Siddha Yoga
Encyclopedia
Siddha Yoga is a spiritual path (or new religious movement
) based on the Hindu
spiritual traditions of Vedanta
and Kashmir Shaivism
. The Siddha Yoga path was founded by Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa
(1908–1982). The present spiritual head of the Siddha Yoga path is Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
. The two main ashram
s are: Gurudev Siddha Peeth in Ganeshpuri, India, and Shree Muktananda Ashram in upstate New York. The Siddha Yoga organization has ashram
s and meditation centers in a number of countries, including India, the United States, Australia, Great Britain
, Canada, France, Italy, Brasil and Japan.
"For everyone, everywhere, to realize the presence of divinity in themselves and creation, the cessation of all miseries and suffering, and the attainment of supreme bliss."
The Siddha Yoga Mission:
"To constantly impart the knowledge of the Self." (Shiva Sutra
s III.28)
Three aphorisms express three essential teachings of Siddha Yoga:
"Honor your Self. Worship your Self. Meditate on your Self. God dwells within you as you." --Swami Muktananda
"See God in each other." --Swami Muktananda
"The heart is the hub of all sacred places. Go there and roam." --Bhagawan Nityananda
, has been widely regarded throughout India as a Siddha
Guru
and as an Avadhut
since the mid-twentieth century. Born in South India
, he first came to Ganeshpuri, a small village located 82 kilometers north of Mumbai
, in 1936, settling there in a small hut built for him by the caretakers of the local Shiva
temple. As his visitors and devotees increased in number, the hut expanded into an ashram
.
In his autobiography, The Play of Consciousness, Muktananda describes how he received shaktipat
initiation from Nityananda on August 15, 1947, and how he attained God-realization
or moksha
after nine more years of sadhana
and discipleship.
Nityananda installed Muktananda in a small three-room dwelling in Gavdevi, a mile from Ganeshpuri. After his passing in 1961, Nityananda's Ganeshpuri ashram was converted into a samadhi shrine
and has subsequently become a renowned temple and pilgrimage site. Under Swami Muktananda's leadership the three-room dwelling in Gavdevi also expanded into a flourishing ashram and international retreat site (Sri Gurudev Ashram, now Gurudev Siddha Peeth
).
Swami Muktananda extended the ancient tradition of shaktipat initiation by bestowing spiritual initiation on tens of thousands of people throughout India and other countries. In 1975 he founded the Oakland Ashram
in the California Bay Area, and in 1976 he established Shree Nityananda Ashram (now Shree Muktananda Ashram
) in the Catskills Mountains, a resort area
north of New York City
. His fame increased to the point that he was made the subject of a New York
magazine article ("Hanging out with the Guru") and a Time
magazine article ("Instant Energy"), both in 1976.
One of Swami Muktananda's earliest and principal disciples was Malti Shetty, a young woman from Mumbai who accompanied him as his English language
interpreter on his second and third World Tours. In May 1982, Swami Muktananda installed Ms. Shetty (now known as Gurumayi Chidvilasananda or Gurumayi) and her brother Subhash Shetty (now known as Mahamandaleshwar Nityananda) as co-Gurus and spiritual leaders of Siddha Yoga. Swami Muktananda died on October 2, 1982.
In 1983 William Rodarmor wrote an article for the CoEvolution Quarterly charging that Muktananda had engaged in behavior at odds with his own teachings and with wider societal norms. In 1985, Mahamandaleshwar Swami Nityananda stepped down amid controversy and soon started his own organization, Shanti Mandir. Swami Chidvilasananda continued in her appointed role and has been the sole spiritual leader of Siddha Yoga since then. Lis Harris
repeated and extended Rodarmor's allegations in an article in The New Yorker
(1994). In 1996 former devotees started a website entitled 'Leaving Siddha Yoga' to express their grievances against Siddha Yoga. An article by Sarah Caldwell in the academic journal
Nova Religio (2001) argued that Muktananda was both an enlightened spiritual teacher and a covert practitioner of an esoteric form of Tantric
sexual yoga.
Swami Chidvilasananda has expanded the philanthropic work initiated by Swami Muktananda. In 1992 she founded the PRASAD
Project, an independent, not-for-profit, charitable organization
dedicated to providing impoverished communities in India with medical care
, dental care
, eye care, nutrition, education and community development. In 1997 she established the Muktabodha Institute, an independent non-profit foundation with its own publishing imprint
, Agama Press, to foster and encourage the preservation and study of the ancient philosophical texts of India.
