This podcast is from an old webinar by Swami Sita. Swamiji shares that karma means action and comes from our desires. Our actions from the past will result in our present situation. We have an inner conflict and need to choose the path that won’t bind us to karma. The yoga guidelines of yamas and niyamas are essential to be free from karma.
by Swami Sitaramananda
Yoga Farm Director
Swami Sitaramananda is a senior disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda and acharya of the US West Coast centers and Ashram. Swamiji is also the acharya of the Sivananda mission in Asia, especially in Vietnam, where she hails from.
Here’s how – Yoga works on all three bodies: the physical body, astral body, and causal body. In this article, we will learn about three bodies and how Yoga heals them.
Each person has a physical body made of matter, an astral body containing prana and thoughts, and a causal body which contains the quality of spirit.
The three bodies are made up of the five “koshas” or sheaths. Below is a breakdown of the three bodies and their corresponding koshas:
Annamaya Kosha – The Food Illusion Sheath
Pranamaya Kosha – The Energy Body
Manomaya Kosha – The Mind
Vijnanamaya Kosha – The Intellect
Anandamaya Kosha – The Bliss Sheath
To help you understand, it’s good to know that the
Yoga is purification. That is why in Sivananda Yoga we focus primarily on the purification process. The purification process means you have to clean out the gross veils, all these aforementioned
The good news is that there are many different ways to purify. Below are the ways you can purify each kosha. Then you can experience health and peace of mind.
Firstly, you purify the gross physical body and identification with it. This can be accomplished through asanas (yoga postures) and the practice of proper vegetarian diet. If you eat a proper diet then your body will function properly and will not be a hindrance.
Secondly, the
Complete Yogic Breath
Anuloma Viloma
Thirdly, you can purify the Manomaya kosha through meditation, positive thinking, proper behavior, karma yoga (selfless service), bhakti yoga (devotion),
Fourthly, in order to purify the Vijnanamaya
In order to practice Jnana Yoga and
Finally, through Samadhi you transcend the Anandamaya
The thin veil of spiritual ignorance is burned when you experience
Conclusively, the four paths of yoga lead to the unveiling of the five koshas and heal on a spiritual, mental and physical level. The four paths of Yoga are karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga (which includes Hatha Yoga) and jnana yoga.
In other words, practicing the five points and the four paths of yoga will lead the three bodies to be healed. When you remove spiritual ignorance, you come closer your True Nature. That is to
The classical Yoga teaching is always about Self-realization, with nothing else but that realization as the end goal. However, spiritual ignorance makes us believe ourselves to be something other than Self, which is when we are identifying with the
Alternately, we identify with our thinking in the mind and then the thinking becomes solidified and it manifests as karma. After that, the soul is born in the physical body in order to work through solidified karmic tendencies that come from the spiritual ignorance in the first place.
For the healing aspect of yoga, we have to go into the deep root cause of the wrong thinking in the first place. Because of this, Yoga primarily focuses on spiritual progress. In order for spiritual progress to take place, there must be
© Swami Sitaramananda 2018 – No part of this article may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author.
Check out our 200-hour Yoga Alliance certified Yoga Teacher Training Courses offered twice a year in California, 3x in Vietnam, once in China and once in Japan.
Choose from upcoming courses for beginners and intermediate level students.
Rejuvinate your body and mind. Experience and progress with daily Yoga classes. Learn the 12 basic asanas and pranayama. Enjoy daily meditation, chanting, and organic vegetarian meals.
A Yoga vacation is an ideal getaway to change perspective towards one’s life and become healthier, more relaxed and connected.
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by Swami Sitaramananda
Answer: The guidance of a spiritual community following a guru lineage is essentially the teaching of life lessons. The education is the grace of the guru helping us to destroy our illusions. The daily training in the ashram requires us to go beyond bodily needs, and likes and dislikes. It requires us to reach out to this universal storehouse of energy using our will, our positive mind and our devotion.
