WHAT IS ANANDA YOGA?
(more inf. about Ananda Yoga - here.)
Ananda is the style of yoga according to the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda and his disciple Swami Kriyananda. This is a classical yoga system for revitalizing and harmonizing body, mind and soul through yoga postures (asanas), energization exercises, breathing techniques (pranayama), affirmations, relaxation, concentration and meditation. Ananda yoga developed by Swami Kriyananda, restores the science of hatha yoga to its original purpose: raising our level of awareness. The resulting practice is a “moving meditation” with the power to integrate and transform all levels of your being: body, mind, heart, and soul. It is an inwardly relaxed practice, never aggressive or aerobic.
We greet all who spread the light of yoga, no matter what their particular path may be.
Basic goals of Ananda Yoga History of Ananda Yoga Ananda teachers
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Basic goals of Ananda Yoga
Ananda Yoga, developed by Donald Walters (well known as Sri Kriyananda), is dedicated to the harmonious development of body, mind, and soul. Its primary goal is to increase our awareness and to raise our consciousness.
Sri Kriyananda writes:
Yoga, as union, implies perfect harmony of body, mind and spirit.
On a physical level, it implies glowing health.
On a mental level, it implies the harmonious integration of the personality, and the corresponding elimination of psychological “complexes.”
On the soul level, yoga implies union of the little self with the greater Self, of the ego with the vastness of cosmic awareness,
and of the individual soul with its infinite Source: God. —Swami Kriyananda, from an article, “What is Yoga?”
Our Body
Hatha Yoga is one of the best systems known to man for the relief of physical distress. It creates a feeling of health, well-being, harmony and balance, both during the practice and afterwards. The yoga positions (asanas) reduce stress, relax physical and mental tensions, lower high blood pressure, improve blood circulation, stimulate the functioning of the inner organs, digestion, elimination and metabolism; strengthen the nerves and the immune and endocrine systems; improve sleeping patterns; and increase physical vitality and flexibility.
Ananda Yoga is a system of gentle, natural movements that place a minimum of strain on the bodily system, with maximum benefit to it. The yoga postures, far from being a system of vigorous calisthenics, help to harmonize the body with natural law. The yogi learns how to develop his own latent powers rather than depend on some outer agent for his physical well-being.
Our Mind
The fruit of yoga practice should be a feeling of inner peace, mental relaxation, and the flowering of our most refined inner qualities. We awaken what we already have inside.
With each yoga posture we actively express and experience a specific inner quality. The tree pose (vrikasana) for example, naturally leads us to a feeling of centeredness and calmness. In Ananda Yoga we enhance the quality of each asana through the use of specific affirmations. In vrikasana, for example, we affirm silently: “I am calm, I am poised!” The use of appropriate affirmations for each asana makes Ananda Yoga unique in its field.
Our Soul
The final fruit of yoga practice should be a feeling of receptivity, stillness, inwardness. Ananda Yoga directs the energy (prana) inward and upward, leading naturally toward silent meditation and inner communion.
Patanjali’s profound Yoga Sutras, or aphorisms, have been looked upon for millennia as yoga’s definitive Scripture. He wrote: “Yogas chitta vritti nirodh – Yoga is the neutralization of the waves of feeling.” Yoga is the neutralization of ego-directed feelings because, once these become stilled, the yogi realizes that he is, and that he has always been, one with the Infinite – that his awareness of this reality was limited only by his infatuation with limitation.
The highest purpose of yoga is simply to place oneself in a position to fully receive a down-pouring of Spirit. If God’s grace is not experienced in the average human life, it is not because of divine indifference, but because man’s energies and attention are diverted elsewhere.
The yoga postures should therefore be done with a sense of worship if one is to receive from them the fullest benefit. They were originated, not by football coaches and P.E. teachers, but by great sages who recognized in certain postures the outward expressions of inward movements of the soul.
Developing Our Awareness
The primary purpose of Ananda Yoga is the development of higher awareness. We teach:
- a progression from physical awareness to an awareness of energy (prana) in the body
- awareness of states of mind, of thoughts and attitudes
awareness of our deepest inner nature, the soul.
In Ananda Yoga, the yoga postures are an instrument for gradual inner discovery. We think of them as an adventure in awareness.
Briefly happiness on all levels is the truest goal of our practice. The highest inner happiness is called Ananda (which is the Sanskrit word for bliss). Therefore our yoga tradition is called Ananda Yoga. Ananda is not an outer place. It is inside.
A Brief History of Ananda Yoga
Sri Kriyananda, the founder of Ananda Yoga, tells this fascinating story about the birth of Ananda Yoga which occurred when he was a young monk in Paramhansa Yogananda’s ashram:
“During the fall of 1949 Master asked me, in company with several other monks, to demonstrate the yoga postures before Swami Premananda ... I was at best a mediocre Hatha Yogi. Many of the postures I couldn't contort myself into at all. In Master’s presence that evening, however, I found myself suddenly capable of assuming even difficult poses with ease.”
It was a little miracle, and came as a special blessing from the Master. From this moment on, Swami Kriyananda was asked frequently to perform the asanas in Yogananda’s presence for visiting guests and other events. Kriyananda says that he learned the ancient postures in a silent inner way directly from Yogananda, performing them in front of him.
