(Updated 2019) In October 2011, after years of waiting for it, my dream finally came true. I joined the Four-Month Yogic Studies Course at the Bihar School of Yoga in Munger, India. I had wished to visit this ashram for such a long time. I actually sent my application two years in advance! Not surprisingly they were not able to process it then. I'm sure they never received such an early application.
What inspired me to visit the Bihar School of Yoga
For many years I had thought about visiting the Bihar School of Yoga. I came to know about this ashram thanks to some of the yoga books they have published, like “Steps to Yoga” and “Taming the Kundalini”.
These are actually two of my favorite yoga books. Both of them are a collection of letters written by Swami Satyananda himself, addressed to some of his disciples.
The letters include profound and detailed instructions to follow the yogic path. Reading them has left a very strong impression in my mind. They were the ones that inspired me to visit this ashram.
“By day and night you will have to remember this: He resides unseen within me and He makes me perform all actions. When this idea is firmly rooted in the mind, every act of yours will be an act of yoga.” Taming the Kundalini, Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
I couldn't find much information on the Internet about the course and none of my yogi friends had any idea about how the course would be. They had only heard about it from other people.
It seemed that this ashram was mainly focused on Karma Yoga or Seva (selfless service). That means doing activities like cleaning toilets, serving food, mopping the floor, cutting vegetables, carrying boxes, and so on. Basically, just work.
A couple of good friends insisted that I should not go there because it would be a waste of time. They said that I wouldn't learn anything and I would be only doing karma yoga.
They are actually very good friends and they were just trying to convince me to join them to visit another ashram.
But I was determined. I couldn't believe that I wouldn't be able to learn anything. There must have been a good reason, beyond my own understanding, why I had been drawn to this ashram for such a long time.
So even if I didn't like the idea of doing only seva, I thought that this was something that I was supposed to do. And anyway, the only way to find out how the course really was, was by going there and just do it.
That's exactly what I did and I had a really amazing experience. It was the most difficult, challenging, and painful experience that I've had at an ashram so far, and I loved it. I was definitely meant to be there. Let me explain why.
Bihar School of Yoga Course Review
I can definitely recommend the Four-Month Yogic Studies Course at the Bihar School of Yoga. It doesn't matter if you are a complete beginner or an advanced yogi, this course is literally life-changing.
Even now in 2019, after having visited fifteen ashrams in India, I can tell this was the most profound, intense, and transformative experience I've ever had. It is the highlight of my whole yoga journey.
This is not a yoga teacher training course though. It is more like an intense ashram life experience. If you are interested in doing a yoga TTC you can visit instead my Top 10 List of Yoga TTCs in India.
I wouldn't recommend this course if you are mainly interested in learning hatha yoga or improving your asana practice or if you want to go deeply into pranayama or meditation.
But if you want to get to know yourself, to face all your demons, and to purify your mind then this is the right place for you.
From my point of view, that's what this ashram is all about. It was all about mental purification through seva, mantra chanting, and tapas (austerity).
I can also recommend this course if you are interested in having plenty of time to study the Bihar School of Yoga books.
During the daily schedule, we did have a one-hour and a half hatha yoga session, which they call APMB (asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha), but to me,the class felt a bit superficial and extremely slow.
Of course, you do learn something but whatever you learn in those four months you could easily learn in a couple of weeks and even better with more detailed instruction.
There is no meditation practice during the course or as part of the ashram schedule. We had a daily 45-minute Yoga Nidra practice (a deep relaxation technique) and sometimes, as part of the Yoga Nidra, we would do a short meditation, but for maybe just 15 minutes.
So there is not much emphasis on Raja Yoga or Jñana Yoga. Although they call it Integral Yoga the main emphasis in this course and at the ashram is on Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and tapas.
But this doesn't mean that this is not a good course.
Don't let your preconceived ideas of what a yoga course or an ashram should be, impede you from having this experience which might open the doors for a real transformation.
If you were thinking about doing this course stay open and take your time to decide if this is the right place for you or not. Who knows, maybe this could be your path.
Some people decided to do the Three Years Sannyasi Course right after this course! Amazing. And even if this is not your path you can still make some great yogi friends. To me, that's already something to be grateful for.
If you want to know more about the challenges that I faced at the ashram you can read the next post Yoga Sadhana: overcoming negative emotions.
For a detailed description of the course, you can continue reading below
All about the Four-Month Yogic Studies Course
Seva, seva and more seva
Seva means selfless service, performing one's duty without any desire for a reward or recognition but with the main interest in serving others.
Swami Satyananda's teachings place great emphasis on seva because he considers this to be the most important preliminary practice to purify the mind before engaging in more advanced practices like meditation.
No wonder BSY puts so much emphasis on seva.
“You should not allow the mind to sit idle even for a minute. The first step to spiritual life is to keep the mind ever busy. Every work is sadhana if done with concentration... Become the master of your mind by applying it to various jobs from morning till night. Do your work efficiently and with full concentration.” Swami Satyananda, Steps to Yoga
The daily schedule included four hours a day of seva. During the interview upon my arrival, they asked me if I was able to accept that. Of course, I said yes but in my mind I was a bit hesitant.
They also told me that although the schedule showed four hours of seva per day it could actually be more.
That was definitely the case.
Whenever there was a change in the schedule and we wouldn't have a class we would always have more seva. Also on a few occasions where there was no evening program, we actually had evening seva for one hour and a half.
But don't let this discourage you, it was not that bad, sometimes it's actually fun.
There is indeed a lot to learn from just doing seva. Things happen on a very subtle level.
When you do a duty that you like the mind immediately starts to become attached to it and feels proud. If you do a very good job at cleaning an ornament, for instance, you almost feel like putting your name on it so everybody can see it.
Of course, that's completely the opposite of the actual spirit of seva. I used to laugh with my friends from the course at our own behavior.
Having seva was also very useful in dealing with the many overwhelming thoughts and emotions that can appear while staying in an ashram.
Sometimes I felt very grateful to have some duty to keep my mind very busy so I could stop thinking. But yes, on other days I didn't feel like doing anything at all.
I really like the emphasis that they put on doing things to perfection. When I was doing seva in accommodation, cleaning and arranging rooms for guests, I was very impressed by the focus on details.
It was like cleaning a room in a 5-star hotel!
We tried our best to clean every single spot, every single corner, and every single item in the room. Every object like dustbins, glasses, or jars was carefully placed on a specific spot and we made the beds with the bedsheets folded in a very precise way.
It really felt like mental training, like if I was being trained as a samurai... hmm or maybe just like Karate Kit. Everything had to be perfect. And this was the same approach for all duties at the ashram, including cleaning toilets.
From Monday to Friday the daily schedule would start at 5am with the APMB Class, which is based on the famous book by BSY, Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha (Amazon.com), to learn hatha yoga.
The first month we focused mainly on the Pawanmuktasana Series. These are very basic joints and gland exercises that anybody can do regardless of the level of experience, gender, or age.
I actually love this series. They are performed very slowly and with full awareness. However, I was very disappointed by the way they were taught to us. The exercises are slow but it doesn't mean that you need to learn them at such a slow pace.
Everything that we learned in one month I had already learned in a Bihar School of Yoga center in Bangalore, in just a couple of days and with much better instruction.
During the course, they were not making any corrections and there was little emphasis on performing them with full awareness. I found this disconcerting, perhaps just another way to push your buttons and make you aware of your unconscious reactions.
Later on, we also learned a few very basic asanas.
By the third month, we started to practice pranayamas (breathing exercises) like Anuloma Viloma and Bhastrika. We also practiced some mudras and bhandas. There was no theory covered and not much instruction.
