The Woodstock Spirit is Alive and Well in San Francisco

by Rev. Premanjali

This year we’re in the midst of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco on Dolores Street. Through the years, the sangha has been through some notable moments in history, but at the moment, we are experiencing an unprecedented shift in how we serve the community. As the COVID-19 pandemic spurs us to persist through the unexpected, IYISF continues to offer classes, workshops, and meditations online to stay connected with the community. 

Going back to 1969—a year prior to its opening—the first Integral Yoga teachers arrived in San Francisco from New York. They began teaching classes in an apartment until the beautiful Victorian-style building on Dolores Street was purchased a year later.

1969 was also the year of an event that came to define the 60s counterculture, the Woodstock Festival. At the last moment, Swami Satchidananda was helicoptered in to open the festival by the organizers who were hoping he might bring a peaceful mood to what was beginning to unfold as a potentially chaotic scene. From the moment he chanted, “Om,” he did calm the more than 400,000 young people at the music festival on a farm in upstate New York. And, in doing so, Swami Satchidananda attained rock star status—much to his own surprise. The festival rapidly became legend as did he. 

In August 2019, the 50th anniversary of Woodstock was celebrated. During that anniversary, Phil Goldberg (author of American Veda) wrote an article for Elephant Journal in which he noted: 

“For my part, I want to commemorate one brief but highly significant moment that occurred in the opening hour, on August 15, 1969. It does not get the attention it deserves. Of all the iconic Woodstock images—writhing mud-soaked bodies; impassioned performers like Jimi Hendrix; ecstatic faces and strung-out faces—one captures the spiritual zeitgeist of the era: Swami Satchidananda addressing the multitude. It’s a potent symbol of the meeting of East and West that transformed America’s spiritual and cultural landscape. Fifty years on, millions of people meditate, chant mantras, and stretch on Yoga mats, and the swami who came to be called ‘The Woodstock Guru’ deserves much of the credit. The image of the Hindu holy man blessing the most famous rock festival in history will endure as a symbol of the time when a generation of Americans turned Eastward and inward. No one contributed more to the modern Yoga boom than Swami Satchidananda, who started training American teachers in the late 1960s.”

Over the past fifty years, the San Francisco IYI has been a continually welcoming presence, offering the teachings of the classical path of Yoga to all who have come through its doors. During this time, Integral Yoga teachers have positively touched the lives of thousands of students as they have shared the Yoga practices and teachings. Swami Satchidananda famously declared that, “More people have been killed in the name of God than in all the wars.” He called on all religions to abandon rhetoric and behaviors that create conflict and instead embrace the teachings of universal peace, love, compassion, and sisterhood and brotherhood common to all faiths. “Paths are many,” said Swami Satchidananda, but, “Truth is one.” Integral Yoga teachers have continued to invoke Swami Satchidananda’s universal message of peace, kindness, compassion, inclusivity—celebrating both our unity and diversity as spiritual seekers.

In looking back we also gain inspiration for looking forward. In his classic eleven-volume text, The Story of Civilization, historian Will Durant expressed the hope that India would “teach us the tolerance and gentleness of the mature mind, the quiet content of the unacquisitive soul, the calm of the understanding spirit, and a unifying, pacifying love for all living things.” That turned out to be prescient for as Phil Goldberg also noted, “The image of Swami Satchidananda at Woodstock will always be a symbol of the moment when a battery of unconventional baby boomers turned eastward—and inward—in such large numbers that the process became irreversible.

We can all be proud that the Integral Yoga Institute of San Francisco is carrying this legacy forward—hopefully for another 50 years and more! We hope you will join us in our online offerings. It is a great opportunity for those outside of the San Francisco Bay Area to connect with the teaching and sangha from a distance.