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Smt. Rajeswari Raman Yoga Teacher and Amma to Thousands of Girls and Women
What They Said ‌ Chaya Srinivas, 28 years old, whose husband is a general surgeon at St. Martha’s Hospital, Bangalore and whose father, an Associate Professor at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, had a hard time fighting overweight. She had tried about every kind of slimming technique in different anti-obesity clinics but without success. She had even undergone a course in nature-therapy where she had been put on a strict diet of lemon-water, tender coconut and lassi for 10 days. She had come out weighing a kilogram less but ravenously hungry for food she had been barred in the nature clinic. Once home she had gorged herself on all her favourite delicacies gaining in the process 4 kgs. In 15 days in a place of the 1 kg. she had lost at the clinic at great expense. But after 10 sessions of yogic therapy she lost 2.5 kgs and began to feel light in both body and mind. She hopes to carry on with the practice of Yoga to continue in optimum physical and mental health.
Nagalakshmi was constantly suffering from headaches for which she used to take tablets. She was also suffering from depression. But within a short span of 10 weeks after joining the Yoga classes and after counselling from Smt. Rajeswari Raman, she felt great relief. The chanting of the Mantra Om during meditation brought her a great peace. She found every single Asana taught here was helpful. She soon found she had stopped taking the tablets for the headache (after joining the Yoga Classes). Riti Subhas, a first-year medical student, suffered from lack of concentration and weak memory. She would devote long hours to study foregoing outings and other legitimate diversions. Yet she fared badly and her friends who studied only half the time she did, fared well in the examinations. Six weeks after Riti had started learning Yoga, her grades picked up and when the examinations came, she stunned her friends with the excellent marks she scored. Kamal, a sprightly looking young lady, was into computer training after getting her degree in Commerce. She found the Yoga classes so interesting, she began to eagerly look forward to the next class each week. She felt fresh and relaxed every time she did the Yogasanas. After
doing the Pranayama, she felt even better. If she missed the exercise for a day due to some reason, she would become uneasy. Harini, wife a sub-inspector of police, had been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for 10 years. The pain in the joints of the body (finger-tips, shoulders, neck, hands, and legs) would be unbearable. Morning and evening she regularly gulped down capsules without results. Within a few weeks of Yogic exercises, the pain the in hands and fingers reduced. The pain in the hips also vanished and she is now confident that with continued practice, all her pains will disappear. Vinod Panda had been suffering from sinusitis and spondylitis for many years and was at a stage when she thought that the suffering would be a part of her life. When she heard of the Yoga classes, she saw a ray of hope. The constant pain and uneasiness had also made her temperamental and easily irritable. After coming to the classes, she got back hope and confidence. She saw there were definite signs of improvement in both her spondylitis and sinusitis within even a few weeks of the course. The most important benefit she received while attending the Yoga classes was the change in her temperament.
She learnt to control her emotions, thus overcoming her irritability. Ms. Ira Das, a beauty queen, now in Hawaii was simply carried away by Smt. Rajeswari Raman’s affectionate approach to her students. She writes on completion of the Yoga Course. I want to thank you sincerely for all the effort you have taken to teach me Yoga in such a short time. I am very happy to have met you. As a teacher and as a person you have been wonderful and inspiring. One of the main reasons I wanted to learn Yoga was to discipline my mind as I was short tempered. After learning Yoga I feel more peaceful and positive, thanks to you. I miss you very much as your presence made me feel very spiritual. I hope God showers all his Blessings on you and your family. Nandita, a fourth year engineering student, came to the Institute confused, nervous and unsure of herself. After 2 months of the course she wrote of her experience in the class as follows: I am able now to understand what is being taught in most of the classes. Initially I could follow nothing. My concentration is improving. I am able
to understand what I read, with greater ease. Initially I had to struggle a lot to understand what was supposed to be very simple lessons. Formerly, I used to have bowel movement only once in two days. Now my bowels move regularly. I feel more relaxed and calm and am free from nervous tension. My complexion has improved due to the Yogasanas and walking as advised by Guruji. These cases are only representative of the near miraculous results students of the Sri Surya Prakash Institute of Yoga for Women obtained after a course in Yoga under Smt. Rajeswari Raman. The institute had its birth in rather tragic circumstances. In September 1963, Smt. Rajeswari Raman lost her 26 year old eldest son B. Surya Prakash who was on the threshold of a brilliant career. The blow shattered her but only momentarily. Thanks to her husband Dr. B.V. Raman, she had been assiduously practising Yoga for some years and with the help of this art-cumscience, she was able to overcome her grief and gain enough composure to attend her usual duties of running the household. Although she had been, even before, imparting lessons at home to friends, this set her thinking of the wonderful benefits Yoga could bestow on
