About Shiva Shakti Yoga

“We are one family. May everyone be happy! May all be healthy and without sorrows! “Vedas

Shiva Shakti Yoga was started in August 2007. Shiva Shakti Yoga strives to be a forum where harmony within and between all living beings is promoted.

Shiva Shakti Yoga teaches yoga in a classical way; as a whole. Each class includes Asana, Pranayama, Meditation and Yoga Philosophy. The exercises are sequenced in a special way to increase their impact. This is a tantric idea called vinyasa hug. Vinyasa hug is about returning man to a harmonious state in himself and in unity with the world.

Yoga has been developed for several thousand years and has had different phases in its development. The first part of the recorded development is found in the Upanishads and is a Vedic development. Yoga was then influenced by Buddhism and recorded in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. Yoga then developed within Tantra, which opposed many Vedic and Buddhist ideas, and emphasized the importance of life and unity with nature. Yoga was then further developed in Hatha Yoga where certain Tantric ideas were retained while a return to certain Vedic ideas took place.

Shiva Shakti Yoga mainly has a tantric focus on its teaching!

According to the first record of the yoga system; Patanjali, author of Yoga Sutras, walks the path to achieving Yoga through 8 steps. These are: Yama- Attitude towards others, Niyama- Attitude towards the self, Asana- Positioning (Postures), Pranayama- Respiratory control and thereby also control of prana; the life force, Pratyahara- Withdrawn by the senses, Dharana- Concentration, Dhyana- Meditation, Samadhi- Eternal happiness, superconsciousness (results of the other exercises). Patanjali states that the goal of this exercise is: “chitta vritti nirodaha”, which means cessation of the fluctuations of the mind or to calm the mind. Through this a pure consciousness is achieved.

Swatmarama, author of Hatha (Yoga) Pradipika, successor of Swami Gorkanath, was a Hindu Nath Yogi. Gorkanath developed what is today called Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga was developed i.a. from Tantra. Its purpose was to work with the energy system in the body, awaken Kundalini Shakti and reach Samadhi.

Tantra is a philosophical orientation that probably has its roots in pre-Vedic times when goddess worship was strong. In recent Vedic times, the spiritual traditions, as in the rest of the world, have seen the manifesto as standing in opposition to the spiritual. Since the woman is often associated with the manifesto (through her ability to create / carry life), it has become the case that the woman has been rejected with the manifesto. Tantra elevates the manifesto to be one with the spiritual, namely vibration / energy (spanda, shakti), and points to its unity. In Tantra, the shakti principle (energy) was personified as Goddess.

The goals of Tantra are therefore expressed as the union of Shiva (pure consciousness) and Shakti (energy).

Shiva Shakti Yoga takes this knowledge seriously and teaches with the goal and purpose that the participants should get direct contact and experience of their Shakti (energy) and of their pure consciousness (Shiva) to be able to unite these.

Not just a pure consciousness

Shankara, the founder of Advaita Vedanta, one of India’s greatest philosophical orientations, is said to have held the following opinion: “The Absolute is real, the world is unreal, and the individual soul is the Absolute”. There is a story about this man and the importance of Shakti:

One day as Shankara was wandering through southern India, he suddenly found himself at the edge of a flooded river. Shankara was without fear; he had seen through the illusion of the world so what was really a flood? He waded out into the river until the water rushed past at chest height. Then something strange happened. Shankara’s body stopped working. Standing with one foot on the riverbed and the other leg raised to take another step, he froze. His strength was gone, he was paralyzed. Shankara panicked. For the first time in his life, he experienced the fear of being completely powerless.

Then he heard a broken laugh. It was an old woman, bent over many years of hard work. Desperately, Shankar shouted at her for help.

The older woman looked up at Shankara. She laughed again. She laughed until the whole sky was filled with her laughter. Then she dived into the river, swam swiftly up to him, took him around the chest and dragged him to safety by the shore.

“Shankara,” she said. “You preach that women are a trap. You say that this world is an illusion. But you can not see that your strength comes from Shakti. So why are you insulting Shakti? Why are you insulting the Goddess? Do you not know that you can not live without me? “

At that moment, Shankara realized that he had denied the obvious. He had insulted his own life energy – without which he could not even exist.

This is a myth, but like most myths, they reveal an important truth. What is historically known about Shankara is that he became ill. It is said that he then turned to the Goddess; Shakti. It is also said that he became a follower of the Goddess before he died, and that before that he wrote the book “Shri Saudarya Lahari” which is a tribute to the Goddess. Evidence of the truth of this is in the form that his followers in southern India are also worshipers of the Goddess even to this day.