Bindu 23 - engelsk 7.p65 - Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School

A yoga school sees the light of day 

Silver Jubilee 

1970 - 1995 

25 years ago Swami 

Janakananda returned from 

India and started the 

Scandinavian Yoga and 

Meditation School. 

After using yoga for 

many years to obtain 

increased creativity with 

theatre and painting, for 

well-being and as a means 

to discover more about 

him-self, Swami 

Janakananda was inspired 

by his teacher Swami 

Satyananda to share his 

experience with others 

(read more about it in the 

article Kriya Yoga III). 

It all began in the 

summer of 1970 in a little 

shop in Østerbro, 

Copenhagen. The school 

grew quickly, people 

moved in to become yoga 

teachers and/or get a 

closer contact with the 

spiritual side of life. 

Already after a year, it 

was necessary to move to 

larger premises. The 

choice fell on a villa in 

Hellerup, a suburb of 

Copenhagen, and in 

1974, when this also 

2 

Sohan Qadri - Moola-Mukhi Yantra 

became too small, the 

school moved to a large 

building in central 

Copenhagen - and was made a non-profit 

organisation. The school is still there, 

and is an active center for yoga and 

meditation with a shop, 5 large halls for 

teaching, “the Pyramid” - an isolation 

tank, a lay-out studio and a large ashram 

with accomodation for the yoga teachers. 

Very soon the teachers started looking 

for a place to have intensive retreats, and 

in 1972 Håå Course 

Center was founded, 

beautifully situated in 

southern Sweden, about 

150 km north of 

Copenhagen. It has 

become an international 

course center that has 

given many different 

people, from 

Scandinavia, the rest of 

Europe, USA, Australia 

and elsewhere, the 

possibility to discover 

their potential, obtain 

perspective, insight and 

energy - a spiritual power 

center, where we build a 

bridge between the inner 

and the outer life. 

Bindu appeared in 

Danish already in 1971, 

with Swami Janakananda 

as the driving force. He 

wrote the book “Yoga, 

Tantra and Meditation in 

Daily Life” in 1975; in 

1978 it was published in 

English, and has been 

republished in an 

expanded and revised 

edition in 1992 by 

Rider Books in the UK 

and Weiser in USA. 

It has now been 

translated into 8 

languages. The cassette 

tape with the deep 

relaxation “Experience 

Yoga Nidra” was 

released in English in 1983. 

In 1977 the school organised an 

international yoga congress in 

Stockholm, Meditation Yoga 77, with 

participants from all over the world.

Apart from Swami Satyananda, who 

during those years often visited the 

school, yogis came from India, Europe 

and USA. Yoga teachers and pupils, 

artists, psychologists, sociologists, 

musicians, people from the film world, 

philosophers and therapists met and 

received inspiration, attended courses, 

lectures, meditations and concerts. 

Swami Janakananda is the leader of 

the school’s comprehensive yoga teacher 

education, a process that gives a stable 

personal experience of Tantric yoga and 

meditation. Besides training yoga 

teachers he teaches the annual 3-month 

courses and a few shorter courses at Håå 

Course Center. He also gives lectures, 

satsangs and meditation courses at the 

different city schools. From 1979 Swami 

Janakananda has travelled a lot, teach ing 

in America, Australia, New Zeeland, 

Singapore and around Europe. He now 

spends more time writing, but he still 

finds time for his international students, 

for example a tour to Australia is 

scheduled. 

As the yoga teachers gained in 

experience and became independent 

many chose to continue the co-operation 

with the school and founded new 

branches. Today the Scandinavian Yoga 

and Meditation School consists of ten 

mutually independent schools. 

Apart from the ordinary classes, the 

teachers of the school have taught in the 

most varied of places over the years: 

hospitals, sports clubs, associations and 

music festivals. Major companies and 

banks, health fairs, prisons and 

orchestras invite us to teach. We arrange 

courses on charter- and health tours to 

the Mediterranean and on holiday camps. 

Schools and other educational 

establishments frequently employ us for 

theoretical and practical introductions. 

Meditative art 

Swami Janakananda was one of the 

pioneers of the 1970 Poex-exhibition in 

Copenhagen and Århus, when meditative 

art, yoga and meditation could be 

experienced together for the first time in 

Denmark. In the course of time the 

school has on several occasions held art 

exhibitions on its premises. 

In this silver jubilee year we have 

opened the doors to an exhibition of 

meditative art by the internationally 

recognised artist, Sohan Qadri (see 

illustrations on pages 2 and 35). He was 

born in north India and raised with the 

Tantric tradition, but today he lives 

mostly in Copenhagen. 

The exhibition is in Hannover until 

Oct. 15th, then in Århus, Stockholm and 

Copenhagen. 

The goal of the school is: 

l to raise the teaching of yoga to a level 

where it is free of all superstition and 

with no extras attached, based on a 

profound knowledge that stems from 

the sources of the tradition, personal 

experience, human contact between 

teacher and student, and the research 

of modern psychology and medicine. 

l to be able to offer a practical yoga 

ranging from physical and mental 

well-being to spiritual insight, which 

for instance C.G. Jung asks for in our 

culture, where man not only lives 

superficially, but has a creative and 

conscious relationship to all of 

himself and to life around him. 

l to be an independent school where 

people can come and go as they like, 

with no attachment other than the 

teaching they participate in. 

Franz Jervidalo q 

Contents 

Editorial 2 

25 years with the Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School, a 

historical retrospect. 

Yoga for pregnant women 4 

- before, during and after birth. The yoga courses for pregnant 

women are very popular, and are recommended by doctors and 

midwives. 

Kriya Yoga III 9 

- Time for learning... time for insight... time for teaching...In this 

silver jubilee article, Swami Janakananda delves into his own 

background within meditation and yoga. 

Savasana 29 

To lie completely still on the back - a simple, but nevertheless 

deep-reaching method... 

Håå International Course Center in south Sweden 30 

Holiday and initiation in Tantric meditation. 

Programme for autumn and winter, plus the 3-Months Course 

from January to April 1996 

Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in daily life 32 

Swami Janakananda’s book on yoga from 

a yogi’s point of view. 

The Yoga shop 33 

Neti pots, tapes, books... 

3

Yoga for pregnant women 

- before, during and after birth 

by Laxmi 

Some believe that the best way to 

prepare for birth is to sing, be happy and 

just take the birth as it comes, trusting 

one’s intuition. In one way I agree. 

However, if you are not familiar with 

using your body, and you are not aware 

of your own breath, then when it really 

counts the best solutions do not always 

appear by themselves. 

During pregnancy many changes occur 

in the woman’s body and mental state. 

The growing weight of the baby and the 

increased amount of blood in the body 

necessitates more physical training, both 

to stimulate the blood circulation and 

counteract fatigue. She also needs to 

relax, to feel the child in the womb and 

to be able to accept her reactions and 

trust her own sentiments. 

If you already do yoga before pregnancy, 

or start well in advance, before you get 

“big” or “troubled”, then the yoga poses 

provide well-being and they very 

effectively help to prevent many 

common inconveniences. However, it is 

never too late to begin, as even a short 

period of yoga can be effective and give 

you resources to use during the birth 

itself. 

Practical ante-natal classes, 

with a varied programme 

A yoga course primarily consists of 

different practical methods. Each time 

we start by lying down for a 

few minutes, completely still 

with the eyes closed, to calm 

down. Then we work through 

the whole body with a 

programme of physical 

exercises and poses, where 

the breath usually follows 

the movements. After that 

we go on to various 

breathing exercises, 

ending with half an hour of 

guided Yoga Nidra, deep 

relaxation. 

A yoga 

programme is 

comprised of 

both dynamic 

movements 

using deep, calm 

breathing, and 

poses which 

stretch and twist 

the body in 

different ways. 

This ensures that 

virtually no part 

of the body is 

left untouched. 

The muscles are 

strengthened and 

made supple, the 

various organs 

and glands are 

stimulated and the 

digestion is 

activated. 

The blood circulation is stimulated 

by blood-pumping exercises, where 

the legs, feet and toes are bent and 

stretched. This helps prevent cramps 

and varicose veins in the legs. All 

the poses where the weight of the 

child is removed from the pelvis 

relieve and give rest to the most 

burdened areas of the pregnant 

“When I was six months pregnant, I got depressed and tired to such an extent that everyday life became a nuisance. I lay down most 

of the time, and got back problems as the child grew bigger. I cried almost all the time, and was fearful for the rest of the pregnancy, 

where I might be confined to bed. 

Even after a few classes of yoga, I experienced greatly increased well-being and energy. Now I am seldom tired, go to bed late 

and wake up fresh and rested in the morning. I am happy and look forward to giving birth.” (Britta from Copenhagen) 

4

woman’s body; moreover the blood 

supply to the child is increased. This 

includes, for instance, standing on all 

fours, standing up with the upper part of 

the body hanging down and in 

Shoulderstand and Headstand (you are 

actually able to do much more than you 

may think is possible during pregnancy). 

There is another group of exercises, 

attitudes and locks (Mudra and 

Bandha), where you gain a good contact 

with your pelvic floor and train its 

muscles. Here you contract the anus, the 

sexual organs and the perineum - 

separately and simultaneously - hold the 

tension for a while and then let go again. 

This is repeated very slowly and in a 

concentrated manner several times. It has 

both a relaxing and strengthening effect 

on the area of the pelvic floor and is 

good for haemorrhoids. However, the 

attitudes and locks do not only work 

physically, they also remove psychic 

tensions, for example headaches and 

depressions. These exercises are not only 

beneficial for pregnant women, they are 

also used as preparation for relaxation 

and meditation in other classes. 

Many pregnant women discover that it 

becomes more difficult for them to 

breathe through the nose. The hormonal 

changes affect the mucous membranes in 

the nose. This can be remedied with nose 

cleansing. With a special pot you pour 

lukewarm salt water through the nose, so 

it runs in through one nostril and out of 

the other, and vice versa. It has a 

refreshing effect and keeps the mucous 

membranes of the nose clean and in 

balance, so that the breathing is not 

impeded, and it also prevents colds. (See 

also Bindu no. 3). 

You can help your child by 

using your breath 

The breathing exercises provide more 

oxygen and energy, both to the mother 

and the child. When I was pregnant, I 

experienced how these exercises gave me 

more tranquillity and concentration in 

my daily life, throughout the pregnancy. 

One of the most harmonious and fast 

working breathing exercises is the 

Psychic Breathing. The breathing is 

“stretched”, i.e. made even and deep; and 

the breath is retained for a short while, 

both after inhalation and exhalation. This 

breathing technique is undertaken by 

making a soft, whispering sound in the 

bottom of the throat, which sounds like a 

child in deep sleep (see Bindu no. 4, The 

Source of Energy). It has been proven 

that the Psychic Breathing activates the 

parasympathetic nervous system, which 

means that you calm down. It is a good 

daily practise both for relaxation and for 

gaining more energy. 

During my birth the midwife commented 

during a contraction: “Do go on with the 

deep breathing. I can hear from the 

child’s heart beat that it helps him, 

specially during the contractions where 

he is pressed”. So, I continued and 

experienced how the Psychic Breathing 

made it easier to relax - to such an extent 

that the pain almost disappeared. 

Thus, it is effective to use the Psychic 

Breathing both between the contractions, 

to make the most of the break, and also 

during the contractions - in this way 

“lifting yourself over and across the 

pain”, as one women expressed it. 

At a post-natal yoga course in Århus 

there were two friends, who had both 

benefited greatly from the Psychic 

Breathing whilst giving birth. One had 

used it throughout her whole birth - eight 

hours in all - because it relieved the pain 

so well. The other related: “I couldn’t 

open more than a couple of centimetres. 

The contractions didn’t really have an 

effect, and I got more and more tense and 

worried. The midwife believed my pelvic 

floor was too tight, and that soon we 

would have to prepare ourselves for a 

caesarean. My husband suggested that 

we did the Psychic Breathing that we had 

Midwife Mila Pajovic from Århus 

Maternity Ward is one of the midwives 

who consistently recommends yoga to 

the pregnant women. Why? 

- The women become more supple and 

mobile, and they profit from this 

during the birth. Many of the yoga 

poses are also very good to use during 

labour. By becoming familiar with the 

different poses, the woman feels more 

clearly which ones will have the best 

effect during the birth. They learn to 

make use of the breath in different 

ways so that the child gets more 

oxygen, both during pregnancy and 

the birth itself. Also some yoga poses 

can turn the baby in the womb, if it is 

lying in the wrong way. 

Are you able to see or feel during the 

birth, whether a woman has attended 

yoga classes? 

- Yes, usually they are better at coping 

with the pain and using it in a positive 

way. They are more secure, and they 

are able to use the breath to influence 

their own state. They are good at 

relaxing, including when it hurts. With 

the yoga techniques you get to know 

your body, breath and yourself better. 

What benefits do the pregnant women 

tell you they have gained from their 

yoga course? 

- I mostly hear about practical and 

tangible problems that yoga has 

helped them to overcome, for example 

pains in the back and the pelvis. 

Frequently they mention that they no 

longer have cramps in the legs, or feel 

that their digestion is functioning 

properly again. Even those with a very 

big stomach can feel lightness in the 

body. They find that giving themselves 

time to practise yoga creates mental 

well-being. For the two and a half 

hours duration of a lesson, she can 

take a break from all the everyday 

chores. You wind down and enjoy 

having only yourself and your baby to 

take care of. q 

5

The shoulder pose is one of the poses that can turn the baby, so that the head points 

downwards if it is lying upside-down in the womb. See below. 

learnt at a week end course. After just a 

few breaths I relaxed and the birth 

developed completely normally. I now 

use the same form of breathing for breast 

feeding, to calm myself and the baby.” 

The breathing exercises in yoga each 

have their own special effect. Some 

cleanse and refresh, others are calming. 

All of them harmonise the blood 

pressure. They make it easier to let go of 

a stressed and nervous state and also to 

overcome fatigue and depression. 

Relaxation can be learnt 

A genuine relaxation gives rest to body 

and mind, and you benefit more from 

your night’s sleep. During relaxation the 

nervous system changes from 

sympathetic to parasympathetic activity, 

the latter being associated with the 

restorative processes of the body. This is 

needed both by the pregnant woman and 

the child. “Yoga Nidra is the peak of my 

whole day”, I have heard many expectant 

mothers say. Once you know the relaxed 

state, it is easier to return to it when you 

need it. 

