Nayaswami Sagar resides in the Ananda Monastery located at Ananda Village in Northern California. Born into a family of kriya-yogis, Sagar read Paramhansa Yoganandas Autobiography of a Yogi at a young age, an influence that culminated in his decision to serve Yoganandas mission through Ananda.
Sagar led Anandas work in Mumbai for about five years and has served Anandas work in India and the US as a teacher and counselor to students and as a meditation and stress-relief workshop facilitator for corporates.
Sagar currently serves in Anandas Online Ministry. He is one of the principal instructors for the Ananda Course in Meditation and has helped create several online offerings such as the full-length courses The Yoga Teachings of Jesus, Karma and Reincarnation and the webinars The Anatomy of the Astral Body, Losing the Fear of Death Through the Science of Yoga, and How to Stand Unshaken amidst Life's Challenges. You can read some of his articles here.
Prior to commencing his life of service at Ananda, Sagar was a graduate student with full scholarship at Boston University and holds advanced degrees in Engineering.
28 reviews for The Yoga teachings of Jesus
This course has most of the answer each person have about life and the life of Jesus and his teachings.
Every section is enlightenment.
Thanks, Sagar
Many blessings.
This class was great! Sagar’s videos at the beginning of each chapter were a pleasure to watch and chock full of information about the chapter in question. The videos by Swami Kriyananda were also full of information about the chapter. The lifetime enrollment will be very useful to review the videos again and again.
The chapters of the missing years and the Trinity were very eye-opening for me.
The teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda shown to us by Sagar come through logically and clearly.
This was a phenomenal class. Sagar is an excellent instructor. He teaches with passion and is extremely knowledgeable about his subject. There was a phenomenal amount of information that is practical and can be used in daily life. I looked forward to each class. His responses to my concerns were quick and thoughtful. I am sad that the class has ended as there is much more I want to learn. I very much look forward to other classes that Sagar will teach.
What a wonderful online course!
This course served as a wonderful deepening for my Kriya Initiation Preparation coursework. Already immersed in the flow of meditation, interiorization and inner communion, I had many emerging questions reading Yogananda’s comments on our sacred texts as well as deeper entries and instructions.
Br. Sagar offered insight into the element of allegory and how different characters or gods can support discovery of truth through inner communion and meditation. His warm style of enthusiasm, clarity and insight to Master’s teachings inspired my studies of going deeper, being more open and trusting to soul-inspired discovery and revelation. His delivery of this course brought back fond memories of my India pilgrimage, the deep connection and inner communion experienced and the profound potential of our yoga practice for soul-realization.
A wonderful course and experience. I learned so much about the Bible’s teachings, particularly in the New Testament. Sagar outlined the different points clearly making them easy to understand. Lots of “a-ha!” moments for me during this course. I recommend this course for those souls looking to either reconcile their dogmatic upbringing with a different point of view, or those seeking a deeper understanding of another Great Master of Self-Realization – Jesus Christ.
I have enjoyed this course so much. Sagar does a great job in teaching the course and I love his enthusiasm. I’m grateful I could take this course at my leisure. It worked into my life perfectly. Diving deeper into the teachings of Jesus has been life changing. During the course the scriptures’ have come alive. I can apply the wisdom to my every day life. I feel so blessed to have been introduced to Yogananda now as my Guru. The community at Ananda has offered me so much love, blessings and friendships. I am no longer the same person. Blessings to all
Penny
I really enjoyed this course and Sagar does a wonderful job of bring life and joy to the teachings. I follow the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda and wanted to take a deeper dive into his interpretation of the teachings of Jesus. So I registered for the course during Lent this year and I was pleased to make this part of my daily reflections. Thank you!
The ‘Yoga Teachings of Jesus’ is awe inspiring. A wonderful course indeed. As of now, this course is my favorite.
Sagar does an awesome job of clarifying and explaining the teachings of Jesus. I was raised as a catholic. There were so many questions and mysteries about Jesus and who he actually was, not much resonated with me as far as the teachings of the catholic church was concerned. It absolutely amazes me that none of the Christian religions addressed the missing years of Jesus, from age 12 to 30.
The story of Jesus going to India during these years makes so much sense. The lessons on reincarnation and karma really hit home with me. I am fascinated with these two subjects. Again, the religion teachers I had growing up never talked about reincarnation and karma. Going through these lessons, it is quite clear that there are references to these two subjects throughout the Bible. The missing years of Jesus, and the teachings on reincarnation and karma were glossed over and not really discussed. It is quite comforting to learn how the teachings in the Bible are so similar to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and other texts of eastern religion. Learning how the original teachings of Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism are the same really resonated with me. There are many paths to the top of the mountain.
Whether you are a beginning seeker, an advanced seeker, or somewhere in between, I highly recommend this course. Thank you Sagar, for your efforts in laying out in such a clear and concise way, the ‘Yoga Teachings of Jesus’. Yogananda’s insight to the life of Jesus is so heartwarming. Simply put, I can’t get enough! I am grateful to Sagar for all his efforts in putting these lessons together. It was a labor of love.
