Sivananda Radha Saraswati (March 20, 1911 – November 30, 1995), born Sylvia Demitz, was a German

yogini A yogini (Sanskrit: योगिनी, IAST: ) is a female master practitioner of tantra and yoga, as well as a formal term of respect for female Hindu or Buddhist spiritual teachers in Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet. The ...

who emigrated to Canada and founded Yasodhara Ashram in British Columbia. She established a Western-based lineage in the

Sivananda Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...

tradition and published books on several branches of Yoga, including ''Kundalini Yoga for the West'' and ''Mantras; Words of Power''. She was a member of the California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and developed

transpersonal psychology Transpersonal psychology, or spiritual psychology, is a sub-field or school of psychology that integrates the spiritual and transcendent aspects of the human experience with the framework of modern psychology. The ''transpersonal'' is defined a ...

workshops to help students prepare for intense spiritual practice. Teachers trained at Yasodhara Ashram can now be found across North America and in Europe, the Caribbean, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Biography

Early life

Sivananda Radha (born as Sylvia Demitz, and during her marriage known as Ursula Sylvia Hellman) was born in Germany on March 20, 1911. She became a creative writer, photographer and a solo concert dancer early in life. She lived through both wars in Berlin but learned from her experiences that life can be cruel and came to question the existence of God. Her first marriage ended when her husband, Wolfgang, was executed at

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

for helping Jewish friends leave Germany. She married again in 1947. Albert Hellman was a composer and violinist, but he died after one year of marriage. She also lost both parents in the war. "Thoroughly sick at heart with the brutality and stupidity of the world", she survived and, in 1951, emigrated to Canada settling in Montreal, finding work in the advertising department of a chemical firm, and becoming a Canadian citizen.J. White, "An Interview with Swami Sivananda Radha: Portrait of a Yogini: A Woman's Experience of the Spiritual Life", ''Science of Mind'' (September 1985), 12-13, 75.

Spiritual life

A search for the meaning of life through yoga and meditation took her to India to

Sivananda Saraswati Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...

of Rishikesh. Sivananda challenged her to think deeply about the purpose of life. ‘He used every moment to teach you something’. His commitment to selfless service made a deep impression on her and

Karma Yoga Karma yoga ( sa, कर्म योग), also called Karma marga, is one of the four classical spiritual paths in Hinduism, one based on the "yoga of action", the others being Jnana yoga (path of knowledge), Rāja yoga (path of meditatio ...

became a key practice in her own life and subsequently in the running of her Ashram. She was initiated into sanyas and given the name Sivananda Radha Saraswati on 2 February 1956. In her publications she described extraordinary events that followed her initiation: she writes that she met the legendary yogi Babaji, the deathless avatar described by

Paramahansa Yogananda Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893March 7, 1952) was an Indian Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellows ...

in ''

Autobiography of a Yogi ''Autobiography of a Yogi'' is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (5 January 1893 – 7 March 1952) first published in 1946. Paramahansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali Hindu family. '' ...

'', the first time in a visionary experience in Montreal. Upon return to Canada, interpreting her initiation into sanyas as a commitment to abstain "from all actions which arise from ambition and selfish desire … giving up mental and emotional attachment to life in this world" she began a new life in Montreal with no money or employment, learning to live on the charity of others. However, she quickly attracted attention in her orange sari, with her unconventional life-style, and through her willingness to speak publicly about her experiences in India. Within a few months, she was offering yoga classes, had been interviewed on CBC radio, travelled to Ottawa to speak, and been sponsored by the Canadian-India Association to fly to Vancouver to lecture on Indian philosophy. Within a year, in 1957, in Burnaby, British Columbia, she founded Sivananda Ashram, in an old ten-roomed house, where she offered classes, meditation and

satsang A satsanga (), also rendered satsang, refers to the practice of gathering in the company of good people for the performance of devotional activities. It also refers to an audience with a Satguru for yogic instruction. Satsangas are group events, o ...

s. She also opened the Yoga Vedanta Bookstore on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver. In 1963, the Ashram moved to its present location and was renamed Yasodhara Ashram. Sivananda Radha also gave sanyas initiations to the young men who accompanied her and worked with her to establish the Ashram, beginning a new, Western based lineage, honouring the traditions of the Saraswati Order. For many years she focussed on establishing the Ashram, making forest cabins habitable, constructing new buildings, corresponding with students, establishing yoga teaching programs and publishing a newsletter to raise funds and draw people to the Ashram. ‘In the early years of the Ashram … traveling … was necessary to give workshops and lectures to “put the ashram on the map” as she called it.’ She visited England, the Netherlands and Germany, and frequently toured throughout North America. She lectured in many North American universities and, in 1976, co-led a conference with Herbert Guenther at Yasodhara Ashram on the role of gurus in the West. At a time when understanding of the relationships between Yoga, science and psychology were in their infancy, Radha took an active interest. In Minneapolis, she participated in

biofeedback Biofeedback is the process of gaining greater awareness of many physiology, physiological functions of one's own body by using Electronics, electronic or other instruments, and with a goal of being able to Manipulation (psychology), manipulate t ...

