Why oh why I go to an ashram?

You ask me why I go to an ashram? I don’t expect that you will completely understand but I will do my best to explain. This portal takes you to the place where you can, if you dare, if you trust, experience the absolutely best version of yourself. It’s a place where your heart expands to the size of the universe itself and you have a visceral experience of what the potential of the human experience is…

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Learn to Adjust

We all have our own understanding, our own ideas, our own theories as to what yoga is and what role it plays in our life; however, I prefer that we do not understand yoga in its traditional way, rather let us look at the various components of our life and how yoga can help us harmonize and balance those components which create some kind of restriction in the expression of human creativity.

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Yoga Academy North America
Beyond the Mind

You must observe your desires and the source from which they arise. After all, to put an end to something you have to know where it resides, what it looks like, how it behaves and how it occurs.

The root of desire is attachment, which springs from raga, or intense liking. The opposite of raga is dwesha, or intense dislike. Although they appear opposite, raga and dwesha are actually two sides of the same coin. They always co-exist together. Where one exists, you are sure to find the other.

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Growing with the ‘Ities’

There are two kinds of yoga. One is the classical yoga in which we practise and advance in asana, pranayama, yama, niyama, pratyahara, dharana, and so on. The other is the yoga of Swami Sivananda, which is expressive yoga, and its main theme is service.

As long as we follow the aims of classical yoga, yoga remains a process to be perfected. But if we follow the yoga of Sivananda, yoga becomes a lifestyle. When our life begins to express yoga, yoga no longer remains a one-hour practice to be done once a day. It becomes an attitude and awareness with which we live 24 hours of the day. At this stage, yoga enables us to express greater creativity and participation in the world.

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True Humility

Humility is the hallmark of a great human being. It is the highest virtue.

From the respect and consideration for others that arose through our effort to adapt, adjust and accommodate to the various situations, we have become more humble. When we say, “Oh, you can do that much better than I,” although, we are feeling that we could do a better job, we put on a show of humility.

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Guru Tattwa

The Guru Tattwa signifies the guru element. This element exists in each one of us and is known as the inner guru. This inner guru is the witness of all that you do in your life, silently guiding you on the path to knowledge of the higher Self.

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Yoga: A Way of Life

Whilst Yoga has undergone changes in understanding, the tradition of Yoga itself has not changed. Today we are still doing the same practices as Patanjali, without any modifications. We are still doing the same Hatha Yoga practices that sages Gorakhnath, Matsyendranath, Swatmarama and the literature talk about as they were practised thousands of years ago. The only change that has taken place is in our way of living, our way of knowing and perceiving things.

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Twin Laws of Life

Video by Kapil Agrawal discussing the Twin Laws of Life found in the relationship between prana (vital life force) and the mind (mental force).

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Yoga and Heartbreak

Most of us have experienced heartbreak. My first was during adolescence. It was unpleasant enough that for nearly 23 years I avoided the word ‘love’ and resisted developing serious, sincere, and committed relationships for the same period; including that of guru-discipleship…

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What is Trauma? And how can yoga help?

If I were to ask you what Trauma is, what would you say?

There’s a common belief that trauma comes from something “big” or “dramatic.” A war, a natural disaster, a sexual assault, or a pandemic. And indeed, all of those can be traumatic events.

But as a Somatic Experiencing (TM) Practitioner, I can tell you that trauma also comes from events that are more subtle, unseen; even experiences we might brush over as “normal”. A routine medical procedure, neglect, emotional blackmailing, an illness, a move to a new location, or a rupture in a core relationship.

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Our firsts— of anything— are strong imprints

When I ask people where and when they took their first yoga class, I almost always get a smile followed by a detailed answer.

Our firsts— of anything— are strong imprints.

My first yoga class story is filled with “firsts” of many things. Firsts that forever changed my life’s course in ways I could never have imagined.

I went to my first yoga practice on my 3rd day in Nepal, nearly 25 years ago. It was 1996. I was fresh out of university with a degree in biochemistry. Waiting to begin a post with the Peace Corps in Algeria, I had wanted to get experience in public health and had surprisingly—or karmically— landed a 4-month volunteer position with Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, in Nepal. My task was to set up a laboratory in Kathmandu so that we could conduct on site testing for a micronutrient study in women and children’s health.

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Yoga Academy North America
An Ocean of Peace

So long as a baby has a pacifier in their mouth, they are happy and peaceful. Take it away, and you may immediately observe crying, kicking and unhappiness. We all know that in time, with the natural course of growth, the baby will reach a point when that pacifier is no longer needed for a sense of comfort or security. A state of greater independence is reached…

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Spiritual and Religious Struggle: My Encounter with Yoga

From early age, I had a precautious spiritual yearning. Raised as a Catholic and living in Venezuela, a country where most of the population was Catholic at that time, and most the social and political values were intertwined with this religion, I did not have the opportunity of exposure of the awakening of the Eastern practices that were influencing people of the Western world on the early 1970’s …

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Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, there was a man who, through of a chain of unfortunate events, found that he had nothing to eat.

He decided to swallow his pride and beg for food.

He went to his neighbor’s house and presented a tin cup, the only cup he had, which his neighbor graciously filled it with rice.

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Walking the Walk… Karma Yoga in Action

So here I am… the new interim president of the Yoga Academy of North America. How did this happen? How does it all happen?

One day I am a mom of three, married, living the middle class “American dream”. And now I am a single, empty nester living on my own, traveling to India annually, alternating my given name with my spiritual name and helping to serve my spiritual tradition by trying to foster the Satyananda yoga community in North America.

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The Neuroanatomy of Opposites in Yoga Nidra

During the stage of opposites during yoga nidra, the practitioner generates a sensation from within, rather than reacting to sensations from the environment. This deepens pratyahara and strengthens the power of the witness, and the power of the will.

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Giving as a Yogic Practice

The holiday season is coming and for many this is a time of gift giving and anxiety about the whole process of gift giving.  Amid marketing and retail craziness take time to look at how you practice giving.  The ability to give without ego and attachment can be a yoga practice, making you a better yogi. 

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Yoga Academy North America