Siddha Yoga meditation, or the practice of turning the attention inward, involves silently focusing the attention on a mantra
and on the flow of breath. The principal Siddha Yoga meditation and japa mantra is the mantra Om Namah Shivaya.
Siddha Yoga chanting involves the use of music and sacred mantras "to enter into a dialogue with the divine." There are two main types of Siddha Yoga chants: Nama Sankirtana (lyrical chanting of Sanskrit
mantras, typically the names of God), and Swadhyaya (the chanting of longer Sanskrit scriptural texts). Scriptural texts chanted in Siddha Yoga ashrams and meditation centers include the morning and evening Arati; the Guru Gita
, a hymn of 182 verses transmitted in the Skanda Purana
; Shree Rudram
, an ancient hymn to Rudra
(Shiva
) preserved in the Krishna Yajurveda
; and the Kundalini Stavaha, an eight-stanza hymn to the Kundalini
.
Siddha Yoga students can participate in satsang
, group meetings or programs held weekly at Siddha Yoga ashrams and meditation centers. Satsangs typically include talks, chanting, and meditation.
The SYDA Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting, preserving, and disseminating the Siddha Yoga teachings, offers a variety of courses and retreats throughout the year, including the meditation intensives first developed by Swami Muktananda in the 1970s. The Siddha Yoga Meditation Intensive is a one or two day retreat in which devotees are said to receive shaktipat
(the awakening of the shakti
, or spiritual energy, that resides within the devotee). Intensives are typically held once or twice a year and are significant in Siddha Yoga because the "bestowal of shaktipat" is a core element in Siddha Yoga philosophy. The SYDA Foundation also offers retreats where students can deepen their experience of the practices.
The work of the organization (which involves the maintenance of Siddha Yoga ashrams and meditation centers, as well as the design and production of meditation programs, courses, retreats, and publications) is carried out by the work of "sevites," Siddha Yoga students engaged in seva
, or "selfless service," as a transformational practice. Students can practice seva either through volunteer work at an ashram or a meditation center in their city, or by doing their worldly work as an offering to god.
Other Siddha Yoga practices include japa
(mantra repetition), contemplation, and dakshina
, the traditional practice of making a voluntary monetary offering to a saint as an expression of gratitude for what has been received.
All of the Siddha Yoga teachings and practices are intended to be compatible with everyday worldly life and with the teachings and practices of all religions.
(celebrated on the night of the new moon in late February) and Guru Purnima
(celebrated on the full moon in July–August). They also celebrate the birthdays of Swami Muktananda and Swami Chidvilasananda; Swami Muktananda's divya diksha day (the day he received initiation); and the mahasamadhi
anniversaries of Swami Muktananda and Bhagawan Nityananda.
, Kashmir Shaivism
, and the Maharashtran poet-saints. Principal texts from the Vedantic tradition include the Vedas
, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita
, the Viveka Chudamani
of Shankaracharya
, and the Yoga Vasistha
. Texts from the Kashmir Shaivite tradition include the Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta
, the Spanda Karikas of Vasugupta
, the Prataybhijnahridayam, and the Vijnana Bhairava. Other texts referred to by Swamis Muktananda and Chidvilasananda include Jnaneshwari
, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
, the Bhakti Sutras of Narada, the Mahabharata
, the Ramayana
, and poet saints such as Kabir
, Hafez
, and Tukaram Maharaj
.
that he embarked on under the guidance of his spiritual teacher, the Indian saint Bhagawan Nityananda. Swami Muktananda regarded the path he learned from his teacher as a perfect path because it embraced all of the traditional yogas (jnana yoga
, hatha yoga
, raja yoga
, and bhakti yoga
), spontaneously bringing the disciple to perfection in each. In 1975 Swami Muktananda founded the SYDA Foundation (Siddha Yoga Dham Associates) to administer the work of his global "meditation revolution."
"Siddha Yoga" has been a registered service mark
of the SYDA Foundation, a domestic non-profit corporation
, since 1977. As an educational service mark, it is used in teaching and conducting workshops for individual spiritual development.
