Yoga camp for school kids
Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 9
Students of Shemrock Senior Secondary School, Mohali are being instructed in specialised 'yog sadhana' since the past two weeks. Hamsacharya Jyotii Subramanian, disciple of Himalayan Master Yogiraj Siddhanath of the Hamsa Yoga Sangh is conducting these classes.

Detailing the need of the yoga Principal Shemrock Senior Secondary School, Air Cmde S.K. Sharma, today said that these practices were especially designed for children and were effective in increasing concentration and power of retention, a healthy body and alert mind. Three hundred students and fifteen teachers were participating in this camp. The school management also organised a workshop for parents today to learn some of these techniques whereby they could help children cope with stress during exams.

Of kriya yoga and spirituality
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 2

The atmosphere is one of serenity. Rugs on the lush grass and kriya master, Yogiraj Siddhanath Gurunath sitting amid his disciples.

On his fifth visit to the city, Gurunath, as his disciples fondly refer to him, speaks affably to everyone present, answering queries on faith with love and patience.

Here to share the knowledge of the ancient science of hamsa and kriya yoga, he talks of kriya yoga as an evolutionary process.

Jyotii Subramanian is a teacher at the Chandigarh centre and talks of a faith that gives freedom of prayer. "You can sit whenever you get the time, when you want to and for as long as you want to. The emphasis is on the internal here."

Are you a guru? Gurunath smiles, "I do not know that. I come here to teach, to share what I have experienced. They (the followers) call me that. To me a guru is one who brings to light the gravity of hidden spiritual knowledge inherent in man."

What is the faith? "It is the soul cry. Humanity is the only religion, breath one's only prayer and consciousness one's only God," he says.

Propagating the eternal purity of soul
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 6 2007
Aditi Tondon

The matters of spirit invariably baffle the mind. Lost in the plethora of yogic options available all over and confused by the conflicting philosophies aired from various platforms, one often wonders which "yog" to practise for the upliftment of soul and the attainment of so-called eternal bliss.

Much of this ambiguity ended the moment one soaked in the divine verses of Yogi Siddhanath, the foremost disciple of Shiv Goraksha Nath Babaji. Not loading you with lofty spiritual quotes, Gurunath, who initiates into Hamsa Yoga and Kriya Yoga, the ancient science of the Nath Yogis, focuses your attention on the purity of the soul, irrespective of the space in which it rests. His rhythmic treatise on sin and virtue sounds most convincing as it takes into consideration the circumstances in which a sin is committed as also the setting in which a virtue is earned.

In Chandigarh to hold special classes on Hamsa and Kriya yoga, Gurunath called for faith in the purity of "atman". "Consign all consciousness of sin and virtue to ashes. All spirituality stresses upon the purity of mind and body. Every morning you are born anew. Every morning you awaken to purity. I hold a woman in a brothel purer in mind and spirit than a wily priest who remembers God with sin in mind. I have removed all confusion about sin and virtue by writing a poem which invited the wrath of priests in Pune. But I told them that soul was untouched by sin and virtue."

From a respectable family of Gwalior, Yogiraj Siddhanath studied at Sherwood College, Nainital. He spent his early years in the Himalayas with the great Nath Yogis. Now he helps disciples to sit in meditation by practising easy means.

In Chandigarh, Yogiraj is represented by Hamsacharya Jyoti Subramaniam, who claims she met her mentor through a divine vision. She now runs the Hamsa Yoga Sangh here, initiating students into the age-old practice of Hamsa and Kriya Yoga.

In the presence of Yogiraj today, several queries pertaining to mind, spirit, karma and consciousness were addressed. Talking of Karma Yoga, Yogiraj said, "It is important to train yourself to do such actions whose results you would not mourn. You are the maker of your destiny. Soul must be at peace to allow the mind to meditate. But that does not mean your attentions would not be deflected by thoughts. Whenever you close our eyes to concentrate, you will encounter a melange of images. Absorb them, never dismiss them. Once you accept their reality, they will vanish into oblivion, leaving you free to meditate."

Yogiraj himself experienced the divine light as a 23-year-old. He then set out to propagate peace through dynamic practices of 'New Life Awakening', a form of consciousness he nurtures with his yogic practices. Having experienced the divine, Yogiraj says the feeling of bliss is indescribable. he, however, resorted to verses to share his bliss with us:

"Hold your silence, stillness still...For here your feet upon your head,

Your head is humbled to the floor, the awesome mystery you yourself,

Ask no more...."

"God is within," said Yogiraj, before proceeding for a Hamsa Yoga session at Panchvati Farms today.