Home

Masters

Journal

Shop

About Us

Food

Wisdom

Inspirations

Students

Contact Us

Links

Site Map

Cycles of Time and Yoga Masters

The Masters of the first period of Modern Yoga, Sri Ramakrishna, and his disciple Swami Vivekananda, and others like Ramana Maharishi were very much in the Vedantic, Advaitic tradition of Adi Shankara.  They did not put much emphasis on Asana, Pranayama or other Yogic practices.  Vichara or inquiry, especially using the Upanishadic device, “Koham” – “Who Am I?” was heavily favoured by Ramana Maharishi, the Sage of Arunachala.  Ramakrishna was a Bhakti – drenched devotee of Devi, an eclectic who claimed to have practised the “methods of all religions”.  Swami Vivekananda was a powerful intellectual, unlike his nearly illiterate Guru.  Vivekananda was a writer, orator and charismatic leader, who advocated Karma Yoga, selfless service, along with Manasa, Vichara and Dhyana.  Out of the combination of these two great souls, has risen the powerful social force of the Ramakrishna Mission.  Lahiri Mahasaya was a Bengali mystic, who was the Guru of Yukteshwar, the Guru of Swami Yogananda.  Lahiri Mahasaya was the brother disciple of Ram Gopal Mujumdhar, who later became known as Swami Kanakananda.

    In this Bengali Tantric tradition, followed by Lahiri Mahasaya, Swami Yukteshwar, Swami Kanakananda and later, Swami Yogananda and Swami Gitananda, certain esoteric practices of Kundalini arousal were emphasized, which also included certain Asanas and Pranayama.  Swami Yogananda went to the U.S.A. and founded the Self Realisation Society.  He was one of the major forces bringing Yogic awareness to a widely popular level.  His classic book the Autobiography of a Yogi has arguably introduced more English speaking people to the concepts of Yoga than any other book in the 20th Century, so wide was its appeal.  Swami Yukteshwar was not so well known, and his fame is due primarily as that of the Guru of Swami Yogananda.  Swami Kanakananda was custodian of a great body of Bengali Tantric teachings.  His encounter with Swami Yogananda is described in the book Autobiography of a Yogi.  Though widely known for his Siddhis (Vak Siddhi) and the ability to go without sleep, which earned him the epithet of the “Sleepless Saint”.  Swami Kanakananda, like Swami Yukteshwar, later become known world wide as the Guru of his famous disciple Dr Swami Gitananda.  Swami Kanakananda was also a master of an intricate system of Hatha Yoga Asanas, Kriyas, Mudras, Pranayamas and an elaborate system of Chakric concentration – meditation formulas.  He was also an expert in Yantra, the Science of Number, Name and Form.

THE PERIOD OF 1920 to 1963

Swami Yogananda, Bengal (Later California, USA)

J. Krishnamurthy, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (Later California, USA)

Sri Swami Sivananda, Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh

Sri Krishnamacharya, Madras, India

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Pondicherry, India

Sri Kuvalayananda, Kaivalyadhama, Pune, Maharashtra

Dr. Ananda Bhavanani, Vancouver, Canada (Later known as Dr. Swami Gitananda)

Sri Yogendra, Bombay, Maharashtra

Smt Indra Devi, Russia (Later Argentina, South America)

Hari Prasad Shastri

The second wave of Modern Yoga Masters was also heavily dominated by English speaking, Western educated Indians who were predominantly Vedantic, Advaitic, in the tradition of Adi Shankara.  Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh was the dynamic force, which unleashed scores of young Sanyasins around the world, who set up Yoga Vedanta Centres in nearly every country.  Swami Sivananda, a Medical doctor, was primarily a Vedantist in the tradition of Adi Shankara.  A genial, loving man he advocated a simple lifestyle, pure living, Bhakti and Karma Yoga, Japa and scriptural study.

Aurobindo Ghose was born into a wealthy Bengali family and educated in England.Sri Aurobindo

founded Integral Yogawhich seeks to combine the quest for individual liberation with the evolution destiny of humanity.     He himself remained a recluse for the last 25 years of his life, but his vision was made manifest through the work of Mira Alfassa , later simply called "The Mother". She was a french woman who was his Shakti in Pondicherry.  The classical Hindu approach to Yoga, including Asanas, Pranayama, Mantra and traditional spiritual practices were not important in their world view.  Work was worship and Karma Yoga was to bring consciousness into the material world.  J. Krishnamurthy carved a lonely path to the divine, insisting that man must discard all traditions, all practices and delve deep within himself to find that Ultimate Truth.