We also learned some of the shatkarmas like Jala Neti, a nasal cleansing technique to eliminate all sorts of impurities from the nostrils and nasal passages using lukewarm saline water.
This was another disconcerting thing. During the four months, we were able to do this practice only three times.
The second and third time, we did Jala Neti because when we were learning Dhauti or Kunjal to clean the digestive tract, and a special practice called Laghoo Shankaprakshalana to clean the whole digestive system, we had lukewarm saline water already available.
There is no hot water available at the ashram so you can normally not do these practices anymore except during those three classes.
I had asked at the reception right at the beginning of the course if I could get hot water to practice neti on my own. They told me that this was not possible so I asked them how does everybody in the ashram practice neti and they told me that nobody practices it!
Another interesting thing is that there is no meditation or asana practice in the regular ashram schedule except for the 4-month course schedule and I never saw any special hall for the residents to practice asanas.
Perhaps if they practice they must do it in their own rooms. But anyway, this made me think that all that knowledge that you can find in the BSY books stays just in the books. Well, that's just my personal opinion, it doesn't necessarily mean that's the case.
Three times a week we had tutorials for one hour. One of the assigned swami teachers would give us a one-hour lecture.
I didn't consider this an actual class. I think they were not trying to teach us but rather just share some information and give us the main study points on each topic so that we could later deepen into it in our own study time.
During the course, we covered the four main yogas: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jñana Yoga, and Raja Yoga.
One of my favorite things from this course in yogic studies was the study time.
Every day we would get about one hour and a half of study time. This was actually self-study time where we would have to go to the library and study on our own.
The main idea was to read more about what was discussed during the tutorials but we could actually decide to study any of the Bihar School of Yoga books available.
We also had an additional one hour twice a week for a combined study. We could then choose either to study in the library alone or in a group.
Every day at 6pm, right after dinner, we would have the evening program that lasted for about one hour and a half.
The program consisted mainly of doing mantra chanting followed by a few kirtans (devotional chants). I really enjoyed the evening programs but I didn't assist to all of them. Some kirtans are really beautiful and when the energy goes up everybody starts dancing.
This is another very important practice at the Bihar School of Yoga. Mantra chanting and kirtan are part of one of the four yogas called Bhakti Yoga, the devotional yoga or the yoga of transmuting and channeling emotions.
Not only during the evening programs but also at the beginning of the APMB class we also dedicated plenty of time to mantra chanting.
I think all the students in the course were very open to this practice, nobody really understands how it works but we all believe that there is an invisible transformation that takes place while chanting all these mantras.
At the beginning of my journey in India, I had a bit of resistance to all this mantra chanting but a year and a half later I feel more open to it. I just let it happen. Perhaps I've been brainwashed! Lol.
One very special event was the Ekadashi day which happens twice a month. On this day the residents chant the whole Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit in about two hours and a half.
That was amazing but I didn't always manage to stay for the whole program. Two hours and a half sitting with crossed legs on the floor listening to Sanskrit chanting can be quite intense.
Some days we wouldn't have any evening program so the buildings would be locked at 6.30pm! Or sometimes instead of the evening program we had evening seva, but this happened on very few occasions.
As soon as the course started we were all divided into two groups, groups A and B, and we stayed in these groups for the whole duration of the course.
During the first week, group A would have Study time in the morning and seva in the afternoon and Group B would have seva in the afternoon but study time in the morning. This would alternate each week.
During the course, we had a schedule for weekdays and a slightly different schedule for Saturdays and Sundays.
But the schedule changes every time there is a special event (quite frequently), especially after mid-November when the program in Rikhia starts.
After the Rikhia program, we had the Satsang Week, Christmas, and New Year which involved many different changes in the daily schedule. There were hardly any classes then, we were mostly doing seva.
Weekdays Schedule
05:00 to 06:20 APMB (Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha)
06:30 to 07:00 Breakfast
07:00 to 07:50 Cleaning Seva
08:00 to 09:45 Group A: Study; Group B: Seva
10:00 to 10:50 Yoga Nidra
13:00 to 13:30 Tea
13:30 to 14:30 Tutorials (Monday, Wednesday, Friday); Combined Study (Tuesday and Thursday)
14:45 to 16:45 Group A: Seva; Group B: Study
17:00 to 17:45 Dinner
18:00 to 19:00 Evening program
Saturday Schedule
06:00 to 06:30 Breakfast
06:30 to 07:45 Cleaning Seva
08:00 to 10:45 Assignment
11:00 to 12:00 Lunch
13:00 to 13:30 Tea
14:45 to 16:45 Combined Seva
17:00 to 17:45 Dinner
18:00 to 19:00 Evening program
Sunday Schedule
06:00 to 06:30 Breakfast
06:30 to 07:45 Cleaning Seva
08:00 to 10:45 Combined Seva
11:00 to 12:00 Lunch
13:00 to 13:30 Tea
17:00 to 17:45 Dinner
18:00 to 19:00 Evening program
The Four Months Yogic Studies Course included in mid-November a two-week visit to Rikhiapeeth. This is another ashram founded by Swami Satyananda in a place called Rikhia.
We were there to join the Sat Chandi Mahayajna and Yoga Poornima events. We would be basically doing seva all day long.
I was in group A. We went to Rikhia for one week around the 14 of November, then we returned to the ashram in Munger for two weeks and then we went back to Rikhia for one more week during the Yoga Poornima.
The students in group B went to Rikhia during the two weeks that group A had returned to the ashram in Munger, and they joined the Sat Chandi Mahayajna.
I was a bit nervous at the beginning. I didn't know how I would feel doing seva all day long but it was actually a beautiful and rewarding experience. To me, this was one of the highlights of the course.
It was not mandatory to join this program, we could choose not to go and stay at the ashram following the normal course schedule.
There were a few people who didn't join the first week but after listening to the comments of the first group everybody decided to join the second week.
To learn more about the program in Rikhia you can read Yoga and volunteer work in India: a rewarding experience
So far this is the ashram with the most strict rules that I have been into.
I believe this is all part of the purification process. They don't want to make things easy for you but rather difficult to push your buttons and bring subconscious negative patterns to the surface.
And this happens even right from the application process. They ask for so many papers and since they don't use e-mail communication sometimes it can be quite frustrating.
“Send us a fax.” I hated every time they told me that on the phone.
Upon my arrival, I had an interview with one of the swamis. She told me that winter would get quite cold and that there is no heating system or hot water.
She asked me if I was ok with that. I told her that if I would be able to use my portable water heater (which I had bought specifically to come to this ashram) to drink some hot water I would be just fine.
She answered right away that it was not allowed to use water heaters or any other electrical device whatsoever, especially mobile phones. There are actually no electrical connections in the buildings so this was not really possible.
Like in many ashrams women and men are allocated in separate buildings, but on top of that in this ashram, each building was actually locked after the evening program.
The buildings would remain locked from 7.30pm until the next day at 4.00am (please don't ask me what would happen in case of fire).
The buildings were also locked during the evening program so you either joined the program or just stayed in your room counting your toes. And if there was no evening program then the buildings would be locked at 6.30pm.
It was like being in a prison, and all windows were protected with metal bars. The funny thing is that we did not only give up our freedom voluntarily but we even paid for this!
The cold water shower was a big challenge for me even though I've been trying to train with cold water for a while.
In October, when the weather was extremely hot and you felt like taking 10 showers a day, I would still feel that the water was too cold for me. December and January were a real pain. But don't worry, we all survived.
And there were many other random things to challenge you day by day: having your room on the second floor while the bathrooms were on the ground floor (that's annoying when you feel like going to the toilet in the middle of the night, especially if you have diarrhea!).
Sometimes you would plan to do something in your free time after lunch but then all of a sudden somebody would give you a note to go to the reception at 12.00.
