Monday, September 26, 2005

Ajapa Yoga

Ajapa, a very ancient form of yoga, is a breathing/meditation technique that was taught thousands of years ago by the Rishis, or wise men, of India. Though it is virtually unknown in modern times, the method of Ajapa Yoga has been carefully guarded through the ages at Siddhashram, a hidden monastery in Tibet.

In the 1860s, Swami Purnananda Paramahansa (1834-1928) made the perilous journey to Siddhashram. There he learned the ancient technique of Ajapa Yoga. After five years at Siddhashram, Swami Purnananda was ordered by the masters to return to India, to begin the mission of teaching the technique to others.

After the death of Swami Purnananda, the teaching was maintained unaltered by his disciple, Swami Bhumananda Paramahansa (1873-1958), a renowned scholar throughout India. When Swami Bhumananda died, Guru Janardan Paramahansa (1888-1980) continued the work of teaching Ajapa Yoga, and undertook to spread the knowledge of Ajapa around the world. In 1970 he was invited to visit the Academy of Science in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He was then invited to Germany, Canada and the United States, where he delivered lectures and taught the Ajapa technique.( Rose met Guru Janardan in NYC in 1971 where she learned Ajapa and Guru Janardan saved her life)

In 1966, Guru Janardan found and adopted a baby boy, Guru Prasad, whom he prepared to carry on the teaching of Ajapa. Shortly before his death, Guru Janardan named the boy his successor. Then only fourteen years old, Swami Guru Prasad Paramahansa took up the responsibility of maintaining the ashrams and guiding the practitioners of Ajapa Yoga. Today he maintains five ashrams and several Ajapa Centers around the world.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Rose,

Long time no see, )). Guess from now on the TV show 'Medium' will remind me of you, isn't it? Guru Janardan Paramahansa connected us again (refering to Brooklin, NY 1971)! I briefly talk about Him (in french) on my website http://dan-bourdon.com/ . Since I analyze my server's log about every day, I've notice yesterday that a visitor logged from a search of Gurudev: http://www.google.ca/search?q=janardan+paramahansa... So I was curious about the results in which this article if mentioned.

I'm in the process of creating a secret web page of the Ajapa Yoga pamphlet which Gurudev authorized me to translate in French in the 70's. Once Mitchell gets happy with the content and its presentation, I'll transfert the files to the Ajapa Yoga web site for a new section in French. Vaclav host a small group of regulars living in the Montreal region. Jai Guru for them all!

I live in Quebec city for a few years now. I'm still making some improvements of my Indian Concert Sitar after I've made it chromatic a long time ago. This way, it can sing any kind of music! The addition of the missing frets and 5 strings increased quite a lot the already high level of difficulties... But hey, I can't help it if I like foolling around changes of complex jazzy harmonies! Well, it's Guruji's fault with His science of inner Sounds..., practicing His amazingly simple technics have developed further my ability to play musicaly with sounds... besides many other benefits and real spiritual growth!

Daniel (from Montreal)

Unknown said...

Jai Guru

Anonymous said...

Jai Guru

In reference to informations on the site about Ajapa Yoga I would like to inform You, that the only in the world now teacher of the original Ajapa Yoga method, as it was established by Rishis in Siddhashram, the successor of the Guru Janardan Paramahansa, brahmagjani Guru Prasad Paramahansa from India, visits some European countries now and delivers cycle of lectures on Ajapa Yoga.
Details You can find on site: http://ajapayoga.pl/wyklady/12-wyklady/1078-lectures

regards

Mirosław Starzyński
Ajapa Yoga Association in Poland