UpdateBot at 08:30, 5 March 2022

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{{Infobox yoga school
| name = Ananda Yoga
| color = orange
| founding_guru = [[Kriyananda]]
| image = Swami-kriyananda-pronam2.jpg
| caption = 
| founding_year = 
| derivatives =
| practice_emphases = Inner awareness, energy control, affirmations, higher consciousness
}}
'''Ananda Yoga''', or ''Ananda Yoga for Higher Awareness''<ref name="Walters 1967">{{cite book |last=Walters |first=J. |title=Ananda yoga for higher awareness |publisher=Crystal Clarity Publishers |publication-place=Nevada City, California |year=1967 |isbn=978-1-56589-078-7 |oclc=41846560}}</ref> is a system of [[Hatha Yoga]] established by [[Kriyananda]], a Western disciple of [[Paramahansa Yogananda]], and is based on Yogananda's [[Self-Realization Fellowship]] (SRF) and [[Yogoda Satsanga Society of India]] (YSS) teachings. Ananda Yoga emphasizes inner awareness; energy control; and the experience of each asana as a natural expression of a higher state of consciousness, which is enhanced by the use of [[affirmative prayer|affirmations]].

== History ==

Ananda Yoga was established by Kriyananda taking from one of the oldest Hatha Yoga systems in the West. Its roots are the 1940s/1950s, when Kriyananda was with Self-Realization Fellowship, he was taught these postures by Yogananda. Yogananda, founder of SRF and YSS,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Melton, J. Gordon |first=Martin Baumann |title=Kriyananda |work=Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices |year=2010 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781598842043 }}</ref> asked Kriyananda (then Donald Walters) and other young monks, to demonstrate the postures for visiting guests, as well as for public events, such as the SRF "Lake Shrine Dedication." Kriyananda and other monks also posed for photos, for articles on the yoga postures in Yogananda's "Self-Realization Magazine."<ref>[http://www.ananda.org/inspiration/books/path/index.html Described in "The New Path" by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers]</ref> From 1965 Kriyananda through his own organization started to teach Ananda Yoga publicly in California. The director of Ananda Yoga, Gyandev Rich McCord, is a co-founder of [[Yoga Alliance]] and a member of its board of directors.<ref>To hear Gyandev's keynote address, 'Future Directions for Yoga in the West', at the 2011 Yoga Alliance Leadership Conference: http://vimeo.com/31819734</ref>

== Principles ==
Ananda Yoga uses [[asana]] and [[pranayama]] to awaken, experience, and control the subtle energies ([[prana]]) within the body, especially the energies of the [[chakra]]s, supposed energy centres that are arranged along the spine. Its object is to use those energies to harmonize the body, uplift the mind, and above all to attune to higher levels of awareness. A unique feature of this system is the use of silent [[affirmative prayer|affirmations]] while in the asanas, as a means of working more consciously with the subtle energies to achieve this attunement. Ananda Yoga is a relatively inward experience, not an athletic practice. A main goal is to prepare for deep [[meditation]], as [[Hatha Yoga]] is considered the physical branch of [[Raja Yoga]] in both the ''[[Hatha Yoga Pradipika]]'' and the ''[[Gheranda Samhita]]''.<ref>Hatha Yoga was classically a staircase to Raja Yoga: see the first sentences of ''[[Hatha Yoga Pradipika]]'' and ''[[Gheranda Samhita]]''.</ref>

== Energization exercises ==

The "Energization Exercises", a vital part of Ananda Yoga, are Yogananda's contribution to yoga. He first developed them in 1916, within his organization then called Yogoda, which he changed to [[Self-Realization Fellowship]] / [[Yogoda Satsanga Society of India]] in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kress |first=Michael |title=Publishers Weekly: Meditation is the message |year=2001 |publisher=Cahners Business Information, a division of [[Reed Elsevier]] |location=New York}}</ref> He eventually expanded them into a set of 39 exercises. The goal is to tap into cosmic energy, recharging the whole body. Yogananda explains in his ''[[Autobiography of a Yogi]]'': "Realizing that man's body is like an electric battery, I reasoned that it could be recharged with energy through the direct agency of the human will…. I therefore taught the Ranchi students my simple 'Yogoda' techniques by which the life force, centered in man’s medulla oblongata, can be consciously and instantly recharged from the unlimited supply of cosmic energy."<ref>{{cite book |last=Yogananda |first=Paramahansa |author-link=Paramahansa Yogananda |title=[[Autobiography of a Yogi]] |year=1997 |publisher=Self-Realization Fellowship |location=Los Angeles, CA |isbn=0-87612-086-9 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2019}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Yoga}}

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[[Category:Modern Denominational Yoga]]
[[Category:Meditation]]
[[Category:Yoga styles]]

Ananda Yoga - Revision history

UpdateBot at 08:30, 5 March 2022