The Origins of Integral Yoga
The founding and inspirational force behind Integral Yoga is Sri Swami Satchidananda. Born in South India, Sri Swami Satchidananda studied yoga under the guidance of several of the most renowned teachers of yoga in the 20th century, including Sri Ramana Maharashi, Sri Aurobindo, and, most especially, Sri Swami Sivananda. Sri Swami Sivananda of the city of Rishikesh in the Himalayas, who taught a synthesis of many different types of yoga, was

Sri Swami Satchidananda’s spiritual master. Sri Swami Sivananda was one of the most influential teachers of yoga in the 20th century. He counted among his students Sri Swami Satchidananda, as well as Sri Swami Chidananda, Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda, and Sri Swami Vishnu-devananda, who is responsible for the development of Sivananda Yoga.

Sri Swami Satchidananda traveled and taught extensively throughout Southeast Asia and Europe, and there are now yoga teachers and centers devoted to him throughout the world. He was invited to visit the West by an American devotee in 1966. A planned two-day visit turned into a five-month teaching tour. He quickly gained prominence as a teacher of yoga. Many Baby Boomers may remember him as the spiritual mentor of the 1969 Woodstock music festival. His 1970 guide to the practice of hatha yoga, Integral Yoga Hatha, introduced countless Westerners to yoga. It

Integral Yoga is an integrative approach to yoga that is both systematic and practical. It was developed by Sri Swami Satchidananda, a student of Sri Swami Sivananda, whose teachings also contributed to the development of Sivananda Yoga. Born in South India, Sri Swami Satchidananda came to the United States in the 1960s. He gained popular recognition as the spiritual mentor of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Through its headquarters in Buckingham, Virginia, and branches and centers throughout the rest of the United States and the world, Integral Yoga offers classes and workshops that emphasize the accessibility and practicality of yoga. It uses hatha yoga to serve people seeking relief from stress and fatigue as a doorway to yoga practice. Formal classes are generally 75 to 90 minutes in length. Integral Yoga emphasizes ease and comfort in the performance of asanas. Pranayama and meditation receive equal weighting with asana practice within the Integral Yoga system.

Sri Swami Satchidananda founded the Integral Yoga Institute as the vehicle to teach his particular approach to yoga. Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville, located in Buckingham, Virginia, is the international headquarters of Integral Yoga, and there are Integral Yoga branches and centers throughout the world. Integral Yoga remains one of the premier yoga organizations in the world today. It is one of the leading centers for the training of yoga teachers with more than 15 teacher training programs conducted at Yogaville each year. In addition, the New York, New Jersey, and San Francisco centers also conduct training. Teacher training programs in Gibraltar and Portugal conduct training for European teachers.

To that end it teaches a proactive approach to avoiding illness: fresh food, daily exercise, relaxation/stress reduction, and regular cleansing. According to Ayurveda, the five elements (space, air, fire, water, and earth) manifest in each of us in a unique way to give us our physical and mental qualities. These five basic elements then combine into three constitutions or doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha.

The unique combination of the three doshas in each individual has a specific influence on our physical, mental, and emotional tendencies. Determining which dosha(s) are dominant can help you to make the right diet and lifestyle choices that will maintain balance and promote health and well-being on all levels.

1. Sit comfortably erect. Use a chair or a wall to support your spine if helpful.

2. Close your eyes and begin to follow the movements of your breathing. Stay with the breath for a few minutes, until your focus is steady.

3. Without losing your breath awareness, relax your body just as if you were settling it into bed.

4. Continue to follow your breath, maintaining your breath awareness as if it is virtually the only thing of importance in the universe.

5. Relax your mental effort. Maintain a steady hold on your breath, yet relax your body and mind.

6. Now begin to silently recite the mantra so-hum. Let that sound flow with each breath—so on the inhalation and hum on the exhalation. Sense that these sounds are gently blowing away layers of ashes that cover the embers of consciousness in you.

7. Continue for as long as you like. The urge to sleep may come and go, but do not let it dislodge your relaxed breath awareness. Gradually, as you become more rested, your sleepiness will diminish or even disappear. Over a number of sessions you can lengthen the time you sit.

In the end, sometimes the best way to manage sleepiness is simply to sleep. A 10-minute nap after lunch, or an occasional early bedtime, may be just what your meditation needs. It can soothe the otherwise irresistible pressure to nod off.

