Our Tradition
The masters of meditation were inspired by the mother of all: the Divine Mother. As the masters sat in their cave monasteries and forest universities they lay in the lap of Mother Nature who gave them in abundance and without reservation. Their teachers were the sun who shared all and withheld nothing, the river that flowed over all obstacles and surrendered to the ocean, the trees that were firmly rooted and the reeds that offered no resistance to the wind. They were also inspired by animals. By the slow breath of the tortoise, the poisonous cobra that aspired to touch the sky, by the fish that did not drown in water!
The yogis cultivated these traits and the Divine Mother whispered her secrets in meditation. The ancients have a word for it: Shruti. Shruti is wisdom that is heard within; it is not knowledge that is learned from books or from other sources. Wisdom comes down from the Divine. Knowledge and learning is lifeless without the loving touch of the Divine. This is Srividya, Auspicious Wisdom.
Samaya Srividya
The inner Tradition of the Divine Mother
The task of the Master has been to empty the seeker of the past and future, to guide the seeker to that brink of vastness that is called the Now, until he is only a medium of the Divine. These teachings are handed down from Master to seeker.
In Sanskrit a lineage is known as parampara. The Himalayan Parampara or Himalayan Lineage is an unbroken lineage of sages and yogis from the Himalayas since over six thousand years. The teachers of the lineage serve in the tradition of the Divine Mother.
Our Tradition is the Samaya Srividya Sampradaya. Sampradaya means tradition.
The Himalayan Lineage
Dattatreya is revered as Master of Masters.
Dattatreya, a legendary teacher of the Tradition, had twenty-four teachers, including the wind that never attaches itself to the objects it touches, a satisfied python that does not chase any other prey and a prostitute who though enacting the drama of love is not satisfied with this artificial love.
Adi Shankara is a historical figure that lived in the eighth century A.D. Master of the non-dualistic philosophy Advaita, Tantrik and Yogi, Shankara was a revolutionary thinker and reformer who was ahead of his times. All monastic traditions trace back their lineage to him. Thus he was Adi the first.
Masters of our Tradition
Swami Rama was one of the few Himalayan Masters to have travelled extensively in the West. In his early years he worked with scientists researching the mysteries of yoga. In his later years he supported the development of holistic institutes in the United States and Germany as well as retreats and charitable institutions in India. His gifts to all humankind are the systematic yet simple teachings.