Let Go and let God. Ishvara Pranidhana. Kneel before the Lord. Surrender to Source.

Different forms of spirituality or religion emphasize the importance of surrendering to something greater than yourself with the promise that when we choose to follow the lead of a Higher Power, our lives will open in ways we never could have imagined.  

In The Surrender Experiment, Michael Singer describes his early decision to do just that. This fascinating read chronicles Singer’s journey in rural Florida as a young hippie, yogi, teacher, builder, and massively successful entrepreneur. Singer describes numerous situations where he had to consciously choose to surrender his opinions and beliefs and act as life was guiding him. Singer let go of the reins and let himself be taken for a ride.   

His story unfolds like a fairy tale with new situations and eccentric characters showing up at exactly the time that they are needed in order for the author to learn whatever he is meant to learn. Throughout, I reflected on my own life and noticed how many things have seemed to fit into a divine plan.

The first half of the book is about the author finding his spiritual groove and his experiences with yoga and meditation while the second half of the book addresses Singer’s business experiences. All in all, The Surrender Experiment is a great story about a man who has led an amazing and inspiration life of surrender whose words have touched millions.  

Crown Publishing/Penguin Random House

Buy the book here.

Reviewed by Paul Teodo, a LA-based yoga and meditation teacher and musician. He teaches on the Westside and leads sound healing practices: ajourneytocenter.com. @teodoyogaguitar

Paul Teodo

The post The Surrender Experiment Book Review appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Dr. Parla Jayagopal

Q: I have suffered the past couple years with acid reflux. I have been in and out of doctors’ offices and have tried many natural and prescription remedies. Currently, my doctor has prescribed me Nexium, but since I am in my twenties, I would rather not be on prescription medicine and instead incorporate alternative Ayurvedic practices and holistic medicine to remedy my acid reflux. What would you recommend I do or use to alleviate my situation?

A: Ayurveda considers acid reflux as an outcome of abnormal function of pitta dosha (the fire element) in conjunction with vata dosha (the air and ether/space elements). The pitta and vata doshas get provoked or thrown out of balance by the following circumstances:

• Diet with tastes that are predominantly sour, salty and pungent (hot and spicy).
• Fried, oily and roasted foods.
• Excessive consumption of hot, irritating foods and substances including tomato ketchup/sauce, mustrad, vinegar, coffee and other similar substances.
• Irregular eating habits, especially missing lunch and overeating.
• Stimulants such as tobacco and alcohol.
• Spicy greens such as mustard greens
• Excess consumption of dry foods like chips, crackers and aslo seeds and nuts that are raw and oily
• Raw tomatoes, raw onions or raw garlic.
• Sour cream, yogurt and smoothies with milk and fruits.

In addition, our state of mind plays an important role in our health and well-being, particularly the health of our digestion. The pitta and vata doshas also become aggravated when we are:

• Angry and agitated.
• Constantly thinking and worried.
• Feeling jealousy and hatred.
• Overly busy and experiencing unrelenting stress.

With these most common causative factors being identified, the first and the foremost thing Ayurveda recommends is to avoid the causative factors. This is known in Sanskrit as nidaana parivarjana.

In addition, drinking two cups of room temperature or hot water on an empty stomach

in the morning helps to regularize the function of vata dosha and normalize the peristaltic movements or muscular contractions
of the digestive track.

In order to cool fiery pitta dosha, one of the following liquids can be rotated on a daily basis:

• Aloe Vera juice, 1/4 cup plus 1/2 tsp of cardamom powder any time after noon.
• One tablespoon coriander powder soaked in 14 ounces of water for an hour or more before straining. Take this any time in the morning.
• Coconut water, 1 cup plus 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder taken at noon time.
• Herbal Tea. An herbal tea that can be sipped with food (lunch and dinner) that is greatly beneficial is the following.

One teaspoon each of:

• shatapushpa (Anethum sowa)
• yavani (Carum copticum)
• coriander (Coriandrum sativum)
• fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)
• and 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric (Curcuma longa) with 14 ounces
  hot water.

Pranayama
Sheetali pranayama that calms the mind and helps to reduce agitation will be very beneficial if done for six minutes morning and evening before food. Breathing involves abdomen rather than chest. To practice sheetali pranayama, fold the tongue into a tube between the lips and breathe in through the tongue slowly and extend the breath to abdomen. Gently pause for five seconds while the tongue is relaxed in the mouth and touching the upper palate. Then breathe out slowly through the nose. If you are not able to fold your tongue then suck the air through the teeth with the mouth slightly open; you can also purse your lips and breathe in trough pursed lips.

Asana
Begin with five to eight rounds of moon salutations. A sequence of moon salutations involves: pranamasana, hasta uttanasana (also known as tadasana), padahastanasana, ashwa sanchalanasana, hanumanasana, shashankasana, ashwa sanchalanasana, hanumanasana, bhujangasana, shashankasana, vajrasana, utkatasana and pranamasana.

Then hold poses like: pavan muktasana (wind release pose), vajrasana (thunderbolt pose), bidalasana (cat pose), adho mukha shwanasana (downward-facing dog), and shavasana (corpse, or relaxation pose) and simhasana (lion pose).

Compound Herbal Combinations

• Triphala capsules three at night with hot water just before bed.
• Avipattikar powder one teaspoon with warm water just before bed.

Please continue with the prescription medication and when the symptoms become mild, talk to your primary healthcare provider and gradually taper the dose as recommended.

Q: I am a woman in my thirties who practices Yoga often. I am very flexible and I recently broke a bone in my wrist in side plank. I’m trying to go easy in my practice so that it will have time to heal. Are there any Ayurvedic suggestions to help support the healing process in my wrist?

A: Please keep your wrist immobilized for at least four weeks do not strain or bear any weight on it. Rest is essential for healing. Take additional calming precautions to prevent aggravation of vata dosha (air/ether elements).

Food
Whole wheat, spelt, millet and barley can help promote bone healing.

Broth from chicken and turkey will be beneficial if you eat animal products.

Make a drink with 1/2 cup almonds soaked in water then peeled with 1/4 cup black sesame seeds blended with 3/4 cup cow milk or almond milk or water (if you are vegan or lactose intolerant), spiced with ginger powder and a little maple syrup. This is a good beverage to support healing and can be used once a day.

Compress
Mix 3/4 cup each of sesame oil and castor oil and heat to 100 C. When it cools, store the oil combination in a glass container. Soak a piece of cotton or wool gauze or a cotton pad in the oil and keep on the fracture area, do not massage or press. Just allow the area to soak in the compress for thirty minutes.

Herbs
Herbs like punarnava (Boerhavia diffusa), guggulu (Commiphora mucul) and ashtinsaghar (Cissus quadrangularis) can be beneficial if taken under a supervision of an Ayurvedic practitioner.

Dr. Parla Jayagopal has an M.D. degree in Ayurveda from India and works as an Associate Professor at American University of Complementary Medicine; he teaches clinical doctorate courses and schedules consultations at the university clinic in Beverly Hills. Dr. Jay also serves on the Board of Directors of the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine (CAAM). Reach him at (310) 550 – 7445. Visit: aucm.org or ayurveda-caam.org for more information.

The information provided here is for educational purposes only and should not be a substitute for medical care. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Before using any Ayurvedic remedies, consult with a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or healthcare provider. It is important to rule out serious conditions when appropriate. This article represents the opinion and recommendation of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of LA YOGA Ayurveda and Health magazine.

Dr. Parla Jayagopal’s teacher, Dr. U.K. Krishna will be teaching a one-day seminar cosponsored by the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine and the American University of Complementary Medicine on Sunday, April 11 on Metabolic Disorders and Ayurvedic Nutrition and Supplements. For more information call: (310) 550 – 7445 x 201.

By Dr. Parla Jayagopal

Vaidya Parla Jayagopal

Vaidya. Jayagopal Parla BAMS, Masters in Ayurveda, C-IAYT, CMT, FAIHM

Vaidya Jay is a passionate teacher and practitioner of Ayurveda. He is classically trained in Ayurvedic medicine from India. He has a bachelors degree in Ayurvedic medicine from Bangalore University and a Masters degree in Ayurvedic Herbology from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. He is a certified yoga therapist and has a certificate wholistic massage therapy. Vaidya Jay completed fellowship in integrative medicine from AIHM.   He has over 25 years and is the founder/director of Athreya Ayurvedic Integrative Health Center Long Beach. He is  the vice president of Athreya herbs. He is faculty and clinician at Southern California University of Health Sciences, Whittier and visiting professor at Japan Ayurveda School, Tokyo.

www.athreyaayurveda.com

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Minds wander. That’s what they do. Attention is dynamic by nature, always on a Quest.

Hearts are always looking for love. The heart, by design, longs to be in the rhythm of giving and receiving.

In the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, the Goddess Devi dares her lover, Bhairava, to tell her the secrets of Yoga. In reply, he sings of 112 yuktis (Yogas) for touching the divine right here in the midst of life. This is the 93rd yukti.

In this practice, the Yoga is in the wandering and searching.

Wherever attention journeys,
On whatever expedition
In your outer world and
Inner secret realms,
Breathe in intimacy with omnipresence.

Where can you go to avoid
The One in Whom All Exists?

Reach down into your deepest being.
Take a stand in eternity.

Walk through this world, see any situation
As an expansion of the divine mystery.
Savor the tremble of recognition
The God in you touching the God out there.

yatra yatra mano yati
bahye vabhyantare ‘pi va 
tatra tatra sivavastha
vyapakatvat kva yasyati

For those who do not enjoy diacritical marks, here is an alternate spelling (Pundits and fundamentalists, cover your ears and eyes and go jump in the Ganges to purify yourself):
yatra–yatra manah yaati baahye vaa abhyantare api vaa
tatra–tatra shiva–avasthaa vi-aapakatvaat kva yaasyati

Going on a journey into the Monier-Williams dictionary, the entry for yatra yatra reads: “in or to which place, where, wherein, wherever, whither, anywhere . . . whatever.” Yatra yatra is the primordial “Whatever … wherever, dude.” This sutra was apparently composed by an enlightened hipster.

A verse of this type is just 32 syllables, so the composers like to pack as much meaning as possible into each syllable. They were huge punsters, delighting in the play of sounds, exploiting multiple meanings of words, and using similar-sounding words. For example, if we lengthen the a’s in yatra we get yatra, “going, setting off, journey, march, expedition, going on a pilgrimage.” If we accept this paronomasia of yatra (wherever) and yatra (expedition), we get something like “Whatever expedition, whatever pilgrimage,” which works in the sense of the verse here. But whatever; it works either way.

Mano or manas means mind (in its widest sense as applied to all the mental powers), intellect, intelligence, understanding, perception, sense, conscience, will, the internal organ of perception and cognition, the instrument through which thoughts enter or by which objects of sense affect the soul, sometimes joined with hrdaya, heart, the spirit or spiritual principle;

Yati – moves; Bahye or bahya – being outside (a door, house), situated without, outer, exterior; Va – or; Abhyanta – interior, being inside of, included in, inner part, inside, “on intimate terms,” a lover; Api – also, even, sometimes used as an expletive; Tatra tatra – in that and that place, here and there, everywhere, (according to some, “on that continually”);
Shiva – “The One in whom all things exist,” auspicious, gracious, kind, benevolent, “The Auspicious One”;
Avastha – to go down to, reach down to, to take one’s stand, remain standing, to stay, abide, to abide in a state or condition, to enter, be absorbed in; Vyapaka – permeates, spreading; Kva, where; Yasyati – will go.

Get down, reach down, into your deepest being. Take a stand in the benevolent infinity that is always spreading and permeating everywhere. Know that wherever the heart goes, wherever attention goes, you are touching a particle of the eternal expansion of creation.

The practice here is “Set your mind free.” Do not exercise any control, stay loose. Perceive every situation as a little hologram of the divine play. Let attention travel wherever it will in the universe, and know: Where can one go that is not in the all-pervading One?

There are as many ways of practicing this as there are people on Earth. You can take this stance toward every mood, sensation, and mental image arising in meditation. Are you feeling pleasure? Are you feeling pain, sorrow, delusion, dejection, or sexual joy? Consider these all to be aspects of the mystery. Wherever your mind moves, outer or inner, you are dancing with the One Infinite Life. Find your way of looking at that hot babe in Yoga pants, bird flying overhead, or highway patrol officer, and abiding in the knowledge, “That being is part of eternity, just as I am.”

The journey always begins here – whether you are daydreaming of American Idol or a Hindu idol. The movement of attention is the movement of love. Whatever your awareness is touching is part of the divinity of creation. Just as you are.

(To see the full definitions of every word in the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, visit lorinroche.com and look in the Sanskrit section, where each word of the text is linked to the Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary online. This text is from the oral tradition, so the meaning of the words is just the beginning – the wordplay continues with the sounds, rhythms, and puns.)

Lorin Roche is….

Dr. Lorin Roche has been practicing and teaching from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra since 1968. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. The Radiance Sutras, a new version of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, is available from Lorin’s website: lorinroche.com. Email comments and questions to lorin@lorinroche.com.

The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra describes 112 Yogas of wonder and delight for touching the divine in the midst of daily life. Dr. Roche does one-to-one coaching with individuals wishing to evolve their daily meditation practice and trains Yoga teachers in how to teach meditation. Call (310) 570-2803 for more information.

