Student of the Month: Ankita Jasuja

Dayalan: Tell us a bit about yourself, what you like to do, work, and/or things you are most interested in and passionate about, and anything else you may wish to share.

Ankita: Hari OM! My name is Ankita, in Sanskrit it means “One with auspicious marks.”

I was born and raised in India and moved to the USA in 2013. I’ve studied electronics and communication engineering in my undergrad and have worked in different industries both in India and USA.

In my free time I like going for long walks in nature and my favorite spot is Tilden park in Berkeley. Besides this, I indulge myself in pursuing my hobbies and interests like taking weekly yoga classes, riding my bike, and cooking vegan & vegetarian meals. I have followed a vegetarian diet since childhood and also relish vegan food.

For a long time, I spent hundreds of hours imbibing knowledge regarding my varied passion towards sustainable and more compassionate being, devoting time to learn the various practices of ayurveda, nutrition science, spirituality, learning food and  farm industry practices, and animal welfare. I am trying to bring more and more conscious living choices in my lifestyle and I’m trying to replace the automatic ones passed by fast-paced modern life.

I believe one day I will contribute this back to the society and help our future generation to come back to their roots and realize the health benefits and inner peace that can be ingrained by practicing Yoga.

Dayalan: Who has inspired you most in your life as a teacher(s) or mentor(s)?

Ankita: There are so many brilliant teachers in the world and there’s so much to learn from each one of them. I’m taking a few classes every week at IYSF apart from my YTT training and meeting so many inspirational teachers.

Currently I’m enjoying Diana Meltsner’s Therapeutic Chair yoga class at IYSF. It has been kind of revolutionary for me. It gave me an awareness regarding how yoga can be accessible to every age, body shape, or even for someone recovering from an injury, or just looking for more ways of mobility and relaxation. She’s a phenomenal teacher.

I love my Wednesday and Friday morning dose of Mia Velez’s mixed level yoga classes which are a wholesome package for mind & body. I love how her classes help to ground my body and mind into the present moment and prepare me for meditation.

I’m also enjoying talks by Swami Ramananda, Divyananda Ma and Karunanda Ma; kirtans with Astrud Castillo and noon meditations with Snehan Born at IYSF.

Out of my personal interest in specifically understanding Indian food and nutrition, I love listening and reading books of Rujuta Diwekar (India’s leading sports science and nutrition expert) as she emphasizes a blend of traditional food wisdom and modern nutritional science for a healthy body and mind.

Dayalan: What has been one of the most valuable learning experiences you have had?

Ankita: I believe working through difficulties in my life has taught me many lifelong valuable experiences. All of the experiences have been valuable for my growth till now. But if I have to pick one, I would give my first 200-hour BIPOC YTT with Integral Yoga SF a complete credit. The most exciting part of the training was learning the difference between knowing yoga and understanding yoga. The true learning for me out of this training was to understand that yoga is just not about a perfect body or about perfectly memorizing sutras and mantras in Sanskrit but the value that a yoga practice and community bring to your life. This training certainly has increased my quest to dive deeply into it.

Dayalan: What drew you to yoga and meditation?

Ankita: Listening to the experiences of a few friends. Also, I’m always captivated by the music and chanting and I find it to be a profound way of being joyful.

Dayalan: What benefits have you found in your personal practice?

Ankita: It is a work in progress. Overall, I would say, it has benefitted me at all levels, but I’ll have to practice more insightful self-observation to explain the benefits more clearly.

Dayalan: I understand you are in the 1st BIPOC Teacher Training offered with Integral Yoga Institute. How has that experience been?

Ankita: I must say I’m fortunate enough to be part of it. Along with deepening my own personal practice for yoga I had a strong desire to deepen my understanding of yoga as a whole and no better place other than with my wonderful BIPOC community. I will offer a brief insight; maybe it can inspire others to be part of it in the upcoming years.

In the beginning we all got books on Hatha yoga, science of breath, meditation, the yoga sutras, anatomy, yogic diet, breath of life, and a few others.

We explored all 8 limbs of yoga – the Yamas and Niyamas (yoga ethics), Asanas (physical postures), Pranayama (breathing practices), Pratyahara, Dharana (mindfulness), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (freedom and living joyfully).

