Awakening through yoga

Earlier this week, I went to the Ritz theater in Philadelphia to see the documentary Awake: The Life of Yogananda, and found myself reconnecting to the source of our tradition.

Paramahansa Yogananda is credited with bringing the healing philosophies of yoga to the west. He first traveled to Boston to speak at a conference in 1920…and then later established the self-realization fellowship in Los Angeles. Moreover, Yogananda wrote Autobiography of a Yogi, which has sold more than four million copies in 34 languages since it was published in 1946.

If those statistics don’t impress you, maybe this one will: Autobiography of a Yogi was the one and only book that Steve Jobs stored on his iPad. He read it at least once a year.

Yogananda’s main focus was meditation. Even in the 1920s, he described Americans as overly concerned with conspicuous consumption and material possession. Yogananda described the physical world as a ‘cosmic motion picture’…and encouraged citizens to seek instead the beam of the projector itself.

He told his followers to turn the ‘great spotlight’ of their senses inward.

Scientists today marvel that Yogananda was ahead of his time in talking about the spine, the nervous system, the brain…and modern scientific concepts such as neroplasticity.

 “You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may learn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk in water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.”

The Bikram Beginning yoga series originates directly from Yogananda…and the school for boys that he founded in Ranchi, India. This is where Yogananda’s little brother Bishnu Ghosh lived. There, Ghosh studied the 84 poses that form our Advanced series. Here’s the cool part: Ghosh was Bikram’s guru!

The moving meditation that we call Bikram yoga has transformed my life completely.

Yoga practice helped me to turn deliberately away from a life based on external measures of success. I left a prestigious international career. I spent tens of thousands of dollars pursuing training in a poorly paid (and sometimes poorly regarded) field of study, even though I had already earned an MBA in finance (of all things!) from the prestigious Wharton School. I committed to a simpler life, taking care of my children, my studio, my home, my garden and myself.

By looking inside myself for affirmation and direction and defying outside expectations, I found my life’s calling. I found deeply rooted community. I found joy.

Sitting in the darkened theater, in these days of $100 yoga pants and asana selfies, it felt great to reconnect to the source of our tradition.

The film definitely reaffirmed my chosen path as a yoga teacher and studio owner.

“You must not let your life run in the ordinary way; do something that nobody else has done, something that will dazzle the world. Show that God’s creative principle works in you.”

It made me want to go to yoga. So I urge you to watch it, too. Then come to yoga. I’ll be there, and we can talk!

“Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.”

“Every tomorrow is determined by every today.”

“It is not your passing thoughts or brilliant ideas so much as your plain everyday habits that control your life.”