Guruji begins His amazing commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with this conundrum. I haven’t figured it out yet so i thought of handing it over to you all. Enjoy

Vikram

Sri Sri: We will begin with a story, the greatest and most effective way of conveying knowledge.

Once upon a time, long ago, all the munis and rishis approached Lord Vishnu to tell him that even though He (incarnated as Lord Dhanvanthari) had given them the means to cure illnesses through Ayurveda, people still fell ill. They also wanted to know what to do when people got sick. Sometimes it is not just physical illness, but mental and emotional illness too that needs to be dealt with. Anger, lust, greed, jealousy etc. How does one get rid of all these impurities? What is the formula?

Vishnu was lying on the bed of snakes the serpent Adishesha with a 1,000 heads. When the Rishis approached Him, he gave them Adishesha, the symbol of

awareness, who took birth in the world as Maharishi Patanjali. So Patanjali came to this earth to give this knowledge of yoga which came to be known as the yogasutras.

Patanjali said he was not going to discuss the yogasutras unless 1,000 people got together.

So 1,000 people gathered south of Vindhya Mountains to listen to him. Patanjali had another condition he would put a screen between him and his students and told them that nobody was to lift the screen or leave. Everybody had to stay in the hall till he finished. So Patanjali stayed behind the curtain and he transmitted his knowledge to the 1,000 gathered. Each of them absorbed this knowledge. It was an amazing phenomenon and even amongst the students, they could not

believe how they were getting this knowledge, how the master was making each of them understand without uttering words from behind the curtain. Everybody was amazed. Each one of them experienced such a blast of energy, such a blast of enthusiasm, that they could not even contain it. But they still had to maintain the discipline.

But one little boy had to go out to attend natures call. So he left the room. He thought to himself that he would go quietly and return quietly. Another person became curious. What is the Master doing behind the curtain? I want to see. He got so curious that he lifted the curtain to see the Master. But just as he did so, all 999 disciples were burnt to ashes.

Now, Patanjali became very sad. There he was, ready to impart knowledge to the whole world and all of his disciples were burnt. At this moment, that one little boy returned. Patanjali asked him where he had gone. The boy explained and asked his forgiveness. Patanjali was compassionate and felt that at least one of his disciples was saved. So he gave him the rest of the sutras, the rest of the knowledge.

But the student had violated the law and Patanjali was not willing to forget that. So he said, Since you have violated the law, you will become a Brahmarakshasa, a ghost and hang on the tree. And the only way he could liberate himself from the curse is to teach one student. Saying this Patanjali disappeared.

Now Brahmarakshasa, hanging on a tree, would ask everyone who passed by one question and when they could not answer he would eat them. He had

no choice and for a few thousand years this was the story. He could not find a single person to whom he could teach the yogasutras. So he remained in the tree as a Brahmarakshasa (the lesson here being that for the one who has great knowledge, and who does something wrong, the state of Brahmarakshasa will come. An intelligent person becoming a criminal becomes more dangerous than an innocent person becoming a criminal. If a person, who knows all knowledge and then turns a criminal, it is much more dangerous). So the Brahmarakshasa was hanging there and waiting for relief. Then out of compassion,

Patanjali himself becomes a disciple and comes as a student to Brahmarakshasa who told him all the sutras, which Patanjali wrote on the palm leaf. The story goes that to redeem one disciple, the Master became the disciple of a disciple.

Patanjali wrote the sutras sitting on the top of the tree as that was where the Brahmarakshasa sat. Also, Brahmarakshasa worked only in the night. So he dictated the sutras at night and Patanjali wrote them on the leaves. He plucked all the leaves and made a small scratch, drew blood and wrote. This went on

for seven days. At the end of it, Patanjali was tired and put everything he had written on a piece pf cloth and set it down and went to bathe. But when Patanjali returned, he found that a goat had eaten most of the leaves. Patanjali then took the cloth bag and the rest of the leaves and walked away.

In this story, there is a lot of depth. The puranas do not give any explanation. They just give a story and it is for us to unlock the meaning. So what is that you all have to find out?

(1) How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without uttering a word?

(2) What was the significance of the veil and when it was lifted why did everybody burn down?

(3) Why was the one boy forgiven?

(4) What is the significance of the goat?

(5) What is the significance of this story?

You should think about all this and come up with your own answers. This is the first in a series on yoga sutras.

