Sivananda Yoga

<h2>SIVANANDA YOGA</h2><p>Swami Sivananda (1887-1963) - one of the best known and best loved of India's yoga teachers. A doctor by training, he came to Rishikesh at the age of 37. It was there that he decided to become a hermit. Meditating twelve hours a day and practising yoga with his own teacher, Swami Sivananda nevertheless kept up his medical work. In 1932 he founded an ashram in Rishikesh, and it was this ashram that gave rise to his school of yoga. For his time Sivananda was almost a revolutionary: he invited untouchables into his home and his ashram, and defended the right of women to study yoga. After Swami's passing in 1963 many of his students went on to teach yoga in Europe and America.</p><p>The system of yoga that Sivananda created is a static practice. Its main difference from Iyengar yoga is that students are first taught not asanas and pranayama but deep relaxation. The view is that only when you are completely relaxed will asanas do you good and truly serve to transform not only the body but the spirit as well. Depending on the student's individual characteristics, temperament and physical condition, the instructor selects a suitable relaxation practice. You might, for instance, first be taught to relax the face completely, and only then the Cobra or the Plough pose.</p><p>The five basic principles of Sivananda yoga are these: proper exercise (asanas), breathing (pranayama), relaxation (savasana), diet (vegetarian) and meditation (the study of the Vedic scriptures and reflection upon them).</p>