Finally, you can take the edge off the tamas while you meditate - not by resisting it but by cautiously approaching and accepting it. During meditation, a deep sense of stillness combined with relaxed breathing will partially satisfy your need for sleep. That doesn’t mean using meditation as a recurrent chance to doze. The key to feeling more refreshed is to make your breath the hub of concentration. Breath awareness - focused attention on the flow of the breath - makes it possible to meditate while simultaneously resting. Using breath awareness, you can deeply relax your body, nervous system, and mind.

One of the most powerful and pleasant methods for doing that is to combine the rhythms of breathing with the mantra soham (pronounced so-hum). As you feel the movements of your breathing, inhale as you mentally say the sound so, and exhale as you mentally say the sound hum. Let the sounds flow smoothly and easily in your mind, merged with the natural pace of your breathing.

Swami Rama sometimes said that like the glowing ember of a fire that is concealed by layers of ashes, a sleeper - your own being - waits within. As you recite the sounds so and hum in your mind, he said, imagine that they are ever so lightly blowing away the ashes of tamas and little by little uncovering this Spirit in you. As you continue, be patient with the urge to sleep and allow time for it to pass. Let the so-hum mantra fill you, giving your body and mind a thorough rest. Remain in the quiet center of your awareness, and, without raising your inner voice, let the presence of the mantra gradually dispel your fatigue. But if your head starts bobbing, then put “restoration of energy” at the top of your to-do list. Bedtime is fast approaching.

The way you select and prepare food also dramatically affects the clarity of your consciousness. Food requires heat for digestion, and if you have not supplied that heat through a cooking process, you will have to draw it from your own body. Although individual constitutions vary enormously, too much raw food, particularly high-fiber greens, raw nuts and seeds, and dried fruits with an abundance of concentrated sugars, can sap energy rather than supplying it. Fatty foods require extra time to digest as well. Inadequately cooked foods are yet another problem, as are foods that are stale, heavy, overcooked, or loaded with sugar. The outcome of overindulging in these foods will be an overwhelming sense of lethargy and a fuzzy mind.

Food is not the only factor that thickens the mantle of sleepiness. Lack of sleep is a major contributor, too. The trick is to get to bed early enough to provide adequate rest. Bedtime is generally under our control, but rising times often are not. It makes sense, then, to work on getting to bed on time, because a sleep-deprived mind will inevitably look for opportunities to catch some zzzz’s during the day. And since meditation is undoubtedly the best moment it will find, if you do not manage your bedtime you can anticipate trouble ahead when you sit.

There are many other factors that increase the urge to sleep. To manage them, we need to wring out the tamas in our systems in one way or another. That can mean purposefully getting more exercise, bringing order to the clutter that surrounds us in our meditation room, opening a window to let in some fresh air, or cutting back on stimulants, such as coffee, that rebound when their effects wear off.

The great problem with sleepiness is that it makes it difficult or even impossible to concentrate. It is, itself, one of those objects of experience passing through the mind. Just as the mind is about to rest and focus, sleepiness slides in. It magically erases the object of concentration (most often the breath or a mantra) and replaces it first with some rather strange and dreamlike images (hypnagogic imagery) and then with a vague feeling of nothingness. Dreamless sleep doesn’t completely shut operations down, but it comes close. It immobilizes the body and involuntarily rests the senses and mind.

If we follow Patanjali’s advice, we’ll need to treat dreamless sleep as a vritti, one of the operations of the mind that must be controlled. That means recognizing the symptoms of sleep and choosing not to let them overwhelm us.

In sleep, the mind abandons all other conscious functions and dwells on the experience of nothingness. The qualities of dullness, stupor, and inertness (collectively known as tamasic qualities in Sanskrit) dominate us during sleep. As they approach, the mind perceives them and, like the memory of other pleasures, resorts to experiencing them again. For a time, the body/mind embodies tamas.

But like other operations of the mind, sleep is a distraction during meditation. Difficult as it is, our job as meditators is to recognize and observe our sleepiness, but not to embrace it. If we treat it like other distracting thoughts, the mind will let it go and gradually return to an alert, concentrated state. Sleepiness, like other thoughts, feelings, and sensations, is a passing wave. In meditation we are learning to ride that wave without letting it crash over us. This is the fundamental strategy for working with sleep in meditation.

One of the most influential and widely read texts on hatha yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, written in the 14th century C.E. In this seminal manual, the author describes 16 physical postures as well as a variety of cleansing and breathing practices and what are known as locks and seals to control the flow of energy within the body.

