Indian Style
In the past 5 days, I have sat “Indian Style” more than all of the preceding twenty years combined. That is not to be filed in the “complaint” box however, just a note that your body will bend if it is so ordered from deep down. And that is exactly from where the (re)quest began, within. Always intrigued, but never a steadfast believer, I wondered if there was an invisible hand in each of our lives. Having now twisted and turned my body into the flexible pretzel it is not, and having sat before many highly respected gurus/yogis for both lecture and satsang (which translated literally means “truth”(sat) and “community”(sang)), I am now certain there is some force, undetected by the five senses, at play.
Lost In Translation
Where to begin on this post to provide some semblance of the course of events over the past few days is the most difficult yet. I will start first with what I learned about yoga as it is the most tangible topic. “Yoga” means union with the individual and universal soul. So the purpose behind yoga, as it was explained to me by Pujiya Sri Shankaracharyaji, is to align the body such that all of the chakras are aligned, thus giving the individual access to all of the information within her or himself, which ultimately leads to accessing the universal source. The source is sometimes referred to as “God”, “Lord”, “Krishna”, “Allah” or “Jesus” or a variety of other labels, but from a yogi perspective, it is all the same, boiled to down to one word “energy”.
Contrary to some understanding in the West, yoga is not affiliated directly with any religion, rather it is an ancient path to self realization. The yogis believe that if you realize your true self, then you will also realize God, that God and you are one and fulfill your soul’s purpose. Easier said than done, but according to Sri Sri Shankar, “all children are yogis”. Children are without the ego and generally have an innocence that sees the world with compassion. Sri Sri said that it is important to remember how you felt when you were a kid and to be in touch with that part in each of us. His specific example was remembering the first time you saw a homeless person as a kid, and how you were inclined to help in some way, yet as adults, we are able to shut that compassion off with a switch. Sri Sri does not advocate randomly handing out money to the homeless, but he thought giving them a start and self-esteem was essential.
(Above from left: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Pujya Sri Shankaracharyaji)
The past few days have been an inspiring return to yoga in its true form, involving breath, form (poses) and meditation. It seems that this combined modality of yoga has been lost in translation in the West. Often, western yoga classes are offered as a workout moving swiftly through poses to generate a cardio and muscular stretch. At the festival, masters from around the world gathered and all of their classes involved a multi-layered approach to yoga, tai chi and reiki among some of the classes offered. All of the classes had an element to self reflection/meditation/relaxation.
Kundalini
Arriving at the ashram at 8:30, I calmed my anxious self inside, feeling like a 1st grader late to his first day of class. Everyone would see me walk in late and I would have to start in more advanced poses with no warm up, a problem for my novice yogi self. Having preplanned my courses the night before, I was set on Iyengar as I had some familiarity with the poses and had no idea of the other option, Kundalini (Italian yoga? Or maybe magic yoga?), but it was not meant to be. Rushing to the hall hosting the Iyengar class, I heard a loud speaker under a white tent on the garden path say, “O.K., let’s do our first pose.” Plans changed in an instant as I rushed into the large white tent, kicked off my flip-flops and found my spot on the floor. Kundalini, a name I had only heard of in passing was to be the morning class for me, and it would be the morning class each day thereafter. The jury is still out whether it was the teacher, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (an American with a studio in Los Angeles), the poses, the setting, or a combination of all, but it was powerful and moving beyond any yoga I had ever experienced.
Day after day, people were crying, people were hugging, people were experiencing liberation from whatever was holding them back, whether it be anger, sadness, guilt, fear, or other emotional constraint. Kundalini involves a series of poses, less “commandoesque” than Vinyasa or Iyengar, guided meditations, and breathing. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new yogic experience from the physical, mental and spiritual levels.
There were other classes I attended, like Tai Chi and Vinyasa yoga, but I mention them only to tell of the physical thigh burning sensations of walking up three flights of uneven stairs to my room several times a day. It was the good pain though, one that says you are alive and working unused muscles.
Swamiji and the Yogis
Pujya Swamiji, President of the Parmarth Niketan Ashram which houses close to one hundred orphan boys, began pursuing yoga at the age of eight when, after he was touched on the forehead by a Himalayan guru/yogi, he wanted nothing more than to study under the sage. The sage said he was too young, but Pujya would not take no for an answer, so the sage told him that if he wanted to study under the master, Pujya could not see his family or friends for one year, had to live in his bedroom, and could only consume one glass of milk per day. So he immediately began pursuing this goal as his Mom prepared him milk once each evening and delivered it to him through his bedroom door with no visual or verbal communication.
