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Sivananda Radha Saraswati (1911–1995) was a German yogini who emigrated to Canada and founded Yasodhara Ashram in British Columbia. She established a Western based lineage in the tradition of the Saraswati Order 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 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== Sivananda Radha (formerly known as Sylvia Hellman) was born in Germany in 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.〔Radha, ''Time to be Holy: Collected Satsang Talks'' (Spokane, WA, 2010), 24, 229-30, 282-3; Radha, ''From the Mating Dance to the Cosmic Dance'' (Spokane, WA, 1992), xv.〕 Her first marriage ended when her husband, Wolfgang, was executed at Buchenwald 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. A search for the meaning of life through yoga and meditation took her to India to Sivananda Saraswati of Rishikesh.〔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), 12-3, 75.〕 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 became a key practice in her own life and subsequently in the running of her Ashram. Sylvia was initiated into sanyas, and given the name Sivananda Radha Saraswati, on 2 February 1956. In her publications she has described extraordinary events that followed her initiation and involved meeting the legendary yogi Babaji, the deathless avatar described by Paramahansa Yogananda in ''Autobiography of a Yogi'', and first encountered by Sivananda Radha in a visionary experience when in Montreal a year earlier.〔Radha, ''Radha: Diary of a Woman's Search'', (Spokane, WA, 1981), 36-40, 42, 55, 62, 85-9, 92-5, 138-44, 202; Krishnananda, ''Gurudev Sivananda: Pictorial Volume'' (Tehri-Garhwal, U.P. India, 1987), 66, 146, 151; Radha, ''Time to be Holy'' (Spokane, WA, 2010), 29-31, 33-9, 55-8, 101, 128, 155-60, 163, 167, 193-5, 202-7, 211-21, 234-6; Radha, ''The Divine Light Invocation'' (Spokane, WA, 2006), 17-24; White, ‘An Interview’, 84-5; A. Rawlinson, ''The Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions'' (1997), 482-5.〕 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.〔Sivananda Saraswati, ‘Farewell to Swami Sivananda Radha’, ''Yoga Centre of Victoria'' (December 1995-January 1996), 8-9; White, ‘An Interview’, 12; R. Paul, ‘Portrait of Swami Radha’, ''Yoga Journal'' (October 1981), 27-8; S. Chusid, ‘Meditation Leads Woman To Gamble On Her Future’, ''Winnipeg Press'' (1968); A. May ‘Profile: Swami Sivananda Radha, the Feminine Mystic’, Psychic (Jan/Feb 1977), 29-30〕 Within a year, in 1957, in Burnaby, British Columbia, she founded Sivananda Ashram, in an old 10 roomed house, where she offered classes, meditation and satsangs. 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.〔Rawlinson, ''Enlightened Masters'', 81; White, ‘An Interview', 12-13; J. McKay, ‘Swami Sivananda Radha: On Spiritual Leadership’, ''The Quest Magazine'' (Summer 1993), 74-5; L. Curtis ‘Column’, ''The Albertan'' (June 8, 1968).〕 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.〔(Durgananda, 'Radha’s Life', ''Lightwaves'' (16 September 2008) , 13 )〕 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 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.〔White, ‘An Interview’, 77-8; J. Kennet, Radha, R. Frage, ‘How to be a Transpersonal Teacher without Becoming a Guru’, ''Journal of Transpersonal Psychology'', Vol. 7:1 (1975), 50-3, 54, 61-2, 64-5; Radha, ''Hatha Yoga the Hidden Language'' (Spokane, WA, 2006), 31-47.〕 In the 1980s and early 90s 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.〔McKay, ‘Spiritual Leadership’, 73; J. McKay, ''Glimpses of a Mystical Affair: Spiritual Experience of Swami Sivananda Radha'' (1997), 121-7, 157-62; R. Fields, ‘In Memoriam, Swami Sivananda Radha’, ''Yoga Journal'' (April 1996) 31; Radha, ‘The Last Message’, ''Yoga Centre of Victoria'' (December 1995 - January 1996), 14-15; ‘Obituary, Swami Sivananda Radha Saraswati’, ''Yoga and Health Magazine'' (February, 1996).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sivananda Radha Saraswati」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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