Shraddha - Yogic Lifestyle Education Trust
Shraddha - Yogic Lifestyle Education Trust is a Charitable Trust incorporated on 14th February 2008 under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957, registered with the Charities Commission on 25th May 2008 and holds donee organisation status with IRD.
PRINCIPLES
The intention of the Trust is to make the principles of a yogic lifestyle - according to teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati and his successors - known and readily available to everyone in New Zealand.
To live a yogic lifestyle means that a person is integrating the principles and practices of yoga into their daily routine for a healthier, more peaceful and meaningful life that
- allows the aspects of head, heart and hands to work together harmoniously;
- evolves the whole person: the physical, the vitality, the mind and emotions, wisdom, ethics and a higher quality of relationships, and the realisation of the spiritual reality of each of us; and
- integrates the two aspects of our external everyday living and our inner discipline so that we are able to become truly human and find ways of inner and outer expressions that nurture and develop positivity, creativity, and openness within us.
The Trust is committed, in attaining its purpose, to:
- inspiring people to reach their full potential by using the ancient system of yoga to evolve the whole person, the physical, the vitality, the mind and emotions, wisdom, ethics and a higher quality of relationships, and the realisation of the spiritual reality of each of us;
- respecting the cultural diversity of people and encourage people from all nationalities to utilise the Trust's facilities and services; and
- maintaining the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.
PURPOSE
The purpose of the Trust will be to promote and further Satyananda Yoga and yogic lifestyle education and awareness in New Zealand. In particular the Trust will, but is not limited to:
- propagate, support and adapt Satyananda Yoga, its application and other yogic teachings to society in all realms;
- promote an holistic and scientific methodology of yoga to meet the needs of modern society and help people develop themselves physically, intellectually, and spiritually and thus act in a responsible and creative manner within society;
- provide opportunities for yoga classes or workshops, especially in underprivileged settings, e.g. juvenile and adult prisons, women's refuges, mental health organisations, schools, hospitals, hospices, military, corporate and rehabilitation centres, etc. as well as various other areas of society such as healthcare, education, sports, the arts and others;
- provide everyone with tools for health, peace of mind and an inspired vision for their lives by offering life skills training, yoga education, yogic life coaching, and others;
- facilitate and empower everyone involved in the yogic lifestyle education to take responsibility for their own physical, mental and emotional wellbeing and growth and to be able to take what they have learned and integrate it into their daily lives;
- publish books and other promotional material on yoga and related topics that further the objectives of Satyananda Yoga and the Trust as set out in this deed;
- encourage scientifically monitored research on yoga and the subsequent publication of results;
- support the practice, teachings and philosophy of Satyananda Yoga and remain committed to the Satyananda tradition in all aspects;
- support Satyananda Yoga students in training and in any other way the Board deems appropriate;
- rent or lease or own spaces/houses/land for the purpose of teaching or Yoga Centres or retreat spaces;
- teach yogic lifestyle through the mediums of retreats, workshops and living examples;
- provide accommodation and assistance for resident or visiting teachers, Swamis and their associates;
- network with all NZ sannyasins, by way of creating and maintaining a database and through regular communications, eg meetings, phone calls, e-mails, newsletter, etc.;
- cooperate, in a spirit of friendship, with other yoga and philosophically related organisations within New Zealand and overseas;
- promote and encourage, through the yogic teachings, peace, harmony and prosperity in the world, and to treat all individuals with mutual respect and concord; and
- provide other support and assistance consistent with this charitable purpose.
Shraddha is a Sanskrit word meaning faith, belief, or conviction - "Knowing that you can win".
"Yoga is an ancient system of philosophy, lifestyle and techniques that evolves the whole person, the physical, the vitality, the mind and emotions, wisdom, ethics and a higher quality of relationships, and the realisation of the spiritual reality of each of us." Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
Yoga is
1. a scientific discipline that dawns body, mind and spirit;
2. integration of head, heart and hands;
3. to develop a witnessing attitude, to become aware;
4. a journey from the tamasic state of existence to the sattvic state of existence, from the conditioned to the luminous state; and also
5. the sadhana of swadyaya, not the sadhana of asanas, not the sadhana of meditation, but the sadhana of swadyaya, knowing the Self.