Lorin Roche

Dr. Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 as part of scientific research on the physiology of meditation. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras and Meditation Made Easy. With his wife, Camille Maurine, he wrote Meditation Secrets for Women. A teacher of meditation for 46 years, Lorin’s approach centers on how to customize the practices to suit one’s individual nature. Lorin leads the Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training, a 200 hour certification program registered with Yoga Alliance. Lorin teaches regularly at the Esalen Institute and around the world.

www.meditationtt.com

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The most conscientiously spiritual of the Beatles, Harrison learned from a number of well-known gurus, living and dead: Swami Vishnudevananda, whom he met when the Beatles were filming Help! in the Bahamas; Paramahansa Yogananda and Swami Vivekananda, whose books he read while studying sitar with Ravi Shankar in India; A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, whose Krishna Consciousness movement Harrison supported as enthusiastically as he chanted the familiar Hare Krishna Mahamantra; and most famously, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, from whom he and the Fab Four learned Transcendental Meditation in 1967 after George’s then-wife, Pattie Boyd, told him about it. That meeting of celebrity and guru triggered a media frenzy that put words like mantra, guru and ashram into the vocabulary and ushered meditation—and, as a byproduct, the full repertoire of yogic practices—into the mainstream.

Once he found value in India’s spiritual heritage, Harrison promoted the message with the same passion he brought to his guitar. When Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein died, George’s funky explanation of reincarnation was heard around the world: “There’s no such thing as death anyway. I mean, it’s death on a physical level, but life goes on everywhere, and you just keep going up really.” When the Beatles departed for their famous sojourn in India, George told the press why: “For every human, it is a quest to find the answer as to ‘Why are we here? Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?’ That, to me, became the only important thing in my life. Everything else is secondary.” When he discovered Krishna bhakti (the devotional form of Yoga), Harrison funded the London Hare Krishna temple and the printing of one of Swami Bhaktivedanta’s books, for which he penned a foreword. Prefiguring today’s kirtan explosion by decades, he also produced and performed on an album of chants called “Radha-Krishna Temple” that reached a global audience.

Harrison became as Hindu as a Westerner is likely to be without taking swami vows, and his urge to express what he’d discovered in the tradition is palpable in some of his lyrics. Listen to “Within You Without You” on the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and you’ll hear lines like “Try to realize it’s all within yourself” and “When you’ve seen beyond yourself, then you may find peace of mind is waiting there.” I think of the song as the first rock ‘n’ roll Upanishad and those lines as rock mahavakyas (great utterances). But it is in his post-Beatles solo career that George the guru steps onto center stage. On “My Sweet Lord,” the first number one single by an ex-Beatle, he voices the yearning of a God seeker: “I really want to see you,” he cries, “I really want to know you … I really want to be with you …” As he intones variations on “my sweet Lord,” the chorus sings “Hallelujah,” then “Hare Krishna,” then a traditional verse invoking Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva (called Maheswara). Harrison said he wanted to show that Christian and Hindu sounds of praise “are quite the same thing.”

On “Give Me Love,” from the album Living in the Material World, he again gives voice to the primal spiritual yearning: “Give me love / Give me peace on earth / Give me light / Give me life / Keep me free from birth.” “Beware of Darkness” warns of the dangers of worldly attachment, counseling us to beware of “falling swingers” and “thoughts that linger.” On “Awaiting on You All” he tells us: “chant the names of the Lord and you’ll be free.” He advises us to learn “The Art of Dying,” a classic metaphor for transcending bodily identity, and he states the case for reincarnation: “There’ll come a time when most of us return here / Brought back by our desire to be / A perfect entity.”

Phil Goldberg

Philip Goldberg has been studying the world’s spiritual traditions for more than 50 years, as a practitioner, teacher, and author. An Interfaith Minister, public speaker, and workshop leader, his numerous books include Roadsigns on the Spiritual Path; American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West; The Life of Yogananda: The Story of the Yogi Who Became the First Modern Guru, and his latest, Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times: Powerful Tools to Cultivate Clarity, Calm and Courage. He blogs on Elephant Journal and Spirituality & Health, cohosts the popular Spirit Matters podcast, and leads American Veda Tours to India. His website is www.PhilipGoldberg.com.

www.philipgoldberg.com

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Joseph Encinia

Yoga On The Road To The Olympics…

  For some people, it’s puzzling: “Yoga is not a competitive sport,” they say. For others, the road to the Olympics is paved with determination and the desire to see the practice become a fully integrated part of one of the world’s largest mainstream celebrations of human potential. Rajashree Choudhury, founder of the USA Yoga Federation, as well as a five-time all-India champion herself, is steadfast in her commitment to see “the athleticism, discipline, and grace of Yoga at the Olympic games.”

Whether you agree or disagree, love to see the grace of Yoga asana demonstrated or think it should remain in the studio, the championship is a very public demonstration of the transformational power of the practice. Current National Champion Joseph Encinia feels this is the case.

  LA YOGA: What inspired you to participate?

  Joseph: My thirst to be the best I can be in this life. Coming from adolescence full of medical problems, I have been given a second chance in this life with Yoga. After my healing; I vowed not to waste it. After six years of competing, the Championship is no longer 100% about winning or losing. It’s about proving to myself, and humanity, that with determination, self-control, patience, concentration, and faith, any broken-down junk mind/body can be changed to do amazing things!

(Each participant demonstrates some compulsory and some optional poses.)

LA YOGA: How did you select your optional postures?

Gianna Purcell

  Joseph: At the 2011 National Yoga Asana Championship, I demonstrated scorpion and peacock pose; I feel they demonstrate presently who I am. When I was younger, my rheumatologist and orthopedic surgeon told me by the time I was in my mid-twenties I wouldn’t be able to do much physical activity because of rheumatoid arthritis. I wanted to prove to myself with these postures that I would be able to go beyond the usual and do something exceptional.

I’ve been doing the scorpion pose since my first competition—in every variation ( entering the pose from locust, tiger, and handstand). Stamping my feet to my head symbolizes the removal of emotions such as pride, anger, hatred, jealousy, intolerance, and malice, which are more deadly to the mind than the poison a scorpion carries. Through Yoga, I strive to obtain
a mind free of these emotions.

I chose peacock because it demonstrates strength and balance, mentally and physically. The appearance of a weightless body defeating gravity on two hands is something I could only dream about when I struggled with my weight. Through the execution of this pose, I wanted to demonstrate to everyone who struggles with weight issues that, with determined effort, the body would even appear to overcome gravity.

LA YOGA: What message would you like to share with young people considering participating in the championship?

Joseph: Competition drives us to be the best we can be, and a champion in Yoga or any athletic sport is one who has learned to control the fluctuations of the mind while doing what one does best.

As it is said in the great yogic text,
The Bhagavad Gita:
Be Steadfast in Yoga, O Arjun.
Perform your duty without attachment, remaining equal to success or failure
Such equanimity is called Yoga.

Jeffery Rangel

  FINALISTS 2011

Men’s Division

1. Joseph Encinia, Texas
2. Zeb Homison, Pennsylvania
3. Bel Carpenter, Colorado

Women’s Division

1. Afton Carraway, Florida
2. Emily Carpenter, Colorado
3. Emily Vendemmia, Maryland

For more information on the International Yoga Federation Asana Championships  visit: usayoga.org

Joni Yung

Joni Yung loves finding things to do around LA — especially ones that are free and good for you. Follow her on Twitter at @ayogist

blog.accidentalyogist.com/

The post We Are The Champions appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

“We have always used the water of holy rivers like the Ganga and Yamuna to purify ourselves, but today we have reached a point where we have to purify this water.” — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

For spiritual leader and humanitarian His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, both the inner and outer environment are an integral part of us.

According to the ancient Vedic knowledge, human beings have five sheaths or layers to their existence — the environment, the physical body, the mind, the intuitive sheath, and the innermost blissful Self.

“The environment is our first body,” says Sri Sri (pronounced Shree Shree), “so environmental consciousness is built into the human system. Historically, nature, or prakriti, has always been adored in India. It is only when we start moving away from nature that we start polluting nature.”

For the last 30 years, Sri Sri has focused on both the individual and society. His core programs for individuals include a workshop that brings the mind into the present with special breathing techniques, knowledge, and advanced programs of silence and meditation. He also offers special workshops that help veterans, people with HIV, prisoners, business people, and children.

However, Sri Sri considers service a key aspect of personal growth, and something that has the effect of helping people go deeper in their meditation.

“When the love blossoms, it has to flow out and express,” he explains. “Otherwise, it is suffocating inside. Service is not a favor that one does for somebody. It is not work that one is doing. It is the expression of one’s inner being; it is love. It brings one totally into the present moment.”

Volunteers from Sri Sri’s nonprofit organ-izations are active in more than 150 countries and have brought trauma relief to areas of conflict and natural disaster on a massive scale. They have inspired parties at war to lay down their arms, fought corruption and female infanticide, and brought hygiene, housing, education, and other programs to more than 35,000 villages in rural India.

If you looked only at the worldwide environmental initiatives of Sri Sri’s main foundations, the Art of Living Foundation, and the International Association for Human Values, you could easily conclude that they must be purely environmental organizations. They are involved in a campaign against genetically modified seeds, rainwater-harvesting projects, zero-budget organic and chemical-free farming, animal and plant-species protection, sustainable-living education in the U.S. and Canada, Haiti reforestation, and environmental campaigns in Bahrain.

As part of the Art of Living’s Mission Green Earth, volunteers in 36 countries planted more than 55 million trees. Last year, more than 20,000 people joined Sri Sri at the Yamuna River, as part of an eight-day cleanup event and awareness campaign. Over half of the estimated 3.6 billion tons of sewage produced daily in Delhi, flows untreated into the Yamuna. The Art of Living initiated the Yamuna cleanup project and has since inspired major local involvement with dozens of other NGOs and companies joining as partners.

“Spirituality elevates one’s consciousness and checks the greed that leads to environmental degradation,” says Sri Sri. “If you are devoid of spirituality or ignore it, you cannot become environmentally conscious, it’s almost impossible. Because somewhere deep within you, your cravings, your aversions, and your anger will, directly or indirectly, start affecting your environment.”

The Earth as a Living Being

In Vedic times, in India, the five basic elements that are in human beings and the rest of creation were treated with honor: earth, water, fire, air, and space.“Water was worshipped as sacred,” explains Sri Sri. “Every river was considered sacred and pollutants were not allowed.

When you consider something sacred, you will never pollute it.” An attitude of treating the elements as though they were living beings is found in Native Americans and tribal people around the world.

Sri Sri suggests that only when someone is aware and respects the Earth will they stop polluting. “When one can respect living beings, then respect for animals comes, and after that, inanimate objects. But a certain level of awareness, a certain level of awakening is essential. It takes a greater heart.”

“Treating the trees, rivers, people, and the rest of the planet as sacred, and seeing God in nature and in people will foster sensitivity,” he says. “A sensitive person can’t but care for nature. It is insensitivity that makes a person act callously toward the environment. If a person is sensitive, he will nurture the environment, thereby eradicating pollution.”

The Inner Environment

Even in the face of war and terrorism, Sri Sri feels environmental issues cannot be ignored. “Of course,” he notes, “if there is a war and bombs are falling next door, you can’t think about planting new trees. In those situations, whether it is Gaza, Lebanon, Pakistan, or Afghanistan, the immediate concern is to put an end to terrorism and to stop the war. At the same time, I would say that even war is part of the environmental concern. Dropping tons of ammunition and bombs in a small area damages that area for a long, long time. Trees are damaged, earth gets damaged, and water is polluted.”

There is one influence on the environment he says we should be paying more attention to — the effect of the negative emotions and vibrations we carry with us.

“It’s quite natural for negative feelings and emotions to come into the mind,” he says. “It’s not unnatural, it’s natural.” Of these, “greed is the greatest pollutant,” he says; “Greed stops a person from sharing with others. Greed obstructs the preservation of the ecology. While being aware of methods to prevent pollution, a person may not act upon them because they cost in some way. This greed not only pollutes the gross physical environment, but also contaminates the subtle atmosphere. It stimulates negative emotions in the subtle mind and impacts the minds of the people around.”

Sri Sri states that the negative feelings of hatred, anger, and jealousy are the root of all disasters and misery in the world, whether they are economic, political, environmental, or social.

“All that we need to learn is how to clear them away so they don’t stay there, ferment, and become more negative,” he says cheerfully. “That is why these practices of meditation, Yoga, and breathing techniques are there. Through them, you can create such a positive and harmonious vibration within you and around you.” He says that awareness of how things are, right now, and awareness of the positive and negative emotions, also helps.

Service & The Shade-Giving Tree

“Seva (service) is your inner attitude, not the action,” says Sri Sri. It is that attitude of saying ‘I am available, I am here,’ to everybody, to everything, in all situations and all circumstances.

Sri Sri tells the story of a rich but miserable merchant during Buddha’s time. After meeting Buddha and meditating, he felt so wonderful that he wanted to help others find that. He found a beautiful area for an ashram, not far from the city, but discovered that it was the pleasure park of the prince. The prince wanted a lot of money for this land so the merchant paid for it, and the place became Buddha’s ashram. At one time, there were ten thousand people meditating there.

However, the merchant eventually lost his business and became a pauper. He was penniless, but he still wanted to keep giving something. In his backyard, he dug up some manure compost and put it under some of the ashram’s plants and trees.

Says Sri Sri: “Someone asked, ‘What is this? This is amazing! Even now, you are doing this service.’ The man says, ‘Yes. A handful of compost I put under this plant. This plant will become a shade-giving tree, and we don’t know how many people will sit under this tree and find that peace within their heart and get out of all their misery and problems.

Just sitting under the tree, how many people will gain meditation? For centuries to come, it can do a lot of miracles and benefit so many people.’

From that attitude, says Sri Sri, “‘This tree is not just a tree for today. The manure I am putting is not manure just for today. It’s for generations to come. This will grow bigger and bring shade and solace to many souls burned down in the heat of the world.’ That attitude of seva, that feeling that generates from within us; seva, is just an expression of our inner love.”