fellow-women if only she could share her knowledge and experience with them in a more organised manner and regularly. At the same time, many friends and well-wishers also persuaded her to go ahead and thus was born the Sri Surya Prakash Institute of Yoga for Women in 1967 with a few pupils. Thereafter, more and more students began to pour in seeking relief from their complains-physical, mental and spiritual. This is the only institute of its kind that catered exclusively to women of all ages. Although burdened with the onerous duties of running the household of a world-famous personality, attending to the many visitors such fame attracts and discharging attendant social duties and at the same time bringing up her remaining children, no less than seven, Smt. Raman never for a moment though of her own personal comfort or the additional physical strain it would cause her if she began to run classes for teaching Yogic techniques to others. Perhaps it was this same self-effacing trait that endeared her to her students some of whom began to address as Guruji and others, as Amma. Women with a list of physical complaints and harassed by ununderstanding selfish husbands, in-laws and
sometimes even parents found a panacea in the kind and compassionate affection and attention of Smt. Rajeswari Raman bestowed on each student, irrespective of caste, age or status. In her, they found a spring of healing balm that soothed their suffering emotions and gave them peace which ahd so far eluded them. Chitra Nagalkar, found the Yoga classes a great blessing. Her meeting with Smt. Rajeswari Raman and the classes under her, she found, would remain an unforgettable and enriching experience all her life. She found great benefit and improvement with her mind attaining a pleasant calm. She also felt she was now able to see life in the right perspective. She also discovered she was filled with a new and healthy awareness towards the well-being of the body which resulted in better health of both the body and mind at the end of the Yoga course. Susheela Vimalesh joined the classes due to various problems, mainly to lose weight. After attending the classes for 2 months, she felt better than ever before. She also began to experience some mental peace which she was lacking before. She was thrilled by the individual attention everyone got at the classes. She also found
improvement in her general health and relief from knee-pain. More than anything else she was amazed to see she had shed 3 kgs. Even before the course ended she is confident that with regular practice she will be in perfect health without taking any medicine. Manjit Kaur, a 45-year old house-wife, was suffering from back-ache and leg-pain for the past two years. On being advised by some friends she went through a 9-week course of Yogic therapy. She was surprised beyond belief to find relief from her suffering as a result. In fact, she even stopped the pain-killer tablets which she had been regularly taking for her pain in the back and legs. Radha Rajaram, a middle-aged house-wife, was nervous, easily excitable and scared of even crossing the road when she came to the Institute. After 5 weeks of the course, she wrote: I joined your course in the month of June and started doing Yogasanas as taught by you from the first day itself. I am doing the Yogasanas twice a day regularly. In this short tenure, I find a lot of changes within myself. I feel light, earlier I used to feel heaby. Earlier, because I had tripped on the road, I used to get scared to cross it. Now I am able to walk freely on the roads. I have lot 5
kilograms of weight. My blood pressure has come down and it is now 140/90. I feel energetic. I have benefitted. This is all due to your kind teaching, dear Mataji! You have taught us not only exercises, but also many other things inspiring us to lead a good and peaceful life. Women from all strata of life were benefitted from the course offered by this Institute – school girls, college students, house-wives – young and old, doctors, architects, lawyers, clerks and even grandmothers. The Institute charged no fees for coaching. The students were divided into different batches depending upon the kind of programme each student required. This was ascertained from an interview each student had to go through with Smt. Rajeswari Raman where the former was encouraged to talk about herself and her problems. Depending upon her physical state of health and problems as also any psychological ones she may have, a course of Yogaasanas, Pranayama, meditation and diet was prescribed. There were classes on Sundays too to accommodate working women and students. Each batch of students met once a week for about 10 to 11 sessions of about 3 to 4 hours each. Vocal musicians were particularly benefitted from Smt. Rajeswari Raman’s classes.