Sometimes you were really looking forward to your study time but then without any previous notification we would have a random meeting and the study time would be canceled.
Or sometimes you would be relaxing during a day off and then somebody would ask you to help with some seva. I really hated that one!
Oh and seva... it is said that seva is also efficiency in action. Well, I guess in an ashram this is not really applicable because their purpose is not to make profits but to create an environment for self-transformation.
So if you find yourself doing some duty that doesn't make any sense at all, it is there perhaps to create a mental reaction in you and bring to the surface unconscious negative patterns.
Staying in an ashram requires some sacrifices, giving up many of the things that make us feel comfortable.
This is called tapas (austerity), and four months can feel like a very long time to practice tapas. But it is rewarding to know that you can indeed live without all that comfort that we are so used to in the Western world. This is real mental training.
When I did the course from October 2011 until January 2012 I had to pay EUR 1,200 for the four months. This included food and accommodation only. I have not been able to find out about the fees in 2019.
I had to pay for the training in cash which meant that I had to go out of the ashram to withdraw money. This was expensive and inconvenient.
In India, almost every ATM charges about 300 rupees commission per withdrawal, and there is a limit of max 10,000 rupees. That's on top of the commission and the exchange markup that your bank might charge you.
So I had to go out multiple times to be able to withdraw all the money to pay the fee for the course.
I would rather recommend you use an online money transfer service like Wise.
With this service, you can make transfers to Indian rupees from pretty much any currency. It is much cheaper than bank transactions and you can do it directly from your smartphone in no time.
You can read all about it in How to Avoid Bank Fees While Traveling Asia as a Yoga Nomad, or just use directly my referral link and get a free transfer of up to EUR500!
It seems that nowadays they do accept credit card payments but they will charge you a commission. I think the cheapest and most convenient will still be Wise.
The Bihar School of Yoga was founded in 1964 by Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati. The current spiritual director and guru of the ashram is Swami Niranjanananda, a disciple trained by Swami Satyananda for this purpose.
Swami Niranjanananda founded in 1994 Bihar Yoga Bharati, an Institute for Advanced Studies in Yogic Sciences. Bihar Yoga Bharati is dedicated to the study of yoga in a Gurukul environment.
It is actually through this institution, that the Four-Month Yogic Studies Course is offered to students. The physical location is the same as the Bihar School of Yoga.
There are a lot of trees and flowers around the ashram which creates a really nice and pure atmosphere.
But you should never get attached to any of the nice trees. During my stay, they were constantly cutting and planting new trees. I don't know the real reason but it seemed to me that they try to make sure that there are no “hiding” places around, if you know what I mean.
One of my favorite spots was the garden just behind the peacock cage. In the days that I would be struggling hard with my emotions, I would sit there and just practice being present, being aware of everything.
When you sit still and quiet everything becomes alive. The animals forget that you are there. It's very easy to see lots of beautiful exotic birds flying around, squirrels smelling your feet and even huge lizards walking on the grass.
Some of the accommodation buildings are pretty new and decent. I was lucky to be in one of them.
All rooms are twin rooms so you normally need to share your room with only one person. It is all very basic, with two beds, a small closet, four walls and a window. There is a fan with only one speed, two lights, and no electrical connections.
Lunch and dinner were usually pretty good, healthy Indian vegetarian food, and it was not difficult at all to tolerate it for four months.
Actually, since leaving the ashram I have had a very hard time trying to adjust back to eating regular Indian restaurant food, I'm missing the ashram food!
At the ashram, I was eating a lot and after just half an hour I would feel empty but now that I'm back outside into the real world, free to eat whatever I want, I can barely eat two meals a day anymore!
The breakfast was rather disappointing and it was actually the same menu every week. My favorite days were when we would get porridge (I think that was Thursday) or when there would be some leftovers from the last dinner.
One important thing to be aware of is that you don't get fruits at all during meals. Luckily there were two men (the medicine man or the market man) visiting the ashram every day so you could order anything that you might need from the market, like medicines or fruits.
Bihar School of Yoga,
Ganga Darshan, Fort
Munger, Bihar 811201, India
Bihar Yoga Bharati
Yoga Vidya Campus
P.O.Ganga Darshan, Fort
Munger, Bihar 811201, India
Phone: +91 6344 222430 / +91 6344 228603/ +91 9162 783904
Fax: +91 6344 220169
(Lunchtime is between 11 am and 1.30 pm)
For all details about the Four-Month or Three-Month Yogic Study Course, you can visit the Bihar Yoga Bharati website.
So this is all I can share about my experience doing the Four Months Yogic Study Course at the Bihar School of Yoga. I hope you have found it informative and feel motivated to join their program at some point in the future.
Before you pack your bags I suggest you visit my detailed packing list for India. You'll find in it everything you could possibly need to travel and stay at any Indian ashram.
Don't forget to also visit my guide to ashrams in India. These are all the ashrams that I have personally visited in India. Fifteen ashrams so far!
If you've visited the Bihar School of Yoga before please feel free to share a bit about your experience in the comment section below, and if you enjoy reading this article I would appreciate you sharing it with your friends. Thanks for your support!
Whenever there was a change in the schedule and we wouldn't have a class we would always have more seva. Also on a few occasions where there was no evening program, we actually had evening seva for one hour and a half.
But don't let this discourage you, it was not that bad, sometimes it's actually fun.
There is indeed a lot to learn from just doing seva. Things happen on a very subtle level.
When you do a duty that you like the mind immediately starts to become attached to it and feels proud. If you do a very good job at cleaning an ornament, for instance, you almost feel like putting your name on it so everybody can see it.
Of course, that's completely the opposite of the actual spirit of seva. I used to laugh with my friends from the course at our own behavior.
Having seva was also very useful in dealing with the many overwhelming thoughts and emotions that can appear while staying in an ashram.
Sometimes I felt very grateful to have some duty to keep my mind very busy so I could stop thinking. But yes, on other days I didn't feel like doing anything at all.
I really like the emphasis that they put on doing things to perfection. When I was doing seva in accommodation, cleaning and arranging rooms for guests, I was very impressed by the focus on details.
It was like cleaning a room in a 5-star hotel!
We tried our best to clean every single spot, every single corner, and every single item in the room. Every object like dustbins, glasses, or jars was carefully placed on a specific spot and we made the beds with the bedsheets folded in a very precise way.
It really felt like mental training, like if I was being trained as a samurai... hmm or maybe just like Karate Kit. Everything had to be perfect. And this was the same approach for all duties at the ashram, including cleaning toilets.
APMB Class (asana, pranayama, mudra and bhanda)
From Monday to Friday the daily schedule would start at 5am with the APMB Class, which is based on the famous book by BSY, Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha (Amazon.com), to learn hatha yoga.The first month we focused mainly on the Pawanmuktasana Series. These are very basic joints and gland exercises that anybody can do regardless of the level of experience, gender, or age.
I actually love this series. They are performed very slowly and with full awareness. However, I was very disappointed by the way they were taught to us. The exercises are slow but it doesn't mean that you need to learn them at such a slow pace.
Everything that we learned in one month I had already learned in a Bihar School of Yoga center in Bangalore, in just a couple of days and with much better instruction.
During the course, they were not making any corrections and there was little emphasis on performing them with full awareness. I found this disconcerting, perhaps just another way to push your buttons and make you aware of your unconscious reactions.
Later on, we also learned a few very basic asanas.
By the third month, we started to practice pranayamas (breathing exercises) like Anuloma Viloma and Bhastrika. We also practiced some mudras and bhandas. There was no theory covered and not much instruction.
We also learned some of the shatkarmas like Jala Neti, a nasal cleansing technique to eliminate all sorts of impurities from the nostrils and nasal passages using lukewarm saline water.