The ancient generic Sanskrit term "Siddha Yoga" (or "perfected" yoga) is attested in the Third Tantra of the Tirumantiram
of Tirumular
, a Tamil poet of the 7th or 8th century. A definition of "Siddha Yoga" is also offered by Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha, a yogi from the dual Tirtha/Siddhayoga lineage, who wrote two books on "Siddhayoga" in the early 1900s:
A further definition of "Siddha Yoga" was offered in 1948 by Swami Purushottam Tirtha's disciple, Swami Vishnu Tirth:
Swami Muktananda himself defined a true Guru, or spiritual teacher, as "one who awakens the inner shakti Kundalini through shaktipat."
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
) based on the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
spiritual traditions of Vedanta
Vedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
and Kashmir Shaivism
Kashmir Shaivism
Among the various Hindu philosophies, Kashmir Shaivism is a school of Śaivism consisting of Trika and its philosophical articulation Pratyabhijña...
. The Siddha Yoga path was founded by Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa
Muktananda
Swami Muktananda is the monastic name of an Indian Hindu guru and disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda. Swami Muktananda was the founder of Siddha Yoga...
(1908–1982). The present spiritual head of the Siddha Yoga path is Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda is the commonly used name of Malti Shetty , who is the current guru of the Siddha Yoga lineage. She is formally known as Swami Chidvilasananda or more casually as Gurumayi...
. The two main ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
s are: Gurudev Siddha Peeth in Ganeshpuri, India, and Shree Muktananda Ashram in upstate New York. The Siddha Yoga organization has ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
s and meditation centers in a number of countries, including India, the United States, Australia, Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, Canada, France, Italy, Brasil and Japan.
Essential Teachings
The Siddha Yoga Vision:"For everyone, everywhere, to realize the presence of divinity in themselves and creation, the cessation of all miseries and suffering, and the attainment of supreme bliss."
The Siddha Yoga Mission:
"To constantly impart the knowledge of the Self." (Shiva Sutra
Shiva Sutra
The Shiva Sutras or Māheshvara Sutras are fourteen verses that organize the phonemes of the Sanskrit language as referred to in the of , the foundational text of Sanskrit grammar...
s III.28)
Three aphorisms express three essential teachings of Siddha Yoga:
"Honor your Self. Worship your Self. Meditate on your Self. God dwells within you as you." --Swami Muktananda
"See God in each other." --Swami Muktananda
"The heart is the hub of all sacred places. Go there and roam." --Bhagawan Nityananda
History
Swami Muktananda's spiritual teacher, Bhagawan NityanandaBhagawan Nityananda
Bhagawan Nityananda was an Indian guru. His teachings are published in the "Chidakash Gita". Nityananda was born in Quilandy , Kerala, South India.- Early life :...
, has been widely regarded throughout India as a Siddha
Siddha
A Siddha सिद्ध in Sanskrit means "one who is accomplished" and refers to perfected masters who, according to Hindu belief, have transcended the ahamkara , have subdued their minds to be subservient to their Awareness, and have transformed their bodies into a different kind of body dominated by...
Guru
Guru
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...
and as an Avadhut
Avadhut
Avadhuta is a Sanskrit term used in Indian religions to refer to an antinomian mystic or saint who is beyond ego-consciousness, duality and common worldly concerns and acts without consideration for standard social etiquette. Such personalities "roam free like a child upon the face of the Earth"...
since the mid-twentieth century. Born in South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
, he first came to Ganeshpuri, a small village located 82 kilometers north of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, in 1936, settling there in a small hut built for him by the caretakers of the local Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
temple. As his visitors and devotees increased in number, the hut expanded into an ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
.
In his autobiography, The Play of Consciousness, Muktananda describes how he received shaktipat
Shaktipat
Shaktipat or Śaktipāta refers in Hinduism to the conferring of spiritual "energy" upon one person by another...
initiation from Nityananda on August 15, 1947, and how he attained God-realization
Enlightenment (spiritual)
Enlightenment in a secular context often means the "full comprehension of a situation", but in spiritual terms the word alludes to a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, communication with or understanding of the mind of God, profound spiritual...
or moksha
Moksha
Within Indian religions, moksha or mukti , literally "release" , is the liberation from samsara and the concomitant suffering involved in being subject to the cycle of repeated death and reincarnation or rebirth.-Origins:It is highly probable that the concept of moksha was first developed in...
after nine more years of sadhana
Sadhana
Sādhanā literally "a means of accomplishing something" is ego-transcending spiritual practice. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Sikh , Buddhist and Muslim traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.The historian N...
and discipleship.
