Parampara

Parampara is the knowledge that the teacher passes on to the student. The Sanskrit word parampara expresses the most valuable form of knowledge transmission, the transmission of direct and experiential knowledge. It is the basis of all teaching chains: in the chain of preservation of thousands of years of teaching, the teacher and his student are the links. Yogic teaching must come from the parampara to be effective, true and complete. The parampara ensures that the teaching of yoga is effective, true and complete.

The path of the student

Knowledge can only be transmitted after the student has spent years with an experienced guru, a teacher to whom the student has fully surrendered his body, mind, speech and inner being. Only then does the student become capable of receiving the knowledge. The transfer of knowledge between teacher and student in this way is parampara.

The student's dharma, or duty, is devotional practice and to strive to understand the guru's teachings. The perfection of knowledge - and of yoga - is more than simply learning to practice; knowledge comes from the mutual love and respect between student and teacher, and the cultivation of this relationship inevitably takes time.

The relationship between student and teacher

It is the duty of the teacher to teach yoga exactly as taught by the guru, with a good heart and noble intention, for a good purpose. There should not be even a spark of ill intention in the teaching. The teacher should not mislead his student in any way and should not deviate from what he himself has been taught.

The bond between teacher and student, which is the basis of a rich spiritual heritage, has a thousand-year-old tradition in India. A teacher can strengthen his students - make them strong when they falter. A teacher is like a father or a mother who is present and attentive to every spiritual step of his student.

The tradition and importance of parampara

The teaching of yoga is preserved in many ancient teaching traditions, however, today some are trying to create new chains of teachers and prefer new ways of teaching, condemning or changing the Guru's parampara. Conversely, to surrender to the parampara is to merge into a stream of teachings that goes back thousands of years, a stream of knowledge that has been maintained by ancient masters and has gathered into an ocean of knowledge. But not all rivers reach the ocean, so we must be careful that the tradition we follow is true and selfless.

Many people want to reach the summit of the Himalayas, but not everyone succeeds. However, through courage and self-surrender, and by the grace of the Guru, who is the possessor of knowledge and who works tirelessly for his disciples, we can reach the peaks of knowledge.