This was another disconcerting thing. During the four months, we were able to do this practice only three times.
The second and third time, we did Jala Neti because when we were learning Dhauti or Kunjal to clean the digestive tract, and a special practice called Laghoo Shankaprakshalana to clean the whole digestive system, we had lukewarm saline water already available.
There is no hot water available at the ashram so you can normally not do these practices anymore except during those three classes.
I had asked at the reception right at the beginning of the course if I could get hot water to practice neti on my own. They told me that this was not possible so I asked them how does everybody in the ashram practice neti and they told me that nobody practices it!
Another interesting thing is that there is no meditation or asana practice in the regular ashram schedule except for the 4-month course schedule and I never saw any special hall for the residents to practice asanas.
Perhaps if they practice they must do it in their own rooms. But anyway, this made me think that all that knowledge that you can find in the BSY books stays just in the books. Well, that's just my personal opinion, it doesn't necessarily mean that's the case.
Tutorials
Three times a week we had tutorials for one hour. One of the assigned swami teachers would give us a one-hour lecture.
I didn't consider this an actual class. I think they were not trying to teach us but rather just share some information and give us the main study points on each topic so that we could later deepen into it in our own study time.
During the course, we covered the four main yogas: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jñana Yoga, and Raja Yoga.
Study time
One of my favorite things from this course in yogic studies was the study time.
Every day we would get about one hour and a half of study time. This was actually self-study time where we would have to go to the library and study on our own.
 |
| Doing a short meditation during my study time |
The main idea was to read more about what was discussed during the tutorials but we could actually decide to study any of the Bihar School of Yoga books available.
We also had an additional one hour twice a week for a combined study. We could then choose either to study in the library alone or in a group.
The evening program
Every day at 6pm, right after dinner, we would have the evening program that lasted for about one hour and a half.
The program consisted mainly of doing mantra chanting followed by a few kirtans (devotional chants). I really enjoyed the evening programs but I didn't assist to all of them. Some kirtans are really beautiful and when the energy goes up everybody starts dancing.
This is another very important practice at the Bihar School of Yoga. Mantra chanting and kirtan are part of one of the four yogas called Bhakti Yoga, the devotional yoga or the yoga of transmuting and channeling emotions.
Not only during the evening programs but also at the beginning of the APMB class we also dedicated plenty of time to mantra chanting.
I think all the students in the course were very open to this practice, nobody really understands how it works but we all believe that there is an invisible transformation that takes place while chanting all these mantras.
At the beginning of my journey in India, I had a bit of resistance to all this mantra chanting but a year and a half later I feel more open to it. I just let it happen. Perhaps I've been brainwashed! Lol.
One very special event was the Ekadashi day which happens twice a month. On this day the residents chant the whole Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit in about two hours and a half.
That was amazing but I didn't always manage to stay for the whole program. Two hours and a half sitting with crossed legs on the floor listening to Sanskrit chanting can be quite intense.
Some days we wouldn't have any evening program so the buildings would be locked at 6.30pm! Or sometimes instead of the evening program we had evening seva, but this happened on very few occasions.
Course Schedule
As soon as the course started we were all divided into two groups, groups A and B, and we stayed in these groups for the whole duration of the course.
During the first week, group A would have Study time in the morning and seva in the afternoon and Group B would have seva in the afternoon but study time in the morning. This would alternate each week.
During the course, we had a schedule for weekdays and a slightly different schedule for Saturdays and Sundays.
But the schedule changes every time there is a special event (quite frequently), especially after mid-November when the program in Rikhia starts.
After the Rikhia program, we had the Satsang Week, Christmas, and New Year which involved many different changes in the daily schedule. There were hardly any classes then, we were mostly doing seva.
Weekdays Schedule
05:00 to 06:20 APMB (Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha)
06:30 to 07:00 Breakfast
07:00 to 07:50 Cleaning Seva
08:00 to 09:45 Group A: Study; Group B: Seva
10:00 to 10:50 Yoga Nidra
13:00 to 13:30 Tea
13:30 to 14:30 Tutorials (Monday, Wednesday, Friday); Combined Study (Tuesday and Thursday)
14:45 to 16:45 Group A: Seva; Group B: Study
17:00 to 17:45 Dinner
18:00 to 19:00 Evening program
Saturday Schedule
06:00 to 06:30 Breakfast
06:30 to 07:45 Cleaning Seva
08:00 to 10:45 Assignment
11:00 to 12:00 Lunch
13:00 to 13:30 Tea
14:45 to 16:45 Combined Seva
17:00 to 17:45 Dinner
18:00 to 19:00 Evening program
Sunday Schedule
06:00 to 06:30 Breakfast
06:30 to 07:45 Cleaning Seva
08:00 to 10:45 Combined Seva
11:00 to 12:00 Lunch
13:00 to 13:30 Tea
17:00 to 17:45 Dinner
18:00 to 19:00 Evening program
The Rikhia Program
The Four Months Yogic Studies Course included in mid-November a two-week visit to Rikhiapeeth. This is another ashram founded by Swami Satyananda in a place called Rikhia.
We were there to join the Sat Chandi Mahayajna and Yoga Poornima events. We would be basically doing seva all day long.
I was in group A. We went to Rikhia for one week around the 14 of November, then we returned to the ashram in Munger for two weeks and then we went back to Rikhia for one more week during the Yoga Poornima.
The students in group B went to Rikhia during the two weeks that group A had returned to the ashram in Munger, and they joined the Sat Chandi Mahayajna.
I was a bit nervous at the beginning. I didn't know how I would feel doing seva all day long but it was actually a beautiful and rewarding experience. To me, this was one of the highlights of the course.
It was not mandatory to join this program, we could choose not to go and stay at the ashram following the normal course schedule.
There were a few people who didn't join the first week but after listening to the comments of the first group everybody decided to join the second week.
To learn more about the program in Rikhia you can read Yoga and volunteer work in India: a rewarding experience
Ashram rules - pushing your buttons
So far this is the ashram with the most strict rules that I have been into.
I believe this is all part of the purification process. They don't want to make things easy for you but rather difficult to push your buttons and bring subconscious negative patterns to the surface.
And this happens even right from the application process. They ask for so many papers and since they don't use e-mail communication sometimes it can be quite frustrating.
“Send us a fax.” I hated every time they told me that on the phone.
Upon my arrival, I had an interview with one of the swamis. She told me that winter would get quite cold and that there is no heating system or hot water.
She asked me if I was ok with that. I told her that if I would be able to use my portable water heater (which I had bought specifically to come to this ashram) to drink some hot water I would be just fine.
She answered right away that it was not allowed to use water heaters or any other electrical device whatsoever, especially mobile phones. There are actually no electrical connections in the buildings so this was not really possible.
Like in many ashrams women and men are allocated in separate buildings, but on top of that in this ashram, each building was actually locked after the evening program.
The buildings would remain locked from 7.30pm until the next day at 4.00am (please don't ask me what would happen in case of fire).
The buildings were also locked during the evening program so you either joined the program or just stayed in your room counting your toes. And if there was no evening program then the buildings would be locked at 6.30pm.
It was like being in a prison, and all windows were protected with metal bars. The funny thing is that we did not only give up our freedom voluntarily but we even paid for this!
The cold water shower was a big challenge for me even though I've been trying to train with cold water for a while.
In October, when the weather was extremely hot and you felt like taking 10 showers a day, I would still feel that the water was too cold for me. December and January were a real pain. But don't worry, we all survived.
And there were many other random things to challenge you day by day: having your room on the second floor while the bathrooms were on the ground floor (that's annoying when you feel like going to the toilet in the middle of the night, especially if you have diarrhea!).