Apart from our main program teachers, Mukunda Marc Morozumi, Mia Velez, Rev. Kamala Itzel Hayward, and Arturo Peal, we also had a diverse background of speakers sharing on various topics, like cultural appropriation of yoga, yogic diet, building equity, yoga and body coalition, and a conversation about gurus. Along with hatha yoga it has also focused on other branches of yoga- Raja yoga, Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga, and Japa yoga. These are a few names to mention but there were so many subtopics shared and explored further.

Enabling conversations around yoga and race, hosting different BIPOC speakers, and focusing on healing from ancestral trauma— this part of our training has been super inspirational for me, since it has focused on celebrating diversity and wellness by making yoga accessible to everyone.

There has been consistent 1:1 support of teachers who have been highly approachable and it was very easy to reach out to them after the hours of the training through emails and appointments. There has always been a Q&A time after every session and recordings of each class have been a huge resource. Breakout room practice sessions were crucial to the learning process.

Three months already into the training and one more month to go, I feel like one of the reasons I got so much out of the experience is because I went into it with no hard expectations from training and myself. I’m taking it day by day. It really is a journey and not a destination. I will always be eternally grateful for everyone associated with this training and IYSF for providing this platform.

Dayalan: What are your future aspirations?

Ankita: I want myself to be immersed in yoga while honoring its root and also to step up and serve others while exploring my own journey and all of this while also being an animal welfare activist. I’ll continue to travel and focus on strengthening my own practice.

असतो मा सद्गमय ।

तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ।

मृत्योर्माऽमृतं गमय ॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Lead us from unreal to real

Lead us from darkness to the light

Lead us from the fear of death

To knowledge of immortality

OM peace peace peace

Our Responsibility to a World in Crisis

It is time. It is past time. We are witnessing a myriad of overlapping world crises manifesting in destructive ways. We all, every one of us, need to take some form of action now. Our world is calling us to shift in a way we have never had to in our history. 

Change and suffering, as we are taught in Yoga philosophy, are the nature of the world. As Sri Patanjali lays out in the Yoga Sutras, non-attachment and spiritual practice are the way forward. They help us to make the shifts that are necessary to pursue the spiritual path in the material world. They help us become grounded enough to see beyond the boundaries of our egos and a self-centered view of the world, and to experience a connection to all of Creation. These teachings are the bedrock of Yoga philosophy. 

Our world is in crisis on so many different levels. To remain true to our foundation and the historical call of Yoga to be of service (think Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi, or more in the past, Kabir, Tulsidas, Mirabai), we need to rise and meet these challenges. We can be the example, the support, the agents of change to make the needed shifts in priorities in our communities in this time of crisis. 

Integral Yoga International has been deeply reflecting on these issues and is beginning to make necessary changes to our organization to address equity and racism in our centers. We have increased the number of workshops led by people of color and have added more people of color to our administrative teams. We are offering workshops that help our predominantly white sangha explore ways to foster allyship with BIPOC. We now have our first BIPOC Basic Teacher Training class in progress. There is plenty more work to be done, but we are making strong efforts in this regard.

There is another very compelling and intersecting crisis that we as a community need to address. The climate emergency is spiraling, growing incrementally to threaten the very existence of our world. If we look at it full on, we know that it is causing suffering like no other we have seen. We have come to a point where we have to face the hopelessness, anxiety, grief, and frustration. We have to reflect on it individually and talk about it together to fully acknowledge it. And then we have to get up and act. What a blessing to have the tools of Yoga to help us act with discernment and compassion. 

Krishna exhorts Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita to face his destiny, his path, his dharma. That is exactly where we are in this moment – facing a challenge that is full of the unknown, of suffering, of the potential loss of life as we know it. We can turn our heads or we can face it full on and do everything we can to meet it, trying to mitigate the suffering with compassion and informed action to effect the needed changes. 

Selfless action, or Karma Yoga, is done with no attachment to the outcome or personal motive. This means being willing to sacrifice our personal conveniences and desires for the sake of the greater good. But when we do serve with selfless hearts, blessings come. Our anxieties diminish as our sense of love and connection for our world is intensified. We can feel that we are aligning our lives with a Higher Will and acting in harmony with our values and the foundational teachings of Yoga. 

We know many of you are making efforts to personally address the climate emergency. We can all do things like shift our consumption of resources, food, and energy. We can look at our day to day habits and find ways to use less water, recycle more and reduce our carbon footprint. That is a significant and responsible way to effect change.

