Welcome
Welcome to the website of yogini adept Maa Parvathi Nath Saraswati.
About Parvathi
 Parvathi was born in India into a family with ancient lineage of Yoga and Vedanta. Raised with these teachings and principles, at a very young age she began her training. She was formally initiated into the Pratyabhijnana Marga School of Kashmir Shaivism by a yogini adept. Over the years she received the full transmissions of this tradition integrating them with Yoga, Vedanta and Samaya Tantras (a specific scientific school of yoga wisdom). Later, she received the Shree Vidya transmissions through the eminent Shree Amritananda Saraswati of Devipuram.
Parvathi is the disciple of Shree Lalleshwari of Odyagiri and heir of the deepest tantric tradition of Kashmirian Shaivism. The lineage of the Nath goes back to Matsyendranath himself and through him to the oldest sources of Shaivism. It is to this emblematic master that Abhinavagupta pays homage in the opening of his Tantraloka, as initiator of the Kaula lineage. Kaula is the union of Shakti, kula, and Shiva, akula. Matsyendranath in his famous tantra, the Kaulajnananirnaya tantra, after presenting the lineage of his masters, states simply that he received the teachings directly from the Goddess Kali.
Parvathi underwent a beautiful and very strong training immersed in the direct teachings and sadhanas of the Yoginis, the Kaula tradition and the living philosophies of Kashmir Shaivism. She received the transmission of the deepest teachings of the Kaula lineage and became an adept in the art of mantras and the different sadhanas. She practiced the sadhana of the Ten Mahavidyas dedicated to Kali, Tara, Tripurasundari, Bhuvaneshvari, Chinnamasta, Bhairavi, Dhumavati, Baglamukhi, Matangi and Kamala. Then she was initiated to the teachings and cosmic practice of Shree Vidya that she transmits today. As the years passed she also received training in the Mishra and Samaya schools of Tantra. She is heir to three profound streams of Tantra and Yoga lineage. After extensive training and arduous testing, she was asked to teach by her teachers who themselves are lineage holders. She does this as a yogini sharing the transmissions, but not as a guru.
Later living in America, Parvathi founded Saraswati River Yoga School and co-founded Yogasphere. She trains teachers in this integrated method of yoga transmitted originally from the yoginis, the Vedas and the Tantras. Extensive travel, living in the West but undergoing arduous traditional training and testing by her teachers has given Parvathi a special ability to give pertinent and refined language to this consciousness work - revealing its integrated application and relevance.
As well, living a householder's life in the world - as a mother and a yogini - integrating yoga practice daily, has given Parvathi a unique perspective. She weaves the timeless wisdoms and ancient practices and texts into everyday life. Finding grace and wonder in life through the myriad of relationships is the aim of her yoga practice. To exist in non-duality, conversing with duality and being accountable to every level of relationship is the mastery of the yoginis.
Parvathi's study and training is captivating because it reveals the wisdom of this tradition expounding the great power of the yoginis and their lineages transmitted from woman to woman since the origins.
The Divine Feminine: Wisdom in Action
The Yogini Tradition was born when the ancient saints and sages appreciated and respected the power of the Feminine principle. Parvathi feels we must seek to recover this through practice and through action. The Feminine principle (Shakti) is the power of wisdom and compassion in action. This principle is not exclusive to any gender, it manifests in all beings, male and female. This is the interplay of life through senses, through desire, through justice and through relationships. In these practices, the cause of wonder, the power of creativity, spontaneity and wisdom are revealed. Yoga means the great union of life back to its original source, creativity and beauty.
This wisdom tradition has never been for renunciates; it is and was practiced by those living in the world. In Kashmirian yoga, a yogini is understood to be a practitioner (female or male) who is one with what s/he is doing, perceiving, feeling. A yogin is the one who is in awe and wonder of this relationship. This lineage of yoga emerged in the beautiful mountaintops of Kashmir and verdant river valleys of ancient India. It is a tradition that is intrinsically in harmony with Nature and seeks to fulfill the beauty of the ascent of humanity to Divinity. The texts, stories and mantras are ripe with the poetic vision of ones in accord with nature, and knowing the proper relationships of the universe.
Yoga brings us into the world and a deeper relationship as the experience of self-changes. We become empowered and knowledgeable. Wisdom emerges in our lives as the power of compassion and justice; this is a yogic lifestyle. As self shifts from a fixed centralized position into a dynamic relationship of human consciousness... unbounded energy, potentiality and freedom are experienced. This is not only possible but also the essential beginning, the foundation from which we can do the work of serving consciousness and experiencing directly non-duality.
The Sadhanas of the Yoginis
The yoginis understood that nothing exists outside of relationship. They were not prejudiced towards or against any aspect of relationships. They experienced directly the indivisible whole of life and consciousness. In this they touched the complex phenomena of the interrelationship of life. The way to the simplicity of non-duality is through the nature of complexity. They found humans to be the expression of a complex cosmic evolution of the totality of space and its aggregates. They began their yoga by looking deeply into the phenomena of being human and exploring the nature of relationship and from here they touched the totality of consciousness of which humans are one part. The yoginis' investigations and the sadhanas that evolved from their experiences delve into every structure of human relationship and consciousness in its orientation to the Totality. They explored and perfected sadhanas from and for the physical, emotional, mental, psychological, ecological, the visible, the tangible, the intangible and through the whole spectrum until there was not one measure of separation. There was Tantra*- the continuum of the Totality.
