Posts made in June, 2011

The great thing about the global village is that we really can be at peace (or war) with people across the pond. I have been at war with my uncle, Viswanathan Srinivasan of the greater DC area, while living abroad in Bangalore. We have been debating at length via email and phone calls, about yoga. Or, in his words, yog. You see, my uncle has a background in Sanskrit, the language that much of yoga was originally documented in. So I usually defer to him (although he might beg to differ) on matters of Sanskrit. But when he told me to stop calling it yoga, I had to push back. My uncle’s argument is that the original sanskrit root is “yuj”, literally, to yoke. Yoga means to harness that which is of use, and that’s what yoga practice is about....

Do you ever wish the world was equal? That regardless of race, class, caste, religion, age, or even experience, you were valued as much as everyone else? This is what yoga does. I have some experience in yoga, having taught for a few years and practiced before then. That doesn’t mean I am any higher than anyone else. I remember my first “student-teacher” class, my Yin instructor, Aradhana Kaur, was taken aback with the number of new students who came into what was usually a class of  the same 6 or 8 students. In fact, hardly any regulars showed up at all! Several of the new students were pregnant too, and one was a really really tall, big man–a linebacker type. All were experiencing “yoga class” for the first time. Though I was...

In peace work, we often do situation assessments. We go out into the field, observe the area, conduct focus groups and interviews, and write a 100 page report. Our situation assessment includes the good and the bad, and recommendations for growth. When it comes to ourselves, though, we don’t always remember that we are unique. Our situation is unique. Even when practicing yoga asanas and pranayamas, it is important to assess our own situation. This is one of the purposes of meditating prior to any “practice”. Such yoga can help us practice what we preach to others. During the meditation, one can do a body and mind scan to understand one’s needs. Determining where the body needs more attention, and why, can help create that day’s...

I’m in India, home of yoga, and I live in a Christian and Muslim dominant area, not to mention a (so-called) hi-tech haven, where young people flock to for jobs in the IT sector. How can yoga help pave the path for interreligious dialogue and thus promote peace? I found out when I held my first class, in which one young woman attended. She was of islamic background, and came to yoga not for the spiritual or religious aspects, but rather the health aspects–including exercise and relaxation. Starting out with OM, I realized that teaching to peoples of diverse religious backgrounds might have a problem with this word, because of its Hindu connotations. Yet OM is actually a representation of the sound of the universe, a hum that is always existent. It was...