Yoga karmasu kaushalam.  Yoga does not mean only doing asanas. Yoga also means – jnana yoga or the yoga of knowledge. When you are in devotion, it is called bhakti yoga and when you are doing service, it is karma yoga. Doing service without expectation of any rewards is karma yoga.

Yoga karmasu kaushalam.  You should write this on the wall of your house. Also write something else – Samattvam yoga uchyate. There should be equanimity in the mind. But it is of no use if you only write it on the wall and it only remains there. Instead write this in your head and inside you.

 -Excerpt from a Talk by Gurudev

Svadhyaya, self-reflection, has practical meaning for all those who recognize the need for self-improvement.

By Gary Kraftsow

When we use the yoga practice of svadhyaya—self-reflection—effectively, our actions become much more than a way to achieve something external; they become a mirror in which we can learn to see ourselves more deeply. If we are willing to look at behaviors, motivations, and strategies we habitually use to maintain our own self-image, we can use svadhyaya to pierce through the veil that this self-image creates and into the nature of our own essential being.

Along with tapas (purification) and Ishvara pranidhana (recognition of and dedication to our Source), svadhyaya is part of the threefold practice of kriya yoga described by the great sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra. Traditionally, tapas, svadhyaya, and Ishvara pranidhana referred to specific activities, but they may also be understood in the context of an overall relationship to action. The tradition of svadhyaya suggests that any sacred or inspirational text that offers insight into the human condition can serve as a mirror, reflecting our true nature back to us. Classical texts of this sort might include the Yoga Sutra, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, the Bible, the Talmud, and the writings of the saints of any tradition. But the source might also be any spiritual or inspiring text we use not simply abstractly or academically but as a means of deeper self-understanding.

In fact, carrying the same logic a step further, svadhyaya can refer to any inspirational activity, from the simple act of chanting, using a mantra, or singing a hymn to receiving teachings from the guru or going to hear a sermon. Rituals of the major religions—for example, the ritual of confession in the Roman Catholic faith—can act as svadhyaya. To take a similar example, repentance and seeking forgiveness are integral parts of the process of purification and illumination in both the Jewish and Islamic faiths. In a somewhat different form of svadhyaya, the Tibetan Buddhist contemplates the “great thoughts that turn the mind to ultimate dharma,” thus turning the mind away from the worldly toward the spiritual life. In svadhyaya, spiritually inspiring teachings are tools to help us understand ourselves, and, through that understanding, change our attitudes and behavior.

Attuning Our Inner Navigator

This teaching is not only meant for those dedicated to matters of the spirit. It has great practical meaning for all of us who recognize there is room for improvement in our lives. Svadhyaya represents an ongoing process through which we can assess where we are at a given moment. It is like attuning our inner navigator and finding meaningful answers to questions: Where am I now, and where am I going? What is my direction, and what are my aspirations? What are my responsibilities? What are my priorities?

We often find ourselves on cruise control, acting habitually and being so swept up in the momentum of our daily lives that we don’t take the time to check where we are or where we are headed. The mantras and textual studies offered by the classical tradition function as references from which we can measure where we are. If we come back to the image of the inner navigator, then the mantras and texts can be seen as the polestar, which shows us true north.

One of the greatest opportunities we have to see ourselves is in the mirror of relationship. Therefore another means of svadhyaya is to look at how people are responding to us and let that be the opportunity to understand something about the way we habitually operate. For example, it is difficult to hide aspects of our personality from our mates, our parents, or our children. Even with intimate friends, our pretenses are not likely to endure for long. While we are quite able to play the games of avoidance and self-deception in our own company, in the mirror of our relationships, it is not so easy to hide.

In other words, svadhyaya suggests that we can use all of our activities—solitary and relational—as mirrors in which to discover something important about ourselves and that we can use what we discover as valuable information in the process of arriving at a deeper self-understanding. Finally, the ultimate purpose of svadhyaya is to function as a mirror reminding us of our higher potential—in other words, as a way into the interior where our true Self resides.

To this end, the classical means of svadhyaya include using a mantra, reading a text, or sitting with a spiritual master (guru). In fact, the ancients used the word darshana—which means something like a mirror image—to describe the teaching contained in a particular group of sacred texts, and they used the same word to describe what happens when we sit with a spiritual master. In both cases, we can see our neuroses, our small-mindedness, and our pettiness mirrored completely. At the same time, we can also see beyond our current state to something like our divine potential. And that too is who we are.

