“If people see something good in you, let them learn from you.”

One evening at satsang during Teacher Training we had the opportunity to ask Sri Gurudev two questions we hoped would ensure our success as Yoga teachers.

“What are the most important qualities for a Yoga teacher to develop?” Sri Gurudev did not hesitate a moment. “Humility,” he said, “learn from your students. You should think everyone is your teacher and you are the only student.”

What are the most important gifts we can give to our students?” Sri Gurudev replied, “You can give nothing to your students. Remember that you are still learning. The most important thing you can do is to be a good Yogi and to set an example in your own life.”

Humility, selfless service and being a good example were themes Sri Gurudev often discussed in talks with new Yoga teachers. He shared the following thoughts about teaching at various graduation satsangs:

“The best teaching is by example. That is the advice I always give to the graduates. Our life must be one that is dedicated to the welfare of the entire creation. You live for the sake of others. That’s what you call a dedicated life. You have prepared yourself here. We are here to prepare ourselves to serve. In service we don’t expect any remuneration. If it comes to you, accept it. Don’t share for money or for anything but the joy of sharing. There’s a great joy in giving, in sharing and caring and not expecting anything in return. That’s what we learn from the Bhagavad Gita: ‘Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana.’ You are born to serve but not to expect the result of it, the fruit of it.

“No tree eats its own fruit. Every tree brings forth fruit and offers it to others. What a dedicated life we learn from the trees, the plants, and the animals because that is nature. Nature’s law is not to live for yourself but for others. That should be our nature. Other species live for the sake of others. That’s why they don’t need scriptures; they don’t need religions; they don’t need Raja Yoga courses. They don’t have to meditate because they live that life.

“But for whom are all these teachings, scriptures, dogmas and rituals? Only for this species: the human beings. It’s we who have forgotten that life. That’s why there are thousands of approaches and ways of teaching humans this lesson of not living for yourself, but dedicating your life to others. So, you have prepared yourself in Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. In samadhi you are in super consciousness. The scriptures call it jagrat sushupti. That means awakened sleep. Sleep without sleeping. Do without doing. Act without acting.

“You should ultimately learn this trick of doing without doing. That is accomplished only when you clean up your mirrors well. Make the mirror completely pure and steady, like a crystal, and then you will know who you are. You will know who you are if the mind is cleaned well and stabilized well. With a steady, clean, colorless mind, you, the real you, will see yourself. Then you realize your pure ‘I,’ the pure Atman. With that vision you see everything as that pure Atman appearing as many. Only then does your vision become spiritual vision because you have understood yourself as the pure spirit, and from that you see everything.

“So to achieve this knowledge of the Self, Self‑realization, the only way is to keep the mind clean. That’s why the second sutra of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras says, ‘Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah.’ The restraint of the modifications of the mind ‑stuff is Yoga. That is the real Yoga. All other things are steps, aids, to help you to get into this space. Let the chitta be pure. That is the aim of Yoga.

“Yoga should help us to really know who we are and who others are, what everything is made of essentially. So if we keep this truth, this reality, in mind, we’ll be very useful to people. Our personal lives will be very peaceful also. When your life becomes useful your mind becomes peaceful. So if the mind becomes peaceful, you become easeful. Easeful means not disease‑ful.

“Make your mind Yoga and from that yogic mind you will see things as they are, and you will know how to accept them as they are. That’s why Yoga practices or even religious practices are not to be preached; they’re for self‑reformation. You correct yourself; and then if people see something good in you, let them learn from you. You don’t go out as a teacher. Others should learn from you and call you teacher.

“Wisdom is not something that you teach. It comes out of experience and it comes from within. You learn by seeing examples—sometimes even by making mistakes. The teacher repeats what he learned, you hear it, and by your example, pass it on to others. It’s almost like a fruit ripening. By its maturity, the color, the flavor, the taste, everything comes. Nobody can teach the fruit to become ripe, but they can give it some nourishment, good sunlight, and protection from animals. You can do all that, but you cannot make the fruit grow. By your well-balanced mind, beautiful ideas come from within. Even if it doesn’t come from within, you will receive those ideas from the cosmic mind. School education is only partial.

“The ultimate teacher is God. All you have and all you do is God’s gift. Think of that as often as you can. Everything is God’s. You didn’t bring anything with you; you’re not going to take anything with you. Everything was given to you: money, power, position, even knowledge. So what was the purpose of giving those things to you? For you to possess? No. They were given for you to use for the sake of the general good, for the service of the whole Universe. You are using those things for others’ sake, for the sake of the entire cosmos. If you think that way, you don’t have pride about ‘Oh, I’ve done this, I’ve achieved something.’ Humility comes automatically. Humility is the greatest virtue. If you take pride in your money, pride in your power, pride in your possessions, at the same time, fear comes—because your pride is based on those things you don’t want to lose. So, the humble man is the peaceful man, always.