The yoga tradition contains various 

relaxation techniques. A simple way of 

practising daily deep relaxation is to 

have it on a tape - Experience Yoga 

Nidra by Swami Janakananda has two 

relaxations, a short one to start with, and 

a longer and deeper one, when you want 

to go further (see page 33). 

The relationship to pain 

Most women experience pain when they 

give birth. However, regarding her 

choice of methods to manage or relieve 

the pain, the woman’s own inner security 

and self knowledge are important factors 

- as is her ability to relax and 

concentrate. 

Within the yoga tradition there is a 

technique through which you learn to 

deal with sense impressions or influences 

without yielding to them. The method is 

called Pratyahara and is valuable to use 

during the birth. (It is described in detail 

in the book Yoga, Tantra and Meditation 

in Daily Life by Swami Janakananda). 

In Pratyahara you direct your whole 

attention towards the “disturbance”, for 

instance a pain, instead of trying to avoid 

or suppress it. You accept it and allow 

yourself to experience it. Thus, it ceases 

to be something “dangerous”, that you 

want to avoid at any price; by getting to 

know it you manage it. And you may 

well “forget” it. Perhaps the pains do not 

disappear entirely, although you relax, 

but the fear of the pain disappears - and 

the birth becomes a powerful experience. 

Some women have related in detail how 

they were able to feel the movements of 

the uterus. Others have described that 

they were able to permit the force of 

nature or energy to work - energy which, 

behind everything, governs life and birth. 

Many women actually have such a 

surplus of energy during the whole birth 

that they can freely use their knowledge 

of the yoga techniques, to choose those 

“Shortly before my first birth, the midwife discovered that the child was lying in the wrong direction with the legs down. We went to 

the hospital, where the doctors tried to turn him around, but without success. They said he was very big and that it was physically 

impossible to turn the baby. They insisted on doing a caecerian! I was under immense pressure from the staff, because I didn’t 

accept the authority of the doctors. In the end we left the hospital. At home I started to practise the Shoulder Pose for a long time, 

many times each day. I continued because I could feel something was happening inside of me. It was as if there was tremendous 

movement inside. The following day the midwife came to examine me, and I could hardly believe her, when she said that the baby 

had turned around. Shortly afterwards I had an easy and harmonious home birth, where my experience with Pratyahara and 

visualisation proved a great help”. 

(Anne from Aalborg, Denmark) 

6

of the greatest possible help in the actual 

situation. 

“Thank you for the course”, a woman 

said, who had attended an ante-natal 

yoga course prior to the birth of her 

daughter. “It was so wonderful... but the 

greatest was to do the lion’s roar during 

labour.” When you open your mouth, 

stretch the tongue far out and make a 

relaxed, deep sound throughout the 

exhalation, then it automatically has an 

effect all the way down to the groin and 

the pelvic floor. This may be due to an 

interaction between the nerves in the 

region of the mouth and jaw and the 

muscles of the pelvic floor. For each 

contraction, she became better and better 

at “controlling the pain by means of the 

sound”, even those pains which are 

normally the strongest. 

When I gave birth to my own child, 

roughly six years ago, I used many of the 

techniques I teach in the ante-natal 

classes. It was a quiet birth, 

and I had plenty of time 

to move around. During 

the first stage I sat in the 

squatting position, stood 

up with the upper part of the 

body hanging horizontally and 

stood on all fours. During the last, 

forceful contractions of the first stage, I 

really needed my ability to concentrate to 

avoid tensing. An old Tantric poem on 

devotion to all the various aspects of life 

arose in my mind. “Devotion, devotion, 

devotion...” I thought and experienced 

pain. I was pain and devotion at the same 

time. It was so intense, that there was 

neither the need nor the time for thoughts 

about any kind of pain-killers. It became 

a strong “here and now” experience. 

birth is going to be. However, when the 

contractions really get going, you can 

easily hand over the responsibility to the 

hospital staff, unless you are in shape to 

go through with what you really want. 

On the other hand, a birth is no athletic 

feat, where the woman is either “good” 

or “bad”. And should something 

unexpected occur, such as a protracted 

birth where the child suffers from a lack 

of oxygen, then it is fine to have access 

to all the resources offered by a modern 

maternity ward, and not least to the 

doctors and midwives with all their 

knowledge and experience. 

To practise yoga during pregnancy 

does not guarantee an easy and 

unproblematic birth. But I am certain, 

that what ever kind of birth you choose - 

in water, standing up or lying down, at 

home or in a hospital - and no matter 

how the birth unfolds, then yoga gives 

you your own experiences and a set of 

“tools” which help you to accept and 

manage any given situation. 

In shape again 

- on a course or at home 

At the post-natal yoga courses most 

mothers are accompanied by their 

children, who alternate between sleeping, 

being breast fed or getting changed. 

To be yourself 

during the birth 

Many women have quite a rose-coloured 

idea of how natural and beautiful their 

7

Some look intensely at the yoga 

exercises. One can join the course as 

soon as the desire and inspiration are 

present. Some even start just a few days 

after the birth, while others need more 

time. 

If you have attended yoga classes during 

pregnancy, you can still use the same 

exercises at home, including 

immediately after the birth. It is still 

important to do those dynamic 

movements which stimulate the blood 

circulation and the digestion. Afterwards 

it is great to once again lie on the 

stomach, resting or doing the back 

strengthening poses where you lift the 

upper part of the body or the legs (such 

as Cobra, Locust and Bow). 

Simultaneously the stomach is pressed 

against the floor, and this promotes 

contraction of the uterus and the return to 

its normal size. It is also good to stretch 

the stomach. In the Wave Breath, you lie 

on your back, and alternately draw in and 

push the stomach out, holding the breath 

after having inhaled or exhaled fully. The 

more forceful exercises for the 

abdominal muscles can strain the pelvic 

floor, especially those where straight legs 

are raised and lowered. These should 

therefore be delayed until after the 

muscles of the pelvic floor have been 

trained with the aforementioned Mudra 

(contractions). 

If you spend just a little time using yoga, 

relaxation and meditation daily, it 

benefits yourself, your surroundings and 

your baby - who will definitely 

appreciate an energetic and harmonious 

mother. q 

8 

Kriya’s Birth 

In 1978 two of the yoga teachers at our 

school in Stockholm, Tove and Jan, 

were expecting a child. Like most 

others they wished for the greatest 

possible harmony during the 

pregnancy and to be well prepared for 

the birth itself. Tove was therefore very 

careful about doing her Kriya Yoga 

every day and in addition she did 

ordinary yoga poses. The birth should 

preferably be as natural as possible, 

and at home, even though it was just 

about impossible to be allowed to do 

that in Sweden at that time. No doctors 

would take the responsibility and 

therefore no midwives would 

undertake it either. 

The pregnancy proceeded according 

to plan until she was 7 months 

pregnant. Supported by the Kriya 

Yoga, Tove experienced her pregnancy 

with great intensity and energy. 

Nevertheless, during a routine 

examination at the hospital she was 

informed that possibly the child was 

not growing properly. This was 

demonstrated by measuring the size of 

the stomach. To be on the safe side, the 

doctor suggested she be hospitalised. It 

would then be possible to regularly 

check the amount of the hormone 

oestriol in the urine, which is related to 

the placenta’s capability of functioning. 

At the same time the hospital would offer 

some peace and quiet, in case she was 

overworked. 

This was not exactly according to 

Tove’s taste, but she agreed to be 

hospitalised and in the subsequent period 

she was required to rest as much as 

possible. She almost had to cheat to do 

her Kriya Yoga now and then! She 

quickly got tired of this kind of life, and 

therefore “fought” to be allowed to take 

the samples of urine at home and then 

deliver them to the hospital. Later, when 

the results of the examinations of the 

urine were known, they revealed that the 

amount of the hormone was fine, and it 

had all been a storm in a teacup. 

As the time of the birth approached, 

Tove and Jan participated in a weekend 

course for yoga teachers at Håå Course 

Center in south Sweden. They wished to 

give birth at the course center, in the 

countryside and among good friends. 

They had therefore found a Danish 

doctor in the neighbourhood who would 

take the responsibility, should the baby 

arrive during this weekend. (As 

mentioned earlier it was not common 

for Swedish doctors to participate in 

home births). They also succeeded in 

finding a midwife who wanted to come. 

However, the midwife made it a 

condition that the baby should arrive 

on Saturday, as she was busy during 

the other days. 

The baby “of course” came on 

Saturday. Some time during the 

afternoon the contractions started 

slowly, and the midwife was there 

around five o’clock. After another 

three hours, where Tove alternately sat 

in the squatting position and walked 

around, the child was born after 3-4 

second stage contractions. The 

midwife thought it was an unusually 

fast and harmonious birth, considering 

that it was her first one. The child got 

the highest possible amount of points. 

Length and weight were fine. The skin 

was ideal both concerning colour and 

elasticity. From the healthy placenta it 

was clear that the child had 

experienced no difficulties in taking 

nourishment, and there were no 

indications of hardening of the arteries. 

The midwife was so amazed by the 

ease and success of the birth, that she 

decided to start yoga on account of 

this. And the parents who had observed 

Kriya Yoga’s good influence on Tove’s 

well-being throughout the pregnancy 

and the smooth birth, named their 

daughter Kriya. q

Kriya Yoga III 

- a Silver jubilee article by Swami Janakananda 

Time for learning... time for insight... time for teaching... 

Kriya Yoga can be compared to a fire 

that burns constantly during the 

meditation, cleansing the body and 

mind of limitations, inhibitions and 

confusion; whatever stands in the way 

of clarity, energy and balance and for 

which you have no use. 

Consistency is necessary if you want 

to reach the essential. All roads lead to 

Rome, it is said. Yes, but you have to 

choose one road to get there. It is not 

knowledge of all kinds of methods and 

therapies that matters, but knowledge 

of yourself. What matters first and 

foremost is stability, investigation 

through one’s meditation and gaining 

insight. I see how difficult it is for 

people who have tried all sorts of 

things to take the final steps and break 

through the wall isolating us from a 

deeper insight and an experience of a 

greater reality - they become rich with 

understanding, with opinions and 

theoretical knowledge, yes, even with 

certain experiences, but the eye of the 

needle has become too small for them 

to pass through. 

Life is a creative process 

When I planned these articles on Kriya 

Yoga, I did some fundamental thinking 

about the content. This third article 

should, among other things, be about 

conditions for teaching and learning 

Kriya Yoga, and about Kriya Yoga 

itself. However, I saw that I couldn’t 

just write an article based on rules and 

facts that everybody should adhere to 

just because I wrote it. 

I therefore decided to write this third 

© 1995 Lars Magnusson 

article as an account based on my own 

life and experiences. It is then up to the 

reader to decide whether there is any 

meaning in what I say, especially in 

relation to who teaches advanced yoga 

and how it is taught. I think that such 

teaching ought to have other conditions 

than ordinary weekly yoga and 

elementary meditation. 

Here I will write about what made 

me investigate and use precisely yoga, 

in light of the experience I have had as 

a teacher for 25 years, and about the 

influence of yoga in my life. 

Creativity can have many 

expressions, particularly when it is 

about human evolution and one’s 

insight into oneself. And when I 

describe my life in relation to yoga and 

my “truth”, then I must also accept 

other’s truth - the life they lead, their 

background and the experience they 

have had. 

Still, I do not wish to be gentle on 

anyone who is trying to get away with 

making the teaching “easy”, and in so 

doing spoiling something unbelievably 

valuable for all those who are 

searching for real tools on the path of 

self realisation. 

Of course, one cannot guarantee that 

all the teachers one trains have the 

same attitude towards life as oneself - 

and it would be absurd to expect so. 

But it is not as simple as it appears. A 

yoga teacher can, for example, be 

materialistic and “capable”, and firmly 

believe that the limited reality he sees 

is the whole reality. His or her teaching 

or propagating will stem from that 

notion. When one has the whole thing 

in one’s head and no longer uses yoga 

in practice or meditates for real, then 

how can one keep open the doors to 

mysticism and insights? A teacherstudent, 

for whom career and position 

are more important, and who has 

finance and material needs as a goal in 

itself, can only take students to a 

certain limit, no matter what his (or 

her) ideas are about his own worth... 

He has not awakened his psychic 

abilities or realised his spiritual gifts, 

those gifts that reach beyond the 

limitations of the mind. A student once 

asked such a teacher: “What have you 

got out of yoga?” “I’ve got a good 

job,” was the reply. 

For the mystic, all possibilities are 

open, also those that he does not know 

himself, but which are possible for 

9

others. Nothing is final or permanent, 

the mystic wishes to discover life anew 

every day. Therefore the mystic attains 

the unattainable - the impossible - that 

which the materialist thinks is delusion 

or wrong because it is not described, or 

is described differently, in his 

textbooks. 

Indeed, life is a creative process. 

My background 

Yoga in my life 

How did I come to use yoga in my 

life? What impulses gave me the 

inspiration? Basically I find it difficult 

to separate life into the spiritual and 

profane, into play and work, into 

everyday life and celebration. I do not 

believe that all our endeavours in life 

are to survive, but that life is a journey 

of discovery, where everything belongs 

and has meaning. All we need is to be 

sufficiently awake to realise it. 

Still, I use these words: 

- spiritual, to be in contact with the 

whole of yourself, or to be on your 

way towards a greater consciousness; 

- psychic, the processes in us that we 

are normally unaware of and, amongst 

other things, include energy as an 

overriding principle that is the 

foundation of life in the physical 

dimension, but which we are often 

completely ignorant of; and energy, as 

a field in and around our body, and as 

flows that we can learn to direct to 

change our state or heal ourselves or 

others; and chakra, as connecting links 

between body, energy, feelings and 

thoughts - our psychic senses. 

Are we today so alienated from the 

spiritual reality that we, apparently 

without knowing it, are a part of? Must 

we take literally mythological and 

limited descriptions of this reality? 

10 

Descriptions that have nothing to do 

with our conscious life, at least, not as 

it has been officially interpreted for the 

last 1600 years. Must we base this 

belief solely on other people’s range of 

vision, sometimes under force or 

pressure, for example from a church 

and a society that does not want the 

single human being to make his or her 

own explorations? Why? As children 

we know that we are part of something 

greater, greater than that picture which 

upbringing and education later gives 

us. As children we take this greater 

reality for granted - this is how it is. 

