Swami Sivananda's approach to yoga was to combine the four main paths - karma yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga and raja yoga along with various sub-yogas such as kirtan and hatha yoga. This is reflected in the motto of the society that he formed, the Divine Life Society. The motto says, "Serve (Karma Yoga), Love (Bhakti Yoga), Meditate (Jnana Yoga), Realise (Raja Yoga)." In his own words, "One-sided development is not commendable. Religion and Yoga must educate and develop the whole man - his heart, intellect and hand."
These paths are usually seen by others as different and separate, suited to different people addressing their individual temperaments or approaches to life. There is consensus that all the paths lead ultimately to the same destination - to union with Brahman or God. Swami Sivananda, however, saw a need for balance in every individual's spiritual development. He maintained that though the seeker would naturally gravitate toward one path, the lessons of each of the paths needed to be integrated by every seeker if true wisdom is to be attained. Thus he did not see them as different paths but as methods to be used in concert for the one destination. He even gave a simple formula for application by way of a song. As if to express his conviction in this winning formula to his disciples during his last days, he wrote “Serve, love, meditate, realise” when asked to write a note.
Famous quotes containing the words yoga and/or synthesis:
“Depend upon it that, rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is in this impossibility of attaining to a synthesis of the inner life and the outward that the inferiority of the biographer to the novelist lies. The biographer quite clearly sees Peel, say, seated on his bench while his opponents overwhelm him with perhaps undeserved censure. He sees him motionless, miserable, his head bent on his breast. He asks himself: “What is he thinking?” and he knows nothing.”
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967)