Nityananda installed Muktananda in a small three-room dwelling in Gavdevi, a mile from Ganeshpuri. After his passing in 1961, Nityananda's Ganeshpuri ashram was converted into a samadhi shrine
Samadhi
Samadhi in Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools is a higher level of concentrated meditation, or dhyāna. In the yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali....
and has subsequently become a renowned temple and pilgrimage site. Under Swami Muktananda's leadership the three-room dwelling in Gavdevi also expanded into a flourishing ashram and international retreat site (Sri Gurudev Ashram, now Gurudev Siddha Peeth
Gurudev Siddha Peeth
Gurudev Siddha Peeth is an Indian ashram belonging to the Siddha Yoga organization. It is situated between the villages of Ganeshpuri and Vajreshwari, seventy miles north-east of Mumbai...
).
Swami Muktananda extended the ancient tradition of shaktipat initiation by bestowing spiritual initiation on tens of thousands of people throughout India and other countries. In 1975 he founded the Oakland Ashram
Oakland Ashram
The Siddha Yoga Ashram in Oakland is a Siddha Yoga retreat site in Oakland, California, on the east side of San Francisco Bay. It was the second ashram established by the Indian meditation master Swami Muktananda, the first being Sri Gurudev Ashram, now Gurudev Siddha Peeth, in Ganeshpuri,...
in the California Bay Area, and in 1976 he established Shree Nityananda Ashram (now Shree Muktananda Ashram
Shree Muktananda Ashram
Shree Muktananda Ashram, in the Catskills area of upstate New York, is an international retreat center owned and operated by the SYDA Foundation. Its purpose is to provide a location where students of Siddha Yoga can study the philosophy and culture of Siddha Yoga and follow its daily practices...
) in the Catskills Mountains, a resort area
Tourist destination
A tourist destination is a city, town, or other area that is dependent to a significant extent on the revenues accruing from tourism. It may contain one or more tourist attractions and possibly some "tourist traps."...
north of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. His fame increased to the point that he was made the subject of a New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine article ("Hanging out with the Guru") and a Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine article ("Instant Energy"), both in 1976.
One of Swami Muktananda's earliest and principal disciples was Malti Shetty, a young woman from Mumbai who accompanied him as his English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
interpreter on his second and third World Tours. In May 1982, Swami Muktananda installed Ms. Shetty (now known as Gurumayi Chidvilasananda or Gurumayi) and her brother Subhash Shetty (now known as Mahamandaleshwar Nityananda) as co-Gurus and spiritual leaders of Siddha Yoga. Swami Muktananda died on October 2, 1982.
In 1983 William Rodarmor wrote an article for the CoEvolution Quarterly charging that Muktananda had engaged in behavior at odds with his own teachings and with wider societal norms. In 1985, Mahamandaleshwar Swami Nityananda stepped down amid controversy and soon started his own organization, Shanti Mandir. Swami Chidvilasananda continued in her appointed role and has been the sole spiritual leader of Siddha Yoga since then. Lis Harris
Lis Harris
Lis Harris is an American journalist and author and was for 25 years a staff writer on The New Yorker magazine which she left in 1995. She is now an associate professor of writing at Columbia University.-Major publications:...
repeated and extended Rodarmor's allegations in an article in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
(1994). In 1996 former devotees started a website entitled 'Leaving Siddha Yoga' to express their grievances against Siddha Yoga. An article by Sarah Caldwell in the academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
Nova Religio (2001) argued that Muktananda was both an enlightened spiritual teacher and a covert practitioner of an esoteric form of Tantric
Tantra
Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
sexual yoga.
Swami Chidvilasananda has expanded the philanthropic work initiated by Swami Muktananda. In 1992 she founded the PRASAD
Prasad
Prasād is a mental condition of generosity, as well as a material substance that is first offered to a deity and then consumed...
Project, an independent, not-for-profit, charitable organization
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
dedicated to providing impoverished communities in India with medical care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
, dental care
Dentistry
Dentistry is the branch of medicine that is involved in the study, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases, disorders and conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body. Dentistry is widely considered...