Sometimes you would plan to do something in your free time after lunch but then all of a sudden somebody would give you a note to go to the reception at 12.00.
Sometimes you were really looking forward to your study time but then without any previous notification we would have a random meeting and the study time would be canceled.
Or sometimes you would be relaxing during a day off and then somebody would ask you to help with some seva. I really hated that one!
Oh and seva... it is said that seva is also efficiency in action. Well, I guess in an ashram this is not really applicable because their purpose is not to make profits but to create an environment for self-transformation.
So if you find yourself doing some duty that doesn't make any sense at all, it is there perhaps to create a mental reaction in you and bring to the surface unconscious negative patterns.
Staying in an ashram requires some sacrifices, giving up many of the things that make us feel comfortable.
This is called tapas (austerity), and four months can feel like a very long time to practice tapas. But it is rewarding to know that you can indeed live without all that comfort that we are so used to in the Western world. This is real mental training.
How to pay the fees for the four months yoga course
When I did the course from October 2011 until January 2012 I had to pay EUR 1,200 for the four months. This included food and accommodation only. I have not been able to find out about the fees in 2019.
I had to pay for the training in cash which meant that I had to go out of the ashram to withdraw money. This was expensive and inconvenient.
In India, almost every ATM charges about 300 rupees commission per withdrawal, and there is a limit of max 10,000 rupees. That's on top of the commission and the exchange markup that your bank might charge you.
So I had to go out multiple times to be able to withdraw all the money to pay the fee for the course.
I would rather recommend you use an online money transfer service like Wise.
With this service, you can make transfers to Indian rupees from pretty much any currency. It is much cheaper than bank transactions and you can do it directly from your smartphone in no time.
You can read all about it in How to Avoid Bank Fees While Traveling Asia as a Yoga Nomad, or just use directly my referral link and get a free transfer of up to EUR500!
It seems that nowadays they do accept credit card payments but they will charge you a commission. I think the cheapest and most convenient will still be Wise.
About the Bihar School of Yoga ashram
The Bihar School of Yoga was founded in 1964 by Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati. The current spiritual director and guru of the ashram is Swami Niranjanananda, a disciple trained by Swami Satyananda for this purpose.
Swami Niranjanananda founded in 1994 Bihar Yoga Bharati, an Institute for Advanced Studies in Yogic Sciences. Bihar Yoga Bharati is dedicated to the study of yoga in a Gurukul environment.
It is actually through this institution, that the Four-Month Yogic Studies Course is offered to students. The physical location is the same as the Bihar School of Yoga.
Ashram facilities
There are a lot of trees and flowers around the ashram which creates a really nice and pure atmosphere.
But you should never get attached to any of the nice trees. During my stay, they were constantly cutting and planting new trees. I don't know the real reason but it seemed to me that they try to make sure that there are no “hiding” places around, if you know what I mean.
One of my favorite spots was the garden just behind the peacock cage. In the days that I would be struggling hard with my emotions, I would sit there and just practice being present, being aware of everything.
When you sit still and quiet everything becomes alive. The animals forget that you are there. It's very easy to see lots of beautiful exotic birds flying around, squirrels smelling your feet and even huge lizards walking on the grass.
Some of the accommodation buildings are pretty new and decent. I was lucky to be in one of them.
All rooms are twin rooms so you normally need to share your room with only one person. It is all very basic, with two beds, a small closet, four walls and a window. There is a fan with only one speed, two lights, and no electrical connections.
Ashram food
Lunch and dinner were usually pretty good, healthy Indian vegetarian food, and it was not difficult at all to tolerate it for four months.
Actually, since leaving the ashram I have had a very hard time trying to adjust back to eating regular Indian restaurant food, I'm missing the ashram food!
At the ashram, I was eating a lot and after just half an hour I would feel empty but now that I'm back outside into the real world, free to eat whatever I want, I can barely eat two meals a day anymore!
The breakfast was rather disappointing and it was actually the same menu every week. My favorite days were when we would get porridge (I think that was Thursday) or when there would be some leftovers from the last dinner.
One important thing to be aware of is that you don't get fruits at all during meals. Luckily there were two men (the medicine man or the market man) visiting the ashram every day so you could order anything that you might need from the market, like medicines or fruits.
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Ashram contact information
Bihar School of Yoga,
Ganga Darshan, Fort
Munger, Bihar 811201, India
Bihar Yoga Bharati
Yoga Vidya Campus
P.O.Ganga Darshan, Fort
Munger, Bihar 811201, India
Phone: +91 6344 222430 / +91 6344 228603/ +91 9162 783904
Fax: +91 6344 220169
(Lunchtime is between 11 am and 1.30 pm)
For all details about the Four-Month or Three-Month Yogic Study Course, you can visit the Bihar Yoga Bharati website.
Related blog posts
- Yoga and volunteer work in India: a rewarding experience: about Satchandi Mahayajna and Yoga Poornima in Rikhia.
- Yoga Sadhana: overcoming negative emotions About the challenges that I faced during the 4 months course.
- 10 BEST Yoga Teacher Training Courses in India. My curated list of some of the best yoga TTC based on personal experience and friends recommendations.
- How to Find the BEST Yoga Teacher Training in India for YOU. Here you'll find a few tips to help you find and choose the best yoga TTC for you.
- Guide to Ashrams in India: Yoga Retreats in India and More
- What to Pack for Your Next Travel and Yoga Adventure to India: Everything you need to pack to visit an ashram in India.
- How to Avoid Bank Fees While Traveling Asia as a Yoga Nomad
Before you go
So this is all I can share about my experience doing the Four Months Yogic Study Course at the Bihar School of Yoga. I hope you have found it informative and feel motivated to join their program at some point in the future.
Before you pack your bags I suggest you visit my detailed packing list for India. You'll find in it everything you could possibly need to travel and stay at any Indian ashram.
Don't forget to also visit my guide to ashrams in India. These are all the ashrams that I have personally visited in India. Fifteen ashrams so far!
If you've visited the Bihar School of Yoga before please feel free to share a bit about your experience in the comment section below, and if you enjoy reading this article I would appreciate you sharing it with your friends. Thanks for your support!
Great! Karate Kid :-)
ReplyDeletenice review of the programme, thanks for sharing. hair om tat sat!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments ;-)
ReplyDeletethanks a lot marco - this is very interesting! it sounds super scary - and strange.i just met another guy in a german ashram who dod the program and said the same about his experiences with seva - he learned a lot! anyways - proud of you for going through it!!!! petra jaya
ReplyDeleteI've never been to any ashram except for Sivananda... This one sounds so different. It's good to know, I would actually love to go there, the way u mentioned things just not going on the way it was planned is just like life... We plan and things go the other way n we struggle to adjust. But after having 4months under these circumstances one will b more prepared to face life than actually having a routine life in the ashram n feeling disoriented when u get out of the ashram.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your detailed account of what is going on at the bihar school in Munger, I heard before that is not an ashram but a giant washing machine, I personally will never pay to do karma yoga, that's ridiculous, you do it in exchange for accommodation and meals. It is terribly sad how the bihar school has degenerated into numbing people specially when we consider they have the best yoga treatises ever by Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
ReplyDeleteTrue.the system will try its best to kill your soul and convert you into a sheep.
Deletedoes one have to shave their head? for the women, where do they find a hairdresser?
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 1: Haaa, a washing machine? Well I did feel like in a washing machine but because of the emotional purification and that's a good thing. I hope you didn't get a negative impression from what I wrote, I think this was an extraordinary experience. Swami Satyananda always made great emphasis on Karma Yoga because he considered it to be the easiest and most effective way to purify the mind and make it ready for more advance practice like meditation.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 2: No, nobody needs to shave their head but if you wish to then there is a hairdresser coming to the ashram once in a while to shave all the swami's heads :-) I heard he is really good at it.
