Yoga is not a practise but it is the life itself. Masters have lived it. Their teaching was part of their living. Of course all beings are born with it but loose contact with it in the course of living as life and living have become different especially to the modern man.

Those who have lived their life fully moment by moment to the fullest possible extent were the known Masters of the east. There lived many and are still living many unnoticed.

The most spectacular thing with such great souls is that they do not feel anything special in them. They remain in their ordinariness. Whatever they handle will have that natural spontaneity whether it is hard labour, music, art, dance or meditation.

They lived fully by becoming one with life and its base silence and hence they were full and complete beings. That state of completeness, complete ordinariness, and seeing perfection in all seemingly imperfect units of creation are the basis of beauty in them. Life for them is beautiful. That beauty they radiated in their vicinity. They lived it. They left their mortal abode with the same beauty. That beauty is still continuing in the minds of those who moved with them while they lived, and still live with those pure beings who are inherited from them.

Siva Raja Yoga is such an inherited tradition from rare beings like Thiru Moolar. The Basic text of Siva Raja Yogam is Thiru Mandiram written by Thiru Moolar who was a contemporary of Maharshi Patanjali who lived 2600 years ago.

In the South of Kerala there lived a great saint named Thycaud Ayya Swamikal.

Thycaud Ayya Swamikal was born in 1814 and merged with the ultimate in 1909 who was an exponent of Siva Raja Yoga. He had many great disciples such as Chattambi Swamikal, Shri. Narayana Guru Dev, Yogi Padmanabha Bhagavatha etc.

Ayya Swamikal, was considered as a great Saint after the time of Adi Sankara, the originator of Adwaita Philosophy. He never kept any records or left any marks after him except mending few pure beings. Their valuable teachings are in the sacred memories of those disciples. They neither claimed mastery nor discipleship but they preserved this secret art of consiousness.

Always the essence of yoga remains hidden beyond the realm of mind! It may continue to remain hidden so far we human beings are looking towards Yoga as a means to fulfill our needs. Here comes the relevance of Siva Raja Yoga. Yoga means Freedom. Freedom means peace. Siva Raja Yoga is:

The dynamic Union with conciousness. It is Yoga of Silence! The Yoga of Peace!

Maharshi Patanjali says - "Yogascitta vrutti nirodha", which means Yoga is the ceasing of fluctuations of consciousness. Ceasing of activities of the consciousness is consciousness beyond conscious activities of the mind. Mind has different layers of existence. The peripheral surface layer is called the Conscious level by spiritualists and psychologists. Subtler and deeper than that is the Subconscious layer and deeper than that is the Super Conscious layer.

When the so-called Conscious level operates, the mind operates with the senses to the sensory world. It undergoes experiences, generates knowledge and converts knowledge to concepts, believes, ideals etc. It generates thoughts from the memories. The stimulus presented before the senses is analyzed with the support of the backlogs in the memories.

If  the intellect could discriminate appropriately, it synthesizes knowledge. This knowledge further transforms into concepts. These concepts are held tightly by the individual and generate the personality as a superimposition to the self. These superimposed personality is falsely identified as the real self and the individual tries to live that personality and seek acceptance and recognition from the society to derive pleasure by boosting up of image that is a corollary to the personality.

All these processes are enabled by subtle changes in the cellular chemistry. The chemistry of the body changes according to this process. But the chemistry of the body is not known to the conscious mind. It is under the control of the intelligence which operates even when the conscious mind is puts off.
It is understood that the pure intelligence is connected with the subconscious mind that operates even in deep sleep.

In Siva Raja Yoga techniques of practicing Yoga Asana, the conscious mind is put to high alert to canalize Prana to the highly activated nucleus points of the body with respect to particular Asanas. The highest activated regions of the body are carefully spotted with alertness and activation of Prana is effected in these regions by visualized Pranic canalization.

Santhi has identified through Siva Raja Yoga practices the basic causes of psychological suffering which leads to sickness. The difficulty in seeing, that which is presented before the mind, as it is, is the cause of false knowledge and false knowledge is the cause of suffering. 

Human beings attribute their past into all the appearances presented before them under the guise of knowing, deflect the appearance to something that is unreal. The dreams or fantasies based on the needs and conveniences and likings of individual will be projected over the appearance and compare the dreams with that of the appearance and suffer the collapsing of their own dreams.

The reality is what it is. And is  unalterable and it continue to unravel all the time according to the time and placement of the individual.

However, human beings continue to compare with their own created dreams with the reality and suffer the falling of their own created fantasies and dreams. In this process, the cellular chemistry changes drastically and it creates a new condition which is not conducive for healthy living.
The cells gradually cannot work properly and become week. To purify the cells the basic requirement is to suspend the activities of the conscious mind. There comes the relevance of Yoga.

Temporary suspension of the conscious mind is Samadhi. In Sabeeja Samadhi new seeds of transformation are planted to change the Samskara of the individual which intercepts with the old Samskara and in course of time a new Samskara is formed, a Samskara that allows the natural intelligence to operate without intervention with the conscious conflicting desires.

In Siva Raja Yoga, Asanas, Kriyas and Bandhas are placed in high pedestal as it gives the possibility to purify, refine, and transform the basic components of the body, the cells.

Cells are the basic unit that generate energy through the process of oxidation. By intense concentration and alertness and careful canalization, the Pranic flow is activated in specific Chakras and pass on to specific points and organs that are coming under the respective Chakras for correction of the physiology.

In Siva Raja Yoga Kriyas are of great significance. Maha Bandha, Sakthi Chalanam, Udyanam, Jalandharam, Yoni Mudra, Maha Mudra, Kevala Kumbhakam etc. are included in Kriyas. With these Kriyas the Kundalini is activated.

The subtle energy concentration points that pulsate are scattered over the body and concentrated on the Adharas of the body are identified by following the Yogic System of Bhaskara Pillai Swamikal.

Decoding the languages of the pulsation is part of the system of practise delineated by Bhaskara Swamikal. Re-balancing of elemental composition through activation of Chakras and nourishing the inner organs are its celebrated hidden techniques.

At the same time Siva Raja Yoga believes that practice is not the be all and end all of everything with respect to spiritual development. Siva Raja Yoga believes in life and living. Life itself is the path and the goal.

Swami Santhiprasad is the grand son of Yogi Padmanabha Bhagavathar who was disciple of Thycaudu Ayya Swamikal. He explored Siva Raja Yoga Tradition in depth  for better living with least conflict or no conflict and for transforming the life into one of great joy.