, eye care, nutrition, education and community development. In 1997 she established the Muktabodha Institute, an independent non-profit foundation with its own publishing imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
, Agama Press, to foster and encourage the preservation and study of the ancient philosophical texts of India.
Practices
The Siddha Yoga practices are intended to help the seeker "touch and expand the inner mystical state, until over time he or she becomes established in his experience of yoga or oneness with God."Siddha Yoga meditation, or the practice of turning the attention inward, involves silently focusing the attention on a mantra
Mantra
A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...
and on the flow of breath. The principal Siddha Yoga meditation and japa mantra is the mantra Om Namah Shivaya.
Siddha Yoga chanting involves the use of music and sacred mantras "to enter into a dialogue with the divine." There are two main types of Siddha Yoga chants: Nama Sankirtana (lyrical chanting of Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
mantras, typically the names of God), and Swadhyaya (the chanting of longer Sanskrit scriptural texts). Scriptural texts chanted in Siddha Yoga ashrams and meditation centers include the morning and evening Arati; the Guru Gita
Guru Gita
The Guru Gita is a Hindu scripture authored by the sage, Vyasa. It is a part of the larger Skanda Purana. It describes a conversation between the Hindu God, Lord Shiva and his wife, the Hindu Goddess Parvati, in which she asks him to teach her about the Guru...
, a hymn of 182 verses transmitted in the Skanda Purana
Skanda Purana
The Skanda Purana is the largest Mahapurana, a genre of eighteen Hindu religious texts. The text is devoted mainly to the lilas of Kartikeya , a son of Shiva and Parvati. It also contains a number of legends about Shiva, and the holy places associated with him...
; Shree Rudram
Shri Rudram Chamakam
Sri Rudram , to which the Chamakam is added by scriptural tradition, is a Hindu stotra dedicated to Rudra , taken from the Yajurveda . Shri Rudram is also known as Sri Rudraprasna, , and Rudradhyaya. The text is important in Vedanta where Shiva is equated to the Universal Brahman...
, an ancient hymn to Rudra
Rudra
' is a Rigvedic God, associated with wind or storm, and the hunt. The name has been translated as "The Roarer", or "The Howler"....
(Shiva
Shiva
Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...
) preserved in the Krishna Yajurveda
Yajurveda
The Yajurveda, a tatpurusha compound of "sacrificial formula', + ) is the third of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, the Vedas. By some, it is estimated to have been composed between 1400 and 1000 BC, the Yajurveda 'Samhita', or 'compilation', contains the liturgy needed to perform the...
; and the Kundalini Stavaha, an eight-stanza hymn to the Kundalini
Kundalini
Kundalini literally means coiled. In yoga, a "corporeal energy" - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, lies coiled at the base of the spine. It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent...
.
Siddha Yoga students can participate in satsang
Satsang
Satsang in Indian philosophy means the company of the "highest truth," the company of a guru, or company with an assembly of persons who listen to, talk about, and assimilate the truth...
, group meetings or programs held weekly at Siddha Yoga ashrams and meditation centers. Satsangs typically include talks, chanting, and meditation.
The SYDA Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting, preserving, and disseminating the Siddha Yoga teachings, offers a variety of courses and retreats throughout the year, including the meditation intensives first developed by Swami Muktananda in the 1970s. The Siddha Yoga Meditation Intensive is a one or two day retreat in which devotees are said to receive shaktipat
Shaktipat
Shaktipat or Śaktipāta refers in Hinduism to the conferring of spiritual "energy" upon one person by another...
(the awakening of the shakti
Shakti
Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...
, or spiritual energy, that resides within the devotee). Intensives are typically held once or twice a year and are significant in Siddha Yoga because the "bestowal of shaktipat" is a core element in Siddha Yoga philosophy. The SYDA Foundation also offers retreats where students can deepen their experience of the practices.
The work of the organization (which involves the maintenance of Siddha Yoga ashrams and meditation centers, as well as the design and production of meditation programs, courses, retreats, and publications) is carried out by the work of "sevites," Siddha Yoga students engaged in seva
Selfless Service
Selfless service is a commonly used term to denote a service which is performed without any expectation of result or award for the person performing it.-Religious significance:...