“Well, I’m glad to see all the fruits of Yoga. Certainly, a tree is known by its fruits, and I am sure that you are all sweet fruits. Sometimes, one fruit may have many seeds. After you finish eating the fruits, you plant the seeds, and they give rise to more trees and fruits. So may the great science of Yoga that brings health and happiness to the entire humanity be served well through your very life and example. May the Lord bless you and guide you to find easefulness in the body, peacefulness in mind, and thus usefulness in your life. OM Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi.”

Thanks to Swami Muruganandaji and SASTRI for Sri Gurudev’s Satsang transcripts from which these teachings were excerpted and compiled. Sivani is a teacher of Integral Yoga Hatha, Raja Yoga and Meditation. She is a Seminarian studying for the Integral Yoga Ministry.

(By Sivani Marlene Alderman, from the August, 2006 IYTA Newsletter)

“Life is sweet,” says Durga Leela in her soft Scottish brogue.

“What we really are looking for in life is sweetness, and the sweetness is all around us. It’s just that we’ve reduced it to what we put in our mouths.”

Durga, a Sivananda-trained Yoga teacher who created and teaches Yoga of Recovery internationally, came to Yoga and Ayurveda shortly after sidelining some of her personal addictions using traditional Twelve-Step programs. When she was in early sobriety, a medical counselor suggested that she use an antidepressant drug, but she saw the irony, felt the miracle and looked to the long-term future instead of dragging the past into her new life. Instead of using prescription drugs, Durga found solutions in Yoga and Ayurveda for the depression and nicotine dependency that had followed her into sobriety.

Addiction to drugs, alcohol, food or people is recognized by most of the medical and psychological community as a disease, and considered by Twelve-Step programs to be a disease of the spirit as well as the body.

“The Twelve Steps of the AA movement gave this disease a very unusual label as a spiritual malady,” Durga says. “It is beyond the physician to cure; there must be a spiritual component.” Unfortunately, both the addict and his or her culture tend to blame the patient for having the disease of addiction.

“If you have cancer, people assume that you will take all the treatment in your power to overcome it.” Durga says. “There are hospitals, and people go to hospitals to get cured. Cancer is seen as the uninvited guest. But with addiction, even the person who has it thinks that they did something to bring it on themselves and that they continue to do something to bring it on themselves. That’s the down side of what we’re dealing with – the stigma, the shame.”

“Your family is ashamed. The addict has the personal and social shame. Physicians in the hospitals are not really people you can turn to. The treatment centers are outside the hospital. Sitting to the side of this is the incredible Twelve-Step system.”

Even when addicts are cured of their physical dependency – whether to drugs, alcohol, food or people – they find that they still crave “something.” Durga and a lot of other people in the recovery community believe that “something” is connection to the divine and to community.

The program of Alcoholics Anonymous, perhaps the best-known of the Twelve-Step programs, recommends that its members come to believe in a God of their own understanding. Just as Yoga emphasizes the importance of uniting the individual with the divine, AA emphasizes the importance of harnessing one’s will to a “Higher Power,” something more than the “little self.”

“In the Twelve-Step model, one’s Higher Power is loosely defined,” Durga says. Because addicts often come into recovery with unhappy associations with God and religion, a loose definition can be a good way – often the only way – to start, but it may not serve the person over the long-term.

“What happens because of that loose definition is that people wind up with a loose connection,” Durga says. “If we firm up our idea of who the Higher Power is that we are in relationship with, then our connection will be stronger when we need it.”

Like Bhakti Yoga, Twelve-Step programs advocate daily devotional practice. And as in Raja Yoga, taking time out for prayer and meditation establishes a conscious contact with one’s Higher Power and helps one resist temptation when it arises. “It’s easier to make the connection (when the need for help arises) if you’ve worn a path to the door,” Durga says.

Raised in the Roman Catholic religion, Durga says she still holds Jesus as a divinity. “But I was drawn to the female, and I was drawn to service. I made a rock garden for Mary. I had a Bhakti nature. Pitta kicked in in my teen years, and when people wouldn’t answer my questions, I was disgusted. I felt that the people in the system had failed me, and my Jnana nature kicked in.

“The aspect of divinity that I’ve related to for some time now is Durga (her namesake). But nature is also an acceptable form of divinity. If your concept of God is the river, make it the river. It’s all good; it’s all God. It will help in your stability, in your sobriety.”

Like Karma Yoga, AA strongly urges its members to participate in selfless service to those in need, saying, “To keep it, we have to give it away.” When new people come into AA, more experienced members steer them into ways that they can serve the group.