The yoga I know is principally based 

upon people doing something - they 

receive certain “keys”, they learn to 

use methods that create balance in 

body and mind and expand 

consciousness - so they themselves can 

feel a result. Yoga should not give you 

a ready-made attitude to life, but 

should make it possible for you to go 

in the direction you want and thereby 

become one with your life. 

Naturally, when one has to 

discriminate between dreams, 

expectations, wishes, worries on the 

one hand and experiences of an altered 

consciousness with greater clarity and 

more energy on the other, the question 

arises as to what is real and what is 

illusion. After all, a whole culture can 

live on illusions and psychoses; as it 

happened in periods of European 

history where people were burnt as 

witches and heretics for having another 

understanding of life, other than that of 

the religious and political rulers and 

the common superstition. 

The ability to discriminate is 

therefore most important in spiritual 

yoga - every day the individual must be 

trained in especially that ability - with 

the tradition, the personal teacher and 

even science as helpers. 

Near death 

I got the idea to write this article based 

on my own life, after having given an 

interview with Danish Radio P1, 

Autumn 1993, in the programme 

“Sunday morning, the programme 

about ourselves and what we believe 

in”. I will begin by quoting from that: 

“Anders Laugesen: That source, 

which you have sought and presumably 

also found, this has some connection 

with yoga...? 

Swami Janakananda: Yes, you 

could say that, even though yoga in 

itself is only a tool. The reason why I 

felt attracted especially to yoga 

probably is found far back in my life, 

yes, maybe even before life. It also 

springs from some thinking I have 

done, some experiences I have had, 

memories or whatever you call it. 

Something that suggests to myself why 

I went in this direction. 

When I was 8 years old, I learned a 

yoga exercise, where one has to lie 

completely still on the back. I was a 

nervous child and to lie completely still 

for a quarter of an hour - not in bed,

ut on the living room floor, wasn’t so 

easy. I was not to fall asleep, nor do 

anything else. At first I couldn’t 

understand the meaning of this. I lay 

there and looked around. But then, 

when I had been lying there for a while, 

I closed my eyes and began to realise 

what a revolution it was, just to lie and 

be still. My senses opened and the more 

I used the exercise, the more aware I 

became and the more I calmed down. 

This is an exercise that I still use and 

teach others with great enthusiasm. 

Anders Laugesen: Were your 

parents interested in Asian mysticism 

and yoga? 

Swami Janakananda: No, not at 

all, but they were both devout 

Christians. And there was an incident 

early in my life that possibly made 

them even more so. 

My mother was a nurse, and very 

active within the Methodist Church 

where she did social work trying to 

help people who had gone astray and 

were in social distress. I don’t know 

whether my father was especially 

religious when she met him. 

Something happened to him in those 

years before I came along, where he 

incidentally joined a church other than 

that of my mother. I have often looked 

back on this with a smile, as I 

experienced a very great tolerance in 

my home - especially between my 

parents’ different churches. One was 

the Methodist Church and the other the 

Apostolic Church. The Methodist 

Church was cosy and safe, it was the 

Jerusalem Church in Copenhagen. We 

went there especially at Christmas, 

Easter and so on. But on ordinary 

Sundays, we would attend the large 

grey wooden building which at that 

time was at Østerbro in Copenhagen. 

That was the stronghold of the 

Apostolic Church, where my father 

was an Elder. It was an entertaining 

church, with a large stringed orchestra 

and choir that really went for it, a large 

baptismal font, or rather a little 

swimming pool, where people were 

baptised in white robes and white 

socks. My mother and I always sat 

right next to the font and got a few 

splashes into the bargain. It was a 

strong experience to attend church on 

Sunday morning - until I grew up and 

started resisting, as one does... They 

prayed very loudly and spoke in 

tongues all at once, and they often 

stood up and raised their arms in the 

air. Interesting foreigners from other 

countries often came to visit and were 

interpreted from the pulpit. All that 

was exciting... 

Anders Laugesen: Was it rebellion 

against your father and mother that you 

didn’t choose to work in an 

ecclesiastical environment ... 

Swami Janakananda: It started a 

little bit earlier than the typical teenage 

rebellion, and I don’t think that at the 

time it was directed towards my 

parents, but rather was a stance against 

what I saw and experienced. I think I 

began to resist already at the age of 10 

or 11. We moved around a lot also. For 

some years I went to boarding school 

and saw things from a distance. But let 

me begin earlier. 

You said you wanted to talk about 

reincarnation today, but I had an 

experience of a slightly different kind 

when I was two years old. It made a 

great impression on everyone. I was 

dying. The doctor had actually given 

up on me. He had gone home. I lay 

there hovering between life and death - 

I was probably close to crossing the 

threshold of death. I had an experience, 

which I later had confirmed in various 

literature. I saw a being of light 

standing in front of me. It was simply 

made of light, and there was no doubt 

that it was a being. When I look back, I 

sensed it as if it were in the room 

where I lay - now it is so long ago, that 

I don’t remember whether I was in the 

body or somewhere else, but that’s how 

I remember it anyway. When I spoke 

about it later, my parents thought it was 

an angel - it was interpreted 

immediately. 

I don’t know how this has influenced 

the rest of my life. People who have 

experienced this as adults, can notice a 

change in their attitude to life, but I 

was only between two and three years 

old. 

Shortly before my condition 

worsened, I asked my parents: “But, 

why don’t you pray?!” - Two years old, 

how could I have thought of that? Can 

a child just say something like that, in 

complete seriousness, to his despairing 

parents? Or does one bring something 

with oneself into life? I said: “Pray for 

me!” - and so they did. They were 

deeply shocked, I know that. All the 

Elders in the Apostolic Church 

interceded for me, and my mother 

prayed. And she phoned the priest at 

the Methodist Church, and he prayed 

and I don’t know who else prayed. I 

wasn’t very old so it’s just what I’ve 

been told. 

After the experience with the 

luminous being, I became conscious 

again. Immediately I asked for some 

milk, and was given a glass, despite the 

doctor’s order that milk was the one 

thing I was not allowed to have, 

perhaps to avoid the formation of 

mucus in the respiratory passages. 

Then my mother phones the doctor and 

tells him: “Now the boy is sitting up in 

bed, drinking milk.” He comes as fast 

as possible to give her some sedatives. 

He figured I was dead and that my 

mother had begun to imagine things. 

11

But I was actually awake and well when 

he came, and he was very surprised. 

I am in no doubt about the power of 

prayer, but I do not consider myself 

religious...” 

So much for the interview. 

The luminous being actually 

appeared a few times in my early 

childhood. The last time was when I 

attended a holiday camp run by the 

Apostolic Church, “The King Camp” 

at Sejerø Bay. This incident was 

probably the beginning of the end of 

my childhood faith. I saw the luminous 

being again one evening, standing at 

the foot of my bed. Not only that, other 

children in the dormitory saw it too, 

and it caused quite a stir. The reason 

for my dissociation from the church 

was that this was exploited by the 

adults to create a religious fervour. 

Next day we children were told that all 

except one had been redeemed, as a 

result of that incident. Of course, no 

one dared to confess that they were the 

12 

one who hadn’t been redeemed. I 

didn’t know of the word manipulation 

as yet, but I now knew what it was. 

My first experiences of 

silence 

Silence and stillness, “mauna”, is a part 

of the practice of yoga - and an 

important part of the fine tuning of the 

mind so that it can learn or perceive 

Kriya Yoga in the best possible way. I 

will cover this in the next article on 

Kriya Yoga, where I will also explain 

the importance of the length of the 

initiation period. When I was six years 

old, I didn’t know anything about the 

silence in yoga. Nevertheless, I had 

some experiences of silence which I 

still remember clearly. 

The most important was a way to be 

silent that I began to appreciate in 

those years. It was the twilight hour, a 

quiet hour observed as the sun was 

setting, late in the afternoon. I, together 

with others, have described this in the 

previous issue of Bindu, both the way 

it was (and still is) practised in our 

culture and as a supplementary 

knowledge of this phenomenon in the 

yoga tradition. Sitting completely still 

in the living room together with other 

members of the family and sensing 

how darkness settles, was my first 

experience of a state of peace that 

came very close to meditation. 

The other experience is maybe just a 

curiosity for the reader, but for me this 

silence made an indelible impression. 

It must have been the first year after 

the war, April 9, the day when we 

remembered the Nazi invasion of 

Denmark. Everyone in Denmark 

commemorated this day with two 

minutes of silence at noon. All traffic 

stopped in Copenhagen - trams, the 

few cars there were at that time, horse 

carts and bicycles. People came out of 

their houses well in advance, stopped 

talking and went to the main street 

nearby. Together we stood completely 

still on the pavements. For a child, 

living very much in the present, two 

minutes are long and full of 

happenings, and I realised that silence 

is a valuable act and a powerful means 

of expression. 

When the silence had descended 

over the entire country, then something 

happened that made one become even 

more aware of the total stillness. A 

coachman suddenly lost control of his 

horses. They were scared by the silence 

and bolted. They ran right past my 

mother and me, past the terminus of 

tram line 14 and along Peter Bang’s 

Street. The only thing to be heard in 

the whole city were the horse hooves 

and the wheels rumbling on the cobble 

stones - and I saw a completely overwhelmed 

coachman on the driver’s box. 

He probably wished himself far away.

The third kind of silence I have 

already mentioned - that was the 

silence and stillness I experienced 

when I lay completely still on the back 

in the living room and came into 

contact with my being. 

Authority, your own or 

others? 

I did not know 

I learnt early on that lack of knowledge 

of the law (also the unwritten) cannot 

be excused. When one grows up, one 

gradually conforms to society or to 

those one knows, family, playmates... 

One cannot know beforehand how to 

behave. This is learnt through 

upbringing. 

If one breaks unwritten rules, even 

those one does not know, then one is 

sentenced anyway - unless one is sure 

of oneself. 

I did as I was told 

I was in the school yard of the 

Søndermarks School, one day right 

after school in 1951. 

One of the teachers, on playground 

duty, had asked me earlier in the day to 

let down the tyres of the bicycles found 

outside the bike stand and leaning 

against the trees in the school yard. So 

I did as I was told. 

And now they stood and waited for 

me by their bicycles. The teacher did 

not get a thrashing, but I did. I was 

really boxed around by those bigger 

and older than myself, and whose tyres 

I had deflated. Hanne, the blond girl 

from my class stood and watched while 

I lay by the bike stands, holding up my 

arm in order not to receive any more 

blows to my head. 

I did not know that I should not do 

as the teacher had asked me, but I was 

about to learn now. 

At least I learnt to see the task I had 

been told to do and had also done, from 

a new angle. 

“You could have just pretended to do 

it. You could have bent down and said 

pssst with your mouth near the valve.” 

I wonder whether it was the same 

day and for the same reason that in a 

break, I had the whole school after me, 

whistling and shouting boo! boo! boo! 

in unison - all 300 children. A teacher 

came towards me and asked what was 

wrong. “Nothing,” I said as I ran past 

him. 

Well, at least I got Hanne’s 

sympathy out of it. We were the last to 

leave the bicycle stands and the school 

yard. Very much in love, we rode home 

from school holding hands. 

A teenager’s thoughts and 

wishes on telepathy 

When I was a teenager, I imagined how 

it would be when all people could read 

each other’s thoughts and emotions. I 

expected it was something we all 

would attain. 

I could not see the wood for the 

trees. 

I was fascinated by the thought and 

at the same time I feared it. I fantasised 

how others would react to what I was 

thinking, or rather how I would feel 

about having my innermost thoughts 

revealed. But why first as a teenager? 

Well, small children do not bother with 

thoughts in that way, they have not 

been hurt yet. Fear has not yet made 

them form rigid ideas on life, they have 

not yet learnt to take credit for what 

happens. Maybe children take it for 

granted that we all know everything. A 

child does not understand that adults 

are affected when he/she expresses 

what is in the air... 

“Imagine if others knew what I was 

thinking.” All the “flippy” thoughts a 

teenager has on the way into the adult 

universe. 

All the reactions that arise when one 

goes from one age group to another. 

Values that no longer hold, because 

experience grows and tells you that 

there are also other ways to see things. 

All my “own” desires and longings, 

it would be embarrassing if everyone 

could see what I was thinking. 

Maybe in my thoughts I would 

reveal something I had done, or wanted 

to do. Or things I cannot, or dare not, 

tell people but deep inside dream about 

telling - they would just be able to read 

in me: 

My fear, my longings about sex, 

romance and excitement, my love! 

It will be unbearable, I thought, and 

I imagined how one must learn to 

control one’s thoughts. I imagined, mistakenly, 

that this was what the yogis 

did. No one should see what I think. 

All the same... as much as I feared it, I 

wished for it and expected it to happen, 

that all of us little by little would 

become telepathic. So that we did not 

need to hide anything from each other 

and, therefore, did not need to feel fear 

or insecurity towards each other. 

At that time I did not know what I know 

today. I did not know that almost all 

people identify themselves with all 

thoughts, that they make the thoughts 

their own and isolate themselves behind 

pride, guilt or embarrassment. Rather 

than hide something from others, they 

hide things from themselves. Instead of 

experiencing the thoughts that appear 

in the mind, as something just going by 

of their own accord - as thoughts that 

are connected to situations and habits 

and learned ways of reacting. I did not 

know that certain thoughts are utterly 

13

asic reactions to life, and that they 

keep coming up, because we never stop 

clinging to them or fearing them. And 

that real telepathy is impossible under 

such circumstances. 

Very few people (whom we can call 

yogis) do not bother why thoughts are 

there or from where they come. 

Basically they look at them as just 

thoughts. They are around here and 

therefore they also pass through my 

head. If I allow thoughts and emotions 

to pass and just look on, then by and by 

they cease to return. This I learn 

through meditation. 

After all, one does not have to 

follow all the whims that pass through 

one’s mind, or all the dreams one 

dreams, all that one hears in the mind. 

There is telepathy and telepathy. Today 

I do not “flip” if somebody nearby 

expresses the same thoughts I just had, 

or if somebody “steals” “my” ideas, 

before I have shared them. 