A noted vocal singer came to the class in a highly depressed state of mind. She had been suffering from sinus, migraine, amoebic dysentery and a host of other lesser complaints. The doctors – allopathic, homeopathic and ayurvedic – for once were uniformly concurrent and told her she had to learn to live with her complaints. On cold days especially, she would be overcome by endless bouts of sneezing. After the course at the Institute she wrote: Through this letter I will be able to express only 10% of my feelings as no letter or words can suffice to convey my deep-seated feelings and affection towards you. After coming to you I got back all the lost hope and confidence. Dear Guruji, I remember how desperate I was with all complaints reaching the zenith and that how I gathered hope in the interview itself. With the progress of my Yoga lessons, especially both the pranayamas, I must say that I have turned a new leaf in my life. From that time onwards there has been no turning back. Today my sinus, mirgraine etc., are nowhere and the sneezings have totally stopped. Even the doctors who had treated me have agreed that what I have learnt from you has done wonders to my health.
As a musician – I was able to get this free flowing voice, effortless singing in the higher octave only through the pranayama and Amma with your blessings alone that I got good press-reviews for my performance in several newspapers like Indian Express, Deccan Herald, Prajavani, Kannada Prabha, Gayana Ganga and others. Through your blessings and affection and well-wishes I have been able to do my vidwat course in music. Amma, to this day, your blessing and affection and the lessons I have had, have been the only source in all this little progress that I have made – your affection has been the only tonic for my physical and mental health. With sincere and loving devotion and affection – my pranams to dear Amma. Among her students were qualified lady doctors, musicians, academicians, film stars, stage artists and even some beauty queens. Smt. Saroja Devi, the well-known and consummate trilingual film actress, records her experience thus: Dearest Amma, You have not only helped me as a Yoga teacher, but with your guidance, patience, compassion and
vast knowledge of life you have been a mother, friend, a spiritual philosopher, as well as a teacher to me. Because of all this you have a very special place in my heart. My everlasting love to you. Gratefully yours. (sd.) B. Saroja Devi Sriharsha Surprisingly a large number of women who have medical doctors as husbands or fathers also figure amongst Smt. Rajeswari Raman’s students. Smt. Rajeswari Raman has received a number of distinctions. She has been listed in “The World’s who’s who of Women” published at Cambridge, England and has been awarded a plaque for distinguished achievement in her field. The Saraswatha Maha Viswa Vidyalaya has conferred on her the title of “Yogavidya Visharada” In an address of felicitation presented to her on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of Patanjala Moola Yoga Sikshana by the late Sri Raghavendra Swamiji at Malladihalli, she has been referred to as one of the “famous Yogacharyas” of India. Among other titles awarded are Yoga Vidya Ratna and Yoga Vidya Siromani. Titles apart, scores of letters grateful students continue to write
to her are a recurring testimony to Smt. Rajeswari Raman’s selfless service to women through Yoga. As the Director of the Institute, Smt Raman was not only re-assuring that women, given a chance, could muster sufficient courage to rely on themselves for their own emancipation from physical, mental and spiritual malaise, but more important, demonstrating that Indian women are essentially the repositories of India’s rich and ancient culture that blends the physical, mental and spiritual factors into a purposeful whole. Smt. Raman felt that the craze for the kind of happiness, outward happiness derived from the external side alone, that has gripped the average man and woman in the so-called civilised west, and that is sought to be foisted upon our own people, by a certain section of political and social leadership, should give place to the Indian view that the crux of one’s happiness, misery, restlessness etc., lies with oneself, in the hidden layers of one’s own mind, and that Yoga alone can restore the real happiness and enable one to face the problems of life realistically with a certain detachment. Smt. Rajeswari Raman has authored an immensely popular book Hatha Yoga For All in English and
Nitya Jeevanadalli Yogabhyasa in Kannada, which outline the basics of Hatha Yoga in very simple language. Smt. Rajeswari Raman travelled extensively both within the country and outside. She gave demonstration talks all over India, the U.S.A. and Europe on Yoga, Indian womanhood etc. She successfully created in the minds of foreign ladies a keen interest in Yoga and the Indian way and values of life. She also conducted Yoga workshops under different fora. Smt. Raman delivered a talk on “Yoga and Astrology� at the first International Symposium on Vedic Astrology at San Rafael in the U.S.A. September 1992. She also made use of her visit to teach simple techniques of Yoga and Pranayama to many eager men and women in the U.S.A. Smt. Rajeswari Raman treated with success cases of stomach-upsets, uterine trouble, migraine, backache, tension, nervousness, exhaustion, sciatica and of course asthma, bronchitis, piles and constipation. Prameela S. wrote : I was totally frustrated and restless due to sleeplessness at night before joining your Yoga classes. Guruji, with your guidance with motherly affection and practical solutions for many