Evolution is concerned with the positive, harmonious self-expression in life without which the journey to self-realisation cannot be made. In spiritual life, it is the positive expression, the creative expression, which becomes the vehicle that leads us to realise our own Self. Just by thinking about it, it is not possible to become realised. We have to direct our effort in Yoga towards the attainment of this self-expression.
6. Yoga is also to become human, to connect with others and this connection takes place through involvement, service and the expression of the unifying power called love.
When heart and mind become peaceful, open and free, then we become human beings in the real sense. And when we are in harmony with ourselves, nature and the divine, then our actions become good and we are not aware of the actions becoming good because there is no arrogance about it. That is the goodness that comes when we flower in life. Humility and no arrogance bring us closer to our own internal divine nature, and we do good without knowing it. A flower does not know that it is spreading fragrance; the flower does not know that it is spreading beauty; it only exists, the beauty and the fragrance spread in all directions from the flower and give pleasure to those who smell it and look at it. The flower cannot see its own beauty nor can it smell its own fragrance. And that is how a perfect being has to be, and an enlightened being has to be, a sadhaka or aspirant has to be, so that the fragrance and the beauty emanate naturally and spontaneously without us knowing.
Paramahamsaji has stated that the destiny of the human being is to cultivate spiritual awareness.
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, 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), Hatha Yoga (preliminary purification practices), Raja Yoga (the "royal yoga" as defined by Patanjali's Yoga Sutras) 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.
What is the purpose or the aim of Yoga - which is not Hatha Yoga, or Raja Yoga or any other branch of Yoga - in broader context? Because according to every system of Yoga, we have to work with our own nature, our own mind, our own personality. We have to harmonise the body-mind-spirit-unit to experience the creativity of our true nature.
Yoga has to be seen from two perspectives
- Practice, a process for attaining excellence, perfection in our lives in which we need to involve ourself to fine-tune your personality,
- expression after having attained experience of the Yogic states.
To acquire these results from Yoga, we have to integrate the practices in our daily routines.
1. Yoga Practice: We start practicing yoga for a specific purpose like healing, maybe physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. We use yoga to achieve an aim. What we like and dislike has little to do with Yoga.
2. Yoga Sadhana: We follow an aim set out by yoga. This is something that is not your personal choice, but an aim recommended by the yogic tradition.
The first aim of Yoga as described by Patanjali is discipline. "How many of us have practised Yoga to discipline ourselves? Very few of us have used Yoga to attain physical, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual discipline."
The second aim set by Yoga for human sadhana is management of the mental behaviours that is the second sutra of Patanjali: "Yogaschitta vritti nirodhah".
The third aim defined by Yoga is to become the observer of the life processes, the life behaviours and expressions.
3. Yoga Lifestyle: At this stage we start to integrate yoga more fully and consciously into our daily life. Swamiji recommends short practice sessions several times a day, so that the practices which support yogic living are there at appropriate times to regulate and maintain the physical and mental activities.
4. Yogic Culture: This is the final stage, when it becomes effortless, when we are living yoga as a samskara, when we have integrated it fully and it has become the culture that our way of life is based on. Swamiji's advice is that our priority should be living well, so that love arises spontaneously. Only then can we experience softness with clarity, passion, action and energy in every sphere of life.
Inner discipline does not mean imposed restrictions or limitations for the expression of human nature, rather it is focusing of the energies of life to one point, bringing them together, uniting them together.
The practices of Yoga are meant to develop the qualities of the head - intellect, to develop the faculties of heart - emotions, to develop the faculties of hands - performance. So when mind, emotions and performance converge together and work as one then that is the attainment of Yogic discipline.
For the qualities of intellect learn to manage the vrittis; to awaken the faculties and qualities of the heart becoming the drashta and the integration between the two will lead to a better expression in life, better behaviour in life, better thinking in life.
In the context of this trust, "sannyasin" describes any person who has taken initiation with either Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati or Paramahamsa Niranjanananda Saraswati at the stage of
jignasu sannyasa,
karma sannyasa, or
poorna sannyasa.
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From the Teachings of Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati and Paramahamsa Niranjanananda Saraswati, especially the talks given by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati at the "Living Yoga" seminar in Volklings, Germany in 2006.