In the memoir, Stumbling Into Infinity: An Ordinary Man in the Sphere of Enlightenment, Michael Fischman tells about Sri Sri Ravi Shankar when he was in his twenties, seeking advice from a 300-year-old saint named Devraha Baba. This saint handed Sri Sri a big melon, saying, “Water is flowing. It has to flow.

If it stagnates, it will rot. So satsang should flow. Satsang is that force that allows the grace to flow in the world. Satsang is essential in the world so the world doesn’t rot. You have to carry on the satsang everywhere in the world.”

For information on programs at the Art of Living, visit artoflivingLA.org, or call 310-820-9429. For more information on Sri Sri, visit srisri.org.

Jeffrey Ainis

Jeffrey Ainis is a freelance writer, book editor, and an author of books on world music and composing. He also leads kirtan around the world.

The post Serving The Inner And Outer Environment appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Leslie Hendry

Leslie Hendry is an advanced Ashtanga Yoga practitioner who lives in Los Angeles and is also rooted in India and her native Texas. A former New York attorney, she designed the #3-ranked kids app “Everything Has a Home” and is working on her second book.

www.azawhistle.com

The post Life Is Messy; Clean It appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

MahaSivratri is the night of the Eternal Yogi, Lord Siva. This year, MahaSivratri falls on March 2 – 3.

“Si” is the Spirit that we are. “Va” is the Goddess, that of experience. “SiV”a is the awake experience. This is the root understanding to Lord Siva, the male and female within each of us. Likewise, the word “yogi” also refers to the feminine counterpart yogini.

In the spiritual India, most yogis who undergo deep tapas (meditative penance), seldom coming out for months, take a break from their meditative state and come out to bless humanity during this period of MahaSivratri. For one on the path of Yoga, this is the night to experience and actually become the Eternal Yogi.

This day of Mahasivratri is calculated based on the lunar calendar when our consciousness easily condenses into divine awareness during this period. Every month, there is one Sivratri and once a year, the grand MahaSivratri (maha means great) near the new moon period. From the yogic perspective, the moon directly influences the mind and our consciousness. It is during MahaSivratri period when we can easily dissolve our thoughts to surrender our past, especially karmic patterns to the Magic of the Now and rise above in consciousness.

Each month, the new and full Moon energies uniquely shift as the Earth rotates around the Sun. Each day of the orbit of the Moon around Earth holds a specific energy and a wave of consciousness. Each full Moon and new Moon period holds a specific vortex of energy. New moons hold the consciousness of Lord Siva, the Spirit experience and full moons hold the awareness and the mind, the energies of Lord Vishnu.

Mahasivratri also holds the objective of our Yoga practice, to attain the “I Am” experience and to lead a life as a Spirit having a human experience. The objective of Yoga and its meaning has been described as the union of divinity with the human.

In the meditative process, as the mind of thoughts give way to the mindless mind of a single thought that holds the thoughtlessness, we experience bliss. This is the supreme bliss that yogis term as ananda, happiness for no reason and all the reasons. Lord Siva is called “Satchidananda” which mean the experience of being bliss.

Any saint or holy man and woman in any religion or culture have the ability to bless reality through words. They may say, “Go home and you will soon have a baby” and remarkably, these words come true. This is because they are in touch with the higher conscious mind that is in union with Source, the mind state of Turiya. In deeper meditation, as we journey through the states of being awake, dreaming and sleeping, we realize each of this a facet of the mind in levels of consciousness. The yogis dive beneath these layers within to go beyond the mind, the thought patterns and karmic imprints to the state of Turiya, the state of sleepless sleep. In the state of Turiya, the yogis climb into timelessness to intensify the “I Am” experience. In MahaSivratri, the key to celebrating Lord Siva is by staying awake all night long to experience the yogic state of the mind, the Turiya. This higher conscious state of Turiya is the hidden experience that we are to be blessed with during MahaSivratri when staying awake through the night singing, meditating or chanting.

MahaSivratri sets our inner clock to being the timeless awareness. It is the peak of inner realization and grace in the annual journey as our planet travels around the Sun. To celebrate MahaSivratri observing a few yogic insights uplifts us to be unbound by time, karmic patterns and a limited mind. We become the joyful instrument of Source blessed in our daily inner journey to light, to be light.

Preparing for MahaSivratri in a Yogic Manner:

• When approaching MahaSivratri (March 2 – 3), we turn our mind inward and gradually shift our consciousness from the body into the soul. As the moon wanes and dissolves, we dissolve our ego states of ‘me’, ‘mine’ and ‘I’ into the higher consciousness of oneness of that of Lord Siva.
• MahaSivratri is the celebration of the Spirit by the Spirit. Empowered worship of Source is from the intent of wanting to be Source.
• In our inner journey of meditation, these are moments for detox and cleansing of mind and body through a light diet of fruits, nuts, and juice. With puja (prayer and worship) we transform to be Lord Siva.
• Jump into your personal Mother Ganga each morning! By slipping into a cold water bath or shower each morning (even for just a moment), we are dissolving our primal bond to the body and thus are born again. If getting into the cold water shower in the morning is difficult, practice Yoga and through Yoga dissolve into Lord Siva of the five elements and the body becomes easier to surrender into the cold water.
• It is normal for humanity to experience turbulence and upheavals just before MahaSivratri and then after MahaSivratri, the calm and inspired realities that unfold. The mind readily plunges within whenever there is hardship in our external realities. After MahaSivratri is observed and complete, it is normal to witness a huge blessing or blessings in our external reality.
• Light a lamp at least once a day and meditate, chant and pray. If this is not possible, still the mind and visualize the lamp within and experience Source as the joys within the stillness of a mind without thoughts. The stillness of mind is Lord Siva, the experience of being the Self, the soul.
• Pilgrimages to sacred places during this period supports the inner journey. Being aware of each thought and setting the mind alight through mantra chanting creates the inner lamp of awareness that gradually shines 24/7.
• Practice dharma (right action). An effective form of dharma is to feed the hungry while we are fasting. In satisfying another’s hunger, we are divinely fed with the subtle energy of Source. Dharma done during this sacred period magnifies. Dharma done by practicing random acts of kindness take us beyond our own suffering and discomfort in order to enable the realization of Oneness and the essence of Source.
• Climb within each day and go further beyond the mind into the internal vibrant light. Lift your consciousness from the muladhara chakra (root chakra) above to the Guru chakra (above the navel).
• Shift your awareness to the space above to the third eye and watch the vibrant light of the mantra dance. In bringing this light in the third eye to stillness, the mind transcends to the mindless realm of joy that Sages call the sleepless sleep, Turiya.
• On the day/night of MahaSivratri, (March 2 – 3, celebrated in different areas on different days), be the pillar of light, Lord Siva, the Eternal Yogi.

May humanity arise in the awake consciousness of wisdom that enables each of us to be the prophets and masters of higher consciousness. May each of us be instruments of Source and in our breath, the ascendance of collective consciousness.

We are the messengers of peace, love and Oneness of Source!

Nandhi was initiated into a karmic death journey through the direct teachings of his enlightened Siddhar Gurus and Masters in India, traveling in the wilderness and meditating in caves in South India as a sadhu for over two decades. Tapasyogi Kalathi Adiyen Aadi Nandhi represents the wisdom of the liberated. He is a visionary, yogi and a transformational guide who is from the mystical path of the Siddhars of South India. The Siddhar teachings, Tantiram, represent the roots of Yoga, Tantra and Mantra. His core teachings Kalangi Yoga is based on imparting the experience and guidance to attain a life of freedom, purpose, health and inner wisdom through tools of enlightenment: nandhi.com

By Nandhi

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post Mahasivratri: The Night Of The Yogi/Yogini appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

The post Sitting Down With: David Newman/Durga Das appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Dr. Anupama KizhakkeVeettil

Dr. Anupama KizhakkeVeettil is an Ayurvedic practitioner and licensed acupuncturist. She completed her degree in Ayurvedic Medicine from the University of Mangalore, India. She is teaching and practicing Ayurveda over decade. She earned a Masters Degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from Southern California University of Health Science and is currently pursuing PhD in public health. She has presented papers in national and international conference. Currently she is working as an Assistant Professor and the lead instructor for the Ayurvedic program at SCUHS: scuhs.edu. For appointments please call (562) 943 – 7125.

scuhs.edu

The post Ayurveda Q & A appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

In the details of our days, it’s easy to lose sight of the meaning behind the moments. It’s easy to forget the truth that giving, at its essence, is a creative activity and that every day holds abundant opportunities to surrender to the instincts of the heart.

Not long after I had moved into a new home, I learned that lesson from an unexpected source. That summer day, my almost five-year-old neighbor Sophie cautiously peeked through the trees separating her backyard from mine and introduced herself. After she and I had exchanged some important facts about each other, like how old she and her sister were and the names of my kitties, she suddenly asked, “What’s your favorite color?”

“Well, I like yellow,” I replied. In an instant, she was off, disappearing around the side of her house and calling behind her shoulder, “Stay right there; stay right there!” When she returned, she came bearing gifts. “Here’s a flower from our garden,” she announced, “a yellow flower.” With a smile big enough for the both of us, she stretched her arm toward me. She was carefully holding between her fingers a perfect yellow pansy.

It’s been a few years since Sophie graced me with her pansy and I’m sure she’s forgotten all about it. But I’ll never forget her gift – and the generous smile that leapt from her heart and landed smack in the middle of mine. Sophie knew instinctively what the beloved classic of India, the Bhagavad Gita, has taught for millennia: “He who offers to me [God] with devotion only a leaf, or a flower, or a fruit, or even a little water, this I accept from that yearning soul, because with a pure heart it was offered with love.” Sophie reminded me that it’s not just what we give but how we give that makes all the difference. It’s not the size of the gift but the size of our heart.

Better than Bigger

Today, more than ever, we are showered with media messages vying to convince us that gift-giving is all about buying more and buying bigger. I’ll never forget the sobs that came from a niece of mine one Christmas morning when she had finished unwrapping the two gifts my husband and I had given her, only to see that her sister had an extra package from us to open. She felt cheated, even though we had carefully spent equal amounts of money on them both. As adults, we may still pull out the measuring stick when it’s time to exchange gifts. Not only that, but we tend to think that “giving” happens when we hand over something that is wrapped and tied with a bow and ribbon.

Yet take a moment and think about the times, as a child or adult, when you felt most happy, joyful, or at peace. Were those special times in your life really defined by how much money someone spent on you? Or was it the attention you received or the intimacy and connection you experienced that made you feel exuberant? The wiser we become in the ways of the heart, the more we realize that the biggest and most expensive gifts aren’t necessarily the best ones. Better than bigger is the gift of the heart.

Likewise, the most touching and meaningful gifts are often the ones that come unexpectedly, not just on birthdays or anniversaries or holidays. “It is well to give when asked,” wrote the poet Kahlil Gibran, “but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.”

How often do you stop to appreciate another’s heart and give spontaneously – perhaps a bunch of flowers to celebrate a project well done, a special book to thank someone for her kindness, or a beautiful card with a personal message to cheer up a troubled friend or partner? And, in the midst of an argument, when everything within you wants to shut down, are you willing to open your heart and find out what the person pushing your buttons needs from you?

The people in our lives most need our gifts when they are experiencing difficulty, but, paradoxically, that’s when we are most tempted to withhold them. We take their churlish complaints or temper tantrums personally, when they are really SOS calls for support. Instead of “What’s wrong with you?” they are secretly longing to hear “Why are you hurting, and what can I do to help you?”

In the language of the heart, giving translates as offering a part of yourself to someone who, at that moment, needs it more than you do. By giving in this way, you not only honor others. You also honor yourself because you are allowing your heart to do what it was made to do – to give and receive love.

Surrendering to the Instincts of the Heart

A wonderful story from the Vedanta tradition teaches about giving from the heart to meet another’s unspoken need. A young seeker was severely scolded by his spiritual teacher for failing to complete an errand properly, and he saw the harshness of the reprimand as undeserved. A more advanced student noticed the young man’s dismay and explained to him what was happening. There are three classes of students, he told him. The third-class student merely obeys his teacher’s bidding. The second-class student doesn’t have to be instructed to do something; he intuits his teacher’s need as soon as the thought arises in the teacher’s mind. The first-class student, however, acts even before the teacher has had time to think of his or her need.

Just as an athletic coach pushes his players beyond their comfort zone so that they will become strong and excel at their sport, so the stern teacher in this story was pushing his young pupil to become not only an average giver but a first-class one. He wanted him to learn how essential it is in all relationships to open our hearts and anticipate the gift that others need from us.

Life calls each of us to surrender to that same instinct of the heart; to become so highly attuned to another’s need that we are ready instruments of healing and comfort. These aren’t lofty, unreachable goals. In your own way, you will always have something to give, whether a generous smile of encouragement, words of appreciation, a helping hand, a special perspective or skill, or simply a willingness to listen.

Every one of us has a particular wisdom, too, that we have garnered through our life experiences. You may not realize it, but drawing from your well of wisdom and compassion to help others can be like offering a cool cup of water to someone who has been suffering from a long, agonizing thirst. If you don’t know where to start, think about a challenging experience that taught you a valuable lesson or an insight you gained from reading something new that spurred a transformational moment for you. Look around and you will find someone who needs what you have to share.

You have a unique role to play and a valuable gift to give within your sphere of influence, and your heart will show you what to give, how to give, and when to give. You just have to listen.