Paul Marotta
This course, which was superbly moderated by Brahmachari Sagar, confirmed much that I basically already knew (or at least guessed), but it also changed my view of Jesus and his teachings. Basically, this course provided a credible, competently crafted account of the life and teachings of Jesus, the Christ. Brahmachari Sagar was very good at making the partly complicated teaching material comprehensible. I would like to thank him in particular. I can warmly recommend this course to all Christians, but also to other believers and especially agnostics.
I have great doubts about many of the texts of the Bible and I do not believe that the New Testament faithfully reproduces the lives and teachings of Jesus. The Gospels from the 1st century written by unknown authors are not preserved, there are only copies. And copies and even more copies were made of these copies until Hieronymus finally translated the Greek text of such a copy into Latin in the fourth century. It is known that Hieronymus did not translate correctly, omitted or changed some things. A good example is the protection and our relationship with animals. Moreover, the Gospels of the scriptures found in Naq Hammadi were not included in the Bible because they are Gnostic. Many people and scientists have thought about this and countless books have been written about it.
Great course! Having very little knowledge of Jesus and his teachings, this course was a blessing for me.
The course material, and especially the videos by Sagar, helped me to build a relationship with Christ that I had yet to find along this path.
I highly recommend this to everyone and their families. It’s very universal in its teachings.
Thank you, Br Sagar! You presented such an in-depth study on this topic.
I find it to be insightful and profound in my own understanding of Jesus’ teachings as in the Bible,truly connecting now.
All that dogmas and misunderstandings have been explained by Master and Swamiji in an illuminating interpretation and explained in a non-mechanical way by you.
A gem, Jai Guru Om.
The light of Christ shines brightly through our teacher Sagar. Therefore the sacred teachings of the Bible, the pure wisdom of Yogananda , Christ and John the Baptist just flowed so smoothly . Thank you dear Sagar! I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn under your gentle / fun / knowing guidance.
Another great online class from Ananda. I’m so glad that through Master I was able to reconnect with Christ, my first spiritual teacher, in this way. It has been important to me to be able to reestablish this relationship. I always say it took a saint from India to come to America and teach about Christ for me to truly understand the faith I was born into. What a blessing these teachings are.
What a great course! Incredible! Sagar did such a great job.
I’m so glad, I took the course. I studied to be a Christian minister and I had studied the Bible(KJV) for three years. So I was already familiar with the Bible verses that are referenced in the course. When I studied the Bible, on what I thought was my path to become a Christian minister, I had many questions that the pastor could not answer. The course “The Yoga teachings of Jesus” has really helped me realize what the words of Jesus actually mean. I have a much greater perspective on the teachings of Jesus, than ever before.
This verse from (Matthew 6:22) has a whole new meaning for me now “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” Fantastic!
I’ve just completed this course and had a read of the reviews from others about it. I can’t really add anything new to the overall feeling that this is a great course to undertake for clarification and understanding of the teachings of Christ.
I think my family became used to me emerging from one of the webinars or readings exclaiming why my years of sermon listening, church going and Sunday School teaching lead to no real understanding of Christ’s mission on earth. Now I’m beginning to grasp the enormity of what he was saying and also the level of commitment and devotion that is required. The meaning of life, I feel now, has been outlined, like a map. One just has to start the journey.
Sagar, our tutor was a wonderful ‘tour guide’ as it were. He’s only a young man but full of wisdom borne, clearly, of years of study and discipleship. I would thoroughly recommend this course and have booked onto the meditation course. Thankyou.
This was the most edifying and inspirational class I have taken to date from Ananda. Sagar is truly blessed with the ability to explain, dissect, and transfer the sometimes confusing messages that are ever so present in spiritual writings. I looked forward to his weekly webinars that kicked off each lesson. His positive energy and blissful spirit kept me glued to my laptop! The additional information that he presented weekly was also very clearly written and easy to understand. I can’t say enough about how great this course was and I highly suggest it to anyone who is seeking a true understanding of Jesus’ teachings!
Thank you Sagar!!!
This class was a wonderful blend of webinars, reading assignments, and additional videos that took one ever deeper into the inner core of Jesus’ teachings. Odd as it may seem, I really appreciated the quizzes. Though the quizzes are essentially an open-book format, the questions are creative and evocative of diving into greater depths of ones understanding of Jesus’ message. The questions also honed the blessings of intuition that moved one into the higher reaches of Jesus as the Avatar and in line with Ananda’s lineage of Masters.
I only experienced one, singular, disappointment ~ which was when I reached the end of the course!
Anastra from
New Hampshire
The course ‘the Yoga teachings of Jesus’ was a delight: a well-balanced mixture of text, recordings and videos that helped me to pacify and reconcile the path of being a Christian with practicing yoga.
It is a great pleasure to discover that there is actually no incompatibility between these two paths and that they actually form one and the same path to commune with God.
I can only advise any sincere seeker to sign up to this high quality course that brings a missing piece to the very foundation of our western society: the true message of Christ’s teachings.
