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Dec. 1 Conference Notes

by Joumana Saber  The shala was so packed yesterday during conference and there were so many people stranding in line to register. Most of them were visiting Mysore for the first time! How exciting... except, this means the shala is going to be very busy during practice and some people will be starting at 9:00am and 9:15am! Yesterday's conference was wonderful - I enjoyed every bit of it and was so happy to sit in the front row. I got to record the whole conference and the audio file was very clear, so I didn't struggle to listen to it and type down most (if not all) of what Sharath-ji said. The reason I want to write down what was said in conference as was said is so that I can give you, beautiful readers, the same beautiful experience I had when attending conference. I definitely will miss this Sunday routine. I hope you enjoy what you're about to read. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment box below!

In the Bhagavad Gita, 18 chapters talk about yoga. So yoga is not new; it's not new to us. How many people think yoga started 50-60 years back, or even 80 years back? But when did yoga start? When the creator created this universe, that's when yoga started also. So there is no records that when it started. Nobody knows when this creation started, so there is no date.

Parampara: Krshna said: I taught it to Vivasan, and Vivasan to Manu (Bhagavad Gita 4.1).This has come from parampara. Parampara means from a guru to a shishya – Guru-shishya parmpara – from a teacher to a student. Now everybody is a guru, a yoga guru (students laugh). Guru is the man who transforms or changes you. As I told many times: Gu means darkness, rumeans dispeller. So darkness dispeller is a guru. So who removes all the ignorance in us and takes us towards the brightness is a guru. So that kind of a guru I am talking; a guru who can remove all the obstacles in us and give us the proper knowledge, that is call (?). Once all the obstacles and illusions in us are destroyed, then the real jnana (knowledge) will come to us – the yogic knowledge. So this kind of guru-parampara prapti,comes from parampara – the lineage – guru and shishya, like this it has come… not through videos, not through books. You get hundreds of videos: ekam, dve, trini you see gone to handstand (students laugh)… so, not through these kinds of videos. Without guru-parampara, it is impossible for the knowledge to transfer to you. Only it is possible when you spend more time with your guru and try to obey his instructions. So then only the knowledge will flow to you. 

I know there’s lots of a change (perhaps he meant difference) between the west and here in Asian culture. In the West, you always thought you have to compete with your guru. But here you have to surrender to your guru for the knowledge to come to you. Different culture. But for this yoga to follow, it is very important to surrender to your guru. Many times especially when we are doing asanas, sometimes thoughts will come within you “why should I listen to my guru? Why should I bend/break my body? Why should I feel/be in lots of pain?” These kinds of aversion will happen for everyone. I have told this story many times. Everyday I used to do so much back bending with Guruji. My challenge was doing my practice and lifting students. So, it was a big challenge because there’s lots of pressure on your body. There’s lots of pain that will go through your body. When you are doing your practice, many asanas will make you flexible. Here, you have to lift many students so many times I used to get back pain. Now also I have back pain (Sharath laughs). Most of the time it is because of lifting too many students I got back pain, not because of doing my practice. Practice is still holding my body. So I had a lower back pain once and Guruji came to help me. He was very close to me. He used to stand very close to you in back bending so you are trapped, you can’t escape. As usual, he came in back bending and he trapped me (everyone laughs). I used to call him appa – my father. I said “appa today I think I want to skip back bending”. He said “oh don’t worry, just go”. And I (Sharath laughs) just surrendered to my guru. I just went. That was the best practice I ever had. Instantly he had so much energy that I didn’t feel any pain. So because that was the trust I had in him. I think he had so much energy in him. So he was the real Guru. You can feel the energy. Many years spending time with him, the knowledge started to flow slowly. That’s how I am able to teach you all now. So this is how the yoga should come to each one of you. There are 100s of books now about yoga. Most of them, 95% of them are crap (loud laughter fills the room). They write books about how you should jump back, how you should jump through. So much attention is given to these things and nobody is giving attention to the fundamental things of yoga. How you should behave, how you should react. Like yama Niyamas – the sub limbs of yoga – the limbs and sub limbs of yoga. Nobody is putting attention on that. That is what makes our spiritual foundation strong.

