your gaze within. Calm the waves of the mind with daily meditation practice. Therein lies the unchanging, stable, eternal Self.
Free yourself from dependency on that which is changing and finite. Then you will know the lasting peace of the Self!
Swami Dharmananda is a faculty of the Sivananda Institute of Health (SIHY) and is one of the main teachers of Yoga Philosophy and Meditation at the Ashram.
Yoga is not escaping life, but facing life’s difficulties with detachment and fortitude.
Swami Vishnudevananda said, “If you are carrying some heavy luggage on your head and you are crossing a river and the water is now up to your head but you still want to hold the valuable bundle on your head, the more you try to hold it, what will happen? The more you will go underwater. The more you throw it away, the freer you are to swim across and save yourself.”
Yoga shows us how to let go of our luggage, i.e., the useless negative thoughts and emotions that keep us from knowing the peace we truly seek. Too many times the difficulty comes to us and we don’t have the tools to “cross the river”.
We instead try to escape from the situation or deny the situation rather than living our life with open eyes and an open heart.
Often, we act out of long-established stress patterns that find their root in fear, attachment, and desire. The fight/flight response has caught us and suddenly our choices are very limited.
I can run from this or I can fight through this. Either way, the threat to my well-being seems real and tangible. Under the influence of this perceived threat, we are less able to connect to our own innate wisdom and are more likely to fall prey to negative emotions or extreme thoughts.
To compensate for these uncomfortable emotional states, we fall back to tried and true habits such as smoking, drinking, eating unhealthy foods, unhealthy relationships, etc.
Yoga teaches us how to “let go” and to detach from these stress patterns and the behaviors that follow them. We learn how to keep calm even when a strong negative emotion such as anger arises. To detach means to witness the anger, understanding that we are not the emotion.
Meditation is one Yoga practice that helps to build awareness and detachment from the mind.
We can say, “I see there is anger in my mind,” rather than succumbing to the anger itself. We remain peaceful even when circumstances seem to go against us or don’t meet our own rigid expectations.
Swami Sivananda says, “Fortitude is a sweet mysterious mixture of courage, calmness, patience, presence of mind and endurance.” Fortitude is our capacity to endure difficult or stressful situations.
It is based in detachment and discrimination, being able to tell what is real from what is not real. It is understanding that karma is to be experienced and lessons are to be learned.
Daily Yoga is a powerful practice with many benefits, such as more positivity and less stress.
Through daily Yoga practice we gain awareness of negative emotions and thought patterns. Through trial and error we transform the negative to positive, freeing ourselves from expectations, desired outcomes, and disappointments.
Swami Sivananda adds, “Every failure is a stepping-stone to success. Every difficulty or disappointment is a trial of your faith. Every unpleasant incident or temptation is a test of your inner strength. Therefore, nil desperandum. March forward hero!”
Healing with medicine, yoga, ayurveda, jyotish and vedanta
Swami Sitaramananda
Yoga Farm Director
Swami Sitaramananda is a senior disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda and acharya of the US West Coast centers and Ashram. Swamiji is also the acharya of the Sivananda mission in Asia, especially in Vietnam, where she hails from.
I want to share with you a true story of karmic disease and karmic healing. Disease can be karmic, i.e., not sure of the cause, but meant to happen for self-transformation and growth.
When we have disease, we always asked ourselves the question, “Why? Why me?” It is difficult to see that disease can be an opportunity, an opportunity to slow down, to reevaluate oneself, and to reconnect with what is essential in one ‘s life.
In the best case scenario, we also reconnect with the healing spiritual force within us and within Mother Nature, we reconnect with our natural ability to pray. Disease can make us strong in some way, restoring our faith, and teach us that there are higher forces at play that govern our lives, thus teaching us to surrender, accept, to become humble, and to contemplate life and death.
The other possibility is that disease can challenge our faith, awaken not our spirit, but our anger and hatred, the accumulation of all bitterness, desires unfulfilled, and disappointments of the past. Disease brings lots of negativity to the surface. Disease is purgatory and painful, detoxifying.