Everyday we learn that we are one, no matter what, a realisation achieved only by diving deep within, by taking recourse to those skills learned in satsangs and lectures. We learn to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the Self and the not-Self, the permanent and the impermanent, that which lifts us up and that which brings us down. We learn dispassion, compassion, forgiveness, control of the mind and the emotions. We learn to see the Self in all.
In the ashram we learn to turn within to discover our inner motives, our emotions, our desires, our contra – dictions and our expectations.
I have learned that for a young spiritual mind to develop a powerful sense of discrimination, it needs to be protected from outside influences. In this way the mind can strengthen by leading a simple and focused life, away from distractions, overload of useless information, and emotionalism. We learn that to care for the world we need to avoid the world drama, and to concentrate only on raising our own vibrations. By doing so we purify our minds.
Living in the wake of the universal mind of the guru allows for us to feel, in a very direct way, that the world is our family. The guru is concerned about the welfare of the whole world, not only our little corner. As part of an international organization we come into contact with an array of cultures, forcing us to break down any pride we might have in nation, race or gender. We learn to serve all and to find joy in serving all.
A purified mind functions in a different way, not propelled by impulses and emotions, nor governed by intellect, but moved by intuition. The intuitive mind makes no mistakes, since it is coming from a higher source.
Life in the gurukula system is intense and rich. It is not running away from life, but facing it. It is a life of purification. It is not about our separate lives or identity. It is beyond our own ideas. Faith is the final recourse, faith in the teachings of the guru as well as faith in oneself and one’s capacity to attain Self-realisation.
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The way how to switch from karma to dharma is selflessness. Whatever you want to do, whatever you like to do is called karma. If you do it in a selfless manner then you turn it into dharma. That means you are going to offer your life: your skills, your talents, your personality, your time. You offer it up to God or to humanity. You have to give it and you have to let go. That is called selflessness. You give it and you let go of the results.
Your karma will still happen, but you do not identify with it and you don’t withdraw from it because you have offered it up. That same action, that karmic action, will be transformed into dharma, into that right thing that will free you, fulfill your soul. That thing that you are looking for, the meaning of your life.
So if you have a skill, how do you turn it into dharma? You offer it up, that’s all. Offer it up without attachment, without control.
Lets say a person has a desire to have a child and cannot have a child. That is called karma, what you desire. So, how would a person turn karma into dharma, into their mission in life? Adopting is one way. Basically, taking care of children that are not your own.
The karma is wanting to have a child and without a child I suffer. So now, you turn it into a selfless love and be of service to children that are not your own. That means you don’t have control. Serve some kids that you cannot call your own and yet love like your own. At that time the selflessness happens, you work out the karma and it becomes your dharma to take care of children. The karma is fulfilled and you are happy at the same time.
Mahatma Ghandi was a lawyer. He was skilled as a lawyer. Then he offered this up. He still argued, he was still doing politics, but not for himself. So then he became a great soul. He used his political skill and community skill, he used it not for himself. Then he became fearless, then he attained greatness.
When you try to find things within yourself without the highest Self, you become the low self or the limited ego self that becomes narcissistic. You think of yourself. You become self-concerned. We always try very hard with our own ego. It doesn’t work.
If you want to find fulfillment of your ego, fine, you will get what you want, but your soul will not be happy. It cannot be. Ego surrenders to the soul, the Spirit. The soul cannot surrender to the ego. Even after some time, it doesn’t work.
That is why people have to take pills and drink themselves to death so that the soul will be muffled and the ego can win. It doesn’t work.
So, whatever you have to offer, offer it up selflessly without wanting anything in return.
Very often people ask the questions, “What is my mission?” or “What is my goal in life?” They feel they do not know their purpose and embark on a soul search mission to find it.
However, you will never find the purpose of your life by asking questions from the ego. You are trying to find the answer in the wrong place.
If you suffer, it is due to the karma of the past. Experiences or pressure to complete unwanted tasks bring suffering. If you continue to react in the same way you always have your suffering perpetuates.
