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YOGA IN GREECE
Swami Sivamurti Saraswati
I first visited the old Bihar School of Yoga in 1976. When I left, Paramahamsa Satyananda gave me some words of advice which have since helped me in my life. He told me that the Greeks were bhaktas and that yoga would spread like wild fire in Greece. He said that whatever happened in my life would be for my own good, and that nothing would be negative. It was these words that I kept with me throughout the years and throughout the difficulties which I had to face at different times in Greece. He also told me that he was never going to come to Greece.
Today my talk is going to be on how I was instrumental in bringing yoga to Greece, and how it has been spreading in Greece as well as in the Balkan countries. As Paramahamsa Niranjanananda said before, everything in Greece is topsyturvy and the mentality in Greece is completely different from the mentality with which I grew up as a child. I did not speak a word of Greek in the beginning. found a lady from Alexandria, who spoke English and Greek well. I gave her all my class notes written down in English which she translated and wrote down for me in Greek. In this way, I was able to hold my first classes in Greek.
Paramahamsaji had told me right from the beginning that we evolve through difficulties, and there were difficulties. Difficulties arose with the church because they thought this was another religion. Difficulties arose with the parents, because their sons and daughters came to learn yoga not only as a practice but also as a way of life. But the greatest difficulty of all was the statement Paramahamsaji had made, that he was never going to come to Greece.
It was in 1977 that I started teaching yoga in Greece. Towards the end of that year Paramahamsaji was in Spain. When I went there to meet him, I decided to take courage and ask him again "Are you coming to Greece, Swamiji?" He told me, "But naturally, I'm going to come to Greece." And the next
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