December 2025 | Trust

This month we have been inspired by a quotation from the book “Sadhana” by Swami Sivananda. “It is far better to believe a hundred times and be deceived a hundred times than to make the heart completely devoid of all trust and belief in human nature. Lack of belief turns a man into a cynic in the end.” It seems that trust is something to be examined even at more advanced stages of sadhana. And when we are deceived, as we no doubt will be, not allow that to disintegrate our trust.

Trust is important in yoga. As students we need to trust the teacher, the process, the and the teachings. Sometimes, in the presence of our teacher, we feel more capable. Things that normally evade us are achieved easily. Students often report that when the teacher is next to them, their practice feels effortless.

As teachers, we want to build trust, we want the students to feel trust in us. That trust, however, needs to be deeply rooted in a love for and trust in our own self. There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt. As yoga teachers we are learning to conduct ourselves in a way that inspires the trust of the students. When that trust is given to us it is a sacred thing and we must behave responsibly with it.

So how do we trust ourselves? Perhaps honour our uniqueness, our vision for life. Act on that vision. Respect our own boundaries and behave kindly towards yourself. Allow for things to change. Be honest with yourself. Only with this foundation of self-respect and self-love we can offer the same to another.

The theme image this month is of the remarkably inspiring Saalumarada Thimmakka, an Indian environmentalist from Karnataka who recently passed on November 14, 2025. She and her husband are noted for single-handedly planting and tending to 385 banyan trees along a stretch of highway. She is said to have planted 8,000 other trees as well. Without formal education or plentiful resources she maintained a vision of transformation of her environment. She teaches us to trust in our vision, even if it seems uncertain. Trust that what you are doing is important to the world.

In this issue of Sivananda Yoga Sandesha we look at trust. We share Swami Sivananda’s advice for conducting sadhana quietly, learn some practical tips for trusting yourself as a yoga teacher and practitioner, hear the story of Gajendra and the crocodile, and discover how to trust your gut—when it comes to dietary choices. We hope you enjoy the newsletter and take time to reflect on your practice. As usual, please feel free to reach out to us with your thoughts and feedback at: [email protected]

The Bhagavata Saptaha, a seven-day narration of the Srimad Bhagavatam was conducted in the village by the Netala Ashram to commemorate Swami Vishnudevananda’s Mahasamadhi on November 9. Poojas were also conducted at the Sivananda Guha (cave) in Gangotri. This event brought together senior staff, Trustees, and well-wishers from around India, but most importantly, connected the Ashram and the local community in shared devotion and practice. Please enjoy these photos of the Saptaha and the activities in the Ashram and Cave.

To mark the end of the Bhagavata Saptaha, and also to commemorate Swami Vishnudevananda’s Mahasamadhi, an annual Sadhu Bhandara was conducted. Local Swamis and Sadhus are invited to participate in chanting of the Ramayana and then they participate in a feast and are offered provisions and other items to help them during the difficult winter months in the Himalayas.

A group of 35 students and staff from the Trivandrum Centre made a trip to Swami Sivananda’s family home and birthplace in Pattamadai, Tamil Nadu, also visiting Thiruvattar Temple.

You are meant to achieve a great purpose in this life. Your ideal is different. Never have weak sentiment. Always discriminate. This alone will save you from all the pitfalls and temptations. At each step, at every moment, discriminate between the real and the unreal, right and wrong, proper and improper, pure and impure, good and bad. You will be quite safe. This will keep you alert and strengthen your aspiration. You will be perfectly safe.

During concentration, you must see that there is absolutely no strain, tension, or effort in Trataka. While concentrating, you must keep yourself completely relaxed and be calm and cool. If you strain, instead of attaining steadiness, there will be opposite effect. Nerves will be irritated.

The chief cause of all mistaken notions, false conclusions, and misunderstanding is thinking that there is some crooked motive behind what another person does. As a matter of fact, even if a man does actually a thing with an inner motive, the spiritual aspirant should not notice it but should judge it with liberal mind (Udara Buddhi) and tolerant attitude. A cheerful patience is the hallmark of the expanded heart. Santosha and Sahanasheelata, these two distinguish the Sadhaks.

To counteract falsehood, I would suggest this method. Though due to long previous habits, lies are sometimes suddenly uttered unconsciously, yet after a short time, you go to the person to whom you have uttered falsehood and tell him, “What I told you a little while ago is not truth. Please excuse me.” Persist in this practise.

