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  • Gods My only Kin by Swami Veda Bharati
  • 30 Years - Himalayan Institute Germany by Wolfgang Bischoff
  • "Something Swamiji Said" by Lalita Arya
  • Pain-Teacher by Veena Haasl-Blilie
  • Marching Onwards by Dian Singh
  • To Give People a Daily Practice by Giancarlo Colombo
  • Surya Namaskar by Lori Beron
  • Biofeedback and Beyond by Daniel Hertz
  • Untying Emotional Knots on the Way to Joy by Randall Krause
  • Self Awareness – The Core of Yoga by Florentina Hausknotz
  • You Should Teach your Children through Example by Swami Rama
  • Swami Veda Recommends Two Books
  • 2013: Are You Coming?
  • 2011 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

Self Awareness – The Core of Yoga

by Florentina Hausknotz

Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati at Yogazentrum Pureyoga, Vienna, Austria 20th – 25th September 2011

At the end of summer 2011, Vienna decided to begin reflecting on basic issues.

Giving room for one week of meditation, lecture and discussion, Pureyoga Vienna was very happy to study with Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati. She asked for no less than a complete turn-around if there was any dogmatic principle hidden in our way of acting and thinking. As we learned during this intense time, everybody had one such unquestioned belief behind her or his actions to let go.

What question did we ask?

First, we focused on the operations of “our” mind. Our mind? Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati tried to make us think about what we really mean when we talk about our thoughts, our mind, and we started as best as we could not to think in terms of possession or obsessive action. The experiment was to look at what is happening right now, first, and then to take a little break to calm down and not do things in a mostly unneeded hurry.

Hurry up! Taking aim at the highest principle of capitalist society – even though Austrians are not known for their swiftness – helps us rethink how we have been conditioned to behave, whether or not it is appropriate in a given situation.

Ultimately what we, what I learned this week was to try to be aware of more than just the usual aspects - before acting aggressively toward others, for example. Taking this insight seriously means a lot of hard work, even if it sounds easy at first!

Thanks to Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati we had an inspiring time, hopefully to be continued soon, in the sense of an ongoing discussion, in which we seek - but do not worry about attaining - the truth.

Editor’s Note:

The website for Pureyoga, Vienna, Austria, is http://www.pureyoga.at

Horst Rinnerberger and his family hosted Swami Nitya during her visit, and he writes, “Swamiji stayed at our house with my family, she was so sweet with the kids.”