Thank you again Sagar for this inspiring work!
This is a perfect class for sincere truth seekers of any religion. The instructor, Br. Sagar, has structured each class to delve deeply into the various tenets of Sanatam Dharma. In living the Christian path for many years, and then studying the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda as an adult, I often wanted to understand how the teachings of Jesus Christ and Yogananda are in essence the same. This class so effectively guides the student through videos, writings, poetry, and music to that ultimate ‘understanding.’ For me, everything started “falling into place.” I look forward to other Ananda online courses!
Amazing course. I am very greatful for all the teachings. It gave me a deep insight and a new perspective not only on the life of Jesus, but also on topics as karma, reincarnation, the Holy Trinity, etc. The Bible passages became suddenly clear, logic and obviouse. I recommend this course to all those on an inner quest. I have to thank Sagar for always being available in answering all my questions, and therefore clearing out my doubts. Thank you!
I’ve been a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda for 15 years and always been fascinated with the parallels between the spiritual teachings of Jesus and yogic spiritual teachings. I’ve even read substantial parts of Yogananda’s two volumes of The Second Coming of Christ.
This wonderful course, and Sagar’s informed and enthusiastic presentation were a delight. I looked forward each week to the next session. The webinars, reading materials, and videos were all relevant and I found the Quizzes thought-provoking.
This course can bring you to a fresh, inspiring and intellectually satisfying understanding of scriptural writings which can sometimes seem opaque and confusing. I can highly recommend this course for truth-seekers from any spiritual path.
Thanks to this class, Jesus has stepped out of the Bible and become a living presence in my life, in a most vibrant and thrilling way. Week after week, bible passages come into clear focus and — for the first time — make sense. A gifted storyteller, Sagar brings Jesus’ humanity and humor to life in addition to His divinity. Each class was over long before I wanted it to end.
My first course I participated with Ananda-online.
And it´s just…. WOW. About 3 years ago I started my spiritual journey and ever since I have explored, learned about and practiced many ways of different religions. But I always had many questions, nobody could give me proper answers.
This course already answered many of my questions and even beyond that… even though I am not 100% finished yet. It´s just too profound to rush over it. I always felt, but couldn´t totally grasp the unity of all religions, especially of Christianity and Hinduism!
And that “Christianity” and “Churchianity” isn´t the same.
I cannot express how grateful I am that I had the opportunity to be part of this course.
And I already applied for another course.
I warmly recommend this course to everyone who wants to expand his understanding and perspective towards the Bible and the words of Jesus Christ. And seeing the universal unity of religions and the divine.
Thomas,
from Germany
What an incredible class. I have always felt there must be more to the teaching of Jesus other than what was taught in church during childhood. The information was explained in such a clear and concise manner, and Yogananda’s explanations of these teachings of Jesus have filled my heart with a sense of peace and my soul has accepted these interpretations as true. So much joy and bliss listening to the instructor week after week. The information in this course is such a vast amount that I feel it can still be studied week after week, long after the class is complete and there will always be something new to learn.
If you are the least bit interested in Jesus’ teachings and have only studied the western interpretation, this would be a wonderful way to expand the knowledge. Gratitude for a wonderful offering.
I would highly recommend this course. It covers the mission of Jesus through the Bible and whether you’ve studied the Bible all your life or just getting started, this course will show you how Jesus was preordained and that what he taught is directly connected to yoga and the teachings of the Great Masters.
Sagar is a great teacher and he did a wonderful job in organizing all the material. Every class was something new to look forward to and because access to the material is forever, I will be revisiting it periodically.
Thank you for the new insights on my journey.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the nine lesson course on the Teachings of Jesus.
The way it has been laid out was great for a greater understanding of the true teaching and its relationship of the teaching of Yoga. The Teacher Sagar was delightful in his smiling ways yet giving a very deep subject a deeper understanding to my self. The written part of the course was a great review and one had to go through it to get the correct answers for the quiz. This totally gave a much deeper understanding about Jesus and his true message of what we are to do to work towards cosmic consciousness.
Thanks to all of you for helping us to progress on this path.
I am so grateful for this most powerful and enlightening webinar. It really helped me to understand the true teachings of Jesus and expand my spiritual beliefs of truth in all religions. The pace of the course was just right, and weekly I looked forward to new topics and opportunities to study materials at my own pace.
Our instructor, Sagar, was amazing and so kind, loving and insightful. He was always willing to share, help and encourage us all and was quick to respond to any questions or concerns we might have. The videos were wonderful to watch, and the readings further helped to clarify teachings. Even the quizzes were most useful in reviewing important points of each section. It is wonderful to know that I can review this material at any time to further my understanding of important concepts.
I am sadden that this course has to end, but look forward to further classes. I have taken other Ananda courses, but can truly say that this was the best one yet. Thank you for helping me in my life’s journey.
This webinar, taught in such a clear, joyful, enthusiastic way,
helped me to see how the teachings in the Bible
and the teachings of Yogananda have a lot
of profound parallels, and strengthened my desire to deepen my journey
to Self-realization.