Hi Anisha! Well, I don't know if you are more prepared to face life after 4 months at the BSY but the experience there is invaluable, real mental training. When I left the ashram I was a mess :-P and it took me a while to come back to normal, if you read my other post "Yoga Sadhana, Overcoming Negative Emotions" you'll understand why.
ReplyDeleteMarco, thank you for such an interesting review, as I was also thinking about BSY. I am not sure about that anymore. i did read most of your posts about the ashram and it does sound life a tough experience, lots of respect for that! I was just wondering if you feel it was so cleansing for you spirit, why did you still left the place feeling all the mess, aren't you supposed to gain the peace and leave the place feeling harmony?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Agrippina. Well, it's a bit difficult to explain. I think some people have the view that going to an ashram is like going for holidays where you can just relax and do some yoga and leave the place with a big smile, but that's not usually the case and specially not at the BSY.
ReplyDeleteAn ashram is a place for sadhana, spiritual practices for self transformation and the process of mental and emotional purification can be painful. Facing the trash that we have accumulated in the unconscious mind might be a difficult experience. That's why the yogis don't recommend LSD or other kind of drugs cause those drugs might give us an extraordinary experience but they can also bring to our awareness stuff that we are not prepared to see, and besides they will affect the nervous system but the yogi is trying to purify his nervous system.
So why did I left feeling like a mess? Well, I want to transform myself and this ashram gave me that opportunity but the process is painful and takes time. The peace and harmony will come a bit later and that's fine. And now I'm even thinking about returning for the 6 months seva program, I must be crazy! :-D But that's my personal stage and my personal experience, your experience might be completely different than mine so if you go to the ashram please come back here and share your experience. Thanks again
And just to clarify myself, spending some time at an ashram can also be a beautiful wonderful experience and you can leave the place feeling lots of peace and harmony, I've personally experienced this before, but there are different personal stages and things are not always like a rainbow. Inside or outside and ahsram life will give us difficult situations so we can learn and grow, but an ashram is created specifically for that. I hope this answers your question
ReplyDeleteHari om marco,
ReplyDeletei try since some time to get to know how much this 4 month course costs?! cant find it. do you know? and do you know if there is no 4 month course from okt13 to feb14? maybe because of the world yoga convention? thanks for answering. uma
Hi Uma, I think the course was 1,200 EUR when I did it. That includes everything except your transportation to and out of the ashram. I don't know if they have a course next October, you can try to call them and ask them directly. Good luck!
DeleteHey Marco -
ReplyDeletethanks so much for sharing such details account of your experiences. I am struggling with deciding upon a good yoga TTC. I need to do it soon coz I am moving to Santiago in a couple of months. If there could be a short term(upto 2 months) intensive course that you could suggest, which one would it be?
Hi VJ, thanks for your comment. Well the one that I know is the Sivananda TTC. It takes one month and the ATTC (advance teacher training course) takes another month, you might be able to do one after the other one. I wrote about both trainings in my blog, just use the search bar on the top of the right column of my blog to find them.
ReplyDeleteI spent one year over there when I attended the Diploma in Applied Yogic Studies, from 2001-2002. I had a lot of negative impression about the place, even though there are good things to learn. Definitely, bad experiences are inclusive, but the best part is as you said, "Push the buttons" and, a great library to learn from. They have an amazing collection of books. I spent a very good time in the library and we had a great batch, with mates sharing all kinds of wisdom and even had great discussions and orientation on different masters, cults and comparing the teachings. It is not just about the schedule or what they teach there, but the entire exposure it brings like meeting different kinds of people. Of course, the negativity brought a nice change in me. It does change the character, definitely and the food is very plain and simple to make you choiceless.
ReplyDeleteCertainly it is one of the most unique systems in India, and a very effective one. I don't know how much has changed now, but the strict routine is really crushing on the ego, the body and the entire system and for some it is really hard and I have noticed students fall sick and lose weight heavily and finally they had to be leave half way through the course. A very beautiful woman became almost unrecognizable by the end of the four month certificate course and lost her voice. It finally depends on you much you want to get channeled to the system and what goal one has set for himself/herself. I have interesting memories of this place. Karma Yoga is a good thing and even when my dad was studying with the Ramakrishna Home, Chennai way back in 1940s, he also was assigned duties of cleaning etc.
Shyam R
Hi Shyam, thanks for sharing your impressions from the Bihar School of Yoga. You spent one year there?! Wow, that must have been a very intense and transformative experience, I barely managed to handle 4 months :-)
DeleteHi Marco adding to the comment is link to my colleague's wonderful experience of joining Ashram... I will update experience too and link it soon to comment here...OM.
ReplyDeletehttp://myindianeyes.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/wishes-do-come-true-my-journey-to-ashram-life/
Hi Prabudha, wow your friend's journey to Bihar School of Yoga is fascinating and she tells the story in such a beautiful way. Thanks a lot for sharing her story here. I'm happy to share the link again so others can visit her site and read the story: http://myindianeyes.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/wishes-do-come-true-my-journey-to-ashram-life/
DeleteHi Marco, thank you very much for your description. IMHO the ashram itself should post the description on what's going on there, incl. schedule, but they did not do it, so people like me have to learn it from posts like yours. Thus my sincere appreciation for your comments.
ReplyDeleteNow about real question. The important thing is of course not so much what method is used but how effective this method is on your spiritual path, how much it helps you to get closer to your goals. You say, the life there brings on the surface negative emotions. Well, you do not have to go an ashram to get a lot of negative emotions - there are plenty of them in our usual life. The point is to BE AWARE of them and DO SOMETHING about it, to overcome them... Because if the practice stops at showing you your emotions/problems/issues, than it's not an effective practice, to say the least. A good practice should be designed to eliminate them in an efficient way. Your description places with me many question marks about efficacy of the practice, as in fact you do not mention any tools besides chanting and of course the provided environment which is used at the ashram... And those examples of sick people... Do poor conditions really contribute to your spiritual growth? Do they purify you? From books on Bihar Yoga I understand that there many techniques (from the founder) that can and must be learned, which can help you. This is (for me) would be the purpose of going to an ashram, and this does not have anything to do with relaxation spot or/and happy smile. So why are all those wonderful techniques are not taught at the ashram????? Did you ask this question at the end? Everybody will make up his own mind, but this place I'll pass.
Well decribed experience with honesty . This four month course is not meant to make a yoga teacher. They explained everything and also have a orientation period for the students before final admission. Different experinces is also all about what we expect .
ReplyDeletehow to download free yoga book
ReplyDeleteHi guys can anyone tell me what the interview and written test is like. What sort of questions they ask as i'm about to go for the interview in next 15 days. Do i need to read yoga books as im a beginner with minimal knowledge about the yoga or asans.
ReplyDeletethank you for sharing this! i spent a month in munger on a scholarship programme for indian students in 2010 and it changed my life. since i'd done a lot of yoga earlier, i was also not very sure what i was really achieving by doing the basic asanas in a 90 minute class, but i think it helped to have a teacher who was very sensitive to how we were doing it. looking back, if i was looking for specific asana-based training, it might have not been so focused. but it really made me aware of my breath (i am a mouth breather) and of nuances in movement (and a dancer). I've been planning to go back for a short spell this year. Surprisingly, what you said about the fruits was interesting - I was there in June, when their trees were laden with fruit - and there was more fruit than mouths to eat it. So we had mangoes, bananas and black grapes at almost every meal!