Achieving the Himalayan sage’s one year goal, Pujya was permitted to go with the sage into the Himalayas where he would study for more than 10 years, spending many of those years in “tree pose” for 12 hours per day, only able to switch legs throughout the day. This is the type of disciplined mind common among many of the gurus speaking at the festival.
It is through yoga, that all of them, initially and continually tie into the “universal source”. Hearing them speak and responding to questions in satsang, it is clear that these gurus are indeed full of wisdom, extremely well read, often quoting long passages from both western and eastern authors from memory, and have access to the latest news and technological advancement and to top it off, are multi-lingual. “Guru” literally translated means “remover of darkness”, “gu” meaning darkness and “ru” meaning remove. Their use of multiple languages is designed to help spread their deep understanding of life at atomic and energetic levels to the world.
Post Script to Swamiji
When Swamiji was asked why yogis do not cut their hair and grow long beards, he first answered half-jokingly, “because there are no barbers in the Himalayas (where he studied)” and continued with “also, because they are not to be concerned with their looks” as they already have many larger issues in sharp focus occupying their minds. Basically, vanity is not a yogi trait.
The Festival
The International Yoga Festival is held annually in late Feb and early March. This year, over 300 people from thirty countries with varying religions attended. Their ages ranged from 22 to 72. One Indian man I came to know, Varun Khullar from Punjab, is 22 years old and studying for his master’s degree in engineering at the Punjab College of Technical Education. A soft-spoken, self-consciously thin man with round rimmed glasses, Varun, was wise beyond his years. He was familiar with many subjects from photography to computers to engineering to English and yoga. He has incorporated yoga into his daily routine adding to his studies.
(Above: Me, Varun's Aunt and Varun)
Then there was Ling, a Chinese woman in her early thirties, attending the festival for her third consecutive year. A Hatha yoga teacher in Huang Zhou, like me, Ling was moved by the morning Kundalini classes. Disciplined more than any other attendee I met, she attended all seven days of sadhana (pronounced “sodna”, the 4:00 – 6:00 a.m. morning yoga/meditation with campfire like singing for which I crawled out of bed on only one occasion. I asked Ling about what it was like teaching yoga in China. She said that one primary difference is that in China, she cannot include any spirituality in her classes, no quotes of wisdom or reading of text with a spiritual tone so her classes were naturally more focused on the physical aspects.
Without my prompting, Ling went on to say that Chinese women are emotional, but the culture does not favor them displaying such emotion in public. I asked her and her traveling companions, three other Chinese women, if they were familiar with the Google search engine. Shelley (using her American name) replied, “Of course”. Curious to see how much they knew about government limitations on their access to information, I asked if they knew Google had modified it’s search engine for China at the request of it’s government. For the two women who understood English, this caused a look of consternation. The wheels turned and Shelley initially said that was not true, but after a few moments changed her tune to “maybe”.
In a conversation with Ling on the last night of the festival, in broken English, she expressed another poignant point. She said that in China, “the money is easy to get, but the heart is empty”. Her comment struck a chord in me as the idea of freedom, freedom of speech, religion, spirituality, freedoms I have enjoyed my entire life, was only a wish for her. Yoga was her way of staying in touch with her spirituality, finding balance in her life.
There were two to three choices for class or lecture each hour throughout the day and four communal times for eating snacks, lunch, or dinner together. Hunger knocked on my stomach’s door at least twice a day as the twisting, turning, stretching and balancing burned through my fuel reserves. Meal time was a great opportunity to meet people like Ling and Varun from Europe, Australia and a team of 20+ yoga instructors from Argentina. Yoga is no longer just a class, it is an international language.
On Relationships
In satsang one evening, a woman asked Swamiji whether a marriage should ever end. Although I don’t know her personal details, it seemed that she might be experiencing difficulties in her marriage and was searching for answers as tears later rolled down her cheeks. Swamiji started his answer highlighting the point that as a guru, he had renunciated all earthly possessions and intimate relationships so his response was limited to that extent. However, Swamiji went on to say the following, “Sacrifice is the key to marriage. Marriage should be between souls, not bodies.” It was abundantly clear that the guru did not believe in divorce, but that was not based on religious principles as much as it was his view of devotion through his relationship with God.
