There are many interpretations of and opinions about the yamas and niyamas. While the ancient Indian text, the Bhagavata Purana assigns 12 yogic restraints the Parashar Smriti, another text, puts forward ten. But the yamas as described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra are only five, which are also known as the great universal vows or the sarvabhauma maha vratas, because they are not limited by either class, creed, time or circumstances. They are the guidelines for how we interact with the outer world, the social disciplines to guide us in our relationships with others. These five are:

1. Ahimsa (non-violence)

2. Satya (truthfulness)

3. Asteya (non-stealing)

4. Brahmacharya (celibacy)

5. Aparigraha (non-covetousness)

        

About 60 years
ago, when I was living with my guru, Swami Sivananda, in Rishikesh, I
had a very important experience which triggered my interest in
developing the science of Yoga Nidra. I had been appointed to watch
over a Sanskrit school where small boys were learning to chant the
Vedas. It was my duty to remain awake all night to guard the school
while the acharya was away. At three a .m. I used to fall into a deep
sleep and at six I would get up and return to the ashram. Meanwhile,
the boys got up at four, bathed and chanted Sanskrit prayers, but I
never heard ...<< MORE >>

During various yoga courses conducted in Yogam Sharanam, Yoga Nidra is most powerful and effective tools to beat the stressful effects of modern lifestyle Yoga Nidra is the yogic techniques studied and devised first by Swami Satyananda Saraswati . A few words about Yoga Nidra…

Paramhansa Swami Satyananda is the first yogi in the world who discovered this technique from Nyasa Tantra. Later on, all over the world Yoga Nidra is propagated by his disciples, directly or indirectly.

Yoga Nidra, which is derived from the tantras, is a Powerful technique in which you learn to relax consciously.

Yoga Nidra is a systematic method of inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. The term Yoga Nidra is derived from two Sanskrit words, yoga meaning union or one–pointed awareness, and Nidra which means sleep. During the practice of Yoga Nidra, one appears to be asleep, but the consciousness is functioning at a deeper level of awareness. For this reason, Yoga Nidra is often referred to as psychic sleep or deep relaxation with inner awareness. In this threshold state between sleep and wakefulness, contact with the subconscious and unconscious dimensions occurs spontaneously.

In Yoga Nidra the state of relaxation is reached by turning inwards, away from outer experiences. If the consciousness can be separated from external awareness and from sleep, it becomes very powerful and can be applied in many ways, for example, to develop the memory, increase knowledge and creativity, or transform one’s nature. In the raja yoga of Patanjali there is a state called Pratyahara where the mind and mental awareness are dissociated from the sensory channels. Yoga Nidra is one aspect of Pratyahara which leads to the higher states of concentration and Samadhi.

        

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Paramahansa Swami Satyananda Saraswati was born in the Himalayas. He left his home at the age of 19, in search of spiritual truth. He joined Swami Sivananda, in Rishikesh and adopted the Yogic way of life in 1943. For 12 years he served his Guru. After completing his Yogic training, he traveled throughout India as a wandering Yogi for further 9 years, interacting with and inspiring people from all strata of society, in order to assess their needs.

In 1956, he founded the International Yoga Fellowship Movement and in 1963, the Bihar School of Yoga, to spread the word of Yoga to people of all nationalities and creeds. Over the next 20 years Paramahamsa Satyananda toured abroad and became a leading exponent of Yoga and Tantra. He was highly respected and loved by Yoga aspirants, disciples and devotees all over the world. He also initiated and trained thousands of sannyasins and karma sannyasins to further the Yoga movement in India and abroad.  He held a Yoga conference in Dublin in the 70’s. During this period he also authored over 80 books on yoga and spirituality, which are a valuable source of knowledge. In 1984, he founded Sivananda Math, a charitable institution, and the Yoga Research Foundation, a medical and scientific institute. In 1988, after completing his duty to the Yogic mission, he renounced all that he had created and now leads the life of a Paramahamsa sannyasin. Since that time he has lived a secluded life in Rikhia.

        

Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati was one of the greatest spiritual beacons of twentieth-century India. Born on September 8, 1887, he exhibited from the first a total dedication to the welfare of all those around him. Eventually this manifested in the form of a medical degree and a practice devoted utterly to the alleviation of physical suffering with no thought of profit or personal comfort.

This dedication to others expanded into a spiritual fervor that stimulated him to take up the monastic life for the enlightenment and spiritual welfare of the world. After wandering around India in the traditional manner of a sannyasi, he settled in the holy city of Rishikesh in the Himalayan foothills in 1924. Quickly the young sadhu became the focus of unreserved admiration from his fellow sadhus, many of whom he nursed through illness and infirmity, gathering food daily from many sources in order to feed those too feeble to seek out their own food.  In 1932 he started Sivanandashram, and in 1936 the Divine Life Society that was destined to be come a worldwide source of spiritual uplift to mulititudes of all lands. Sivananda wrote over three hundred books and printed many periodicals--all on spiritual life and aimed at all classes of people whatever their level of development might be. He coined a motto: "Be Good. Do Good." And he embodied this in his own life. Having become Good (God) he was able to do the highest Good by imparting God-consciousness to others. The number of souls awakened, inspired and enlightened by this great Master cannot be even estimated. I personally knew many, and saw them spiritually transformed beyond all expectation. As one who was privileged to meet this Great Soul in the last year of his life (1963), I can bear testimony to his inconceivable greatness. There is no human virtue that he did not embody to the maximum degree. Nor was there any form of yoga in which he did not demonstrate absolute perfection. This is not mere emotional effusion--it is sober fact. I saw it with my own eyes, heard with my own ears, and experienced with my own inmost being. Shortly before his departure from this world, I bowed for the last time at his feet, in the meantime having become Swami Nirmalananda Giri. Throughout the entire morning satsang he kept turning to me and saying: "'Swami Nirmalananda Giri'! I am so happy. I am so happy." And so am I happy in the remembrance of You, Swamiji, as I write these few words. Though one with That "from which the mind and the senses turn back," still those of us who knew and loved you can speak of your glory and aspire to the same attainment. " !! Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya !! "