OUR
  HERITAGE
 

I was first introduced to Yoga through a book titled 'Practice of Brahmacharya' by Swami Sivananda Saraswathy, founder of the Divine Life Society, I was 13 years old at that time, and this was in mainland Penang where I lived with my family.  I took an immediate interest in the book which I found so fascinating with all the postures and easy descriptions of breathing techiniques as well. The philosophy put me into a direction that guided me for decades.

I practised every single asana ( yoga postures ), pranayama ( breathing teachniques ) and mudras/bandhas ( yogic gestures ) from that book diligently for years. I then read the Bhagavad Gita at the age of 16 and become a vegetarian. Krishna said soul is in all humans as well as animals and it affected me profoundly and made me realise the sacredness of all lives.

At the age of 17, I had an opportunity to stay for a week in Sivananda Ashram for a yoga camp organised by the ashram and had opportunities to mingle with yogis and people who lived a divine life, it fascinated me to see such nice, calm, centred people who just wanted to teach goodness in all aspects of life without any relationship to me or my school mates who made the journey to Kuala Lumpur from my hometown. I realised that we can be kind to even strangers and that in fact there are no strangers in this world, we just need to approach everyone with kindness.

I met my meditation teacher at the age of 18, by this time we had moved to Kuala Lumpur. Mr. Nathan was a chartered accountant and had a family. This was a turning point in my life as till then I thought that all spiritual people were monks and renunciates. This meeting with my teacher gave me so much of new insights that we can attain liberation while performing our duties and responsibilites.

Mr. Nathan told me to pursue my interest with his teacher, the renowned yogi - Maharishi Vethathiri. I first met him in Malaysia and then when I was 20 years old went to his ashram in India and stayed there for 20 days to learn Kundalini yoga master course personally from the Maharishi. Then almost every year I would go to his ashram and learn so much from him. The most memorable course was the Enlightenment Course where he personally taught such techniques as : Astral travelling, Mirror Gazing ( an art where all visualizations can come true ), aura expansion, mastery of the five elements meditation, mastery of the 5 senses meditation, pineal gland meditation, the planetary meditation, Universal Energy Meditation, Aum Medition for Liberation, and much more. All these courses and programmes were actively taught when he was alive and I was lucky to receive so much of practical techniques and tools direct from him. As we all realise that when the original founders pass away the schools become academic and the arts are lost.

Around the age of 26, I was introduced to the Bihar School of Yoga. After being tutored by Maharishi I wanted to learn the deeper art of kundalini and prana. The Bihar School was the most esoteric school of yoga at that time. Swami Satyananda Saraswathy, who was incidently the disciple of Swami Sivananda ( which gave me immense joy to discover the lineage ) was the founder of the school. I was fortunate again to learn from the great technologist Swami Satyananda personally for some years till I felt time to practise all the teachniques and stopped going to the ashrams from the year 1998. I started teaching after 20 years of sadhana or practice, the year I started teaching was in 1999.

Thus a learning journey that lasted 20  years till my both my teachers left the earth plane - Maharishi in 2006, aged 95 and Swami Satyananda in 2009, aged 85. Both taught till the end of their lives, I have always kept them close to my heart even after I stopped visiting the ashrams, the respect for teachers is of a whole lifetime. These remarkable teachers were not the kind who marketed themselve as God, or promoted themselves as some enlightened men. They lived simple lives, they believed that all are equal and never clamoured to gather disciples, they were simply just interested in teaching for the benefit of all.

So the lineage for the teachings are from Swami Sivananda Sarawathy beyond and onwards. Maharishi's teachings are completely based on the siddhas of South India. Yoga is based on the teachings of the siddhas and rishis of yore. I based all the teachings of pure tradition, following strictly the vedas - yoga upanishads.

No variations and no deviations from the original teachings of yoga and ayurveda. The ocean is vast in the tradional teachings, we have the 4 vedas, the 108 upanishads, various sastras/literatures by the rishis and yogis, numbering in thousands from ancient times itself. We don't have to re invent anything as the existing techniques and knowledge from the ancient literatures itself will take a few lifetimes to learn and practice. Moreover why would we want to create something new when yoga has lasted more than 3,000 years, meaning it has been tested to work over 3,000 or more years! For it to survive that long it must have worked and continues to work! So let's keep it as it is supposed to be,  'AS IT IS'.

I have also studied the works of Vivekananda  deeply and influenced by his brilliance. I have also studied the works of many other sages, saints, philosophers, and especially scientists.  I have studied the great literatures of all religions and respect the sacredness of them all. I believe that as much as we believe in wisdom of them all, we should also have the support of science and logic too so that we can find a balance in the approach to learning Yoga and living a balanced life.