Patricia Spadaro is the author of the award-winning book Honor Yourself: The Inner Art of Giving and Receiving. She has coauthored several other books on personal growth, spirituality and world traditions. For more inspiration on giving and receiving and on how to live more fully, deeply and authentically every day, visit Patricia Spadaro at:HowToHonorYourself.com

By Patricia Spadaro

Brian Chance

The post Give The Gift Of Your Heart appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Dr. Anupama KizhakkeVeettil

Dr. Anupama KizhakkeVeettil is an Ayurvedic practitioner and licensed acupuncturist. She completed her degree in Ayurvedic Medicine from the University of Mangalore, India. She is teaching and practicing Ayurveda over decade. She earned a Masters Degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from Southern California University of Health Science and is currently pursuing PhD in public health. She has presented papers in national and international conference. Currently she is working as an Assistant Professor and the lead instructor for the Ayurvedic program at SCUHS: scuhs.edu. For appointments please call (562) 943 – 7125.

scuhs.edu

The post Ayurveda Q & A appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

As director of YogaActivist.org in Washington, D.C., Jasmine Chehrazi already has an impressive resume at the age of 29. She has opened studios in and taught in outreach programs in poor neighborhoods, created a database of hundreds of Yoga teachers working with alternative populations and devised a technique of teaching Yoga to those who suffer from PTSD so their emotional triggers are not set off. And yet, her Yoga activism presents tremendous challenges.

Next door to her studio is a refugee support program, the International Rescue Committee. But even with the proximity, it is challenging to coordinate a collaborative program. Chehrazi shares, “It’s an example of how hard it is to get people who all believe in the same thing to actually do something. We also want other studios to get involved in outreach Yoga. Just one program per studio. We feel like we have to provide incentives, but studio owners and managers are overwhelmed.”

While it is certainly true that our spiritual practice can help us become better activists, it is equally the case that our Karma Yoga can improve our spiritual practice. When American yogis became captivated by Karma Yoga in the past couple of years, we ran away with it full steam – creating organizations, networks, and fundraisers of all kinds. Now we have special workshops on how to cope with the stress of managing Karma Yoga, along with every other obligation in our lives.

Chris Courtney, currently running Grass Roots Yoga in Albuquerque, states, “All too often it takes the form of just buying another cloth bag for a good cause, rather than taking real action. I think we need to take a more honest look at our own intentions and actions in this regard.”

As I’ve researched the interplay between our spiritual insight and the practice of our political and social work, I have become convinced that Karma Yoga is not simply a strategy for activism, but rather an intrinsic part of our spiritual growth.

My interest in Karma Yoga as a spiritual method to empower my political concerns began when, as a regular follower of Yoga and meditation for fifteen years, I found myself teaching International Relations as an adjunct professor at Sacramento City College. My beliefs in the power of Karma Yoga for social change were tested when students would ask me painful questions that reflected a personal hopelessness about issues such as nuclear weapon disarmament or human trafficking.

Why is it so challenging to create lasting change in the world? How can we hope to make a difference? How do we reconcile the fact that we could spend our whole lives trying to serve justice, and have our gains obliterated by the vote of an international body overrun by corporate interests?

I was looking for answers, not policy solutions. So I gave up my teaching gig and moved to the Yoga Farm in Grass Valley for a month, dedicating myself to spiritual practice and studying Yoga full-time. For the next two years, I lived in the woods on the Cosumnes River, intensely practicing, teaching, and writing about Yoga. By adopting more of a yogic lifestyle, I felt more empowered on all levels, and more emotionally and mentally equipped to deal with serious political issues.

I knew I didn’t want to compromise, neither as an activist nor as a spiritual seeker, so I had to bring them together. This desire to bring my spiritual teachings full circle back to the world of politics brought me out of my yogic hiding to pursue a doctorate examining the world of Karma Yoga, and – more broadly – how ritual, folk arts and indigenous traditions invigorate political and feminist struggles globally. When I started, I had no idea how popular Karma Yoga was already becoming in the Yoga community.

Service for Spiritual Growth

The integration of spirituality and political action has a strong historical basis in the emergence of modern Hinduism in India. During the nationalist era, many Indian gurus who supported the revolution against British rule promoted Hindu spirituality as an ethical basis for becoming involved in national politics and cultural revitalization during and after colonialism. They struggled with some of the same questions we do, and it is worth taking a look at prominent teachers, including Sri Aurobindo and Swami Sivananda, to investigate how their own negotiation of these issues may assist us on our path of spiritual activists.

Sri Aurobindo is well known in the West as a guru with a large ashram in Pondicherry and for his relationship with the Western spiritual teacher Mirra Alfassa (who succeeded him and became “The Mother”). Early in his life as a teacher, he was very active on the political scene, and published political writings through his magazine Karmayogin.

He emphasized yogic ideals such as brahmateja, a kind of spiritual aura and lifestyle that comes from devotion. These traditional Hindu values were being repurposed, (unfortunately, sometimes in highly conservative ways), to educate people about alternatives to colonialism. Sri Aurobindo viewed political actions more as moral and spiritual tasks, which could be accomplished through the concepts of tapasya (strenuous commitments), jnanam (truth study), and shakti (personal spiritual power).

Sri Aurobindo emphasized that Karma Yoga should be viewed as an intrinsic part of the wheel of karma as well as a spiritual vehicle. Many passages in Karmayogin speak to the spiritual side of “works,” and that it is not for the action alone in and of itself that the classical yogi engages in the practice. Karma Yoga, with his emphasis, is not just about humanitarianism or activism.

Karma sadhana in this context is a powerful spiritual practice to develop balance, integrity and a good work ethic. As I began internalizing Yoga Karma teachings, I grappled intensely with the futility of political outcomes. When teaching college students the hard-hitting facts related to big-picture international issues like living on a planet that just keeps getting hotter, there is so often an intense amount of emotional and psychological despair that comes with understanding how these issues work in reality.

According to Sri Aurobindo, outward works (as compared to the more inward practices of Yoga and meditation) are not promoted as the sole or primary means to achieve enlightenment; however, Karma Yoga is given its proper place as a highly useful approach. This practice helps burn the ego in order to practice devotion and commitment, and brings a clarity and freedom that harmonizes with what activists are seeking politically in an external sense.

After four years of committed political work and writing, Sri Aurobindo was arrested (along with 33 others) in association with two members of a group who intended to bomb the carriage of a British official, but ending up killing the wife and daughter of a barrister. He was acquitted, but after a yearlong stay in a colonial prison, Sri Aurobindo decided to go back into seclusion and focus on being a spiritual teacher.

Karma Yoga and Spiritual Endeavor

Most yogic traditions or lineages teach us that we are here to work out our karma, discover the purpose of our life and get down to business so we can release as soon as possible into the moksha of enlightenment, right? If enlightenment is our ultimate purpose, then why bother with all of these karmic actions, which very often end up creating more karma for ourselves? Wouldn’t it be better to focus on our spiritual path?

The Bhagavad Gita reveals the solution as a balance between your karma and your dharma. Arjuna definitely does not want to fight the war depicted in this epic, in which his cousins and other family members are pitted against him as enemies, but Lord Krishna tells him to stand up and fight. Krishna’s admonition to him points us to the reality that it is through the world, our presence here, and our struggles, that we have the chance to understand the truth of our spiritual strengths and ultimately realize our inner nature.

A basic approach to Karma Yoga appreciates that, for the majority of us, a full realization of our oneness with the Divine does not come easily. In The Practice of Karma Yoga, Swami Sivananda cautions, “Only that advanced Yogi who can meditate for hours together can stop work. If ordinary students give up work they will become tamasic and lazy…The full-blown Yogi or Jnani or Bhakta should again come back to the world to elevate other people, for the purpose of Lokasangraha (world-solidarity).”

At a certain point in one’s spiritual path, whether or not to “do” Karma Yoga, or skilled action, becomes a question of spiritual technique. In 1948, Christopher Isherwood compiled Vedanta for the Western World, in which the Orientalist Aldous Huxley compares the “life of action” as a phrase that is commonly used in contrast to a “life of contemplation.” Huxley echoes the very spiritual version of action found in the Gita, “It is to this kind of action without attachment of involvement that the mystic should aspire.”

The idea of renunciation can be difficult to understand, because we tend to associate it with the renunciate traditions of ascetics and strict forms of meditation. We tend to think in black and white. We either have to be living in the ashram, or throwing ourselves
into an extremely rajasic mode of spiritual activism.

In both Eastern and Western meditation traditions, it is understood that there are different approaches to gaining spiritual insight.
Consider, for example, the four paths of Yoga – devotion, wisdom, service and a more traditional asana/meditation practice – as espoused in the Gita itself. Based on Krishna’s responses, it is apparent that it was already a matter of debate at this time which path was more or less efficacious for spiritual attainment.

Over time, modern spiritual masters began to impart deeper teachings related to the importance of channeling concentration and compassionate intention into our everyday actions. Sivananda’s students traveled around the world spreading his message of service and peacemaking, training tens of thousands of Yoga teachers in the West. The idea was that the shanti and dharana (peace and concentration) found in personal sadhana (practice) would provide a good basis for a cadre of future leaders. It was a radical premise in the 1970s: for gurus like Swami Vishnudevananda (himself a devotee of Swami Sivananda) selfless service was intertwined with the idea that Karma Yoga would also purify the mind and heart of its practitioners.

Renunciation and Detachment

What does this version of Karma Yoga philosophy mean for those of us who have already staked a claim to spiritual activism? Contemplating the more internal aspects of our outward works can help us to understand the ramifications and limitations of our external political work.

It is only natural and human to desire a specific outcome and to be filled with expectations about our labors. Yet we also have to cultivate the wisdom of accepting the long fight of some political struggles and defeats, viewing our victories with a grain of salt. The kind of renunciation that Sivananda and Huxley refer to is a renunciation of the rewards and outcomes of our actions, not simply the renunciation of specific behaviors (like giving up smoking, alcohol, or sex).

In the Gita, Krishna calls this “renouncing the fruits of our labor,” but what does this actually mean? As Yoga teacher and NOLS instructor Clayton Montgomery wants to know, “Why can’t I have the fruits of my labor?” After all, we worked hard for the movement, knocking on doors for the campaign or staying up late working on the nonprofit website.

Activists tend to desire a particular outcome that acknowledges our own worth, or that proves the correctness of our social justice position, when ultimately we are caught in the Catch-22’s of many potential outcomes and solutions. I want to ask: How often do we find ourselves just doing the work, or doing the right thing, simply for the service of the divine? Do we realize the power of this approach?

Renunciation goes hand in hand with egoless action, and the overarching idea of seva, or selfless service. You will often hear activists in the trenches say things like, “I got more out of the experience than I felt I gave.” This became a refrain at the Self-Care Retreat for Haiti First Responders in September at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. The event was organized by yoga teachers Sue Jones, founder of YogaHope in Boston and David Emerson, director of yoga programs for The Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute.

Participants included aid workers, nurses, surgeons, and a few “karma yogis” from the Siddha Yoga community who served in Haiti during the earthquake aftermath. Many attendees expressed a sense of helplessness in the face of such unimaginable devastation. At the same time, each of them repeatedly mentioned the Haitian people as pillars of strength; it was through their service that these workers became heartened. Thus, it is by renouncing the fruits that we are blessed by the process of the experience.

People skeptical about Karma Yoga may note a sense of self-satisfaction in the spiritual activist. Or they may have experienced it themselves, and felt a little bit guilty. There is a certain amount of clinging to one’s own blessedness that is counterproductive to the spiritual goal of eradicating dualism – eliminating separation between oneself and the Other, or oneself and God.

In the case of a purified seva practice, we are talking about actions that are carried out in worship of the higher divine reality. Sri Aurobindo spoke about this: “I never thought that politics or feeding the poor or writing beautiful poems would lead straight to Vaikuntha or the Absolute. It is not the form of the work itself or mere activity but the consciousness and Godward will behind it that are the essence of Karma Yoga; the work is only the necessary instrumentation for the union with the Master of works.”

Selfish thoughts are encountered frequently along this path and should be dealt with swiftly. The practice of service is itself an offering like any spiritual gift. When you put something on an altar in the temple, do you expect a specific result? What do you do when it doesn’t happen? Nonattachment is part and parcel of a spiritual life that prizes equanimity, the ability to observe and be with “what is,” rather than constantly manipulating and grasping, especially to our own goodness.

In the Sivananda Yoga lineage, we are taught to think the phrase, “I am not the doer.” A related aphorism that gets kicked around a lot in the larger spiritual community is, “I am not this body. I am not this mind.” Swami Sivananda coaches that we are to think of ourselves as instruments in the hands of God.

In the yogic cosmic worldview, our lives are a play, or lila, sometimes of the gods or a product of our own past lives. This lila is but the playful pastime of an absolute divine consciousness, and we all have our part to play—with both successes and defeats. Even a minimal acknowledgement of this maya, or illusion, helps it to become easier to let things go.

It is a trick of the mind to practice detachment. You start to apply yourself, working and serving with the fire of concentration you have built up during your dedicated asana and meditation practice, eventually finding yourself burning up your karma, but then you let go of it, so you can be free of worrying about the outcome.

Detaching also helps create a state of mind that takes a balanced approach to social and political work. Sri Aurobindo comments, “There can be no Karma Yoga without the will to get rid of ego, rajas and desire, which are the seals of ignorance.”

Developing a level of dispassionate interest in worldly things doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on the illusion of life altogether, but it does present an alternate way of being in the world. This is a way of being that approaches the political from a philosophical viewpoint founded on self-reflection, awareness and insight. We can be fierce warriors like Arjuna, and also go home and enjoy sitting next to the fire after the day’s battles are done.

A Demanding World

This all sounds good in theory, but what about in practice? In fact, detachment must work in harmony with the yogic ideal of aparigraha, or abstention from greed. It isn’t easy, by any means, to balance the competing demands of a needy world with the necessity of supporting ourselves and our families.