    Swami Kuvalayananda of Lonavla and Sri Yogendra of Bombay, through Swami Madhava Das of Malsar carved quite different trajectories in the field of Yoga.  The world famous Kaivalyadhama at Lonavla, founded by Kuvalayananda, emphasized modern scientific validation for the ancient Yogic practices of Asanas, Pranayama, Kriyas, and Shat Karmas.  Scholarly academic analysis of ancient Sanskrit literature was also Swami Kuvalayananda’s contribution.  Practical Yogic techniques, presented in a medically oriented, scientific fashion together with scholarly study of ancient texts were the Sadhana at Kaivalyadhama, which took on the atmosphere of a college. 

    Sri Yogendra was known as the “Householder Yogi” as he married a student Sita Devi and raised a family.  His aim was to make the concepts, practices and techniques of Yoga available to all, especially to ordinary family people.  He felt Yoga could be used to create a better life style.  Yogic attitudes, simple Asanas, Pranayama, relaxation and health orientated techniques were systematically devised to help people solve the problems of daily living.

    From the 1930’s Dr Ananda Bhavanani who had gone to England to study medicine at the age of 16, also spread the teaching’s of his Guru Swami Kanakananda as a complete system of physical, mental and emotional practices leading to spiritual realisation.  With his scientific medical background and multi-cultural experience, Dr Bhavanani (who later became known as Swami Gitananda) did much to put the ancient concept of Yoga into a modern language easily acceptable to the Western mind.  Indra Devi, a Russian born woman, studied in India with Pattabhi Jois, later became a devotee of Sai Baba and set up many Yoga centres in the U.S.A., Mexico and South America.  As a charismatic personality, she attracted many to the basic concepts and practice of Yoga.

    Krisnamacharya was a Sanskrit scholar and Yoga tutor in the palace of the Maharaj of Mysore.  He developed a unique approach to Yoga Asana, which was probably a synthesis of his Yogic knowledge and the Indian wrestling exercises patronized by the Maharaj as well as the exercises introduced by English acrobats who were invited by the Maharaj to his palace.  His very vigorous, athletic, acrobatic approach to Yoga Asanas was attractive, especially to Westerners and those who enjoyed physical challenges.  His fame came only after B.K.S. Iyengar, his student, achieved world reknown.

FROM 1960 TO PRESENT TIME

Yogamaharishi Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri, Pondicherry, India

Yogacharya BKS Iyengar, Pune, Maharashtra

Sri Pattabhi Jois, Mysore City, Karnataka State

Swami Paramahansa Swami Satyananda, Monghyr, Bihar

Swami Vishnu Devananda, Valmorin, Canada

Swami Satchitananda, Yogaville, VA, USA

Sri Amrit Desai, USA

The recent Masters of Yoga have put more emphasis on the practices of Asana and Pranayama, sometimes even neglecting the higher spiritual and morally based aims of the ancient science. 

    Of course the most famous Yoga Master in the world is B.K.S. Iyengar whose “Light on Yoga” remains the classic definition and categorization of Yoga Asanas, Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois (who in the last decade has begun to equal Iyengar in global popularity) were both disciples of Krishnamacharya.  They both follow a vigorous, rigorous system of strong body discipline.  The disciples of Swami Sivananda have fanned out across the world, building huge Ashrams and global Yoga networks.

    Krishnamacharya’s son Desikachar has also become a global Guru in his own right.  His style of teaching is quite different from his father’s two other famous disciples, B.K.S. Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois.  Swami Rama, who claimed a Himalayan Master as his Guru, set up the Himalayan Institute in the USA and taught basic Yoga Asanas, Pranayama and Vedanta. 

    Yogi Amrit Desai, disciple of Swami Kripalananda, formulated a modern “Yoga Mixture” of New Age Therapies and Yogic concepts, which has come to be known as Kripalu Yoga.  Swami Gitananda, formerly known as Dr Ananda Bhavanani, propagated his Guru’s system of Bengali Tantra with an elaborate system of Asanas, Kriyas, Mudras, Pranayama and concentration and meditation techniques.  This system was set within the structure of Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga concepts. Swami Gitananda insisted that his students understand the ethos of the culture of the Vedic Rishis.  He taught only in the traditional Guru-Kula structure.  He also insisted that his students live a Yogic lifestyle, based on Yama-Niyama, the restraints and observances which are part of a cultural spiritual life.  Hence, the Paramparai he represented was termed “Rishiculture Ashtanga Yoga”.

    Many other charismatic, energetic personalities have emerged in the last several decades, propagating different forms of “Yoga”.  What their contribution to the great stream of Yogic consciousness will be, will be ascertained only in the years to come.  Time is the final test of the value of the teachings.  Those which withstand this “test of time” will surely also enter the portals of “The History of Yoga”.

 My sincere thanks to Meenakshi Devi Bhavanani for this wonderful work. Her excellent book  will be available soon, on THE HISTORY OF YOGA IN THE WORLD! An amazing work!