Another guru attending the satsang, Pujya Sri Shankaracharyaji, went on to add that he once admired a sign hanging in a home he visited in Great Britain. The sign read, “Wisdom in Man, Patience in Woman, Obedience in Children is the key to a happy home.” He believed that the quote was a succinct statement of how to achieve family success. Shankaracharyaji believed that many problems between husband and wife is often in the ego and the ego should be sublimated in such instances. An interesting perspective from someone who lacks familiarity with intimate relationships, yet again, as with Swamiji, it was reflective of his devotion to God, not in the religious (Hindu, Christian, Muslim) sense, but in the “oneness” with all sentient beings connected through a universal energy.
Final Take – The Hard Road
So what does all of this yogi talk and action mean at the end of the day? I’m sure I haven’t quite realized everything I am taking from this experience. Everyone takes something different from yoga and the teachings behind it and the Bhagavad Gita. For yoga festival attendees, it was probably like preaching to the church choir for the yogis. But yoga, real yoga in its ancient design handed down over thousands of years, opens a non-religious door as a common meeting ground for those who believe in the individual and the concept of the inner connectivity of all life. Extreme ends of various religions subscribing to the belief that an individual is weak and should turn over their lives to God without searching within may be threatened by yoga.
Yoga requires individual responsibility, action and self-knowledge. It offers more ways of seeing beyond the eyes, but not without hard work. It is indeed the hard road, taking many years of practice requiring dedication and discipline, but reports of the rewards are great. Day after day, I struggled with virtually every pose believing it almost impossible for my body to contort in such fashion as others around me attained the correct form, but as the days progressed, I also improved as did my knowledge of self, something I had not expected. Yoga reinforced my belief that at the bottom of it all, the road to happiness is really found in the simple things, contrary to successful marketing campaigns driving societies to keep up with the “Jones” or the “Guptas” or the “Yangs”.
(Above: Sign in Bombay Mall with a marketing slogan that reads in part, "Greed is only natural.")
The challenge for me now will be to keep it simple. I learned to KISS in the 7th grade from Mrs. Thomas. When did you learn to KISS? Remember “Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)”? I thought she was just talking about my math homework and calling me stupid (which is why I never liked math), but as it turns out, she might just have been giving me a roadmap for life. Who knew Mrs. Thomas was a yogi?
More on Rishikesh and rafting on the Ganga (Ganges) in my next entry. Namaste
Lost In Translation
Where to begin on this post to provide some semblance of the course of events over the past few days is the most difficult yet. I will start first with what I learned about yoga as it is the most tangible topic. “Yoga” means union with the individual and universal soul. So the purpose behind yoga, as it was explained to me by Pujiya Sri Shankaracharyaji, is to align the body such that all of the chakras are aligned, thus giving the individual access to all of the information within her or himself, which ultimately leads to accessing the universal source. The source is sometimes referred to as “God”, “Lord”, “Krishna”, “Allah” or “Jesus” or a variety of other labels, but from a yogi perspective, it is all the same, boiled to down to one word “energy”.
Contrary to some understanding in the West, yoga is not affiliated directly with any religion, rather it is an ancient path to self realization. The yogis believe that if you realize your true self, then you will also realize God, that God and you are one and fulfill your soul’s purpose. Easier said than done, but according to Sri Sri Shankar, “all children are yogis”. Children are without the ego and generally have an innocence that sees the world with compassion. Sri Sri said that it is important to remember how you felt when you were a kid and to be in touch with that part in each of us. His specific example was remembering the first time you saw a homeless person as a kid, and how you were inclined to help in some way, yet as adults, we are able to shut that compassion off with a switch. Sri Sri does not advocate randomly handing out money to the homeless, but he thought giving them a start and self-esteem was essential.
(Above from left: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Pujya Sri Shankaracharyaji)
The past few days have been an inspiring return to yoga in its true form, involving breath, form (poses) and meditation. It seems that this combined modality of yoga has been lost in translation in the West. Often, western yoga classes are offered as a workout moving swiftly through poses to generate a cardio and muscular stretch. At the festival, masters from around the world gathered and all of their classes involved a multi-layered approach to yoga, tai chi and reiki among some of the classes offered. All of the classes had an element to self reflection/meditation/relaxation.