Although the classical means of svadhyaya were mantras, texts, and masters, we can use our wives, husbands, lovers, friends, yoga students, or yoga teachers. Everybody. Everything. In fact, all of our activities can be an opportunity to see more deeply who we are and how we operate, and on that basis we can begin to refine ourselves and thus become clearer and more appropriate in our behavior.

Balancing Action and Reflection

Tapas (purification) and svadhyaya exist in mutual relationship, tapas being the means whereby we purify and refine our systems and svadhyaya being the means of self-reflection through which we come to an increasingly deeper level of self-awareness and self-understanding. By cleansing the vessel of the body and mind, tapas makes us fit for svadhyaya; by examining the vessel, svadhyaya helps us to understand exactly where we should concentrate our practices of purification. And thus, in this relationship between purification and self-examination, we have a natural method for discovering who, in essence, we are.

We cannot truly consider tapas apart from svadhyaya; therefore, an intelligent practice of tapas must of necessity include svadhyaya. For example, if we do intensive asana (postures) without being adequately self-reflective, we may end up destabilizing our hips, creating vulnerability in our lower back, and ruining our knees. If, however, we consider the asana practice itself as a mirror, we are certainly more apt to avoid injury and may even come away with a better understanding of ourselves as well.

For many of us who are drawn to styles of asana practice that reinforce existing tendencies, this is a tricky point. For example, if we are the high-paced, hyperactive type, we might be drawn toward a very active practice—one that makes us sweat and that generates lots of heat—whereas what we may really need is a more soothing and calming practice. Or if we are the slow-moving, sluggish type, we may be drawn to a very gentle and relaxing practice, whereas what we may really need is a more active and stimulating one. In either case, the result would be tapas without svadhyaya. And in both cases the result would most likely be a reinforcement of existing patterns or, even worse, a possible injury or illness.

When we practice, it is important to look carefully, both at who we are and what is actually happening in our practice so that we have a constant feedback mechanism through which we accurately feel what is happening in our systems, and as a result of which we learn increasingly more about ourselves.

In short, tapas accompanied by svadhyaya ensures that tapas is transformational activity and not simply a mindless application of technology or, worse yet, an abusive activity. According to the ancients, svadhyaya develops tapas, tapas develops svadhyaya, and together they help us awaken to the spiritual dimension of life. And thus, as we go deeper and deeper into the process of self-investigation and self-discovery, we also go deeper and deeper into the Self, until eventually we discover (or uncover) the Divine. One great teacher has described this process with the image of a drop of water dissolving into the ocean. At first we wonder whether we are the drop. But eventually we discover that we are not and have never been the drop, but only the water itself.

From Yoga for Transformation (Penguin Putnam, 2002) by Gary Kraftsow. Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

 http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2523?utm_source=DailyInsight&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=b&utm_campaign=DI_2009-05-17

An Ancient Cure for Modern Life

Everyday stress can lead to vata derangement, an excess of nervous energy. These Ayurvedic therapies can bring you back into balance.

By Alison Rose Levy

http://www.yogajournal.com/health/647

Like most Americans, I’m an expert at multi-tasking. I eat at my desk, wash dishes while on the phone, go through bills on the bus, and drive while talking on my cell phone. Based on his knowledge of the Eastern wisdom of Ayurveda, the internationally recognized Ayurvedic physician and author Robert Svoboda has another name for this rushed, fragmented way of functioning. He calls it “vata-deranged.” Modern life as we know it, with its excessive travel, late nights, and nonstop stimulation, often contributes to vata derangement, which can affect anyone. People like me the tall, slender, fast-talking ones are most at risk, however, because our native constitutions are vata dominant.

To comprehend vata derangement, we need to understand that vata is one of the three metabolic types, or doshas, described by the ancient health science of Ayurveda. Vata is the principle of movement, ruled by air and ether. The other two doshas are pitta, the principle of assimilation ruled by fire, and kapha, the stabilizing force, ruled by earth and air. Ayurvedic doctors say that we are each a unique combination of these three. For most of us, one type is predominant, another secondary. But whatever one’s native type, when a person goes out of balance, the vata principle destabilizes most easily, causing other kinds of health and emotional problems.

According to Ayurveda, this is the force that governs all movement in the body, including the in-and-out flow of the breath, the action of our limbs, the circulation of subtle energy in our organism, and the mind’s ceaseless flow of thoughts, words, and images. Unlike earthy kapha, solid and grounded and with a tendency to get stuck, or fiery pitta, sharp and focused and knowing just where it wants to go, vata, like the wind, wanders here and there, its direction ever-changing.