In time Sri Kriyananda developed Ananda Yoga, a meditative approach to Hatha Yoga.
What did Paramhansa Yogananda Say about the Asanas?
Paramhansa Yogananda highly recommended yoga postures though they were not the central element of his teachings. During his lifetime he published yoga articles and instructions in his magazine from the 40s onward. Yogananda also had his monks demonstrate the asanas during public events. He taught them in his school at Ranchi, as we read in his Autobiography of a Yogi.
Yogananda, in a talk about the ancient Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, said:
"But the idea is this, disease is a cause of great impediment. This is why the masters created Hatha Yoga. Because these exercises help to keep the body in good health. But many became interested in Hatha Yoga and forgot their purpose — to keep the body healthy in order to find God. If one follows these postures he will find his body in perfect condition."
From the Ancient Scriptures:
Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga
Sri Kriyananda teaches that Hatha Yoga is the physical branch of Raja Yoga (the yoga of meditation). Indeed, the very first sentence of the foremost Hatha Yoga scripture, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, explains that Hatha Yoga is a staircase leading to Raja Yoga. Today, however, the yoga postures are often taught on a purely physical level. Ananda Yoga brings the ancient asanas back under the meditative wings of Raja Yoga.
Few yoga schools, perhaps, give as much emphasis to spiritual growth as we do in Ananda Yoga. Advancement in Ananda Yoga, in fact, is not the ability to hold difficult poses for a long time, and to stretch even further. Advancement is seen in growing inner awareness, in inner joy and harmony, in expansion of consciousness.
Sri Kriyananda said to Hatha Yoga students in 1976:
We find that the whole system of Hatha Yoga is a very important tool for reminding us of our inner nature, and for strengthening that nature. Through increased awareness, we gradually become aware of the body on a spiritual level. Eventually we become aware of spirit without the body. This we do through the practice of meditation (Raja Yoga). When we meditate after doing the yoga postures in this way, the consciousness soars more naturally, not just because you’re physically relaxed but because you’re more aware that you aren’t just this body. You begin to feel you are space or light, and thinking of yourself in this way it is much easier to transcend.
Ananda was founded in 1968 by Sri Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda. It is a network of seven spiritual communities, with hundreds of centers and meditation groups in the United States and in Europe.
Ananda Europe was founded in Italy in 1983 and has been flourishing at its present location near Assisi since 1986. There are about eighty residents at Ananda, some living within the community and others, including families and children, in homes nearby. During your stay here you will have the opportunity to meet many of them and to share with them many moments of the day.
ANANDA YOGA TEACHERS
Ananda Yoga TeachersIf you are interested to know more about Ananda Yoga teacher's course, please visit websites:
Ananda retreat Expanding Light in California, USA
Ananda Asisi in Italy
ANANDA YOGA TEACHERS IN CZECH REPUBLIC
Ifet Hodzic (*1963)
has been interested in yoga for about 20 years.
In 1994 he stayed for 3 months in an ashram in Ananda Assisi, Italy, where the teachings of kriya yoga by the great Indian master Paramhansa Yogananda and his direct disciple Swami Kriyananda are taught. Ifet is in touch with the ashram all the time and each year he goes there for a visit of at least 2-3 weeks. During the last 15 years he has attended many courses such as: How to Live with More Energy, Chakras-Pathway to Liberation, Vibratory Healing, How to Be a Channel for Divine Grace, Affirmations and Prayers for Self-Healing, The Path of the Heart, Spiritual Partnership, Essence of the Bhagavad Gita, The Science of Kriya Yoga, Enlightened Leadership - the Art of Supportive Leadership, Karma and Reincarnation, An Introduction to Spiritual Astrology, Karmic Astrology etc.
In July of 2005 he attended an intensive summer program "Training Courses for Meditation Teachers and Energization Exercises". He has been initiating students into the first preparation technique on the path of Kriya Yoga - "Energization exercises and Hong Sau" since the end of August 2005.
He is a representative of Ananda Yoga in the Czech Republic.
He went to India in 1991, 1996, 2004/2005 and 2007. During his visit in 2004/2005 he stayed for 2 months in Yoganandaji‘s ashram in Gurgaon near New Delhi - Ananda Sangha.
In Autumn of 2006 he attended an intensive month-long course for Ananda Yoga Teacher's Training in Nevada City, California, USA.
For the time being he is giving various courses in Prague and throughout the entire Czech Republic, such as: Ananda Yoga, Ananda Yoga and Pranayama, Meditation, Energization Exercises, Awakining the chakras and Kirtans. Some courses are held along with Míša Voldánova. He also lectures and writes various articles on different spiritual topics. At the end of April 2006 he published his first book under the title: "Spiritual Living in Practise" (in Czech: "Duchovní život v praxi") and in 12/2011 he published his second book: "Ananda jóga - Jóga radosti".
In 2010-2011 (6 months) he stayed in Varanasi in clasiccal indian musical school where he was learning how to play on sitar. Playing sitar became his great love!!!
Contact: ifet@anandajoga.cz