We may think that our use of plastic bottles every day is not harmful, or if given up, will have no real effect. But will various companies continue to make plastic bottles for individual use if we are not buying them? We can make a difference with every choice we make, and it is empowering to know that, no matter how small an action, together we can lessen our negative imprint and help to restore our earth.

 Here is a recent article with a remarkable tool to assess your food and energy consumption habits and footprint. It offers clear answers to how we can personally impact climate change. The authors describe this tool, saying, “To find out the climate impact of what you eat and drink, choose from one of the 34 items in our calculator and pick how often you have it.” It is as simple as that. It shows how each of us can directly express our concern and compassion for our fellow humans and our beautiful earth.  

Along with this personal downsizing and care, societal policy changes are imperative. Most major corporations and our government have to change policies and practices to address the devastating impacts of overuse and disregard for environmental implications. Consumerism and the capitalistic practices that support an unsustainable lifestyle and bring harm to our earth have to be stopped. These policies and the needed changes seem out of our reach. But as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and John Lewis have demonstrated, nonattachment to our own selfish interests, selfless service, compassion, and connection can bring positive, needed change.

We are asking our international sangha to dedicate themselves to that right effort to find a path forward. We need to effect change on three levels: personal, within our communities, and on a more global level. All of us have different skill sets and interests. We can all contribute in some way, at some level. But it is past time for us to hope that we won’t have to make sacrifices, that we are too busy to think about it, or that someone else can come up with a plan of action. 

We are each of us responsible. We are each of us talented. We are all so very blessed in this life to have found the teachings of Yoga. If we come together, our love and commitment to each other and the teachings can help us build and grow something beyond what we can do individually. We can harness our energies to grow a collective set of actions and practices to effect positive change.

 We all must consider our own path to address this crisis. To prompt thinking and inspire action, we invite all our international sangha to save this date and join us on Saturday, November 20th from 11-12:30 pm PT for The Climate Emergency: What We Can Do Now. We will offer ideas, brainstorm, do some deep listening and pray in an effort to chart a path forward to address the climate crisis. Please join us.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu.

May the entire Universe be filled with Peace and Joy, Love and Light.

Sarani Fedman and Swami Ramananda

Swami Ramananda is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition, who has been practicing Yoga for over 45 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life, and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.
He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced level Yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco, and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U.S., Europe and South America. Ramananda co-developed the Stress Management Teacher Training program with Swami Vidyananda, has trained many teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings, and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations. He is a certified Yoga therapist and founding board member of the Yoga Alliance, a national registry that supports and promotes yoga teachers as professionals. He is a co-founder of The Spiritual Action Initiative (SAI) which brings together individuals committed to working for social justice for all beings and for the care and healing of our natural world. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.

Sarani Beth Fedman has studied, practiced and taught yoga for over 20 years. Most of her teacher training was completed at Yogaville, Virginia, the home of Satchidananda Ashram. These teacher trainings through Integral Yoga include Basic and Intermediate Hatha, Prenatal and Postnatal, Meditation, Raja (Philosophy), Children’s and Special Needs Yoga, Restorative, Reducing Anxiety, Accessible and Therapeutic Yoga. She has also studied Mindfulness Yoga with Frank Jude Boccio and Buddhist Meditation with Thich Nhat Hanh, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein. Her approach is inclusive and adaptive with the understanding that everyone can benefit from the practices and teachings of the ancient wisdom of yoga. Each of her therapeutic students receives support through an individualized practice plan with the goal to reduce stress and discomfort and promote healing and a deep sense of well being. She has received her yoga teacher certification from Yoga Alliance at the RYT500 level and is a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists.

2021-09-14T09:42:22-07:00September 3rd, 2021|Tags: |

Why Now is the Time for Yoga

by Reverend Jaganath Carrera

This past year has magnified the uncertainty of life. Things can change at any minute, and because of that precariousness, people experience stress and worry. Watching the world shut down and start back up was shocking and unexpected. For many people, it has at best created a sense of mistrust, and at worst, exasperated issues related to basic safety and wellbeing. 

As yogis, we are in a position to lift that heaviness. We have access to a wide array of practices and techniques that are designed to help us overcome suffering and persevere to liberation. These secrets are taught through lineages of thought, from saints and sages throughout the ages; many of them are at our fingertips!