Performers like Michael Richards, who played Seinfeld’s Kramer, Lisa Kudrow acting ditzy and off-beat on Friends, and Woody Allen, with his anxious patter, have made us laugh at the off-centered, nervous spaciness typical of vata derangement. While these qualities may seem funny when we see them on film, it’s not fun to experience the jerky stops and starts of breath, thoughts, speech, nerves, and limbs that result from a vata imbalance. And the health consequences aren’t laughable either.

Vata’s Rise and Fall

The pressure and pace of modern life can tip anyone into vata imbalance. But even if you spent your life meditating in the woods, it’s not easily avoided. Ayurveda holds that sturdy kapha is dominant in childhood, ambitious pitta rules in the prime of life, and vata prevails in our senior years. Our senior years bring the vatic qualities of dryness, roughness, and irregularity, manifesting in such health complaints as arthritis, constipation, anxiety, insomnia, and stiffness.

Fortunately, we can look to ancient wisdom for answers: Ayurveda has evolved ways to remedy vata imbalance and its accompanying diseases, and throughout hundreds of years ancient Ayurvedic physicians and yogis devised many techniques to prolong life hoping to gain more time to attain self-realization.

Undoubtedly, the Westerner most knowledgeable about these Ayurvedic rejuvenate practices is Svoboda, who teaches at Albuquerque’s Ayurvedic Institute and is the author of Prakriti (Sadhana, 1999), an excellent introduction to Ayurveda. For the last 25 years, Svoboda has traveled to India to receive and learn traditional rejuvenative treatments and to study Indian culture, philosophy, and practices. Last year he offered a small group of students a weeklong immersion in the health model and way of life he practices. Along with Iyengar Yoga teacher Ellen Leary of New Hope, Pennsylvania, Svoboda designed a retreat reflecting the Indian world view that Ayurveda, hatha yoga, and other spiritual practices like meditation and chanting are aspects of an integrated system of healing and spiritual evolution. As I flew to the Caribbean Island of Tortola, I wondered if, even with these gifted guides, it would be possible to alleviate some of my stress-building vatic habits in one week.

The Beauty of Routine

Vatas tend to be erratic or as workshop participant Paul Busch, an Iyengar Yoga teacher from Minneapolis (and a vata), described himself, “addicted to variety.” While stalwart kaphas plod along, rising, eating, working, and sleeping punctually, vatas zigzag out of regularity, rising and going to bed at odd times, skipping meals, and not keeping to any regular pattern. Although this makes life interesting, it is also destabilizing. The cure: Establish a predictable routine.

The first evening of the retreat, Svoboda explained that they had carefully structured our schedule and practices to emphasize rejuvenation, particularly for balancing vata. Since dry, rough, airy, fast-moving, and irregular are the core qualities of vata, the Ayurvedic approach is to prescribe treatments, activities, and foods that provide the opposite qualities: oiliness, grounding, slowness, heaviness, consistency, and flow. Svoboda and Leary asked that we adhere to their schedule, even if it meant steering clear of the sun-drenched beach below. Instead of going after “fun,” we tasted a different kind of enjoyment: a restful night’s sleep.

This was the beginning of our routine: Every night we went to bed early, and every day began at 6 a.m. We entered the day gently with an optional morning meditation, followed by an hour long class in pranayama at 6:30 a.m. This is very important for vata, whose flow can become disturbed by transitions, particularly abrupt ones, like dashing straight from the dream state to the computer upon arising.

“Vata is discontinuous, so if there’s a transfer of energy and direction, like at a juncture or at any transition, that’s where vata becomes agitated,” Svoboda said. No chance of that here. Unlike other classes I’d attended, where even beginners launched into advanced pranayama techniques like alternate nostril or bellows breathing, Leary, who recently returned from a month at the Iyengar Institute in Pune, India, led us in a simple, restorative pranayama practice.

We used props in Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Bound Angle Pose), to ensure our bodies were in correct alignment and our diaphragms gently lifted. We supported our legs with homemade sandbags and a belt, allowing the groin area to deeply relax. Leary gently guided us in sensing the inner thoracic area, and after a time, without any forcing, we slowly lengthened and deepened our breath.

Expanding and steadying the breath helps pacify vata because it counters the constrained and shallow breathing and attendant anxiety that result from vata’s fast pace. Leary instructed us to allow this expansion to happen without forcing it, encouraging us to take a step back from the vatic and Western tendency to overdo it.