This is compounded by the fact that in our largely industrial and post-industrial world, what it now means to “support a family” can actually impact the environment in horrible ways, and place an unfair burden on people, farmers and producers in other countries where we obtain our resources. And yet, every one of us has bills to pay, and we often find ourselves in economic positions that complicate our beliefs. When we take an honest look at what it takes to live an ethical, pure life of service, many of us may wonder: Is there such a thing as healthy or mature selfishness? How can we support ourselves in the modern world without some selfishness?

Sivananda Yoga teacher Michael Texeira (Hanuman) lived at an ashram off and on for a couple of years before he met his British yogini partner, Devika. They were married at the ashram by a Sufi priest and have moved to rural England. They found themselves struggling with balancing their deeply held spiritual ethics of simplicity and service (a full-time lifestyle at the ashram), alongside dealing with basic survival issues as a nuclear family in modern society.

Rather than compromise their commitment to living communally and maintaining their spiritual lifestyle, by landing jobs in offices or otherwise, they decided to take their show on the road, traveling around England, volunteering in places where similar ethics are strong while looking for a more permanent community.

Their recent stops have included: living with the Common Loaf Bakers (a messianic group in Devon) and the Monkton Wyld community, picking apples and blackberries, often serving what the duo call ashram-style food to the groups that host them. Devika comments, “Living by (mostly) faith alone is exhilarating and terrifying, depending on where my mind is at. But what an experiment!”

Selfless service provides a critical foundation for their chosen lifestyle. In a Web-circulated statement called “Our Vision of Community,” the couple explains how this works for them: “This society has needs beyond those of its individual members, and it is here that we are given the opportunity to learn to serve each other as ourselves. In this spirit of service, we see that each action we perform towards the benefit of the whole is sacred, and that we sustain ourselves, and each other, through an attitude of gladly given service.”

After soul-searching, they decided to continue on one type of a Karma Yoga path. Regardless of the instability, they are open to making an effort, experimenting with their lives, but staying true to their ideals and relying on their yogic teachings for strength. The Texeiras are on an experimental journey for the moment, but then again, aren’t we all? Hanuman states, “Karma Yoga practice eliminates, over time, envy, laziness, and miserliness. As those qualities fade, we become free to see what gifts have been given to us freely so that we may give them freely to others.”

Perhaps that is our greatest lesson from Karma Yoga – that we have nothing to lose from it, and that it can be helpful for social and political work. Rather than subtracting time and resources away from our modern lifestyle, a consistent practice of Karma Yoga in daily life coupled with a simple lifestyle and volunteer work with those in need, in fact, energizes us and invigorates the meaning we are able to appreciate within those actions.

It is essential for our times to renew the dialogue about the personal and ethical issues at stake. In the end, Karma Yoga makes it possible to view our Yoga practice as one that is intrinsically based on ethics that incorporate our own personal responsibility, along with the good of the whole.

Thank you to the Indian Institute Reading Room at University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library for access to Aurobindo’s historical writings.

Amy Champ

Amy Champ is a Sivananda Yoga and meditation teacher, currently finishing her PhD in Performance Studies and Feminism at the University of California.

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To even attempt to put words to the impact Ram Dass’ grace and presence has had over the past forty-plus years would be a task, indeed. In 1967, one young Dr. Richard Alpert, former Harvard psychologist, made a foray to India in 1967, where he met the iconic blanket-clad Hanuman devotee, Neem Karoli Baba, who named him Ram Dass, servant of Ram. Numerous books (including the classic Be Here Now, celebrating forty years of inspiring seekers), the founding of the Hanuman Foundation in Taos, which initiated the Prison Ashram Project (now run by Sita and Bo Lozoff), co-founding the Seva Foundation and the creation of the Dying Project, are only a few of his multitude of influential endeavors.

Probably the most impactful teaching Ram Dass offers is his presence itself. He is an iconic guide, role-model and teacher, who is always ready with a bright smile, an easy laugh and a curious exploration into the heart of the spiritual journey. We had the opportunity to share some grace and some laughter with this much-beloved connector of ideas across time and tradition.

Interview with Ram Dass

Felicia M. Tomasko: What do you see as the greatest gift that you have received from your teacher?

Ram Dass: From my teacher, my guru, I learned to surrender to God in my life. He showed me how much I can live in my Atman, the real self. The gift was him and he is with me most of the time during my life. He gives me a perspective on my life and of the events in my life – that this is only one life. I see my life is so enriched. He’s given me faith. His grace gives me the experience that my life is full of grace.

FMT: How would you describe that grace in your life?

Ram Dass: Every moment is spiritual. You look out at the trees and the sky and know it’s from God. I think that is what grace gives to me.

FMT: Having that ongoing spiritual experience sounds like a great gift. Is there anything you have to do to perpetuate that or be able to stay in that space? Do you ever forget and what helps you to remember?

RD: I always forget! I have mechanisms and spiritual practices that make me remember. I can just say that I have forgotten, and when I forget I usually ask, “What am I doing at this place?” Then I know to quickly do my practices.

FMT: As people are starting out on their own spiritual path, how would you recommend they find their own mechanisms to remember or find their own way to connect with that grace?

RD: They would have to be identified with their real self and be free of identification of the ego. That means that they have to go from here [Ram Dass gestures to his head] to here [Ram Dass gestures to his heart].

The way I do it is this: I think, “I am loving awareness.”

If they focus on the middle of their heart space and repeat, “I am loving awareness, I am loving awareness, I am loving; I am loving,” they’ll then repeat it from that place where they will be a witness to their melodrama.

That brings them closer to other people because they see their souls. It brings them closer to their guru. They may not have a guru on this plane, but everyone has a guru.

I sat in the bus debating, “Ice cream or holy place; ice cream or holy place?” and I went through a very tough time trying to make a decision. I said, “We’re all here in India for spiritual things, we should visit a holy place.”

FMT: That’s a strong statement.

RD: For example, my guru left his body in 1973, but I don’t notice any difference. Everybody has a guru that they can call on. They can call their guru by any name: an angel, or Jesus or Hanuman, Krishna; there are plenty of names.

FMT: I know many people who call Neem Karoli Baba their guru even though they have never met him physically.

RD: I give everybody my guru [Neem Karoli Baba]. He said, “All a person has to do is to think of me and I’m there for them.” Anybody who says, “I haven’t a guru,” he is there for them.

FMT: He has been one of your great gifts to so many people. You have given this gift in sharing what you have learned from him. Did you have any idea when you wrote Be Here Now the impact that it would have decades later?

RD: I didn’t have any idea, but before I left India the first time in 1969 (something like that), he [Neem Karoli Baba] gave me his aasheervaad for my book. I said, “What is aasheervaad and I’m not writing a book.” He said, “Asheervaad is blessings and I don’t know what the book is or what it’s going to be.”

I went back to New York and gave some lectures. A woman in the audience was a stenographer and she copied the words down and gave me this sheet of paper saying, “Here are your words.” Then I carried it in the trunk of my car to California and the guy that took my bags asked, “What’s that?” I told him that this woman made it for me he asked, “Well, can I look at it?” When he looked at it he said, “Those are some really good stories.”

I put it back in the trunk. For my next stop, I was in New Mexico at a wonderful commune that I helped form [The Lama Foundation]. Steve Durkee began to take my bags down and asked, “What’s that?”

We sat around the dinner table reading the stories. He is a great artist and he and other artists were saying, “I can do that,” “I can do this.” It wasn’t my book anyway. It’s his [Neem Karoli Baba’s] aasheervaad. All their creative talents came to me. In the first version of the book, all the components were in a box including a record with kirtan, pictures of saints that you would stick up in the refrigerator and little quotes from spiritual masters you could put on your mirror in the bathroom. Then we decided to make a book, this is what turned out to be Be Here Now.

FMT: What has been the most surprising response to the book?

RD: So many people have started their spiritual path with that book. Now I think that it’s been two million copies that have gotten out. That is surprising. New people – like kids who are in their teens are holding the book and they value the spiritual things that are in the book. That’s pretty good! [Ram Dass beams.] My guru sat on his tucket and he said one blessing and two million people got a push onto spirit – so that’s pretty good.

FMT: I’d have to agree what a great blessing that he imparted. The work that you do now isn’t just with your writing, although you do have the book, Be Love Now. You are also still teaching on a regular basis in Hawaii. What is it that you teach…

Ram Dass and Neem Karoli Baba

RD: That’s not all; I’m on the board of the Hanuman Temple in Taos and I teach a class on dying in San Francisco, via Skpe. But now I don’t leave Maui; I’m an island boy. I’ve had it with flying miles in planes. Now I am here content. I never had contentment in my life and now I am content. I think it’s connected with aging. I sent an article to the AARP magazine on contentment and they didn’t buy it. It is contentment; but it’s spiritual contentment. It’s so rich and so yum yum yum.

FMT: In the dying class that you’re teaching, do you think that your stroke helped you come closer to that process?

RD: I gained compassion.

Before the stroke, Paul Gorman and I wrote a book called How Can I Help? It was full of what came from helping; now I think I would write a book on “How can you help me?” because I think that I am now learning about dependency and it’s not an easy lesson in our culture.

Before the stroke I was teaching classes called conscious aging and also I was teaching classes on dying. All I do is to teach people to sit on the bedside of a dying person and let them die in their own way. The person at the bedside should be a loving rock – a rock that the dying person can push against. To train people to be by the bedside, we get them to get to identify with their own souls, and then they will be ready for death. I helped my parents die and helped my stepmother die; I helped so many friends die. My father was a power-oriented man who operated from his ego, but when he was ninety-five years old and I helped him diet, he turned into a beautiful soul.

FMT: It sounds like it comes back to what you were talking about at the beginning of this conversation about feeling grace and God in every moment, feeling the spiritual nature of life.

RD: I realize now that I identify with my soul and I see the souls of so many people even though they don’t see their own souls. You can go into the grocery store and there are people in there who are customers and there are people who are clerks, but they are identifying with their roles, not their souls.

FMT: Identifying with their roles, not their souls. That’s a good one; I bet you’ve used that before.

RD: Yes!

FMT: We do often identify with our roles and sometimes it’s so challenging to identify with the soul – or it can feel confusing.

RD: It is very confusing! Spiritual life is very confusing.

FMT: But once you get started on the path of the spiritual life, there is no real going back.

RD: Absolutely! That is true.

FMT: With the confusion, there also comes grace – if we allow it. You brought up a key word earlier when you mentioned surrender. Do you feel that surrender is what helps us to break through the confusion?

RD: In the East, surrender is the way, but in the West surrender is a terrible word. I say that I surrender to the God that is within my soul: the Atman. I don’t surrender to another man but I surrender to God.

I have a story about surrender. The first time I was in India, I was told that I’d come back to India in two years. I came back and I couldn’t find my guru. That was very unfortunate because he said to come back in two years and then I couldn’t find him, so I decided to go a Vipassana meditation course; there were fifty people in this course in Bodh Gaya.

I was having a terrible time because as much as I wanted to be meditation, I kept thinking, “Where is my guru?” so I decided about halfway through the course that I would leave and go looking for my guru.

During tea time, I was telling the girl next to me that I was going to leave and she said, “Well I’d love to go and meet your guru. I have a friend who has a huge bus that he brought from England to India and maybe he would like to join us. We could take the bus to go looking for your guru.”

Twenty-four of us left the course in the bus and I was the leader of the posse. We were planning to take go directly to Delhi, for ice cream and soft beds after the meditation course. The owner of the bus asked if we wanted to go straight to Delhi, or off to the right to the holy city of Allahabad, the location where the Kumbh Mela is held, where all the saints come together. We did go to India to visit holy places, so I thought, “Yeah, that would be a very holy place.”

I sat in the bus debating, “Ice cream or holy place; ice cream or holy place?” and I went through a very tough time trying to make a decision. Finally the bus driver had to ask me, “Do we go straight or take a right?” And I said, “All right, go right. We’re all here in India for spiritual things we should visit a holy place.”

As we were coming to a huge field where the Kumbh Mela had been, there were maybe just a few walkers and dogs and someone in the back of the bus said, “There is Maharaj-ji [Neem Karoli Baba]!”

Maharaj-ji and his fellow devotee were walking by the bus going the other way so I said, “Let’s get out and touch his feet.”

We all got out and surrounded him and he said, “Come on, follow us.” They had a rickshaw so this little rickshaw and a big bus began traveling together. He didn’t say where he was going.

That was at about eleven in the morning and I had made my decision to turn right at 10 A.M.

Finally we arrive at a house and a woman comes out, the wife of the man who was walking with Maharaj-ji. She says, “Oh, we were waiting for you. At six in the morning, a phone call from Maharaj-ji woke us all up. He said, “I want you to have a table of food ready for lunch for twenty-five people.” Twenty-five people included the bus driver! At six am, they knew we were going to come there for lunch while I was still deciding. After that, I don’t decide much anymore.

My guru sat on his tucket and he said one blessing and two million people got a push onto spirit – so that’s pretty good.

FMT: What a powerful example of surrender. As you said, surrender can be misunderstood. To be able to be in that space of grace is powerful and I think your books and teachings give people an example of what it means to live that grace. Neem Karoli Baba was also an example of that grace.

RD: At least we think that.

FMT: Thank you for sharing.

RD: This is soul to soul. You laughed at all the right times and the feeling of your heart is in this and that’s rewarding for my heart.

It is rewarding for my heart to get to share this.

For more information about Ram Dass’ work and teachings, visit: ramdass.org

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

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This speech is a form of Yoga therapy. And it’s a therapy that Jnani combines with all of the other tools of the practice. She knows these tools well from decades of study and experience with a practice that includes working with individuals to small and large groups, including the training and mentoring of numerous Yoga teachers and healthcare providers around the world. Her training and background in both nursing and massage therapy compliment her practice of Integral Yoga in the lineage of Swami Satchidananda. This was the swami who was famous not only for his opening “Om” at Woodstock but also for founding Yogaville, an ashram in rural Virginia as well as notably mentoring Dr. Dean Ornish, whose groundbreaking research investigating the effects of Yoga, meditation, diet and lifestyle (including support groups) increased the visibility of Yoga as therapy and the potential for the practice to be integrated into modern medical settings. Fitting for Jnani’s background, lineage and interests, she has worked for the Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and also assisted as a nurse and teacher for nearly a decade during Dr. Ornish’s private retreat programs.