A young lady named Hannah discovered she has breast cancer. She is in her 40s, a mother of two, happily married, manager at a bank, and normally a joyful person. She has never done yoga or meditated before. She tried to keep her composure during the days between the discovery of the lump and the confirmation that it is cancer. Her mother and sister are yoga teachers. So at that time, she took the trip to the ashram and asked for an appointment with the head teacher, the swami in charge, i.e., myself.
I looked at her and felt her anxiety. I even checked her Vedic astrology chart, which normally will reveal some karmic reasons for something happening. The chart is actually quite positive and balanced, there are no clear causes, no terrible imbalances, no long-term negativity, no big inner drama which would explain cancer. I am actually perplexed. She is in her Jupiter period of life which is a good period for learning, not a Saturn period where we have to pay our karmic debts.
Doctors diagnosed cancer and prescribed breast surgery and a course of chemotherapy. She lost her hair, became weak and pale. I prayed for her but did not know what to do besides following my intuitive advice as a yoga therapist: rest, recharge prana, take time, do Ayurvedic pancha karma . Her mother had a lot of faith. One day, She asked me to pull a fortune message card, the kind in a Chinese fortune cookie or on your yogi tea bag. The message said, “You will make a difference in somebody’s life”. The mother immediately said, “It is Hannah, you will save Hannah! I kept silent. Such expectation of cure of the number one disease killer placed on me!
Hannah went to India for 3 weeks of pancha karma treatments at the famous Ayurvedic healing village Vaidyagram, near Coimbatore. This is between her 3rd and 4th rounds of chemo. She wore a turban over her head, having lost all of her hair. She took time from her job and from her family, a new course of events. Her husband and his parents took care of the kids. She came back from her pancha karma feeling better, about to resume her chemotherapy.
It happened so, as karma dictated, that , one day I asked point-blank to the Ayurvedic Dr. Ram Kumar, “What should we do for her? Ayurveda pancha karma, but now what? Dr. Ram Kumar said, “Maybe she can meet me and another cancer specialist doctor that I will meet for an international conference on cancer in Malaysia!
It happened so that the dates of the conference are a holiday, and Hannah was able to take time from work and her sister was able to accompany her. During the conference, hearing many doctors talking about cancer, hearing stories of healing from cancer patients, Hannah gained strength. The doctors advised her to stop her chemo if hereditary cancer is not in the family, (she did not know that her own mother was a cancer survivor), and she agreed.
Upon return, she quit her high paying bank manager job, and checked into the ashram for a two months stay. She practiced yoga asanas for the first time, twice a day, practiced breathing exercises and conscious relaxation. She ate vegetarian food twice a day, did her one-hour karma yoga chores in the ashram, and took her time walking in the forest. I saw her walking slowly, relaxing and ẹnjoying herself. After a month of yoga vacation, she signed up for Yoga Teacher Training Course and learned yoga philosophy, yoga psychology, and followed the rigorous yoga discipline seriously. Indeed the disease opened a new door of knowledge for her. She was happy!
After two months she came back and the doctor was amazed. There was no trace of cancer! Even her hepatitis of 5 years that was controlled by medicine had disappeared. Her doctor was so amazed that he himself came to the ashram and sent his own parents for yoga retreats.
The reoccurence of cancer is a commonly known fact. After returning home, she took a lower position in the bank and continued with her daily routine of yoga, meditation, pranayama, relaxation and vegetarian diet. Her spirit came back strong along with her faith. Ten days later she came back impromptu for the Vedanta Self-enquiry course. I hesitated to take her as I did not want to compromise her new-found balance. I gave her a one-day trial and questioned her.
She was ready. I let her follow the 10-days intensive course, during which she fearlessly shared her past trauma, always with an inner smile. She nailed down the idea that, “I am the immortal atman, I am not this body, not this mind.” She is free from fear!
The medicine of karma, Yoga, Ayurveda, Jyotish, and Vedanta work together for this amazing self-transformation journey.