Maybe you think that if you cling to 

your tensions, they will not affect 

others, but it is quite the opposite. If 

you relax and stop hanging on to what 

happens in the mind, then there is a 

chance that you in that way help others 

to do the same. But that does not give 

you the right to accuse others of 

blocking energy. If you are blocked, 

then it is your problem. You cannot run 

away from it by making anyone else 

the scapegoat. And conversely, you are 

not responsible for how others feel 

about themselves. But you can help 

them by being yourself. 

Liberation from school and 

apprenticeship 

It is not my intention to write an 

autobiography, with all the joys and 

sorrows, emotional involvement and 

14 

torments - all that life is full of - and 

even in regard to yoga I must limit 

myself to a few things that led up to 

what I chose, to Kriya Yoga and what I 

do today. 

In the following years, from when I 

was fourteen to twenty-one, I managed 

to be a carpenter’s apprentice for almost 

four years; attended a residential technical 

college one winter; lived for three 

years abroad, where, among other things, 

I worked at a saw-mill in Sweden; at 

the harbour in Bremen and eventually 

went to London. There I attended a 

language school for a large part of the 

time and almost every evening learnt to 

draw at St. Martins School of Art in 

Soho. Finally, I worked for a few 

months at the east London docks. 

The school years, and especially the 

period of apprenticeship, had both 

humiliations and limitations. Now, I had 

to become independent of these influences 

and try to see through my complexes. 

I received great help through my 

discovery of literature. The first two 

books I read after boy’s books were East 

of Eden by Steinbeck and A Refugee 

Crosses His Tracks by Aksel Sandemose. 

Both deal with the crisis in a young 

person’s life, when he must liberate himself 

with regards to family and society. 

The Law of Jante is rather wellknown 

in Scandinavia today, but at the 

time it was a revelation to read about 

Aksel Sandemose’s Espen and his 

struggle. The Law of Jante involves the 

mutual oppressive mechanisms in a 

society that is closed by convention. 

You must not stick your head out and 

create your own life, for then you’ll get 

it in the neck. Because: 1. You shall not 

think you are somebody. 2. You shall 

not think you are equal to us. 3. You 

shall not think you are smarter than us. 

4. You shall not believe you are better 

than us. 5. You shall not think you 

know more than us. 6. You shall not 

think you are more than us. 7. You 

shall not think you are worth anything. 

8. You shall not laugh at us. 9. You 

shall not think anybody cares about 

you. 10. You shall not think you can 

teach us anything. 

And last, but not least, The Criminal 

Law of Jante, which is also very 

effective for keeping a person 

restrained from taking initiatives: We 

know something about you. 

And what they do not know, is 

fabricated. 

Youth 

What has The Law of Jante to do with 

yoga? one might well ask. Well, if one 

sees yoga as a kind of gymnastics, then 

perhaps there is no connection. 

However, for myself the whole thing is 

part of a larger process, which makes 

me conscious and sensitive in relation 

to life, myself and others - and that is 

also what yoga is about. 

I was not yet aware, however, of 

what I was seeking. I still wonder why 

my interest turned especially to yoga. I 

hardly knew what it was, and I also did 

not know that the exercises I learnt as 

an 8 year old were yoga, they were just 

some exercises. 

Was I carrying the seed of yoga 

within me before I was born? Perhaps, 

at any rate I carried the seed of spiritual 

growth for my journey through life. 

I remember how with great interest I 

got into the weekly magazines in the 

50‘s, when on a rare occasion I found 

something about yoga; just as Gandhi 

and his life had caught my attention: 

“True morality consists, not in 

following the beaten track, but in 

finding out the true path for ourselves 

and fearlessly follow it.” 

(Gandhi, All Men Are Brothers).

© 1995 Bo Olsson 

The winter of 1957-58, I spent at 

Ollerup Technical College. It was a 

completely new perspective that 

unfolded after four years as a 

carpenter’s apprentice. Inspiration 

came at first from a good Danish 

teacher, and then from all the 

interesting people who came to give 

lectures. One of the lecturers told us 

that meditation gives the ability to live 

in the midst of life’s bustle - and be 

yourself. Not buried in your own 

thoughts but resting in yourself, acting 

freely from your own center. What he 

said captivated me so much that I never 

forgot it - I quoted it in my book, Yoga, 

Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life: “I 

heard about a man who had a well-run 

shop, a wife and a lot of screaming 

children, with the shop opening on to a 

street in the noisiest, busiest part of 

town. Yet that man could cut off at any 

time; wherever he was, he shut his eyes 

and entered a deep rest within himself. 

And when he reopened his eyes after 

any length of time, he was refreshed.” 

After Ollerup, I went to Sweden to 

work at Sparreholm Sawmill, in 

Södermanland. For a few months, I 

worked on the sorting bridge. It had a 

large, long “table” on which the planks 

were conveyed. There were a few of us 

sorting the planks and boards and 

placing them on the right wagons, 

according to dimensions and quality. I 

stood furthest down the bridge with 

five to six wagons to load. It could get 

very busy and I had to get all the 

remaining boards on to the wagons, 

before they reached the end of the table. 

Otherwise they would pile up and I 

would stop the whole sawing process. 

However, several times a day a nail 

in a log would make the saw stop and 

then nothing came out to us for a while. 

It was in these breaks that I began to 

tilt the body up to the horizontal in the 

Peacock (Mayurasana), while 

supporting myself on the edge of the 

table and balancing the body on the 

forearms. The Peacock is a very 

effective pose for the digestion and 

metabolism. Yes, it is even said, that 

one can 

become 

immune to 

poisons if it 

is practised 

regularly. I 

was 

completely 

unaware of 

all this, 

though. I just felt like doing it and 

mastering it. I did not “know” that I 

was doing yoga. At that time I had 

never seen a book on yoga, but it did 

me good and I used it several times a 

day. Was it something I “remembered”? 

At the end of the year, I attended the 

Forest and Sawmill College in 

Härnösand, Sweden for three months. 

Here, I began to seek a little more 

consciously - a quote from my diary: 

“26/9/1958. Today, like so many other 

days, I have thought how I should go 

about building my knowledge of other 

people and how I can develop my 

thoughts - in other words, develop a 

little knowledge of human nature and 

teach myself to think as concentrated 

as possible. 

I have talked myself into being 

interested in philosophy without 

actually knowing anything about 

philosophy, so I have begun to read a 

little and have thought about starting 

to explore psychology. Henry David 

Thoureau says in “Walden”, which I 

am presently reading, that you should 

not just study life, but also live it and 

take part in what you want to study. I 

quote: “Which would have advanced 

the most at the end of a month, - the 

boy who had made his own jackknife 

from the ore which he had dug and 

smelted, reading as much as would be 

necessary for this - or the boy who had 

attended the lectures on metallurgy at 

the Institute in the meanwhile, and had 

received a Rodgers penknife from his 

father? Which would be most likely to 

cut his fingers?...” 

At the time I sought knowledge of 

others and not foremost of myself. That 

was my mistake and the reason why the 

psychology literature I had found did 

not satisfy me. All in all it was about 

judging others, instead of experiencing 

and gaining first hand knowledge. 

There was no guidance in how one 

could work with oneself, no wisdom. 

From Härnösand, the journey went via 

Copenhagen at Christmas, to Bremen 

in Germany. Here I was to spend a year, 

working in the Industrihafen in a large 

veneer yard. Apart from what I learnt 

from my older work mates, about their 

lives and what they had experienced 

during the war in the various countries 

where they were stationed, I became 

very active in my free time. 

I came into contact with a large 

international group of young people, I 

plunged into modern literature, 

especially the German writers, such as 

Stefan Zweig, Max Frisch, Ingeborg 

Bachman, Wolfgang Borchert and 

15

Heinrich Böll, as well as Franz Kafka. 

I earnestly acquainted myself with 

classical music and, together with my 

friends, I joined in the cultural and 

night life of Bremen. One could say I 

had a thorough cultural expansion of 

consciousness, plus a little tennis as 

well! 

I now lived in a completely new 

and freer part of my life and I felt 

very content with that. My literature 

teacher, Mr. Joneweit, at The German 

School of Commerce for Foreigners 

(which I attended the last three 

months of my stay in Germany) gave 

me the following poem, Stages, by 

Hermann Hesse. It has been with me 

ever since. It is originally published 

in the book The Glass Bead Game, 

as one of Magister Ludi’s, Josef 

Knecht’s posthumous works. 

Yoga 

My interest was not only about 

culture just for culture’s sake, the 

more “secret” or “spiritual” search in 

my life still smouldered. Literature, 

my work and the people I knew 

satisfied some of my needs for 

knowledge of life, but not enough. 

One day I bought a couple of books 

on yoga: Das Herzensgebet, Mystik 

und Yoga der Ostkirche, which was 

especially about the use of the Prayer 

of the Heart connected with the breath, 

as a form of meditation in the Russian 

Orthodox Church; and the book which 

made me start on the yoga exercises 

myself: Das Yoga-System der 

Gesundheit (The Yoga System of 

Health) by Yogi Vithaldas. 

Not only did I begin to practise the 

classical yoga poses with great 

seriousness and some effort, I also 

imagined that I would be like the man 

pictured in the book. I stared intensely 

16 

(Tratak) at this picture time and again, 

without knowing that this form of 

concentration on a wish can very well 

influence the direction life is taking. 

But I also had other wishes, and in 

Stages 

As every flower fades and as all youth 

Departs, so life at every stage, 

So every virtue, so our grasp of truth, 

Blooms in its day and may not last forever. 

Since life may summon us at every age 

Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor, 

Be ready bravely and without remorse 

To find new light that old ties cannot give. 

In all beginnings dwells a magic force 

For guarding us and helping us to live. 

Serenely let us move to distant places 

And let no sentiment of home detain us. 

The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us 

But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces. 

If we accept a home of our own making, 

Familiar habit makes for indolence. 

We must prepare for parting and leave-taking 

Or else remain the slaves of permanence. 

Even the hour of our death may send 

Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces, 

And life may summon us to newer races. 

So be it, heart: bid farewell without end. 

(Hermann Hesse) 

the years to follow events would take 

me - via a university degree course to 

the Faculty of History at the University 

of Copenhagen, (studies which I spiced 

with English, a little philosophy and 

Sanskrit studies) - on to the theatre, 

among other things to modern 

pantomime, and that way back to yoga. 

I was now going to learn to use yoga in 

quite another robust and sober way. 

During my stay in Germany I was 

apparently more interested in 

developing my concentration and 

skills. Just like the concept of keyenergy, 

as described by Yogi Vithaldas, 

fascinated me - or was it more than 

that, a notion of something that reached 

further...? 

The following year I lived in 

England, where, besides working and 

attending a language school, I 

continued my journey of discovery 

into European culture. Now I was 

also involved with theatre and art, 

not just as a passive spectator, but as 

a student at one of the art schools 

there. That aspects of modern art 

influence our consciousness and our 

spiritual development, I was not in 

doubt about for a moment. It is such 

a large and multifaceted topic, 

however, that I will have to return to 

it another time. “Art, when it is 

genuine”, I wrote in my diary, “is 

the mirror of consciousness, whether 

it be the inner or the outer world it 

reflects - and in his creative 

expression the artist becomes present, 

a presence, that, if only for a moment, 

can be conveyed to the observer.” 

The pantomime 

Little by little, the wish or resolution 

I had made in Bremen gradually 

began to express itself; even though 

I had almost forgotten my original 

intent, then it was to be yoga all the 

way. 

In that period a strong belief in 

nonviolence grew in my mind, inspired 

above all by Gandhi, and as I could no 

longer postpone my military service, I 

had to object to bearing arms. Consequently, 

I spent 22 months in a camp 

for conscientious objectors in Gribskov, 

Denmark and at the naval museum at 

Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. It was to 

be a profitable period where I came in 

contact with like-minded people and, 

through a teacher, also with people 

from the theatre. It quickly developed,

I became a member of a professional 

pantomime group and later active in 

the Student Theatre in Copenhagen. 

When I joined the pantomime group, it 

took up almost all of my time. A day 

would look like this: two to three hours 

of yoga exercises, then some hours of 

free improvisation with the pantomime 

body language, and finally certain 

disciplined classic tasks within the 

repertoire of the pantomime. 

Yoga was part of the warming up 

and had become part of the pantomime 

from the Peking Opera via the French 

pantomimes Etienne Decroux, Jean- 

Louis Barrault and Marcel Marceau. 

The purpose of yoga was to make 

the body supple and master its every 

movements. It turned out to be many of 

the same exercises, that I later learned 

in India. But it involved more than that. 

First of all a little revolution happened 

in my consciousness: I became awake, 

present and concentrated in quite a new 

way, and it became easier to express 

myself in art, both in painting and in 

the theatre. 

Let me quote Jean Soubeyran from 

the book “The language without words”: 

“If an outsider should happen to come 

into the room, where the dramatic 

improvisation takes place, he would be 

very surprised by the unusual picture 

confronting him. In almost total silence 

and immobility, a group of people are 

sitting in a semicircle. They watch a 

single student, who is sitting in front of 

them on a stool. He too is motionless, 

and his eyes are firmly focused on one 

point. For the uninitiated this may look 

like a spiritualistic meeting. It appears 

as if nothing at all is happening in this 

hall. But such a dense and sensitive 

atmosphere of work and concentration 

reigns here, that this stranger’s 

intrusion would immediately disturb it. 

© 1995 Bengt Magnuzon 

From the 3-months course 1995 with Síta as teacher 

For these almost motionless people 

work. After having trained their bodies 

for several hours in body technique, 

they now train that other part of the 

body, which is not carried by the legs, 

but by feelings and emotions.” 

The repertoire of pantomime is to a 

certain degree limited by its language 

and therefore has given rise to certain 

fields of expression or styles that show 

itself in plots which have cycles as form. 

One can choose a certain style as the 

basis for the play one wants to create. 

These styles illustrate fundamental 

attitudes or types of man. You have the 

mime of the little man, mime de salon 

(the parlour room mime) where one is 

preoccupied and involved in the small 

daily events, often presented in a 

comical way, as by Marcel Marceau’s 

clown Bib. Or the beach boy, the 

sportsman, physically exaggerated, the 

achiever, mime de sport, the mime of 

fight, but fight as a sport, carried out by 

one who rests in his body with calmness 

and fullness in every movement. 

