Satyananda Yogic Studies

A couple of days ago I finished a two week residential which was the start of a two year yogic studies course with Satyananda Yoga ashram at Mangrove Mountain in Australia. I am so excited! I love it! It was an amazing stay and it gave me greater insight to the many branches of yoga. Satyananda Yoga is great in the way that it incorporates many aspects of yoga, not just the asanas. Every class also has a pranayama and a meditation section. Bhakti yoga is also practiced through Kirtan’s and chanting, and karma yoga is a big part of Satyananda’s teaching and practice. Also Raja and Jnana yoga is incorporated. Satyananda yoga is therefore said to be an integral yoga.

In the two weeks that we were there we only went through the Pawanmuktasana Series 1, 2 and 3, for those of you who are familiar with those (See Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha by Swami Satyananda). These practices is what we will practice as our home practice over the next four months (which is the time this module lasts for). As I had quite a strong practice before I went to the ashram I thought I would find the asanas boring and uninteresting. As a matter of fact, instead I found them so interesting. As these simple, but great practices was performed in a slow, controlled manner together with breath, body, mind and energy awareness, it became a moving meditation. A moving meditation where I was witnessing changes in my body, mind and prana. During performing any asana we would focus on the muscles and joints in ‘action’, and after each pose we would stay still in starting position for that asana to feel the effects of that asana. It was amazing to feel the different effects and the subtle sensations generated by such ‘simple’ asanas.

I went to a yoga class today at one of the most highly regarded yoga schools here in Byron, and I certainly felt stretched and I did use my muscles, but I felt little of what was actually going on in my body, mind and energy.

Yoga is all about awareness. It is about going within, to witness what is happening, to let whatever is there arise. This happens out of a place of stillness.