Many years ago, our Guru Swami Satyananda had a vision. He saw yoga minded people from all over the world coming together and creating a direction in the practices of yoga and their application in daily life He realized the fact that we all need to grow up in different areas of our personality according to the situations, circumstances, country and lifestyle. This movement which was created initially with the ideal of bringing yoga minded people together for their physical, psychological and spiritual development was known as the ‘International Yoga Fellowship Movement’.
This Movement represented the mission of Swamiji, still it represents today the fellowship of yoga on an international level dedicated to the upliftment, not of humanity but of our own selves. By doing this service to ourselves, by overcoming the difficulties and conflicts that we face in ourselves, maybe we can help create a better society. However, it is not practical to think about changing the society without changing ourselves. The various aspects of human personality were involved.
We had the method of yoga which originally was an obscured word not known to many. When Swamiji had come to Sydney in 1976 for the Inauguration of the International Yoga Convention, one of his statements had created a few thoughts in the mind about yoga. His statement was, ‘Yoga for health and beauty was in the 1960s, and yoga for meditation is the yoga of the 1980s’. Until then the concept of yoga was, if you were involved in it, it was for body, beauty and health. Loosening up, toning up of the muscles, feeling good, floating on the seventh cloud and then coming down with a crash.
When he made the statement, many people started to think in Australia and in other countries as to the real meaning of yoga. They found that it could be used in the different areas of life, so that the three distinct personalities of body, mind and spirit could be experienced, and their potentials and qualities awakened.
With this idea many of the swamis, friends, karma sannyasins opened centres all over the world and dedicated those centres to Swami Satyananda as a mark of their respect for this stand which he has taken in the field of yoga. These institutions are dedicated to the ideals of the ‘International Yoga Fellowship Movement’.
1988, Sydney, Australia