“Breath is essential to rejuvenation,” Svoboda explained later, when we gathered on the stone front porch for one of his three daily talks. The term prana, he told us, denotes consciousness and life force. Because prana is carried on the breath, increasing our breath capacity brings in more life force to nourish the physical tissues of the body. “As the organism becomes more confident there is ample prana, it relaxes,” explained Svoboda. While regulating the breath is necessary for vatas, inducing a calm state is healing to everyone’s cells, bodies, emotions, and thoughts.

But everything in its own time. Lest we fuel our spiritual evolution with ambition, Svoboda reminded us that we won’t get there any quicker by pressing the pedal to the floor. Even when it comes to spirituality, each of the doshas has its own way of overdoing or underdoing it. Kaphas are most likely to be kicking back and smelling the flowers, finding no motivation to practice at all. Pittas may be driven to become spiritual overachievers, losing contact with compassion as they pile up attainments.

Vatas overdo because they are mentally stimulated by so many options but without doing one thing consistently. This tendency carries over into other life activities. “My eyes are bigger than my stomach,” commented Busch. “My mind wants a smorgasbord, staying up late, watching stimulating films, or engaging in late night conversations, while my body would prefer to get some rest. And like all vatas, I overrule my body.”

Underdoing It

The retreat schedule, routine yet relaxing, defeated all vatic temptations to overdo. There’s no point in overdoing a practice like pranayama, Svoboda told us, because we can’t take in more prana unless we have room for it. In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else. Wherever there are blockages, the flow throughout our system is obstructed, causing vata disorders. The practices we learned opened the space for that flow. To open the mind, there was meditation. To expel toxins encumbering our digestive tract, there were Ayurvedic herbs and diet. To release structural and muscular blockages impeding our movement, there was hatha yoga.

After our daily pranayama, we performed Suryanamaskar (Sun Salutation) to the rising sun on a deck overlooking the ocean. With their addiction to variety, vatas find it boring to do asanas slowly and repetitively. Of course, more than anyone else, they need to take the time to allow themselves to become steady in each pose. “As a vata I love constant change, and it’s the worst thing for me,” noted Busch. Suryanamaskar is beneficial for vatas, who tend to have stiff joints, because the asanas move all the limbs and lubricate the joints. Suryanamaskar also regulates the flow of energy through the nadis, channels of subtle energy that run through our organism, like acupuncture meridians.

While pittas and kaphas do well with more strenuous exercise, repetitive, flowing movement balances vata, so it is best for vatas to do Suryanamaskar slowly. These poses can align vatas mentally and spiritually, Svoboda pointed out, if they face the sun, real or imagined, while doing them. Focusing gathers vata’s scattered energies, Svoboda said, and directs them toward “the sun, the source of light and consciousness in the world.”

 Practice Is Perfection

Following a well-earned breakfast, we next performed abhyanga. This is an Ayurvedic oil massage and a classic prescription for healing vata that brings vata’s dry, rough, and irregular tendencies into balance with the oil’s smoothness and heaviness. Ayurvedic clinics in Kerala, India, are renowned for treatments like pizhichil, in which as many as four people simultaneously oil massage a single client, or shirodhara, in which oil is slowly poured onto the top of the head. When oil is absorbed through the skin, it dislodges toxins, explained Svoboda, which otherwise impede the flow in our system, block the movement of prana, and aggravate vata.

Ayurvedic physicians also use food as medicine, considering the effect of every food and spice on each dosha. Cream of wheat, for example, while grounding for vatas, is too heavy for already grounded kaphas, who tend toward weight gain; on the other hand, a vata should probably pass on the chili because beans cause gas. Although people associate Ayurvedic cuisine with Indian food, the two are not synonymous. A diet balancing to one’s dosha can consist entirely of Western or international dishes. The retreat offered gourmet spa cuisine, delicious and balancing to all three doshas.

Ayurveda views the digestive process as a metaphor for all we take in. Many people eat whatever is available, watch whatever is on the tube, and believe the common consensus on many subjects. But Ayurveda asks us to consider what we can handle, as vata’s delicate nerves and digestion are easily overwhelmed by a bad meal or a bad movie, for that matter. Svoboda and Leary urged us to use the retreat practices to refine our inner awareness, so we could begin to discern the effects of the foods, images, and ideas we take in. This is helpful for all doshas, but particularly for curious and experimental vatas, who want to try everything even though their powers of assimilation aren’t always up to it.

