Joel Bender
Sanskrit Comes Alive
They say if you’re drawn to Yoga in this lifetime, it’s because you’ve had a relationship with it in a past life. If this is true, I’d bet Joel Bender has been down the path of Yoga before.
I began practicing Ashtanga with Joel five years ago at Center for Yoga, just after it became YogaWorks. They added Mysore style classes with this teacher whom I’d heard was Maty Ezraty’s student and a rising star in the Yoga world. “Oh, we’re talking about another
‘Mr. Yoga’ complete with triceps and tattoos,” was my initial thought. But there was something about Joel I like – a fierce authenticity accompanied by the kind of intensity that’s borderline obsessive. From the beginning, this exacting task-master always pushed us to perfect the details. Even in the most challenging parts of the sequence, Joel would expect us to deliver – and even when I thought I couldn’t, I would.
I’ve stayed with Joel like many other loyal students because he’s changed my life and as Joel continues to learn and grow, so do his students.
Joel fell into doing Yoga fifteen years ago. He had an innate facility with the poses and was quickly practicing the Second and Third Series as taught by Shri K. Patabhi Jois. He was hungry for more, even though he wasn’t precisely sure what that was.
“I became curious about what Yoga philosophy was and how doing this exercise was related to what was written in the Bhagavad Gita,” Joel said he felt this strongly, before he conceived of actually reading the Gita.
“The big questions started burning for me right away. But I didn’t know where to find the answers – yet. None of the Yoga teachers I knew talked about Yoga philosophy, let alone India or Indian culture. In retrospect, I’m grateful that I had to find my own way, but at the time I was starving for knowledge deeper than how to do uttanasana (standing forward fold) ‘correctly’.”
Curiosity drove him to a self-study of the vast and beguiling topic of Sanskrit. He fed this insatiable desire with countless hours listening to and repeating the lessons on Sanskrit instructional CDs. By the time he traveled to India four years ago, he had a rudimentary ability to read Sanskrit. But when he was in the heart of what he called “the box of Hinduism,” things really began to shift.
Everyone is changed by India, but being there seemed to introduce Joel to a dormant part of himself. When he returned, I could hear it in Joel’s voice in the way he spoke about the food, people, colors and culture of South India. He described the structure of Indian society and how integral worship is to people’s daily lives. I watched Joel gradually apply what he loved about India to his own routine.
He introduced Led Ashtanga Class instead of Mysore practice every Friday, counting the vinyasas in Sanskrit in the traditional way. While everyone groaned, Joel maintained the steady rhythm marking each and every inhalation and exhalation. From this we learned to regulate our breath, the key to Ashtanga practice. There were more shifts: Joel began following the schedule traditional for a spiritual aspirant, waking up at 3 A.M. to pray and study between five and eight hours every day. Some days, Joel would pass on our post-Yoga coffee when observing the traditional fasts of the Indian calendar. More and more chanting made its way into class, as we’d settle down for a sweaty savasana to the drone of Joel’s long, complicated Sanskrit recitations. I received an Indian cookbook for my birthday and once when I went to Joel’s house to pick up a studio key, he greeted me in a dhoti.
Although he was studying Yoga and Hinduism and exploring traditional practices, he explained, “I’m not trying to be a yogi. I think it is important to understand, in some small way, the traditional Indian culture which is vast, ancient, real and human. Yoga, both asana and what’s known as Yoga philosophy is just a tiny fragment of a fragment of Hindu culture and it’s almost entirely misunderstood
here in the West.”
Joel teaches asana Monday through Friday at Liberation Yoga in Hollywood, where he moved his class three years ago. Last month, he took only his third sick day in five years. It’s a demonstration of his commitment: He says if he demands attendance and dedication from his students, he’d better show up himself.
Joel teaches asana primarily to promote good health, cultivate self-discipline and build community. In addition, he’s begun to teach students who are curious about more. Here he shares his passions for Hindu culture and Sanskrit, including the major Yoga texts in this language, such as Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. He is interested in excavating the layered allusions of Yoga philosophy and debunking trendy oversimplifications. Although he may arrive to class wearing glasses and a suit carrying bags of books, Joel doesn’t define himself as an academic. He does have a humble respect and earnest enthusiasm for the material he describes as “totally mind-blowing.”
In addition to frequent practice and consuming quantities of jaggery (unrefined sugar used in India), Joel’s love affair with India has energized him, inspiring sacred activism. In India, he experienced what he saw as a disconnect between contemporary Western Yoga and its Indian roots. Visiting poor South Indian neighborhoods outside of tourist resorts and retreat centers, Joel found himself face to face with a major economic divide. Yoga has become a thriving business in this country, while nearly half the world’s poorest people live in India.
In response, Joel and one of his students, Kayoko Mitsumatu, founded the nonprofit 501(c)(3) Yoga Gives Back (YGB). YGB uses microfinance to provide a means for Western Yoga practitioners to impact the life of someone in a poor family in India. For example, the cost of your Yoga class is enough money to transform a struggling woman in India, into an entrepreneur.
“As I get older, my Yoga can’t remain just about me. Yoga has touched my life profoundly. For this, I feel a personal debt to India. Anyone who has had a similar experience with Yoga must also feel gratitude. I want to give practitioners from all methodologies
and communities the opportunity to say thank you and give back.”
Joel hopes to raise awareness and help Yoga practitioners become more informed about and sensitive to the culture of India. That is not to say that he expects others to immerse themselves in it as he has. “Some people say I never came back from India,” he quipped.
In LA, Joel has attended the Sri Venkateshwara Temple in Malibu every Saturday for the past three years. When he sits with the Hindu community there, chanting and worshipping, he feels most nearly himself.
“I realize now that I worked so hard all those years to learn Sanskrit so I could connect to this community. I didn’t know why I was doing it then; I was just compelled. But now I know. Something in me has opened. I’ve come home.”
Joel Bender teaches regularly scheduled classes at Liberation Yoga on La Brea in Hollywood: liberationyoga.com. To benefit Yoga Gives Back, Joel will be teaching an eight-week Sanskrit workshop at Dancing Shiva Studio on Thursday evenings at 7:30 P.M. beginning December 3. Dancing Shiva, 7466 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. (323) 934 – 8332.
Practice at a class raising funds for Yoga Gives Back, Sunday, November 22, 10:00 A.M. – 12 noon at Yogaglo, 1800 Berkeley, Santa Monica. Yogaglo.com; yogagivesback.org
Mara Hesed is a freelance yoga instructor. Contact her at homyoga@sbcglobal.net.
By Mara Hesed
