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'Living Tantra' Seminars Offered At Himalayan International Institute

A P Kamath

Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, successor to Swami Rama, is offering a seminar series, 'Living Tantra' at the Himalayan Institute situated in the Pocono Mountains. He claims the Chakra tradition seminars have never been offered before in the West.

The Sri Chakra seminar is scheduled for July 30-August 1, and the Sri Vidya, October 22-24. In between, August 1-8, an intensive workshop will teach the techniques of Chakra meditation, use of tantric herbs and recipes for tantric medicine, and incorporating tantric values in every day life and work.

Successor to Sri Swami Rama, the founder of the Institute, Tigunait has a doctorate in Sanskrit from the University of Allahabad and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of 10 books including Tantra Unveiled: Seducing the Forces of Matter and Spirit.

Knowing Sri Chakra and following its meditative aspects helps individuals achieve their spiritual and personal goals, Pandit Tigunait says. He describes Sri Vidya as the pinnacle of all Yantra, and mastering it will enable people to deeply appreciate the spiritual beauty within themselves and the world around them.

The August events mark the 20th anniversary of Tigunait's first visit to the United States.

Founded in 1971 by Sri Swami Rama of the Himalayas, the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy of the USA (Himalayan Institute) is situated in a serene, wooded setting on a 400-acre campus near Honesdale in the beautiful Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. The institute's quiet surroundings and natural environment provide a peaceful and healthy setting.

The Himalayan Institute, which has many centers across America, Canada and India, is also established in Trinidad, Netherlands Antilles, Malaysia, Germany, Italy and Great Britain.

The Honesdale-based Institute's atmosphere fosters growth, increased inner awareness, and calm, with its vegetable and flower gardens, orchard, vegetarian kitchen, printing press, magazine office, bookstore, gift shop, or children's school.

Tigunait points out that by combining Eastern wisdom and Western technology, the Himalayan Institute offers a wide variety of seminars and programs in Hatha Yoga, meditation, Yoga philosophy, psychology, holistic health, Hatha Yoga teachers training, and other related subjects. Residential programs and ongoing meditation retreats are also available.

The Himalayan Institute's Center for Health and Healing has expanded its programs to include Ayurvedic rejuvenation techniques for recuperation and general well-being .

The Institute's Honesdale site serves as its international headquarters. Its publishing division, Himalayan Institute Press, provides numerous publications, tapes, and products, as well as subscriptions to Yoga International, a bimonthly magazine. A non-profit organization with branch and affiliated centers throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, the Institute also actively supports the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences and Charitable Hospital in the foothills of the Himalayas which provide healthcare to those who would normally be unable to afford it.

The founder of Himalaya institutes, Swami Rama, who was born in 1925, was raised from early childhood by a Yogi who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas. In his youth he practised the various disciplines of Yoga science and philosophy in the traditional monasteries of the Himalayas and studied with many spiritual adepts, including Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, and Rabindranath Tagore. He also travelled to Tibet to study with his grandmaster.

He received his higher education at Prayag, Varanasi, and Oxford University, England. At the age of 24 he became Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham in south India. He renounced the spiritual office in 1952 to return to the Himalayas to pursue his Yogic practices.

After completing an intense practice in the cave monasteries, he emerged with the determination to serve humanity, particularly to bring the teachings of the East to the West. With the encouragement of his master, Swami Rama began his task by studying Western philosophy and psychology. He worked as a medical consultant in London and assisted in parapsychological research in Moscow. He then returned to India, where he established an ashram in Rishikesh. He completed his degree in homeopathy at the medical college in Darbhanga in 1960. He came to the United States in 1969 at the invitation of Dr Elmer Green of the Menninger Foundation of Topeka, Kansas, as a consultant in a research project investigating the voluntary control of involuntary states. He participated in experiments that helped to revolutionize scientific thinking about the relationship between body and mind, amazing scientists by demonstrating, under laboratory conditions, precise conscious control of autonomic physical responses and mental functioning -- feats previously thought to be impossible.

Swami Rama founded the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in the early 1970s, the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust in India, and many centers throughout the world. He is the author of numerous books on health, meditation, and the Yogic scriptures. Swami Rama died three years ago.

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Himalayan Institute Branches in USA

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