Asana is very important, but we should understand why it is so important. Coming back to Bhagavad gita, I don’t know how many of you has read Bhagavad gita. It’s a very big and very nice book to study and gain some knowledge about yoga. As time passed away, said Krshna, people started to forget about yoga. He’s telling to Arjuna, his devotee and his friend, as you being my devotee and a friend, I’m going to teach you this sacred practice. And it is the supreme knowledge; it’s not just ordinary. We shouldn’t take yoga as ordinary. Yoga is very supreme. It’s bigger than us. It’s a really nice verse, which I really like. Many people think if you jump with straight legs through, it means they’re big yogis, if you’re able to do handstand, it means you’re a big yogi. Please don’t keep all these in your mind. Yoga is beyond this, beyond just doing handstand. That is only to bring good health and stability to the body and mind. Without that stability, it is impossible to reach higher levels of yoga. If your mind and body are not stable, how can you think about chitta vrtti nirodha? So that is also very important how you control your body. If you keep on doing back bending, if you keep on doing handstand, there is no control of your body.

If you have any questions, you can ask me. I know many of you like asking questions!

Q&A

Q: Does the guru choose the next successor in this lineage?

A: Unfortunately, this parampara it doesn’t happen like that. That happens only when you have an ashram, when you have a different kind of guru-parampara lineage, like Shankaracharya. Like this, they chose next successor. Which is one good thing here is whoever has the knowledge, whoever had done the sadhana properly. It’s not about the success of the person, it is about the success of yoga, you should think. There is no particular successor; it’s the success of the yoga. Each one of you follow this, each one of you will be a successor of yoga. You know what I mean? We can only feel this yoga; you can realize yoga, you can’t control yoga, you can’t copyright yoga, you can’t cage yoga and say, “this is mine”. So here, I think everybody is a successor of yoga, whoever practicing here are all successors of this lineage, of this yoga. If you don’t do it properly, you’re not a successor… simple as it is. Because yoga will be there – yoga doesn’t need us, we need yoga. Why yoga? To get good health, to get peace of mind... If you want to go deeper in this practice and you can, the realization will happen, you’ll gain higher consciousness.

Two children is difficult, 2 gurus is difficult.

Q: Can you speak about the 6 enemies of Ashtanga yoga?

A: Why with every question you add “Ashtanga yoga”? What is Ashtanga yoga? Ashtanga yoga is 8 limbs – which Patanjali wrote. In Bhagavad Gita it doesn’t say only Ashtanga yoga, it says Bhakti yoga, Gyaana Yoga… everyone who does yoga or not has 6 enemies: lust, anger, attraction, pride, greed, and jealousy. So it’s not in Ashtanga, it’s in humans. It comes with you, with birth. You have to apply yoga to get rid of that. The sadhana dharma is how to get rid of these 6 enemies. It is like when you go to a coral reef, a pearl is covered with a shell, it is covered with one shell. But here our pearl, which is inside, it is covered with 6 shells. Through your practice, you should break down all these shells (6 enemies), all these shells are covering so that you are not able to realize the inner pearl which you have, the beauty which you have within you. So once we break down all these shells through our practice, through our spiritual practice, through our asana practice, through our yama/Niyama practice, then we can realize what it is, what’s the true nature of our self. For that, you have to do lots of hard work. It doesn’t come that easily. By getting authorized you won’t get it, by doing someone’s workshop you won’t get it, you have to think yourself through what you have learned you should try to understand the yoga properly and try to apply that in our daily life. That is why Guruji used to say 99% practice 1% theory. Many people, many students misunderstood him. They started practicing asanas everywhere – in the morning, in the evening, they went to the beach, they did asana. They went to the swimming pool and did asana. By reading Bhagavad Gita or by reading Patanjali Yoga Sutras or by reading vedas, or Hatha Yoga Pradipika, you won’t get enlightened. Only when you apply that practically in your life, when you lead a spiritual life within you, then only you will understand what yoga is. The transformation happens only then. Until then, it becomes only physical practice. Don’t ask me next I’m walking, “are you walking Ashtanga yoga?” I’m just walking.

Q: Is realization something that you achieve and have forever, or is it something that comes from time to time and builds on itself?