ReplyDeletePersonally the BSY Rikhiapeeth was a disappointing experience. Most of the sanyasis & sanyasinis seem to have a sad appearance. There was a forced cultivated attitude of smiling and talking. When you sit back and observe the volunteer sanyasis there was a sort of cloud when they were standing by themselves. They all seemed unhappy and I could feel it in the air. Also talking to the ground level staff helps you to understand the reality. It is a controlled environment with no regular schedule, and seems like a front for getting their day to day work done through free labor. Swami Satyananda was a true visionary and had a good aura, but the current heads of both centers somehow seem to be without any JOY. Something is missing in this place. Maybe the 80-20 rule, a law of nature, applies where 80% have to be incompetent in any organisation.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible to register by e mail? I have not found.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. Om tat sat.
@Ricardo. Hi Ricardo, unfortunately no, they have choose to not use any email communication. You have to apply using regular mail.
DeleteI am going this year, by the end of September. Is there anyone going from Europe, so we can travel together? If yes, could you please send me an email on neketamostvari@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteI appreciated a lot your sharing. Very enlightening. Keep up the good work! And thank you.
ReplyDeleteMarco, thanks a million for sharing. The same to all contributors for valuable info.
ReplyDeleteI've finally received a letter via "snail mail", with "provisional admission" to the 4 months' studies Oct. 14. I both dread and look forward to the challenge!
Could you please tell me on what ashram activities we must follow the BYB dress code (dress in their outfits)? For classes and seva, or all day around? I need to know for what occations I shall bring own clothes. (I suppose there are some rules for private clothing as well?)
I've written above "anonymous" directly. If anyone else going via Patna for same program: I've hired a hotel car for Munger/BYB on September 18th and will be pleased to offer 2 students a ride. (Can eventually postpone 1 day)
Hi Bente.
DeleteWell first of all congratulations for deciding to join this program and for being accepted to it :-) . It can be a challenge but I'm sure you'll have a wonderful and transformative experience :-).
You can use the uniform all day long if you want to, but I think you definitely need to use it for the classes and some events. I didn't like to wear the uniform so many times during the breaks and seva I used my own clothes, though I can't remember exactly how it was. If at any moment you use your own clothes you just need to make sure that they don't offend the local culture, so nothing provocative at all and ensuring that your shoulders are covered.
I hope you'll be able to share your taxi with others; that would be really awesome cause I'm sure many other people will be traveling by themselves and could definitely share a car.
Thanks a lot Marco for sharing such details
ReplyDeleteTHANKS A MILLION, MARCO!
ReplyDeleteMy offer for a ride from Patna to Ganga Darshan is on September 19th.
I have booked vehicle and driver from my hotel in Patna. The drive takes about 4 hours.
Hey, I didn't see any mention about the price of the course? I suppose it wasn't for free? n__n
ReplyDelete(I've been to a Bihar School of Yoga yogashram in Bangalore before. It did cost something, but totally not much.)
Hi Heidi, yeah that's true, for some reason I never mention the cost of this kind of courses, but I think it was 1300 USD for the four months, everything included but non refundable. I suggest you get in touch with them to make sure that's still the cost.
DeleteI SURVIVED THE Y.S.
ReplyDeleteand I'm savely back home with my Diploma and a straight "A".
It was tough, both to the freezing winter that lastet long and in general the "gurukul" life style with it's strict rules is demanding. But I learned a lot and feel very good, practicing my "yoga capsule" diligently every day.
Hope life is treating you well, Marco.
Hari Om and much Meta,
Bente
Hi Bente, good to hear that you "survived" the experience at BSY :-) It's an experience that will probably stay with you for the rest of your life, in a good way of course.
DeleteI'm very good thank you, doing a gurukulam at SRSG in Rishikesh. Nothing like BSY but it does has some challenges, and winter is way colder and longer here :-)
Enjoy your daily yoga capsule :-)
Marco,that's really the most vivid and detailed explanation on yoga experience ever.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Regards.
Marco, would you please consider removing this endorsement in light of the child sexual abuse charges against this organization? For more information please see - matthewremski.com/wordpress/boycott-satyanandas-literature-and-methods-until-reparations-are-made-for-sexual-abuse/ and also https://www.facebook.com/groups/sy.reavealthetruth/
ReplyDeletePlease help others to avoid being trapped in their web of deceit and make your readers aware of the dangers of Bihar School of Yoga
hi anyone hv know where is the application forms?
ReplyDeleteamol
Om
ReplyDeleteGood to see all the details n I m really interested to join this 4 months course, I have done 1 month TTC also. Would be better if email-I'd is there, I tried to call in the mentioned phone numbers but not getting line. Please help.
Hi Deepa, I understand, they choose not to use email but even you call them they won't help you much. They prefer if you contact them by post. Try to visit their websites from the links that I have shared. Perahps they have changed their phone numbers
DeleteVery nice information. Like you I have also done YIC from Svyasa and whatever you have stated is correct. Even I felt the same way. I have also done course from MDNIY delhi and that is also a good institute. I'm going for the Vipasanna in Bodh gaya and the 4 month course from Bsy in hindi and post that will do diploma from Kaivalyadhama in Pune.
ReplyDeleteHi Super Anush, that sounds like an awesome path, first Vipassana in Bodhgaya and then Bihar. Good luck, it's going to be an amazing experience. All the best. Namaste.
DeleteNamaste everyone! Guys, have you heard that they do not offer this program to foreigners anymore. I am not sure, if it is a correct information. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy first ashram experience at 2 years old was sleeping on roll out straw mats with two blankets which we used as a mattress . In the winter one of those blankets was to keep warm .. We also had no hot water and had to use cold bucket wash at 4.30 am .. I shared with 10 others in room and one toilet ..we use to fight to use it before everyone else to be on time to get into the temple at 5 .. It was a Iskon Hari Krishna temple in India and I stayed for 6 months . Now every other ashram seems opulent .
ReplyDeleteThank you for your detailed information Marco! I have sent my application in back in February. I sent an application three years ago and received my acceptance letter two days before I was supposed to be there so I went to Madurai, India to Sivananda Yoga Ashram. My heart still wants to go to Bihar School of Yoga though. I was wondering, if for some reason I don't get my acceptance letter by the end of August, I wonder if I could just show up there three weeks ahead of time with my application in hand, I wonder if they would allow me to join the course? I've tried calling but no answer, the phone is always busy or I cannot get a connection. So I figured I'd just show up. Looking forward...Carol
ReplyDeleteDear Carol
ReplyDeleteWhat you describe is for me sort of BSY in a "nutshell". You need lots of patience and energy for both application and for participation on an eventual course. You must do all according to BSY rules and instructions. You can not just go there!! And make sure you apply for correct Indian visa.The application process is only a pretest for what you will have to endure later at BSY. Make sure you're both mentally and physically fit for the course! It is hard!
Wishing you all the best.
1300 usd means in indian currency what is it????
ReplyDeleteHi Marco, I'm thinking of doing the yogic studies course next year or blog has been a useful source of info. One question I haven't found answered is are there western toilets to use? I don't think I can handle 4 months of squatting...or should I say my bad knee can't handle it ;)
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa! Yes there are so no need to worries. You'll find both type of toilets. But be aware that during a lot of activities you'll need to sit cross leg on the floor, for events or lectures. Maybe you can request for a chair if you have troubles with your knees. Good luck, I hope you'll enjoy the experience :-)
DeleteHi Lisa.
ReplyDeleteI had problems sitting during different kinds of karma yoga. I managed to get a permission to buy my own small plastic "chair" to use in the kitchen. The "Market Man" fixes most of students' needs. Just ask for permission first!
Hi Marco, firstly thank you for such wonderful blog. (I've read your blogs on other ashrams as well, very helpful information). Anyways I am going for this course in few days. Truthfully, I was excited as first because I thought it was just hatha yoga and seva. Well I was expecting the hatha to me more intense or more focused on. However I got from your reading is that the course is more seva and less hatha. After finishing reading your blog I questioned myself about going through the course but at the same time I want to go and experience it for myself.
