Siddha Yoga

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Siddha Yoga is a spiritual group teaching traditional Hindu or yogic practices both in India and in the West. The group has an organizational foundation by the name of SYDA Foundation (a domestic not for profit corporation registered in New York State),^[1] founded by the second guru of the Siddha Yoga lineage, Swami Muktananda (1908 – 1982). The first guru of the lineage was Bhagawan Nityananda The movement's rapid rise in the West since the 1970s has led it to be classed as a New religious movement by some observers.^[2]

Contents 1 Description and history 2 Tenets 3 Practices 4 Shaktipat 5 Holy days 6 Sacred texts 7 References in popular culture 7.1 Movies 8 See also 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links

[edit] Description and history

Siddha Yoga's original home is the ashram called Gurudev Siddha Peeth at Ganeshpuri in rural Maharashtra, India. Swami Muktananda founded it on a property given to him by his guru, Bhagawan Nityananda.^[3]Later, as Siddha Yoga expanded beyond India, Swami Muktananda established a large ashram in the Catskills area north of New York City. He named this ashram after his guru, Nityananda. In May, 1982, Swami Muktananda installed Gurumayi Chidvilasananda and her brother, Swami Nityananda, as co-leaders of Siddha Yoga. Swami Muktananda died on October 2, 1982 (known in India as taking mahasamadhi).

Several years later, Gurumayi provided a unique description of the spiritual initiation she experienced in 1982:

All of a sudden, my Guru, my Baba,
Placed his hand on my head.
Streaks of fire exploded from his palm.
The house of my individuality was set ablaze.
Everything I had was burned away.^[4]

Swami Nityananda stepped down in 1985 amid controversy about breaking his vows.^[5] He has since started his own group (Shanti Mandir) and he is now known as Mahamandeleshwar Swami Nityanand. Gurumayi then carried on as leader and guru, renaming the Catskills ashram Shree Muktananda Ashram, in honour of her guru. Under her leadership, Siddha Yoga expanded to include over 600 ashrams and centres around the world. In 1992 she founded the PRASAD Project founded.^[6]In 1997 she founded the Muktabodha Institute with its own publishing imprint, Agama Press.^[7]

In 1983 William Rodarmor made public the accusations of some former members that the Siddha Yoga leadership engaged in abusive behavior at odds with its teachings and wider accepted norms. He did so in an article in “CoEvolution Quarterly" of winter 1983.^[8] Lis Harris repeated and extended those in The New Yorker of November 14, 1994.^[9] Sarah Caldwell stated in 2001, in the academic journal Nova Religio, that Muktananda was both an enlightened teacher and a secret practitioner of an esoteric form of Tantric sexual yoga.^[10] The 'Leaving Siddha Yoga' website was started in July 1996 to provide information about alleged problems in Siddha Yoga.^[11]

[edit] Tenets

The central tenet of Siddha Yoga is that the goal of seekers is to find the Self, inner consciousness, in all humans, and in everything. The aim of Siddha Yoga is to help every human being realize and experience that they and all other humans have an inner Self which is perfect and divine, and that a reachable goal is the end of human suffering and the attainment of supreme bliss.^[12]

According to the SY literature the school's essential teaching are summarized in 4 aphorisms.^[13]

1. Honor your Self, Worship your Self, Meditate on your Self, God dwells within you as you.
2. See God in each other.
3. The heart is the hub of all sacred places; go there and roam.
4. Nothing exists that is not Shiva.

The primary philosophical bases of Siddha Yoga are Kashmir Shaivism and Advaita Vedanta.

[edit] Practices

The main practices of Siddha Yoga include meditation, chanting, seva, dakshina, satsang and darshan.^[14] The form of meditation practiced is silent with attention focused on a mantra and/or on the flow of breath. The mantra most often used for meditation is the mantra Om Namah Shivaya. Students chant Sanskrit mantras which can either be Nama Sankirtana (chants that consist of short Sanskrit phrases, typically names of God) or swadhyaya (chanting of longer texts). The texts include the Guru Gita, morning and evening Arati, Shree Rudram, and the Kundalini Stavaha. Students practice seva through volunteer work at either an ashram or a center in their city. Seva can also mean any service done as an offering to God. Dakshina is a financial offering or gift to the Guru. Traditionally, when students seek the teachings or blessings of a saint, they make an offering of dakshina. The practice of giving dakshina is an expression of appreciation for what has been received on the spiritual path. Satsang refers to group meetings or programs, usually held weekly, at the ashrams and Siddha Yoga meditation centers. Satsang includes talks, meditation and chanting.^[15] Darhsan means to experience the presence of the Guru, either in person or symbolically through prostration at the Guru's chair and the touching of the Guru's sandals.

[edit] Shaktipat

The act of the Guru in awakening a devotee's kundalini, or spiritual energy is known as shaktipat diksha. Gurumayi Chidvilasananda makes this claimed awakening available in the Siddha Yoga Shaktipat Intensive.^[16]

[edit] Holy days

Siddha Yoga celebrates two common Indian religious holidays Maha Shivaratri (celebrated in February) and Guru Purnima (celebrated on the first full moon in July). They also celebrate the birthdays of Muktananda and Gurumayi and Muktananda's divya diksha day (the day he received initiation). They also observe the anniversaries of Muktananda's and Bhagawan Nityanandas deaths.^[17]

[edit] Sacred texts

• The Guru Gita
• The Shiva sutras

[edit] References in popular culture

[edit] Movies

• Startup.com References in two scenes: One is a copy of a painting of the Goddess Lakshmi from the Shree Muktananda Ashram, the other is a scene where Kaleil is chanting the Guru Gita while driving.
• The Guru Reference is in a scene where the character Lexi is asking Swami Bu about the nature of his teachings. "Muktananda says, 'See God in each other.'"
• Kissing Jessica Stein Reference is in a scene where Helen is meditating while Jessica is calling her and leaving a message. One can see a small picture of Swami Muktananda on the altar.

[edit] See also

• Samadhi
• Satguru
• Shiva

Lake Nityananda, Shree Muktananda Ashram, Fallsburg (photo copyright N.Paton 2007)

Shiva Statue, Shree Muktananda Ashram, Fallsburg (photo copyright N.Paton 2007)

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Brooks, Douglas; Sabharathnam, S.P. (1997). Meditation Revolution: A History and Theology of the Siddha Yoga Lineage. Agama Press. ISBN 0965409600. 

• Pearce, Joseph Chilton (2003). Spiritual Initiation and the Breakthrough of Consciousness: The Bond of Power. Park Street Press. ISBN 0892819952. 

• Miller, Timothy; Gene Thursby (1991). "Siddha Yoga: Swami Muktanada and the Seat of Power", When Prophets Die: The Postcharismatic Fate Of New Religious Movements. Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 165-182. ISBN 0791407179. 

• White, John Warren (1990). Kundalini, Evolution and Enlightenment. New York: Paragon House. ISBN 1557783039.  Professor Paul Zweig writes of his experience of receiving Shaktipat from Swami Muktananda in this anthology.

• Muktananda, Swami (1971). Play of Consciousness. SYDA Foundation. ISBN: 0-914602-37-3.

[edit] External links

• Official site of the SYDA foundation
• Leaving Siddha Yoga