Thread by @Satyamshakti9

What are the similarities and differences between the forms of meditation taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, Sadhguru, and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar?
#meditation

Many people know who is Maharshi Mahesh Yogi, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Rishi Prabhakar, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev but very few know about their source which was none other than Swami Brahmananda Saraswati who was the Shankaracharya of the Jyotir Math.
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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was a personal secretary to Swami Brahmananda Saraswati and one of his closest disciples. Even though he couldn’t become his successor as the next Shankaracharya, he did learn many meditation techniques from him.
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After Swami Brahmananda Saraswati left his body, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi traveled to the west teaching meditation technique which is popularly known as Transcendental Meditation.
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Sri Sri Ravishankar was a disciple of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He was very young & energetic in his teens & most interested in talks, conferences, meditations of Mahesh Yogi. However, he separated from TM organization & set up Art of Living Foundation which is very popular today.

Rishi Prabhakar also served Mahesh Yogi as his follower and disciple. After that, he came to India and spent some years in seclusion after which he started his own organization called Siddha Samadhi Yoga.
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Jaggi Vasudev or Sadhguru needs no introduction as he is a popular Guru today for 7 mn + followers. He was a part of Siddha Samadhi Yoga of Rishi Prabhakar. He did SSY’s teacher training course and was a well-known teacher there who later started Isha Foundation.
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I could have just pointed out the similarities and differences between their teachings but I wanted to show the lineage so that it will help you understand how the techniques were influenced and which of the techniques were their own creation.
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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Technique = Transcendental meditation technique is the most popular, as it was one of the first meditation techniques given to public as a course offering. This meditation is based on a Sanskrit beej mantra that has no particular meaning.
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The meditator just keeps chanting the mantra given to him repeatedly until he transcends the mind. Even as it appears to be very simple, its the only meditation technique on which several types of research were conducted & found to be very beneficial for the mind.
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But, how did Maharshi Mahesh Yogi get all these Sanskrit Beeja mantras? Obviously, it has to be from his Guru which is why I share his photo here. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi also acknowledges this and has a deep respect for his Guru and doesn’t hide anything.
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There were few research papers that proved that Transcendental Meditation gave more benefits than Mindfulness Meditation.
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Ravishankar understood very soon that Transcendental Meditation works but many people find themselves bored to just sit and chant a particular sound with closed eyes. Hence, he added specific breathing techniques which popularly became known as Sudarshan Kriya.
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This is very similar to Wim Hof’s breathing technique which causes hyperventilation. Since Sri Sri knew the benefit of Transcendental Meditation on the mind, he added the same technique with a different name, patented it & offered itas an advanced course in silence.
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However, Ravishankar does mention Mahesh Yogi on certain occasions and for Guru Puja, he includes his name but he stopped using his photograph during Guru Puja after becoming famous.
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Rishi Prabhakar = His approach was similar to Ravishankar's. He wanted to create a new package for spirituality with TM technique as an advanced final step. He went even further and added the diet, warmup, asanas, breathing exercises, ...
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even some parts of the meditation from Osho those days which was known as dynamic meditation where people talked gibberish to let out their controlled emotions.
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Jaggi Vasudev = As I’ve mentioned before, he was a teacher in Rishi Prabhakar’s organization, and hence most of the techniques which he patented later under ISHA come from there with slight or no modifications. Example: Bhava Spandana, Shakti Chalana.
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However, the Shambhavi Mahamudra itself was a unique Kriya that might have been discovered by Sadhguru. Also, Isha Kriya was his own creation, although it encompasses a technique from Advaita Vedanta known as “Neti-Neti”.
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After the above points, I can conclude that Swami Brahmananda Saraswati played a huge role as an invisible force for the Gurus we have today.
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While Mahesh Yogi’s technique was about transcending the mind, Ravishankar’s was more about calming the mind, Rishi Prabhakar’s was to reaching the ultimate bliss with a holistic approach.
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Of course, Sadhguru marketed it better as a package and focused on energy and awareness (Samyama). I didn’t include Yogananda’s technique among these four because it falls under a different category.
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Credit: Siddarth T Jankiraman

Credit: **Ankita Shetty and not Siddharth T Jankiraman**

Paramahamsa Yogananda teaches Kriya Yoga, rediscovered by Lahiri Mahasaya in 19th century. Main problem with Kriya Yoga is, everyone says my kriya is original kriya that Lahiri Mahasaya taught; hence now there seem to be more Kriya masters than Kriya disciples.
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Sadhguru’s technique is somewhat relatable to Kriya Yoga as both use focusing on the third eye whereas TM and AOL practices are against such things.
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However, the grandmaster of Kriya Yoga, Lahiri Mahasaya was against building organizations or making people monks. So, it’s hard to believe that his original kriya is same as Yogananda teaches as he has modified many techniques in kriya yoga to please western audience.

Lahiri Mahasaya was a householder yogi and always told his disciples to marry and continue the Kriya. There are very few authentic lineages of Kriya Yoga left that can be traced to Lahiri Mahasaya. Bhattacharya and Chatterjee’s family are two such lineages left.
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Kriya Yoga’s main goal is to attain Nirvikalpa Samadhi by focusing on the spine & clearing the blockages, breaking the three granthis, doing the Kechari, and having a personal Guru-Disciple relationship which the other 4 organizations don’t talk about & hence is not comparable.

I know I haven’t talked much about the techniques and that’s because they are supposed to be kept secret and hence I have given just the general idea without getting into the depth.

Credit: Ankita Shetty