Sivananda yoga teaches 4 paths of yoga: karma, bhakti, raja and jnana yoga, and requests the student to practise all four and eventually to pick one as their main focus. Sivananda Yoga teachers are all graduates of the Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Course. The Sivananda training system aims to teach an authentically Vedic system of yoga and believes that retaining the vitality of the body is a byproduct of the discipline and not the goal. The system philosophies are summarized in 5 principles: A session of training typically starts with every practitioner resting in "Savasana", and begins with Pranayama (breathing exercises) Kapalabhati
Bhakti movement concept of the Ultimate Reality as formless, without attributes or quality. "Saguna" Brahman, in contrast, was envisioned and developed as with form, attributes and quality. The two had parallels in the ancient pantheistic unmanifest and theistic manifest traditions, respectively, and traceable to Arjuna-Krishna dialogue in the Bhagavad Gita. It is the same Brahman, but viewed from two perspectives, one from "Nirguni" knowledge-focus and other from "Saguni" love-focus, united as Krishna in the Gita. "Nirguna" bhakta's poetry were "Jnana-shrayi", or had roots in knowledge. "Saguna" bhakta's poetry were "Prema-shrayi", or with roots in love. In Bhakti, the emphasis is reciprocal love