In its emphasis on physical postures, or asanas, hatha yoga is often considered one of the steps on the eight-limbed path of yoga, which forms an important part of classical, or raja, yoga. However, it is important to bear in mind that emphasis is placed on making the body as whole and complete as possible in order to achieve the ultimate goal of liberation. Practitioners of hatha yoga believe that in order to achieve the fullest unfoldment of our minds and spirits, we must do our utmost to have a body that is at ease and free of disease. Hatha yoga is thus a way of balancing or harmonizing body and mind. This intent is highlighted in the esoteric interpretation sometimes accorded to the word hatha. According to some practitioners, the word hatha is comprised of two syllables that stand for the sun (ha) and the moon (tha), implying a deep union of the body and the mind and of the masculine and feminine energies within each individual - man and woman alike. Thus, the word hatha reminds us that at heart, yoga is a search for underlying unity and wholeness.

Hatha yoga practitioners see the body as a wonderful vehicle for self-realization. For without a body, we would not be alive today, and thus incapable of seeking the path of transformation. Hatha yoga urges a man to respect his body as a temple of the divine spirit of the universe. The practice of hatha yoga is thus an opportunity of honoring your own inner divinity.

Hatha yoga has become so popular, particularly in the last few decades, that there are now many styles for practicing it. Surprisingly, however, most of the styles of hatha yoga that are practiced today trace their roots to a handful of yoga teachers, who traveled from India to the West in the 1960s and 1970s to train practitioners here in their particular approach to yoga; or to a small number of Westerners who traveled to India during the same time period to train as teachers with a few celebrated masters.

The teachers of the 60s and 70s differed in their approach to presenting yoga from the gurus who had preceded them. The earliest teachers of yoga who traveled to the West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries emphasized the traditional sacred texts and metaphysical aspects of yoga. The newer generation of teachers, while revering all aspects of the yoga tradition, also incorporated much more of the physical exercise aspect of yoga into their teaching. Their approaches to yoga appealed to Western practitioners, and, consequently, much of the yoga that has developed in the United States has focused on the physical postures of hatha yoga.

The following chapters will introduce you to the main approaches to hatha yoga that have helped to define hatha practice in the West. Because there are now so many styles of yoga available, the choice of a practice can seem overwhelming. These chapters will introduce you to the main styles of hatha yoga so that you can be better informed as you undertake your own practice of yoga.

Each of the main styles of hatha yoga is generally named after the individual who first introduced or was influential in the teachings of that style, such as Iyengar Yoga and Sivananda Yoga; the institute that was founded based on their teachings, such as yoga taught at the Himalayan Institute and Integral Yoga; or for a prominent element or focal point of the approach, such as Ashtanga Yoga and kundalini yoga.

Nearly all the various styles of hatha yoga have as their base a common repertoire of physical postures and practices, which have evolved over the centuries. The emphasis on how to perform these practices can differ widely from one style of yoga to another, however. Understanding the differences among these styles can help you choose the style of hatha yoga that is right for you. The following chapters describe the major styles of hatha yoga that you are likely to encounter in your exploration of yoga today. As you read these chapters, please bear in mind that the approaches to yoga presented are grouped together under hatha yoga for convenience. In addition to instruction in the physical postures of yoga, most of these approaches can also help you incorporate a full range of yogic practices into your life.

Kundalini Yoga
Kundalini refers to a powerful energy depicted as a serpent (from kundala, which means “coiled”). This energy is stored at the base of the spine, where it lies coiled like a snake. This energy is considered feminine. It lies dormant until properly awakened, at which time it rushes upward through the spine to join with the male aspect of consciousness at the crown of the head, where the union of the feminine and masculine aspects of energy leads to self-realization and enlightenment. Practitioners of kundalini yoga employ specific practices to aid the arousal of this energy. The movement of kundalini energy has been described by some as having the force of a streak of lightning.

The awakening of kundalini energy can be one of the steps on the path to enlightenment. For this reason, various practices have been developed over time to help practitioners cultivate the releasing of this energy as a way of attaining enlightenment. These practices can include physical exercises (asanas) and special breathing techniques (pranayama) combined with meditation and recitation of sacred sounds to raise and release the kundalini energy. Kundalini yoga has become so popular in the West that Chapter 7 is devoted to its practice.

Laya Yoga
Laya means “melting,” “dissolution,” or “absorption” in Sanskrit. Laya yoga is an approach to meditation that uses rites and special practices, such as breathing, to reach a state of total absorption.