A: It depends how you work. You should work on it. Once you work on it, if you work enough to get that, it’ll stay forever. If you work for little bit, then it’ll go away. Now, the blood is circulating in our body. You’re doing or it’s just happening? Are you making the blood circulate? Are you pumping the heart for your blood to circulate? It’s just happening, right? Consciously and unconsciously it’s just happening. So when you work on yoga properly, the enlightenment just happens like that. You should work towards that for that to happen. Now you are eating healthy food, you’re doing exercise. You do only that much, and the blood circulation just happens. If you don’t eat food, there is no enough nourishment to your body and mind. The blood won’t circulate because it’s not producing blood in your body. But if you work towards enlightenment and follow all the, if you have proper understand of yoga and apply all the limbs and sub limbs in our daily life, when we change our lifestyle, our attitude, everything… like for example yamas and Niyamas are so beautifully said, how we should follow ahimsa, asteya, satya, brahmacharya… once we apply all these things, automatically yoga will happen. We can’t do yoga, it should happen within you. So once it happens, it doesn’t go that easy. It becomes part of you. Once you are single, once you have a baby, you can’t throw away the baby, it becomes part of you, part of your life. Is it not true? It’s like that for me! There are people that have been single for so many years, then they have a baby and it becomes part of them and it’ll be there. My daughter will be my daughter forever until I die. My son will be my son forever. So once we get this yoga, first it’s difficult to… I think getting a child is easier than getting yoga… once it comes to you, it’ll stay with you forever because that becomes your life. It becomes your breath. For me, yoga is my breath. My yoga is my heartbeat. Wherever I am, I do my yoga practice. I always think. Yoga doesn’t come by watching videos or reading books, it doesn’t come like that. That is sadhana. Sadhaka, a practitioner… Sadhaka is more than a practitioner who has this yoga within him, so then it becomes part of him, part of his life. Then that will stay forever. If I had practiced yoga to become famous, then it would have been differently. As soon as I got famous, my purpose would have been… my purpose of doing yoga is one day I’ll realize, the self-realization will happen. So it’s lifelong. Sadhana is lifelong. You can’t say 10 years you did yoga, I am a master… you can’t say like that. Yoga is lifelong. When I was 19 years old, when I started with my grandfather, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just bending the body. Body also was not bending; I had to work on that. But I just did, I didn’t know what I was doing… I was just doing. But the understanding, the knowledge of yoga that I have now, I did not have before. That came only through sadhana, through experiencing so many things. My friends always used to call me crazy. I’m getting up at 2 o’clock (morning). There’s one gentleman here, he didn’t believe me, he came at 2:30 to watch my practice. It’s happened to many people. “Oh really, you get up at 2 o’clock? That is when we are going to bed”.

Q: How is your practice?

A: My practice… asana practice or yoga practice? A student says “asana”. Asana practice is going, but yoga practice is even stronger than before. Are you confused? Asana practice is only for 2 hours everyday, but yoga practice is for 24 hours.

Q: When a woman is trying to conceive, do you recommend that she change practice at all?

A: If you have any difficulty, otherwise just practice. Be conscious.

Q: Can you talk about the other limbs and how we should practice them?

A: You concentrate on first 3 limbs for now: yama, niyama, asana. Don’t worry about pranayama because that is a totally different subject. If you concentrate on these three things and when you’re ready, pranayama, the other 4 limbs will happen because these things are external practices (first 4), next 4 happen internally. Once we correct first 4 limbs, the other 4 limbs will automatically happen. When everything becomes one in your experience, now there are 2 things: me and other. Is it not true? When everything becomes one in your experience, you’re not different from anything else, that is Pratyahara. When that is established properly within you, that becomes Dharana. When it stays with you, then you go to Dhyana. So it is all one after the other. Then, you know in the end you go to Samadhi, when you’re disturbed by anything… that is the state of yoga. We are not yogis, but when we read that state/stage (Samadhi), we become yogis. So we are just yoga practitioners, yoga sadhakas. We are trying. 

Q: Now, thousands, maybe millions, of people are practicing Ashtanga yoga. Do you think Ashtanga yoga has the potential to change the world?