of my problems, I am much relieved now. Earlier, it used to be very difficult for me to concentrate on my work. After joining the Yoga classes, with the help of meditation, I have regained my confidence and am able to concentrate on my work with full satisfaction. Mahalakshmi, a mother of 3 children wrote : I am chronic patient of asthma since six years. All types of medicines and treatment were of little help to me. After performing the Yogasanas you taught me, especially the Pranayama, I have been experiencing more ease with my breathing. I am now able to withstand changes in weather better. I feel that with constant and continuous practice, I can overcome my breathing problems completely and improve my health. Mallika Varadan, an 18 year old II P.U.C. student, wrote at the end of the course: I came here with problems like tension, short temper, and short sight, lack of memory and lack of concentration. I am very happy that I joined these Yoga classes as they have helped me a lot. They have reduced my
tension and short temper; my memory power has also increased. This is all due to the Yogasanas that you have taught us. I am thankful to you for your advice and for looking after us so well and for all the benefits we have got from you. Thank you Amma for your Blessings. Nutan, a 23-year old electronics engineer came to the classes with problems like depression, tension, cold cramps in her legs during winter, backache and gastric problems. Also she wanted to learn Yoga as a form of daily physical exercise. At the end of the course she wrote: I am very happy to have benefitted from Yoga. I could get rid of my tension and depression within a short span of one month. Also I think I am almost freed of my leg cramps. This proves that Yoga can do wonders if included in one’s daily routine. I am very thankful to Amma for her kind of advice, personal attention and her dedication to mankind without expecting any returns. The following are extracts from a report about Smt. Rajeswari Raman, published in the Milwaukee Sentinel of Milwaukee, U.S.A. under the caption Yogini from Bangalore.
A group of Yoga teachers – most of them housewives – gathered for coffee Tuesday afternoon to meet their counterpart from Bangalore, India, Mrs. Rajeswari Raman. And was she different? Yes and No. Mrs. John L. Hitchcock, W140-N7905, Lilly Td. Falls, entertained members of Yoga United (Yoga teachers) of which she is co-founder and vicepresident, plus some of their pupils, in Mrs. Raman’s honour. Mrs. Raman is a housewife. She also conducts Sri Surya Prakash Institute of Yoga for Women in Bangalore. The guest of honour was escorted by her husband Dr. B.V. Raman and their third son Dr. B. Sureshwara. Air pollution and women’s equality being the questions of the day, the Ramans dutifully commented on these matters although they do not share the prevalent concerns with the topics. Mrs. Raman is the mother of eight children, the youngest 20. She is 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds. She does not look old enough to have a son in graduate school.
She started studying Yoga after her marriage to Dr. Raman of whom she said “He is my Guru”. In her school, Mrs. Raman tailors programme to suit each pupil. She works up a veritable casehistory before starting. The sessions include hatha and raja yoga and Pranayama. Serious Yoga followers are vegetarians and the Ramans are among the most strict. They do not each anything from tins, no carbonated beverage, stimulants or alcohol. They believe meat has a pollution that cannot be washed away and which leads to ailments for those who eat it. “We don’t want the body to be a tomb for dead animals” Mrs. Raman said. Likewise, Mrs. Raman said ‘no cosmetics’ although she wears the red circular mark on her forehead. However, she described bi-weekly oil-baths, actually massage with herbal oils subseq2uently removed with herbal nut power. A married woman’s status is proclaimed in India by a nose ornament which varies in shape. Mrs. Raman’s is a minute fan of diamonds. It matches small clusters of diamonds in her ear-rings.
No strict diet prescriptions were made in this Institute although there was some regulation of certain articles of food depending upon the student’s health problem. In addition, Smt. Rajeswari Raman went out of her way to inculcate in the minds of her students, especially the youth, respect for ancient values of life, that also helped overcome various problems that were concomitant with domestic relationships, especially after marriage. Smt. Rajeswari was far ahead of her generation and advocated widow marriage in the case of young widows. However, she strictly differentiated between the roles of the male and female at home, saying although there can be much overlapping, Nature has given specific skills to each sex which are essential to keeping a home happy and which cannot be exchanged between them. To her Dr. Raman was not only an ideal husband but also Guru, friend and inspiration-all rolled into one.