Following what you like and avoiding dislikes is operating out of karma. So is reacting to experiences according to the habits of your mind. The ego’s point of view is always based on karma. Karma can never fulfill your soul and free you from the wheel of samsara, the birth and death and suffering.
We need to switch from operating out of karma to operating through dharma. When actions are done selflessly, then karma becomes dharma. Dharma is the universal law that seeks to bring all to a state of perfection. When we follow the flow of the Divine Will rather than the ego, we realize the purpose of the soul and fulfill our spiritual needs.
How can we move from karma to a way of living according to dharma, and from there to moksha, to liberation? Through selflessness.
Selflessness means you offer everything up to God, a higher power or humanity. You offer your skills, talents, personality and time. Now, if I offer myself but hold on to one half. Will that transform karma to dharma? No.
I have to offer it all and then let go. That is called selflessness. You give and let go of the results. Then karma will be transformed to dharma. Karma will still happen but you don’t identify with it anymore. Karmic action is transformed into dharma, or into right action which will free you and fulfill your soul.
This is what you have been looking for. This will bring meaning to your life. Selflessness allows you to experience joy.
If you have a skill how can you turn it into dharma? Let us take the example of poverty. You think, “ I am very poor and I am suffering through this karma.” Offer this poverty up to a higher power and work with the poor – with people who don’t have money, enough to eat or live in a slum.
By doing so you become rich. You find richness of the spirit because you work with suffering people. You understand poverty because you experienced and suffered firsthand. As you serve people your mind will change and your soul will become enriched. Simultaneously, you see your personal poverty very differently because its transcended. You become so rich and so happy.
Another example: Our karma may be an enthusiasm for life. Then we can serve those who are enthusiastic about life, for example children. Your enthusiasm for life can turn into spiritual joy.
Whatever is in your mind, serve so you can let go of the ego identification through selflessness. Then connect to your true self and free yourself from karma. This is the formula.
Check out our 200-hour Yoga Alliance certified Yoga Teacher Training Courses offered twice a year in California, 3x in Vietnam, once in China and once in Japan.
Choose from upcoming courses for beginners and intermediate level students.
Rejuvinate your body and mind. Experience and progress with daily Yoga classes. Learn the 12 basic asanas and pranayama. Enjoy daily meditation, chanting, and organic vegetarian meals.
A Yoga vacation is an ideal getaway to change perspective towards one’s life and become healthier, more relaxed and connected.
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Question: If a man steals, is he creating new karma, or is he suffering some karma from the past?A ction and reaction are one and the same. You can’t separate the action from the reaction.
If, as I’m walking along the street, I see a person lying injured, I can’t say, “Oh, it’s his karma. Let him die there. He is suffering because he did some wrong karma in the past,” and then walk by. His karma may be bad; he is suffering for that. But I also have a duty: to help. As a human being, love and compassion are inherent in me. He may die. I may not be able to save him. But I must try.
As an example, there is an artist from Bulgaria living near the Yoga Camp. I used to take people there sometimes to see his paintings. One day I went there and he said, “Swamiji, our dog is missing. If you ever see him anywhere nearby, please report it to me.” The next day I was driving to Montreal alone and I saw a dog just like his lying on the road. It was partially paralyzed from being hit by a car. I thought that it must be his missing dog, so I put it in my station wagon and directly brought it to the artist. He took one look and said, “Swamiji, it’s not my dog.”
So now what shall I do? Shall I throw the dog back on the road? No. I am stuck with a paralyzed dog. I must do whatever I can. So I brought it to a veterinarian. He found that the pelvis and legs were broken, that it would never be able to walk again. The animal was in such tremendous pain from internal injuries that he had to be put it to sleep.
It was very hard for me to do that, but I brought the dog to the ASPCA and told them the situation. They said, “Okay, we know what to do.” I was asked to bring the dog over to be put inside a window. Do you know what was behind that window? The gas chamber. But what could I do? I couldn’t keep it since it was in such pain with no way to be cured. That was the only thing I could do.