In mime de passion we meet the 

idealist, the passionate, who will do 

anything to reach his goal. It illustrates 

a fight different to the one of the 

sportsman, a performance where 

consciousness is not always present. At 

last, if the goal has been lost or given 

up, mime de reve, the mime of dream 

or rather of the dreamer which in its 

extreme becomes the psychosis - where 

everything is based on illusion. The 

concrete act is no more, it has been 

given up and substituted by dreams and 

imagination. In this way the difference 

between fantasies and real experiences 

is illustrated in pantomime. 

In Yoga, to see through this 

difference, time and again one may 

have to walk alone, but preferably, and 

at least in the beginning, with the help 

of a teacher or guru. It can be 

disastrous to underrate the importance 

of a guru here, for society possesses no 

fundamental knowledge of this - 

17

society lives on its own illusions. For 

the one who wants to go beyond the 

limitations of consciousness, the 

question of what is real and what is 

unreal is always burning. 

Intense yoga on my own 

At the time I could not find anyone in 

Denmark who could teach me any yoga 

that I did not already know through the 

pantomime. I especially wanted to 

learn to use the breathing exercises of 

yoga (in Sanskrit Pranayama: to make 

conscious the dimension of energy), 

and mudra (“attitudes” which 

harmonises the energy field of the 

body). So I had to turn to literature and 

follow the rules to the letter. 

It was an exciting challenge. The 

book that I was now using had been 

written by Swami Narayanananda, an 

orthodox person who demanded a lot 

in regard to your way of living, but 

who also was exact enough in his 

instructions, so that I did not make any 

errors. 

The more “philosophical” and 

inspirational I found in Swami 

Yogananda’s book. While reading 

“Autobiography of a Yogi”, I had 

experiences of different kriya that I did 

not quite dare to believe. Even though 

Yogananda talks about Kriya Yoga all 

the time, he does not describe it directly. 

When I came to India and learned the 

great Kriya Yoga, I realised only then 

that I had already spontaneously 

experienced a couple of other kriya. 

From the middle of the sixties my 

yoga practice consisted of yoga 

exercises in the morning and breathing 

exercises four times in twenty-four 

hours. For a couple of years I had the 

opportunity to live in this way, apart 

from directing a few plays at the 

theatre. The result was that I became 

18 

aware of my psychic energy, as 

something that one can canalise and by 

which one can influence the physical 

and psychic state - besides keeping the 

inspiration flowing in my artistic 

expression. 

The vision 

I came to a place that I can best 

describe as golden. I sat in front of a 

semicircle or as part of a circle of 

meditating individuals who seemed to 

consist of light. I had the impression 

that I had been summoned there for a 

certain reason. What I learned was not 

directly expressed in words, but 

communicated through experiences 

and states. However, it also involved 

giving my life (or my calling if you 

like) an even more defined direction. 

One must realise that what I learned 

here is partly secret, and also impossible 

to describe - I was made aware of an 

altered state of consciousness - and a 

fundamental form of meditation - a 

connection or a connectedness, which 

at the same time I see as a process, or 

as an ability to set such a process in 

motion. It has been with me ever since. 

More and more has it found expression 

in my teaching in later years. It is also 

secret in that, if I use it in my teaching, 

then not all students perceive all that 

happens - the individual person takes 

in that which he or she is ready to use. 

Behind it all, this ability helps me to 

remove tensions from participants, so 

they can remain more open and aware - 

and realise their own and Kriya Yoga’s 

potential. It makes it easier to impart 

the insight, that there is nothing you 

need to hang on to or figure out - that it 

is something you do and experience. 

And the process can be passed on to 

others, who in their turn can use it in 

their meditation and teaching. I can call 

it Chit-Agni-Kriya - or in honour of the 

Siddhas that initiated me: Siddha 

Kriya. I can give a hint of this kriya by 

quoting Satprem in his book about Sri 

Aurobindo, so those who have sensed it 

will be able to recognise what I am 

writing about: “We speak of the 

descending Force or the ascending 

Force or the internal force or of mental 

force, vital force, material force, but 

there are not so many different forces - 

there is but one Force in the world, a 

single unique current which passes 

through us and through all things and 

which puts on one substance or 

another according to the level of its 

action. Our electric current may light 

up a tabernacle or a tavern, a school 

room, a refectory, and it continues to 

be the same current though it illumines 

different objects. So too, this Force or 

this Heat, agni, continues to be the 

same, whether it animates or illumines 

our inner retreat, our mental den; from 

level to level it wraps itself in a more 

or less intense light and more or less 

heavy vibrations - supramental, 

mental, vital, material - but it is this 

force which links up everything, 

animates everything; this, the 

fundamental substance of the universe: 

Consciousness-Force, Chit-Agni. 

If it be true that consciousness is a 

force, inversely, force is consciousness 

and all the forces are conscious. The 

universal Force is a universal 

Consciousness. This is what the seeker 

discovers. When he has contacted this 

current of consciousness-force in 

himself...” 

Can a Westerner meet with an 

experience which many indigenous 

people have as part of their culture and 

in their spiritual life? Is it, or could it 

be, part of our possibilities? Can we 

oblige one of our own (C.G.Jung)

when he proclaims that we must 

rediscover our soul? A soul that 

different cultures and indigenous 

people still have intact, whether they 

live on a so called “high” or “low” 

material plane, some in tune with 

nature, others in overpopulated 

countries. 

I usually say: can you 

imagine that your neighbour is 

in a state of Samadhi or 

Nirvana? Can you imagine that 

your teacher has reached that 

far, and that he knows what he 

talks about, at the same time, 

that he remains a human being 

with emotions and thoughts, 

and with a body, that he, like 

anyone else, must take good 

care of? And if you answer no, 

then I must tell you, that you 

have no perspective of your 

own possibilities - for what 

you are really saying, is that 

you are not allowed such 

things. 

If one is denying such a 

possibility, then one also 

denies that, on which many 

cultures base their 

mythologies, their psychic life, 

and their capacities to heal. 

To me this was a vision that 

does not occur every day, but 

perhaps only once in a 

lifetime. A vision which came 

unexpectedly, in such a way that I did 

not know anything about it in advance 

nor did I have any expectations of it. 

At that time, also, I was not floating 

around in daydreams or thoughts of 

celestial things. My everyday state was 

clear and normal, strengthened by my 

yoga practice and my attitude to life. 

But of course I was prepared, in 

such a way that I could hold on to that 

tiny intense point of light, which 

© 1995 Lombard - Derib 

appeared in my mind, long enough for it 

to change and take the form of a crystal, 

which again changed into a corridor 

that I flew through without thoughts of 

body or ideas of my own worth. 

It was not an outer ritual, but a 

important inner event - an initiation. It 

may have been spontaneous, but it was 

a result of a long training in 

concentration and awareness. I had 

observed all conditions to be able to 

receive my vision. I lived alone and in 

continence. I kept a moderate diet and 

did intense yoga, so my body was light 

and pure. Therefore I did not block the 

experience. 

The knowledge and the capacities 

that it gave me, have never left me. 

Swamiji in Copenhagen 

There have been other visions since. 

Some of them I have described in my 

book, Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in 

Daily Life, in the form of dreams. Others 

I have never told about, for example, 

one I had on the roof of a house 

one night in Nagpur, during a tour 

of Northern India with my teacher: 

I had taught the whole day. 

Following Swamiji’s diagnosis 

and instructions, I had been giving 

different people precisely the 

methods each had to use. I 

remember we had had a lot of 

melons at the evening meal, and I 

had stuffed myself with them. 

Afterwards I sat down to meditate. 

It started with a certain sign that I 

saw, a kind of code that told me 

that this was no ordinary dream or 

thought: A wellknown Danish 

actor appears before me and asks 

whether it is really the theatre I 

want to devote my life to, whether 

I will be content with entertaining 

the bourgeoisie evening after 

evening with all kinds of plays, of 

which many would probably not 

be of my own choosing. 

Again a vision that became 

important for the direction my life 

was to take - in spite of my love for 

the theatre. Later on I also had to 

conclude, that as far as I was 

concerned, it had more meaning to give 

people an experience once or twice a 

week on a course, or on a short or long 

residential course - an experience of 

being able to relax with life, to be able 

to find well-being, an experience the 

individual could use creatively in his life, 

and maybe even get closer to one self. 

That period of my life started with 

meeting my teacher and guru in 

Copenhagen. 

19

One day, a close friend, the painter 

Knud Hvidberg, dropped by, wanting 

me to come along to a lecture on yoga, 

I resisted at first. There were so many 

lectures, and so many Indians and 

others travelling around... I had enough 

with my own yoga, I thought; it was 

intense and exciting. But Knud insisted 

and showed me a picture of Swami 

Satyananda from the newspaper. This 

made me change my mind. He seemed 

somehow familiar, and at the same 

time both intelligent and practical. I 

went, reluctantly, to the lecture. 

Swami Satyananda gave two public 

lectures in Copenhagen. One evening 

he spoke about mantra and guided a 

meditation afterwards, based on such a 

sound. The second evening the topic 

was on how to use a psychic symbol in 

meditation and it was also used in the 

following meditation. What he said fell 

upon fertile soil with me and my 

experiences that evening convinced me 

of the value of his teaching. My psychic 

symbol appeared for the first time and I 

still use it now, almost thirty years later. 

“When one, through one’s practice, 

has begun to come in contact with not 

only the subconscious but also with the 

unconscious, with the things where it is 

almost impossible to penetrate, then 

the psychic symbol appears as a life 

line...” (Swami Satyananda) 

When I found a small, modest 

brochure on a chair at the rear of the 

hall, on some courses he was giving in 

Kriya Yoga that same year in India, then 

I had something to think about. Kriya 

Yoga was precisely the meditation I 

wanted to learn most of all! But did I 

really have to travel to India for it? 

Normally I was of the opinion that things 

were always found close at hand and 

that the first was the best - but maybe... 

After weeks of deliberation, I realised 

that this was indeed the first time I had 

20 

an offer to learn Kriya Yoga. Together 

with Knud Hvidberg, I left by train to 

Moscow, and plane, via Tashkent and 

Kabul, to Delhi, and eventually to Monghyr, 

to my teacher’s ashram and school. 

Training in India 

Just as had been for Swami Satyananda, 

so it was for me. The training in the 

ashram did not have the objective of 

generating lots of fantastic experiences. 

On the contrary, one is to a certain 

degree sheltered from developing too 

many abilities, so as not to lose sight of 

the goal. The period in the ashram 

should form a solid foundation for the 

unfoldment of life, both inwardly and 

outwardly. After learning Kriya Yoga, I 

remained in the ashram, because I 

realised that I had found a teacher 

capable of helping me to strengthen the 

bridge between the normal external life 

and the new inner world that I was in 

the process of conquering. 

Sannyasa 

At Shivaratri, the 15th of February, 

1969, I took Sannyasa diksha in the 

Paramahamsa order, Dasanama 

Sannyasa’s spiritual order, founded by 

Srimat Sankaracharya (788 - 822), in 

the branch of the Swami tradition 

called Saraswati. 

I was alone in being initiated that 

night. There was, apart from Swamiji 

and myself, just one other Swami 

present as witness. Besides the 

initiation as Swami, earlier 

“initiations”, that I had in the form of 

visions and experiences in meditation, 

were also confirmed as very real and as 

something I could continue with. My 

teacher knew, that yoga was not just a 

hobby for me, but that I needed a large 

degree of freedom and independence. 

He confirmed this with my initiation. 

Let me quote a fragment of what 

Swami Satyananda has said and written 

about Sannyasa, to be a Swami, which 

means to master oneself: 

“Sannyasa has arisen as a means to 

overcome and remove conditioning of 

the mind, false beliefs, dogmas, 

concepts, etc. that prevents the mind 

functioning as a perfect instrument. It 

has been adopted by those people who 

wanted to free the mind of its bondage 

and thereby gain an insight into the 

deeper aspects of existence. It seems to 

have existed, though not under the 

specific name of sannyasa, since the 

dawn of history. It arose with the 

progressive development of society as a 

means to liberate the individual from 

the indoctrination inherent in the 

particular society in which he lived. 

It is more than possible that 

‚primitive‘ man had no need for any 

form of sannyasa, for he was probably 

harmonious in his way of life, 

integrated with his deeper being and 

able to perfectly combine worldly and 

spiritual life... 

Therefore, sannyasa arose 

simultaneously with the advent of 

social living as a means for man to reintegrate 

himself with his deeper 

nature. As social pressures become 

greater, so man becomes excessively 

ambitious, neurotic and egotistical. It 

is these and other discordant 

tendencies that imprison man and 

cause him to remain at and function on 

the surface layers of his being...” 

Outwardly it usually implies that one 

chooses to wear the orange colour. This 

act expresses an attitude and declares 

that one is part of a tradition. But orange 

is also worn because of its activating 

effect on the one who spends a lot of 

time in meditation and teaching 

meditation. It is a neutral clothing 

which, to a certain degree prevents

AND “SOMEWHERE ELSE” CLOUDBURST EXPERIENCES THE MEETING WAKANTANKA HAD PROMISED 

WAKANTANKA HAS CHOSEN YOU TO BE 

INITIATED BY US INTO THIS WORLD. 

WE HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN YOU, 

IN THE WORLD YOU COME FROM, 

CLOUDBURST. YOU ARE IN OUR 

RUNNING BEAR IS YOUR TEACHER... 

WORLD... WE, THE SPIRITS OF FIRE 

AND THUNDER, ARE AS OLD AS THE 

WORLD. THEREFORE YOU SEE US AS 

SIX OLD MEN... 

...HE KNOWS US AND WE KNOW HIM... 

BUT IT IS A LONG TIME SINCE HE 

VISITED THE LAND OF THE SPIRITS... 

WE REPRESENT WEST, NORTH, EAST, 

SOUTH, THE SKY AND THE EARTH... WE 

ARE GATHERED HERE FOR YOU TO 

COME TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE 

FORCES WHICH WE EMBODY, AND FOR 

YOU TO LEARN NOT TO FEAR THEM. 

THESE FORCES ARE THE FORCES OF 

NATURE, NATURE OUR MOTHER. IT IS 

NECESSARY TO RESPECT THEM AND 

LIVE IN PEACE WITH THEM. 

SIT DOWN AMONGST US. YOU HAVE HEARD 

WAKANTANKA’S VOICE AND YOU HAVE OVERCOME 

THE SUFFERING OF THE BODY. THE FIRE THAT 

BURNS ALSO CLEANSES. YOU HAVE BEEN BURNT BY 

FIRE, YOU HAVE BEEN CLEANSED BY FIRE, AND YOU 

WILL BE HEALED BY FIRE. 