Anything taken in but not processed remains in our organism and becomes a toxin, Svoboda told us. That’s why it’s important to recognize what is beneficial and decline what isn’t, rather than leave the gate open to any and all forms of input. Vatas are great communicators and love chatter. But as much as they love it, it is jarring to their nerves. The solution? To practice limiting input and output.

All chatter ceased on the day dedicated to silence, a traditional form of spiritual austerity practiced in India. Silence is believed to have a purifying effect on the sense of hearing and on the mind itself. In silence I noticed how much breath and energy I habitually waste on words. At meals I never missed the conversation, which I now realize was often used to stave off fears or feelings of emptiness. In silence these feelings were given room to come into the light of awareness, where they could dissolve. Our silent afternoon asana class brought the entire group into a state of inner and outer focus, as we followed Leary in a strong series of standing poses, the ocean breezes and our own breath the only sounds we heard. Silence, I discovered, is a restorative posture as powerful as any physical one.

The retreat showed me what Savasana (Corpse Pose), the most basic restorative pose, was all about. With my busy work schedule, I frequently omitted this asana from my practice at home, dashing from other asanas directly to the phone or computer keyboard. The flip side of this kind of vatic overdoing is an energy crash, from which a judicious rest can protect you.

“Savasana brings you as close as possible to perfect physical alignment because it is easier to do correctly than any other pose. Being still while in alignment allows all levels of your being to move into alignment,” explained Svoboda. This is why Savasana feels so restful, physically, mentally, and spiritually. With enough rest and alignment, even restless vatic energy can stabilize.

At first, with its new terminology, Ayurveda can seem exotic, even to someone like me who has traveled to India and studied hatha yoga and meditation for 14 years. But in truth, resting deeply, eating healthful foods, following a regular schedule, moving at a gentle pace, stretching all my limbs, taking deep breaths, and limiting stimulation are all the basics of good health. There’s nothing exotic about these practices.

What is unusual is that we live in a society where we have to make an extra effort to practice them and resist the pressures that lead us to neglect self-care. Following the Ayurvedic and yogic techniques seemed unfamiliar at first, but when I practiced them, my body (or was it perhaps some subtler aspect of myself?) recognized them. As modern Americans, we may have forgotten how to care for the human being, but Ayurveda remembers and can remind us of what we once knew.

Alison Rose Levy is a New York based writer on yoga, health, and psychology. She is currently training to teach Anusara Yoga while at work on her first book.

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I was so excited for attending SSY TTC in China because I love Sri Sri Yoga and it is always full with surprises. I had up side down when I was there and some of the surprises were not like I expected and some were beyond my expectation.  However, I realized when I went back, all the process that I did such as Karma Yoga, Cleansing Process and Communication Process using native language actually helped me a lot to break my boundaries.

I used to set up standards for everything an d follow my own rules. When I did the process there was no hesitation at all to do it, I didn’t know where I got the courage to do all that even though it was pretty challenging for me to clean dirty canteen, share bathrooms and secrets.

Another amazing thing that happened during the course was I got to know my self better and enjoyed the companion of my self. I truly enjoyed feeling the knowledge flowing through me, it was so beautiful and peaceful.

Now, how can I complain about anything when I feel so graceful with all I have? SSY TTC has made me to see the beauty of life and connect to The Source.

Jai Gurudev!

Irma Rachmi (Indonesia), SSYTTC08, Fuzhou, China

I started teaching yoga about 10 years ago in schools.  It was a non-violent and non-competitive way to exercise children today in California.  Immediately after I began considering about going for long-term Yoga TTC program in India.  I looked and searched for a long time since then.  During the 10 years yoga had become a fashion.  There were so many different branches and schools of yoga.  None of them was quite right for me.  For me, yoga was not just an exercise.  Yoga was not for business.  It was something much more deep.  Even after taking SSY course, my search continued.  Of course SSY had the depth I was looking for.  But SSYTTC was not accredited by Yoga Alliance, a big stamp to become a recognized “yoga teacher” in sports gym and alike.  Other yoga TTC programs would grant Yoga Alliance Certificate after 2 weeks or more.  But SSYTTC has 4 separate phases!  It would not garantee me with employment either. 

Yoga chitta vritti nirodaha.  Exactly!!  All of those little thoughts were stopping me from taking SSYTTC.  All I had to do was to restrain those unnecessary thought waves.  It all happened during SSYTTC in the mountain of Fujian Province, China.