So, with my own hands, I put a live dog into a gas chamber. Do I get bad karma for that? If I do, I don’t mind at all, because I couldn’t bear to see the suffering of that dog. That was my entire intention—to end his suffering.
So, it is not the action but the intention. My intention was not to bring any suffering to the dog. I would have done anything if I could have saved that dog and given him help. But the dog’s karma was that he had to die, and at the last moment I must carry him to the death chamber. That’s my karma. Somehow some past relationship existed. But I did not do my part with malice or anger; I was helpless.
I’ll give another example of how karma works. I was on a pilgrimage as a swami. The custom is that we wander penniless, begging food when hungry. I wanted to go to the Himalayas at about 15,000 or 16,000 feet, then Badrinath, with only one small blanket. I had never seen snow before in my life. I was barefoot and had no money because I had decided to go by begging, even though it is very difficult to get any food in those places.
Many pilgrims carried their own food. In those days there was no bus or anything, just a small, tiny path. Each day you walked about 15 or 20 miles and then rested and cooked a little food before continuing to walk until evening. But, as I didn’t have any food or money, I had to rely solely on begging in order to survive.
After walking a few days, hunger came more and more. One morning, when people started cooking their food, I climbed up to the nearby village to beg some food, but there were only very poor people so I came down without getting anything. I was lying under a tree. I had only my cloth and a blanket and a vessel. I was really hungry and tired. It was evening and I had to walk again without food. I was only 18 or 19 then.
As I was thinking that I must get up, an old pilgrim walked by. He saw a swami lying under a tree and he asked me, “Are you hungry? Do you want something?” “Yes, I am hungry. I want something.” Pilgrims usually carried only enough food for 30 days. He carried some dried beet fried in ghee and with sugar on it. He had just a certain amount, enough so that he can reach his destination and then come back, because there’s nothing to get on the route.
But from this small ration, he took some, carefully, and gave it to me. I put out my cloth and he put the food in there. I was so happy—something to eat and it smelled so wonderful, too.
Then I thought, “The sun is hot. Let me take a bath in the Ganges. Afterwards I can really enjoy the food.” So I left the food there on the shore in my cloth and jumped into the Ganges. After one dip I came out shivering. As I picked up my cloth, all the food fell out into the water.
Do you understand the suffering I went through? Food came to my hand, almost to my mouth. But my karma was that I could not eat. The pilgrim’s karma was to give me from his own rations. It doesn’t matter whether I am going to eat or not. That’s not his problem. He has to share his food with another hungry person. And he did this with all his heart. But my karma was there—I could not eat.
My karma was that I must have taken some food from someone’s mouth before, perhaps in a previous life. So I had to undergo the same suffering as I had created for another person. I did not share, so I suffered.
That evening I walked under painful conditions. I reached the next place where we were going to camp for the night. An old swami came and looked at me. He asked me, “Where do you come from?” “I come from Sivananda Ashram. I am going on a pilgrimage.” He took me by the hand as if he know me and led me to a small hut. There a sumptuous meal was waiting. After we ate, he said, “You cannot go alone; I will take you.” From then onwards, he fed me. So I must have also earned some good karma.
Actually, you do not know whether you are undergoing the present karma or the past karma, but you must know ethics and morals: every action has a reaction. Keep that in mind. Then you don’t have to worry. You do whatever you can.
Karma has brought me so many things. I’ve got ashrams in various places. I’ve got Paradise Island which has a private beach, and I’ve got yachts and boats and so forth. But none of them do I keep for my sake or in my name. I don’t have a penny. I will not keep any money in the bank in my name, nor will I keep a house or anything. If I did that while all these people are working without getting a penny, my karma would be so painful, like the lowest animal eating human flesh.
So your karma will work out. Your duty is only to love and serve. Don’t worry about good karma or bad karma. We don’t know whether we are making fresh karma or enjoying old karma. We don’t know. Then peace of mind will come.