, or "selfless service," as a transformational practice. Students can practice seva either through volunteer work at an ashram or a meditation center in their city, or by doing their worldly work as an offering to god.
Other Siddha Yoga practices include japa
Japa
Japa is a spiritual discipline involving the meditative repetition of a mantra or name of a divine power. The mantra or name may be spoken softly, enough for the practitioner to hear it, or it may be spoken purely within the recitor's mind...
(mantra repetition), contemplation, and dakshina
Dakshina
Dakshina in the historical Vedic religion is the term for the recompense paid by the sacrificer for the services of a priest, originally consisting of a cow...
, the traditional practice of making a voluntary monetary offering to a saint as an expression of gratitude for what has been received.
All of the Siddha Yoga teachings and practices are intended to be compatible with everyday worldly life and with the teachings and practices of all religions.
Holidays
Students of Siddha Yoga celebrate two major Hindu religious holidays: Maha ShivaratriMaha Shivaratri
Maha Shivratri or Maha Sivaratri or Shivaratri or Sivarathri is a Hindu festival celebrated every year on the 13th night/14th day in the Krishna Paksha of the month of Maagha or Phalguna...
(celebrated on the night of the new moon in late February) and Guru Purnima
Guru Purnima
Guru Purnima is a festival traditionally celebrated by Hindus and Buddhists.On this day, disciples offer puja or pay respect to their Guru . It falls on the day of full moon, Purnima, in the month of Ashadh of the Shaka Samvat, Indian national calendar and Hindu calendar...
(celebrated on the full moon in July–August). They also celebrate the birthdays of Swami Muktananda and Swami Chidvilasananda; Swami Muktananda's divya diksha day (the day he received initiation); and the mahasamadhi
Mahasamadhi
Mahasamādhi is the act of consciously and intentionally leaving one's body at the time of enlightenment. A realized yogi or yogini who has attained the state of nirvikalpa samadhi , will, at an appropriate time, consciously exit from their body. This is known as mahasamadhi...
anniversaries of Swami Muktananda and Bhagawan Nityananda.
Scriptures
The Siddha Yoga tradition draws its teachings from the yogic philosophy of VedantaVedanta
Vedānta was originally a word used in Hindu philosophy as a synonym for that part of the Veda texts known also as the Upanishads. The name is a morphophonological form of Veda-anta = "Veda-end" = "the appendix to the Vedic hymns." It is also speculated that "Vedānta" means "the purpose or goal...
, Kashmir Shaivism
Kashmir Shaivism
Among the various Hindu philosophies, Kashmir Shaivism is a school of Śaivism consisting of Trika and its philosophical articulation Pratyabhijña...
, and the Maharashtran poet-saints. Principal texts from the Vedantic tradition include the Vedas
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....
, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
, the Viveka Chudamani
Viveka Chudamani
The Vivekachudamani is a famous work by Adi Shankara that expounds Advaita Vedanta philosophy. In Vivekachudamani, Shankara describes developing Viveka—the human faculty of discrimination—as the central task in the spiritual life and calls it the "crown jewel" among the essentials for Moksha...
of Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya, is a commonly used title of heads of mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The title derives from Adi Shankara, a 9th century CE reformer of Hinduism. He is honored as Jagadguru, a title that was used earlier only to Lord Krishna...
, and the Yoga Vasistha
Yoga Vasistha
Yoga Vasistha is a Hindu spiritual text traditionally attributed to Valmiki. It recounts a discourse of the sage Vasistha to a young Prince Rama, during a period when the latter is in a dejected state...
. Texts from the Kashmir Shaivite tradition include the Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta
Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta
Shiva Sutras are a collection of seventy seven aphorisms that form the foundation of the tradition of spiritual mysticism known as Kashmir Shaivism. They are attributed to the sage Vasugupta of the 8th century C.E....
, the Spanda Karikas of Vasugupta
Vasugupta
Vasugupta was the author of the famous Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta. The author was believed to have amassed knowledge and recognition through direct realization. He was a native of Kashmir and was a great devotee of Lord Shiva. One night Shiva appeared to Vasugupta in a dream and instructed him to...