Until then, I lived in such an easy life.  I had 3 jobs to keep me busy and alive.  I always had a routine of things to do.  Sadhana, work, hobby, knowledge…  My life was clean and regulated–leaving not too much room to apply knowledge.  Indeed I had clean and regulated days during SSYTTC, but in the different setting required me to pull out knowledge from my head to apply onto everyday situation.  Yoga karmasu koshanam.  Skill in action!  For me, finding a nice balance between knowledge was very challenging. 

I had a great thirst for knowledge, and I wanted to ask every bit of questions I had kept in my head.  However, it was also important for me to stick to the mission to keep our group strong and going.  Keeing the culture within knowledge was also important.  In fact, I would have ignored my group completely and concentrated in the course like I did for all the previous courses I took as a part of US team.  Being in Japan for a while, I was thirsty for living knowledge and craving to hang around the teacher.  But I was now put in a different position.  For the past months, AOL teachers in Japan constantly told me that the way I have been doing things in US would not work with Japanese people, and I needed to learn the Japanese way.  So I took it as a great opportunity to practice skill in action.

Accepting people and situation as they are and opposite values are complementary.  Again and again these knowledge points were applied out of necessity.  Sharing knowledge points with sense of humor also helped to keep us up as a group.  For the first few days my frustration level had gotten very high, and I was wondering when the teacher would put a botheration basket.  Instead, constant surrendering to divine happened.  I do not get to have a botheration basket everyday at home.  Being aware and offering each and every good and bad thoughts to divine was such a wonderful skill I acquired during the course.

One of the most memorable day was the seva day.  We cleaned up the canteen area of the venue opening up a whole new room for the employees to use.  The space was filled with junk.  I even found a dead kitten in the mountain of junk we carried outside.  As disgussed as I was, I was also delighted to find the dead kitten, and wished that I had a camera.  During my travel in India, people quite often asked me if Chinese and Japanese  people ate cats.  Finding a dead kitten in the canteen, I found a proof that cats are not eaten there!  Besides that, I met a bunch of Chinese people who enjoyed having vegetarian food.

The view of the city I saw from the hill (of the venue) every morning remains in the back of my head.  The business of the city stayed under the fog in calm manner.  Just like that, I am able to observe myself from from a higher place.  When that happens, I am also able to observe my busy thoughts underneath the fog down low.  Knowing the existance of madness in my mind, I am able to stay in equanimity.  Samatwan Yoga Uchayate.

Why Yoga in China?  Many people asked.  There is a special reason why we gather together in the special location with Kamlesh.  I am glad that I got to be a part of SSYTTC in China. 

Lastly, I led a yoga asana session this Sunday.  I have led many asana sessions in the past, but this was a different one, so energetic, so spirited.  I felt Guruji’s presence with me.  Now I teach asana as a yogi.  I am grateful for the deep knowledge of my guru.  I can now surrender everything, because I know I am well taken care of by him. 

Love & JGD,

Chikako (Japan), SSYTTC08, Fuzhou, China

I would describe this course as: full circle. I left to set out for the course excited and was very happy when I arrived at the venue. From the first session I was absorbing all I could – like a sponge sucking in water. And the knowledge, though having heard it before the course, seemed deeper. Each day was different and each day I looked forward to what new thing I would learn. And as is with every course, it is a journey into yourself.

During the course, Tim told us that the gunas change every two and a half days. It starts with the tama guna then two and a half days later changes to raja guna and ends with sattwa guna. So if we feel dull, or irritable, or alert, then it is because of the gunas. What I found interesting was my mood seemed to be in opposite effect of the gunas. Both weeks I went through the cycle of feeling alert and content, then irritated and bombarded with thoughts, then exhausted and worn out.

During the entire course I had the huge question of, “How am I ever going to be a good teacher?” I was so determined to be a teacher and had such confidence in myself, but as the course wore on, I kept judging and gauging myself. And what I saw was “not good enough.” I wanted to be “the perfect yogi,” the “perfect student” so I could be the best teacher ever. This pursuit of perfection kept me chasing my own tail. This want for perfection brought doubt after doubt – taking blows at my center, my strength. I was really beating myself up. And it was exactly what I needed.
I needed that beating to wear myself down. Guruji says surrender is already happening – and how you come to the realization is up to you. For me, I exhausted myself until I had no choice – there was nothing left to do but surrender. When your hands are full, you cannot receive. When your hands are full with garbage, you cannot receive the gifts bestowed to you.