Sivananda Yoga Health Educator Training (SYHET) practitioners are trained to be the health catalyst; in wisdom counseling, prayer, yoga teaching, Ayurveda therapy and working with doctors. Disease is not simple. Life and death are not simple. Consciousness heals. Diseases are opportunities. May all become Yoga Health Educators and may Yoga and Ayurveda therapy be used more alone or with medicine!
Yoga Training to Uplift Yourself and Uplift Others
by Swami Sitaramananda
Swami Sitaramananda
Yoga Farm Director
Swami Sitaramananda is a senior disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda and acharya of the US West Coast centers and Ashram. Swamiji is also the acharya of the Sivananda mission in Asia, especially in Vietnam, where she hails from.
We have been instructed to first put the oxygen mask on ourselves in case of emergency on a flight, then put it on others who can not do it themselves. In the same manner, you need to uplift yourself and help yourself first before helping others.
The oxygen coming from the oxygen mask is the life prana (vital energy )and wisdom knowledge that comes from the long tradition of Gurus and Yogis. We just have to expose ourselves to this source of knowledge and our complicated life falls in place and we develop proper perspective about ourselves and what we should be doing. The airplane journey, metaphorically, is our life, we take off, and there are unseen turbulences.
One-month Sivananda Teacher Training
Taking one month out of your life to do the Yoga Teachers training course seems a long time and a big investment but really it is not a luxury. Putting the oxygen mask on yourself first is not a selfish act, it is necessary . Once in a lifetime, we all need to do this, learning for the first time or re learning in the wisdom school, things abut yourself that you have not been taught in normal secular education system. To pass it on to others and become a Yoga teacher is another question to consider later. Once you have something valuable, automatically you would want to share with others.But first we need to know that we do not know the truth and ask the right questions. We need to know that we know uptill now about ourselves and others can be seen in a larger context of our spiritual evolution. And everything starts to make sense.
Learn the connection of body-mind-spirit
There will be practical instructions daily how to keep ourselves healthier but Yoga is not only for the young, slim and fit. In this one month training, you really explore the intimate connection between body-mind-spirit and have a wholistic understanding of health. It is also the stepping stone to be a professional health educator ̣therapist if you wish. The Sivananda ashram Yoga Farm in Grass Valley is the first ashram to offer the comprehensive 800 hours program on Yoga Health education (Yoga therapy, accredited by International Association of Yoga Therapists ) and the 200 hour TTC is the first stepping stone in that in depth journey.
We get to experience all day long new thoughts and get out of our habitual thoughts.
Testimonials
Your body and mind are sacred instruments. You will learn to stretch their limits to a comfortable level. You will learn the balance between effort and relaxation, a precious balance to learn in life. You will learn to accept your body and mind limitations and to honor yourself . You will feel the thrill when you feel one more inch stretch, one more deep breath, one more moment of quiet in meditation and in deep relaxation. In the recent TTC in Vietnam, there were 5 students over 70! We did not know in the beginning what to do with them, but we were amazed how good students they are, they absorbed every bit of the teaching , enjoyed their time immensely and said” I wish I knew this before!” . TTC is for all ages, all mental and fitness conditions. You do to need to be a pretzel to take the training.
A day in the life of TTC
The day goes with sunrise and sunset. There is a natural rhythm to life, not the craziness of the rat race in the city. You breathe, you walk, you sit on grass, you enjoy the company of new friends, you live in the moment present, the precious moment present . It is in the present that you feel yourself alive, free from the binding past and free from the anxiety of the future. You are now equipped to recreate this eternal inspired feeling in your life. One month is short for such experience. It is invaluable.
Conclusion
You are welcome to join. This is what this country and your loved ones need, for you to be stronger, breathe in your oxygen mask and put it on to others . Have a good flight, stay calm under turbulences, a brilliant future is awaiting you , according to Swami Sivananda a great Yogi from the Himalayas and a modern sage and saint.
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