FROM NOW ON THE FORCES OF FIRE AND 

THUNDER LIVE IN YOU. THEY WILL MAKE YOU A 

SEER AND HEALER AMONG YOUR PEOPLE. SHOW 

THYSELF WORTHY OF THIS PRIVILEGE. 

© 1995 Lombard - Derib 

Comics are a popular form, which most often contain no deeper meaning. All the same it can, like any other media, be used to convey 

“secret” messages, just as fairy tales once did. The central character in the comic, He who was born twice, and his encounter with “the 

elders,” I came across 16 years after my vision. It contains an account very close to my own experience, except my communication was 

non-verbal and those present were experienced as yogis (siddhas). The similarities however were great: e.g. both the Indian boy and I had 

left the physical dimension and found ourselves on a completely different plane of consciousness.q 

role-playing when one dresses 

according to different moods; and 

finally it turns its back on materialism 

in preventing one from dressing 

provocatively or flamboyantly - yet 

another aid for stabilising the mind. 

It can be mentioned as a curiosity, 

that many indigenous people dress 

alike in their tribes, or are naked, as 

they share everything and unreservedly 

help each other. In certain tribes in 

Africa they even dress in the same 

“geru” or orange earth colour that since 

the seventh century is part of the 

swami tradition. It must however be 

mentioned that the participants of our 

various courses, naturally do not have 

to wear orange. It is something we do 

for our own sake, as teachers in an 

ancient and contemporary tradition. 

That the aforementioned thoughts not 

only stir in Swami Satyananda’s mind, 

is shown by the following passage 

from Peter Nilson’s book Home to 

Earth. It deals with the more material 

side of the problem: “When we left the 

pastoral age [the food gatherer’s age], 

we took the first step towards a 

catastrophe, we opened the door to 

misfortune and misery which is today 

threatening our existence... 

Farming, which no doubt gave us 

food and prosperity, can paradoxically 

also have made us starving and poor 

and led us towards our present epoch’s 

21

population catastrophe. Rousseau 

would have recognised these thoughts, 

which in an unforeseen way illustrates 

the dilemma in everything we call 

‚development‘.” 

On the inner sides of society’s 

unconscious influence, professor Henri 

Laborit is expressing himself in the 

film, My Uncle From America, by 

Alain Resnais: “The unconscious 

constitutes a fearsome instrument, not 

so much because of its repressed part, 

repressed because too painful to 

express and because the socio-cultural 

environment would have punished it; 

but on the contrary by what this very 

same socio-cultural environment 

allows and sometimes even rewards. 

All is put in the person’s mind since 

early childhood, the individual being 

unconscious of it, and yet being led 

into action just by that part. It is this 

unconscious - different from the 

Freudian one - which is the most 

dangerous. 

What we define as personality is a 

mish-mash of value judgements, 

prejudices, common truths becoming 

more rigid as the individual grows 

older and questions it less and less. 

Taking away but one stone from this 

building will be enough to see it 

crumble down. Then appears anxiety. 

To express itself, this anxiety will not 

stop for murder, on the level of the 

individual, nor for genocide or war on 

the level of social groups. 

We are just starting to understand by 

which mechanism, how and why, 

levels of hierarchy and dominance 

have been established through all of 

history up to our present time. 

We have to know the laws of gravity 

so as to travel to the moon. Knowing 

the laws does not imply that we are 

free of gravity. It just means that we 

22 

can use them to do something else. 

As long as we haven’t publicised 

very widely, for the individuals of this 

planet, how their brain is functioning 

and how they use it, as long as we 

don’t tell that its function has always 

been, up to now, to dominate others, 

there will be little chance for changes.” 

Ideals and daily life 

I believe that ideals are quite 

dangerous for our existence, as they 

easily make us go to extremes, both 

politically, spiritually and culturally 

February 1969, the day after sannyasa. 

and consequently miss the goal. They 

deprive us of our ability to appreciate 

what is happening in the situation we 

are in. It is important, especially for the 

yogi, not to pull the wool over people’s 

eyes, which can develop into 

intolerance and sectarianism. There are 

no easy solutions, it requires our own 

commitment. Also for our own sake, 

we must take heed to, for example, the 

Zen monk, who discovers that it is in 

daily life the miracle is found. That we 

should occupy ourselves with what lies 

directly before us, tasks, people close 

to us and what we carry within us and 

wish to express. 

The ideal easily creates neurosis, as 

when one sees nothing but smiling 

people in advertisements for healing, 

religion, New Age, positive thinking, 

etc. Where is the deeper earnestness, I 

am tempted to ask, and the knowledge 

that working with oneself implies that 

one undauntingly meets all aspects of 

one’s mind and personality? Can one 

allow oneself to see and, more 

importantly, to feel these aspects - 

without it leading to self-indulgence? 

The teacher who has not permitted the 

crisis in him or herself, will have a 

tendency to suppress it in teaching 

situations by avoiding to let go. 

Stability, discipline and consistency are 

certainly called for, a choice one makes 

oneself, and a necessity if one does not 

want to get lost in one’s own fantasies, 

or be restrained by other’s 

thoughtlessness. 

In another way, too, ideals create 

intolerance and hypocrisy. Is it not true 

that it is often demanded of our 

teachers to be pure saints that we can 

imitate or fantasise about? That they 

are not allowed to be ordinary people, 

capable of expressing sorrow, anger, 

childishness, pride, jealousy, 

disappointment or spontaneous joy - 

not to mention a sense of humour? 

I am not implying that the teacher 

should be an inverted snob and try to 

be someone else other than he or she is 

- but there is no reason to be afraid of 

showing one’s true colours. When we 

ourselves know what is behind the 

mask, then we can also stand by what 

is natural. Once we have learnt that the 

mind and personality are tools for 

surviving in the physical dimension - a

surface through which we 

communicate with the world around us 

- then we can fearlessly go deeper and 

become one with our whole being, our 

true identity. 

The Tantric attitude helps here: by 

unhesitatingly remaining in the state 

we find ourselves in, the state can be 

made conscious and thereby exhausted. 

Here is a very old instruction: 

“Lie down as dead. Enraged in 

wrath, stay so. Or stare without moving 

an eyelash. Or suck something and 

become the sucking” 

(Malini Vijaya Tantra) 

There are also what I would call 

escapist ideals. I have met people who 

dream of living in the primitive tribes 

found on the outskirts of civilisation, in 

the rain forests or deserts of Asia, 

Australia or South America and in the 

Arctic regions of northern Europe and 

North America. Cultures that are 

unfortunately dying out. No doubt they 

represent values that we indeed have 

use for. When, however, it becomes an 

ideal for people, who are unable to 

meet the challenges and undergo a 

process of liberation in daily life or the 

society they live in, then they have an 

excuse for dreaming instead of acting. 

And isn’t it here you find many socalled 

teachers and movements - 

between ideals of the primitive society 

with tepees, and the super high 

technology society with spaceships, 

where people do not use money 

(nothing wrong with that), where they 

communicate telepathically and move 

almost floatingly over the earth so as 

not to harm plant life? Such cultures 

are placed both in the past and the 

future, in Atlantis and Lemuria, in the 

Central American and Egyptian 

cultures, on other planets, or after an 

upheaval on our planet in a not too 

distant future. And what is worse, 

people are sitting waiting for 

spaceships, expecting them to come 

and save us from life on this globe! 

Should such dreams (and anxieties) 

justify (regardless of whether they are 

based on facts or not): 

- that one cannot make oneself do what 

has to be done here and now in our 

time, in our cities, in our countries? 

And live this life and use the abilities 

that one has received, instead of 

dreaming? 

- that we do not dare to receive a 

knowledge, that enables one to 

disregard one’s limitations, instead of 

magnanimously passing our limitations 

on to others under the guise of wisdom, 

healing or religion? 

- that we are not capable of taking life 

as it comes and deal with the tasks that 

lie to hand? Why must everything be 

looked upon as problems? Everything 

is part of life and life is an exciting 

challenge! 

Those who have actually heard the 

message from the “past”, “future” or 

the “dream time” do not use it as an 

excuse to dream themselves away from 

the life they were born to, but throw 

themselves into a work to come in 

harmony again with themselves and 

nature, and then help others and the 

society they live in to do likewise. It 

happens without thought of comfort 

and not in a state of self-absorbed 

hypochondria. One contributes where it 

is most needed. Each according to 

background and abilities. 

Or said in the words of Walt Whitman 

in Song of the open road: 

Hence forth I ask not good-fortune, 

I myself am good-fortune, 

Henceforth I whimper no more, 

postpone no more, need nothing, 

Done with indoor complaints, 

libraries, querulous criticisms, 

Strong and content I travel the open 

road. 

The earth, that is sufficient, 

I do not want the constellations any 

nearer, 

I know they are very well where they 

are, 

I know they suffice for those who 

belong to them. 

The force of example 

Personally I don’t think that the force 

of example is worth much for the one 

who really works with him/herself. 

Where it is important for children to 

have a firm example in an adult and 

stable guidelines as a basis - an adult, 

who wants to discover more about life 

and one’s own depths, does not find it 

by copying other’s lives, only by living 

one’s own. In this endeavour, one must 

be able to make qualified choices with 

regards to oneself and not decide from 

imitation or habitual norms. 

However, discipline and other 

conditions should not be confused with 

ideals. In my opinion, one should be 

able to let oneself be initiated, dare 

accomplish what one really wants and 

overcome one’s fear and in this way 

acquire useful knowledge. My 

collaboration with Swamiji, that he 

could tease me, test my pride or my 

fear, wake me up, give me tasks, and 

above all, that he could bring me down 

to earth when imagination ran away 

with me, had the result that I learned a 

potent, useful and, not least, deepgoing 

yoga, giving me presence and 

willingness to act. On the other hand, 

the decisions I took, the conclusions I 

drew, my inner objectives and the 

amount of perseverance I displayed 

23

As to being a yoga teacher, I do not 

believe one should struggle for power 

or compete in a reckless way. Instead, 

it is good that what one achieves is 

based on one’s own merit, but with 

respect both for the tradition and for 

those from whom you learnt it. This 

ensures that one does not get into selfglorification, 

on a so called “ego-trip”, 

feel threatened or make out to be clever 

at the expense of another. After all it 

was not I who invented what I teach, 

but my teacher, and not him either, but 

his teacher, and not him either ... 

“Do not try to persuade the students 

that already go to other teachers, let 

the students come by themselves, when 

it gets about that your teaching is 

good. And if one day they don’t come 

anymore, then that part of your karma 

is over”, Swamiji said to me in 1970, 

when I was on my way back to 

Scandinavia to teach. 

was up to me. 

Not only for my own part, but also 

with students I have had over the years, 

have I seen the importance of periods 

to withdraw and gain perspective. 

There are, no doubt, people in society 

critical of such an act, perhaps because 

they fear that the illusions we grew up 

with, and which are partly 

unconscious, could be seen through. 

For me, however, it was necessary to 

see through them to become 

independent. It meant that I had to give 

up demanding anything in advance and 

dare to accept situations as they came. 

Thereby, and with the help of yoga and 

meditation and my teacher’s guidance, 

I began to discover the limiting 

attitudes and habits that had influenced 

24 

Students on the 3-momths course 1995 

my life. Through this process I realised 

what true independence involves. 

A quote from my diary, in India, 

1969: “Reaction and submission - to 

react against or to submit to - 

environment, conditions, etc., it is all 

the same, both are dependence. 

To mature, to be able to regard 

everything equally - without comparing 

it to oneself - that is perhaps what 

between people is called brother- or 

friendship- or true social-mindedness, 

no blind following, no rebellion against 

others, but empathy.” 

That such an attitude can transform 

most situations, may be a secret to 

many. To dare to live in accordance 

with this could very well reveal a fear 

of letting go - in oneself. 

In Tantra it is said that even a dog can 

be your teacher - and at another time I 

shall take up the relationship between 

the expectations and ideals we have 

and the true wisdom of certain people 

that far from resembles the current 

model we dream of finding in the yoga 

tradition or in modern movements. An 

initiation and the decision to live as a 

swami, for example, have to do with 

everyday life and normal 

communication with other people. At 

the same time, it involves consistency 

on another level that reaches far 

beyond what is taught in Sunday 

school, or what is contained in the soft, 

fluid New Age philosophy presently in 

vogue. This is about a goal that one 

does not want to miss, neither through 

idleness, romantic ideas nor fanaticism 

and which has nothing to do with 

whatever time one happens to be living 

in.

After all, it is not just the laughing or 

crying personality, who can be happy 

or full of sorrow, the one who feels 

attracted to or repulsed by what it 

meets in life, but also the deeper 

dimensions that reach beyond what is 

seen on the surface, beyond the states 

of body and mind that you know 

already - the whole of your being - that 

you can become one with. 

“Any therapist who would lead others 

to psychic heights and depths must, 

himself, be able to attain these heights 

and depths of the psyche. 

Contemporary psychotherapists will 

have to begin by training themselves to 

ascend and descend through their own 

psyche and thereby experience the 

manifold components within man and 

the driving forces behind human life.” 

(Wolfgang Kretschmer, Meditative 

Techniques in Psychotherapy, referring 

to his colleague Desoille). 

Ashram 

In the ashram, the everyday life and the 

daily tasks (Karma Yoga) are essential. 

In everyday life the residents keep a 

routine, and the transformation happens 

imperceptibly, naturally with the help 

of yoga and meditation - and, in my 

experience, above all with Kriya Yoga. 

While living in my teacher’s ashram 

in Bihar, India, and one day the 

conversation turned to the conditions 

for teaching Kriya Yoga, he said, 

“Kriya Yoga should only be taught 

under ashram conditions.” 

An ashram is a place where people 

live, and they are continuously devoted 

to a Sadhana. Sadhana actually means 

“that which leads to the goal” and 

includes everything that awakens 

consciousness and keeps it awake. The 

ashram is a place where people do not 

pursue any other value than the 

spiritual, a place that makes it possible 

to take time to rediscover both mental 

and physical well-being. Such a place 

is built up gradually, with all the daily 

pursuits, with facilities for teaching, 

but most of all, with a core of people 

who are not just visiting, or have 

different motives for being there, other 

than taking part in this work. 