And the gifts I received were a deeper sense of faith, a sense of belonging, and more strength. Listening to all the stories of Guruji, opening up to His grace, my sadhana going deeper and deeper, and lastly the talk the teachers gave all of us at the very end – about Art of Living and telling us what we were now a part of. When I first joined Art of Living, after I went to the ashram, I felt I finally had a family – a sense that was lacking before. And after the course, not only did that sense of belonging deepen, but gave me such strength. For here was something that I could devote myself to and receive such support from at the same time.

These gifts I have taken from the course and these gifts I am trying to continue to live out after the course. I find that in the following days of the course, the course is still continuing. The lessons are continuing. I hope to grow, build my strength, and be more of an asset to the world and those around me. Jai Guru Dev.

Kei Hashimoto (Japan), SSYTTC, PuTien, Fuzhou, China

Now I can appreciate the fact that I was able to take Sri Sri Yoga TTC in China. However, when I was there, I really wanted to finish and leave there ASAP.

Honestly, I had a hard time during the course, due to language problems, cold weather, doing yoga on the icy floor, eating oily Chinese food 3 times a day, anatomy, and the assignments.

Especially when I was in bad shape, I forced myself into a tight corner, thinking, “I am falling behind others, I am falling behind others, I am falling behind others.”

And then I started thinking,
“Why can’t I speak good English?”
“Why don’t I have the guts to do the course?”
“Why Am I so lazy?”
“Why don’t I have motivation to be a teacher?”

I was fettered by this why why why mind merry-go-round.

After TTC, I thought over the entire course carefully, and, upon reflection, I found that it was not such a severe situation at all! It was cold, but there was no snow. The food was oily, but I ate it. I could not express my thoughts or
feelings properly in English, but I could understand what the teachers were saying. (Also, I could ask Chikako and Key to translate for me.)

Except these “obstacles”, I stayed in a nice and clean room, I had kind teachers and friendly participants.

So why couldn’t I enjoy it? Why did I only see negative side (which is not really bad…)?

I figured out that I have had the same reaction in my life too. I had a hard time with my previous boss, but I also had kind colleagues, and good senior bosses.

About my relationship – Was he nasty to me? No, never.

Are there any serious problems in my family? No…

What’s wrong with my life?

Why do I make things too complicated and then get depressed?

Why do I want to be in misery?

I think I always judge things in “Black and White”.

I cannot be satisfied with anything except that which is “perfectly 100% white”

I know this way of thinking never makes you happy.

The process is more important than the result. Enjoying the whole process in any situation is one of the most important things in our life.

This awareness will help me from now on, and it would be great to share this experience with my students in the future.

-Masayo Yamaguchi (Japan), Sri Sri Yoga Teacher Training 2008, Fuzhou China

Sri Sri Yoga & Part-1 Course:  A Journey of Integration

This is not about why you should go on Sri Sri Yoga.  It’s about my journey as a Part-1 Teacher through it.

I recently participated in the Sri Sri Yoga TTC in Fuzhou, China.  Expecting to do just seva, I ended up instead on an intensive combined TTC1&2 program plus seva!

As a Part-1 Teacher, I never did fully appreciate yogasanas let alone Sri Sri Yoga.  My whole focus fell on giving course points, 3-stage Pranayamas, Bhastrika and the Sudarshan Kriya.  So when I was invited to be on the Sri Sri Yoga TTC as a participant there was plenty of resistance and complete bewilderment.

Towards the end of the 2-weeks I was asked why I wanted to become a Sri Sri Yoga Teacher.  I replied that I don’t know.  Whether I become a Sri Sri Yoga Teacher or not wasn’t the point.  I know already this course have made me deeper and become an even more effective Part-1 Teacher.

Sri Sri Yoga showed me how absorbed I had become in the technical application of the Part-1 Course.  The clarity and precision in applying the knowledge points for peace-of-mind became mental gymnastics-managing thoughts to harmonize the experience.

Through Sri Sri Yoga, instead of focusing on harmonizing the thought or experience for peace, I was taken directly to the source of peace and joy.

Sri Sri Yoga has brought me integration.  A beautiful journey and experience in the totality of Knowledge.  It is such a blessing from Guruji.  Jai Guru Dev!

Tim (Hong Kong), Sri Sri Yoga Teacher Training 2008, Fuzhou China