Dear Yogis,
This is my first address to you, my colleagues. We all are colleagues, because we all practice Yoga.
I’m sure you have noticed changes at the studio. This is because we have come with a new concept of spreading Yoga as a part of Vedic Science called Santana Dharma, which in translation from Sanskrit means, eternal teaching. This is the science of all aspects of Life, covering each and every sphere of it and giving people answers to all possible questions. This knowledge has divine origination as it is in turn tested by time, the most severe test possible. Imagine thousands and thousands of years of experience and observation of millions and millions of people. Thus it has double proof!
Our approach is teaching Santana Dharma, including Yoga, as an integral way of life where this eternal knowledge is implemented to organize every aspect of it on an ancient foundation, tested by time to make life better, happier, healthier and more successful.
According to Santana Dharma, human beings have four purposes in their life:

• Kama - getting maximum physical enjoyment, bliss and happiness
• Artha – attaining a level of welfare to satisfy all possible desires
• Dharma-a social mission toward other members of our society. I usually explain it like this, “we all are postmen delivering letters to each other which we actually wrote to ourselves!”; and after all, the main and the most important one is
• Moksha –the main and the most important purpose, is developing of our consciousnesses, higher, better, to the level when the consciousness of a human being can recognize one’s true divine nature. It is called Samadhi in Yoga or total realization of human consciousness.

 I use these two words, Yoga and Santana Dharma, as they are almost synonyms. The difference is that Yoga is the method of implementing Santana Dharma. Santana Dharma itself is a compound of different Vedic Sciences we teach at our center, like

• Raja Yoga- science of the human consciousness and of life itself and how to change it.
• Hatha Yoga- science of  the human body and how to develop it and integrate all 3 bodies we have, like sthula shariara( physical body), sukshma sharira(subtle body), karana sharira(causal body)
• Shabda Yoga, Nada Yoga and Mantra Yoga- sciences of sacred and mystical sounds designated to modify consciousness;
• Karma Yoga- science of overcoming Karma as the most important task we have in our life
• Bhakti yoga- science of establishing contacts with the different sources of energy forming our multi-faceted life
• Tantra Yoga- mystical remedies to influence our life to change it for better, including the most sacred sexual aspect of it.
• Yantra Yoga- mystical diagrams as a tools of changing consciousness
• Prakasha Yoga- science of using light to get rid of diseases and to solve problems
• Swapna Yoga – science of sleep
• Mrityu Yoga – science of death
• Ayurveda- science of true, natural health as a harmony of human being and nature, but not just temporal absence of diseases as people understand health
• Vaastu Shastra- knowledge of forms in a way of habitats, offices, shops, factories etc. and how they influence our life
• Jyotisha Veda- vedic astrology as the most important vedic science of all, giving us understanding of everything that happens in our life
• Samudrika Shastra-science of the human body, including Hasta Samudrika Shastra- vedic palmistry, Pada Samudrika Shastra- vedic science of legs (which sounds quite peculiar but you will see how it is effective) Mukha Samudrika Shastra- vedic face reading and Shariraka Shastra- science of the body and its movement
• Sankhya Shastra- vedic numerology
• Kalaripayattu – ancient vedic martial art and healing, it is actually a part of Tantra Yoga with a big portion of Ayurveda.

And much more…
Yoga means using these different aspects of Santana Dharma in our human lives to establish the Vedic mode of life.
The belief that Yoga is only for ascetics, sitting in Himalayas or a sort of exotic physical culture is incorrect. Yoga is a deep science of all sides of Life and a practical remedy to cope with its problems. Yoga isn’t only “spiritual” or only “physical”, it is integral science. You can’t jump only with your head or develop only muscles of your legs. You have to jump with your whole body.
We live in Kali Yuga the most difficult period in the history of human civilization and the last one, by the way. Unhappiness, loneliness, stress, depression, poverty, instability and diseases are typical features of this time. In spite of all efforts undertaken by people, all these problems are not solved, but rather increase in number and severity. Paradoxically, the more people try to overcome them the stronger they become. As, they say, the more changes we make the more everything remains the same. The reason of that is Avidya, as it is called in Sanskrit, or the inability to see what is the cause and what is the effect. We can observe it everywhere in our life. Let us use the common cold and taking a pill to reduce the symptom of a fever as an example The fever is a symptom of the disease from one point of view and a result of working of Jatara Agni (digestive fire), from another point of view. This form of universal Agni is responsible for our digestion of food and at the same time immunity of our body. That is why in cases of infection our body raises the temperature to burn it out. By the way, Jatara Agni can’t digest our food and keep the immune system working simultaneously which is why we lose our appetite when we are ill. But what do we do? We take a fire-extinguisher in the form of a pill and put out that poor Agni and wondering why this disease lasts so long! Sometimes it can even become chronic.
Santana dharma gives us the possibility to distinguish between causes and effects and gives us the opportunity to really solve our problems. Our life is a reflection of our consciousness. If we want to change something in our life like our mode of relationships, getting a better job, healing a disease or whatever- we have to change our consciousness first. Yoga is the very science of how to do that.
Try and see.
I wish you success on this road,
Your shiva and Shiva’s Center