For more than twenty years, she has been a staff member at the groundbreaking Cancer Help Program at Commonweal in Bolinas, California, and at the Smith Farm Cancer Center in Washington DC. She’s participated in research studies and even served a stint as the Executive Director of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Jnani served as one of the founding clinical specialists in complementary therapies at the University of California San Francisco Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. She also on the faculty at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine.

While her list of accomplishments is impressive, the resume only hints to the skills beneath. She understands the practice of Yoga therapy from all angles and addressing all of the koshas – the various layers of the body from the physical to the subtle and the states of bliss. Along with the gift of compassionate speech, of word made manifest into action and attitude in the body, she regularly utilizes practices including pranayama (breath techniques), massage (she’s also a massage therapist), acupressure (teaching people how to use pressure points for self-care), nutrition, guided imagery, meditation and Yoga asana. (Her emphasis is usually on nurturing restorative poses if someone is facing head-on the effects of a chronic or life-threatening imbalance in the body.)

The ever-shifting nature of cultivating balance in the body is something that Jnani understands well, even beyond her avocation. In the San Francisco Bay, she keeps two boats, Sanctuary and Oasis. They’re sailing vessels that she has restored – another form of the therapeutic application of the Yoga practice. She treats them with as much care as she does any of the people with whom she shares the path. And the nurturing home on the water is reminiscent of the depth and the easy laugher in her eyes.

Even after decades of teaching and working with people individually with chronic illnesses, sometimes being their rock as they move through the dying process in their healing, she shows no signs of slowing down. Jnani continues to share her knowledge and experience with teachers who are looking for the secrets to how to hold space with compassion. In my own studies, I have crossed paths with Jnani numerous times, beginning with my own therapeutic Yoga training, before I ever thought about entering nursing school. Knowing that she has walked a similar path, straddled East and West and found a compassionate road to work therapeutically in a variety of settings, has served as a constant beacon of inspiration for me over the years.

Jnani Chapman, RN, CYT teaches in the Yoga Therapy Rx program, founded by Larry Payne, PhD and held at Loyola Marymount University: samata.com/LMUprogram.php

Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

www.blissnetwork.com

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Staff Writer Lakshmi

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We could say that practice occurs outside of any place, that there is nothing we need; we could practice in a cave, in the dark, by moving aside the living room coffee table. But we all know that the place in which we practice offers an added sense of inspiration. As do the people with whom we share the room, the space, the community, call it what you will – sangha, kula, classroom, or our fellow yogis. This is why we love going to the studio, going on retreat, or packing for a festival. And each experience offers its unique alchemy, sense of time and place and magic.

For 2011, the Telluride Yoga Festival celebrates four years of bringing a joyful weekend intensive practice in this high altitude mountain haven known for its plethora of summer festivals that include everything from films to bluegrass.

Festival director and Jivamukti trained teacher Aubrey Hackman sees the festival as an embodiment of Karma Yoga, selfless service, giving back. It’s an attitude that manifests in the zero waste approach, the free classes and lectures offered throughout the weekend as part of the festival schedule, the partnerships with local nonprofits (including the Telluride chapter of the Nature Conservancy) and the dedication to offering the teachings.

When I arrived in the dark in the mountain town this past summer, for the third annual event, the spectacular scenery had yet to reveal itself. In the light of day, the crisp cool air, the peaks, the yogis toting mats were a welcome respite from everyday life in LA and the proof of why this Yoga festival has become a destination to add to a yogi’s summer calendar.

Favorite Moments of the Telluride Yoga Festival 2010

• Riding the gondola with Wah! above the trees, facing my fear of heights.
• Chanting to Shiva with Sean Johnson and the Wild Lotus Band…and Shyamdas…and Wah! all in one night, beneath the Bhakti Fest banner.
• Practicing Yin Yoga and meditation with Chandra Easton in an art gallery with the sound of the stream dancing in the background, accompanying the practice.
• Dashing between raindrops as the mid-afternoon sun threatened to peer out from the clouds, to catch Waylon Lewis MC the Walk the Talk show while teachers discussed practice on and off the mat.
• Having the vegetarian lunch buffet out on the patio of Capella Telluride, laughing with friends old (Kasey Luber) and new (many cool yogis, including Aubrey Hackman).
• Cookies and tea and the friendly staff at the Inn at Lost Creek, where I stayed and I could walk to every Yoga class, or stroll to the gondola and ride down the mountain to town.
• Catching a glimpse of the mountain view through the windows as Tias Little’s calm and grounded presence provided a living embodiment of why practice.
• Running into Mark Whitwell, Aadil Palkhivala, Richard Freeman, walking through the streets of Telluride and being reminded that their very carriage and walk, and presence, offers up an inspiring example of the full practice of Yoga.
• Practicing in the mountains, and with teachers like Alanna Kaivalya and Karl Straub, whose humor rarely makes it to LA.

The dates for 2011 Telluride Yoga Festival are July 14 – 17, 2011. Registration opens December 1. For more information, visit: tellurideyogafestival.com.

By Felicia M. Tomasko, RN

Brian Chance

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Martha Soffer

Martha Soffer is an acclaimed Ayurvedic Therapist and Chef, a Panchakarma and Marma Specialist, and an Herbalized Oil and Ghee Artisan. Surya Spa, her traditional Ayurvedic clinic in Pacific Palisades, offers consultations, marma therapy, nasya, shirodhara and swedhana treatments, with a focus on individualized Panchakarma series, ranging from three to twenty one days: (310) 459 – 7715; suryaspa.com

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Books To Gift Your Favorite Yogi

Lorin Roche

Dr. Lorin Roche began practicing with the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra in 1968 as part of scientific research on the physiology of meditation. He has a PhD from the University of California at Irvine, where his research focused on the language meditators generate to describe their inner experiences. He is the author of The Radiance Sutras and Meditation Made Easy. With his wife, Camille Maurine, he wrote Meditation Secrets for Women. A teacher of meditation for 46 years, Lorin’s approach centers on how to customize the practices to suit one’s individual nature. Lorin leads the Radiance Sutras Meditation Teacher Training, a 200 hour certification program registered with Yoga Alliance. Lorin teaches regularly at the Esalen Institute and around the world.

www.meditationtt.com

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Nearly naked, sitting a straw mat in a sparsely furnished room in Kannur, Kerala, simultaneously vulnerable, curious and expectant, I waited for my first treatment session to begin.

I had traveled half-way around the world to Kerala to receive Kalari treatment, the initial entré for many into Kalarippayattu, an ancient martial art developed in Kerala guided by Ayurvedic principles. Treatment is administered by the Gurukkal (the senior-most teacher and overseer of the Kalari school) and advanced practitioners, who are highly skilled martial artists and masterful massage therapists, physiotherapists and neurologists with a deep understanding of anatomy and the subtle body. They are adept at controlling the flow of prana (vital life-force) in their bodies and able to channel this energy through the hands while giving massage.

The flow of prana through this treatment is done by direct manipulation of the body via oil massage and application of hot medicinal oils (kili). Understanding the energetic body and its system of nadis, the energy channels through which prana flows is fundamental to creating balance. Most important here is the prana of vyana vayu, which governs the circulation of the entire body and manages the functioning of the nervous system.

The marma points are found at points of intersection of the nadis and the skin itself is a vast marma zone, thus Kalari therapy, which includes marma therapy, treats dis-ease and ailments by stimulating the flow of vyana vayu through touch, the skin naturally being the place of contact. When the flow of vyana vayu is disturbed vata (the air humour) is aggravated. Whenever there is a marma injury, vata is disturbed. Wherever there is pain, vata is disturbed. This disturbance can cause anxiety, insomnia, agitation, irritation, hypersensitivity, excessive dryness and other related problems. Disturbance or provocation of vata can be the result of injury, trauma (including emotional trauma), weakness or debilitation in the tissues, exhaustion, overwork or stress or restrictions in movement and the free flow of energy in the body. The imbalance can sit beneath the surface, not revealing its nature for years or even decades. For example, someone sustaining a head injury may develop asthma or bronchitis after thirty years.

Every function of the body is dependent on the condition of vata and in Ayurveda, vata must first be brought under control. The massage in Kalari treatments unblock restricted channels allowing vata to course freely through the nadis.

My doorway to receiving Kalari treatment was an act of grace. Several years ago I was lucky enough to attend a Kalari workshop with Gerhard Schmid, a senior Kalari student from Hamburg, Germany. He noticed and asked me about the misalignment of my skeleton. After hearing that I’d sustained multiple fractures in a severe car accident when I was nineteen, sixteen years previously, he suggested that Kalari could help and advised me to spend a month with his teacher, Sherifka. He also said that it would help pacify my (often-aggravated) vata. I was intrigued and encouraged. Gerhard was the first to suggest that my post-accident lopsidedness could be reversed; over the years it seemed to become progressively worse. to put things in perspective: the aforementioned car accident left me with a fractured skull, five broken ribs, a punctured lung, smashed elbow, broken humerus and clavicle (all on the left side) along with multiple cuts, severe bruising and swelling. Although I healed successfully and underwent physical therapy, my left shoulder sloped and drooped forward and over the years I developed a slight scoliosis in my mid-spine. Years of leaning left tilted pelvis and I developed sciatica on the right side, a frequent source of pain. Finally the stars aligned, my visa arrived, my classes were subbed and in February, 2010, I was Kerala bound.

After acclimatizing, Sherifka (our gracious and ever-good-humored host and Gurukkal) asked me to write down every significant illness, trauma and injury I’d experienced, then took me to see an Ayurvedic physician who looked at my nails, listened to my heartbeat and examined my tongue. When we left, Sherifka took me to get a fresh coconut and told me that coconuts were part of my treatment. I was to have at least one day to help cool my body and fight the urinary tract infection I had developed before leaving the States. Coconuts as part of my treatment? Yes! That I could live with. Later that evening, Rajeev, one of the Kalari teacher-therapists (who had possibly the biggest smile I’ve ever seen) brought me several types of pills and kashayams, Ayurvedic herbal medicinal potions. Mine were to strengthen and purify the bladder and kidneys.

My treatment program consisted of seven days of marma massage followed by a purging day and then seven days more massage and kiri (hot oil treatment). After having a cup of delicious morning chai, I walked across the garden to the treatment house to sit on my personal massage mat, woven from reeds, destroyed when our series of treatments sessions were over. Sherifka and another senior kalari practitioner/healer named Ramesh massaged me as I wore the customary lunghi (large piece of rectangular cloth) tied around my neck, sarong style over a lunghoti, basically a loincloth.

The experience was quite ritualistic and throughout, I felt curiously vulnerable. I began, seated, legs crossed, in just the lunghoti. Ramesh lit incense and rub oil on my head, the oils chosen by the Ayurvedic physician who prescribed one type of medicinal oil for my head and a combination of two different oils for my body. Then I would lie on my stomach and both Ramesh and Sherifka would begin the full body massage.

The massage’s broad sweeping strokes and varying degrees of pressure followed the same format in each session. Some aspects of my treatment (for my sciatica and neck) addressed my particular (and in my case also long-standing) imbalances and because of their specificity and intensity, were administered by Sherifka, the Gurukkal. Some days involved Sherifka’s “thumbs in bum” technique during which I was on my knees, bum in the air, arms on the floor in front of me, with Sherifka standing behind me using his thumbs to dig around in each buttock. It was excruciating, particularly on the right side, because of the sciatica, but after a few sessions the pain eased considerably.

Sometimes the strong emotions instigated by the bodywork elicited tears – even of relief. Sometimes I would cry from sheer relief as space opened up in my body. The gradual unwinding of my lopsidedness started to shift. On the afternoon of the tenth day of treatment, I was meditating when I noticed an unfamiliar sensation in my left rib cage. I continued focusing on my breath as tears streamed down my face. I felt a part of my body that I had not been able to access for over sixteen years because I had become so collapsed on my left side. I was flooded with a mixture of relief and enormous sadness, the overwhelming emotion that had been stored inside for so long.

A few days in, I began to understand the importance of resting and being quiet. It is such deep internal work, and even though on one hand it seemed as if nothing was happening during the massage treatment, on the other hand I knew that below the surface everything was happening. This was unlike any other type of massage I’d had before (and I’ve had a lot). It was simultaneously gentle, deep and subtle. But even more profound, the whole experience was outside any paradigm I’d previously encountered. I wasn’t in a Yoga environment, I wasn’t on a retreat, there were no set activities or services I had to partake in, nor belief system. Rest, three delicious freshly cooked meals daily, endless cups of chai and treatment were the agenda items. Yet, I was undergoing shifts that were entirely new and I was becoming lighter, not just physically, but energetically.

Day eight, people began telling me I looked completely different, something deep had shifted. Even in the absence of mirrors I knew something of what they meant; I was lighter, less anxious. Daily massage bathing in warm oil, applied rhythmically and deep was working magic on my nervous system. According to Sherifka, the accidents and repeated trauma left my nervous system in need of rejuvenation. The combination of marma therapy, massage, medicinal oils and nourishing food cooked for us, clothes (hand) washed for us, rest and walks on the beach were the rasayana, the rejuvenative alchemy. The warmth and friendliness of our Indian caregivers and the love and concern they lavished on us, as well as the fact that they seemed to be always smiling, always laughing and joking, meant that the general atmosphere was conducive to rest and relaxation. And there really was nothing to do but relax.

