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Swami Sivananda was actually quite a radical teacher
for his time. He would not allow stale habit to persist if it got in the
way of befitting people. He did not care for beliefs or conventions that
prevented anyone from attaining their greatest well-being. For instance,
he taught Vedantic philosophy to non-Sanskrit speaking people, including
foreigners, women and persons of lower castes, when the custom of the
day insisted that the highest truths be taught only to Brahmins. He opened
his Ashram to everyone, regardless of background or level, and taught
each one in a way that was most beneficial to him or her. He spoke and
wrote in English when many felt that this language was inappropriate for
religious discourse in India.
All of these were a radical departure from the tradition
of the times, and he was roundly criticized for his efforts. He was not
deterred! His mission was guided utterly by practicality and generosity
of spirit. Swami Sivananda did not believe in artificial divisions, and
he did not seek to put boundaries where none truly existed. In a similar
way, he saw the life of the spirit as an integral movement towards the
divine. There was no separation for him between what people called "the
daily or worldly life" and "the spiritual life." Every
aspect of being was for him a potential step in advancement towards divinity.
In keeping with his efforts to make the spiritual path as successful and
productive as possible, he wanted seekers to utilise as many tools as
were available to them. Nothing should be left out or excluded. In light
of this, Gurudev formulated what he termed, "The Yoga of Synthesis,"
which would include all the paths of yoga into one integral whole.
Head, heart and hand should be united and employed in
an essential way for the highest spiritual benefit. Man is a mixture of
will, feeling and intellect, he said, and each of these facets should
be harmoniously balanced in a well-developed personality.
This section of our website entitled "The Yoga of Synthesis"
offers the basis for the sort of integral yoga that Gurudev advocated.
After an article by Swami Sivananda entitled "The Yoga of Synthesis,"
each of the four main yogas (karma, bhakti, jnana, and raja) is presented
in separate sections with sub-pages. Then, four talks by Swami Venkatesananda
on Gurudev are presented to give the reader an idea of how the Yoga of
Synthesis was manifested in the life of Swami Sivananda himself. We then
have a section entitled "The Garland of Yogas" which has other
yogic paths that may be of benefit to the reader. (Most of the sections
throughout "Yoga of Synthesis" are from the writings of Swami
Sivananda, with one or two articles from Swami Chidananda and Swami Krishnananda.)
We should also explain that because of the use of many Sanskrit words
and the unfamiliar terms and concepts in these articles, a beginner might
have a bit of a tough time with some of the writing. At the same time,
we don't want to discourage anyone from going through these very valuable
and helpful texts.
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