experiments with Dr. Jose Feola, exploring the nature of the effects of spiritual practices, and she contributed to Scientific Conferences, such as the Council Grove Conference in Kansas. Discovering the need for students to deal with their psychological and emotional obstacles before embarking on intense spiritual practice, she also embraced transpersonal psychology, becoming a faculty member and graduate teacher at California Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, and developing a course on ‘Psychology towards Higher Consciousness’ that she taught at Antioch College, Seattle. In the 1980s and early 1990s her organizational legacy took shape. Sivananda Radha opened yoga centres in North America, Mexico and England where classes and satsangs were offered by teachers trained at Yasodhara Ashram. A Temple, dedicated to the Light in All Religions, was opened at her Ashram in 1992. She died peacefully at her teaching centre in Spokane, in Washington State, in the early morning, 30 November 1995.

Legacy

Sivananda Radha was among the prominent disciples of Sivananda who developed new organizations that are not affiliated to the original ashrams run by the

Divine Life Society The Divine Life Society (DLS) is a Hindu spiritual organisation and an ashram, founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in 1936, at Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh, India. Today it has branches around the world, the headquarters being situated in Rishikes ...

. Radha established an independent and primarily female, Western lineage as part of the Saraswati Order. This is now led by Radhananda Saraswati, spiritual director of Yasodhara Ashram. She initiates aspirants and has oversight of the work of non-profit organizations supporting teachers in different countries. Radhananda has described her spiritual training at the feet of Sivananda Radha in her memoir, ''Carried by a Promise: a Life Transformed by Yoga''. Sivananda Radha formed the Timeless Book

imprint in 1978 and wrote many books of yoga, including ''Kundalini Yoga for the West'', ''Hatha Yoga: The Hidden Language'', ''The Divine Light Invocation'' and ''Mantras: Words of Power''. Her memoirs are published in ''Radha: Diary of a Woman's Search'' and her experiences with gurus and other spiritual teachers are reported in ''In the Company of the Wise''. Her books have been translated into 5 languages.

Works

* ''From the Mating Dance to the Cosmic Dance'', (Spokane, WA, 1992) * "Guru-Disciple Relationship", ''Lifetime Magazine'' (March 1992) * ''Hatha Yoga the Hidden Language'' (Spokane, WA, 1987, 1995, 2006) * "Heart" in ''Kundalini Rising'', by Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Ken Wilber, Swami Radha, Gopi Krishna (2009) * ''In the Company of the Wise'' (Spokane, WA, 1991, 2011) * ''Kundalini Yoga for the West'' (Spokane, WA, 1978, 2011) * ''Light and Vibration: Mysticism and the Culmination of Yoga'' (Spokane, WA, 2007) * ''Mantras: Words of Power'' (Spokane, WA, 1980, 1994, 2005) * "On Meditation", in ed., N. Armstrong, ''Harvest of Light'' (London, 1976) * ''On Sanyas: the Yoga of Renunciation'' (Spokane, WA, 2010) * ''Radha: Diary of a Woman"s Search'' (Spokane, WA, 1981, 2002, 2011) * ''Realities of the Dreaming Mind: The Practice of Dream Yoga'' (Spokane, WA, 1994, 1996, 2004) * ''Seeds of Light'' (Spokane, WA, 1985, 1991) * "The Dance of Life", ''Yoga Centre of Victoria'' (September, 1983) * ''The Devi of Speech: the goddess in kundalini yoga'' (Spokane, WA, 2005) * ''The Divine Light Invocation'' (Spokane, WA, 2006) * "The Last Message", ''Yoga Centre of Victoria'' (December 1995 - January 1996) * "The Search for Union", in ed., S. Miners, ''A Spiritual Approach to Male/Female Relations'' (IL, 1984) * ''The Yoga of Healing'' (Spokane, WA, 2006) * ''Time to be Holy: Collected Satsang Talks'' (Spokane, WA, 1996, 2010) * ''When you first called me Radha'' (Spokane, WA, 2005) * "Women and Spirituality: First Steps to the Spiritual Life", in ed., T. King, ''The Spiral Path: Explorations in Women"s Spirituality'' (St Paul, MN, 1992) * "Women"s Place in Today"s World", in ed., S. Grof, ''Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science'' (New York, 1984)

References

External links

''Ascent'' magazine

The Divine Life Society, our Heritage, Swami Sivananda Radha

Friends of Radha Foundation (Canada)

Radha House Association (England and Wales)

Swami Radha's blog at Timeless Books

Yasodhara Ashram

''Yoga Journal'', Luminaries, 'Swami Radha', Jeanne Ricci
{{DEFAULTSORT:Radha, Sivananda 1911 births 1995 deaths German yogis German emigrants to Canada Yoga teachers