Mantra Yoga
Mantra means “thought” or “instrument of thought” in Sanskrit. (It is believed to be related to the same root that gave rise to the words mental and man in English.) Mantra yoga uses special sounds as instruments to focus and still the mind. The sages of yoga from time immemorial have maintained that the universe was born of vibration, or sound. Therefore, sound occupies a sacred role in yoga. Certain sounds are believed to have sacred powers. One of the most famous of these sounds is the universal, untranslatable Om. Because sound is so vital to the principles of yoga practice, Chapter 16 contains a special section on mantras and guidance on how you might begin to practice them.

Tantra Yoga
Tantra means “loom” in Sanskrit. Tantric yoga uses a variety of practices such as external rituals celebrating the divine feminine principle as well as more internal practices such as meditation and mantra recitation to weave the way to enlightenment. Many scholars believe that the practices of tantra are very ancient. According to some, tantra developed as a reaction to classical yoga practices, which traditionally had been reserved exclusively for certain castes of practitioners, especially men.

Tantra is particularly appealing to men who enjoy communing with others. Rather than withdrawing into himself alone, a man can engage with others in order to achieve liberation. This union can entail sexual union. As a result of this fact, tantric yoga is sometimes mistakenly understood to apply only to sexual practices. Tantra, however, involves a much wider range of rituals that are practiced in a sacred, ceremonial way to imbue them with the power of transformation and self-realization. When tantric practices include sexual acts, these acts are engaged in as a means of achieving self-realization. Kundalini yoga draws on some of the practices that form part of tantra yoga.

Hatha Yoga
Hatha literally means “violence” or “force” in Sanskrit. Hatha yoga is frequently referred to as the “forceful yoga.” It generally refers to the practice of the physical postures, or asanas, of yoga. To many people, yoga is synonymous with the practice of these physical postures. A variety of approaches to executing these postures has developed over time; consequently, various approaches to hatha yoga have developed. The following chapters will help you better understand the most important approaches to hatha yoga.

1. Yama. Yama means “self-restraint” or “self-control” in Sanskrit. The yamas are a set of ethical practices, somewhat like the commandments of the Old Testament, which form the basis for spiritual development. In order to be liberated, the yoga aspirant first must abstain from engaging in behavior that will be detrimental to his well-being and that of others. Patanjali prescribes five yamas that are to be observed: nonviolence (ahimsa); not telling lies, or being truthful (satya); not stealing (asteya); not wasting one’s sexual energy, or literally, demonstrating “brahmic conduct” (brahmacarya); and not being greedy (aparigraha). By practicing these five yamas, one develops the self-control necessary for the pursuit of the highest goals of yoga.

2. Niyama. Niyama means restraint in the sense of “discipline” or “moral observance” in Sanskrit. The niyamas are a set of ethical principles by which the practitioner of yoga is advised to conduct his life. Patanjali details five niyamas that are to be practiced: purity (saucha), contentment (santohsa), asceticism (tapas), study (svadhyaya), and surrender to a higher power (Isvara-pranidhana). Taken together, the niyamas provide a prescription for right living.

3. Asana. Asana means “seat” or “posture” in Sanskrit. The asanas are a prescribed set of physical postures, or poses, that are meant to purify and steady both the body and mind. For many people, yoga is synonymous with these postures, which form the basis of what is known as hatha yoga, which is derived from the system of raja yoga. The asanas play such an important role in yoga that they have given rise to many approaches to practicing them. Much of the confusion as to what yoga is in the West is caused by these various approaches to executing the physical postures of yoga. Because of the importance that these poses play in yoga and the diversity of ways in which they can be practiced, the first few sections of Yoga for Men are devoted to a description of the various styles of yoga that have developed in response to the practice of raja and hatha yoga.

4. Pranayama. Pranayama means “control (or extension) of the breath” in Sanskrit. The breath (prana) is more than just the air we take in and exhale, however. Breath is also synonymous with vital energy, or the life force. Without breath there is no life. Practitioners of yoga believe that it is essential to learn to control the breath in order to still the mind. Consequently, detailed practices have been developed to enhance the flow of breath, or vital life force. These practices include various ways of inhaling, retaining, and expelling the breath.

5. Pratyahara. Pratyahara means “withdrawal” or “starving the senses” in Sanskrit. The practice of pratyahara entails withdrawing the senses from sensory objects, as in sleep.