Gurudev Swami Satchidananda Himself has plenty of his talks online, and He trained many of his disciples who continue to share the practices and benefits of the many facets of Yoga. In the spirit of that, let’s focus on three words from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, which together explain Why Now is the Time for Yoga.

 

Nirodha: Stilling, restraint, cessation. 

Every effort in the practice of Yoga is nirodha, which cultivates and cumulates as the ultimate goal of Self-realization. Nirodha is a turning towards the truth, a rooting down to rise up. The word is introduced in Yoga Sutra 1.2, as it refers to both the process and attainment of calming the mind. By nirodha, and in nirodha, “Yoga ends the misperception that the Seer/Self is the same as the mind’s usual tangle of whirling excursions of thought” (Inside Patanjali’s Words). 

This is a teaching that has stood the test of time, and it is needed today. The opposite of nirodha is vyutthana, which is an externalization of consciousness. We have a lot of people living with their awareness outside, rather than looking inside to discover the great liberation of Self. We can see how this can become an issue, especially if we reflect on the past year. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the impermanence of what exists outside of us, but it did not shake the truth of the Self that lies within.

 

Dukha: suffering, pain, sorrow, grief.

Even those with strong practices were disrupted or disturbed during the quarantine period. Businesses were closing down, families were keeping their distance, and essential workers were afraid for their lives. For a moment, the whole world was living in a shared dukha. This word appears in the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras, and there really is no English word that does it justice. 

Dukha is like a “persistent, pervasive feeling of precariousness”(Inside Patanjali’s Words). It’s the existential angst that Carl Jung describes – a feeling that the other shoe is always going to drop. Most of us can more readily relate to that now because of the magnified uncertainty of the pandemic. However, it is part of the human condition to live with some degree of dukha. In fact, it’s often what leads us to Yoga: we are seeking to escape the whirling and twirling of our own minds. We do not want to live in constant fear, and we do not need to. Given the shared trauma of humanity, there truly is an increase in the need for these teachings and practices to bring peace and harmony.

 

Viveka: discriminative discernment.

Patanjali tells us that life is dukha, and anyone who really looks at it will see that. That is often what our minds get caught up in, and it perpetuates those whirling excursions of thought. However, for those who choose to see clearly, this sense of suffering can be transcended. Patanjali introduces the word viveka right after dukha, as a solution. Viveka is “discrimination between the Real and the unreal, Permanent and impermanent, and the Self and the non-Self– a state of ever-present discrimination between that which changes and that which does not.” (Inside Patanjali’s Words).

It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? It takes practice, patience and compassion. Viveka is a by-product of nirodha, both of which enlighten the heart and the mind. Viveka allows us to make decisions that are aligned with the Self, strengthening our ability to identify with the Self, rather than the whirling excursion that distracts us. In a world that is arguing over which way is up and which way is down, now more than ever – we need to seek and find the truth. 

There is urgency in sharing this, because the suffering is so heavy. Many people do not know what to do. As yogis, we have the solution to dukha. We can be the light. Through nirodha, we lift the world as we align with the Self. With viveka, the light of truth shines through the yogis, guiding those who are lost. It is a much-needed remedy for the suffering of humankind, and that is Why Now is the Time for Yoga

 

Reverend Jaganath Carrera has shared the joy and wisdom of the Yoga Sutras with thousands of students since 1975. A direct disciple of Sri Swami Satchidananda, he is the founder and spiritual head of the Yoga Life Society and author of the highly regarded Inside the Yoga Yoga Sutras: A comprehensive Sourcebook for the Study and Practice of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and Awaken: Inside Yoga Meditation. He has taught all facets of Yoga since 1975 at universities, prisons, Yoga centers, and interfaith programs. In 1980, under the guidance of Sri Swami Satchidananda, he established the Integral Yoga Ministry and in 2006, the Yoga Life Ministry-ministries that are rooted in the full spectrum of the theories and practices of the major branches of Yoga, and in living a life of selfless service to all.

About Inside Patanjali’s Words

From the author of Inside the Yoga Sutras, comes a new and unique study guide for all who are interested in a deeper dive into the Yoga Sutras. Reverend Jaganath Carrera breaks down each of Patanjali’s words so the reader can further grasp the richness and depth of meaning in each of the Sanskrit words. As each word is unpacked, new levels of understanding behind each sutra are revealed. 