Check out our 200-hour Yoga Alliance certified Yoga Teacher Training Courses offered twice a year in California, 3x in Vietnam, once in China and once in Japan.
Choose from upcoming courses for beginners and intermediate level students.
Rejuvinate your body and mind. Experience and progress with daily Yoga classes. Learn the 12 basic asanas and pranayama. Enjoy daily meditation, chanting, and organic vegetarian meals.
A Yoga vacation is an ideal getaway to change perspective towards one’s life and become healthier, more relaxed and connected.
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a film by Benoy Behl
We live amidst much turmoil and confusion in the modern world. The state of mental and physical health has deteriorated considerably.
It is estimated that in Europe 70% of all costs in the health system are because of chronic diseases like diabetes, health ailments, hypertension and osteoarthritis. There are hardly any permanent solutions to these from either medicinal therapy or surgery.
There is an ancient path which can lead us to health and happiness. It is Yoga.
It is believed that our true state is that of “sukha”, or eternal bliss. The purpose of Yoga is to free us from our turmoil and confusion. To liberate us from the shackles of our innumerable desires, which lead us nowhere at all. To awaken true knowledge within us. To help us to be in harmony, to be united with all that there is.
Sometimes we get mixed up and we don’t understand, we think Yoga is exercise, or sometimes we think it’s rituals, and sometimes we think it’s a religion, but in fact Yoga is a system of, we say of self-development, what that means, a system to control the mind in order for us to grow and rise in consciousness and in understanding of our true nature.
What’s happened in the western world is that we have been very good at pursuing the outer, material media based world, but we have lost our connections to a great extent with the inner world of consciousness and direct perception, so the great Yogis realized that the Yoga could be a great gift to the West.
So the spiritual path is a path of transformation from emotion to devotion, from egoism to selflessness, from restlessness to peace and contentment, and from ignorance to knowledge.
Veda is the knowledge and Yoga is the practice so yoga is woven in all the Vedic deities, mantras, rishis, practices and rituals. And we say that Yoga is the inner sacrifice, the inner ritual, which is offering of the inner divine forces, speech, mind and prana.
In the world today we have reached a stage of tremendous fragmentation, our language, our science is running after the particularized, we’ve reduced the human health to very complex chemicals, the question is how do we integrate our perception, how do we integrate our knowledge and how do we arrive at a holistic, totalistic understanding of who we are as individuals, of what the human being is, the nature of the universe, the nature of life,
And this is where Yoga comes in, because Yoga provides us an inner technology of the spirit, an inner technology of consciousness, an inner science of understanding ourselves so that we can directly perceive, and directly perceive who we are and what is the nature of reality behind all the glitter of appearances, whether through our senses or whether through the mass media.
Yoga takes us to awareness. True self-awareness. In Yoga you calm yourself. You see that you are less affected by the noise and turmoil of the outside world around you. We lead our lives controlled moment to moment by our bodies, by our emotions and by our minds. We do not really know what we are doing or why we are doing it. Yoga brings us to the moment in which we live. Gradually we become aware, first of our bodies and our breath. Yoga brings us to look at it, to control it. In that, the transformation has begun, we are becoming aware of ourselves.
From there we go to an awareness of the mind. Yoga and ancient Indian thought do not consider the mind to be consciousness itself. The mind is in many ways like our body. We have to see it, we have to be aware of it. Ancient texts point out that the mind is like a monkey which jumps about. It flits from thought to thought and we usually have no control over it. In Yoga we become aware of it. We step aside to become an observer. We see what the mind is doing. We are no longer carried away by the fluctuations of the mind.
The Sivananda organization of Swami Vishnudevananda is one of the best, if not the best as far as my opinion goes, Yoga groups in the world, particularly in the Western world because they teach the classical and integral tradition of Yoga, including Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Vedanta, and even the importance of devotion, rituals, Ayurveda, even the Jyotish or the Vedic astrology. They provide also a teaching in an ashram, Karma Yoga setting, where there is the emphasis on selflessness and inner giving, Yoga as a sadhana and not simply Yoga as an exercise or Yoga as a business.