Depth psychology, while potentially helpful to the addict or alcoholic, sometimes over complicates the road to recovery. Don’t think either the retreat or the course is just for the alcoholic/addict, or just for the professional (therapist or addiction counselor). It’s for all of us. It deals with the myriad behaviors and habits that stand as obstacles in our path to deeper understanding of our true nature.

Durga’s 10-day certification course gives counselors and Yoga teachers “the skills to introduce the healing potential of the holistic sciences of Ayurveda and Yoga into your own life and (the lives of) those around you.”

In the three-day retreat, Durga Leela shows participants how to apply the principals of Yoga and Ayurveda to their sobriety in ways that support it and make it “sweeter.”

Yoga of Recovery Retreat will be held June 20-23, 2013. The retreat will address every age group and all addictive and self-destructive tendencies. It will explore the root causes of addiction and healing focusing on healing the physical body, strengthening the mind and cultivating Sattva—peace and serenity.

Durga Leela

The Yoga of Recovery Certification Course for Counselors & Teachers will be held September 29-October 6, 2013. The certification course combines Ayurveda and Yoga with traditional recovery tools for a holistic mind, body and spirit approach to addictive and self-destructive behaviors. It includes Ayurveda workshops to understand addiction through the doshas, Tools of Recovery workshops that integrate Yoga practices with the Twelve Steps, and Open Twelve-Step meetings in which those in recovery talk about their experience and those not in recovery can find out what those meetings are like.

Prema Lynn Felder

Prema Lynn Felder empowers people living with cancer and chronic illness to take charge of their recovery with Yoga. She teaches Yoga for cancer patients in research studies and ongoing classes for patients, their family members and friends at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston- Salem, NC. She is the co-director of the Yoga Gallery where she teaches a variety of classes, and she is the author of the DVD, Gentle Yoga for Cancer Patients: Reconnecting Body, Mind and Spirit, which she created in association with WFU/BMC. She is also a writer, editor and public speaker whose most popular keynote is “The Big Yes!” She can be contacted through www.artsofyoga.com.

(by Prema Lynn Felder, from the August, 2011 IYTA Newsletter)

For the past six years, I’ve had the privilege of working with people who want to lose weight. After years of struggling with weight issues, I found my way to Yoga. Yoga provided a base from which I was able to find connection with myself. This enabled me to live in a more sattwic way, which included losing weight (100 pounds). I now help others find their path, which is incredibly rewarding.

Anyone who has had the experience of Yoga asana and pranayama is aware that it is more than just a physical experience. Through our practice, we affect all levels of our being. It is especially important to remember this when working with people for weight loss. The reasons why a person is overweight are complex. As Yoga teachers, our job is to guide our students toward having their own authentic experience so that they can receive insight. This insight is the catalyst for lasting change.

The first step of teaching Yoga for weight loss is to give students a practice that allows them to feel relaxation and peace. For most individuals, this is not a fast-paced practice. This is important to remember, as most people have been taught that burning off calories through aerobic exercise is the best way to lose weight.

I would offer that the best physical practice for weight loss is one that allows a person to de-stress and be in his/her body. This allows the person to find distance from rapidly arising, confusing, often counter-productive thoughts that the mind produces.

To this end, I give most of my students an asana practice that combines movement with breath. It is usually as simple as we can make it. We are looking to produce a feeling of calm. I also give students a guided Yoga nidra to calm the nervous system. As a student progresses, other ways of working with breath and asana are added, always with the aim of feeling less stressed and more mentally clear.

Other parts of the work include lifestyle modifications geared toward increasing an individual’s energy levels. We examine eating patterns, food choices, sleep patterns, work patterns, social life, etc. I ask my students to constantly evaluate whether the choices they are making have the net effect of leaving them feeling more energetic.

There are subtleties to this process, of course. But, as people find patterns in their lives that leave them feeling healthy and energetic, they are also moving toward eating in a way that promotes weight loss. In Yogic terms, they are learning to bring in and hold more prana. Individuals develop a positive relationship with food and movement. The relationships become nourishing instead of harmful.

Overweight people are immersed in a culture that promotes shame and fear. There are constant messages telling us that if we struggle with weight issues, we are damaged in some fundamental way. As Yoga teachers we can play an important role; we can help friends break through this illusion. Yoga practice can point individuals toward the Self, so that they can claim their birthright of a healthy body, mind and spirit.

(by Brandt Bhanu Passalaqua, from the February, 2009 IYTA Newsletter)

Brandt Bhanu Passalacqua is a Yoga therapist practicing in New York City and Northampton, Massachusetts. After struggling with weight, food and substance addiction, and serious illness he found his way to Yoga practice. He has maintained his health and lost 100 pounds by being kind to his body. Brandt is the author of Peaceful Weight Loss through Yoga. Brandt will offer a 6-day retreat for weight loss at Yogaville beginning May 31st.