ReplyDeletehello sir i just wanted to know about the fee structure and the month of the course when it will start.
ReplyDeleteHi Marco.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to know what all we can take along with us there?
Please help me with it as I'll be going this October.
Hi Marco.
ReplyDeleteCan you please let me know what all do I need to take there along with me as I'll be going this October.
Hi Marco.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to know what all we can take along with us there?
Please help me with it as I'll be going this October.
Namaste Marco!
ReplyDeleteAre musical instruments allowed during the 4 months’ residency course?
Thanks!
Hi Kiran! Yes they are ;-) Namaste
ReplyDeleteHari om
ReplyDeleteMarco Pino thank you for sharing
i can't find fee detail, can you please help me
Hi Naresh, I have recently updated this article, so now you can find all details about the fees, at least as far as I can remember ;-)
DeleteMarco! Gracia spor este informacion, tenia ganas de hacer algun programa en este ashram, ms que nada por el hecho de que Swami NIranjananda me impresiona mucho con su personalidad /lo poco que le conoci por youtube/ POdrias contar algo hacerca de el, si es que hayas podido tener contacto alguno?
ReplyDeleteGracias
Hola Magdalena, mas vale tarde que nunca :-) No te podria decir mucho sobre Swami Niranjananda. Durante el curso tuvimos muy poco contacto con el. Nos dio un par charlas, a parte de charles durante diferente programas en el ashram. Personalmente yo siento mas afinidad hacia Swami Satyananda.
DeleteThank you for your detailed information. Thanks for sharing this useful blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you Ankita for taking the time to read my blog :-)
DeleteHI MARCO CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR ADMISSION PROCESS. DID YOU SEND MONEY IN APPLICATION FORM.AND ABOUT WRITTEN TEST AND INTERVIEW AND FEE FOR COURSE
ReplyDeleteHi Aayush, I have written about all that in this article. Please go through it again. I'm sure you'll find all the answers you might need.
DeleteHari Om Marco!
ReplyDeleteI just completed the 3 months course, I'm discovering your blog following the advice of someone in the ashram and it's really nice to read your review now! It seems quite a lot of things changed since you did it, here as some of them if you want to add them to your article:
- there are now two 90 min classes per day, hatha yoga in the morning (which is still very slow in progression) and raja yoga in the afternoon which actually also covers karma, bhakti and jnana yoga, giving us guidelines on how to get the most out of seva and how to be more aware in general and improve (using spiritual diary for example),
- there is no free time to study, only a 90 min break after lunch, and we cannot access the library except to clean it,
- we didn't go to Rikhia,
- the kitchen is giving hot water and there are water heater available for showers,
- the price for the course was about 200 euros for the Indians and 1500 euros for the foreigners,
- mouna (silence) has to be observed between 6pm and 6am as well as during meals,
- at the beginning of the course we officially had 4.5 hours of seva per day (plus extra weekly seva) and this was reduced to 3 hours only after half of the course when the hatha class was move from 5:00-6:30am to 8:00-9:30am.
And while I'm here: do you have recommendations of training in Nepal (or in India) focusing on Tibetan yoga, Kriya yoga or kundalini? The special 300 TTC from Swami Krishnananda Yogashala you mention in one of your article seems very interesting and I'm curious of your other recommendations you could have!
Hari Om Tat Sat!
No free time to study?! Oh no, that was my favorite thing. You didn't go to Rikhia?! That's also disappointing, it was one of the best experiences I ever had. Well, at least you got hot water now. Lol. Thanks for sharing brother.
DeleteOh and sorry, I don't know about any Kriya Yoga or Kundalini yoga trainings. I will go to Inteyoga (Swami Krishnanada Yogashala) in April for the yoga nidra course ;-)
DeleteHey marco, do they accept you as monk if you want to train under a master for like 10 years or something? Like living there as a monk. Please if you can answer I tried every way to contact them but phones are dead.
ReplyDeleteHey, the word used for monk in Indian ashrams is swami. I'm sure you can become a swami in their tradition. They sometimes have a three years sannyasa program which is sort of an introduction to becoming a swami. The best advice that I can give you is that you go there and try it by yourself. You need to know the place and be fully familiar with the tradition before taking any decisions. It is not easy to live in an ashram and 10 years is a long time. Another option is to try Rikhiapeeth which is a sister ashram of Bihar School of Yoga. Good luck.
Deletevery informative I'm going to visit India and BSY in spring or summer . Thanks a lot dear Marco
ReplyDeleteThanks to you dear brother/sister 😊🙏
DeleteHello Marco. Very interesting to read about your experiences at BSY. Thank you for the account. I have always been curious. In length of this, I was wondering how you feel about the disturbing allegations and investigations concerning BSY and sexual abuse? Especially, I find it worrying that the school itself has been so hesitant to make any sort of public anouncements or offer support for the victims.
ReplyDeleteOverview
https://www.theluminescent.org/2017/12/a-culture-of-silence-satyananda-yoga.html
Official inquiry
https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/file-list/Case%20Study%2021%20-%20Submission%20-%20Satyananda%20Yoga%20Ashram%20-%20Submissions%20on%20behalf%20of%20Bihar%20School%20of%20Yoga.pdf?guid=23e80e3e-61bd-4ffe-894e-751e856d251a&type=transcriptpdf&filename=Submissions-on-behalf-of-Bihar-School-of-Yoga&fileextension=pdf
I think each one of us will have to make our own conclusions. There are these types of allegations against almost every guru or school out there. I don't put my energy on those things and rather focus on all the positives that I have received from all these traditions and masters. Also, it is hard to know the whole truth from reading these types of accusations. Instead, reading about them will just leave you with negative thoughts and doubts. I do believe that all ashrams/schools should take these matters seriously and ensure that there is no opportunity for something like this to happen at all. They should also have clear policies and action steps in case something like this happens. To protect both sides, a teacher should never meet a student in a private secluded place.
DeletePlease be aware that there have been several allegations of sexual abuse against central figures of BSY in India and Australia. Do a simple search for more information on the subject.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the sharing Marco. I am planning to go to India for Yoga, and your blogs help a lot. I just checked this program, It becomes 2 months now.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yeah, I've heard things have changed. If you do join the course please share something about your experience with us here in the comments. That would be so helpful for all.
DeleteCool, super grateful for this. I was taken to the ashram in Victoria (Australia) since I was a baby, and sometimes go these days for a week for their karma yoga program. I really enjoy it and get a lot out of it, but there is a weird sort of suppressed swadishtana and visshudhi energy vibe. I even noticed the chanting is not powerful. I wonder if it's like that from all the sexual scandal and history there etc over the years.
ReplyDeleteIn anycase, I wonder if you experienced the affects of that there, and if you've been there in recent years. I'm a little bit put off by the admissions process and all the (what I deem to be unnecessary) details they require but I might put my ego side if you believe it's still worthwhile.
I haven't been then since my 4 month course, but I would love to be back. Yeah, it's a pain the admission process but I think it is still worth it, one of the best things I've done in my life. But now I would probably feel more inclined to visit the ashram in Rikhia. I think you should also check that one out.
DeleteWow thank you! I never knew there was an ashram in Rikhia but I see they have a seva retreat in November, and Kriya retreat in December. I think I'll try this first, and then see if that leads me to the main one in Munger. Amazing, thank you again.
DeleteOh that sounds great, please please, make sure you drop a comment here after to tell us about your experience. I'll be very curious to know how it went.
DeleteAbsolutely, I’ll owe you a review soon. :) 🙏
ReplyDelete