, the Prataybhijnahridayam, and the Vijnana Bhairava. Other texts referred to by Swamis Muktananda and Chidvilasananda include Jnaneshwari
Dnyaneshwar
Dnyāneshwar , also known as Jñanadeva , was born into a Deshastha Brahmin Kulkarni family.He was a 13th century Maharashtrian Hindu saint , poet, philosopher and yogi of the Nath tradition whose works Bhavartha deepika teeka ,...
, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are 194 Indian sūtras that constitute the foundational text of Rāja Yoga. Yoga is one of the six orthodox āstika schools of Hindu philosophy, and Rāja Yoga is the highest practice....
, the Bhakti Sutras of Narada, the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
, the Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
, and poet saints such as Kabir
Kabir
Kabīr was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement...
, Hafez
Hafez
Khwāja Shamsu d-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī , known by his pen name Hāfez , was a Persian lyric poet. His collected works composed of series of Persian poetry are to be found in the homes of most Iranians, who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day...
, and Tukaram Maharaj
Tukaram
Sant Tukaram was a prominent Varkari Sant and spiritual poet during a Bhakti movement in India.Sant Tukaram was born and lived most of his life in Dehu, a town close to Pune in Mahārāshtra, India. He was born to a couple with the family name "More", the descendent of the Mourya Clan with first...
.
The name
"Siddha Yoga" ("perfect" or "perfected" yoga) is a Sanskrit term adopted by Swami Muktananda (1908–1982) to describe the path of self-realizationSelf-realization
Self-realization is a self-awakening.Self-realization may also refer to:* Self-Realization Fellowship, worldwide spiritual organization founded by Paramahansa Yogananda...
that he embarked on under the guidance of his spiritual teacher, the Indian saint Bhagawan Nityananda. Swami Muktananda regarded the path he learned from his teacher as a perfect path because it embraced all of the traditional yogas (jnana yoga
Jnana yoga
Jyâna yoga or "path of knowledge" is one of the types of yoga mentioned in Hindu philosophies...
, hatha yoga
Hatha yoga
Hatha yoga , also called hatha vidya , is a system of yoga introduced by Yogi Swatmarama, a Hindu sage of 15th century India, and compiler of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika....
, raja yoga
Raja Yoga
Rāja Yoga is concerned principally with the cultivation of the mind using meditation to further one's acquaintance with reality and finally achieve liberation.Raja yoga was first described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and is part of the Samkhya tradition.In the context of Hindu...
, and bhakti yoga
Bhakti yoga
Bhakti yoga is one of the types of yoga mentioned in Hindu philosophies which denotes the spiritual practice of fostering loving devotion to a personal form of God....
), spontaneously bringing the disciple to perfection in each. In 1975 Swami Muktananda founded the SYDA Foundation (Siddha Yoga Dham Associates) to administer the work of his global "meditation revolution."
"Siddha Yoga" has been a registered service mark
Service mark
A service mark or servicemark is a trademark used in some countries, notably the United States, to identify a service rather than a product. When a service mark is federally registered, the standard registration symbol ® or "Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off" may be used...
of the SYDA Foundation, a domestic non-profit corporation
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, since 1977. As an educational service mark, it is used in teaching and conducting workshops for individual spiritual development.
The ancient generic Sanskrit term "Siddha Yoga" (or "perfected" yoga) is attested in the Third Tantra of the Tirumantiram
Thirumandhiram
The Tirumantiram , is a Tamil poetic work written in the 5th CE by Tirumular and is the tenth of the twelve volumes of the Tirumurai, the key texts of Tamil Saivism. It is the first known Tamil work to use the term Shaiva Siddhanta and the earliest known exposition of the Saiva Agamas in Tamil...
of Tirumular
Thirumoolar
Tirumular was a Tamil Shaivite mystic and writer, considered one of the sixty-three Nayanars and one of the 18 Siddhars...
, a Tamil poet of the 7th or 8th century. A definition of "Siddha Yoga" is also offered by Swami Shankar Purushottam Tirtha, a yogi from the dual Tirtha/Siddhayoga lineage, who wrote two books on "Siddhayoga" in the early 1900s:
A further definition of "Siddha Yoga" was offered in 1948 by Swami Purushottam Tirtha's disciple, Swami Vishnu Tirth:
Swami Muktananda himself defined a true Guru, or spiritual teacher, as "one who awakens the inner shakti Kundalini through shaktipat."