Sivananda Yoga is a tradition that basically incorporates four paths of Yoga, it’s like synthesis of four paths of Yoga, it’s Karma Yoga which means selfless service to all human beings and all everything, all living beings basically. Then it’s Raja Yoga, it’s control of the mind, Hatha Yoga and Pranayama practice are part of Raja Yoga, then its Bhakti Yoga, it’s Yoga of devotion, that’s why we sing Bhajans here, that’s why we have altar and we have “murtis” and we express our devotion in this way. And also it’s Jnana Yoga, it’s the Yoga of knowledge, which is Advaita Vedanta, and this knowledge comes from Sankaracharya, it’s an ancient Saint, and our lineage, Sivananda lineage, it’s also one of the orders that Sankaracharya founded.
Swami Vishnudevananda created the five points of Yoga Life and based his teachings on this simple summary.
These five points of Yoga Life are discipline, proper exercises, asanas, proper breathing, pranayama, proper relaxation, savasana, proper diet, vegetarian food, positive thinking and meditation, Dhyana and Vedanta.
A lot of people practice Yoga, but they jump over the foundation of Yoga which is the two main practices of yama and niyama, what that means, it is the prescription of the yogis of things not to do, and things to do, that means the restrictions and the observances.
It’s interesting to note that classical Yoga never began with the asana, classical Yoga began first of all with yamas and niyamas which are the dharmic values of living in harmony with the universe, and the dharmic attitudes of having respect, honoring, being aware of the interconnectedness, the sacred nature of all life. So the asana is actually a means of helping us relax out of body consciousness, relax out of identification with ourselves with the body and being able to then open up with the greater currents of the eternal life and to create within us down to a physical level a place of peace, stillness and silence so that we can ground and hold a deeper perception.
Hatred, violence, greed, these are things that tend to crop up in human interactions, and you could say its natural in a sense because we are under the impression that we have to get for ourselves, and we want to be happy, and so following those impulses of self-preservation and seeking enjoyment and happiness we tend to become greedy and we tend to become violent and angry and many negative qualities come out, but I don’t think that these things are our natural state, meaning I think that if we can settle down into out true natural state we see that we would really rather be free from these negative qualities. I think our true natural state would be where we are completely at ease, completely peaceful.
My journey started 20 years ago at a stressful time in my life, and I had the idea that yoga would bring me some peace, but I did not realize how deep that peace would be, to start to feel that in your heart, that its love for the sake of love not specifically about a certain person or place, that deep love is so fulfilling, so beautiful and every day makes every day beautiful. You can access that peace at any moment, and that you can live in that peace, for more and more of your life, more and more time.
Before I found Yoga I was in the Marine corps for four years, 2004 to 2008, I spent 3 of those four years overseas, thirteen months of those in Iraq. In the marine corps or in the military you are trained to live in the, I guess the sympathetic nervous state where you are constantly on call, however though that must come to an end, and they do not teach you how to undo that wiring, you know you are wired, but after the traumatic experience of Iraq I just was not able to handle alcohol any more, but I didn’t know anything else, by then it was a deep rooted “samskara” and I just kept falling into the trap of alcohol It was a very tough battle.
Because alcohol poisons the body and mind, and it leaves you in a state where the only solution that you can see is more alcohol which is obviously the worst thing that you can do. I use Yoga to safely safeguard my addiction and to understand and embrace my addiction, but at the same time, to remove the veil of that I’m a victim of my addiction and that I can’t do or live a certain life, yoga has freed my bondage to the addiction, you are not tied to a pill, you are not running to a cabinet, you are not getting on the phone to a doctor, you are nor freaking out because you can’t find a certain physical item that you are using to aid yourself in relieving any pain or suffering that you may perceive, and be having at that time.
It is certainly a journey, it’s a journey every day, it is the process of accepting every moment as perfection and trying to find peace amidst a very unpeaceful mind.