Kundalini
Arriving at the ashram at 8:30, I calmed my anxious self inside, feeling like a 1st grader late to his first day of class. Everyone would see me walk in late and I would have to start in more advanced poses with no warm up, a problem for my novice yogi self. Having preplanned my courses the night before, I was set on Iyengar as I had some familiarity with the poses and had no idea of the other option, Kundalini (Italian yoga? Or maybe magic yoga?), but it was not meant to be. Rushing to the hall hosting the Iyengar class, I heard a loud speaker under a white tent on the garden path say, “O.K., let’s do our first pose.” Plans changed in an instant as I rushed into the large white tent, kicked off my flip-flops and found my spot on the floor. Kundalini, a name I had only heard of in passing was to be the morning class for me, and it would be the morning class each day thereafter. The jury is still out whether it was the teacher, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa (an American with a studio in Los Angeles), the poses, the setting, or a combination of all, but it was powerful and moving beyond any yoga I had ever experienced.
Day after day, people were crying, people were hugging, people were experiencing liberation from whatever was holding them back, whether it be anger, sadness, guilt, fear, or other emotional constraint. Kundalini involves a series of poses, less “commandoesque” than Vinyasa or Iyengar, guided meditations, and breathing. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new yogic experience from the physical, mental and spiritual levels.
There were other classes I attended, like Tai Chi and Vinyasa yoga, but I mention them only to tell of the physical thigh burning sensations of walking up three flights of uneven stairs to my room several times a day. It was the good pain though, one that says you are alive and working unused muscles.
Swamiji and the Yogis
Pujya Swamiji, President of the Parmarth Niketan Ashram which houses close to one hundred orphan boys, began pursuing yoga at the age of eight when, after he was touched on the forehead by a Himalayan guru/yogi, he wanted nothing more than to study under the sage. The sage said he was too young, but Pujya would not take no for an answer, so the sage told him that if he wanted to study under the master, Pujya could not see his family or friends for one year, had to live in his bedroom, and could only consume one glass of milk per day. So he immediately began pursuing this goal as his Mom prepared him milk once each evening and delivered it to him through his bedroom door with no visual or verbal communication.
Achieving the Himalayan sage’s one year goal, Pujya was permitted to go with the sage into the Himalayas where he would study for more than 10 years, spending many of those years in “tree pose” for 12 hours per day, only able to switch legs throughout the day. This is the type of disciplined mind common among many of the gurus speaking at the festival.
It is through yoga, that all of them, initially and continually tie into the “universal source”. Hearing them speak and responding to questions in satsang, it is clear that these gurus are indeed full of wisdom, extremely well read, often quoting long passages from both western and eastern authors from memory, and have access to the latest news and technological advancement and to top it off, are multi-lingual. “Guru” literally translated means “remover of darkness”, “gu” meaning darkness and “ru” meaning remove. Their use of multiple languages is designed to help spread their deep understanding of life at atomic and energetic levels to the world.
Post Script to Swamiji
When Swamiji was asked why yogis do not cut their hair and grow long beards, he first answered half-jokingly, “because there are no barbers in the Himalayas (where he studied)” and continued with “also, because they are not to be concerned with their looks” as they already have many larger issues in sharp focus occupying their minds. Basically, vanity is not a yogi trait.
The Festival
The International Yoga Festival is held annually in late Feb and early March. This year, over 300 people from thirty countries with varying religions attended. Their ages ranged from 22 to 72. One Indian man I came to know, Varun Khullar from Punjab, is 22 years old and studying for his master’s degree in engineering at the Punjab College of Technical Education. A soft-spoken, self-consciously thin man with round rimmed glasses, Varun, was wise beyond his years. He was familiar with many subjects from photography to computers to engineering to English and yoga. He has incorporated yoga into his daily routine adding to his studies.
(Above: Me, Varun's Aunt and Varun)
Then there was Ling, a Chinese woman in her early thirties, attending the festival for her third consecutive year. A Hatha yoga teacher in Huang Zhou, like me, Ling was moved by the morning Kundalini classes. Disciplined more than any other attendee I met, she attended all seven days of sadhana (pronounced “sodna”, the 4:00 – 6:00 a.m. morning yoga/meditation with campfire like singing for which I crawled out of bed on only one occasion. I asked Ling about what it was like teaching yoga in China. She said that one primary difference is that in China, she cannot include any spirituality in her classes, no quotes of wisdom or reading of text with a spiritual tone so her classes were naturally more focused on the physical aspects.