Available through IYI Distribution: https://new.iydistribution.com/inside-patanjali-s-words.html 

 

2021-07-15T13:03:02-07:00July 15th, 2021|Tags: |

Sustaining a Spiritual Vision

by Swami Ramananda

One of the primary challenges of the spiritual path is sustaining the intention to awaken, even as we encounter considerable obstacles. Compelled by suffering and/or inspired by saintly beings, we may commit ourselves to experiencing the profound peace we understand to be our true nature. We may take up specific practices to free ourselves from the cultural conditioning that filters our perception, limits our vision, and imprisons us in the illusion of separation. 

For most of us, this effort requires patience, persistence, and some means to renew this commitment. The obstacles are many: the countless stressors of daily life, the subconscious beliefs and habitual thinking that compel us to defend the ego-identity we’ve formed, the physical or psychological pain that can sidetrack our energy, and the constant messages of our consumer culture offering us a quick fix of pleasure—a poor substitute for the natural contentment we aspire to experience.

So how do we sustain that vision we may have formed in moments of clear insight and inspiration? The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali refer to this challenge specifically in Book 1, sutra 30. This sutra names nine different obstacles that, if unchecked, can end up completely diverting us from the path we chose. Book 1, sutra 32 clarifies the importance of establishing and sticking with one specific method by which we begin to master the mind and thoughts.

No doubt, developing a meditation practice into a strong habit is one of the primary ways we can remain inspired. And if a regular practice penetrates deeply into our consciousness through consistency and enthusiasm, it will give rise to moments of healing silence and a taste of the unchanging peace within. It may be that nothing will renew our intention to awaken more than feeling for ourselves the profound benefits that it can yield. 

Another form of great support is a community of like-minded spiritual seekers. Our practice may seem to plateau for long periods of time with no real progress. Sharing such challenges with others can uplift our spirits, inspire us to have more compassion for ourselves and each other, and keep our efforts in perspective. 

I have also found a great benefit from creating a personal prayer or affirmation that I repeat at the end of each meditation session and before each meal. I created this prayer as a way of affirming to myself in my own words what I deeply believe to be true, based on my own experiences and the teachings of Sri Swami Satchidananda. It varies somewhat each time but goes essentially like this:

“Let me remember that all I really need to be happy is to feel this Presence I can sense now, so that I can be free from clinging or longing for anything outside, free to serve as an instrument of the Divine, free to be mindful, humble and grateful, and free to enjoy everything I do.”

While I may not feel it deeply every time I repeat it, this prayer reminds me of how I can live with peace in my heart, serve in ways that are fulfilling, and have faith that I am learning and growing despite the mental ups and downs I may experience.

It can be very helpful to remember that it is challenging to sustain an enthusiastic pursuit of such an exalted goal as mastering the mind as we navigate the sometimes stormy waters of life. So it behooves us to remember that not one moment of effort is lost—all the spiritual study we do, every meditation session, each repetition of a mantra or affirmation, every instance of devotion or genuine service is an essential step on the path.

Through repeated practice, we will begin to experience moments free of habitual thought patterns, and see ourselves and our relationship to the world in a fresh way.  We will begin to feel our connection to each other and all of nature. Over time, our accumulated practice will gradually restructure even the subconscious mind so that we are no longer compelled by old beliefs and fears, and approach life with a sense of deep belonging, inner contentment, and wonder.

 

Swami Ramananda is the Executive Director of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition, who has been practicing Yoga for over 45 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of Yoga into daily life, and transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential.
He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced level Yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco, and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U.S., Europe and South America. Ramananda co-developed the Stress Management Teacher Training program with Swami Vidyananda, has trained many teachers to bring Yoga into corporate, hospital and medical settings, and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations. He is a certified Yoga therapist and founding board member of the Yoga Alliance, a national registry that supports and promotes yoga teachers as professionals. He is a co-founder of The Spiritual Action Initiative (SAI) which brings together individuals committed to working for social justice for all beings and for the care and healing of our natural world. His warmth, wisdom and sense of humor have endeared him to many.

2021-07-01T11:18:50-07:00July 1st, 2021|Tags: , , |
Go to Top