The modern world is trying to follow through on the promise of ego satisfaction, all the way down the line, as far as it can possibly go, still hoping that at the end of this road there will be some final and perfect payoff, that if we continue to upgrade our phones, and continue to have higher definition video quality, and continue to have more and more convenient and delicious foods, whether they are nutritious or not, that somehow at the end of the day all of this sensory experience will lead to a lasting state of satisfaction, and we just haven’t figured out how to stop, or when to stop, or how to look in a different direction, and this is entirely the promise of yoga practice.
When you do asanas your mind becomes focused, and when mind becomes focused it becomes still, and when mind is still there is no desire in it and when there is no desire you attain happiness. It’s all about mind, and controlling the mind. It’s very hard when your mind is running like a wild horse, unwilling to follow any discipline, and it’s very tough to gently rule, to gently take over it and make it listen to you, to make it follow what you would like it to do.
Yoga beautifully brings people back into their bodies, and it’s to that aspect of Yoga I really attribute its stunning success in the last 20 years. It also provides people a connection with the breath, and the breath has an amazing capacity to bring healing. Swami Vishnudevananda came and shared a life and shared a way of life not defined by one ideology or another ideology, but suggesting to people that they can find happiness within, that they can find calm within, that through the stabilization of the mind the world can be made a wonderful place. That this interiority was a message very much needed.
One of the great blights of contemporary society is a sense of purposelessness, what is this human life in terms of purpose, and with our consumer society, which can be quite glamorous, we can feel fulfilment if we have this style, and what yoga does is it says step it down, go back to the essentials, go back to your breath, go back to your body, because whether you are wearing yoga pants or whether you are wearing a sarong, or whether you are wearing a three piece suit, you are breathing, your body is there,
Your subjectivity creates this relationship with the world, and that rather than seeing the world as something without meaning, rather than seeing the world as simply something to be defined through our consumer choices, if we can feel and recover that sense of intimacy between self and world, then we’ll have a sense of purpose. Now that means that each individual is given an opportunity, whether collecting garbage, whether washing the dishes in the kitchen, whether driving whatever automobile, that person is given the responsibility of being accountable to immediacy, and finding a path, finding a way to see purpose, to see meaning in the most simple and in the most everyday. All dharma is to be found in every single job, and if we can recall that sense of purpose then we are going to move out of states of alienation and into states of interconnectivity.
I spent six years in the United States Marine Corps, as an infantry officer in the J-Tech, went to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Veterans’ administration I have an 80% disability rating for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Before I came to the Yoga farm I was very angry and unhappy about my station in life, and I did not treat myself or others well.
Coming to the Yoga Farm has been an extremely rewarding experience because I’ve learned a philosophy, or I’ve started to learn a philosophy about life which gives me hope.
Years ago when I started to practice regularly I could really feel that each morning that I practice I can deal with whatever comes during the day easily, so by these practices you connect yourself to something higher, to some guidance and to some great intelligence that comes through the mind. In Israel Yoga is very popular, and I will not be surprised if in Israel we will have the largest number of teachers per population.
A lot of need for Yoga in Japan, because in Japan after second world war spirituality or even religion is quite diminished, so many people got lost. What is the purpose of life? We feel like we are becoming machine, and we start to feel we don’t have much creativity and things, and no place express our feeling, and yoga is a way to bring us slowly back to our feet on the ground again.
The Vietnamese they work very hard, the Vietnam war is just finished like 40 years ago, more than 40 years ago, and now we are try to improve our country, try to improve ourselves, and I am the first generation of the Vietnamese after the war, and we very happy, we don’t have to worry about food, about the war any more, but still, they had the idea that they had to work really hard to improve their life, to improve their children’s life, but, because they are rush and hurry, so there are a lot of stress, and they try to maintain their culture as well, and they try to adapt to new culture of new modern life. I think Yoga is very important for myself it is a way how I can find my peace, find myself, as well as I can help other people, it improves the consciousness or the peace, the happiness in myself, and try to cultivate it in other people as well.
