Swami Sivamurti’s current focus is on Ashram Culture programs (in cooperation with the Teachers’ Union).

Here, teachers along with their students reside at the ashram during the course. Ashram Culture programs aim to deepen the students’ and teachers’ experience in ashram life and to inspire and strengthen their connection with the Paiania ashram and the Parampara in India.

The problems we face today were already experienced by people many thousands of years ago. In an ashram we learn the lessons of life and how to live a meaning and fulfilling life. Ashrams actually evolved in India in order to tame  the tamasic and rajasic nature of humans. These ashrams were managed by Rishis and people of vision who were concerned with humanity rather than with particular political, social or economic systems. They realized that unless the tamasic nature of the individual was contained, it would not be possible for a society to progress.

All the problems that you face in life, all the ups and downs, are really the means to your personal evolution. Everything that you face in life, whether pleasant or unpleasant, is really the means to higher awareness. They help you, though they may seem to hinder you from a limited and personal viewpoint at this stage. They are really the tests, the means to your eventual transcendence and total understanding of reality. It is only through your enemies that you can recognize the seeds of disharmony within yourself. Without day to day problems, you would never try to overcome obstacles.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

The seminar, examines the relevance of an ashram culture in today’s modern world.

When you arrive for the ashram culture program, you should try to become a part of the ashram life, working hard and selflessly. The ashram is not a five-star resort. It is a training ground where one can learn to retrain one’s entire being and personality to gain a deeper experience of one’s actions and interactions. We learn to develop a balanced, harmonious, positive and creative attitude through discipline, which is an integral part of the ashram environment.

By spending time on an ashram, we live and experience the values of yoga and upon leaving the ashram we are able to apply the principles of yoga into our own life so that we can live yoga from moment to moment.