Shivananda Saraswati & Babaji

Meditationtime Forum Post

Date: Posted 3 years before Dec 04, 2016

Neo_Yogi 3 years ago

I've read recently that there is some connection between Swami Satyananda's Kriya Yoga (Swami Satyananda learned it from Swami Shivananda) and Lahiri Mahasaya's, but I never read Shivananda or Satyananda mentioning this themselves.

Was Swami Shivananda Saraswati taught kriya yoga by the very same Babaji who instructed Lahiri Mahasaya?

MiBeloved 3 years ago

Physically that did not take place but it is likely that it did astrally.

Always keep in mind that a yoga guru who is deceased is still existing somewhere, even if he was deceased thousands of years ago. His information, his valid practice, is available for all time to anyone who is at the level of advancement to utilize it.

It is a serious mistake to always calculate yoga connections on the basis of physical bodies.

Alfredo 3 years ago

Swami Shivananda of Divine Life Society fame called his yoga Integral Yoga at one point. He never mentioned Kriya Yoga per se, as the yoga he taught. However, in his teachings, he covered almost every yoga you can think of, such as Karma, Bhakti, Raja, Jnana, and even the Yoga of Synthesis.

Now...what Swami Satyananda are you referring to? Are you referring to Swami Satyananda Giri, the childhood friend of Swami Yogananda, and also a disciple of Swami Shriyukteshwar?

Regarding Swami Hariharananda, he once visited Swami Shivananda in Rishikesh, and the latter, originally a medical doctor, took his vital signs while Hariharananda exhibited the state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi (pulseless, breathless).

Neo_Yogi 3 years ago

Hi MiBeloved,

MiBeloved wrote:

Neo_Yogi's Reply:

Of course I know this, I've been reading this forum for a while and I know that spiritually advanced masters without a physical body can visit their students to instruct them. The thing is that I've been reading some articles, teachings, etc by Swamis Sivananda & Satyananda and I never read a single mention of Babaji in their teachings, but there are some people now claiming that they both were also related to Yogananda's Babaji and that sounds kind of suspicious to me.

=============================

Hello Alfredo,

Alfredo wrote:

Now...what Swami Satyananda are you referring to? Are you referring to Swami Satyananda Giri, the childhood friend of Swami Yogananda, and also a disciple of Swami Shriyukteshwar?

Neo_Yogi's Reply:

No, I was referring to Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Sivananda's disciple.

*****************************

Alfredo wrote:

Neo_Yogi's Reply:

Interesting story, one great guru testing another.

Neo_Yogi 3 years ago

Good morning all,

It seems that Swami Satyananda Saraswati did mention it in one of his books. In this website we can read:

Swami Sivananda taught kriya yoga to Satyananda, the Bihar School of Yoga informs. Satyananda writes in Early Teachings of Swami Satyananda [Ets], that Sivananda had learnt kriya yoga from Babaji in the mid-1920s, and that Sivananda one day in 1956 taught it to him in twenty-five minutes. "Swami Sivananda received initiation into kriya yoga from Babaji, but he did not teach these techniques to anyone himself. At the time I was leaving the ashram, however, he taught me all the techniques in not more than twenty five minutes [Ets 89]."

After Sivananda died in 1963, Satyananda started teaching kriya. Some of the kriya practices that Satyananda teach, were never taught by Sivananda, but culled by Satyananda from other sources. Today this kriya system is made public through books with no swear-strings attached.

We are informed that the kriya yoga of Satyananda rests on secret teachings described in tantric texts called shastras (works). As for the kriyas taught by Satyananda, the full form of kriya yoga consists of over 70 kriyas; only 20 or so of them are commonly known. An authoritative work on kriya yoga is A Systematic Course in the Ancient Tantric Techniques of Yoga and Kriya by Satyananda.

This is also mentioned here:

I have heard that Swami Sivananda was asked to build a mission by Babaji. Is this so? ¹

Yes, he ordered him to build up a mission, As a matter of fact,

Swami Sivananda received initiation into Kriya Yoga from Babaji, but he did not teach these techniques to anyone himself. At the time I was leaving the ashram, however, he taught me all the techniques in not more than twenty five minutes.(...)

References

Saraswati, Swami Satyananda

Alfredo 3 years ago

Very, very interesting! Thank you.

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