I came here and I did my TTC in 1983, so four days I was with him, and he advised me go back to Iran, start teaching Yoga, and now the people they need peace of mind and happiness, and the Yoga shows. So six months later I just left India and went to Iran, and started teaching the Yoga and day by day people became more interested of the Yoga, in even small city of Iran nowadays there is a Yoga center.
I am an actress from Sri Lanka, film actress, I have worked in more than 100 films. Yoga changed my life completely, when I was acting actually my entire life was in such a big pain, because as everyone knows, acting is “maya”, we always try to hide our real self behind our make-up, behind our clothing, behind our money, behind cars, everything, we are running for all those things and without trying to focus into ourselves, and find the true nature of our selves. I was like inside that “maya”, suffering so much, you will not believe that I tried to commit suicide seven times, because I couldn’t take it anymore. Then I had such a big knee problem, I even could not walk properly, and then one of my friends told me why don’t you do Yoga. When I was young I did yoga and I never knew the value of Yoga, but because of my knee pain I came here, and then within two weeks, you know, I was feeling good.
Googlers as a community embrace all the kind of things that Yoga philosophy talks about, how to take care of your body, your brain, your mind, so that you can function better and as a result bring out better products and services. For Hatha Yoga, asana practice, just at the google headquarters itself there are 37 classes a week, and then if you add all the other yoga classes that take place, asana classes that take place across all of our offices, New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Sao Paolo, it probably exceeds 100 classes or so every single week. But that is just asana practice, there is also a very popular meditation practice at Google, and it being a search company, the practice is amusingly and delightfully called “Search Inside Yourself”, and the “Search Inside Yourself” program is actually the most popular training program at Google, with a long wait-list. That juxtaposition and coming together of an ancient practice, a 1600 year-old practice, in the midst of an organization and technology and a movement that is much more recent, I find it delightful.
I used to be a flight attendant, for seven years, and it was a very glamorous lifestyle where I really enjoyed traveling to different places, meeting new people, understanding culture, experiencing the food and everything, but I always felt deep inside my heart that there was something like an essence that was missing, and Yoga definitely taught me how to be centered, like in control of myself, my feelings, I felt like coming into yoga and practicing it every day, not only the asanas but also the philosophy, its lifestyle, really helped me become grounded and understand my true nature.
I was previously working as a medical doctor, for nine years I worked in hospital practices, and I came to a realization that, the most useful thing I could do for people was actually just to listen to people and to be present for people, to let them share and express themselves, that was much more meaningful and useful I thought than necessarily prescribing tablets and pills, so I recognized I didn’t need to do that, I didn’t need to be sitting in a hospital to do that, and at that point in my life many things were changing, and that’s when I came in to the Yoga field, so I feel here in this area I am able to listen to people and share useful information with people, which has helped me and I see is helping other people automatically, and I think the strength of this organization is that it focuses on basic lifestyle practices, it empowers people right from the ground upwards.
The big health insurance organizations are paying for Yoga and meditation instruction now. Yoga and meditation practices have been recognized as effective and have become accepted and part of the mainstream. Yoga is now part of American culture and is here to stay. In the future it will become more and more accepted. This is very important now, because we are at a time in history when these practices are very much needed. The world is now so fast paced and stressful, with so much constant sensory input. People need to have methods to attain inner peace. It’s very, very important that these methods are available to us, to find refuge in our own homes, or in our neighborhood Yoga studio.
Yoga takes us back to who we really are. Among all the noise and clamor of the material world, it takes us to the peace which we can find within ourselves, to a stillness, to a state which is described in the Yoga Sutras as “citta vrtti nirodhah”, a state in which the constant fluctuations of the mind have been stilled, a state in which we have gained mastery over ourselves. When we learn to observe ourselves, the outside world no longer has control over us. Good health and happiness are the natural outcome. At the end of the path of self-transformation is the reward of true knowledge, when we would truly know our oneness with all that there is, the state of Yoga.
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