I loved the feeling of being covered in oil even though some of my housemates would rush back to scrub off the oil immediately after treatment. The oil made me feel at ease and more relaxed. I particularly loved killi, the hot oil treatment. The room it took place in was, like the massage room, stark with oil-splashed walls. Clad only in my lunghoti I sat on a stool, behind me I heard oil sizzling away in a wooden bowl over a gas flame. Anil, the killi therapist applied an herbal poultice (like the oils and other medicines the herbs were specifically chosen) dipped in hot oil directly to the skin using long strokes. After each application, he massaged the area with his hands. Over the ten to fifteen minutes of the treatment’s duration, the oil became progressively hotter and sweat would be literally pouring down my arms. Still I loved it. My body felt something I had never experienced before, and I still can’t articulate.

In my case, the killi treatment was concentrated in the areas where my body was so injured: the left side of my neck and upper back and my lower back, buttocks and thighs because of the sciatica. In the previously injured areas especially, I felt a softening, an opening I had never before experienced. Anil explained that this treatment worked not just on the gross physical level of the muscles, but more importantly the nerves and the subtle body. I was ecstatic when I heard the instructions to let the oil remain on the body for five hours or more so it could continue to seep into my skin and into the deeper tissues and shift the subtle body.

As my time in Kannur came to a close I could feel the deep internal shifts. I was so much less anxious: I felt softer, more open, I was less lopsided. And I was laughing more; I was just being. I came to understand that my previous almost-constant low-grade anxiety (which had been present since the accident at nineteen, and which had worsened over time – and after more accidents) was not something that I needed to judge, but a natural side effect of the many physical traumas I had endured. And, although I never did to practice the outwardly physical forms and movements Kalari while there, Sherifka told me the secret at the center of the practice: be humble and strike like a tiger. I’m still working on it.

Dearbhla Kelly is a Los Angeles-based Yoga teacher, writer and philosopher: durgayoga.com.

By Dearbhla Kelly

Photos by Amir Magal

Dearbhla Kelly

Dearbhla Kelly is Los Angeles-based writer and yoga teacher, she leads workshops and retreats worldwide.

durgayoga.com

The post The Healing Art Of Kalari appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

All is quiet inside the Kalari practice space. I enter the space slowly, first touching the red clay earth and then my heart as sign of respect. My teacher’s voice echoes in my mind, “When you enter the Kalari, leave everything behind.” I head to the Puttara, the main altar, to center myself and make an inner offering.

A few students and my teacher are practicing around me, swinging their legs in the preparatory sequence of flowing kicks. Kalari is humbling. You must be able to maintain a steady gaze with your teacher while your sticks meet in an unbroken fluid flow.

There is an unspoken sharing of this sacred space and practice of Kalarippayatu as we move in silence, punctuated by occasional corrections in the lyrical language of Malayalam. Sweat pours from our oiled bodies as we begin to experience inner and outer transformation. Even though we face a wall of ancient weapons – sticks, swords, clubs and shields, there is an environment of inner power, respect and balance for all from the young beginners to the advanced practitioners. Everyone maintains the shakti of this sacred space in the embodiment of shariram bhavam – the inner energy of Kalari.

What is Kalari

Kalari is the name of the consecrated temple and the short name for the practice of Kalarippayatu – one of the oldest Indian embodied art forms. Kalarippayatu (kah-lah-ree-pay-yah-too) is often referred to as a martial art for its system of weapon practice, and has been taught for thousands of years in Kerala, India, tracing its lineage to Paramasura – the legendary divine leader from whom the twenty-one teachers of Kalari descended, even Drona of the mythic Mahabharata.

Kalari literally means “a place of learning.” In Malayam culture, the place for learning Kathakali dance is a Kathakali Kalari. Kalarippayatu is the “place of ppayatu” or “personal refinement through the successive stages of learning.” Traditionally, Kalarippayatu served as basic training for everyone in the village; young men and women trained in the Kalari not as a martial art but as a meyyabhayasam or “body art.”

Kalari as a Living Tradition

Six years ago Gurukkal Govindankutty Nayar initiated me, one of only a few female American students, in this living tradition of body arts at CVN Kalari, one of the primary schools for Kalarippayatu. Three years ago, he passed away. Now his son, Sathyan Narayan, is the living representation of all past Kalari gurus in the lineage, signifying this in the plural, Gurukkal.

Sathyan carries the lineage, including the healing arts of Kalarippayatu that are rooted in massage and marma and Ayurveda. He sees over thirty patients a week and lives with his family in the Kalari complex. My other close teacher, Rajashekaran Nair, is a government specialist by day and Kalari Guru by morning. Traditional in their roots, they are also cosmopolitan, having traveled the world to teach: theater with Peter Brook in France, a Jackie Chan movie in Shanghai, and representing Kerala culture in Germany, the UK and the US. They both entered the Kalari as teenagers.

Kalarippayatu first entered my body when I learned about the practice as a freshman in the World Arts and Culture program at UCLA. Visiting Professor Philip Zarilli offered a workshop based on his book, When the Body Becomes All Eyes, which I highly recommend. I was inspired by the root power and fluidity of the movements before I finally became an initiated student.

Pilgrimage to the Kalari

Thiruvanathapuram, the capital city of Kerala, is an hour and a half drive north of the southern tip of India, and is marked by the Kannya Kumari temple, one of the main Shakti Peeths. In Hinduism, a Shakti Peeths is a temple made of a body part of the Goddess. Kerala is Shakti country, with many temples dedicated to Devi, and in the rasa of the land and the energy of the people. From the air, you see only coconut trees all the way to the horizon. The only building is the rooftop of the famous Padmanabhaswamy Temple pushing up through the trees.

No matter the time of day or night I arrive nor how much jet lag I’m experiencing, I am always ready to make the early morning pilgrimage to Kalari. My cells come alive as I massage myself with sesame-based oils before dressing as I would for an Indian dance class in Yoga clothes covered by an Indian kurtha shirt. The men in the Kalari wear the traditional lunghi cloth.

As I travel through the village at 6:00 A.M., the ritual life of Kerala is stirring: People sweep the entryways of their homes and businesses or enter one of the numerous temples. My first morning stop is to purchase flower garlands to offer in tribute to the altar’s photo of my late initiatory teacher, Gurukkal Govindankutty Nayar.

After entering the gates of the East Fort through the bustling center of Thiruvananthapuram, the fort-like stone building of CVN Kalari comes into view. On my right, I pass stairs winding to the observational balcony where the uninitiated can watch or even film the practice. On my left is the clinic, busy throughout the day, where people of all ages and backgrounds receive treatments for various musculoskeletal problems.

Entering the Kalari: The Power of Ritual Space

As my bare feet touch the red clay floor of the Kalari, I feel the throb of Bhumi Shakti, the pulsating energy of the Earth. Imagine opening the door to the practice room in your local studio to find, not a wood floor, but the raw earth and activated altars in all corners, designed through sacred geometry.

We initiates enter with choreographed ritual and reverence, facing East, leading with a pause of the right foot, then the right hand touching the Earth. Appearing as a casual moment of respect, this gesture can also instigate a powerful shift of consciousness. I have been moved to spontaneous prayer through this ritual process. When I begin my home Kalari practice, no matter where I am in the world, I visualize the energy of the sacred space and touch the Earth in the same way, and when possible, face East, as is done in the Kalari. Creating ritual space is a powerful way to generate energy, with the greatest expression being pilgrimage sites such as the Devi temple of Kamakhya or the Samadhi of Ramana Maharishi.

Shiva-Shakti, Nagabhagavati and Durga’s Weapons

After touching and honoring the Earth, the next ritual involves connecting to the altars. I pray in front of the large oil lamp illuminating the Puttara – the special seven-tiered stone altar at the heart of all Kalaris. Its place in the Southwest corner is chosen based on the principles of Vaastu Shastra, the sacred arrangement of space guiding all Kalari temples. Before this altar representing the union of Shiva and Shakti, Bhairava and Bhairavi, gurus make daily offerings of flowers and mantra; here students pray before practice.

We circumambulate the pit, paying respect to other altars, touching their bases with our right hands. Our fingers graze the stone Naga (serpent). As Raja Nair elaborates, “Nagabhagavati is serpent goddess who wraps around Lord Shiva’s body and a protector of the land.” We pay homage to Lord Ganapati (the remover of obstacles), the Guru Pitham (the seat of all the Gurus) who cares for all the Kalari weapons, the local protector and large devotional images of Saraswati, Mahalakshmi and Durga. Durga, the warrior goddess with her ten arms holding eight weapons of consciousness, is a central part of the Kalari.

The final three days of the autumn goddess festival, Navaratri (occurring this month, in October) include ritual worship of all of the weapons connected with the lineage. Throughout the year, before each practice, practitioners touch weapons to the Puttara, ritually relating to them as sacred instruments. These rituals are part of the daily maintenance of the Kalari as a living temple through an ancient practice lineage through the Gurukkal and the practitioners circulating their life energy into the place and the altars through prayers. Only after this brief and potent ritual, including greeting teachers in a respectful but low key way, does the embodied practice of Kalarippayatu begin.

Kalari Vaidavus, Posture as Whole Body Mudras

Kalari students begin their embodied practice by learning meybhasa – swinging kicks moving from the East to the West in a continuous flow emerging and ending in vaidavus or Kalari postures. The eight kicks flow forward, to the side, around the body, turn and flow from the ground to rise and finally spin in a flowing circular backbend. The eight primary Kalari postures or vaidavus are named for animals that are experienced as sharira mudras or forms containing concentrated energy that awakens the energy invoked by the particular form:

Gajavadivu (elephant pose)
Simhavadivu (lion)
Asvavadivu (horse)
Varahavadivu (wild boar)
Sarpavadivu (serpent),
and Marjaravadivu (cat)
Kukkuvadivu (rooster)
Matsyavadivu (fish)

These sharira mudras are repeated through the practice until the abhyasi (Kalari practitioner) becomes one with vaidavu of a lion or serpent as an emanation of their embodied spirit. The inner energy comes alive, awakens and stabilizes through nabhi mula or “root of the navel energy;” in Yoga, this is the same energy activated in uddiyana bandha.

“Nabhi mula is the activation of samana vayu or the movement of prana” says my teacher, “that draws energy to the core to bring balance not just to the body but inner mind. This is the importance of foot work and the preliminary leg exercises for they help a person find their internal center through their external body. A person balances within the flow by sensing how they can move in the space with the least amount of effort and the maximum flow while all the time keeping the energy within their center.”

Yoga and Kalari

Yoga and Kalari share many similarities. For example, asvadivu (horse) has the same lower body stance as virbhadrasana one or warrior pose. The difference is that in asvavadivu, the hands rest on the inside of the inner leg. When I teach this Kalari posture (with my teacher’s permission) in a Yoga class, I emphasize the balance of form and feeling that I learned from the way my teachers transmit the energy of the postures through their own bodies and the methods they use to adjust the spine in relation to the feet to awaken the core flow of prana.

The Vinyasa Wave of Kalari

The preliminary leg exercises and Kalari postures develop one’s center in a vinyasa krama (progressive sequencing) of increasing strength developing more fluidity and a greater gathering of energy at the center. This vinyasa brings all the postures and kicks together, adding new leaps, turns and nuances to the flowing sequences called meippayat.

The twelve meippayat are usually practiced in groups of two to five students guided by the teachers’ commands (vaithari). The commands provide structure from which the teacher alters the rhythm and pace. Some of my greatest moments of flow have been moving with advanced students and teachers across the flow in the namaskar that is done to connect to the main altar.

Shariam Bhavam – The Awakened Body of Kalari

In full unbroken flow, in the rhythm to my teacher’s guidance, there is the experience of olukku, or the body moving like a river without edges. Sathyan Narayan describes this creation of unbroken flow as the aim of Kalari movement. He views tensions of the body-mind as the blocks that create jagged movement and the practice as a way of dissolving blockages, along with living an Ayurvedic lifestyle and the annual three to fourteen days of flowing massage with special oils that every Kalari students traditionally receives from their teacher. The aim is to create a fluid, strong, subtle embodiment awakened and aligned with the flow of Shakti.

The raw power and connection to Shakti is not spoken of directly, but it emanates, visually and viscerally, from the space and the movement. The power of Kalarippayat comes from its intention as a method of realization and integration through the body. The intention of a Kalari practitioner is the same orientation with serious students and masters of Indian classical music, dance or sculpture. Their dedication, practice and love of their art becomes a pathway or yoga towards the divine integration. Whatever you pour your heart into, can become a vehicle for realization.

Yoga of Kalari

Gurukaal Sathyan Narayan sees Yoga as part of the later, sannyasin, stages of life, where one begins to withdraw from the responsibilities of the world to turn fully towards self-integration. He was interested in practicing Yoga as a youth but his father assured him that he would find the Yoga within Kalari, and that “the householder phase of life requires a practice that can help a person stay balanced in the world.”

This relates to Kalari as a meyyabhayasam or body art meant as a system of refinement. It is why I study Kalari as an embodied art form and as part of my Yoga practice. I feel a circular connection from the sacred space of the Kalari temple to my body that awakens, generates, channels and aligns my inner energy with the Pranashakti, the greater current of life, connecting to the root traditions, the underlying power of life flowing through all of us. When watching my teachers move, I see the Yoga of Kalarippayatu which I can feel awakening within myself. They model, naturally and with humility, the regal essence of vira bhav – the potency of a warrior in servant to life.

Kalari and the Earth

The raw earth of the Kalari and the Shakti altars from the Puttara to the Nagas and Devi images the Kalari form a place to awaken and realize the flow of life-energy consciousness (Shiva) and energy (Shakti) embodied as one. On my altar, next to the pinch of earth from the procession of Kumbha Mela Sadhus and Sadhvis, there is a small amount of CVN Kalari red earth to maintain the presence of the Kalari. This connection to the living power of CVN Kalari lives on in my heart and pulls me like a magnet back home every year.