Mind is the great tormentor, whenever the mind tries to take you in its circle, you must then think of the saints who lived before and how they have had to struggle with the tricks of the mind. This will suggest some easy methods of dealing with it at that moment. The most important way of calming the mind is mental Japa. Mental Japa is the sheet-anchor of the aspirant’s struggle. It will enable him to tide over any trial of whatever magnitude it may be.

Whatever particular Sadhana you do, try to do as quietly as possible. Never indulge in talk about it. Sadhana should never be known to anyone. Special worship, Japa, Purascharana, and meditation are better unadvertised. The inner Sadhana of an aspirant is not known.

It is far better to believe a hundred times and be deceived a hundred times than to make the heart completely devoid of all trust and belief in human nature. Lack of belief turns a man into a cynic in the end.

Long ago, in the quiet emerald lush forest of Trikuta, lived Gajendra the elephant king whose very footsteps made the wind pause. Majestic, assured, wrapped in the effortless dignity of one who believed himself unshakable.

One golden afternoon, as sunlight gently filtered through the trees, he stepped into a still, shimmering lake. The water reflected him like a mirror. But beneath that calm surface, something dangerous awaited; an ageless, patient crocodile, blessed with a lifespan longer than kingdoms. Suddenly, the water exploded open. Teeth appeared. In the chaos, the creature latched onto Gajendra’s leg, and the forest echoed with his roar. He fought with all his strength to prove his śaurya, the might of mountains, but this time the struggle lasted from hours into days. His herd called out for him, pulled at him, loved him fiercely, yet the grip refused to loosen.

Slowly, his pride cracked. His certainty dissolved. His great body trembled. In that delicate silence, the kind that only occurs when all effort fades, something moved within his heart. A memory from a past life with a mantra. Soft like a dream of returning home. With all the strength left in him, Gajendra lifted a lotus toward the sky and whispered, “Nārāyaṇa śaraṇam prapadye.” Not as a cry of fear, but as a cry of viśvāsa, the pure, devotional trust. And the universe responded.

In Vaikuntha, Vishnu rose instantly and instinctively as though called not by a voice but by love itself. He mounted Garuda; the heavens blazed in His wake. The lake glowed with Vishnu’s divine glow, and the forest remained still as if time held its breath. Arriving as radiant as a thousand suns, Vishnu let the Sudarshana Chakra sing through the air in one sweep, and the crocodile’s grip fell away. This time Gajendra the devout was free not just from the crocodile but from the illusion of maya. Gently, Vishnu accepted the trembling lotus from his trunk. In that moment, it became a symbol for the ages: when strength fails and the veil of ego and illusion lifts, trust and truth sustain us; when the world cannot save us, Bhagavan can; when the heart bows with truth, grace arrives in a kṣaṇāt (in a single instant).

Because surrender is not defeat, it is like trusting the divine play. It is returning to the One who never left.

In our lives, when something unseen pulls at our feet and the waters turn dark, when even our loved ones cannot rescue us and our strength wavers, there still rises that gentle inner voice, the voice of trust: “Nārāyaṇa tvam eva śaraṇam (O Narayana… You alone are my refuge).” May this story gently remind us, always: the Divine does not ask for grand gestures, only the lotus of a truthful heart that surrenders and trusts divine timing.

We often end up giving control over what and how we eat to our doctors, nutritionists, or dieticians. While others can help us design a great diet based on certain factors they know or realise about us, they cannot feel how foods make us feel. The subtle sensations in the body, such as hunger and a sense of satiety, and the energetics of foods, such as feeling heat or coolness, or a gaseous feeling inside after certain foods, are aspects of eating that can only be felt and experienced by none other than you.

While a diet plan from an expert can give you direction towards balancing your health, healing with food is more often intuitive than planned! When you connect with your foods, how they act within, how they make you feel, how they digest and eliminate, and accordingly choose to eat intuitively, you gain back a healing power that no one can create for you. It’s a trust that comes from deep within; it’s about knowing the self and treating yourself mindfully and with care.

What is Intuitive Eating

Intuitive eating is about trusting one’s sensations of hunger, satiety, feelings before and after eating food, knowing which foods energetically make you feel calm and composed, and which agitate or feel uncomfortable, even if they hold a great nutritional profile. Based on your body sensations, you decide what to eat, how to eat, and how much to eat.