6. Dharana. Dharana means “concentration” in Sanskrit. Once the practitioner of yoga has withdrawn the senses from external objects, he practices concentration, for instance, by focusing single-pointedly on an object of awareness, such as a mental image or a sound.

7. Dhyana. Dhyana means “meditation” in Sanskrit. As the practitioner’s concentration develops, it deepens into meditation.

8. Samadhi. Samadhi means “bliss” or “ecstasy” in Sanskrit. Once the aspirant has perfected the preceding steps on the ladder of yoga, he enters into a state sometimes referred to as superconsciousness, in which the individual self merges with the infinite consciousness of the universe. This state of bliss is the ultimate goal of raja yoga.

These eight practices comprise the eight-runged ladder referred to as ashtanga yoga. Taken together, they form a kind of guide to developing self-control. The first two sets of practices prescribe how to establish self-discipline over one’s conduct and behavior toward others through a system of do’s and don’ts of ethical behavior. The next two practices teach how to achieve self-discipline of the physical body. The last four practices provide detailed instruction on how to gain mastery of the senses and mind, leading to self-realization.

The Four Majör Branches of Yoga
As most commonly presented, the four major branches of yoga are bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, karma yoga, and raja yoga. Understanding the nature of each can help you incorporate yoga into your life in the most meaningful way.

Bhakti Yoga: The Yoga of Devotion
Bhakti literally means “devotion” in Sanskrit. Bhakti yoga is known as the yoga of devotion. Following the path of bhakti yoga requires one to surrender oneself completely to a force or power greater than oneself. That power might be a deity, saint, revered teacher, or a quality, such as love. Through the force of opening one’s heart with undivided love and devotion to this higher force, one enters the grace of self-realization. Faith, grace, and love are the hallmarks of bhakti yoga. Mahatama Ghandi and the Dalai Lama, with their open hearts and unswerving devotion to serve, are excellent examples of a bhakta, the term that describes a practitioner of bhakti yoga.

Jnana Yoga: The Yoga of Knowledge
Jnana literally means “wisdom” or “knowledge” in Sanskrit. Jnana yoga is known as the yoga of wisdom. Of all the branches of yoga, this path requires the greatest concentration of mental activity. Jnanins (”knowers”), or practitioners of jnana yoga, seek enlightenment through the power of mental discrimination and inquiry - learning to differentiate the real from the unreal, and the limited personal self from the unlimited infinite self that is the source of all being. Meditation is the most powerful tool used in the practice of jnana yoga.

Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action
Karma literally means “action” or “cause” in Sanskrit. Karma yoga is known as the yoga of action. Following the path of karma yoga involves seeking liberation through one’s actions in the world. Devoting selfless service to others and practicing one’s tasks in life - professional, familial, and otherwise - with perfect awareness and mindfulness without regard for success or failure permits the practitioner of karma yoga to achieve enlightenment and self-liberation. Through karma yoga, even simple and routine tasks such as driving a car or mowing the lawn can be acts of yoga practice if they are offered selflessly and to benefit others in an act of service. Many people associate yoga with asceticism and withdrawal from the external world and the company of others. Karma yoga offers those who are interested in pursuing its path a way of practicing yoga actively in the world.

Raja Yoga: The Royal Yoga
Raja means “royal” in Sanskrit. Raja yoga is known as the royal road to yoga, or the yoga of enlightenment. Of all the branches of yoga, raja yoga is probably the best-known approach to yoga in the West. The practitioner of raja yoga follows a carefully prescribed path composed of eight practices, or limbs, known as ashtanga (”eight limbs”), to achieve self-realization. These limbs include many of the best-known and most frequently engaged yoga practices, including physical postures, breath control, and concentration. (These practices will be described in much greater detail in the chapters that follow.) Raja yoga is sometimes referred to as classical yoga because the practices that comprise it are detailed in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, one of the earliest extant texts on the practice of yoga.

The four major branches of yoga form the overall umbrella under which all other yoga practices are subdivided. Each branch, however, need not be considered mutually exclusive. Some practices, such as meditation, are common to more than one branch of yoga. A follower of yoga can also engage in practices from more than one branch - a man can open the heart through bhakti yoga, engage the world mindfully and dutifully through karma yoga, seek mental discernment through jnana yoga, and engage in the liberating practices of raja yoga all at the same time. In fact, a devotee who follows the teachings of all the branches of yoga will find in yoga a nearly perfect system leading to right living, thinking, and self-realization.