By Yogacharya Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani
Dr. Ananda is one of our new guest writers. He is the chairman of the ICYER (International Centre for Yoga Education and Research) Ananda Ashram in Pondicherry, India. You can find more information about him in our guest writer post or on his websites: www.icyer.com, www.rishiculture.org
Dr. Ananda
There is a modern trend found everywhere nowadays. It seems like anyone who just attends a Yoga class can call themselves a yogi. There was even a recent article that said matter of fact, “Those who practice Yoga are known as Yogis”. Many years ago, Swamiji and Ammaji were returning after a long world tour and decided to make a list of the ten top yogic personalities they had met on that long tour. At the end of the whole exercise, it was most surprising to find that not even one of the top ten were “practicing yogis”!!
Traveling all over the globe in recent years has given me the privilege of experiencing both the similarities and dissimilarities between the East and the West. I grew up in the Ananda Ashram and having been exposed to students belonging to a multitude of nationalities I thought I knew all about them. Yet, I have now realized, one needs to experience a dolphin in the water and not on the dry ground if one is to know it truly. I have also come to know that many sharks abound too!
I have also had the chance to be “up to date” on all modern Yoga news thanks to the numerous Yoga journals that come to us from every part of the globe in exchange for Yoga Life, the wonderful monthly journal of our ashram that is now in its 42nd year of publication under the excellent editorship of Ammaji. The general impression one gets from most Yoga magazines is that the west is only interested in the physical aspects of Yoga or take to it as a fancy that lasts not too long. I have however found that my experiences in the west have been quite different! I have found that there are many sincere seekers who desire the ‘real thing’ and some who have imbibed Yoga into their very essence.
Dr. Ananda
Generally Indians seem to have Yoga built into their genes whether they know of it or not. Scratch any Indian and you will find a Yogi hidden inside. However we take our cultural heritage for granted and will not appreciate ‘that’ which is right in front of us. We lack a sense of discipline and easily fall back on the crutch of ‘it’s my karma’. On the other hand, I find western Yoga students more disciplined and capable of greater intellectual analytical understanding. Yet, they are handicapped by the lack of a typical Indian understanding of universal connective-ness and don’t have the benefit of cultural concepts that have been around for thousands of years. Ultimately a good student transcends every barrier and every limitation and I have wonderful students and members of my Yoga family from every corner of the globe today.
Dr. Ananda
A few years ago I was invited to present at the International Yoga Therapy Conference in the USA and had the chance to interact with great American Yoga teachers such as Larry Payne, Rama Jyothi Vernon and the eminent researcher Dr Sat Bir Singh Khalsa. It was also a pleasure to meet the famous personalities of Yoga such as Mukunda Stiles, Nina Priya and Amy Weintraub who are amazing human beings. I had one of those very special astonishing experiences during the first panel presentation when Larry Payne who was to speak got up from the panel and invited me to come and take his place and share my views instead. I was blown off my feet with that magnanimous gesture that I would have never expected anywhere in the world and it was happening right here in the USA! Larry set the stage for a successful conference with that heartfelt gesture that I will treasure for my whole life. I hope that I will be able to do the same for others in the future as it propelled me to do my best in all ways possible. All in all I can only describe my American experience as a magical one that enabled me to see that there are sincere people on the Yoga path willing to see the grandness of Yoga.
I was also recently invited to be major presenter at the “Reunion in Yoga”- IYTA World Yoga Convention held at Sydney, Australia in September 2010 with nearly 200 delegates attending the convention held after a gap of 13 years. It was something special to note that previous such special invitees have been Swami Satyananada Saraswathi, Swami Gitananda Giri, Swami Satchitananda, BKS Iyengar, Andre Van Lysbeth, Lilias Folan, Howard Kent, Mansukh Patel and Swami Maheshwarananda. It was a truly lovely experience to meet and interact with so many loving souls who were motivated by the ‘real thing’.
Dr. Ananda
Personally it was such an honor to be invited as the Major Presenter at the convention and share the stage with eminent personalities representing Yoga ‘down under’. It was indeed a pleasure to meet and interact and exchange views with such loving people like Wendy Bachelor, Leigh Blashki, Louise Wiggins, Margo Hutchison, Trish Brown, Michael de Manincor, Anne Nakhoda and Mary- Louise Parkinson. We met so many wonderful people and the love, respect and attentiveness of all participants moved us greatly. It was a joy to share with such human beings and, ‘Do your best and leave the rest” became a household word for us all.
What I have understood from all these experiences is that there are sincere Yogis and Yoga Sadhakas everywhere in the world and that we must not label the East or West either as good or bad. Instead we need to work on imbibing the best of the East and the best of the West in a true yogic integration.
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