This approach to eating rejects the diet culture and the hype around food and puts in the forefront the trust in what the body is communicating.

Principles of Intuitive Eating

Looking Beyond the Diet Culture – Intuitive eating is not standardised, and it may vary person to person. It is unlike the restrictive diet culture that focuses on a specific goal such as weight loss, protein fulfilment or any other. Rather, intuitive eating looks beyond the diet culture and trusts the body’s intuition. In this approach to eating, the body deeply guides what it wants and how it wants it.

Realising the Hunger – Intuitive eating begins with recognising oneself and one’s needs, such as listening to the growling of the belly from physical hunger and knowing how much to eat as the body sends signals of satiety. It is about listening to the body’s sensations and responding to the physical hunger that drives it to produce energy.

Trusting the Energy for Right Foods and How Foods Make You Feel – Intuitive eating is about consciously connecting with how foods make you feel. Even foods with the best nutritional profile may leave you feeling sick and tired. They may create intense heat, causing inflammation, or certain foods simply may cool you down in excess, so much so that they may cause weakness. This knowing is beyond the scientific understanding of nutritional profile of foods. It is about connecting with the energy of foods and its impact on our body and mind.

Don’t Overeat, Feel Your Fullness – Knowing when to stop is an important aspect of intuitive eating. There is a hormone called ‘leptin’ that is released and signals the brain to stop eating as the stomach feels full. Eating beyond this point can cause ama or discomfort in the belly. Establishing this relationship with the body and stopping at 80% full goes a long way in supporting long-term health and vitality.

Eating Without Guilt – When you eat intuitively, it is also important to keep your mind calm. This is because we know that under stress, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, slowing digestion. When we are in a stressed state, even the best foods act like poison, causing ama and stagnation. Therefore, eating without guilt is important to support the digestive process.

Respect your Body and What it Communicates – Every individual possesses the consciousness to realise how eating certain foods makes them feel. Honour this communication from your body rather than forcing yourself to eat just because your food has a great nutritional profile.

Live on Whole and Natural Foods – A less-discussed aspect of intuitive eating is living on whole and natural foods (foods that come directly from nature and are not processed in a lab). This is because whole and natural foods are complete in their chemical composition and closest to the chemical composition of our bodies. Such foods, when consumed in moderation, act as medicine and do not cause stagnation or serious health concerns.

Moderation is the Key – Eating foods in limited amounts is yet another important aspect of intuitive eating. Moderation is key to supporting the body’s internal functions.

Connect with Actual Hunger – Most people binge eat as an antidote to emotional highs and lows. Intuitive eating begins with connecting with the signs of real hunger with awareness. Real physical hunger is a sign from the body that it needs food to produce energy. It may come with symptoms such as fatigue, irritability, growling stomach, headache, light-headedness, weakness, a sense of heightened anxiety, and it’s free of any specific cravings. Emotional hunger is a form of fake hunger in which the belly may be full, but the mind seeks satiety in food. Symptoms of emotional hunger may include a disconnect from the stomach, a racing mind, specific cravings and guilty pleasure.

Trust in Sivananda yoga…it grows as a result of many aspects: the general vibe of the ashram; the respected Gurus, their teachings, and also their own life stories; serving, loving; the response received from other students all over the world; the peaceful surroundings; sattvic yogic food, prepared with care; simple, disciplined daily schedule; the faith built by years of practice and watching my own injuries healed; the transformative effect on my own body and mind; inspirational stories told by other disciples; teachings shared on YouTube and social media from the Ashram…slowly it all adds up. With love, effort, and continuous connection, trust becomes a habit. We live it and let it nourish us.

It’s like cooking a tasty masala recipe—each small ingredient adds up! Morning walks, Friday breaks, people from all over the world exchanging cultures, gentle yoga, beginners, and intermediate practice, meditation, music, Ayurveda. Like blending spices, service (karmayoga), love (bhaktiyoga) and kirtans, wisdom (jñānayoga) and philosophy lectures, inner power (rājayoga) and meditation. At the ashram, every moment, meal, and practice blends into a wholesome, joyful yogic life meal. Join us, enjoy the journey with us.

-Krishna Chaitanya
Ashram Staff