Shiva Rea

Shiva Rea is a shaktidasi—servant of the life-force. She is the dedicated founder of Prana Flow—Energetic Vinyasa and Samudra Global School for Living Yoga offering pilgrimage and yogadventure retreats, teacher trainings, and online programs in collaboration with teachers, artists, and activists around the world: pranaflowyoga.com.

www.pranaflowyoga.com

The post Kalari Shakti The Flowing Art Of Kalarippayatu appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Beth Lapides

Community : Seen & Heard

Cha-Ching: Swapping The Mind For A Song
Wednesdays Through December 15!

Having been hit hard on the head by the Woo Woo Fairy’s weighty wand early on (at birth), I’m already a member of the striving-towards-awakening choir to which Beth Lapides is not really ever preachin’ in her frolicking song-spiel, 100% Happy 88% of the Time. Nobody likes a preacher, and Beth is a relaxed and benevolent raconteur, a good witch who stirs her personal narrative into an alchemical stew of original songs, graphic word puns, paranormal investigations (house dousing, crystals, crop circles), healings and the surviving of several questionable clouds with no apparent silver linings. Even people with a low spiritual IQ would willingly consider converting to a new POV when charmingly crooned to by the divine Ms. B.

Who put the “UN” in fun, Beth might ask, as she begins to undo her own limited thinking in favor of following the signs – they may indeed have her best interests at heart. If you don’t already know it, Ms. Lapides is the High Priestess of the UnCabaret, the mother duck to countless stand up ducklings who were honing their hilariously off-kilter weltanshauungs (that’s German for world view) back in the day on the UnCab’s stages, where Cheerleader/Hostess Beth held the space generously by cackling her raucous, encouraging laugh in support of those unique and valuable Voices Who Were Emerging. Some of them are now Hollywood bigwigs who were even in attendance at opening night. (Holy crap, did I really just sit in front of Sex in the City’s geniuses, John Melfi, and my elfin hero Michael Patrick King? Actor/writer and UnCab vet Taylor Negron and NEANEANEA Grant winner John Fleck were also there.)

It is with this same mirthful and supportive spirit that Beth approaches the colorful narrating of her own path in a recently emerging art form that has moved from pure stand-up comedy to a more integrative story-telling, one that encompasses both the dark and light of the personal path. Eschewing the more intellectual take one might expect from her Ivy League education (Brown) and Jewish upbringing in favor of “less thinking, more singing,” Beth offers helpful antidotes to the unhappiness bred by Our Time. It’s comforting to know that we’re all going through it – “it’s not just you” is her opening number. In other words, Beth Lapides is courageously practicing what she preaches when she asks us to sing along with her during “Change – Makes Us So Unhappy,” reminding us that change is the only unchangeable by being willing to walk through real uncharted territory within herself. She always wanted to sing, but has really just begun in this current iteration of the show, putting a vulnerable yet sweet spin on this performance and paving the way to a more soul based type of entertainment not usually encouraged here in Ho’wood. She has here opted for a more humanized, accessible version of her life’s story, unfolded through a series of signs along The Way.

After a few Hollyweird sucker punches, an eviction and a radio firing, Beth and her curly headed hubby Greg Miller, who throws in a few PIC-y remarks from the sidelines, (‘Partner In Change’ is a Beth-acronym for those who support growth) the two strive to make sense of their uppy downy journey, even while they are in it. And if these two can save their lives by finding meaning in all of its twists and turns, by Golly, so can we save ours. Isn’t that the whole purpose of storytelling, anyhoo? Everyone has their limits though and apparently, Ms. Lapides draws the Woo Woo line at angels. Can a pow wow with angel expert Doreen Virtue change (that word again) her mind about the existence of the angelic realm? You’ll have to see 100% Happy 88% of the Time to find out.

Towards the end of the show, I could have sworn I saw Beth Lapides sprout wings, she looked so like those cherubim in whom she says she does not believe. I highly recommend this lovely, uplifting show (directed by Clifford Bell, with musical direction by Mitchell Kaplan) to take your Mind off. What do you mean “of what?” Ecch. Just take it off.

Sea Glassman is a painter, poet, filmmaker and director, as well as a performance coach, yogini and guided intuitive. She has directed countless plays and began her documentary film career with her debut film, Stacey Steals Flowers, at the Nantucket Film Festival. Her writing has appeared on line and in various newsletters. Her blog “OMVELOPE,” is a literary magazine dedicated to The Arts and Spirituality: omvelope.wordpress.com.

Beth Lapides (read her collection of My Other Car is a Yoga Mat columns here) has been receiving some positive strokes for her show–including LA Weekly’s Best of Issue Best Comeback! And a nifty mention in Flavorpill, including, “Inspired by eureka moments afforded by hinky Hollywood, adolescent diaries, 2012, chronic back pain, an eviction, and a foretelling dove, Lapides candidly offers her game-plan for going “emotionally green” as the best tool for survival in this era of demise. Won’t you ascend with her?”

Order your tickets to 100% Happy 88% of the Time at bethlapides.com.

By Sea Glassman

Beth Lapides

Beth Lapides is the creatrix and host of UnCabaret. You may know her from her LA Yoga My Other Car is A Yoga Mat column, as the author of “Did I Wake You, Haiku For Modern Living”, from her appearances on Sex & The City, NPR and Comedy Central or from her writing in O Magazine, Elle Decor and Los Angeles Magazine. She teaches her workshop The Comedian’s Way privately in LA and annually at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. UnCabaret is her long running comedy show in which she asks the very best comedians working what is going on with you now. The show is known for being uniquely about the present and every Sunday a completely unique experience unfolds. In the past two years Beth has collaborated with Mitch Kaplan, both on the music for her New Agey comedy show “100% Happy 88% of the Time” and at UnCabaret where Mitch is Musical Director. Adding music to the comedy is like adding an out breath to the in, a vowel to the consonant. UnCabaret is intimate, conversation, idiosyncratic and fun intentional.

bethlapides.com

The post Beth Lapides’ 100% Happy 88% Of The Time appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Yonnus Becker, Photo: Jean Kim

The Sun Beckons To This Venice Local

On a beautiful autumn afternoon, the sun sparkled on the vibrant streets of the Venice thoroughfare, familiar faces wandered about as a feeling of calm permeated the air. The years have seen drifters and ramshackle huts give way to luxury homes and exotic boutiques as the ever-evolving Venice neighborhood has expanded its community, as it has done for decades, with its own unique style. As a Venice resident, I am grateful to be able to hop on my bike, smell the salt in the air and head down to my favorite local Yoga studio, Surya Yoga, owned by Yonnus Becker.

Surya is perched on a corner spot on the well-known roundabout of Windward Circle in the heart of downtown Venice. The atmosphere is different near the water, bustling with creative minds that walk along in speculation as the casual beachgoers carry on. As you approach the Yoga studio you can see why Yonnus Becker, owner of Studio Surya, claimed this spot. When the curtains are drawn it is a noticeably bright open space it feels like a studiothat represents the lifestyle of Yoga.

Surya is the Sanskrit word for Sun; it’s a name this warm and open studio richly deserves as it bathes you with a warm and open feeling.

A California native, Yonnus Becker’s personal journey began in a Hatha Yoga class when she lived in New York, where simple curiosity was to give way to a life’s passion for teaching. Before becoming a teacher she had a grocery list of unfulfilling jobs ranging from pumping gas to a painting contractor. When her practice began she found Yoga gave her a sense of healing and happiness that became more fulfilling as the connection with her practice grew. Yonnus began planning a move west to create a community-based studio that would be both intimate and affordable. Her choice of Venice was inspired in part by the sense of place experienced in many of New York’s boroughs. “New York is such an interwoven city with a strong sense of self. Venice makes sense after New York. Not only do I enjoy the fact that Venice is inhabited by interesting people with shared interests of aesthetics and lifestyle, I also enjoy being able to ride my bike, shop at the local farmers’ market, grab coffee at Groundworks and see familiar faces on the streets. Venice has a great community feel and that’s why I love it here.”

She wanted to create a studio that felt personal, fostering an environment of love and appreciation for practice and sangha (community), where people could chat before class and feel part of something special. Surya grounds itself in a heart-centered approach, making sure everyone gets to know each other at the beginning of each class. “We live in a difficult time and Yoga gives us an opportunity to remember what we are grateful for. It allows us to slow down, to be in the moment and embrace the quiet joy of knowing that we have everything we need to be joyful, radiant and alive and that the rest are the wondrous gifts of life,” she conveys.

“The life is what you have on the mat,” Yonnus said to me, forging an instantaneous connection with those words, a connection that continues to inspire my support. Yonnus’ genuine and glowing manner engages with her warm welcoming smile. She remembers cherished regulars and recognizes those walking into her class for the first time.

Yonnus’ philosophical approach effortlessly combines with a methodical attention to movement. Vinyasa flow and its grace inspires the studio’s classes. She explains her relationship to the practice, “As a water sign, I am naturally drawn to fluidity and this flow of movement, this dance within and without ourselves feels like a natural expression of our body. From a fitness standpoint, Vinyasa is beneficial for the body because the constant movement does not allow us to become joint dependent. Instead we must use our muscles. The movement produces synovial fluid adding in the health of our joints and mobility.”

Her descriptive teaching style keeps the fundamentals alive and does as much to educate as to heal. When she moves throughout her class she refers to our sankalpa (Sanskrit for intention) and is noticeably aware of our breath as she gently guides us to each pose. Yonnus explains how the intensity of a twist engages our solar plexus chakra, the chakra of willpower, sense of self and our body’s transformation of energy into matter. Her spoken word invites us closer as she proceeds; her enlightened undertones are openly conveyed in the words she chooses.

In the low hum of savasana, our eyes drift close while Yonnus’ tones soften. She reminds us all she is grateful for in this practice and above all, her feeling of gratitude for sharing this community with us within this small space. “When we stop reaching for what we believe makes us happy, If we let go of the illusion of thinking happiness comes from something outside of ourselves, that is when we experience heaven on earth,” Yonnus whispers and I can’t help but feel grateful for this brief time in this place with her. Yonnus Becker is the owner and one of the teachers at Studio Surya Yoga in Venice: studiosuryayoga.com.

Staff Writer Lakshmi

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The Sanskrit word santosha means contentment. Contentment is a slippery idea: If we say that we are not content, or feeling discontented, there are those who will look upon us as being ungrateful, or needing to work harder. If we say that we are content, there is sometimes the illusion of complacency. How can we teach our children gratitude and contentment, when we often struggle with our own relationship to contentment and what it means?

In order to teach something, it is important to fully understand it ourselves. One of my favorite definitions for the word contentment is “an ease of heart.” This implies that the need to struggle has been lifted, and we can flow with the waves of life. As parents, if we remember the first time that we settled into a chair embracing our newborn children, then we can remember the magical moment when we felt not just an ease of heart, but also a filling of the heart.

Children are naturally pretty content with whatever activity they are absorbed in at the moment, but with the challenge of so much advertising teaching them to ‘want’ more, how can we as parents help them to maintain the contentment of living in the moment? The holiday season is a perfect opportunity to explore this with our children. During Thanksgiving, it is customary to speak of that which we are thankful for in our lives. Thankfulness for what we do have, and an awareness of the richness of the familial bond can help bring a sense of safety and contentment to our children. Here are some simple activities that you can try at home to help cultivate gratitude, and ultimately contentment.

Toddlers: Ask them who they love. They will often say mommy, daddy, grandparents or the family pet. As parents, we can draw an outline of these people and pets, and let them color it in. Place it on the fridge, and bring it to the holiday table. Not only will children have pride in their artwork, but they will have a budding awareness of the richness of family love. Just a little heads up on this tip, hearing your child talk about who they love can lead to tears of joy in mommy and daddy. Have a handkerchief nearby.

Grammar School Kids: Now we can start to ask our kids who and what they are grateful for. Younger kids can paint a picture of those that they are grateful for and share it on Thanksgiving. Older kids can write letters of gratitude to whomever they feel grateful. This is also a time when we can talk about our philosophical and spiritual beliefs. If your child says that they are grateful to God, Divine Spirit, Mother Nature; have then write a letter to the Divine. This is an opportunity to enrich the feeling of belonging, as well as being loved, protected and guided.

Teenagers: Meditation and pranayama are fantastic tools for teaching santosha. Next time you are headed to your Yoga class, call the studio and see what age requirements they have for practicing. Many studios will allow participants ages 13 years and older to attend class. Or there may be classes scheduled for this age group. The meditation, the deep breathing, as well as postures, can promote a sense of gratitude. Talk with your teenager after class about what they enjoyed, and what they are grateful for. Feeling grateful for time together, grateful for a strong healthy body, or other qualities mentioned, is a way to segue onto the topic of contentment. This can be especially important during this stage of life when many kids are facing body image issues, issues with bullying, and issues of acceptance.

Let us remember all that we are grateful for in our lives, especially the miracle of our sons and daughters. As we start to grow in our own feelings of gratitude and contentment, we model this for our children, and teach them about an ‘ease of the heart.’ We can also show our children simple ways to express their gratitude, and ultimately, their feelings of contentment.

Let our hearts overflow with thankfulness ––Colossians 2:7

Desi Bartlett

Desi Bartlett MS, CPT, has been teaching health and wellness for more than 20 years. Originally from Chicago, she has a degree in kinesiology and her master’s degree in corporate fitness. Desi holds advanced certifications in Yoga, personal training, group fitness, and is a certified pre- and post-natal fitness specialist.

desibartlett.com

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