The yoginis, the teachers and adepts, of this tradition used meditation, mantras and working with the mind, body, and senses to recover this freedom. The many sages and yogis that practiced in the Saraswati River area, Kashmir and Assam, influenced this tradition. Parvathi's teachings are an integration of the transmissions she received, direct experience of a lifetime of sadhana and rigorous training as a yogini in the authentic and traditional methods. This integration is what distinguished the greatest yogi/nis of India and what Parvathi offers today in her sadhanas, seminars, consultations and trainings.
Parvathi's Teaching
The aim of Parvathi's teaching is to assist men and women's growth in integrating the depths of consciousness including the physical, the mental, and the spiritual levels. To bring the individual consciousness at its fullest to merge with something greater - the integral whole of consciousness. This has been the work of the unbroken ancient lineage of the Yoginis. Parvathi uses the precise methods of yoga science to explore consciousness, mind, emotions, and the body. These precise methods include mantra, Spanda, meditation, Hatha yoga, Tandava, pranayama, yoga psychology (Patanjali's Yoga Sutras) and the science of Tantra Vidya (see explanations of terms at the end of this page). Through these systems every aspect of life is addressed through harmonious emotional mental and spiritual development. Not one aspect of the continuum of the body mind can be neglected. This work is applicable to anyone of any gender and background, religion or tradition. You are never asked to leave anything or anyone, convert or function in a spiritually exclusive way. The aim of the teachings is to discover Truth and uncover freedom, not conform to yet another disguise albeit a spiritual one for conditioned behavior. This takes a steady foundation, integrity, psychological maturity and relentless commitment to growth and honesty.
This work is best for those who already have a ground and integrity in disciplines of consciousness and are committed to expanding and harmonizing these multi-layers of consciousness. These teachings can be a vehicle for those who have been doing consciousness work and have experienced the realities of the mind beyond the usual discursiveness who wonder about the possibilities and frontiers of the borderlands of consciousness. With the exception of Parvathi's Seminars where all levels of students are encouraged, the student must already have a strong foundation in Ashtanga Yoga (eight limbs of Yoga) or its equivalent in any yoga, consciousness or wisdom tradition. To study with Parvathi is a unique opportunity to encounter a yogini of the great Tantric tradition of the Shakti and an unbroken yogic lineage of 7,000 years.
Parvathi places all her teachings, practices and each moment of her life with the desire they be worthy offerings to her teachers to whom she is forever indebted: Shree Lalita Devi, the Bhairavi, Shree Amritananda Saraswati, Shree Siddhanti, her children, long time students in USA and India who are devotedly and relentlessly living the teachings - and Nature, especially the forests of the Himalayas, who have been a Mother to her in sadhana.
om hreem tat sat.........
* This is not to be confused with neo-Tantra sexuality from which Parvathi and this lineage distinguishes themselves.
Terminology
If one is unfamiliar with terminology used on this website, it is recommended to read Yoga Psychology by Dr. Ramamurti Mishra or any Yoga-Vedanta, Shree Vidya or Tantra texts. Explanations for selected terms are offered below.
Mantra: Sonic vibration science works in the subtle body, deconditions the 5 sheaths of the physical body and is an invaluable lens for deconditioning language, conceptuality, liberating verbal and mental structures. A direct interplay of noumenon and phenomena through pulsation and silence. NOT a mechanical repetition of "nonsensical sounds".
Spanda: The tremoring of consciousness, tangible experience of the flow of Shakti (power- harmony that reveals things back to their source).
Meditation: Seeing things as they are in the moment of their arising sustaining and dissolving and experiencing the "background" from which these make a "foreground". It is the vigilant observation of our thought, action, and speech in the moment of its arising. Meditation is taught in a systematic way in Parvathi's teachings using the thorough and precise methods of the Himalayan yogis to purify and uncover buddhi, empty samskaras from the unconscious, understand tangibly the four functions of the mind (manas, chitta, ahamkara and buddhi) and see their interactions. In meditation one learns to navigate with facile ease the seven levels of consciousness. It is to know oneself completely in every movement. Every moment, but seen with discernment and precision not clouded by fears and desires.
Hatha Yoga: Systematic science using physical, subtle, emotional and mental body to create an adamantine vehicle for Consciousness.
Tandava: Was perfected by the Yoginis and then exalted by the Dzogchen practitioners where it became a secret teaching for high initiates. In Tantra, it is a daily practice for any level practitioner. It is the Dance of Shiva and Parvathi to communicate the totality and the non-separability of emptiness and form. Tandava reveals the subtle terrains of energy that are in constant communication with space. To enter directly the resonance of this communication, we encounter dimensions of consciousness not attained through the linear aspects of the mind.
Pranayama: The science of prana, subtle vibrations, resonance and the deliberate harnessing of their power and potentiality.
Yoga Psychology: Explored through Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Basic understanding first of the functions of mind, levels of consciousness and then deeper understanding of form, function and boundaries of mind and consciousness through other Kaula, Mishra and Samaya yoga texts and the direct practice of Shree Vidya.
Tantra Vidya: The vast wisdom, science and practices of working with the elements - the aggregates of every structure whether it is body, mind, senses, natural elements, levels of consciousness - and precisely calibrating these energies to each individual person without any severing from the fragile structures that bind the individual consciousness to the whole.
These methods are not a religion or exclusive spiritual path but systems used by the great masters that have been tested for thousands of years. They are compatible with any system one is engaged in, but must be employed in a precise order to establish a ground - as this is essential for when the practitioner can directly touch the absolute to avoid difficulty and ensure integration.
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