The ashram should give an 

atmosphere of security and peace, so 

students coming from outside for a 

short period, for example on a 3- 

months sadhana course, can 

undisturbedly devote themselves to 

what they came for, with support from 

the surroundings, and without feeling 

exploited economically or otherwise, 

such as it happens constantly in 

society. But at the same time the 

ashram should be full of challenges, 

both in terms of tasks and opportunities 

for training and initiation. 

Here, however, it is not a question of 

striving for a “certificate” one can 

flaunt. It is a way of living. I often 

heard my teacher say to those present: 

“Think about what people normally 

pursue, how much time they spend on 

education and career, an education 

they can use for only a few decades out 

of life, and how little time they use for 

their spiritual development, a 

development they benefit from their 

whole life - and for more than that.” 

An ashram is traditionally led by one 

or more swamis. In such an ashram, 

Kriya Yoga can be taught (if it is used 

daily by the permanent residents) so 

that everybody is intimately acquainted 

with what is being taught. The ashram 

and its residents must be able to convey 

an experience that reaches further than 

a mechanical or theoretical learning. 

The way I have become familiar 

with an ashram, both the one I was in, 

in India and the one that has come into 

existence here in Scandinavia, is that it 

is based on voluntary participation and 

interest from the residents and from the 

students coming on courses. The 

aspirants can stay as long as they want, 

but while they are there, it is important 

that they do not forget the purpose of 

being there and that they want to 

participate in all activities - then indeed 

the desired effect can be reached. 

“You cannot force somebody to be 

happy” said Swami Yogananda. Yes, 

isn’t it odd, and neither can you force a 

flower to unfold. But one hopes it will, 

by supplying good conditions, 

enriching the soil, giving it light and 

air, together with protecting it from 

negative influences during growth and 

maturation. 

Education, school and 

ashram 

I have called Scandinavian Yoga and 

Meditation School a school, because 

people should be able to come and go 

as they please, without further 

attachment than the teaching in which 

they participate. This is how it has 

functioned for the 25 years the school 

has existed. 

I have, however, called the yoga 

teacher education an ashram. Formerly 

in India there was no question of a 

yoga teacher education. Education is a 

modern concept that is based largely on 

theory and learning in class rooms. In 

the tradition, however, yoga was learnt 

in everyday life - and so it was for a 

large part in my training with Swami 

Satyananda. Wisdom comes through 

the situations where you wake up and 

use your awareness and goodwill. This 

happens via a daily work so close to 

the teacher that at any time he or she 

can reflect when you forget yourself, 

25

and show you how to return to yourself 

- and this happens in a community with 

others who have the same goals. It 

takes place in the daily work, but also 

in practical classes as well as in theory 

during satsang with the teacher and 

naturally through common and 

individual meditation. 

In my opinion, life in an ashram 

should not (only) 

be based on learned 

theoretical scholasticism, 

but on a 

constant vigilance - 

a training that due 

to the nature of the 

ashram happens 

largely by itself: it 

makes the participants 

both more 

robust and softer, 

gives inner 

strength and 

sensitivity towards 

others, one 

is both naked and 

resting in oneself. 

The individual 

must himself 

make use of the 

situation, 

however, and 

choose how long he 

or she wants to stay 

(besides the minimal demands required 

for the formal education, first as yoga 

teacher and later as meditation 

teacher). Theoretically it is possible to 

be more or less in contact with an 

ashram. Whether it works depends not 

only on the teacher or the leader, or on 

the ashram residents at that specific 

time. The one who just sits in a corner 

and looks around with too much 

respect, or the one who only wishes to 

pick a quarrel, probably do not belong 

in an ashram. 

26 

© 1995 Swami Janakananda 

The teacher is simply at the disposal 

of the one who wants to use him or her. 

Furthermore, the teacher or leader can 

on equal terms with the others take 

initiatives regarding the running of the 

school and tasks in the ashram. By 

virtue of experience, the person 

concerned will endeavour to impede 

lethargy and sleepiness, personally and 

Group of sculptures of meditating beings from Mexico. Maya, the classic period 100 

BC - 800 AD. National Museum Mexico City. Even though the “psychic” form of this 

group is limited by the ceramic, it has an astonishing similarity with the Siddhas in 

my vision. Photo 1980. 

in the group, probably more often than 

the beginner or someone who has forgotten 

the purpose of being in the ashram 

and just wants to be comfortable. Just as 

he or she will detect earlier than others 

if superficial attitudes are spreading, 

such as joviality where everything is 

laughed off (not to be confused with a 

sense of humour); or if people are 

constantly therapeutic with each other 

and suffocate one another with criticism 

or caring; or if exaggerated enthusiasm 

arises, for it may quickly burn out to 

nothing, or worse, turn into fanaticism 

or intolerance. 

The outcome of the life in the ashram 

is individuals who are independent in 

relation to many of the influences that 

are around us and in relation to the fear 

and in certain cases the superstition 

that limits certain yoga teachers who 

have a short, formal and theoretical 

education. They have 

not undergone any 

initiation or test and 

thus have not really 

met themselves - 

which to my mind 

must be a prerequisite 

for a person who is 

going to guide others. 

The creative 

person, the seeking, 

perceptive person, 

lives till he or she 

dies. No period in life 

involves waiting, 

each moment has its 

tasks and 

opportunities, but life 

and life in the 

ashram, and your 

spiritual search 

depends very much 

on your own 

initiative. 

Sex or celibacy 

In the mid 70’s, we experimented with 

the Tantric sexual rituals for a few 

weekends at our course center. It caused 

quite a stir and fuss. Christian fundamentalists 

tried to label us with their 

ideas of group sex, etc. - which it was not. 

It made me consider whether, by 

occupying myself with these rituals, I 

was not losing what I value most in my 

teaching, which is meditation. 

Originally I had included and described

the sexual element of Tantra in my 

book to refute the idea (which certain 

orthodox yogis had tried to spread) that 

yoga required absolute chastity. 

However, I will say in defence of 

celibacy that it has a great effect in 

relation to one’s spiritual strength and 

determination, as long as one does not 

do it with fanaticism and turn “the lust 

of the flesh” into something sinful or 

dirty, in order to defend oneself against 

it. 

If one cannot or does not want to 

live in brahmacharya (actually, “to be 

one with the whole - with the all,” 

commonly interpreted as celibacy) for 

the whole of one’s life, it is 

recommended to keep celibacy during 

the periods where one works intensely 

with oneself and/or goes through an 

initiation. Then there is a greater 

chance of a breakthrough to true 

calmness, insight and stability. 

Continence, or a moderate or 

economical sex life, can bring about 

quite a different strength and 

invulnerability - compared to the 

perforated, depressed or emotionally 

irritable state, one is in, without 

knowing why, when maintaining an 

exaggerated or disharmonious sex life. 

The Tradition 

There is no doubt that a teacher, when 

he or she has finished the training, can 

grow and become unique in relation to 

his or her teacher - however, to teach 

from the tradition implies that a direct 

break with the teacher does not take 

place. My relationship with Swami 

Satyananda has evolved from just 

being a pupil, to the somewhat closer 

relationship of being a disciple, to a 

period where I had to show what I 

stood for, each day - time in itself gave 

me no credit; to a friendship, to 

something more, based on great mutual 

respect for each other, based on an 

experience of unity and on an 

acknowledgement of each other’s 

differences. (See also Bindu no. 5.) 

How does this relationship start? A 

short quotation from my diary in India: 

The fear that exists of everything 

new,can also emerge during learning, 

when ideas and expectationsmingle 

with understanding. 

The teacher must be able to take away 

fear from the pupil, 

so that the pupil can experience and 

understand the new 

without hindrance - 

and in so doing later meet and conquer 

fear on his own, 

with greater wisdom and strength. 

And another time, under different 

circumstances, I wrote: 

To slate your teacher, 

in your thoughts or in front of others, 

does not change reality, and 

does not entitle you to take something, 

to which you have no claim. 

I cannot take credit for the yoga I teach 

or for Kriya Yoga; nor can my teacher 

Swami Satyananda - although, the way 

I see it, he has really shed light upon 

Kriya Yoga - and nor can his teacher 

Swami Sivananda, no matter how great 

pedagogues they were and how much 

they have brought forth from the 

tradition. 

With this attitude, peace of mind is 

maintained, and one can teach without 

the fear that arises when one is assertive 

at the expense of others, or takes credit 

for something which can not be owned, 

or is stolen (in the sense that one 

reduces one’s demands on oneself and 

on the conditions of teaching). 

The pupil can, nevertheless, very well 

become an exceptionally good teacher. 

“The disciple may well be psychically 

higher developed than oneself” Swami 

Satyananda said (one evening in 

Gondia, where we rested between two 

of our arrangements, in a private home 

where we stayed as guests - “we” were 

a small group of 9 people, on a 3 

months tour round northern India). 

But who can compare? 

The answer came one day when he 

said to me: “Have respect for where 

you are, and be who you are, then all 

thoughts of who is higher or lower, in 

front or behind, lose meaning.” 

Liberation, when seen from this 

point of view, lies in being yourself - 

and, as I see it, in looking upon life as 

a gift and receiving this gift. Not what 

you are going to achieve tomorrow, or 

the unpleasant events that might come, 

but what happens now, is where you 

really live the life that you after all 

have been given. Without fear of how 

others live and without the wish to live 

like others - thereby frustration and 

misery are avoided. 

Concerning the teaching of Kriya Yoga, 

then the task is entrusted to you, you 

are permitted, and you are prepared for 

it and tested - beyond what even a 

comprehensive yoga teacher education 

otherwise consists of. That is why, so 

far, it is only swamis who teach the 

tradition I have chosen to teach from. 

“Earlier, Kriya Yoga was only for us, 

the swamis, it was our meditation. It 

was secret and we used it for our own 

sake. It was only passed on to the ones 

who had taken sannyasa.” 

(Swami Satyananda). 

Also see the two previous articles on 

Kriya Yoga in Bindu no. 4 and 5. 

27

This was a little about my life as a 

yogi, on the occasion of the School’s 

silver jubilee - and about the conditions 

for teaching Kriya Yoga. My writing 

has become so long, that I must here 

apologise to you, dear reader. I will 

have to wait till another time to tell 

more about Kriya Yoga itself and about 

the conditions for learning it, and 

whatever else I have promised earlier, 

for instance about the silence and why 

we keep at least 21 and preferably 33 

days of silence during the initiation. In 

the meantime I can recommend the 

previous issues of Bindu - and above 

all to use the exercises of yoga in 

practice. 

“Focus on fire rising through your 

form from the toes up until the body 

burns to ashes but not you.” 

(Malini Vijaya Tantra) q 

Savasana 

A paradox within yoga is that some 

of the most advanced and deepreaching 

techniques are so simple 

that if you only read the instructions 

in a book, then the chance of 

obtaining a genuine experience is 

very small. At some point or other it 

is a good idea to find a yogi who 

lives and teaches here and now. 

Savasana, “Dead still”, can at first seem 

so simple that you say to yourself: surely 

I’ve been doing that all my life. But, 

Savasana, lying completely still on the 

back, is not the same as flopping down in 

front of the TV, or dozing off on the sofa 

(which might not be so bad either). 

What makes all the difference to the 

experience is your alertness. Instead of 

habitually letting the thoughts wander, 

daydreaming, perhaps planning a little... 

then you keep your attention with the 

experience of the whole body lying 

completely still. 

Leif Madsen (1967) - Invitation to Phoenix 

Savasana can help with stress, insomnia, 

nervousness, etc., but you don’t have to 

suffer from any of these to get something 

out of this technique. In the afternoon, 

for instance, after a long day full of 

activity, Savasana can be a good way of 

giving the body and nervous system a 

much-needed break. Instead of 

“refuelling” with artificial energy, give 

yourself a conscious break - and 

afterwards the energy and inspiration 

will reappear by itself. 

In connection with the physical yoga 

exercises, Savasana also plays a very 

important part, but it is used in a slightly 

28

- one of the most important yoga poses by Robert Nilsson 

different way. You will always begin a 

programme of yoga poses by lying on the 

back for a while, while you experience 

the body and breath calm down. A yoga 

programme can consist of several poses 

complementing each other in pairs, e.g. 

one forward- and one 

backward bending pose. 

Following a group of poses 

like that, lie in Savasana for 

a moment before doing the 

next group. 

Savasana should not be 

confused with Yoga Nidra, 

meditative deep relaxation, 

in which you also lie still on 

the back. In Yoga Nidra 

your attention is captured in 

a far more dynamic way. By 

listening to the instructions 

from the teacher or the tape 

your awareness is guided 

throughout the body, to the 

breath and to various 

pictures and symbols, at a somewhat 

brisk but calm pace. This triggers a deep 

relaxation. Every time you get lost in a 

thought and forget what you are actually 

doing, the instructions pick you up again 

and lead you back. In that way, Yoga 

Nidra makes it easy, even for beginners, 

to enter a very deep relaxation. You 

should have a prior experience with Yoga 

Nidra to fully appreciate Savasana. 

If you meditate, Savasana can enrich 

your meditation, as the ability to be still 

is an important prerequisite if you really 

want to go deep. You will also find 

various meditation techniques where you 

meditate on stillness. 

In Savasana you maintain, in 

a relaxed way, the 

experience of the whole 

body lying still. Sometimes 

when you lie down to 

practise Savasana you might 

feel restless. Then you can 

use breath awareness for 

about one minute, right in 

the beginning of the ten 

minutes, to deepen your 

state. But only for one 

minute. 

Savasana is silence, the body 

doesn’t make a sound, it is 

completely motionless, not a 

finger moves. It is an 

experience of stillness in the whole 

body... q 

The technique 

Lie down on a quilt or blanket on the floor - not in bed or on the sofa. Lie full length on the back with the feet a little bit apart 

and the arms comfortably extended alongside the body; you can if necessary cover yourself with a thin blanket. Lie for ten 

minutes only, so you don’t get sleepy or restless. 

Be aware of your body, the whole body, of the stillness in the body and remain with this experience. Even though you might 

want to adjust the body as you go along or scratch yourself or the like, then relax towards this impulse and remain still, 

completely still. If your concentration slips, and it usually does once in a while, and something else takes up your attention, then 

that’s all right. But let go of the disturbance as soon as you discover it and return to the experience of stillness. It might happen 

several times; in a firm but patient way you return to the technique every time. 