A: If you do it in proper way, definitely it will change. As I told you, most of it has become fancy now. Ashtanga yoga has become fancy. Many people they say “oh, Ashtanga yoga”, but there is nothing to do with the source of Ashtanga yoga – how it started, how it was projected. Since it became very famous, everybody is using (the term) Ashtanga yoga: “I practice Ashtanga yoga”. That means they’re practicing asanas. Definitely, if you have proper knowledge of Ashtanga yoga and if you apply that in your daily life, definitely it can change this world. Once we follow ahimsa (non-violence), there will be no violence in this world! Is it not a change? Remove everything… you’re rich, you’re poor; just remove everything in this world. We’re all humans; try to respect each other. If you’re hurting someone else, try to think you are hurting yourself. These kinds of thoughts can change us. If you practice yoga in a proper way and meaningfully practice by adapting these things, definitely there will be change. You will see others in a different way. Now you’ll see so much forests are destroyed everywhere, but who is destroying? In India, there was 80% forest and only 20% was urban area and villages. Now, it’s the opposite – only 10% forest is there. It’s like that in every country, not just in India. In the whole world, we are destroying nature. So what are we destroying? We are destroying ourselves. Each of us needs 1 hector of forestland to breathe properly and get oxygen. If we don’t get enough oxygen, our mind will be distracted and unstable. Breath controls the mind, the mind control the body. That’s why if you see in the olden days, all the yogis used to go to the forest to do Dhyana, to get higher consciousness and get peace of mind – there’s no disturbance. That’s why I like to go to the forest all the time! In big cities, especially, people are so angry. There’s no patience. When you come to Mysore, you’re very calm! If you go to a small village, people are so calm… there’s no rush. Everybody’s rushing in big cities. Everybody’s running behind fame, behind money, behind so many things. Don’t run behind them, fame and money should run behind you. My grandfather is a big example. This story inspired me a lot; it will be there till I die. Guruji got so famous. One student came to register with Guruji. He was sitting as usual, reading the newspaper… she came and touched Guruji: “Oh Guruji, so nice to meet you! You’re so famous all over the world, everybody’s talking about you!” He said “Oh ok, really? Me, famous?!” then he goes back to reading his newspaper. Many things like that which inspired me… whenever he used to see a child, he would become like a child. He used to offer chocolates to the babies. One time, there were 5 or 6 babies that used to come to the shala and look for Guruji, because he used to give them chocolate.

Q: If people are struggling financially to travel to India, is there a way to study yoga?

A: Yes, definitely. They can apply for a scholarship and come study at KPJAYI, but they have to work for the shala or do some social work. You can go to a school and teach yoga. We've been teaching yoga regularly at one primary school. Through K Pattabhi Jois Trust, we are teaching yoga. We want to expand to other schools also when we have more scholarship students and teach yoga.

Q: How do I accept within myself, and how do my husband and family back home accept, that I come here for 2 months every year? I know the value in it, but I don't know how to fully accept it.

A: Your husband should accept it. If someone is doing a teacher training, people will spend $2,500 - $5,000 just to get that certificate. I did a workshop in America and there was someone doing a teacher training and so many people signed up for it. He was charing $2,500 - $5,000 for 10 days. What do you say about this? First, your husband should encourage you and look after the children while you go and study. I leave my children and go many months teaching. Every year I can do teaching training, it's easy, but I want to spread the message of yoga. I want everyone to practice and realize what it is, and try to apply that to daily life and try to transform yourself. Once you practicing yoga, you become a different and better person; you become a good parents, a good wife to your husband... he also has to understand that. Is your husband practicing? (She answers, no) That's the problem! (She says he practices yama and niyama) One day, asana. It's like masala dosa - if you don't have all the ingredients, you won't get the proper taste. Like pizza: when I went to Italy, I was eating so much pizza - it's the only foreign food I eat! If you miss one ingredient in the pizza, you won't get the same taste. In Italy, pizza is different - it's not like the pizza you eat here... pizza is Italian. Like yoga now - forest yoga power yoga... this is nonsense. Italian pizza is the real pizza! I'm not saying you have to go to Italy to eat it. If you to America, India, or any other country, you can make pizza if you use the same, the proper, ingredients.


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