Without my prompting, Ling went on to say that Chinese women are emotional, but the culture does not favor them displaying such emotion in public. I asked her and her traveling companions, three other Chinese women, if they were familiar with the Google search engine. Shelley (using her American name) replied, “Of course”. Curious to see how much they knew about government limitations on their access to information, I asked if they knew Google had modified it’s search engine for China at the request of it’s government. For the two women who understood English, this caused a look of consternation. The wheels turned and Shelley initially said that was not true, but after a few moments changed her tune to “maybe”.
In a conversation with Ling on the last night of the festival, in broken English, she expressed another poignant point. She said that in China, “the money is easy to get, but the heart is empty”. Her comment struck a chord in me as the idea of freedom, freedom of speech, religion, spirituality, freedoms I have enjoyed my entire life, was only a wish for her. Yoga was her way of staying in touch with her spirituality, finding balance in her life.
There were two to three choices for class or lecture each hour throughout the day and four communal times for eating snacks, lunch, or dinner together. Hunger knocked on my stomach’s door at least twice a day as the twisting, turning, stretching and balancing burned through my fuel reserves. Meal time was a great opportunity to meet people like Ling and Varun from Europe, Australia and a team of 20+ yoga instructors from Argentina. Yoga is no longer just a class, it is an international language.
On Relationships
In satsang one evening, a woman asked Swamiji whether a marriage should ever end. Although I don’t know her personal details, it seemed that she might be experiencing difficulties in her marriage and was searching for answers as tears later rolled down her cheeks. Swamiji started his answer highlighting the point that as a guru, he had renunciated all earthly possessions and intimate relationships so his response was limited to that extent. However, Swamiji went on to say the following, “Sacrifice is the key to marriage. Marriage should be between souls, not bodies.” It was abundantly clear that the guru did not believe in divorce, but that was not based on religious principles as much as it was his view of devotion through his relationship with God.
Another guru attending the satsang, Pujya Sri Shankaracharyaji, went on to add that he once admired a sign hanging in a home he visited in Great Britain. The sign read, “Wisdom in Man, Patience in Woman, Obedience in Children is the key to a happy home.” He believed that the quote was a succinct statement of how to achieve family success. Shankaracharyaji believed that many problems between husband and wife is often in the ego and the ego should be sublimated in such instances. An interesting perspective from someone who lacks familiarity with intimate relationships, yet again, as with Swamiji, it was reflective of his devotion to God, not in the religious (Hindu, Christian, Muslim) sense, but in the “oneness” with all sentient beings connected through a universal energy.
Final Take – The Hard Road
So what does all of this yogi talk and action mean at the end of the day? I’m sure I haven’t quite realized everything I am taking from this experience. Everyone takes something different from yoga and the teachings behind it and the Bhagavad Gita. For yoga festival attendees, it was probably like preaching to the church choir for the yogis. But yoga, real yoga in its ancient design handed down over thousands of years, opens a non-religious door as a common meeting ground for those who believe in the individual and the concept of the inner connectivity of all life. Extreme ends of various religions subscribing to the belief that an individual is weak and should turn over their lives to God without searching within may be threatened by yoga.
Yoga requires individual responsibility, action and self-knowledge. It offers more ways of seeing beyond the eyes, but not without hard work. It is indeed the hard road, taking many years of practice requiring dedication and discipline, but reports of the rewards are great. Day after day, I struggled with virtually every pose believing it almost impossible for my body to contort in such fashion as others around me attained the correct form, but as the days progressed, I also improved as did my knowledge of self, something I had not expected. Yoga reinforced my belief that at the bottom of it all, the road to happiness is really found in the simple things, contrary to successful marketing campaigns driving societies to keep up with the “Jones” or the “Guptas” or the “Yangs”.
(Above: Sign in Bombay Mall with a marketing slogan that reads in part, "Greed is only natural.")
The challenge for me now will be to keep it simple. I learned to KISS in the 7th grade from Mrs. Thomas. When did you learn to KISS? Remember “Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)”? I thought she was just talking about my math homework and calling me stupid (which is why I never liked math), but as it turns out, she might just have been giving me a roadmap for life. Who knew Mrs. Thomas was a yogi?
More on Rishikesh and rafting on the Ganga (Ganges) in my next entry. Namaste
posted by Global415 at 9:34 AM
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