Tip: Try also to experience stillness in the body in other situations, for instance sitting where you are right now, just close the 

eyes and experience stillness in the whole body for a couple of minutes. Or do the same thing in a meditation pose. 

You can also try to exhaust yourself physically, in work or sports, and immediately afterwards lie down, completely still in 

Savasana. q 

29

Håå International Course Center 

- holiday and initiation in Tantric meditation 

The setting for the 

holiday courses in yoga 

and meditation at Håå 

Course Center is a little village with red 

painted wooden houses, situated in the 

beautiful countryside of southern Sweden. 

There are activities tending the horses, 

the ecological farming, maybe some 

people feel like canoeing, swimming or 

skating on the lake, others go for walks 

in the woods, go skiing or horseback 

riding, the children are looked after and 

play together. But parallel to this idyllic 

holiday scene something else is going on, 

something people come here to 

experience from many parts of the world. 

Today it is commonly known and 

scientifically documented that yoga 

works. But the yoga tradition can take us 

further than health and relaxation. 

Whatever this implies, however, is up to 

the individual to experience. I don’t say 

this to be secretive, as this science is 

about human beings and is open to all. 

The Tantric tradition might be the only 

esoteric or mystical science that is still 

unbroken today. 

Thousands of years of experience has 

not been diluted into empty words or ideals 

far from everyday life. The tradition is 

passed on directly from teacher to pupil 

and in that way it is secret. When you learn 

the more deepreaching meditations it will 

always be during a period of silence, which 

enhances your receptivity and awareness. 

Nothing is incidental during the process 

of such a course, everything contributes 

to ensure that the initiation takes place. 

A dream about initiation 

“The year before I learned yoga and 

meditation, I took my General Certificate 

of Education and got a job as a postman 

for six months to make enough money to 

go travelling. 

One day during the journey I take a 

nap and dream, as I have done many 

times before, that I am in a big house 

with my family, friends, animals and 

many dream symbols. 

But this time I’m looking out of the 

window and I see that a fire is burning 

outside. I go out to the fire (in the same 

instant I am conscious and wide awake 

in the dream), and I’m thinking about 

children, how in some societies they 

learn in their dreams to confront 

monsters, animals or the like and not be 

afraid of dying - and then I choose to go 

into the fire! 

Everything turns into white light and 

I’m flying or falling while a blissful 

feeling flows through me. 

I awaken and sit up, the dream or 

whatever it was is gone, but I am left with 

an intense experience of being present. 

A few months later I am in Håå 

attending the 3-Months Course. My 

inspiration, creativity and joy of living 

grow as the course proceeds, and I begin 

to realise why it says ‚for the art of 

living‘ on the course brochure. And when 

Swami Janakananda, who leads the 

course, tells us that fire is an old symbol 

for a process of liberation, I remember 

my dream and understand that I was 

being prepared for what was later to 

happen in Håå” (Omkarananda) 

30

Welcome to our Courses 

10 and 14 days courses 1995 

12 - 22 October 4000/3200 SwCr 

Shanti and Adam Chr. Moltke 

19 December - 1 January 4700 SwCr 

Swami Janakananda and Sita 

2 - 12 January 4000/3200 SwCr 

Kim Paulsen and Bhawana Murti 

3-Months Course 1996 

23 January - 20 April 17500 SwCr 

Swami Janakananda, Sita and others 

Summer Courses 1996 

16 - 26 May, 26 May - 8 June, 

9 - 22 June, 23 June - 6 July, 

7 - 20 July. 

Our courses are at present about 25-30% 

cheaper for other nationalities, due to the 

low exchange rate for Swedish Crowns. 

The second prices are for students, 

unemployed and pensioners. 

Get the brochure for Håå Course Center, 

it describes it all thoroughly. q 

31

Yoga, Tantra and Meditation in Daily Life 

Swami Janakananda’s book in a revised and extended edition 

(Rider Books, UK and Weiser, USA. Yoga, Tantra et Méditation dans la Vie Quotodienne, Editions Satyanandashram, France) 

This book offers an alternative to the 

way many books deal with yoga, when 

they maintain the misunderstanding 

that one must take on a new life style to 

use yoga and meditation. Swami 

Janakananda does not only stress the 

practical side of yoga and meditation in 

this book, but shares the Tantric 

wisdom and view, that gives you the 

freedom to practise yoga and 

meditation entirely on your own terms. 

Many attempts have been made to 

ex-plain yoga from a scholarly or 

religious viewpoint. This book instead 

describes yoga from within, based on 

the author’s own understanding - from 

a yogi’s point of view. Yoga has, 

through many thousands of years, 

developed into a system that deals with 

human develop-ment and health. We 

find traces of yoga from the past on 

earth’s various continents. Today yoga 

and meditation are both one of the most 

used alternative therapy forms in many 

countries, and a basis for an active and 

creative life for many people. 

As you follow the exercises in this 

32 

book, you will realise that yoga is 

based on a profound knowledge of 

human nature: A knowledge not 

limited to any age, life-style or 

nationality. It is the fruit of a living 

tradition, where knowledge is passed 

directly from teacher to student, from 

generation to generation. Step by step 

you are guided through the subject, and 

in a practical manner you can benefit 

from the different poses, breathing 

exercises, meditations and the Tantric 

sexual yoga. 

A readers 

recommendation 

“I am writing this 

letter to tell you 

how pleased I am 

with the book 

‘Yoga, Tantra 

and Meditation 

in Daily Life’. I 

have also 

recently 

bought the 

tape ‘Yoga 

Nidra’. I 

am very 

pleased 

of what 

I saw and heard. I have read many 

yoga books and tried to follow them, 

but they were not filled with much 

information. Your book tends to go into 

more detail about each asana, breathing 

exercise and meditation. Many of my 

friends didn’t understand yoga until I 

showed them your book and they found 

it very fascinating. Personally, I have 

tried different kinds of exercises such 

as weight lifting which afterwards 

made me feel very tired and sore. I also 

tried Tai Chi, which is similar to yoga 

and meditation, but I found out that 

yoga gives a better overall relaxing 

effect than Tai Chi. I have only 

been doing yoga for about eight 

months, but I am inspired by 

yoga more and more each day. 

I have been doing the classical 

poses in the ‘Yoga, Tantra 

and Meditation’ book now 

for a few months. In closing, 

I would like to thank you 

for the wonderful material 

and some day I would 

like to travel to Sweden 

and go to your school. 

Sincerely, 

Clinton Blackmore, 

Regina, Canada”

Experience Yoga Nidra 

Inspiration for a richer life - with SWAMI JANAKANANDA 

Now on CD! 

1. The Wholeness of Your Nature, the relaxation Yoga Nidra to the sounds of 

Mother Earth. Composed and guided by Swami Janakananda. 20.41 

2. Travel through the Space of Experience, a piece of music, composed and 

played on a Swara-Mandala harp by Roop Verma. 7.44 

3. Discover Your Self, the deep Yoga Nidra. The relaxation is guided by 

Swami Janakananda, to the music of Roop Verma. 45.16 

With the CD there is a 20-page booklet about Yoga Nidra, and how to get the 

full benefits from the two relaxations. 

“This is a hit, if you can talk about hits within relaxation.” 

(A. Thomson, therapist and New Age bookseller in UK) 

“The tape is one of the most inspiring I have heard for a long time. It is a 

multidimensional work of art of a nature that is rarely seen.” 

(M. Lammgård, musician and therapist, Växthuset Kaprifol, Sweden) 

“After a number of years of having a stressed life with a job that almost ruined my ability to live in the present, I’m now again 

happy to face each new day, not to unnecessarily worry myself about tomorrow. I have learnt to laugh again. I think it’s 

fantastic.” (E. Berg, Sweden) 

“Yoga Nidra (meditative deep relaxation) is much more than a deep relaxation; it is a total experience that touches and 

awakens all parts of your being.” (Swami Janakananda) 

Yoga shop 

The book: Yoga, Tantra and Meditation 

in Daily Life 

by Swami Janakananda 

175 Sw.Cr. + 55 Sw.Cr. postage. 

Also available in other languages. 

New French translation of the book! 

The CD: Experience Yoga Nidra 


The tape: Experience Yoga Nidra 


Nose cleansing pot 

with instruction brochure: 

Joghus, (short spout) blue, red, yellow, 

green or black. 

165 Sw.Cr.+ 55 Sw.Cr. postage. 

Krutis, (long spout) blue, sand, white or 

green, 195 Sw.Cr. + 105 Sw.Cr. postage. 

The periodical: 

Bindu, no. 3-11, 

25 Sw.Cr. each + 20 Sw.Cr. 

postage. See also page 34. 

The brochure (free): 

about the retreats at Håå International 

Course Center. (See pages 30-31). 

Hopi Ear Candles: made of 100% bees 

wax and cotton; cleanses the ears. 50 

Sw.Cr. + 30 Sw.Cr. postage. 

We can only accept payment in Swedish Crowns by Eurocheque, international money order or to our postal giro account 

73 86 03 - 0 in Sweden. If you send a personal cheque, please add 50 Sw.Cr. (cashing fee). 

Please send money and order to: Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School, Håå Course Center, 340 13 Hamneda, Sweden. 

33

Read Bindu - previous issues are still available 

No. 3: The ability to experience. 

Headstand. Nose Cleansing... 

No. 4: Kriya Yoga I. The effect of yoga 

on the finer energy. The Source of 

Energy - a Tantric meditation... 

No. 5: Kriya Yoga II. Psychic energy. 

Six years of scientific research on the 3- 

Months Courses in Håå, Sweden. “The 

Pyramid” and Pratyahara. 

No. 6: The twilight hour - did we have a 

living meditation tradition in the North? 

Invent tomorrow's education, about 

R.Y.E. (Research on Yoga in Education). 

Shoulderstand... 

No. 7: Silver Jubilee issue! Read about 

Kriya Yoga III. Yoga for pregnant 

women. Savasana. 

No. 8: Harmony between the experiencer 

and the experienced. On the Tantric 

meditation Antar Mauna (Inner Silence), 

its ancestors and cousins. The Lotus 

Pose. Intestinal cleansing. 

No. 9: Instructor or Guide? Yoga for the 

Back. Experience and Knowledge - 

about the yoga teacher education at the 

Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation 

School. 

No. 10: Nada Yoga, meditation on the 

inner sounds. Vibrations create forms. 

Song and dance. The Bumble bee. 

No. 11: Yoga Nidra: Tantra - Nyasa - 

Chakra - Resolution - Consciousness - 

Science 

Subscription 

You are welcome to support us, so 

we can continue to publish Bindu. 

Pay 45 Sw.Cr. for one issue or 80 

Sw.Cr. for 2 issues + 40 Sw.Cr. postage 

(payment, see below). Further 

contributions are also welcome. 

Håå Course Center, 340 13 Hamneda, Sweden. Tel. +46 372 55063. 

Fax. +46 372 55036. Email: haa.course.center@pp.microbus.se 

Sweden 

• Västmannagatan 62, 113 25 Stockholm 

tel. +46 8 321218, fax. +46 8 314406 

email: skanyoga@algonet.se 

Denmark 

• Købmagergade 65, 1150 Copenhagen 

tel. +45 3314 1140, fax. +45 3314 1434 

email: bindu@inet.uni2.dk 

• Vestergade 45, 8000 Århus 

tel. +45 8619 4033, fax. +45 8619 4013 

• Kongensgade 12 B, 3000 Elsinore 

tel. +45 4921 2068 

Internet • www.scand-yoga.org 

Germany 

• Sextrost. 3 (im Hof), 30169 Hannover 

tel. +49 511 803 99 41 fax. 803 99 42 

email: hannover@scand-yoga.org 

Norway 

• Georgernes Verft 3, 5011 Bergen 

tel. +47 5614 3310 fax. +47 5614 9738 

email: bergen@scand-yoga.org 

• Skjolden 1, 1322 Høvik, Oslo 

tel. +47 8800 6488 fax. +45 6756 9535 

email: karuna@online.no 

Finland 

• Sukula, 30100 Forssa, Helsinki 

tel. +358 3 4350599 

Publisher: Bindu, 

Håa Course Center, 

340 13 Hamneda, Sweden. 

Circulation: 4,000 in English (Also printed in 

German, Swedish and Danish) 

Printed: Håå Course Center, 

by Erling Christiansen & Mark Richards 

Layout: Robert Nilsson & Swami Janakananda. 

Translation: Ambika, Mette Kierkgaard, Mark 

Richards & Robyn Taylor. 

Pictures: Front page & back page “Shakti” 

Bjarke, p.4, p.6 & p.7 Birger Vilén-Petersen, p.20 

Das Herzengebet, Mystik und Yoga der Ostkirche, 

p.12, p.24, p.30, p.31 Omkarananda, p.19 & p.21 

from the comic book “He who was born twice” 

Derib, p.22 Knud Hvidberg, p.26 Swami 

Janakananda, p.28 “Invitation to Phoenix” Leif 

Madsen (1967), p.29 Robert Nilsson. 

Copyright © 1997 Bindu and Scandinavian Yoga 

and Meditation School. All rights reserved. 

34

Publisher: Bindu, 

Håa Course Center, 

340 13 Hamneda, Sweden. 

Circulation: 4,000 in English (Also printed in 

German, Swedish and Danish) 

Printed: Håå Course Center, 

by Erling Christiansen & Mark Richards 

Layout: Robert Nilsson & Swami Janakananda. 

Translation: Ambika, Mette Kierkgaard, Mark 

Richards & Robyn Taylor. 

Pictures: Front page & back page “Shakti” 

Bjarke, p.4, p.6 & p.7 Birger Vilén-Petersen, p.20 

Das Herzengebet, Mystik und Yoga der Ostkirche, 

p.12, p.24, p.30, p.31 Omkarananda, p.19 & p.21 

from the comic book “He who was born twice” 

Derib, p.22 Knud Hvidberg, p.26 Swami 

Janakananda, p.28 “Invitation to Phoenix” Leif 

Madsen (1967), p.29 Robert Nilsson. 

Copyright © 1997 Bindu and Scandinavian Yoga 

and Meditation School. All rights reserved. 

Sohan Qadri - Trikaya 1 

35

Bindu 23 - engelsk 7.p65 - Scandinavian Yoga and Meditation School

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